Osiris OSR-4D

         While Achernar BattleMechs has long been a primary supplier to the AFFS, they had become something of a “one-trick pony,” concentrating all of their energies for decades on building their two primary designs–the Enforcer and the Dervish (in addition to limited runs of several Star League-era designs). As a result, Achernar stagnated as a business. Even their update to the venerable Enforcer did little to boost their market value as the AFFS Department of the Quartermaster forced them into a license deal with Kallon Industries on Talon. That all changed in early 3063.
         When Paul LeBeau became CEO of Achernar in 3058, he made a promise to his stockholders that the company would increase its profits threefold over the course of the next decade. He immediately began to assemble a complete R&D staff and instructed them to delve into every military-applicable technology advance possible.
         The Enforcer III was Achernar’s first step into LeBeau’s “New Era,” but it wasn’t nearly enough. Orders for older designs had steadily decreased as more new ’Mech designs were debuted, and LeBeau was anxious to fill those gaps. Though his own R&D team was already working on their own new design, it wouldn’t be ready for some time so he went to an outside source–Fredonian Industrial Technologies.

         Gittleman and Abzug were veterans of the Clan War. They came to F.I.T. with the intention of designing a new generation of BattleMechs for the Inner Sphere capable of credibly dealing with the Clan threat. Recognizing a major requirement for light ’Mechs to fill scout and harasser roles, they designed the Osiris to fill exactly that role.
         Mounting a phalanx of extended-range lasers and a 6-tube SRM launcher, the Osiris has a speed, range and damage profile similar to the Clan Dragonfly Alpha configuration (carrying only 60% of the armor protection, however) with a single machine gun array providing close-in defense. Though the standard Osiris does not have the same jump capabilities as the Dragonfly, the design team felt that the ’Mech’s offensive capabilities were more important than sheer maneuverability.
         The ’Mech has an impressive weapons load-out, giving the Osiris the ability to hit-and-fade quite effectively. Its limited jump capacity, coupled with its great speed, means that it can extract itself from almost any predicament and travel over any terrain.

         Only one major variant of the Osiris exists, a product of the New Avalon campaign. The SRM 6 and the machine gun are removed, freeing up mass to increase the ’Mech’s jumping capacity and to add two medium pulse lasers.

         Since first debuting in February of 3063, the Osiris has found its way to every corner of both the Federated Suns and the Lyran Alliance–though the majority of those manufactured in the four years since have remained within the Crucis March. During the grand assault on New Avalon, these ’Mechs were assigned to combat units on the front lines as fast as they could be put into operation, often before the final touches could be made.