There is one mechwarrior mech I want, because of the lore.
A Marauder.
Why?
The Black Marauder, the almost elderich mech, found in an abandon Shrine, works better at night, brain washed those in close proximity to it.... And according to a drunk pirate, has to many teeth and eyes in the dark.
It's pilot does not refer to himself, he says "We" when talking about him or the mech.
Now sadly, this is supernatural stuff.... Which is not canon, which makes me sad. Mechwarrior could use some space magic, I mean, the major telecoms corp made a zombie virus and dress like wizards.
Nah I prefer the approach Marauder takes that leaves it ambiguous. IMO the Dark One isn't cool because it's supernatural, it's cool because it's a ghost story. The edges of the setting being a bunch of messy unconfirmed question marks, conspiracies, and legends is fun
My personal opinion is that there's no reason it couldn't be true...but not because of supernatural stuff. We know lostek era experiments could be absolutely out there, I think I remember a campaign involving an AI basically zombifying a Capellan planet?
What if the Black Marauder is some escaped testbed for something? Some rogue AI, or maybe a human-machine interface gone horribly wrong, or nanomachines, or something. Sweet man-made horrors beyond my comprehension.
You're both remembering Necromo Nightmare. The Broken (the AI) is not directly responsible for the zombie virus (which is of the 28 days later viral madness variety), it's just Also There.
But yes. Black Kevin Langstrom is a matter of historical record in setting so there is some kernel of truth. There's absolutely a skeptical reading where a young and stressed pilot exposed to prototype interface tech has a psychotic break and then reinvents himself as a savvy monster with an element of supernatural power to survive on the superstitious criminal outskirts of the periphery. It could also be something actually malevolent from beyond human comprehension. The marauder walking without a pilot is explainable with mundane tech. The reoccurring theme of pilots vanishing from their mechs without a struggle and leaving behind the neurohelmet? Less so.
I mean. unexplainable space magic around mechs is a pretty established thing, the easiest example being the phantom mech ability shown by Morgan Kell
