Though many believe that the Word never jumped onto the 'bandwagon' that was primitive battlemech construction, several machines similar to the Eidolon were actually made in the waning years of their Hedgemony. Set up as a engineering college project for wannabe astechs and designers, "Platform 004" was a near-battlefield grade chassis that could be easily built from Industialmech stock- and was roughly analogous to the primitive chassis quickly filling ranks in armies across the inner sphere.
Weighing 50 tons and capable of being produced entirely on-world, the renamed Acolyte was re-christened for hopeful adepts of the Word's exhausted forces. Given a basic Pitban 240 fusion plant used for centuries and a light but well thought out armor shealth, the Acolyte carried a single weapon- a Gauss Rifle of either Gizzard or captured stock. Given only a single ton of ammo, the weapon makes for a ranged sniper to give fresh recruits a "taste" of true combat to hone what skills they have. The Acolyte would be produced until the end, however it's concept would be used in the "Type 5" Drone- a Quadruped that acted as a weapon carrier.
Notably, the Acolyte was built impressively well despite design issues. The Rifle is fed from a magazine making it's reload simple, and the rifle is always mounted on the user's dominant hand. The barrel has also been tactically reinforced, allowing the non-dominant arm to steady it for better aimed shots.
QUIRKS: EM Interference, Fast Reload
