In August 2886, the Stralh Army launched operation 'Necker' in the South Australian desert. Surprised and caught off guard by this new offensive, the Mercenary's lacked enough units to stop the push by the Stralh Army which threatened to drive a wedge between its most northern units and its southern command. In desperation the Mercenary Army deployed a company of Snake-eyes to reinforce the northern units. This was the first time that space borne forces were used in large numbers planet-side and the first time that Snake-eyes had been used in a ground offensive. This surprised the Stralh Army for up to this point in the war they had not encountered Mercenary space units on the ground. With its new sensors and more powerful laser, the Snake-eye easily out-matched anything the Stralh Army could muster against it. This was enough to stall the offensive and buy the Mercenaries time to deploy more reinforcements. Still, the deployment of the Snake-eye caused its own set of unique problems for the Mercenaries. The fine red dust of the central and northern parts of Australia wreaked havoc on the Snake-eyes delicate parts, causing many of the suits to seize-up. This required the suits to be completely overhauled regularly, not a feasible option in the middle of a desert. It was quickly evident though that with a few minor modifications, most notably the removal of the space drives, that the Snake-eye was a formidable ground weapon. Hence the Raptor was borne. These initial machines differed from the production versions by being simple field conversions of Snake-eyes. Later production models incorporated design changes that where borne out of the battle-testing of the original Snake-eyes, these being the removal of the oxygen scrubbing system and general life support equipment, which made the rear section less bulky and gave the suit more stability, the space drive units and the space forces gun, which while able to function in the atmosphere was not rugged enough to withstand the harsh environment. Due to the cost of some of the parts used in the Snake-eye, it was decided to use as many SAFS Mk III parts, including dropping the Snake-eyes motive drive system and replacing it with the Mk III's cheaper and more readily available engine. The Raptor kept the Snake-eyes excellent sensors, having no fewer than seven separate units. Microwave communications is standard, allowing the Raptor to be in constant communication with the Mercenary Army Command satellite network. However, the Raptor still shares 42% parts commonality with the Snake-eye, keeping its cost relatively high. Because of its high cost, the Raptor is issued to only every third company of a Tank Hunting regiment as of February 2887.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
