The 'V-X 113.5' Vorpal is a highly heat efficient Mech designed to mount vastly oversized mining lasers for use in heavy duty excavation operations. Designed by Thatcher Steel, the Vorpal was so efficient that the majority of uranium mines within the Ferrous Range were rapidly stripped bare. Thatcher Steel then pulled out and pumped resources into its space elevator program to start off-world mining. This left the various worker satellite colonies to fend for themselves. Many of these miner settlements were said to have joined up together in one of the first examples of a proto Salvage Union using scrapped Mechs to retake swathes of Thatcher Steel territory and declare it independent.