Helios

Technological Mech

Helios
Class		Heavy
Weight		100 tons
Armor		1745
Perk Armor		2181
Heat Dissipation		10
Speed		2
Buoyancy		-0.4
Jump Heat		100
Load-points		64
Perk Load-points		80
Hard-locked		Yes
Hard-mounts		Assault LRM2 X2
Omni-mounts		none
Shutdown Level		100
Resistances
Ball	0%	Ener	0%	Expl	0%
Acid	0%	Chem	0%	Sonic	0%
DoT	0%	Electronics	0%	Melee	0%
Creator		BonBun Paperdoll

The Helios is a long ranged support tank focused on delivering large missile artillery barrages.

History

A product of the Smithson and Mark Guild of Engineers, the Helios was created to fill a need for long ranged fire support. While mechs were the order of the day for front-line fighting, the decision was made to instead develop a heavy tank which could support the main fighting column from afar. Looking at the success of competing mech design in the Hwacha (though in a more front-line combat role), the Guild decided to stick to their old adage of 'more is more'. In this case, the concept of large missile pods was taken to the extreme. The Helios's main armament was build massively over-sized compared to missile pods typically found on mechs, or even other support vehicles. This allowed the tank to send a hail of destruction towards the designated target like a thunderstorm of destruction. Like a later Guild made tank, the Minotaur, the Helios boasted advanced communication arrays (though not to the extent or power of the later Minotaur's) to help coordinate it's targeting with more advanced forces.

Since the design was primarily intended to be fire support situated behind the front lines, it was decided that the typical agility of a mech could be sacrificed in favor of stability and armor. This was the primary motivation behind the decision to design the Helios as a tank, rather than as a mech similar to the Hwacha. This allowed the Guild to increase the amount of armor plating and the size of the Helios's payload. Of the current Guild produced combat tanks, only the later Minotaur and the massive HellHammer boast more protection or greater destructive power. Despite it's size and power, the Helios still manages to exhibit surprising ground speed. While still tipping the scales at 100 tons of payload easily, the Helios's focus on a single combat role allows it to retain substantial speed in the straight away, and a fair turning speed. Should the enemy locate the Helios's vantage point, they will often find it already on the move long before they arrive. The old tactic of 'shoot 'n scoot' is one that the Helios excels at.

Description

The Helios is a heavy combat support tank, featuring large tracks for stability and mobility. The relatively flat hull gives the tank's important drive trains a lower profile, enabling it to hunker behind cover while still keeping it's weapon systems raised for greater range of fire. It boasts a mech-like raised cockpit. This not only makes it's piloting familiar for those more accustomed to piloting mechs, but allows to driver to spot it's target locations visually as well as through the tank's targeting computer. This also allows to tank to target multiple locations at once, quickly shifting focus from one target to the other without the need to reposition the entire vehicle.

The shear size of the Helios's two primary missile pods allow it to produce a staggering amount of artillery support at any given moment. A full salvo from both pods is more than enough to level nearly any enemy instillation, and keep groups of enemy mechs under a blanket of destruction. A pair of Helios working in convert can quickly work their way through several city blocks, destroying building after building with concentrated missile fire.

The Helios's design does have one major drawback, however. The two reactor cores needed to power such a heavily armed tank are left exposed at the rear of the hull. These power plants are prime targets for enemy snipers. However, with the Helios's role as fire support, and it's ability to exhibit surprising ground speed, this shortcoming was seen as a necessary risk in the tank's design.

Early Designs

The Guild had gone through several early drafts of tank designs before settling on what could be recognized today as the Helios. These include a tank with a cockpit integrated into the hull, with a single, rotating missile rack mounted above. Another, more radical design was a tank with it's missile pods built into the front of the hull, intended to blast targets directly.

The original prototypes for the Helios (of which three were known to have been constructed) initially included smaller missile pods mounted directly on top of the front of the hull. These pods were intended to be loaded with either additional LRMS for increased firepower, or with SRMs to help deal with enemies which approached too close. While all modern Helios retain internals for these smaller pods, it was decided that they posed too great a risk of conflicting cross-fire with the main pods, and so all production models of the Helios omit these additional pods. Still, many Helios serviced in the field take advantage of these additional internal components to mount extra missile pods or other weapons.

Trivia

The Helios was originally designed as a tank conversion for the Hwacha, before it was decided to the tank would be adopted as it's own design. This accounts for the similarities between the two.

Gallery

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  Cockpit

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  Left side

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  Rear

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  Right side