Tex Talks Battletech Episode XX: The Vulture hover bike. The ASF pretending to be a hovercraft.
Alright class, settle down. Now I know many of you were hoping for a lecture on the LCAF's wetdream AKA the Thor superheavy mech; but that talk is on hold for a while. Instead we're going to focus on a machine that throws firepower, armor, and pilot safety to the wayside for pure unmatched speed. I am of course speaking of the Terran Vulture hover bike that is every speed freak's true love; and consistently scoring in the top five most hated combat vehicles for mechwarriors by popular vote.
Chapter 1: The Need for Speed!
"My old Vulture saved my skin more times than I care to remember. I ain't gonna listen to you trash talk a classic piece of engineering like that."
"Classic?! I suppose you could call 'em that. 'Course most folks like a bike that don't explode on them when the repeller seals freeze up, or when the fuel cells start leaking radioactive waste - but hey, who cares if it's a 'classic,' right?"
"No one likes a smart-ass, Swann."
-Overheard conversation between Commander Raynor and Chief Engineer Swann.
We previously covered the events of humanity's history in the Koprulu sector but the Siege Tank wasn't the only weapon of war to step onto the playing field in the Guild Wars. Developed just eight years prior, the Vulture was designed for explorers, prospectors and lawmen on the fringe colonies that needed to cover a lot of ground, real fast, no matter what the terrain was like. This was accomplished by using the Terrans infamous grav-tech that lets it 'float' over any solid surface like a hovercraft. Coupled with some impressive engines, this machine had the capability to reach a blistering top speed of 370 kilometers per hour very quickly. Course if you're going that fast you better be on a flat road or be damn sure your navigation system can guide you around any upcoming obstacles. At the same time to keep all this speed meant they needed to ensure that the machine was as light as possible. Sure they armored what they could but kilo for kilo, the CMC-660 battle armor has more protection than this bike. Doesn't help that aside from an optional enclosed driver seat, the pilot's only protection is whatever personal armor they're wearing.
Similarly the armament was pretty light compared to other vehicles of this weight class; just a AGP-2 fragmentation grenade launcher and a spot to store a C-14 gauss rifle as backup. Now I can see people wondering why would a frag launcher be a problem for anything but light infantry? Thing to remember is that even at this point in the game the 'standard' infantryman in the Koprulu was running around in CMC armor which could laugh off anything lighter than conventional support weapons. So the 'frag grenades' used by this thing had to be powerful enough to reliably deal with Neosteel power armored soldiers. These aren't your grandpa's pineapples getting tossed around.
During the Guild Wars, the bikes were initially used by the Confederate Armed Forces as cavalry-style vanguard units, speeding ahead of military columns, scouting and wreaking havoc on enemy logistics. I say 'initially' because like the Goliath and Siege Tank, every side of the conflict (and even 'neutral' parties) saw how effective the bike was and set about acquiring their own supply and/or the design specs to make them. As a result even after the Guild Wars ended you could find Vultures everywhere and anywhere in the Sector. From state militaries, to mercenary forces, pirate bands, in the civilian market for those speed freaks looking for a fix; even one bandit-turned-marshal-turned-Raider. And while it has apparently started being replaced with the wheeled Firestarter that is the Hellion in the Dominion military, the Vulture wasn't going anywhere at the end of the day.
The ubiquity of the machine as a result of it's initial success along with the comparatively simple design has also resulted in frequent modifications and rebuilds to suit the owner's wants and needs. Enhanced (and often highly volatile) engines, space for a passenger seat, stripping out the launcher for prospecting equipment or another weapon, the list goes on. However there was one upgrade that was immediately grabbed by every single Vulture pilot that had even the slightest chance of going into a combat zone. An upgrade that has cemented their infamous reputation among mechwarriors, makes them feared by battle armor jockeys and needs this next entire chapter to break down; the damn spider mines.
Chapter 2: Oh, they found the landmines
"Neg, all stars deploying must mount an Active Probe on each omnimech. For what reason? The same reason the Dire Wolf piloted by Star Colonel Nevversan is currently missing both legs!"
-Intercepted radio communication from Smoke Jaguar Alpha Galaxy forces.
Don't be tricked by the cutesy videos you see of bored techs programming the mines to playfight with each other. The sole purpose of these genocidal little abominations is to ensure that you (or the many tiny pieces of you that remain), achieve suborbital flight in a matter of seconds. Now I'm sure you're aware of the various kinds of mines used to take out hovercraft, battle armor, mechs, infantry and so on. But at the same time all these mines require that their targets come to them first. So at some point way in the past (back on Earth if the Terran's history is correct) some sadistic bastard decided if you couldn't bait the enemy into the minefield, let the minefield chase after the enemy. The end result was a bomb on legs that can run down anything that isn't moving at least 75 kilometers per hour.
Of course to make matters worse the Terrans designed the things to be as stealthy as possible when they burrow into whatever surface they're left on. Unless you've got a top-of-the-line Beagle Active Probe on hand or a whole bunch of infantry out in front, it's going to spot you before you spot it. And then you've got to try and hit a madly dashing half-meter-wide mine (or more than one of the things) before they see about blowing your mech's feet off. Yeah, these hit a lot harder than your typical anti-mech mine and are given targeting programs to aim for weak points in the armor. And not just legs either. There are several battleroms of Vultures planting the mines on canyon edges, only for the little monsters to unbury and leap off the cliff so they can explode on or close to a mech that was walking through the valley.
And these mines aren't just anti-mech. They're perfectly capable of blasting entire squads of battle armor, vehicles, or even buildings into tiny little pieces. The only saving grace is that whatever explosive the things use, the Terrans never managed to stuff it into a missile or autocannon shell.
Chapter 3: Born standing up and talking back
"Vulture bikes? Unless we have squadrons of mechwarriors with very fast and accurate trigger fingers in play, our best bet would be dedicated teams of hunter-killer VTOLs or ASFs."
-NAIS Engineer describing Terran vehicles.
All this serves to put the Vulture in a very unique position when going up against to conventional military mentality here in the Sphere. Because while any one of its capabilities are perfectly normal and can be dealt with; high speed scout, anti-infantry platform, mine layer and so on, their combination makes something that can be hard to counter or anticipate. Unless you have eyes in the sky, the bike can likely dash in and out before you can respond. Normal methods of scouting using battle armor or light infantry are pointless since it can easily catch and kill them. But, I can see you saying, why not use mechs to scout instead?
Because where there are Vultures, there is the constant threat of spider mines. And between the machine's speed and how fast the mines can bury themselves just about anywhere, there is the possibility that even if you turn back; you'll run into a bunch of mines in what was previously a safe route. End result, one or more downed or crippled mechs that you need to retrieve from what is no doubt a fully re-mined area. As a result just by their presence on the battlefield, Vultures can curtail any ground-based maneuvers unless the opposition has the technology to detect their mines, or is willing to toss large amounts of infantry into the area to try and demine it and potentially have enough guns to convince the lightly armored bikes to keep their distance.
'CoughDraconisCombineCough'
Sorry something was stuck in my throat.
Of course to nobody's surprise when the Great Houses saw the mayhem this little bike could do, they started seeing if they could make their own (or preferably steal the design specs). While the latter tends to backfire the various powers-that-be had been moving forward with turning scout vehicles and potentially even light mechs into high-speed minelayers. End result? Everybody except the flyboys are going to have to watch their step in the coming years.