Tex Talks Battle Tech Episode XH: The Hellion, the Terran's Greatest Sin

You know, usually, I like the Terrans. They're a lot like the Taurians, but friendlier. They've got advanced technology like the Terran Hegemony did, but they're not assholes about it the way the Hegemony was. Hell, you'd have a hard time finding a better drinking buddy than a Terran anywhere in human space. But every now and again they do something that makes even me angry.

That something is the Hellion.

Welcome, class. Let us now explore not the most effective weapon in the Terran arsenal, not the most powerful, not the fastest, not the sneakiest, not the toughest, and not the most unique or imaginative, but the single most goddamn infuriating thing ever given wheels.

Chapter 0:

The first introduction of the Hellion to the Inner Sphere was actually its civilian version, known as the Mohican. For those of you who follow Solaris's non-mech focused demolition derbies, yes, I am talking about that Mohican. The one that got banned for being too good, brought back by popular demand, banned again, and then finally brought back but in a higher weight class where it's still considered one of the top five designs in its category. Yes, that Mohican.

For those of you wondering, yes, this is also the same Mohican that every half-baked insurgency that can't get its hands on real military hardware likes to slap a machine gun or two on the back of. For the fancier bands of nutcases, you can find support lasers or even a rare modified medium laser mounted on these things. Surprisingly effective, really, but that's Terran engineering for you. There's no real surprises here, just a civilian grade neosteel chassis and a Terran ICE. So, y'know, the civilian equivalent of an endo steel frame and an overpowered engine that will run on damn near anything that burns. Even half-decent whisky will do in a pinch, and if you believe the grimmer stories so will most of the human body. Considering everything else about the Hellion, I wouldn't be surprised.

So now that we know what a Mohican is, what's the difference between it and the Hellion? Well, the Hellion tends to use non-pneumatic tires, carries a thin layer of armor over some vitals, and, oh yeah, mounts a plasma spewing thing the Terrans like to pretend is a flamethrower on top.

I suppose I should start with the basics, for any Terrans in the class who might not understand just what the problem is. At its simplest level, weaponry is just heavy machinery, with all that implies. Heavy machinery, when used, generates heat as a waste product. If things get too hot, they stop working right, and then they start breaking. For people who don't have whatever black magic Terrans use to sink heat, this is a real problem. Many mechs just can't use their entire arsenal without cooking themselves alive. And that's just internally generated heat. Things get worse when someone else decides to chip in.

Weapons like the Inferno Missile, the Plasma Rifle, and the humble Flamer exist to make your enemy's life harder where managing heat is concerned. We even have some mechs built around such weapons, like the aptly named Firestarter. This remains a somewhat niche approach however, as flame weapons tend to underperform when it comes to actually, you know, killing the enemy. Well, unless they're infantry, in which case flame weapons are great, but against mechs? You're better off just loading up an autocannon and calling it a day.

But that's the stuff the Inner Sphere uses. Terrans operate a bit differently.

Chapter 1: Terrans and Pyromania

Looking at the Terrans' history, it's easy to understand why they invested heavily in fire-based weapons. There's already plenty of people who view fire as the correct answer to two inch long cockroaches. I can imagine two meter long Zerg only made the idea even more appealing, which led the Terrans to develop some truly nasty fire weaponry. This can be seen in the heavy infantry Firebat armor, which we'll cover some other time, and the Hellion.

Now, while I did say I understood the Terrans' liking for fire, they took it to a frankly concerning level. Seeing a stream of plasma that outranges a medium laser is an experience few mech pilots forget, and even fewer have time to forget. Because, like I said, Terrans took pyromania to its irrational extreme. That is the Infernal Flamethrower, the weapon the Hellion carries. Typically in a twin-linked dual mounting, just in case you were worried they might miss you with one stream of superheated plasma.

Of course, that's just the base model. The cheap, logistics-friendly, mass produced model that uses entirely off the shelf parts. Sometimes though, the Terrans roll out the actually militarized versions of these things when they want to make absolutely certain there's nothing left but ash. This version of the Infernal Flamethrower takes the already concerning stream of three thousand degree plasma and mixes in filaments of thermite, a delightful mixture of magnesium and iron oxide that ends up tangled all over your armor while burning at four thousand degrees Celsius. For those wondering, some forms of battle armor, most notably ferro-fibrous armor, actually start to burn themselves at around thirty seven hundred. The reaction isn't self-sustaining by any means and burns out quite quickly, but it's certainly a sight you won't soon forget. Supposedly another group of Terrans, some band of pirates, found a way to turn that reaction into a sticky liquid, sort of like napalm but even worse. Fortunately, we didn't get stuck with those lunatics and no one here knows the recipe, so at least for now that nightmare remains in the Koprulu sector.

Much like our flame weapons, the Hellion was meant to be used against infantry and other lighter, softer targets, a task at which I'm sure it excels. Back in the Koprulu sector, where everything has a heat sinking capacity that lets them operate inside of active volcanoes, the idea of using these things against heavy armor was considered a bad joke, or perhaps an act of final desperation. But here in the Inner Sphere, well, the opposition is just a bit different.

Chapter 2: Fire and You, Courtesy of the Hellion

It took a while for the Terrans to discover the way Hellions could be used against mechs. Originally, the light vehicles were kept for their original purpose of burning down infantry and the occasional building, kept away from the heavy fighting. They also make good scouts, though the Vulture is usually better at that job. This lasted until the battle of [REDACTED], where a particularly clever pirate managed to actually outmaneuver the local Terran commander, slipping a pair of Banshees into the Terran back lines. Now, as assault mechs go, the Banshee isn't much to write home about. But when you've got two of them running around in your rear lines smashing shit and just generally causing problems, you quickly remember that even a bad assault mech is still an assault mech.

In what was no doubt originally thought to be a desperate ploy to buy time, the Terran commander committed their reserve force of a dozen Hellions to counter the Banshees. I want you to stop and picture this, a dozen ultralight barely armored dune buggies with flamethrowers on top going up against a pair of assault mechs. The Banshees outweighed the entire force of Hellions by a comfortable margin. On paper, this sounds like a complicated form of suicide. On paper.

In practice, however, it turns out mechs don't do so well when they're getting roasted by half a dozen streams of plasma. The Hellions surrounded the Banshees and proceeded to melt them down to slag, the mechs' systems unable to function as the Hellions forced the machines into emergency shutdown.

This was the day the Terrans discovered that the Hellion, when used in small packs, could overwhelm and shut down any single mech. Or, in a pitched battle, could be used to force mechs to limit their fire, or even withdraw entirely to bleed off heat. You can find Hellions everywhere the Terrans go these days, playing havoc on the cooling systems of mechs across the Inner Sphere.

Like I said, not the most dangerous thing in the Terran arsenal, but certainly the most annoying.

Chapter 3: Incoming Fire

So how do the Terrans typically use Hellions in battle? Well, they do see some use as scouts, but less than you would expect. The Hellion is most effective in groups against targets too slow to properly engage with them. Most light mechs actually do fairly well against them, and as the most likely opposition a scouting element will encounter, scouting light mechs like the Locust do a surprisingly good job of keeping Hellions in check, forcing them to operate in larger, less efficient groups. This is why the Terrans tend to use Vultures for that job instead. However, it is pretty common to see a pack of Hellions acting as backup for a group of scouting Vultures. Mobility is your best countermeasure against the Hellion, and mobility is exactly what the Vulture's spider mines take from you.

The Vulture/Hellion mix is one of the most common light ground-based raiding forces the Terrans like to use. It's fast, it's flexible, the two units work well together, and even by Terran standards it's cheap as dirt. It is, however, a light raiding force. If the Terrans think you're a bit too tough of a nut to crack with that, well, the Diamondback is one hell of a nutcracker. I've already covered the Vulture and the Diamondback in other lectures, but we'll do a quick review here, just so you can fully grasp how much of a headache this specific combination is.

The Vulture is a hoverbike that moves fast and leaves spider mines everywhere. Your best counter against it is to move slowly, keep a close eye out for mines, and maintain your own accuracy to destroy it as quickly as possible.

The Diamondback is what the Terrans consider a light tank. At forty tons it's a lot more durable than you'd expect, and packs two railguns, basically short-ranged gauss rifles. Your best counter against this thing is to hit it with an alpha strike as soon as you can, in order to keep it from engaging in hit and run tactics against you. Naturally, this puts a strain on your mech's heat levels.

The Hellion is an ultralight vehicle that moves quickly and overheats your mech. Your best counter against it is to move fast enough to keep it from surrounding you while also doing your best to keep your heat as low as possible.

For the slower members of the class, yes, these tactics are contradictory. Welcome to combined arms warfare. The Terrans are good at it.

Chapter 4: Freezing Hell

So I've been talking up the Hellion for a while here, but it's important to remember that most of the time these things are annoying, not dangerous. The Infernal Flamethrower has a lot of range for a flamethrower, but any mech with a large laser or any sort of autocannon that isn't an AC/20 has more, and all it takes is one good hit to knock a Hellion out. Ultralights, even Terran ones, are like that. LRMs in particular are great at taking them out. If you're looking for a cheap solution to a pack of Hellions, mechs like the JVN-10A variant of the Javelin or the LCT-1M variant of the Locust do a good job. Funny thing, the Terrans usually leave the Hellion at home when they go up against the Davions. Go figure.

Beyond that, just about any sort of VTOL or other aircraft can chase the Hellions down and destroy them. Flamethrowers don't really do well against air units. Additionally, while the Hellion can go over most terrain pretty well, it does have limits. Downsides of being on wheels. You're not going to stop it with standard anti-tire spike traps, but big concrete spikes tend to do a good job of either stopping a Hellion or sending it airborne in ways it's not supposed to go.

The Hellion lives and dies on its speed. If you can take that away, it mostly just dies.

Chapter 5: The Path to Hell

As you might imagine, the Great Houses of the Inner Sphere saw the Infernal Flamethrower and wanted it for themselves. They want everything, of course, but Terran tech is something they want more than most. Unfortunately for everyone, the infernal flamethrower was one of the few pieces of Terran technology that was very easy to replicate, and just about everyone has their own version of the design at this point. Not as good as the original of course, but still a significant upgrade over the flamer. So why don't we see the things everywhere? Well, it turns out the infernal flamethrower is a bit of a double-edged sword. Yes, it can cook whoever you point it at, but some of that heat is also getting you. For the Terrans and whatever witchcraft they use to sink heat in an active volcano, this isn't too much of an issue. For the Inner Sphere, well, we tend to call the Infernal Flamethrower knockoffs Ultraheavy Flamers. Most of the extra weight in that name is from the housing that keeps it from roasting the user alive, and even then it's still a heat intensive weapon.

That's not to say the Inner Sphere hasn't tried to make use of ultraheavy flamers. There's a variant of the Firestarter out there that mounts two of the things at the cost of all other weapons, the FS9-U. It's no one's favorite version of that mech, but it's not something you can ignore either. Mostly though, the Inner Sphere tends to deploy ultraheavy flamers the same way the Terrans do, using dedicated vehicles. The Firebrand was House Marik's version of the idea, and the one most others ended up copying. Twenty tons, decently fast, lightly armored, mounts an ultraheavy flamer. It's a bigger, more expensive, and less effective version of the Hellion. So pretty much exactly what you'd expect.

There's also rumors of the Terrans working on some improvements to the Hellion, for some godforsaken reason. Details are scarce, but the rumors of something called a Hellbat are too common and too consistent to be entirely nonsense. Because apparently, the Hellion wasn't enough for these people.

Normally, I like the Terrans. They're reasonable people, they pay their debts, they keep their promises, they don't start stupid fights much, and they don't act like they're better than everyone else. But pyromania is deep in their blood. I don't trust a single one of those arsonists with a lighter, and the Hellion is why.

Class dismissed.