Hellion

The hellion was a terran raider and skirmisher unit, a high-speed vehicle built around a lightweight four-wheel chassis and regarded as a support unit. Lightly protected by a stripped neosteel frame and armed with a heavy infernal flamethrower, it became one of the best terran skirmishers in the Koprulu sector. The Terran Dominion Armed Forces adopted the hellion as their primary scouting vehicle, supplanting the role once held by the vulture, and later developed it into the transforming hellbat.

Design and armament#

The hellion was a high-speed raider built around a lightweight four-wheel chassis and regarded as a support unit, only lightly protected with a stock neosteel frame chosen for high maneuverability. It excelled at lightning-fast strike missions and evasive maneuvering, capable of damage disproportionate to its size, particularly against enemy infantry, thanks to its heavy infernal flamethrower. The weapon was directed using an antiquated targeting system that was later upgraded for improved tracking, though many marines doubted how much it had truly improved. The hellion's rapid acceleration allowed for improvisational tactics, and some drivers would deliberately outrun their enemies only to turn and attack at maximum range. Its low cost, agility, and firepower made it extremely popular with mercenary companies, many of which modified them to make quick escapes and some of which illegally fitted them with stim emitters.

The hellion was controlled by a driver seated in a pressurized cabin, its worn faux-leather seats lined with fireproof material capable of stopping shrapnel and the driver secured by numerous straps and padding. For propulsion it used a variable-burn high-shift newton engine powered by diverse liquid or compressed fuels, with portrenol the most popular choice for its low cost, and some veteran drivers claimed the engine would run on almost anything. Four wheels carried the hellion on all-terrain armored non-pneumatic tires with a high shock-absorption index, capable of running flat for up to 100 kilometers. When the existing tires proved inadequate over untraversable ground, Raynor's Raiders developed an improved armored non-pneumatic tire, the blueprints of which the Terran Dominion soon secured through its spy network to upgrade its entire hellion motor pool.

History and variants#

The hellion was in use by 2490. It was originally developed as an armored combat vehicle but was deemed too cumbersome to be effective in its intended scout role, so it was stripped down to a bare-bones neosteel frame and reconstructed as a lightly armored vehicle focused on speed and mobility. The result became one of the best terran skirmishers in the Koprulu sector and beyond, and the Terran Dominion Armed Forces adopted it as their primary scouting vehicle in place of the vulture.

Taking note of the hellion's strong performance, the Dominion developed the hellbat, a vehicle based on the hellion but able to transform into a bipedal walker. The transformation ability was introduced midway through the Second Great War, and adding it made it necessary to replace the plating in older hellion models, with Dominion engineers using an experimental paristeel and bonded-carbide weave that was lighter and better insulated to protect operator and machine from the extreme temperatures of the Napalm Spray, along with additional heat-shielding installed under the chassis. The entire Dominion hellion motor pool was eventually upgraded to hellbat form. Hellions also made their way into the motor pool of the Umojan Protectorate, whose variant carried improved suspension, defensive plating, and more comfortable seats, while the Dominion Special Forces created their own sleeker three-wheeled version that many drivers found more fun to handle.