Approved Vehicle HGB-487 "Sidewinder" Chem-Tank

[Helix]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To create a medium armored vehicle for the Dzara
• Image Source: Link
• Canon Link: N/A
• Permissions: N/A
• Primary Source: N/A

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

• Manufacturer: Helix Privateers
• Affiliation: Helix Privateers / The Dzara
• Market Status: Closed-Market
• Model:
• Modularity: Yes
• Production: Limited
• Material:
  
  • General Construction/Exterior Armor: Helsteel
  • Organic Components: Formgel
  • Self-Repair Lattice: Blightsteel
  • Repulsor-Grid Compatibility Layer: Storm Iron
  • Exterior Finish: Helglass
  • Exterior Camo Layer: Shiftsteel

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Classification: Medium Tank
• Role: Assault/Suppression
• Size: Average
• Weight: Average
• Armaments: High
  
  • Arm-Articulated MTO-422 "Doomspitter" Rotary Otherplasma Cannons (2)
  • Turreted ZZQ-636 "Patriarch" Atter Cannon (1)
  • Back-Mounted ZZT-229 "Vertigo" Missile Pods (2)
• Defenses: High
  
  • HQT "Primacy" Repulsor-Grid Generator (1)
  • Quintuple-Layered Helsteel Armor
  • Shiftsteel Camouflage Layer
  • Blightsteel Self-Repair Lattice
  • Backup ZSR-136 "Phantasm" Holoshield Arrays (2)
• Maneuverability Rating: Very High
• Speed Rating: High
• Propulsion: Tracks
• Minimum Crew: 0
• Optimal Crew: 0
• Passenger Capacity: 0
• Cargo Capacity: Small

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Integrated Droid Brain
• External Holodroid Projectors
• Integrated "Chimeric" Cybersecurity Suite
• Starship-Grade Omni-Eye Sensor Array
• Internal KBR Reactor Power Supply
• Small storage locker

STRENGTHS

• Speed Demon: The Sidewinder is fast and maneuverable, perfect for navigating the chaos of urban warzones.
• Deadly Bite: The Sidewinder is both heavily armed and heavily protected, and possessed of a Blightsteel-based self-repair capability.

WEAKNESSES

• Volatile: The Sidewinder packs a powder-keg of Otherplasma, Blightspawn Atter, and X19 as its munitions. Should it be seriously damaged, it can experience a dangerous (and likely fatal) munitions cookoff.

DESCRIPTION

The Sidewinder is the latest of Helix's droid tanks, and certainly the most dangerous.

As with most Helix-designed vehicles, it is fully-autonomous, requiring no operator and accepting no passengers. This is perhaps fortunate, as few organic drivers could stomach the machine's primary duties.

The Sidewinder sits on a quartet of self-repairing Blightsteel tracks, granted it superb maneuverability and traction through uneven areas. Atop these is mounted the droid-tank's "body", which might initially appear to be smooth and unarmed.

Virtually every centimeter of the machine is armored, though much potential protection was sacrificed for sheer mobility. It is nowhere near the nigh-indestructible strongpoint that the Landslide is, but it does enjoy a similar degree of versatility, and a far greater ability to reposition.

Sidewinders are used for everything from direct military conflict to policing and occupation duties. In the latter case, they are used to back up law enforcement, providing devastating firepower in a relatively-compact package.

Despite this, their primary intended purpose is urban warfare; Helix learned many valuable lessons from the nightmarish cityscape battlefields of Abregado and Thyferra.

This purpose has quickly earned these machines an ugly reputation; they are heavily armed and defended, and exclusively carry dangerous chemical and radiological weaponry.

When threatened, the tank's upper hull partially unfolds, revealing a pair of rotary Otherplasma cannons on articulated armatures. These enjoy a wide range of motion, and can engage targets above or below the tank as easily as in front or behind.

In most circumstances, these are the tank's primary weapons, suitable for engaging infantry or light/medium vehicles at most combat ranges. They can be used to rake buildings to dispatch dug-in shooters, provide anti-air fire, or support infantry assaults.

Still, they are not the most infamous armament on the tank. After all, the Sidewinder is primarily a chemical deployment platform, a fact that is perhaps most to blame for its dark reputation.

The Sidewinder features a hull-mounted Atter cannon, which it uses to disperse that hellish corrosive substance onto groups of infantry. Battlefields where many of these tanks are deployed can become almost uninhabitable, as the very ground and air become poisoned.

Even the doughtiest soldiers are usually reluctant to be melted alive, and as such, the Sidewinder is often deployed to break resilient lines, terrorize civilian uprisings, or any number of other repellent purposes.

Lastly, but certainly not least, the Sidewinder possesses a pair of missile pods mounted to the rear of the hull. Aside from increasing the threat the tank poses to vehicles and aircraft, these can allow the tank to act in a light artillery capacity, a tasking often supplemented by the Atter cannon's mortar mode.

All this in mind, the Sidewinder's greatest strengths are its mobility and adaptability, and its armaments were chosen for this over raw power. In all likelihood, the value of this approach was proven by the much larger Landslide's performance on Abregado.

It can directly assault enemy positions, hang back and harass from range, support infantry rushes in entirely separate areas with rocket artillery, or engage enemy air elements. Few are the situations it cannot at least contribute to.

 

[Darth Prazutis]

Under Review.

 

[Darth Prazutis]

Helix

Looks good. Approved.