Helicopters and Vectored Thrust Vehicles

Given the deplorable state of roads and highways in many war-torn nations. ATVs and heavy suspension vehicles are all that can negotiate the distances between cities. Worse yet, dangerous bands of Rebels, Solos, Guerrillas, Survivalist Nutcases who shoot at anything that moves and other post war hazards such as land mines and Automated Defense Systems left running in the middle of nowhere can be a definite hazard to travelers in the countryside. As such the Earth has seen a rise in cheap, simple, consumer grade helicopters, more powerful military/governmental Vectored-Thrust Aerodynes and in the last half-century, the EXTREMELY expensive and top secret in some areas, HERMES vehicles which are anti gravity mechanisms. Here are a sampling of some common helicopters your character will use as often as they use cars.

The Wingless Fly

A rapid insertion and deployment craft designed for the military of Olympus. The hump-like section above the feselage is the Hermes System.They are made by the Poseidon Corporation and the Hermes systems are retrofitted by Olympus. There are several multiple-gun emplacements mounted towards the rear of the machine.

Capable of Extremely Rapid Insertion

The craft is near soundless and can hover six inches above the surface or tear through the skies at several hundred kilometers per hour. Characters will quite often be deployed via these vehicles to drop zones and combat theaters.

Coming In for Deployment as seen from the Ground

Deploying Hermes-Fitted LandMates from Above

Deploying Soldiers for Ground Level Assault

Landed and ready for Dust-Off

The Fly

This is an earlier version of the now popular wingless fly. It has a back hatch for troop deployment as opposed to side doors and less mounted weaponry however, it does have deployable manipulator arms for handling cargo and whatnot, making it a good search and rescue vehicle for which it is still used today in many zones. Hermes technology at the time of this unit's development required the large external U-shaped wing you see here.

A View from the side. Armor is heavy though bulky

Flys are still dispatched widely for search and rescue and search and destroy missions in badside

Unlike the modern Wingless Fly, the old Fly had only a read deployment hatch, seen here preparing for troop deployment. That's the Front of the Unit you're seeing here.

Here's a better view of the back hatch deploying Autobugs. A technology developed from captured NEO spider mechs with our own Antigravity Hermes technology added.

Deploying manipulator arms to retrieve an unconscious operative in the combat zone

Troop Carrier Helo

A simpler and less expensive means of moving soldiers from base to Operations Theater. The Helicopter is so practical that it may never go out of style. The belly-cannon on this model looks pretty serious!

This model has a lot of onboard weaponry. Too much to be a transport chopper so it is also a gunship. Sort of a midpoint between a Warthog A-10 and Comanche or Apache attack copter. And as you can see, it is big enough to move quite a few troops with full load-out.

Developmental Hermes Vehicles

These units are currently in development at Olympus. They are single or two man craft designed to replace the extremely vulnerable mini-copter craft currently being used by air police. Many units of the old Air Police helo's have been lost due to the rise of heavy weapons available to cyborgs and terrorists and agents provocateur from the Principality. These new, heavily armored craft are something between a landmate and a Helicopter Gunship in capabilty and price.

The model shown below is outfitted with twin mini-vulcans, one per arm and a tail-mounted, turreted auto-grenade launcher with ammo-pod capable of deploying smoke, flash-bang or HE/FRAG grenades as the situation warrants. Test models have usually set a loadout of rubber bulltes in one arm and AP rounds in the other. It is also capable of limited Hand-to Hand combat vs LandMates and vehicles. It is a Single Pilot model.

Below is a model under development as a Single Man version of the popular Wingless Fly. It incorporates heavier armor that a LandMate and a weapons suite including a tail-mounted mini-vulcan and four capacitor lasers recharged from the power system of the unit. These are capable of dialing up from single-barrel 1d6 shots to a one-time 40d6 linked blast that completely draims the capacitor. This weapon system was designed to make the Air Police effective against LandMate terrorism.

Experimental Hermes-Drive BumbleBee

Research and Development has unveiled a new prototype "BumbleBee" Hermes Assisted Insertion Extraction craft. A next generation development of the "Wingless Fly" aircraft, it's silhouette is marked different for the twin Hermes-Drive motivator-wings along the spine of the fuselage.
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