Helepolis

Description
First unleashed by the Terran Hegemony in Introduction Year::2460, the Helepolis is a ponderous BattleMech designed to deliver artillery fire. The 'Mech was proven ineffective on multiple occasions and, following the destruction of the production facilities in Production Ceased::2775, the design was lost during the Succession Wars. The HEP-2H dates to 2488.

The Helepolis is a slow heavy 'Mech with a maximum speed of 54 km/h. It has a respectable thirteen tons of armor, however.

When rebels within the Hegemony military launched the September Revolt, the new Director-General, Ian Cameron deployed batteries of Helepolis 'Mechs to keep them pinned down within the capital city of Geneva on Terra.

Weapons and Equipment
The Helepolis is built around an Armstrong Industries Sniper Artillery Piece. The accurate, long-range fire makes it effective against static defenses. The 'Mech does carry some backup weapons to augment its screening forces. It can defend itself with a Coventry Starfire LRM-10 and Nova Large Laser. If an enemy gets close, the MechWarrior can call upon a Thunderstroke SRM-6 and a Starflash Medium Laser.

Variants

 * HEP-1H : The earliest version used standard heat sinks and its Primitive Engine could only manage 30 km/h. This proved to be a challenge as the early Helepolis needed to completely stop to fire the Sniper artillery and then start moving again before counter-battery fire could destroy the unit. Twenty and a half tons of Primitive Armor protected the Helepolis from enemy fire. The weight and bulk of the primitive systems prevented the designers from installing the long range missiles used on later models . BV (2.0) = 1055


 * HEP-3H : This 2625 model upgrades the Large Laser to an ER Large Laser . BV (2.0) = 1,380


 * HEP-4H : This variant was introduced much more recently by Vining Engineering and Salvage Team. VEST rebuilt a factory on Solaris VII after the Word of Blake had left that world. There, they began to produce an upgraded version of the Helepolis. This upgrade of the 3H is built on an Endo Steel frame. It is powered by a 300-rated Light Fusion Engine that gives it a top speed of 64 km/h, though this necessitated splitting the missile launcher into two LRM-5s . BV (2.0) = 1,366