HELIX Frame Sheet Template:
HELIX Frame SheetCodename: Asterion
Appearance:
Class: Heavy
Role: Siege/Artillary unit
Equipment:
**Head Unit**Hind Dual-System Radar: An advanced radar with a slightly smaller range than some other units, but it makes up for in its speed and raw perceptiveness, only about seven and a half kilometers. It's detection powers are doubled due to its narrower range and it's fed into the 'Herakles VI System' at a speed incomparable to human reaction time allowing it to react to enemies faster than Liam would through her own perception. It also overlays visual information on top of this positioning data to analyze and track ballistic trajectories and manipulate this data into the 'Hephestus' system to intercept attacks.
This system was designed to combat close range attackers and groups of opponents since the suits nature as artillery makes defending against incoming suppressive fire and linear assaults predictable and one-directional. The speed and reactionary abilities of the system are leagues above any other conventional radar who detect threats at a longer range. The Asterion's raw defensive capabilities only cares about rats slipping under its nose to bite its weak points. This narrow range can be supplemented with scouting units and those on its team with a greater sensing capability.
Herakles VI System: A support VI that has been developed as a support unit for the Asterion. The VI, much to Liam's dismay, is limited to the mechanical arms that manipulate the Helix frame's chassis. Using data from the Hind's radar, it can at inhuman speeds analyze, predict, and intercept incoming attacks. The heavy outer shell of the Helix frame is not affixed and can be extended outwards from the body and used as a shield. These panels can be rotated in a limited capacity and almost all of them can be positions towards the front of the unit. This is essential for a siege unit, which typically receives all of its adverse fire from a singular direction.
These vast plates can be interlocked and bolstered for a greater 'shield' much reminiscent of knights of old. These plates are created from a futuristic, shock-absorbing material that can deflect most ballistic projectiles. The slightly curved nature also makes sure bullets bounce away rather than distributing their entire kinetic force, as well as Herakles ensuring the intercepts are positioned at an angle to further protect the unit. The metal is also coated in a high-grade heat resistant coating, halving the effectiveness of plasma blades.
The energy field that protects a basic Helix unit can also be projected along these protective panels allowing it to withstand just about any sort of ranged weaponry without a problem. Asterion can even lock all of its plating together into a sort of umbrella to block incoming missiles or bombardment from above or directly in front of it, however, the plates cannot be arranged to block such an impact from directly behind the unit. The mechanical arms that hold and manipulate these boast heavy shock absorption but can be broken by basic bullet fire if struck. A plasma blade likewise can cut through these joins easily, but Herakles can use the protective plating as a blunt weapon to knock away attackers in a pinch, its processing speed much faster than human reaction.
**Shoulder Unit (Right)**Hephestus Units: Hydra-Arrow Multipurpose Missile System: A trio of thick metal plates that can be extended out from the shoulders. They interlock to form a solid shield in front of the unit automatically to intercept attacks. Liam can take control of these units manually and making use of their interior component. Within each of them are a 32 medium-yield missiles, each fired in eight-round delivery patterns. When a barrage is fired, the component compresses and pushes the next 'batch' into the loading stage in much the same way a shotgun pushes a slug into the barrel. These serve as Asterion's go-to weapon for laying down fire and splitting up enemies due to the sheer number of projectiles it can fire with its total 96 count ammo capacity.
It should be noted only one of these weapon systems can be fired at once, the other two becoming unusable. This is to prevent the strain of the missiles taking off and the weight of the armor threatening to tear off the limb if too much force is applied. The missiles are also completely stable unless a purposeful charge is run through it, eliminating the risk of the explosive yield of the units detonating if struck by enemy fire.
**Shoulder Unit (Left)**Trident 244mm Railgun - A compressed railgun used to penetrate highly armored targets or structures that conventional weapons cannot reach. While it has a medium-long range and is ineffective at short ranges due to its extended charge time. It takes five seconds to accelerate the projectile in its barrel to sufficient velocity, upon which a massive 244mm round its ejected from the barrel at Mach 7. The bullet can pierce thick structure walls and any sort of armor that a target is hiding behind, without a doubt destroying nearly any Helix frames in a single hit. The weapon is not affixed and can be rotated roughly 150 degrees in front of the unit, generally aligned at an angle with the shoulders of the unit so it can be protected from gunfire by the Hydra weapon system.
This weapon has several drawbacks, making it unsuitable to engage other Helix frames. First, Asterion is rendered immobile while operating the Trident. Its leg units have unique stakes that bolt it down into the ground to prepare for firing and its joints are calibrated before firing to most aptly resist the recoil. This lack of mobility makes it reliant on targeting a practically stationary target, such as structures or larger targets. The second con is after firing the unit must cool down for a full 60 seconds so as not to overtax the barrel or Asterion's joints resisting the kickback from the powerful cannon. Thirdly, this weapon has limited ammunition, only having eight shots before it is merely a scrap of metal weighing down Asterion.
Achilles: Shield units - Thick bits of metal that are manipulated by the Herakles AI system. They aren't as big as the Hydra system, but they're far more numerous. This allows them to be interlocked and positioned in various configurations to be able to cover a similar protective area. They cannot, however, be deployed while firing the Trident Railgun. Instead, these slabs are affixed into the shoulder unit to bolster its structural integrity against the gun's recoil.
The shield units can also be connected to the Aegis defense system to create a large shield to protect against practically any frontal assault.
**Back Unit**Iokheira System - A pair of 80mm Gatling guns that are affixed the back of the unit by a pair of flexible secondary arms. Their positioning and configuration with the unit vary depending on how they're deployed. In their anti-air configuration, they are positioned behind the unit and aimed up towards the sky. Using data from the Hind radar and aided by the Herakles VI they automatically intercept incoming missiles and other targets at elevated positions. This occurs without any action from the pilot using a simple algorithm to prioritize and target possible threats. It can also be told to 'suppress' targets on the ground but likewise, it doesn't require any actual input from the pilot.
The second configuration is a manual firing mode in which the weapons are affixed underneath the arms of the Asterion. They are used in much the same way one can use arms and legs at the same time, four appendages moved independently of one another. They can all target separate quarries but the accuracy of the weapons is heavily reduced due to one's split focus. Typically Liam will use these additional arms to overlap his main weaponry's shots to make dodging entirely much more difficult, and when all four arms are targeted on the same area it makes it deliver unparalleled suppressive fire.
The most notable drawback to this secondary firing mode is the increased strain on Liam's brain causes mobility to plummet. While using it complex movement becomes impossible. The autonomous mode doesn't impose this sort of penalty.
**Chest**Megara Phalanx System: A system built in tandem with the Herakles system, using its analytical data to distribute and intercept attacks with energy from its nuclear core. Using its weapon database and built up the experience to reference weapons it calculates forces and the 'amount' of shielding required and feeds this data into the Herakles VI. It can even imbue its entire shield into its forward shield to block high-velocity rounds such as Railcannons, so long as the shooter can be perceived on the Hind Radar visually. Using this 'all and nothing' method does leave the rest of the unit vulnerable if something were to strike it from behind while its shielding was down.
Since most of the energy is distributed towards defense, it makes mobility plummet. Thrusters are only able to offer minimal lift while the Megara is in operation. While it's offline Asterion can resume regular flight capabilities but its quite poor when compared to medium and light units.
**Waist**Khryselakatos Reloading Unit: A dedicated system to reloading the 'Iokheira' weapon system on the unit's back. Three 'clips' for each of the automatic turrets, six in total, are bolted to the back of the waist of Asterion. The flexible mechanical arms are able to pivot and reload each of the 'Iokheira' Gatling units, and this causes Liam to rely on them the most often due to their abundant amount of ammunition as well as a wider spread.
Additionally, the Khryselakatos system also houses a pair of clips of ammunition for the Asterion's primary weapon, "Harpe".
**Right Arm**Hades 110mm Cluster Mortar: A weapon built into the right arm of the Asterion, a two-round capacity mortar. Only usable at medium-range it ejects a rocket-propelled shell into the air. Upon reaching a satisfactory height it breaks apart upon which ten clusters of high-yield explosives rain down on the battlefield. It has a high enough scope of effect that it can reduce a quarter-mile of land to rubble, in much the same way an aerial craft might carpet bomb a small area. Its low capacity and long wind-up make it unusable outside of urban or populated battlefields.
Harpe 120mm Machine Gun: The Asterion's primary weapon with an extensive clip. Its generally used to peel away at Phalanx shields, using its hefty rounds to shred away defenses. Despite its rapid-fire use, it's quite accurate even if its target is many kilometers away. Underneath its barrel is a single use-grenade launcher, but it surprisingly only contains a smokescreen. It's obscuring load is deposited over a large area and uses particles to disrupt radar and other sensory devices. This is used since, as a general rule, Asterion has the advantage when laying down sieges or suppressive fire as well as sow panic into its enemies.
**Left Arm**Persephone Anti-Electronic Mortar: EMP Stake Mortar, housing a two-round capacity. When fired it launches a long-range stake into enemy territory that upon impact emanates a powerful electromagnetic field that disrupts all conventional electronics and radar. Radar, Radio, and other systems within a single kilometer are rendered unreliable around the point of impact.
Aegis Defense System: A thick shield of metal that is bolted into Asterion's arm. Boasting the same high-tech shock-absorbing material as the rest of the shielding it has its own powerful shield emitters to project a powerful Phalanx Shield at the front of the Aegis, used in conjunction with Megara. It is quite a large piece, able to cover a region from the Asterion's knee to shoulder and protect it completely from harm. The projected barrier is strong enough to shrug off a series of modest missile impacts without issue.
Liam manually controls and positions the shield unit to block attacks but Herakles can bolster the Aegis through the Achilles system. The two systems can be linked and combined, interlocking to create an impregnable tower shield of sorts that has defensive properties equivalent to a fortress wall. In this mode, all frontal assaults are practically useless against the unit while it launches missiles and a barrage of machine-gun fire from behind safety.
**Right and Left Leg**Orion Anti-Air Missile System: A cluster of missiles built into each of the Asterion's legs. It only sports two barrages in each unit, one for each side of the leg. Typically these are hidden in the armor around the bend of the leg. When deployed they eject out to the side and spray out on either side of the Asterion before converging on its target at long distance. Each cartridge has twenty small-payload missiles that move at supersonic speeds to intercept objects designated by Liam. Once both clips have been expended the unit can be ejected to lower the overall weight of the unit.
