Author note: Who remembers their Wolf Pack? Though the stat block doesn't reflect it very well, this little guy is built as an Omnivehicle, entirely to allow a point of elementals to ride on it, and despite having no pod space to reconfigure. Personally, I'd prefer a better option for that capability, such as a quirk or a piece of equipment, but it is what it is.Developed in the mid 3050s by the Blackwell Corporation and receiving their first hasty trial by fire during the brief Dragoons Civil War, the Hovercraft Infantry Carrier (HCIC, commonly called the "Zoomer") is precious little more than a light frame, some armor plate, and mounting points for battle armor wrapped around an overpowered fusion engine. The theory is sound (though a bit comical to look at). The Zoomer is just big enough for a point of Elemental armor to hitch a ride on the outside (in the same way they mount omnimechs), and so blisteringly fast that it's able to beat out even most VTOL alternatives, dropping Elementals wherever they need to go, even in the middle of the enemy before they can effectively respond.
In practice, however, there were... complications. The balance issues inherent with piling five tons of armored infantry on a three ton air-cushion vehicle were considerable, and something Blackwell was never able to fully tackle before the vehicles were pressed into combat against Wolf's Dragoons Rebels. The loyalists were able to make reasonably good use of them, but even they limited their use when fully loaded to straight runs across reasonably flat ground, and even then there were some particularly spectacular failures, usually far more fatal to the lightly armored vehicle than the armored troopers it carried. In addition, though the machine was insanely quick by design, this hardly made it immune to enemy weapons fire, and a hit from anything but the lightest of battlefield weapons was almost always fatal.
Blackwell engineers continued to work on the balance issues well into the 3060s, finally producing a reasonably stable model by 3066, and refinements in Zoomer tactics (with less emphasis on rushing into the middle of the enemy before releasing their troops) increased the vehicle's battlefield utility to the point that the Dragoons had begun limited field deployment by early 3067. The HCIC proved its value during clashes in the Chaos March, where groups of Zoomers and armored infantry served as fast response forces. Unfortunately for the Dragoons, the HCIC's production facility was an early victim of the Jihad, destroyed by a low yield atomic warhead during the bombardment of Outreach. The remaining HCICs in Dragoons control would not survive the Jihad.
The HCIC remained an extinct concept until well into the Republic era, when it was resurrected as a way to stretch out limited forces in the wake of post Jihad disarmament. First produced on Arc Royal under contract from both the Dragoons and Kell Hounds, the HCIC and its derivatives quickly spread across the Inner Sphere. It's relatively low cost made the vehicle especially attractive to militia forces across the Republic as an ideal means of transporting their growing battle armor forces, and from there it saw heavy use among the various factions that plagued the Republic in the early days of the HPG collapse.
Design Quirks: Hard to Pilot, Easy to Maintain
HCIC "Zoomer"
IS Introductory Box Set
3 tons
BV: 36
Cost: 36,570 C-bills
Movement: 21/32 (Hover)
Engine: Standard Fusion Engine
Internal: 4
Armor: 8
Internal Armor
--------------------------------------
Front 1 3
Right 1 2
Left 1 2
Rear 1 1
Carrying Capacity:
One battle armor squad