Hedgehog HDG-2Q
Mass: 35 tons
Chassis: Uticamax III
Power Plant: Pitban 280
Cruising Speed: 86.4 kph
Maximum Speed: 129.6 kph
Jump Jets: None
Jump Capacity: 0 meters
Armor: Durallex Medium
Armament:
1 Medium Laser
Manufacturer: Utica Fabrication and Design
Primary Factory: Mars
Communication System: Molinox HBD-2a9JJ MaxiPulse Array
Targeting & Tracking System: Molinox Tri-Plus
Introduction Year: 2730
Tech Rating/Availability: F/X-X-X-F
Cost: 3,110,175 C-bills
The Hedgehog was the first Tripod battlemech to reach mass production, but would never be a particularly common design. Though deployed thinly but widely across the Star League as a division level scout and communications support unit, the Hedgehog would never find major success with the SLDF. Despite some quirky capabilities inherent to the tripod design, it didn't really offer much that couldn't be achieved on a more conventional platform. And the cult like devotion shown by its small group of fans notwithstanding, it was seen as at best a curiosity.
The mech's unique design would, however, eventually earn it a reprieve and a new mission as an unmanned drone. As has already been covered, the Star League had established vast numbers of storage bases, research stations, communications relays, and other small outposts not just in the Inner Sphere, but beyond, and many if not most of these bases were either only lightly manned or completely unmanned. With the need to protect valuable Star League assets from pirates, thieves, or espionage without the expense of basing troops at every telescope, waystation, or communications relay spread across all of human occupied space, the League had already created an entire family of light security drones, but these units were really only suited to handling similarly lightly equipped opponents. They would need heavier equipment to deal with more dangerous opponents, and the SLDF insisted that this would have to be battlemechs.
Unfortunately, creating an autonomous drone battlemech is not as easy as it sounds. While a standard smart robotic control system can control a mech, theoretically, the computer system is a terrible substitute for a human's sense of balance. During early testing, it quickly became apparent that any bipedal mech operated by a robotic control system was always on the edge of toppling over. Quad mechs proved much more successful in this regard, and indeed the most common drone battlemechs operated by the Star League would be a refit of the Scorpion battlemech, but they had their own limitations. Due to their design, quad mechs struggled to engage opponents that were able to get around to their flanks, and this weakness was magnified by the relatively simple intelligence of an expert system, which was ill equipped to anticipate and respond to the actions of a skilled opponent.
But then, someone in Star League research remembered the Hedgehog. Upon a brief examination, this novelty that had ceased production over a century ago seemed almost tailor made for conversion into an unmanned drone. The three legged configuration gave the machine effectively the same stability of a quad mech, while its upright design, movement profile, and fully rotating torso meant it was essentially impossible for an opponent to flank. No matter what direction you came at a Hedgehog from, it could always bring its guns and heaviest armor to bear.
Of course "guns" was more of a metaphor than a fact, as the standard Hedgehog carried only a single medium laser as its sole offensive weapon, and the defensive smoke grenade launchers had to be removed to make space for the robotic control system. On the defensive end, the Hedgehog had to rely on its speed, and the unique agility of its tripod design, for protection, as it was only lightly armored. Ultimately, even in its drone form the Hedgehog operated best as a scout and picket rather than a line combatant, and thus for all its promise, the Hedgehog was not the heavy combat drone the Star League had been looking for, causing SLDF planners to focus on the Scorpion and Warthog.
Even so, an unknown number of drone Hedgehogs would be built at a classified production facility located on Mars and deployed to various secret bases spread across human occupied space. Most records indicating where these mechs were deployed or how many were produced have since been lost, and only scattered encounters with long lost drones have provided any conclusive proof of their existence.
Variants:
The standard HDG-2B (sometimes recorded as HdG-2B) was a dedicated communications specialist and scout, and as such it was built to come back alive from its missions rather than stand and fight. To better facilitate that goal, the mech mounted a quartet of smoke grenade launchers for those events where it needed to cover its own escape. Though these launchers were intended to be used exclusively with obscuring smoke, it didn't take long for clever crews to modify other payloads such as chaff or anti-personnel grenades.
Despite the Hedgehogs relative scarcity and exotic design, a surprising number would survive well in to the Succession Wars, and these rare mechs would be highly prized as long range scouts and raiders, both because of the mech's advanced communication system, and because its standard two man crew allowed it to "rotate" pilots during long patrols, reducing fatigue. The Succession Wars would also see the creation of two variants to the design. The first of these, most commonly seen in the Free Worlds League, was known as the Harasser, and it replaced the single medium laser with a pair of small lasers, netting a very slight increase in firepower at knife fighting range. The second variant, created from damaged units that had lost their original Star League communication system, replaced all the mech's weapons with additional communications gear. Now unarmed in every way except for physical attacks, these machines had to be deployed carefully, and almost always operated with other mechs serving as escort, but the added communications gear actually made them even more effective in providing communications support and directing a battle than the original version.
The last manned Hedgehogs in the Inner Sphere are believed to have been either destroyed or decommissioned at some point before the Clan invasion, and at present there is no indication that any of the Great houses have any interest in bringing this oddity back into service.
Type: Hedgehog
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Advanced)
Tonnage: 35
Battle Value: 596
Equipment Mass
Internal Structure 4
Engine 280 Fusion 16
Walking MP: 8
Running MP: 12
Jumping MP: 0
Heat Sink 10 0
Gyro 3
Tripod Cockpit 4
Armor Factor 80 5
Internal Armor
Structure Value
Head 3 7
Center Torso 11 10
Center Torso (rear) 3
R/L Torso 8 9
R/L Torso (rear) 3
R/L Arm 6 6
R/C/L Leg 8 8
Right Arm Actuators: Shoulder, Upper Arm
Left Arm Actuators: Shoulder, Upper Arm
Weapons
and Ammo Location Critical Heat Tonnage
Medium Laser CT 1 3 1.0
Smart Robotic Control System None 0 - 2.0
Features the following design quirks: Distracting, Improved Communications, Improved Sensors, Non-Standard Parts, Obsolete
Record Sheets: Beyond the Frontier, which will (eventually) have record sheets for all four variants of the Hedgehog discussed here, can be downloaded through the link at the start of this thread:
https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=84454.0Author's Note: Battletech's original tripod, the Hedgehog was first published in Stardate Volume 3 Issue 5, in an article that also provided details on the Harasser and communications variants. And let me tell you, that entire article is nothing but a set of special case rules specifically for the Hedgehog. Everything from a bonus to hit penalty for attacks aimed at it to special jump movement, a special kick attack, new hit location tables, a unique armor diagram, special critical hit tables, rules for the unique smoke projectors... so if you were expecting a faithful recreation of all that, you should probably see if you can get your hands on the magazine in question. What you're getting here (or technically in the record sheet book) is a rules legal approximation, in that it attempts to get close to some of the stats and has three legs. To be more authentic, I probably should have given it the model code HdG rather than HDG and found a way to get it up to 9/14 movement with two more tons of armor, but those last two would have required advanced Star League tech and theoretically this already exotic mech was still kicking (heh) during the late succession wars. Sacrifices had to be made.
(We will, of course, see what we see when and if Catalyst eventually turns the handful of canon references to the Hedgehog into a complete design)
Also, the manufacturer listed in the magazine, Utica Fabrication and Design, was almost certainly a New York based company on Terra, but I still put the manufacturing plant (for the drone at least) on Mars. Because dagnabit Tripods come from Mars!
