In the 3050s, the St Ives Compact found itself in the odd situation of producing too many assault mechs and not enough lighter machines. Candace Allard-Liao ordered the creation of a cheaper mech that could serve as an escort and bodyguard to the Victors, Emperors, and Pillagers her nation produced. This led to the creation of the Helios, a 60 ton "bodyguard" heavy mech built almost entirely out of parts produced inside the Compact. Comstar contributed to the financing of the mech and received a portion of the production in order to provide replacements for the mechs the Com Guard had lost fighting the Jaguars.
Showing up in Technical Readout 3060 but actually debuting in 3058, the HEL-3D Helios was built to guard the SIC's border with the Capellan Confederation, and if you look at what the CC was busy building at the same time, it had its work cut out for it. A
280 240 rated standard engine kept costs down while propelling the mech at a reasonable if unimpressive 65 kph, while four leg-mounted jump jets gave it a jump capability of 120 meters. An endo steel chassis was used to save weight on the design, but a mere nine tons of standard armor was all it got for protection. While this is better than the Rifleman or Quickdraw your grandparent was using, this still left the machine's armor quite thin, particularly on the limbs- two large lasers to an arm or leg will go internal. The torsos are only slightly better, with only the center torso able to withstand a slug from an AC 20.
This anemic armor load was deemed "sufficient" by someone who clearly had not piloted a mech in combat since the 4th Succession War, because it was somehow intended to fight mostly at long range, using a right arm Gauss Rifle fed by a two ton bin in the right torso, a pair of left arm ER Medium Lasers, and an SRM 6 pod in each side torso, both fed by a single ton of ammo in the right torso. At least the SRM ammo is protected by CASE. Yeah, you can clearly see the long-range capabilities of the mech there. Normally I'd say something about having only one ton of ammo for a pair of SRM 6s as being insufficient, but frankly once you're close enough to be using the SRMs in this thing you're not going to live long enough to worry about running out of ammo. The standard 10 double heat sinks are sufficient for this weapon load.
Though this was the first version of the mech to be seen in the TRO and get a record sheet, it's not actually the original. The HEL-2C is the first version of the Helios produced, but it never received a record sheet and based on the description in TRO 3060 it was identical to the 3D except for possessing standard medium lasers instead of ER models. As soon as ER medium lasers were available, all existing 2C models were upgraded to the 3D.
The next variant is a simple field refit of a type common in the 3050s: the HEL-C strips out one of the left arm ER Mediums for a C3 Slave. Simple and easy, but it's up to you to decide if this mech is worth including in your C3 network.
Next we see the HEL-4A, an export model designed to be sold to the Draconis Combine in addition to being used at home. The weapon load is completely reworked, now it sports an ER PPC in the right arm, a pair of standard medium lasers in the left with a third in the head, and an MRM 20 in the right torso fed by two tons of CASE-protected ammo in the same torso. Five additional double heat sinks help control the heat of the design, while two tons of additional armor give it some badly needed improvements to its durability- all locations but the arms can now take a single AC 20 shot without going internal.
And then the Confederation invaded and after a brief war, the St Ives Compact was no more, absorbed back into the Capellan Confederation, who chose to keep the Helios in production. I'm honestly unsure why, given that they had a much broader array of available mechs already.
And then the Word of Blake threw its galactic temper tantrum and at some point they somehow got a supply of Helioses from somewhere, presumably Com Guard stockpiles since they don't appear to have ever conquored Warlock. This led to the HEL-6X, which painfully drops the armor levels back down to those of the 3D while upgrading the engine to a 300 Light Engine for additional speed (plus adding a fifth jump jet). The armament is radically changed, swapping the Gauss Rifle for a Heavy PPC and replacing the torso-mounted SRMs with Medium Variable Speed Pulse Lasers and adding a C3i system to the Left Torso. The left arm ER Medium Lasers are retained, and Triple-Strength Myomer is added to take advantage of the heat this new all-energy weapon loadout generates, which is far more than the 10 double heat sinks can handle. This variant did not survive the Jihad, when the WoB expired, so did the HEL-6X.
The final configuration shows up in the Dark Age. The HEL-7L appears to be the result of the Confederation finally deciding that this mech is too cheap and trying out an expensive configuration. The engine is now a
280 240 XL, with an XL Gyro providing more weight savings. The jump jets get removed completely this time, while the Endo-Steel chassis is replaced with Endo-composite and the armor is upgraded to Light Ferro. The right arm Gauss Rifle is retained, but in the left arm there are now a pair of Light PPCs, while the torso-mounted missile pods have been changed to MML-5s. CASE II in the right torso protects the two tons of missile ammo, while a Boosted C3 Slave in the right torso makes this mech a much better sniper than any of the previous variants. Total armor protection is boosted, not quite to 4A levels, but still pretty good.
How to use the Helios? Well, it's designated a bodyguard, but honestly looking at it it seems like the way it accomplishes that goal is to simply provide a juicy target for enemies to shoot instead of the bigger, tougher, and more expensive mech it's escorting. Its weapons write checks its armor can't cash. How to fight the Helios? Simple, you shoot it. It's not terribly fast, and since the Capellan Confederation is going to be the force most commonly fighting against it initially I recommend you take some of the scary toys the CC got in 3060 and use them to break the darned thing. Seriously, I'd hate to be stuck in one of these while seeing a Men Shen, Ti Ts'ang, or Yu Huang on the enemy team. The former two can run laps around it while tearing it apart, and the latter is half again as large as it with the same movement curve and a whole lot more armor and firepower.
Edit: Thank you Hellraiser for pointing out the incorrect engine size listing.
