Courtesy of Eldoniousrex
“Star Commander, I have the target in sight. Grid coordinate zulu-alpha-three-six-three. Fire for effect, over.”
Clan Ice Hellion MechWarrior Liam waited for several tense moments, but there was no scream of incoming shells and no explosions on the enemy encampment. “Star Commander, I repeat, I have them marked with my TAG. Grid coordinate zulu-alpha-three-six-three.” Still, no artillery sounded. Liam noted with dismay as several Galleons discharged their infantry who began setting up gun emplacements.
Running a self-diagnostics on his communications systems, Liam was disquieted to see his Icestorm‘s computer report ‘100-percent operational’. “No fire on target, Star Commander. What is the delay?”
Liam endured another few moments of silence as he tried to burrow his Icestorm further into the snowy berm that was all that stood between him and the rebels fortifying their location. He felt exposed—his Icestorm’s speed was its only real defense. Spotting for allied artillery forced him to do something terribly dangerous for any light ‘Mech: stop. Every Hellion knew that speed was life. Without it, he was as much a target as the armored vehicles his TAG designated.
Finally, Liam’s radio crackled with Star Commander Janise’s voice. “Um, apologies MechWarrior Liam. There will be no artillery.”
Liam could no longer hide his frustration. “What in Kerensky’s name are you talking about?!”
“It has come to my attention that artillery is un-Clanlike tactics,” Star Commander Janise announced. “Apparently, it causes too much collateral damage to be considered honorable.”
Liam scanned his surroundings through his ‘Mech’s 360-degree visor. Everywhere he looked was just more tundra. Not even a surat to be found, save for the encampment roughly 500 meters from his position. “Star Commander, there is nothing here but snow and enemy contacts. Perhaps we can debate the honor of artillery after we’ve eliminated these rebels?”
“Neg, MechWarrior,” Janise sighed. “You are to engage targets of opportunity and return to base.”
At that, Liam slammed his fist on his command console, causing his viewscreen to flicker briefly. “Star Commander, my position is exposed. If I were to engage, I do not believe my Icestorm will survive.”
“Are you saying you lack the bravery of an Ice Hellion warrior, quineg?” Star Commander Janise’s response was filled with taunting disbelief.
“Neg, Star Commander,” Liam replied, stone-faced. “I will do my duty.”
“See that you do, MechWarrior.” With that, Liam’s radio went dead, leaving him cold and alone in his Icestorm’s co*ckpit. He scanned the enemy encampment, noting the three Galleons and what appeared to be light autocannons in fixed emplacements. He could outrange the Galleon’s inferior lasers and he could simply run around the fixed guns, but he knew it wouldn’t take many hits to put his Icestorm down.
“Let speed be my ally,” Liam muttered as he brought his Icestorm up to its full nine-meter height. He kept his TAG system painting the enemy encampment in case the officers at base changed their mind about the novel concept of zellbrigen, and then brought his Icestorm up to a trot, then a full run. Stationary, he could hide his 25-ton ‘Mech behind snow and ice, but there was no hiding the trembles soldiers could feel as his Icestorm charged headlong at their position.
Light tracers whizzed past his ‘Mech as the soldiers began firing well beyond their weapon’s effective range. Green beams soon followed as the Galleons rotated their turrets. Liam began to weave through the snowy banks as he pushed his ‘Mech to its full speed of nearly 200 kph, rapidly closing the distance between his machine and dozens of enemies. He fired his laser, lighting several soldiers and melting the barrel of a towed autocannon. He followed that up with a pair of short-range missiles which hit one of the Galleons on the side, knocking a tread off its wheels.
Incoming fire soon rivaled the downpour of snow from the sky, with pings ringing off his co*ckpit from small arms. A Galleon got lucky and scored a hit with a small laser, but it was enough to reduce the armor protecting his left side by half. Liam turned his Icestorm just in time to prevent an autocannon round from taking his leg off at the knee.
As he made another strafing pass and blew up a tent with another pair of missiles, Liam’s luck ran out. One of the Galleons’ medium lasers managed to strike his Icestorm’s hip, locking the leg and sending him hurdling toward the ground. The last thing Liam thought before his co*ckpit slammed into the snowy dirt was how pointless his loss was compared to a few artillery rounds.
The Icestorm is a perfect example of what can happen when a weapon’s requirements are changed without informing everyone down the military procurement chain. At best, you wind up with a weapon that doesn’t meet the new battlefield requirements. At worst, your weapon is obsolete before a warrior even has a chance to wield it.
Compared to the standard of Inner Sphere technology following the First Succession War, the Icestorm is a perfectly respectable reconnaissance unit. Its armament matches that of the Wasp, it’s more than 33 percent faster than the Locust, and it mounts Target Acquisition Gear as standard, making it the perfect spotter ‘Mech for friendly artillery. Icestorms could quickly close on enemy positions, paint targets for destruction, and then extract without any risk of being caught by pursuers.
However, the Icestorm is not an Inner Sphere BattleMech; it’s a Clan BattleMech produced shortly after the events of Operation KLONDIKE. This tumultuous time in early Clan history formed what would become the Clan rules for zellbrigen, or honorable combat. In addition to adopting a dueling format for most warfare, zellbrigen prohibited the use of weapons of mass destruction, liberally defining these weapons to include large air-dropped bombs and artillery. The existence of systems that could accurately apply these weapons—such as the very TAG that came standard on the Icestorm—wasn’t enough to dissuade Clan leaders horrified at civilian casualty statistics following the conquest of the Pentagon worlds.
One of the slowest Clans to adopt the rules of zellbrigen was Clan Ice Hellion. The Hellions famously relied on smaller, faster ‘Mechs and swarm tactics to engage heavier foes, which was directly contradicted by zellbrigen‘s rules for dueling. The Hellions would eventually adopt a modified form of zellbrigen that allowed entire Stars to engage a single target, and then once that target was wounded, the Star would bid against itself for the honor of finishing it off. The Hellions also relied on its smaller ‘Mechs to spot for its artillery, mitigating their ‘Mechs’ lack of firepower with firepower from afar.
Perhaps it’s this reluctance to adopt zellbrigen that explains the Icestorm‘s existence. The rules for zellbrigen would have percolated amongst the Clans following the end of Operation KLONDIKE in 2822, but the Icestorm‘s arrival in 2830 implies that either the Hellions were not yet aware of zellbrigen or were simply ignoring it. The death of ilKhan Nicholas Kerensky in 2834, however, enshrined zellbrigen into the soul of the Clans, and it seems highly unlikely that the Hellions would have been able to drag their feet on zellbrigen past this event.
With little firepower or armor, extreme speed, and sophisticated targeting sensors, the Icestorm was designed to locate the enemy and pound them into the dirt using artillery. Clan trials made finding the enemy unnecessary, and Clan rules of engagement prevented the use of artillery, rendering the Icestorm almost completely redundant.
Prior to their absorption by Clan Goliath Scorpion, the Icestorm could be found in most Hellion Galaxies, although they were increasingly relegated to garrison and solahma units after the advent of the OmniMech. Multiple examples found their into the Clan Wolf touman thanks to their many victories over the Hellions, and by the time of the Jihad, Icestorms could also be found in Clan Hell’s Horses and the Escorpión Imperio.
Desperation during the Jihad era led Clan Wolf to press their Icestorms into front-line units. The original Icestorm—based on the Star League‘s Cameroon—carried a single ER Medium Laser, an SRM-2, and TAG to complement its 10 single heat sinks and 190 kph top speed. The Icestorm‘s speed is its armor and certainly not the mere 3.5 tons of Compound Alpha Standard begrudgingly covering its standard chassis. The Icestorm 2 upgraded the armor to ferro-fibrous and replaced the single heat sinks with doubles. Its armament was also completely replaced by two Heavy Medium Lasers (one in the arm and the other in the right torso) and a single ER Flamer mounted in the head. A Light TAG replaced the original TAG to retain the Icestorm‘s capacity as an artillery spotter, something Clan Wolf did with increasing frequency as the rules and norms governing warfare lapsed during the Jihad.
By the ilClan era, the Icestorm is mostly extinct. Perhaps a few still exist within the Clan Homeworlds, or in Brian Caches, or being piloted by an ancient former Hellion still serving in the Scorpion Empire, but the Icestorm had long been surpassed by various OmniMechs almost two centuries ago. Even if the plans were found and factories restored, it would be hard to argue for the Icestorm‘s resurrection.
And as always, MechWarriors: Stay Syrupy.
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