Hydra

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*"**BLAM** Stop **BLAM** or **BLAM** I'll **BLAM** \*reload\* **BLAM** shoot!"*

- Overheard from a firing Hydra
## Tactical Analysis

* **Battlefield Patrol Vehicle**: While originally intended for use as an armed police car, the Syndicate have found the Hydra to be just as useful in the field. As an extremely quick armoured car with a brutal reputation as an urban combat vehicle, the Hydra is highly effective against infantry, attributed to its weaponry. With a pair of independently operated automatic gyrojets, the Hydra can take on multiple targets at the same time, and the sear gas grenades that the Hydra fires in between bursts leave infantry writhing in pain and easy prey to the Hydra's weapons

* **Turn on a dime**: In addition, the Hydra is also equipped with an array of AURA equipment, which it can use to project the Digitech Manoeuvring Aura, increasing the speed of nearby friendly units. However, the Aura takes up a significant fraction of the Hydra's computing power, forcing the Hydra to deactivate its weapons in the meantime.

* **Still a car**: The Hydra, while a formidable anti infantry vehicle, has a less than impressive performance against vehicles and no way to attack aircraft, as the gyrojets were never designed to penetrate vehicle armour in the case of the former, and its computer systems are incapable of tracking and hitting aircraft, in the case of the latter.

* **Stop or I'll shoot!**: Less... Ethical Hydra teams would eventually learn how to search for valuables in their enemies remains to sell off. These Hydra's, often richer from their ill-gotten gains, would buy EMP grenades to make the suppression of vehicles and tanks much easier.

## Background

Like any police force in any city, the Legionnaires that enforce the status quo in the Sprawls are exponentially made more effective when mounted. Unfortunately, while most other police cars would face little more than thrown rocks, in the Sprawls criminals are often carrying military grade weapons or worse. The first few years of the Sprawls were terrible for any mounted Legionnaire. As all the company had were normal, civilian cars, it was more or less a death sentence, as they were shot at by assault rifle fire from windows above, sometimes by gangs and sometimes by bored Sprawl dwellers. Buying large numbers of Rangers and reinstalling their turrets helped a little, but it wasn't until a terrible incident that the Syndicate took notice.

A major stockholder of the Syndicate was travelling by limousine with a Legionnaire escort in the cramped streets of the Mercury Sprawl when a Satyr on an arcology above noticed all the flashing lights, and instantly got the urge to attack it. Jumping 30 stories from the roof, he smashed a Ranger before leaping into the window of the limo, only to jump through the roof seconds later, encrusted with glass and bits of metal and with the screaming stockholder in his hands. Later, the stockholder's mutilated head was found jammed in the jaws of a wolf statue. Such a major insult to the Syndicate meant the painful "disappearance" of most of the Mercury Sprawl's Legionnaire officers, but not before they squeaked out their escorts' inability to respond correctly.

Surprisingly, the task to make a better urban patrol car went to an outside contractor, as any Syndicate company which produced such vehicles would soon be demolished by all the gangs in whatever Sprawl it was. Going to a company in Rio de Janeiro meant it would be protected by the Allied Nations. The family owned firm were given the fruits of the Syndicate's technology, and presented the **Hydra Scout AFV** a few months later. Armed to the teeth, and with a low profile, it was well suited to patrol the Sprawls. A sear gas launcher helps with any major disturbance; indeed, in a Hydra a Legionnaire had little reason to leave the vehicle. To help through major traffic jams caused by rush hours or the Hydra's own fire, the Syndicate later installed a Digitech Manoeuvring Aura array in each Hydra, capable of linking each vehicle's computer driving assistance together, allowing a more efficient flow of traffic. Though starting as a police vehicle, it has found equal use in combat in any urban environment, and isn't too out of place on any battlefield.