IFHV-03 Archon

## IFHV-03-Mk II Archon

A heavy hover tank and transport, the **IFHV-03 Archon** was used by the UEEF to support its infantry forces.

## Background

The adoption of the Cyclone had been a part of a broader reassessment of the UEEF's infantry forces, one that had found that a lot of their present equipment was lacking. Most of it had been designed for a more conventional, ground based-campaign than, rather than the planet-hopping series of invasions that they now found themselves a part of. Furthermore, much of it was now no longer compatible with their newly developed weapons systems.

The M-2200 Janissary APC had served as the standard UEEF infantry transport, but was now too small to carry Cyclone-equipped soldiers, too lightly armed to provide effective support and lacked mobility on the ground against Invid forces. Furthermore, it was also too vulnerable during deployment to a planetary surface, being dependent on a transport vessel landing to unload it. It urgently needed replacement, and it quickly became clear that a conventional vehicle would not fulfil the UEEF's operational requirements.

A solution came from Maxwell Industries' UEEF branch in the form of the Archon hover tank. The vehicle was designed from the outset to carry a squad of Cyclone Riders into battle, while possessing a heavy cannon armament that would allow it to support them in the field. Furthermore, as a hover vehicle, the Archon had a level of speed and mobility that the Janissary and other conventional designs lacked. One key advantage was that the Archon could be dropped from a low-flying delivery vessel and use its hover jets to make a controlled landing, removing the vulnerable unloading phase of an operation.

The Archon was accepted into UEEF service in 2031 and was deployed alongside Cyclone infantry squads. While unconventional (and often criticised for its looks which looked like something thrown together from leftover parts) the vehicle proved to be highly effective in its role and quickly proliferated among their forces. The Archon became a standard part of UEEF infantry units, and was used in a number of actions during the ‘planet hopping' campaigns across the Local Group.

Archon units were supplied to the UEEF's first Recapture Force in 2038 in order to support infantry units. Most of those units were destroyed in space without ever firing a shot, but at a handful survived and made their way into the hands of resistance fighters on Earth. At least one of those was acquired by the renegade Doctor Osmund, who used the vehicle in his Destabiliser research (which was itself based on stolen UEEF work). By 2044, Osmund had developed a variant with a fully functional Destabiliser Cannon.

The UEEF became aware of this variant and dispatched a Shadow Dancer team under the command of Lt. Maria Allentes to acquire the technology, one way or another. While Osmund chose to fight them, resulting in his death and the destruction of his prototype, the team were able to recover the specifications of the weapon, as well as a compact hand-held variant. Based in this information, the UEEF quickly ordered the production of the new Mk IV variant armed with a Destabiliser as the main weapon.

These Mk IV Archons were used by the Third Recapture Force in mid-2044 to assault the Invid central hive at Reflex Point. The Destabiliser fire from the tanks proved to be effective in punching holes in the shields around the Hives, allowing attacks by conventional forces. However, the Archons suffered severe losses on the ground due to the sheer number of Invid present.

For the moment, the surviving Archons remain in UEEF service, with the combination of losses and resource depletion meaning that replacing them is not an option. However, with the Invid no longer a threat, many Mk IV models have been converted back to the Mk II format.

## Capabilities

While the Archon was designed from the ground up for its role, Maxwell took shortcuts in the development by reusing parts from the at the time suspended VF/B-9 Beta project. Despite this, the Archon offered capable performance in its role. The vehicle had a maximum ground speed of 160 km/h, with its hover mobility allowing it to make short jumps to clear obstacles. Furthermore, while not capable of true flight, the Archon could use its hover jets to slow its fall, allowing UEEF forces to air-drop it into the field from low altitudes. Finally, the Archon was equipped with small wheels in its undercarriage to allow it to remain mobile if the hover systems were disabled, albeit limited to a mere 20 km/h. The Archon was powered by a standard Protoculture engine fuelled by standard cells.

As a transport, the Archeron could carry a squad of four Cyclones into action, along with spare munitions. Alternatively, it could transport a standard squad of twelve conventional infantry in full CVR-3 armour with standard kit. Finally, it could serve as a dedicated transport, carrying supplies and equipment in place of infantry personnel. In the latter role, it could also carry up to eight spare Cyclones in their compacted storage forms.

The Archon had a crew of three; a driver, gunner and a commander who also served as the loadmaster. Both the crew and infantry sections were fully sealed and provided full life-support capabilities, an necessity given the wide range of environments that the Archon was expected to operate in. The sensor suite of the Archon was adapted form that designed for the VF/A-6 Alpha Veritech as a way to save time on development and deployment. Primary detection was provided by a spherical pulse/doppler radar system with advanced multi-track capabilities. Secondary sensors included multi-band digital camera system, for medium range all attitude infra-red imaging, optical and ultra-violet band detection and tracking and a multi-frequency laser ranger and designator.

While designed to support infantry forces, the Archon was well armed. Its main weapon was a powerful three-barrelled particle beam cannon turret, which made it effective against even the heaviest Invid mecha. On the Mk IV models, the turret was replaced with a three-barrelled Destabiliser weapon. While offering less raw firepower, the latter was effective in disabling Invid Protoplex energy barriers. Secondary weapons included missiles and conventional autocannons, giving the Archon considerable flexibly in the field.

The armor on the Archon is a new development in low-mass composite-materials Chobham plating that became the standard for all Terran mecha after its application to the VF/A-6 Alpha. Aside from the respectable protection provided against projectiles, missiles, and other kinetic weapons, this armor is also resistant to plasma globes annihilation discs), lasers, and to a lesser extent, particle guns, owing to the fact that the armor can flake off and evaporate in layers under fire from such high-energy weapons, taking much of the weapon's energy and converting it into the latent heat of sublimation in the armor. The armor stops all small arms, heavy infantry weapons fire, and light mecha-mounted weaponry, and provides fair to good resistance to medium mecha-mounted weaponry, such as the GU-11's 55mm APFSDS round.

## Variants

* **IHFV-03-Mk II:** Standard production model armed with HPC-22 Particle Cannon Turret
* **IHFV-03-Mk IV:** Advanced model armed with D03-3 Destabiliser Cannon Turret

## Weapons and Equipment

(all)

* **MK II 30mm Autocannon:** Mounted on the turret inline with the main cannon. STATS
* 4 **LMMDS-8 Missile Launchers:** Two on the sides of the turret and two on top of the body. Each contains 8 short range (8.2 km) Mach 3.0 combined infra-red imager and active radar homing 190mm x 540mm **Hammerhead** missiles.
* Pintle mount for an infantry weapon. Various weapons could be equipped. By 2044 the standard was the **HRG-70 'Crusher' Accelerator Cannon,** An electromagnetic railgun with a rate of fire of approx 24 rounds/minute. Fed from a 100-shot internal magazine internal magazine

(Mk II)

* **HPC-22 Triple-Barrelled Heavy Particle Beam Cannon:** Turret mounted. Fires heavy particle beams at a rate of fire of 20 rounds/minute. Power provided by internal reactor for effectively unlimited payload. Weapon could be fired individually or in a salvo; typical procedure was to ripple-fire weapons. The size and slow fire rate of this weapon made it ill-suited for use against airborne or highly mobile targets.

(Mk IV)

* **D03-3 Triple-Barrelled Destabiliser Cannon:** Turret mounted. A sub-nuclear particle beam gun. Each barrel can fire up to 30 times/minute. The gun pod draws power from the internal reactor. The particles have a specific, disrupting effect on force fields, and will short out a low power field completely, while high power fields may temporarily and locally cease to function.