Combat Vehicle Technical Readout
Name/Model: Pelican Armoured Transport
Designer: IronRaven Special Projects Group
Source(s): Custom Mordel.Net Units
Technology: Inner Sphere
Technology Rating: D
Tonnage: 50
Configuration: Combat Vehicle
Era/Year: Succession Wars / 3013
Rules (Current): Introductory
Rules (Era): Introductory
Rules (Year): Introductory
Total Cost: 631,667 C-Bills
Battle Value: 250
Movement Type: Hover
Power Plant: WorkHorse 115 with PowerChain 115 Internal Combustion
Cruising Speed: 75.6 kph
Maximum Speed: 118.8 kph
Armor: ProtecTech Light
Armament:
Manufacturer: Unknown
Primary Factory: Unknown
Communications: Basix 200
Targeting & Tracking: Unknown
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Overview:
The Pelican is a case study in Quikscell development and marketing. Little more than a well
armoured truck, the Pelican is available in a wide variety configurations. It is also built
on the chassis of Quikscell's version of the LTV-4 Hover Tank. But it also an example of
their corporate philosophy.
Introduced ten years before the Falcon and Hawk hover tanks, no one noticed what the Pelican
was for a decade. Initially marketed as transport for high value goods, it is a fairly
rugged van with four and a half tons of armour and a 23 ton maximum cargo capacity. That
first year, it was advertised with choices for a rear ramp or split swinging doors, sliding
doors on either (or both) sides, or both rear door options and one or both side hatches.
Internally, it could be had with just an empty box (sold with software that allowed the end
user to design their own interior), lockers with various degrees of security, or several
varieties of seating. The default version of Pelican split the cargo area into a 20 ton
cargo bay with folding jump seats, and a separate, three cubic meter lock up area accessible
from the main cargo area. That software also included plans and directions for where to cut
into the top armour to add a roof hatch. Anyone who has seen the documentation package for
Quikscell vehicles will be familiar with this, as they offer the same for the 10 and 20 ton
carriers they base their lighter APCs on, along with the 60 ton ore hauler they use for
their SRM and LRM carriers.
In keeping with Quikscell's tradition of shipping incomplete machines, that first year it
was reported most of them were shipped with the engine installed but either the cylinder
head and head gasket or the starter motor in a box in the driver's seat. While many assume
it's malicious incompetence, if you ask Quikscell it actually to be sure the customer's
maintenance team has basic competence and to force them to inspect the product on delivery.
The WorkHorse line of engines is tested by time, and widely found across the Sphere with
either Quikscell livery or that of scores of subdivisions and licensees, and the 115-rated
model is no different. A turbine that is made to be used with varying qualities of diesel,
it can be tuned to run on various vegetable oils and kerosene, it can be made to burn
organic and petrochemical distillates, methane, or even hydrogen. These other fuels aren't
going to allow the Pelican to reach it's top rated speed of 119 kph, but the do mean that
this engine when used in agricultural or logging equipment, ethanol or methanol brewed by a
corporate buyer offers a degree of self efficiency, and Quikscell's Agromax and Intersteller
Forager farm equipment subsidiaries does sell industrial scale brewing systems.
A year after the Pelican was announced, it started to ship. And Quikscell announced new
versions. One, their Pidgeon line of transports, reduces the armour to only a single ton,
but increases the cargo capacity. Pidgeons use the same everything else about the Pelican,
but along with the van body they have flatbed long enough for a cargo container, an over
sized and double wide flat bed that can carry two side by side, dump box, and tankers for
liquids and gases. Users quickly added their own slat sides or canvas bed covers for cargo,
and some even added spreaders (also from Agromax and ISF) for seeders and in colder
climates, sand and ice melting chemicals to spread on roadways. ISF also sells the Pidgeon
with slightly rescuplted body panels and extra work lights as a transport that has a 24
cubic meter open topped container, often in packages with their combines and other
harvesters. or as a flatbed called the "King Tuk" The King Tuk flatbed is also widely used
with buyer made canvas or light plastic or metal panels as rural transporter in the spirit
of it's namesake, the old Terran "tuk tuk" mini trucks. In this role it allows for
reasonable time on a forty, fifty or even seventy kilometer commute, allowing corporate
communities to be planted away from mines and factories without investing in rail systems.
A year after that, they extend the body. While driving the longer frame models are described
as akin to herding a yak, it quickly adapts into a higher capacity passenger bus that can
act as a ferry across relatively shallow waterways and soft ground. A version with a tilting
flat bed and winch package makes a recovery vehicle, while the simple flatbed model can be
customized by the end user with ease.
At the same time, on the normal hoverbase they increased the armour slightly and added a
small turret to create the Peregrine line. The most basic of these add a sprayer and various
capacity water tanks to create a fire monitor or riot control vehicle, with or without cargo
or troop or command and control bays. One popular version has the sprayer, a ten thousand
liter water tank, a pump to self fill the tank, and bins for three hundred meters of hose to
access water supplies. Other Peregrines have a remote control turret for the user's choice
of machine gun, or Quikscell's own electrically driven chain gun that operates just as
reliably with blanks or rubber bullets as it does with duty ammunition. A heavier turret
that keeps the MG and adds an SRM-2 launcher is also offered, making the Peregrine a riot
control vehicle with gas cannisters or fire suppression ("slip") foam rockets with it's own
"goon squads". It is also used as a heavy APC and command post, marketed to local defensive
militias. A year later, they introduced a dedicated military product, a coolant truck with
two heavy sprayers and a machine gun for self defense, each mounted on their own mini
turret.
At the same time, Quicksell was introducing the Carrier Pidgeon with the larger, more
powerful WorkHorse 215 for rapid transport. The 215 also became an option on the Peregrines.
They gave it a few more years before they started to let out rumors of a tank or tank
destroyer, probably using the same Ceres Model T or Imperator as used on some Hetzer
variants. It would be fast, and with two tons of ammunition, it would rival such vehicles as
the Saracen as a high speed, shoot-and-scoot scout and harasser. At the same time, rumors of
a high speed LRM carrier began to swirl about at trade shows. Quikscell denied everything.
Right up until they didn't, in 3023.
That is when they unveiled their reborn LTV-4s, the Hawk and the Falcon. Introduced to
compliment each other, the faster Hawk serves as a scout and cavalry tank along side the
Falcon's slower but PPC armed direct combat model. Quikscell also quietly introduced the
Butcher Bird, a Peregrine variant with an LRM-20 in a simple box mount that can adjust
elevation and carries four tons of ammo. With the Peregrine command vehicle, the user's
choice of APCs (and derived armoured ambulances and other vehicles) from the Quikscell
catalog, and even flatbed Pelicans to carry engineering vehicles and cargo, Quckscell offers
a battalion or regimental vehicle set to a customer with a part time defense force. They're
cheap, they're easy to fix, and because of the way they ship, if your maintenance team can't
fix them, you find out in a hurry. Quikscell's White Dragon Trading Company subsidiary can
even provide trainers or even technicians in residence, along with shop tools, for this very
purpose. This is after your city motor pool has added Pelican, Peregrine and Pidgeon
variants to it's inventory. It means that if they can fix a fire truck or a bus that has the
very same drive train and plenum skirts, they can fix everything other than the weapons
systems of the Hawk and Falcon.
There is something else to note about the Quikscell marketing system. They include in every
vehicle a tool set that is suitable for field maintenance and a rugged padcomp that contains
the user maintenance manual. If you go through White Dragon TC, they ask you which vehicles
you have, and they will send you as part of the package any special tools or jigs for
maintenance of your Quikscell vehicle fleet. Not only your maintenance team, but this also
means your militia's drivers have day jobs as bus drivers and cargo haulers that use exactly
the same controls on similar handling vehicles.
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Equipment Mass
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Internal Structure: Standard 5.00
Engine: 115 Internal Combustion 10.00
Cruising MP: 7
Flanking MP: 11
Heat Sinks (Single): 0 0.00
Control Equipment: 2.50
Lift Equipment: 5.00
Power Amplifier: 0.00
Turret: 0.00
Armor Factor: 72 4.50
Type: Standard
Armor
Value
Front: 24
R/L Side: 16
Rear: 16
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Weapons and Ammo Location Tonnage
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Cargo, Standard (20 tons) Body 20.00
Cargo, Standard (3 tons) Body 3.00
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Alpha Strike Statistics
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Point Value (PV): 11
TP: CV, SZ: 2, TMM: 3, MV: 14"h
Damage: (S) 0 / (M) 0 / (L) 0
Armor (A): 2, Structure (S): 2
Specials: CT23, EE, ENE, SRCH
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