MG144-RE05 Lhúg Recon Cycle (4)

Royal Elven Kingdoms

144th (10 or 12mm)

4 bikes with single rider

Lhúg Recon Cycle

      The Lhúg (“snake”) recon cycle is a dedicated scouting and reconnaissance vehicle. Production began in 2315 replacing two older designs from the early 23rd century, making the Lhúg the most modern vehicle overall in the Royal Elven Army – and the single most popular.


      The Lhúg can be operated by a single rider, but is designed to take a second passenger. This has a variety of uses, from facilitating rescue or retrieval operations (particularly in peace time) to transporting an addition set of eyes for a spotting team.


      The Lhúg is the fasted and most agile of the current crop of elven AFVs, with a modern power-plant. The four engines are mounted on a rotating housing that lets the Lhúg modify the direction of direct thrust, allowing it significantly higher climb, dive and even reverse speeds above what could be achieved by the anti-grav drive alone. It has only sub-orbital flight capabilities, with a ceiling of 85km (53 miles). However, it noticeably struggles at altitudes above the stratosphere (50-55km 931-33 miles)) and the Lhúg generally operates at tropospheric heights (12km (7.5 miles).


      Like most recon cycles, the Lhúg is only lightly armoured. Only the front has any degree of armour, rating to Tier 12 verses kinetic and Tier 13 verses energy weapons. The sides and rear are much less protected, their armour rated only to around Tier 5 to 7. While this is still sufficient to make the vehicle resistant to modern small arms, the rider of course remains the most vulnerable point, especially from the side.


      Armament consists of a fixed pair of lazer cannons, rated to Tier 9 in concert. This is backed up by six Falling Star anti-tank missiles, the same kind as carried by the anti-tank infantry.


      Unusually, the launchers are placed in housing on the “wings” at the front of the vehicle, rather than mounted behind the rider as is normally typical for cycles. This is due to the fact that the Lhúg is expected to operate in the heavy forest which covers most elven worlds and permeates even into the cities. The “wings” thus serve partly as a deflecting barrier to shunt aside branches from the Lhúg’s path of flight – a similar principle to that seen in some forest animals.


      By placing the missiles in these deflectors, it further removes the danger of such obstacles that otherwise might get caught in a more traditional cycle’s pods.


      The advanced sensor system is mounted high enough to be above the rider’s head, so that the Lhúg can park safely for scanning or target designation duties without exposed itself to fire. The sensor systems have had continuous upgrades and are the best such systems in the REA.


      Between the engines, below the sensor mounting, the vehicles storage system is located. This utilises the same magic-item based extra- dimensional storage system used by the infantry, replacing the rider’s (and/or passenger’s) standard pack. As a rider cannot easily access anything held in a pack (or use a two-handed weapon) while moving with any degree of efficacy, that the pack is essentially removed to a stowage box on the cycle is not a particular disadvantage. This system, while expensive, uses widely-available civilian magic item components. It grants the Lhúg to carry almost as much cargo as a conventional ground or grav car, albeit with a hard limit on the size of items that can be placed within the storage system. This is a great advantage for long-term reconnaissance operations, and it allows the one- or two-elf team to carry plentiful supplies for extended operations in the field.