Helios Heavy Loader-Mech
Helios Foundry's heavy loader-mech -- a Large-frame industrial hauler built to move cargo containers and ore pallets nothing else can lift.
The Heavy Loader-Mech is the biggest synthetic a Core workyard runs. Where the Industrial Drudge is a pair of hands on a forge line, the loader-mech is a walking crane -- a Large-frame chassis built to pick up the things people move with forklifts and winches. It hauls ore pallets, cargo containers, and the structural members of the Core shells Helios itself forges. It is not subtle, it is not fast, and it was never meant to leave the loading bay.
The frame runs an industrial power plant -- a high-output cell that lets the mech heave loads for a full shift but bleeds heat and current through partially exposed bus-bars. That makes it the most electrically fragile synthetic on the list: an arc or an EMP that would stun a standard frame can drop a loader hard. The trade is raw, sustained lifting force that no human-scale chassis can match.
A loader-mech carries no Kadiss unit. It is workyard equipment, tethered to the bay network, logged as capital plant, and depreciated over its service life like a crane or a press. On the Rim, decommissioned loaders are prized by warlords, who strip the safety interlocks and bolt weapon mounts to the hardpoints -- a loader-mech becomes a walking gun platform, slow and nearly impossible to knock over. Day One has little to say about a machine this dim; the loader does not ask questions, it lifts.
Rules Reference
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Ability Adjustments / Cha | -1 |
| Ability Adjustments / Con | 1 |
| Ability Adjustments / Dex | -1 |
| Ability Adjustments / Int | 0 |
| Ability Adjustments / Str | 1 |
| Ability Adjustments / Wis | 0 |
| Ability Maximums / Cha | 17 |
| Ability Maximums / Con | 19 |
| Ability Maximums / Dex | 17 |
| Ability Maximums / Int | 18 |
| Ability Maximums / Str | 19 |
| Ability Maximums / Wis | 18 |
| Ability Minimums / Cha | 3 |
| Ability Minimums / Con | 3 |
| Ability Minimums / Dex | 3 |
| Ability Minimums / Int | 3 |
| Ability Minimums / Str | 3 |
| Ability Minimums / Wis | 3 |
| Exceptional Strength | false |
| Origin | made |
| Allowed Classes | Soldier, Officer, Scout, Chaplain, Sawbones, Operative, Face, Psion, Academic |
| Lore Hooks / Faction | Helios Foundry / Core workyards / Rim warlord gun-platforms |
| Model Names | Helios Heavy Loader-Mech |
| Subtype | synthetic-model |
Notes
Lore Hooks / Adventure Hooks: A warlord has stripped the safety interlocks and bolted a weapon mount to the loader -- the party must take the walking gun platform, or serve it., The loader's industrial power plant is arcing; one more EMP and it drops in the middle of a held position., Salvage crews want the actuator stacks -- worth ~4000 rek in parts -- and a disabled loader is a fortune on the Rim., The loader has been setting the same pallet in the same spot for years and has started putting it somewhere else., A Helios workyard reports the unit stolen; repo teams track heavy-equipment footprints that are very easy to follow.
Lore Hooks / Legal Status: Registered Helios Foundry capital plant. No Kadiss, no personhood. Depreciated like heavy machinery. Destroying one is loss of capital; stealing one is grand theft of heavy equipment.
Multi Class Options: ['Soldier', 'Officer'], ['Soldier', 'Chaplain'], ['Soldier', 'Sawbones'], ['Officer', 'Sawbones'], ['Chaplain', 'Sawbones']
Parent Chassis: Synthetic Chassis
Special Abilities
Loader Frame
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
name | Loader Frame |
description: Built to heave what nothing else can. Treat STR as 4 higher for carrying capacity, lift, push, drag, and grapple checks only. No bonus to attack or damage rolls. Can haul cargo containers and structural members as routine load.
Massive Build
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
name | Massive Build |
description: The loader-mech is Large. It counts as Large for carrying, grapple, overrun, and bull-rush resolution, and gains +2 to resist being grappled, tripped, bull-rushed, or moved against its will. It cannot use standard-sized equipment, weapons, or vehicles without adaptation, and takes -2 to AC-equivalent and Reflex saves -- it is slow and easy to hit.
Industrial Power Plant
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
name | Industrial Power Plant |
description: A high-output cell with partially exposed bus-bars. The loader can operate at full load for a full shift without fatigue, but the exposed systems make it the most electrically fragile synthetic: it takes +100% damage from electrical attacks (not the standard +50%), and EMP forces a Fortitude save at -2 (effective DC 17) or it is stunned 1d4 rounds.
Brute Cognition
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
name | Brute Cognition |
description: Throttled to lift-and-place loops with industrial-control awareness, not problem-solving. -2 to any check requiring fine manipulation, stealth, or quick reasoning. The mech is built to be told where to set the load, not to decide.
Workyard Asset
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
name | Workyard Asset |
description: No Kadiss unit. Registered Helios Foundry capital plant -- depreciated like a crane or a press over its service life. No legal personhood. Destroying one is loss of industrial capital; stealing one is grand theft of heavy equipment.
Construct Physiology
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
name | Construct Physiology |
description: Inherits all synthetic chassis traits: immune to poison, disease, radiation sickness, suffocation, sleep effects, non-lethal damage from stun effects. Does not breathe, eat, drink, or sleep.
Repair-Not-Heal
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
name | Repair-Not-Heal |
description: Cannot benefit from conventional healing. Heals exclusively through Mechanics checks: DC 15, 1d8 HP restored, 50 rek in parts per HP, 10 minutes per check. Loader-scale parts are bulk and costly (+50% rek cost outside Helios yards).
Modular Chassis
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
name | Modular Chassis |
description: 6 modular hardpoints for augmentation, but sized for industrial-scale mounts. Many standard human-scale augments will not fit without adaptation (Engineering DC 18). Compatible with cyber-prosthetics, wetware, and subdermal augments. Gene-mods incompatible.
Electrical Vulnerability
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
name | Electrical Vulnerability |
description: Takes +100% damage from electrical attacks (exposed power bus-bars -- see Industrial Power Plant). EMP forces Fortitude save at -2 (effective DC 17) or stunned 1d4 rounds.
Class Restrictions
note: Sawbones healing class features do not function on synthetic targets.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
note | Sawbones healing class features do not function on synthetic targets. |
restriction | Sawbones |
note: Requires psi-receiver augment for Fold psionics. Gene-psionics incompatible.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
note | Requires psi-receiver augment for Fold psionics. Gene-psionics incompatible. |
restriction | Psion |
note: Large frame and industrial bracing impose -2 to Stealth. A loader-mech does not sneak.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
note | Large frame and industrial bracing impose -2 to Stealth. A loader-mech does not sneak. |
restriction | Scout |
note: Brute Cognition and size impose -2 to fine-manipulation and subtlety checks.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
note | Brute Cognition and size impose -2 to fine-manipulation and subtlety checks. |
restriction | Operative |
note: Inarticulate industrial manner and sheer presence impose -2 to Persuasion in social contexts.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
note | Inarticulate industrial manner and sheer presence impose -2 to Persuasion in social contexts. |
restriction | Face |