TSAW 3.0 ... The REF and Third Robotech War.

[batlchip]

*Zara finishes the paper plane.*Why did Regis have no inorganics?She could have tripled her force and would have easily dealt with the rebel forces.I mean let's face it takin down an Odeon with limited firepower is bad for anyone.

[Colonel Wolfe]

*Zara finishes the paper plane.*Why did Regis have no inorganics?She could have tripled her force and would have easily dealt with the rebel forces.I mean let's face it takin down an Odeon with limited firepower is bad for anyone.

easy, she was more focused on advanced evolution, not making war, the renegade Regent was a warmonger, Regsis was more looking to destroy humanity on earth, and replace them with her Evolved Children.

[glitterboy2098]

when Venus group set down to find out what happened to earth, we expected to encounter mecha like we fought against with the regent. a large inorganic presence with scouts and troopers in support.
what we didn't know at the time was that when the regis and regent split, the regis retained nearly all the invid race. the regent developed inorganics as a force multiplier to augment and suppliment limited manpower. much like how the united states started a move towards drone aircraft and vehicles towards the end of the global war.
this is why the kamikazi attacks made by scouts were so unexpected. the regent never had enough troops to waste on such tactics, and instead developed gunboat versions of the invid transports in a copy of zentreadi tactics. the regis, with a means to move her entire race at once, prodigious manpower, and the ability to breed more, was more than able to use attrition tactics to win a conflict.

we know now that the regents forces lacked suficcent breeding population to sustain his branch of the race, and that each loss was pushing his forces closer and closer to collapse. the regent also lacked the skill with biomechanical construction the regis possesed, resulting in his mecha being sub par. most lacked protoculture targeting systems on par with what we later encountered, and were less effective at the mind-machine link, requiring manual controls. apparently the regents forces had been on a steady decline in techinical ability since the seperation.

of course, we only know this now, based on analysis of the past conflict.

[Aramanthus]

:::The non-descript man leans over his notebook and continues taking more notes.:::

[taalismn]

"We lower stagers were never privvy to the whole story...'need to know' and 'beyond your capacity to comprehend' and all that....so it wasn't until I got promoted to Sulogi that I got more of the Big Picture....The Regis did indeed have the greater portion of the Invid race...in fact, most...and by most I mean a good sixty percent or more...weren't at all active on Earth, but were being held in stasis, until the Regis had decided on a final form for her people and had the Flower power to pull it off....As much as we'd have liked to have had Inorganics to fill out our forces, the Regis could afford an economy of scale...She could simply replace losses and muster taskforces from the meatlockers, and flash-indoctrinate them via the HiveLink.....But she wasn't about to wake up any more than what she considered absolutely necessary for the task of pacifying the planet and having a ready mobile reserve ready to fight off any invaders....Otherwise, there'd have been TWICE as many Invid buzzing on Earth, and a defense line drawn at lunar orbit....If the REF had waited, that extra portion of Invid would have been all Stage Fives with Gosamus.... Doesn't THAT unsettle your stomach?"

[AuroraKet]

::Seren nods just a little at that, considering it.::

"Yeah, life in the lower stages was basically a lot of crap flying over your head, then a 'shoot at random enemy of the moment' order. Was quite the eye-opening experience to find out more. And not necessarily a pleasant one for the particular Invid involved. Especially on the jump to Sulogi. Otherwise meeting the locals when able to think for ourselves wouldn't have had such interesting effects in some cases."

::She pats her still-worn CVR happily.::"But then, the local culture was an eye-opener as well, when trying to join it. Mostly in terms in the paperwork, and what qualified as 'absolutely must know' for a police patrol/Mechanized SWAT officer. And associated random weird messages in the mail. That and having to think about hair, makeup, and clothes..."

::She roosters her head then and laughs a little bit.::"Still, even for however many more defections there might have been if she'd made more stage 5's, if they'd waited and found all of them in Gosamus... I can just imagine some of the Alpha pilots wetting their pants." ::She winks then::

[taalismn]

"However, for all the talk about higher evolved forms, I thing the Regis was wedded to the idea of a caste system...Stage Ones, Twos, and THrees were just too useful as were to be mass-promoted up the scale...Odds are, only the Stage Fours would have been altered to the new 'perfection'..."

[Colonel Wolfe]

The Madman Corg was on of her Exemplar Children who went from Lowly Scout to Humanoid form off of pure Skill. I do believe she was going to Mass evolve her Race, but only after a test run of a handfull or her Best & Brightest. Sera, Corg and Ariel were all Advanced because she saw a trait in them she thought would test her Species ultimate ability to Evolve. Obviously the Invid form didnt Take well to the Male Agression Factor Humans have. All that Testerone Made poor Corg nuts. on the other hand Regsis Made a race of Green-blooded Super Models.....
My only Question was Corg "Male" the whole time?

[Colonel Wolfe]

of course, we only know this now, based on analysis of the past conflict.

History also Sujests there was alot more Indivduality Among Regents Forces, Tesela being an example of a stage 4, who looked to betray his own people simply to Avoid death. This Level of free-thought didnt exists among Regsis's forces until her Evolved childrend existed, even then Sera nor Ariel would have directly betrayed their Mother.

[AuroraKet]

::Seren listens to Wolfe, glancing down towards Taal and snickering softly.::

"Obviously not. But then, male aggression isn't new."

::At the next part, she just... blinks, seemingly at a loss for words initially. Then her expression turns as close to outright silly as a Solugi can manage, and she undoes the gauntlets from the CVR, starting to undo the top half of the 'main' armor. She bats her eyelashes at Wolfe, offering her best parody of a southern belle, in saying "Why thank you." ::She gets as far as slipping it off to show a much tighter t-shirt, before stopping simply for laughing.::

"The Regent got left with whatever the Regis didn't want, pretty much. Ones like Tesla rank high on that list. And you're right, neither of those two would have done anything direct. Most wouldn't, at least not to her face. Even if more now would probably point out glaring flaws in the whole situation as it transpired from the start. Though most of the nastiest stories are from the Regent's side, the ones that involve being de-evolved back into being dumped into a scout. A lot more now would be willing to pull the trigger on a supposed 'fellow Invid' to protect a new home, though. If it was presenting a clear and present threat."

::She pats her Gallant and slips it back into its holster all nice and cleaned, for show.::

[Aramanthus]

:::The non-descript man listen intently as the conversation continue to seemingly gets heated then quiets down. He notes the various speakers and jots other notes in yet another notebook.:::

[taalismn]

"Occasionally I find myself wondering...if the Regent HAD managed to get around his declining population problem and survived Both the REF and Edwards...would he eventually have come into conflict with the Regis? The idea of an Invid Civil War...a SHOOTING war...even contemplating it feels treasonous, still....but I do wonder what it might have been like if I had to go up against my own, defending the Earth against whatever and whoever the Regent might have come up with, knowing all the while that we were of the same blood..."

[Aramanthus]

:::The non-descript man looks over to the stage 5 invid and says,::: "It is a good thing that didn't happen for the future sake!"

[taalismn]

:::The non-descript man looks over to the stage 5 invid and says,::: "It is a good thing that didn't happen for the future sake!"

"hmm...We don't know if the REF got ALL of the Regent's pet projects, so I'd be careful...I learned enough about Temporal Uncertainty in Cosmology 101 to avoid staements like that..."

[Aramanthus]

:::The non-descript man smiles and says quietly for the 5th Stage invids ears only::: "I'm a lot more familiar with chronological problems then the professors of your time. I've seen some of those points in time in the future. The biggest problem is still the immediate problem for all of you. The ones here at this class and the others involved in the coming shadow war!"

[AuroraKet]

::Seren hmms a little at that, frowning.::

"I have... really really wondered about that myself. To be honest, once I was at a high enough stage to really think about such things, I wondered which group the next attack would have come from. If the Regent had survived, or had beaten back the REF, to come try to find the Regis, I'm fairly certain by this point that it would have come back to blows, into a full scale shooting civil war. Part of the reason she left across the galaxy for Earth when she did was to get away from him before the civil war broke out right then and there."

::She shakes her head then.::

"And having had to deal with a of 'our own' who stayed on Earth to get their 'pound of flesh' as the humans put it, I'll say that it isn't any different than going up against any other opponent. Except for not being able to coordinate the attack over the hivenet even if my squad in Rio is rather exclusively my own kind, without the enemy hearing it. Gotta keep switching radio frequencies and commcodes, and use hand signals, in that case."

::She ponders and laughs just a moment then.::

"And regarding any upcoming wars or pet projects the Regent left behind, well, that's why I answered the mail about mechanized police units being cross-trained as REF Reserve units. "

[Aramanthus]

:::The non-descript man takes these notes down from the latest speakers.:::

[taalismn]

"mmm...Police cross-training? Getting ready to break heads as both a police trooper AND as a soldier? Interesting, since in the immediate aftermath of the Third War, the distinction between local militia and police blurred, if not disappeared altogether...Few communities had either the resources or the inclination to maintain separate and defined police and military forces, since few bandits tended to argue with a Scorpion mini-missile..."

[AuroraKet]

"Oh, the local police really is close enough to a militia to be covering such things. The Expedition is totally separate of that though, overall. Or is trying to be, anyway. And a full 5 person crew with Alphas and Cyclones..."

::Seren just shrugs a little bit.::

"It isn't like we'll have to do anything as a reserve unit, unless something serious happens, so it'll still mostly the same old same old. And if something serious happens, well, planetwide security is more important than simple local security. "

::She pauses for just a moment.::

"Well, outside of taking classes like this once in a while, and I suppose potentially being sent on occasional maneuvers to show that the reservists aren't total idiots with their equipment. Still wondering where that might be done..."

::She winks then.::

"As for busting heads, well... I wind up doing it anyway, so I might as well do it for both groups."

[batlchip]

*Zara leans back against the chair.*.Wondering if you can defend your self against your own kind is pointless.That type of thinking brings about doubt and doubt can get you killed in battle.If you noted we zentraedi don't have such qualms.*RDF guy looks up from his cards*There would have been a civil war anyway you look at it.*Looks at Zara*You know some times I wonder if the masters based you zentraedi after klingons.

[AuroraKet]

::Seren looks over at Zara sharply, then her friend, then nods a little to Fury in agreement.::

"I am well aware that the Zentraedi have no such qualms. They also have nothing resembling family, or didn't until Earth intervened. And it is not simply a matter of people not being shy about killing other people. When you consider the basic nature of the races. Even with Earth, killing a family member has a particular stigma to it, after all. With an Invid, it's even worse. Considering that we were all one mind and soul, originally. That's far closer than brother than sister, though its the best translation. Every Invid in the area can feel it when one dies. That is quite the discouragement for some, from being willing to pull the trigger on one of their own. Especially since violence wasn't our second nature from the start, as it was for Zentraedi and Humans."

::She shakes her head a little bit.:: "Not that it's relevant anyway. I already did my thinking, worked out my doubts, and came to the only decision I could. Regardless of which of my kind would say I've fallen lower than the point that the race as a whole fell to. What I do, has to be done. Regardless of who is doing it. If I hadn't worked that all out already, I wouldn't be here. And this isn't a "what if" session, so I won't go into that."

::She shrugs, slipping out for just a moment, and bringing back a bag from her Cyclone. She pulls a can of potato chips from it, and quietly opens it, munching and opening a soda.::

[taalismn]

"Nothing like a good old external threat, then, to rally behind....Provided the eminent threat is great enough, no? "

[batlchip]

*RDF guy shuffles his cards.*Yep,We humans kil each other quite a bit and we'll keep doing that as long as we're around.I knew a worl---,never mind.*Gets up and walks out.Zara watches him leave.Then turns to the class.*Hmm..He's been quite moody ever since he's came back.Anyway,The Invy scout was often the first to be encountered in combat.They and the Armored scout are the quickest of the Invy.*She looks at the enforcer and Seren*They are also lowest rank in the hive mind.

[Colonel Wolfe]

While Humanity has a great ability to make War apon its-self, We wernt as lucky as Masters forces or Invid... the Zents and Bioroids were basicalyl programmed to have loyalty, and it was hard for them to betray their over-lords. Breetia's Loyalty to the Troops underhim lead him to betray his master after they became exposed to Human Ideas. (thou it was noted the Drunken Khyron killed off half his own troops in one engagement). The Invid hivemind/Overmind make any internal Conflit impossible, only when Deviation became Possible, First with the Regent, then with the Human-Forms did any possible internal conflict come to pass.
has anyone thought that maybe the Regent was the Result of Mutation after the Assults from both the Haydon and the Masters? its entirely possible a section of the Hivemind was broken off the main during the assult, Regisis thinking it Dead, simply moved on, the missing section of the hivemind evolved its own "new Queen" to lead and protect them.
perhaps neither knowing the other existed.

[Aramanthus]

:::The non-descript man records the latest speakers and their thoughts.:::

[glitterboy2098]

(once again i would like to remind the posters of this thread that the TSAW lessons are using old rpg canon, which does not include any events from shadow chronicles. please try to keep referances to such to a minimum.)

[taalismn]

"So...which do you prefer? Missiles or cannon?"

[Colonel Wolfe]

(once again i would like to remind the posters of this thread that the TSAW lessons are using old rpg canon, which does not include any events from shadow chronicles. please try to keep referances to such to a minimum.)

nothing in the old RPG disputes the new information give about the Haydon.
Even the Series Dialog points out the Invid were Defeeted Twice before coming to earth, unless you dont want the Series as Canon either for this discussion.

[Colonel Wolfe]

"So...which do you prefer? Missiles or cannon?"

Lasers.

[taalismn]

"So...which do you prefer? Missiles or cannon?"

Lasers.

"That's interesting...one of the first encounters I had on Earth with real resistance fighting was an old Raidar X destroid...sure, its protoculture reactor lit up like a phosphorus torch on all our sensors, but its lasers had some SERIOUS range, no ammunition limit, and its fire control was -incredible-...Later, we learned it was providing cover fire for convoy of ASC dependents making for refuges in the Southlands...It took a whole ...yeegh, we never used human organizations like 'squadrons' or 'wings'...well, a carrier's worth of Scouts to overwhelm that thing, and we still took 25% casualties...Gained an appreciation for lasers that day I didn't acquire fighting Zentraedi battlewagons..."

[Colonel Wolfe]

The FCS of the Radar-X were some fo the best used by the Earthforces. Only over came in true power by Loui Nicholes Pupil-Pistol... After the Fall of Monument City and the subsuquest invasion of the Invid, we Retrofitter several Destroids with them. we incrsees the Over all combat prowess of the unitas by 30%.
the Radar-X in particular was hitting Enemy units at max Range 50-60 times per minute.

[taalismn]

"Yep...and unless you got 50-60 Armored Scouts screaming at you at Mach 2, that's a costly minute for the patrol before they can get within firing range...I REALLY regretted our lack of extreme-range ballistic weaponry at times like that, though I didn't know the feeling for what it was at the time..."

[Colonel Wolfe]

the Invid fell hard on that particular problem. even the Missiles used by the Commander units were Lacking in Range of the Human Equivilant, mostly these being Point-blank or Short-Range missiles. Compared to the MRM's and LRM's used by the Beta, or even an VF-1, these thing lacked the Range and punch to be extreamly Dangerous (not saying the Commander unit was a sloch, more then a match for an Alpha, and not to shabby against the Beta).
Capital Ships, with Truely Long range weapons would have helped the Invid, the Regent was headed down the right path toward that develipment.

My Questions become, the invid base alot of their technology off enemys encountred by their forces. the Commander unit was based off the Battiloid Alpha, after the war, Invid units based off the beta were rumored to exist... truely a scary idea.
What were the Inorganics based off of?
in many ways the Inorganics Remind me of Skeletal Bioroids.

[taalismn]

"Can't answer that, truthfully, but it's possible that the Regent got his idea from studying natural predators on many of the worlds the Invid conquered while rolling up towards the Sentinel worlds...Certainly the Hellcat, as you call it, had its basis in animal models....I believe that the Hellcat came from observations of certain Garudan predators, and the Scrimm actually came out of the early work of the Regis' Genesis Pits on Praxis...The Scrimm has a certain resemblance to several proto-arachnoids that the Regis was able to resurrect from fossil DNA...Of course, the Zentraedi and Bioroid forces were also aimed to a degree, but given the twist that showed that in his own particularly demented way, he was more creative than the Regis when it came to technological design..."

[AuroraKet]

::Seren sips her soda and doodles on her notebook.::

"I personally love missiles... on the Alpha. Even if I try to go as light with them as possible, when alternating with the gun pod. I try not to be one of those people who seem to use half their payload suddenly, against a scant few targets. On the Cyclone I tend to favor an EP-40, so take extra clips along for it."

::She ponders just a little bit, then.::

"As for Inorganics..." ::She shrugs:: "I suppose it might have saved on armored and unarmored scouts, but since there was so much willingness to throw away 'expendable' units instead of using inorganics, the concept was considered unimportant. Armored Scouts were faster to intercept rebel groups anyway. If more Raidars had been around, the inorganics might have been used, though."

[Colonel Wolfe]

My Refrnece to the Skeletal Bioroids more refers to the Odeon... honeslty someone stole my info on the Regents forces... (Lost my Sentinels rpg book... and Art3 is useless...)

[taalismn]

"It's a good reference...But bear in mind the Masters prefered to throw the Zentraedi at the Invid first...WE hardly ever ran into Bioroids unless we managed to penetrate into the rear echelons and ran into Tirolian security, or stumbled across one of their 'Supervision' or spec-ops forces.."

[taalismn]

"That transforming ability on so many of the human's elite mecha units took us very much by surprise....NOne of the Masters' or the Zentraedis' mecha had that particular quirk of engineering...of course, that novelty just made the average Invid all the madder once we began to appreciate its value....Veritechs became Priority One for wiping out..."

[glitterboy2098]

(once again i would like to remind the posters of this thread that the TSAW lessons are using old rpg canon, which does not include any events from shadow chronicles. please try to keep referances to such to a minimum.)

nothing in the old RPG disputes the new information give about the Haydon.
Even the Series Dialog points out the Invid were Defeeted Twice before coming to earth, unless you dont want the Series as Canon either for this discussion.

(just reminding you guys. the shadow chronicles movie is incompatable with the invid return timeline used by TSAW. i'm content to leave allow vague comments about haydonite war against the invid and paranoic warnings of a coming 'shadow war', just remember that this thread is set in the 2060's after a second invid invasion of earth.

[taalismn]

(just reminding you guys. the shadow chronicles movie is incompatable with the invid return timeline used by TSAW. i'm content to leave allow vague comments about haydonite war against the invid and paranoic warnings of a coming 'shadow war', just remember that this thread is set in the 2060's after a second invid invasion of earth.

"Speaking of Invid civil wars...you know what almost had me ripping some of my kinfolk a new one in a vendetta? I had JUST discovered this little eatery in Craterville...good prices, good food, no questions asked about who you were, just perfect for an unemployed Sulogi looking to get acquainted with hot food, cold beer, and social dining...and the Second Invasion, some crock-head decided outof the big nowhere to blast it! No mercy for that gene-reject, as far as I'm concerned!"

[Aramanthus]

:::The non-descript man continues to record the various speakers. He stops one in awhile and scrathes his head and then continues to write the notes down.:::

[AuroraKet]

::Seren snorts very softly at Fury.::

"Be glad that the Hellcats didn't come from that. If they could be mode-shifted that small, thousands could have been brought down in a single cardboard box. And it wouldn't have taken long for some bright Sulogi to start selling cheap Yellow Dancer and Minmei records on the tapes, just to give the buyers a nasty surprise when they turned into the 'cats."

::She glances down at Taalisman then.::

"You probably should have shot them, to protect the rest of the town. I would have. Even if Rio was less of a hot zone, trying to run the resistance out of the PD got very interesting and hairy sometimes. But we got through it intact, and pulled off some interesting actions against enemy forces. Even if the town was on edge. We did as much as we could without getting our butts totally shot off. And tried to avoid 'misunderstandings' when dealing with new refugees coming into the town."

[Aramanthus]

:::The non-descript man records the latest information from the latest speaker.:::

[taalismn]

"APC, huh? AARII or one of the ASC breadboxes? Surprising number of those survived our sweeps, since all but a few of the Southern Cross vehicles ran off conventional engines...And as our own tech-castes learned more about non-Protoculture technology, some of the improvized powerplants that were fitted into the older machines AMAZED us..."

(Looks up at Seren)
"Can't say I saw who plasma'ed my favorite haunt...but I tried tapping into the hivenet to see who was commanding in the region....Got nothing aside from regional movements, so I'm assuming the Regis either locked out her previous Children or the new generation of Sulogi overseers were a lot more cautious about security knowing there were some originals still around here..."

[batlchip]

*RDF guy walks in with a six pack of soda.Jumps up next to Zara And sits down.*She just come in.*Zara taking a soda nods.* I heard rumors that there is at least one SLV beachmaster left.I also heard that some of the VHT's made it though both Invy invasions.

[AuroraKet]

::Seren smiles and offers a wave towards Sgt. Vahan, nodding to her in greeting before glancing down towards Taal.::

"Hmm... I'd guess the latter really. They weren't all as secure, everywhere, to my knowledge. The second invasion brought more defections, realize, and even the later defections didn't pick up really more than the original ones. In fact, there were cases of original ones being approached to come rejoin the supposed 'grand cause'. Didn't hear if any bought back in. Though they were bright enough not to approach Rio. I would have neutralized them in defense of the city."

::She pauses and roosters her head.:: "Though I do appreciate departures from the mundane. Mechanized SWAT can't be a division under itself even in Rio, the girls and I wind up taking average police calls and even animal control calls, a lot of time. Can be boring or interesting depending on the incident. And wearing CVR is mandatory when dealing with a potentially hostile dog or cat."

[taalismn]

"Yeah...I hear one Sulogi up in Quebec managed to lure his two second-gen 'recruiters' into a quiet little meeting to discuss his 'return'....got them totally bombed on spiked coffee, then convinced their escort to let him strip out vital parts from the Stage 5s' Gosus...Experience does count for something..."

[Aramanthus]

The non-descript man checks his pocket watch and then looks at the new comer to the class. He then marks another notebook with a check. He then continues his notebook.:::

[glitterboy2098]

sorry about the delay class, that patrol took longer than i thought it would. ran into some scavengers that didn't like that my wingman and I decided to enforce the EUG's claim on the ruins of Yellowstone base.

the first invid mecha we will be covering is the Invid Scout.

the scout represents the lowest rung in the invid heirarchy. with few exceptions, the pilot of a scout is always going to be the least evolved opponent you'll face. while this means that most scouts you will encounter will be rather simple minded, don't be lulled into complacency. whatever they lack in brains, they make up for in numbers. scouts almost always travel in groups of three or more, and usually these groups are led by an 'ace' that has managed to survive multiple engagements. these aces are the big threat, with an ability to think tactically that is well above its peers.

the scout itself is nothing to write home about, and makes the Zentreadi battlepods look like powerful warmachines in comparison. it is small, about nine feet tall when fully erect. it looks rather like a crab, with a flat and wide triangular body and a pair of ovoid forearms tipped with a single sharp pincer. the legs are stubby and have exaggerated toes, conected directly to a single short upper leg. on the ground, the scout could waddle along at a slow pace. running was a comical affair of it striding around on its oversized toes like a dancer on tiptoes. but for all the absurdity of the design, it was one of the most feared mecha by resistance fighters. not for its combat ability, barely more than a man in CVR armor, but as the invid equivilent of a predator drone. the scout was aptly named by the REF troops, as it served to seek out and detect enemies, relaying the loaction back along the hivenet to summon a larger force of more combat effective mecha. to see a Scout was to know the fear of probable discovery, and even if the scout did not see active protoculture or obvious military gear, it was SOP for resistance troops to break camp and move on immediately after seeing a scout overfly.

the scout is able to hit twenty three thousand and fourty five miles per hour in the atmosphere, almsot as fast as the global war era SR-71 Blackbird. and it could reach as high as fifty miles, skimming the edge of space. this allowed scouts to cover most of a continent on patrols, and react quickly to threats. and they always arrived in force.

the 'armored' scout was the elite model used by most of the scout 'Aces'. the protection was improved about 10%, and it carried a pair of pulse beam cannons on its upper carapace. these were not much more powerful than a pistol mode Gallant, and hardly as accurate, but when mouned on such a fast and manuverable platform, they were more than able to pick apart poorly piloted veritech or cyclone. as these were the Ace invid for their rank, they also exhibited a wider range of tactics. especially during the second occupation, when many invid were left in one rank for long periods of time.

in use by both forms is the Booster. this assembly of rockets and thrusters replaced the legs of a scout, and gave it transatmospheric abilities equivilent to the old VF-1 orbital booster. it could obtain a velocity of over four thousand miles per hour in the atmosphere, and its Delta V in space was superior to just about any veritech except the Beta. when fighting booster equipped scouts, always aim for the scout however, the booster was armored about three times better than the scout itself.

booster equipped scouts were the bane of capital ships, being laucnhed in horde large enough to swamp point defense and being more than willing to engage in kamikazi ramming attacks. even one such suicide run by a scout could shatter a Horizont, and a handfull could cripple an Ikazuchi. and the Regis deployed them by the hundreds and thousands in every space battle, staged off the Mollusk carriers.



the last version is only hearsay, based on reports from the resistance in north america. that of the 'mortar scout', an armored scout equipped with a large tribarrel plasma weapon capable of long range fire. the few reports we have of these unknown mecha imply an artillery role, supporting other invid mecha from a fixed position. as no REF troop encountered such, and the resistance was unable to supply credible guncamera footage or pictures, we cannot be sure they encountered what they claimed. however we know the regis was always making tweaks and modifications to her children, so it is not impossible that such a mecha was created. should we ever encounter the invid again perhaps we will learn more.

[taalismn]

"Yep....simpleminded...But any of you Terrans who's watched native ants...simpleminded creatures can accomplish incredible things if you get enough of them acting in concert...And tough, too...For its size, Scouts are mean little buggers...More than any other caste, Scouts have picked up on the emotional undertones of the Regis through the Hivemind...that means they're the closest to functional paranoids we have, always looking for enemies, suspicious behavior, and signs of intruders...They aren't bright enough to detect all the possible signs of an intrusion, but their aggressive posture is usually enough to flush an unnerved adversary out where they can be seen and tracked down..."