Ellydium’s latest creations, namely the now feared ‘Woz’Got’, have been met with skepticism and a great amount of resistance. Federation scientists wishing to reclaim their technology hijacked one of the newly produced Woz’Got cabins and realized that it’s method of drone production is actually quite simple and easy to reproduce. Instead of growing entire drones, it simply manufactures a sort of AI ‘core’ and grows a crystal hull around it as shielding. The scientists took this technology and applied an ancient nanotechnology design to create not only a stronger drone, but a cheaper one. The newly developed drones not only performed excellently in their field-trials, but the manufacturing systems could be fit in to a relatively light hull to allow for mobile production stations. Their only down-side was that the compact reactors did not allow for unlimited weapons fire, so conventional weaponry had to be equipped on most of them making their ammunition limited. Though this extra capacity allowed them to be outfitted with not only weapons, but also cooperative technology that allowed them to change their function depending on the immediate need. This versatile drone led to an entire new conventional carrier-type ship for the military and mercenaries to use in the battle against Ellydium. The project was dubbed the HFD-66 “Hive”.
The Hive is a new Federation engineering frigate designed around overwhelming the enemy with concentrated bursts of drone fire from every direction. It has a wide array of purchasable modules that allow the pilot to change how the drones act, attack, and what they do. It is an incredibly simple design that could easily be programmed in a part-time week and would only require a few new models for production. Here are some examples of modules and stats for the ship:
Stats:
Hull: 12,500
Shield: 13,250
Shield regen: 125p/s
Normal resistances.
Energy: 1,100
Energy Regeneration: 200p/s
Speed: 250m/s
AB: 300m/s
AB energy use: 225p/s
Bonuses:
2 - max speed increased by 10%.
4 - Engineer modules recharge time reduced by 20%.
8 - Critical chance increased by 20%
10 - Energy regeneration speed increased by 10%.
Main weapon:
Name: Nanite Launcher
Damage: 600 Kinetic
RoF: 40rpm
Projectile Speed: 6,000m/s
Max range: 4,000m
Overheating: 8/3 seconds
Tooltip: Fires canisters of nanites that explode in proximity releasing a 400m cloud of nanites that repair allies and allied drones for 100p/s hull for 5 seconds and damages enemies in the cloud for 250p/s. The effect stacks as more clouds overlap.
Special Module:
Name: “Stinger” Drone Factory
Module recharge: 0.5 seconds
Drone damage: 500 Kinetic DPS
Drone RoF: 300rpm
Drone ammo capacity: 600
Drone health: 2,500 hull
Drone manufacturing time: 12 seconds
Active drone maximum: 8
Drone storage max: 4
Special drone max: 3
Tooltip: Manufactures drones and stores them in the bay. Activation releases one drone below the ship. Drones move freely around the map but try to stay near the pilot. Active modules can change drone behaviour. Once drones are out of ammo, they launch themselves at their target and explode dealing 7,200 thermal damage in a 250m radius. Press and hold the module key with 3 drones in storage to release a Hunter Drone which acts on its own AI to attack targets with double damage and quadruple health.
Active Modules:
1:
Name: Shield Drone
Recharge: 36 seconds
Tooltip: Instructs the locked drone to discard its weapon in exchange for a shield emitter. Drone projects the shield in the direction of the crosshairs and follows closely to the ship. Has a 200m shield absorbing 10,000 damage. Drone reabsorbs in to the hull repairing 1,000p once it’s shield is broken.
2:
Name: Charger Drone
Recharge: 12 seconds
Tooltip: Instructs the locked drone to arm its reactor for detonation and ram in to the locked enemy. Drone explodes on impact for 10,000 thermal damage in a 250m radius.
3:
Name: Protector Drone
Recharge: 12 seconds
Tooltip: Instructs the locked drone to discard its weapon in favor of a remote shield projector. It overloads its reactor to project an impenetrable shield around the user or a locked ally. The drone explodes after 6 seconds or if it is destroyed.
4:
Name: Mine Drone
Recharge: 24 seconds
Tooltip: Instructs the locked drone to discard its weapon and begin laying explosive charges as it flies. Drops one mine every 2 seconds for 12 seconds. The drone then acts as if it has run out of ammo and charges the nearest enemy.
5:
Name: Warp Drone
Recharge: 36 seconds
Tooltip: The locked drone overloads its reactor to open a wormhole to its location for 4 seconds, from your ship’s location. Ships can only travel through wormholes once every 2 seconds. If the target area is occupied the pilot has 6 seconds to move before it is destroyed.
6:
Name: Phase Drone
Recharge: 24 seconds
Tooltip: Instructs the locked drone to discard its weapon in favor of a cloaking device. It cloaks up to two ships within 1,200m of it for 6 seconds.