Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Burst Drone

The Burst Drone is the primary "animal" scout of the Katsuragi Protectorate.

Tactical analysis

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History
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In the Katsuragi Protectorate, everyone has a part to play in maintaining the orderly structure of Ulthuan, and children are no different. From a young age, they are separated by intellect into one of several groups, their schooling and knowledge playing a great part in determining ultimately which jobs, careers, and roles they will join as adults. The expectations of hard work and sacrifice in Ulthuan means that many of them are practically abandoned by their parents, left to schools, homes, or the streets if not poor enough to already be working alongside their parents in a trade of field. In the late 50s, the statistics showed a rising increase in youth crime and discontent among the offspring of the privileged workers. And as the amount of work and labor hours increased, in secret preparation for the Protectorate divine destiny, parents began to demand something that would both ensure their offspring became knowledgable enough to gain access to a great school and career path, and occupy them while the parents were working. The result was the Model 80 Sunburst Drone.

The Sunburst Drone was the first drone in the history of the Protectorate specifically built for the young. It was powered by solar energy to replace the need for batteries or any kind of fuel. It was equipped with a liquid-mixture tank and several packets of commercial-grade chemicals for use in teaching chemistry. It was equipped with an internal camera and transmission system that could be linked to the watch of a parent to monitor their child whenever they needed to. It was set into a cute-looking dragonfly shape to make a mental connection as a friendly pet. It was autonomous, though not sentient, so could somewhat respond to and interact with the child all the time to create a social connection. And best of all, it came completely unassembled, so the child given one could learn the basics of mechanics, drone engineering, and electrical systems.

The Drones were, surprisingly, a hit, and soon almost every household rich enough to afford one had them. When the mass Horde exodus broke out in 2002 V.C., Tyrion noted the potential of the Burst Drones as supplementary scouting units - the Protectorate Army's existing noise detection systems were too crude to do more than identify that there were attackers in the area, and these Drones could easily be sent out to identify and transmit accurate pictures of the area back to the Empire's Construction Yards, even latching on to vehicles like they would sometimes latch on to children's bicycles to continually communicate their location, or supporting friendly vehicles with their keen camera eyes and ability to detect otherwise hidden foes, saving many Protectorate pilots and drivers from ambushes. And, with the chemical tanks on the drones, avoiding a trace back to the Protectorate base would be easy - all they had to do was put in a liquid fuel bomb as an emergency explosive.

The only problem, of course, was that the Protectorate Army was very, very large. They would need upwards of thousands of Burst Drones, and at first, the Protectorate military relied on simply 'conscripting' existing children's Burst Drones, often with a small pamphlet informing them of the brave and noble work their drone buddies were going to do for the Protectorate. However, after one top general received a video feed of his son bursting into tears after receiving news that his personal Burst Drone companion had been destroyed during a failed offensive, automated factories set up exclusively for creating Burst Drones were put in place around Ulthuan. The factories themselves are still producing the drones, even in the end of the war, and to this day thousands of military-owned Burst Drones wait in storage for the day to spread their wings. Though there was an issue where new Burst Drones would instinctively and automatically latch onto the nearest friendly thing they saw when they were let out of the Instant Dojo - the roof. Unable or unwilling to detach themselves, the drones would futilely stay there for the rest of the fight, unresponsive to orders and creating a hassle for other infantry who had to get past the tangle of solar wings and potentially explosive liquid tanks. Many a new Commander ordered a flight of over thirty Burst Drones and then found all of them stuck to the roof of their Instant Dojo, before a patch to the software once more allowed the drones to take to the skies in service to the Protectorate.

Trivia

 * It reuses the Burst Drone sound from Red Alert 3

Guardians of the Tacitus

 * K-9/Cyber Dog (Aquila)
 * Attack Dog (Alliance)
 * Battle Cat (ADI)
 * Burst Drone (Protectorate)
 * War Lion (Asur Command)
 * Halfling Wolf Rider (Andora)
 * Tiger (Empire)
 * Atomic Tiger (Castanic Nuclear Division)
 * Gorilla (Community)
 * Merlion (Serpent Clan)

Destroyers of Balthazar

 * Attack Bear (Voshkod)
 * Giant Scorpion (Brotherhood)
 * Squig (Horde)
 * Alshain (MLA)
 * Long Legs (Collective)
 * Cold One (Cult of Pleasure)
 * Hippo (Encantadia)
 * Buzzers (Scrin)

Neutrals

 * CORV Drone (Coalition)
 * Fenrisian Wolf
 * Ice Wolves (Heralds)
 * Hawk (Order)
 * Mutant Hound (Survivors)
 * War Wolf (Syndicate)
 * Giant Rat (Skaven Horde)
 * Kroot Hound (Tau Merchant Guard)
 * Exo Scout (Conglomerate)
 * Cougar (Legion)

Bonus Factions

 * Boar (ASA)
 * Gorilla (Bastion)
 * Void Direwolf
 * Blade Creep (Rangers)
 * Fell Bats (Pirates)
 * Battle Badger (Ascalia)
 * Tomb Scorpion (Elona)
 * Predator Bot (Dominion)
 * Dragon Welp (Security)
 * Simian Underling (Ascendancy)

DLC

 * Sabot Cat (Federation)
 * Monkey (Corona)
 * ... (Party)
 * ... (Skynet)
 * Cicins (Elemental)
 * Young Acklay (Autocracy)
 * Salamander Hunting Pack (League)
 * Giant Beetle (Confederation)
 * Navean Wolf (Kingdom)
 * ... (Goo)
 * Giant Centipede (Imperium)
 * ... (Dynasty)
 * Sabretusk (Warlords)
 * Skeletal Dog (Cult)
 * ... (Raiders)
 * Snow Leopard (Theocracy)
 * Cyber-Mastiff (Insurgents)
 * ... (Guardians)
 * Femptospore Swarmer (Hierarchy)
 * ... (Sundered)
 * Brown Praire (Ecumene)
 * Attack Dhreller (Concordat)
 * K-9 Drone (Contingent)
 * Elysean Banshe (Eden)
 * Deinonychus (InGen)
 * ... (Hallows)
 * Hell Pig (Commune)
 * ... (Clique)
 * ... (Guild)
 * ... (Threat)
 * ... (Traders)
 * Young Siltstalker (Entente)
 * Lost Soul (Oblivion)
 * Cerberus (Corporation)
 * ... (Covenant)
 * Raptidon (Institute)