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Leech
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Classification
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Purpose
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Spying or leeching enemy vessels
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Ship Type
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Breaching Pod/Microship
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RU Cost
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40 RUs
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| Technical Information | |
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Mass
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26 tons
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Length
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8 metres
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Acceleration
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1000 m/s2
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Speed
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1250 m/s
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Armaments
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Molecular Acid
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Eras
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Affiliation
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The Leech is a Kiith Somtaaw microship.
Overview[]
The Leech is the second microship created by Kiith Somtaaw engineers. It is small, fast and pretty cheap. It is the only ship that cannot be detected by standard sensors due to its phased telemetry system shunting part of its signal into hyperspace. It can only be detected by Proximity Sensors or Recon vessels. Its only armament is a payload of molecular acid, which is used to bore through ship hulls so the Leech can access their plasma drive conduits. It then uses the ship's own plasma to melt through the hull and damage it. From here, the Leech can either absorb the materials into its resource pod and eventually unclamp for processing, or simply vent the materials into space.
There were two significant deployments of Leeches during the Beast War: First was the microship's initial deployment when the Kuun-Lan was escorting the debilitated Caal-Shto through a dust nebula, wherein the dust radiation plus the Leech's stealth capabilities allowed them to safely weaken a frigate fleet guarding the slipgate exit through the nebula before the rest of the Somtaaw engaged and destroyed them.
The second was in the final battle of the Beast War. The Nomad Moon defense station had a repulsor weapon that pushed back and destroyed all ships that approached, protecting the Naggorok that held the original Beast infection. However, said repulsor weapon was not triggered by ships of minimal scanner width. Thus, after the Somtaaw destroyed the Proximity Sensors surrounding the Nomad Moon, Leeches were able to successfully sneak past the Beast's defenses and destroy the repulsor weapon, allowing the rest of the fleet to destroy the defense station and eventually, the Beast itself.
Functions[]
The Leech attacks by attaching towards a suitable surface of an enemy ship. The Leech can only be attached to frigate-sized ships or bigger. Attaching to infected ship does not bring in the risk of infection as it was designed after the infection, incorporating anti-infection measure to its computer. It cannot be captured by any means (capturing using Workers or through Infection Beam).
Leech: While active, the Leech attaches itself to a hull of a ship and drains away ship's health, collecting resources in the process. Once its resource pod is full, the Leech returns to Mothership, Carrier or Processor to drop off resources and flies back to its target to continue its duty. This function doesn't work if the target ship has less than 10% of health.
Spy: While active, the Leech attaches itself to a hull of a ship, but, instead of draining health away, it acts like a tracking device. It is good to use to keep an eye on the enemy without raising suspicion.
Vent: Similar to the first function, but, instead of gathering resources, they are thrown away in the space. It also has no health limitation, i. e., the Leech "attacks" its target until it is destroyed. Of course, the explosion of the target, upon its destruction, is likely to destroy the Leech attached to it.
Trivia[]
- In the Homeworld: Cataclysm manual, it is referred to as a Leech-class Breaching Pod.[1]
Appearances[]
References[]
- ↑ Homeworld: Cataclysm manual