[Drone Class] Anatinus

[The Blacktron CouncilRecruit (No Affiliation)]

This ship is a plague.
At least that's how its inventor, Mar Ventro, pitched it to the Blacktron Council all those years ago. These drones are launched from ship hangars like any other sub-orbital fighter and beeline straight for enemy ships, following the heat emissions of their weapon systems. Anatinuses don't have to make it to their target in order to cause havoc. In fact, they can cause MORE damage by being destroyed. How? When an Anatinus is destroyed, it releases trillions of tiny, self-replicating, hungry, nanobots. These nanobots, unless given the complex signal to stop (as transmitted by radiotransmitters located on every Blacktron ship), begin devouring any metal around them, replicating themselves for every bite they take. If a ship flies through a cloud of nanobots accidentally, they are quickly hewn to pieces by the devastating nanobots. If not, no harm done. The nanobots will hang in mid-space until their next victim comes along.

Anatinus:

Images:

[PXRRecruit (No Affiliation)]

Very nice design! I like the use of the roll cage thingy and the string thingy! Love the yellow bits too. Adds a very nice Blacktron-ny effect. Now, the only bad part about it is that its so devastating.

"I want all science personnel to commence work on a countermeasure for these Drones immediately!"

*100 years later*

"No solution found."

[TetrahedronCaptain (PCG)]

Very nice design! I love the imaginative use of parts!

One question- what scale is this in? I can't tell if it's a fighter or ship or what. =/

[The Blacktron CouncilRecruit (No Affiliation)]

Its on the size of a shuttle/large fighter craft. They launch from hangars like fighters.

[Dino27Captain (PCG)]

Clever! Clever design! Clever weapon! Well done! Now to come up with a countermeasure.... wait... we already have one... navigational shields will just cause the nanites to bounce off the ship harmlessly. Good. But those nanites would still be extremely dangerous against unshielded ships.

[The Blacktron CouncilRecruit (No Affiliation)]

Wait, navigational shields block things on the microscopic level? I thought they just diffuse phaser blasts.

[TetrahedronCaptain (PCG)]

they're mainly for blocks micrometeors and other tiny space debris; weapons are generally tanked by the vessels shields, which, by my understanding, is a different (albeit similar) aspect entirely. Whether it would affect microscopic things is probably up to debate; I would say it would, by it's perfectly possible it doesn't.

[ForgeRecruit (No Affiliation)]

Good thing Antlay metalurgy has already advanced to the point where you can't just take a bite out of it and make another nanobot.

That, and plastic replaced metal on ships years ago, lighter and doesn't cost as much, and it can't be changed into a nanite by pesky little selfreplicating nanites...

No they didn't actually switch the plastick, but intelligence wants the blacktron to believe that.

Love the actual ship design though, especially the curved hull, looks very cool. And the nanite idea really isn't all that bad, could wreck havoc on fighters especially. I can just see a vashti nerada (speeling?) type incident happening with these things to a ship, the image is actually rather cool.

[KojanHigh Admiral (CIR)]

That's a really creative way to use some of those pieces, and it looks fantastic! It's got that classic flying-saucer look, yet also has a unique flair to it. Well done!

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