Specter (Tiberium Wars)

"They die so brightly!"

- Specter, observing the mayhem it helped start

The Specter artillery tank was one of the primary tools of the Brotherhood in the wake of the split after the Firestorm Crisis, when GDI wielded almost total control over the globe, with GDI bases literally littering the lands and armoured patrols regularly scouring the area for any Nod activity. The Specter was the scalpel that allowed Nod to deftly lift the iron grip of GDI and reestablish their dominance. It was developed using stealth technology regained by LEGION after a raid on a GDI Covert Lab in Australia.

Design
Essentially a lightly armoured tracked vehicle with a large caliber cannon mounted on its top, the design of the vehicle seems to be based on the scorpion, Nod's traditional symbol. In order to fire, it needs to deploy itself by spreading six "claws" that provide a stable platform for the large caliber weapon. In order to allow it to safely reach its destination and prevent premature detection by enemy scouts, the Specter, as its name suggests, is outfitted with a state of the art stealth generator. The high impact shells fired from the cannon follow a high-arc trajectory and do tremendous amounts of damage, especially against structures, with a large blast radius. There is some evidence of Tiberium-based components being used in the shell. Care should be exercised when using the Specter, lest there be friendly fire incidents due to the large blast radius from its shells. Under Marcion, the Black Hand removed the stealth generators from their Specters, as the Black Hand's religious doctrines forbade the use of stealth.

Nod Shadow Team can interface with these artillery units and deploy an artillery beacon to accurately guide their fire, much like GDI Sniper teams and Juggernauts. The beacon, however, reveals itself as it transmits the coordinates, leaving it vulnerable to being destroyed. Interestingly, so long as a single beacon is activated on the local battlefield, rogue GDI Sniper teams can also spot for a barrage. The Specter itself has a long deployment time, during which the stealth generator must be deactivated, leaving it vulnerable to attack. The Specter is available to the entire Brotherhood, provided they could establish a tech lab. After 2052 the Specter was upgraded in the Fourth Tiberium War.

Assessment
The Specter exemplifies the very combat doctrine of the entire Nod faction: appear out of the shadows, cause mayhem, and dissappear just as quickly as appearing. A small group of Specters can harrass and destroy armour columns and bases unscathed and well out of the range of retaliation.

Quotes

 * They die so brightly!


 * Into the Darkness!

Behind the scenes
This artillery unit acts similar to the Advanced Artillery in using an accurate big gun that does massive damage and required to deploy in order to fire, the only difference being that it can use its stealth generators to evade patrols, or escape from hostile units. It is similar to the Nuke Cannon in Generals, used by the PLA.