Harvester

A Harvester is a large, heavily armored vehicle designed specifically for resource collection. It is typically slow moving with a large storage space and unarmed.

The concept of a Harvester has been introduced with the development of mobile base technology that allowed for quick deployment of armed forces worldwide with the use of MCVs that could quickly deploy an entire base. This method necessitated the development of effective resource gathering methods, as the amount of supplies and raw materials that could be delivered to the combat zone was extremely limited. The harvester was the key.

A harvester is designed to harvest whatever raw materials (ore, crystals and Tiberium) it can find and deliver them to a refinery for processing. In the past, because it couldn't drill or mine materials actively it had to rely on specialized mining teams deployed prior to the arrival of the forces, whose task was to set up mining and excavate materials for Harvesters to collect. This stopped being a case with the arrival of Tiberium.

Great World War II
The first Harvesters were enormous dump trucks that collected raw ore with dozer blades at excavation sites and delivered them to the Refineries. The design was simple, but efficent, and the dump trucks served throughout the Great World War II perfectly. With the arrival of Tiberium, the original harvesters proved to be dangerous and unreliable as they did not shield the user from the fumes.

Tiberium Age
The Brotherhood of Nod quickly rectified these issues and, revealing itself as a global superpower, instituted new harvesting methods, quickly reaching a staggering 49% stake of the global Tiberium mining market, almost double the size of GDI sponsor countries. The vehicle was quite simple in its construction - a large storage container was mounted to the back of an all terrain truck platform with an isolated driver's cabin. Two large arms below the front ripped crystals out of the pods they grew in and moved them into an opening leading into the container. When full, the container was sealed and delivered to a Tiberium Refinery, where it was unloaded and the harvested Tiberium processed. The design changed little in following years, and in 2030 both sides used multi-wheel truck platform with advanced grabbers to pick Tiberium. The truck was sturdier and more boxy, with an easy detachable container mounted on it.

With the sudden evolution of Tiberium and change of its properties, both sides had to quickly develop an alternative to avoid an economic crash. The solution was to change the drive system to treads, which contained no organic components for the Tiberium to assimilate. Also, they were bulkier and outfitted with mechanical arms that picked the evolved crystals and upon amassing an appropriate amount they were moved to Refineries, where they were melted and processed. To safeguard these vehicles in a hostile world, both sides upgraded their properties - GDI opted for a light machine gun on a flexible mount, while the Brotherhood decided to outfit theirs with mobile stealth generators, allowing them to harvest Tiberium relatively unnoticed. Nod's Harvester crews are seemingly selected for their fervent love of Tiberium, perhaps to aid in the speed of harvesting.

When the alien Scrin arrived on Earth during the Third Tiberium War, they brought their own harvesting technology with them. Scrin Harvesters, like many of their vehicles, are bio-mechanical constructs that hover and are able to absorb Tiberium through a 'mouth', with the aid of 'claws' to bring the crystal closer. In addition they appear to self-repair where Tiberium is present.