Specter (Kane's Wrath)

"Light of the morning!"

- Specter

The Specter is a Nod stealth artillery vehicle in Kane's Wrath.

Background
Developed during the post-Second Tiberium War period, Nod's Specter stealth artillery tank was designed as the ultimate evolution of the artillery-based guerilla warfare tactics first developed in South-East Asia during the mid-twentieth century. Alternating between two modes, one high-speed and stealthed, the other visible and static but capable of launching high-impact artillery from a massive distance, the Specter is a confounding opponent to face in battle. Able to enter occupied territory undetected, deploy, take out key structures and vanish before the enemy can hope to react, it is truly an insidious and dangerous opponent. This is even more the case when the unit is paired with the equally stealthy Nod Shadow Team, which has been equipped with targeting beacons, allowing the Specter to launch bombardment attacks from an even greater distance.

Design
Essentially a lightly-armored 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. 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.

Game unit
Nod Shadow teams can interact with these artillery units and deploy a beacon to accurately guide their fire, like the synergy between 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, Sniper Teams under Nod control 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.

Due to a coding oversight, Specters can destroy beacons set by Shadow teams.

The Specter is available to all Nod sub-factions, but require the presence of a Tech lab to be constructed. Also, Black Hand Specters do not have stealth capabilities.

Changelog

 * Kane's Wrath patch 1.02:
 * decoy Specters no longer deal the full non-decoy damage if the decoy dies while the weapon shell is in flight
 * decoy Specters no longer do damage if the decoy dies while the shell is in flight
 * Specters no longer damage airborne units

When created

 * Specter online!
 * None shall see me coming!
 * Active!
 * Stealth!

When selected

 * Hidden and dangerous!
 * Hidden death!
 * Stealthed and ready!
 * Ready to strike!

When moving

 * Into the darkness!
 * Like a ghost!
 * Moving out!
 * Stealth artillery moving out!
 * Taking position!
 * They won't see us coming...
 * Specter moving!

When ordered to attack

 * Undetected!
 * Never see me coming!
 * It's all over for them!
 * Weapons primed!
 * Silent and deadly!

When attacking

 * Death from above!
 * Kane's fury!
 * Target acquired!
 * Unloading!
 * Death comes silently!

When ordered to bombard

 * Beacon online!
 * Stars will fall!
 * Light of the morning!
 * The light of Kane!
 * Like a nightmare!

In combat

 * Haha!
 * Hahaha...!
 * Bombarding!
 * Glorious destruction!
 * They die so brightly!

When retreating

 * It's better to fade away!
 * Time to disappear!
 * Zone is hot!