Devastator Warship

"Alien Devastators are heading to our base."

- EVA, warning the commander of imminent Devastator presence

Devastator Warship is one of the more advanced Scrin airborne units yet encountered. Fitting the name given to it, the Devastator Warship is capable of causing grievous damage to units on the ground. Resembling a gigantic floating lobster-like lifeform, every Devastator is armed with Zeus plasma disc batteries that possess an impressively long range.

Owing to its slow movement and long-range weaponry the Scrin seem to employ this most as a support or siege weapon, capable of laying waste to structures and clustered ground units alike. While vulnerable to anti-aircraft weaponry and unable to defend itself against air attack, the Devastator is impressively durable, and its durability is often seen to be further increased by some form of energy shield, a presumed upgrade also witnessed on units such as the Annihilator Tripod. Some people witnessing that Traveler-59's Devastators are upgraded with device that increasing its movement speed. These device are known as "Traveler Engines". Another subfaction of the Scrin, Reaper-17, do not have Devastator Warships in their arsenal.

Intel has indicated that they are responsible for much of the destruction in the Earth's Blue zones. It must only return to the Gravity Stabilizer for repairs like most air units. They are much-feared by GDI and Nod Commanders alike, and their destruction is a high priority for most as even a small group of Devastators is quickly capable of laying waste to even the most well-defended base. They also do significant damage to ground units, killing infantry with 1 salvo if it hits them. Because Devastators can fire just outside the range of Nod and GDI anti-air base defenses, and is deadly to units such as Attack Bikes and Pitbulls, one of the only ways to dispose of it properly is using air-to-air fire.

In terms of size and its purpose as a siege weapon, the Devastator is analogous to human battleships. Of course, its ability to fly grants it greater flexibility, even if it is comparatively fragile.

While hypothetically the vessel may be capable of bombarding a planet's surface from orbit it is possible that the Scrin chose to avoid such a move in order to protect their limited fleet from the powerful GDI space-based arsenal, instead applying a more clever solution-teleporting their starships directly into Earth's atmosphere in close proximity to major populated areas.

Assessment
Good points:


 * Good survivability, especially with forcefields.


 * Extreme range and firepower.


 * Can devastate even Epic units
 * Can be upgraded with traveler engines to enhance speed (available only to traveler 59


 * Only vulnerable to units with anti-air capability.
 * Outrange AA batteries

Bad points:


 * Expensive and available at tier 3 only.


 * Slow for an air unit and sometimes outrun by Mammoth Tanks.


 * Hard to repair once it is at the local friendly Gravity Stabilizer


 * Accuracy is worse than that of the Specters.


 * Firehawks and even Venoms are dangerous to it (since it cannot attack air units).


 * Single EMP Blast can take it down if it has no shields.


 * Slingshots and Mantis units are deadly against it.