Terror drone (Red Alert 3)

Terror drones were small, amphibious robots capable of dismantling vehicles from the inside, first seen during the Third World War.
==Background==
The aptly named terror drone inspires great fear in Allied soldiers, especially vehicle crews. Originally designed as a remote control scout unit (a role at which it still excels), but Soviet commanders soon realized its potential as a weapon platform.
After several attempts to arm it with ranged weapons failed due to limited room for ammunition and recoil issues, it was equipped with iridium-alloy claws capable of slicing through several inches of reinforced steel. These "Dismantler Claws" can be used to burrow into vehicles and destroy it from within, and are even more effective against infantry. In addition, the terror drone was also armed with a Zmeika Electro-Stasis ray, a variable-frequency electro-magnetic beam capable of immobilizing enemy vehicles, preventing them from escaping.
In order to program the vast neural networks needed to locate weak points in enemy armor within seconds, a brilliant young member of the design team, Konstantin Belousov volunteered to program the network by interfacing his own brain with it directly. The experiment was a success, and the newly-programmed terror drone destroyed vehicles 94% faster than its predecessors. However, Belousov quickly fell into dementia after the experiment and was finally arrested in a subway after attacking passers-by with a cattle prod. His condition was officially attributed to stress, and the Bureau of Robotics has refused to comment on whether later versions of the Terror Drone are still controlled via human interface.
==Game Unit==
Despite being built by the war factory, Terror Drones have more in common with infantry, being able to be carried by troop transports, healed like infantry, swim and taken out by a single bullet from specialized anti-infantry units such as Natasha Volkova and Shinobis. Its role is somewhat in a par with Spy and Shinobi, as all of them are saboteurs (although Terror Drones can sabotage vehicles while the Spy and Shinobi can sabotage buildings). Due to their small size, terror drones are extremely nimble, capable of outrunning most vehicles and infantry. In addition to making it easier to dive into enemy vehicles, this also makes them good scouts. However, this also means that they are very fragile and can be easily destroyed by anti-infantry fire if they fail to close the distance or escape in time. Their small size allows five of them to fit in a Twinblade or a Bullfrog and enjoy additional mobility. Being amphibious, not even aquatic units are safe from them. The only units they are completely helpless against are aircraft, so care should be taken to avoid them.
A vehicle can be infected by only one Terror Drone at any given time. During an infection, vehicles that can transform or unpack into buildings have these abilities disabled. EMP and cryo weapons have no effect on the Terror Drone inside. If the drone manages to infect and destroy an airborne unit, the drone reappears on the ground completely unharmed.
Terror Drone can be removed by the following means:
* Repair Drones
* Repair Multigunner IFVs, and repair Multigunner turrets
* Dolphin's forced attack on the infested unit.
* Stingray's special ability
* Natasha's forced attack on the ground behind the unit.
* Wave-Force Artillery's forced attack on the ground behind the unit (Any charge level)
** Infested Wave-Force Artillery can clear its own infestation by attacking with any charge level.
* Future Tank X-1's normal attack.
* If Magnetic satellite is used on an infected heavy vehicle like Apocalypse Tanks, the Terror Drone will be sucked out and the infection will end. This can also be used on all units, provided that the infected vehicle is unaffected by the ability.
Since terror drones can be removed by repair drones, one strategy to prevent this is to have one drone paralyze an enemy vehicle using its Stasis Ray, and then have another dive into the vehicle. Terror Drones are effective at harassing enemy collectors as long as walls do not get in the way, since they cannot get around these structures.
The Terror Drone Surprise Protocol may cause a Soviet vehicle to spawn one upon destruction and easily ambush an unsuspecting opponent.
===Abilities===
	Electro-Stasis Ray	The Terror Drone switches to a ranged weapon that prevents enemy vehicles from moving. Also disables transformation and deployment abilities.
	Dismantler Claws 	The Terror Drone switches to its main weapon, allowing it to infect vehicles and kill infantry.
==Changelog==
*Red Alert 3 beta patch 1.3: 
**will now damage aircraft in the air; previously they would stop damaging an aircraft once it became airborne
**damage against nanocores reduced by 40%.
*Red Alert 3 beta patch 1.5:
**can no longer be killed by a unit once the terror drone is inside of it
**fixed armour set
*Red Alert 3 patch 1.05:
**fixed a bug where the terror drone would maintain its stasis ray even though it switched to dismantler claws
**fixed a bug where the terror drone was receiving a garrison cursor when hovering over civilian buildings in the shroud
**will now properly grey out the unpack command of an enemy unit affected by the stasis ray
**fixed a bug where the terror drone would sometimes have difficulty garrisoning inside a Twinblade
**Twinblades will no longer be damaged when picking up a vehicle infected with a terror drone
*Red Alert 3 patch 1.11: vision range in stasis ray mode increased
==Gallery==
RA3 TerrorDrone2sm.jpg|Concept art
RA3 TerrorDrone1sm.jpg|Ditto
Terrordronesmall.png
==Videos==
==References==
Category:Red Alert 3 vehicles