Zealot Torpedo Boat

**Key Features** | »Improvised explosive charge»Long stick»Reckless crew»Compartment filled with gunpowder»Rosary in case reloading goes wrong

*"Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"*

- Torpedo Boat Captain
## Tactical Analysis

* **CHARRRRRRRRRGEEEEEEE!:** The spar torpedo is a surprisingly dangerous weapon for all that it amounts to a bomb on a stick. It can inflict serious damage to all but mighty capital ships, and the Zealot is swift enough to ensure that even if the ship does not survive the retaliation, it can most likely make its perilous charge successfully.

* **Rearming in progress, Do not disturb:** Reloading the torpedo is a dangerous and time-consuming endeavour for all but the most experienced crews, and must be ordered manually. The ship is helpless while reloading, so Crusaders should take care. However, veteran crews can carry out this operation far more quickly.

* **We will soon join God in heaven:** Zealots have their limitations. Although swift, they are fragile by Talon standards and have no weapon bar their torpedo. Reloading leaves them helpless, and like so many Talon units, the Zealots cannot defend themselves against air attack.

* **My life for god!:** Zealots, in their time, would learn to further refine their techniques. From pretending to be a civilian boat while reloading (making them essentially invisible), learning of the capital ship's weakpoints to strike for maximum damage, additional fuel and tubes that let them leave a lingering gift and ram two more times before reloading, and finally mastering their bluff that everyone ignored what looks like a normal yacht, even as their ships suddenly begins sinking (at least until stealth detection finds their stash of explosives).

## Operational History

The **Zealot Torpedo Boat** is one of the simplest, least hectic, yet most dangerous and risky ways of dealing with enemy vessels. It is cheap, easy to mass-produce, and very deadly. What is their secret, you may ask?

The answer is simple: There are very few problems in the world that cannot be solved by the liberal application of high explosives.

The Zealot Torpedo Boat takes this philosophy up to eleven Possibly the simplest unit in production anywhere in the world, the Zealot is simply a speedboat with a long stick on the front. Onto the end of this is strapped a large keg of gunpowder, RDX, and whatever other high explosives the Talon crew can get their hands on. The crew, selected from the Fanatics for their unshakable faith and willingness to do nearly anything, are expected to close the distance with enemy vessels quickly and ram them, then detonate their deadly payload directly into the sides of the enemy ship. The results speak for themselves.

**KABLAM!!**

The enemy ship is almost always crippled or even outright destroyed in the ensuing blast. In the confusion that follows, the Zealot will slip away from the stricken vessel to reload its torpedo spar, a time-consuming process that leaves the Zealot quite vulnerable if the enemy swallows their pride and goes a'hunting for the cowards that would dare do such a thing. Zealot crews are quite fatalistic as a result, and veteran crews often take their jobs quite seriously. Those crews who have survived for any significant period of time are known to become much more efficient when it comes to reloading their torpedo spars.

## Behind the Scenes

* This unit was probably inspired by boats that did similar jobs during the United States' Civil War, and it was then that the floating *"mine"* we know today was dubbed a *"torpedo"*, leading to Admiral David Farragut's famous quote *"Damn the torpedoes! Full Steam Ahead!"* on which this unit's signature quote is based. More recently, the USS Cole was sabotaged while in port at Aden by Al-Qaeda operatives using a boat similar to this one.