Stinger

Fan-made image by VileRancour.

The Zoq-Fot-Pik Stinger is a light vessel which can outrun and outmaneuver most other ships but cannot sustain much damage.

Propulsion

The Stinger is a fast ship with excellent acceleration and turning speed.

Armament

Primary

The Stinger's main weapon is a spray of minute anti-matter particles which annihilate a tiny portion of the enemy ship's hull releasing colossal amounts of heat and light.¹ In combat, the cannon is wildly inaccurate, but it can be employed as an interceptor to neutralize incoming fire.

Secondary

The Zoq-Fot-Pik's secondary weapon is a point-blank range attack. Should the Stinger maneuver adjacent to an enemy vessel, it can quickly extend a rigid, alloy tube from the front of the ship, similar to an insect's proboscis. If the tube strikes the enemy ship's exterior, it bores a tiny hole through the hull metal and injects a high-pressure stream of hot plasma into the interior of the vessel, inflicting massive amounts of damage.

Tactical Overview

Against ships like the Mycon Podship and the Ilwrath Avenger, this ship is a force to be reckoned with. Its superior speed and maneuverability enable it to attack such vessels with impunity.

Stinger also works well against the Yehat Terminator (especially computer-controlled), because its pea shooter's range is a little bit greater than that of Terminator's cannon. Get the Yehat chasing you, match speeds, turn around and shoot; when the shields are depleted, you'll inflict some damage. Repeat until kill.

A careless Ur-Quan pilot who underestimates the Stinger and tries to launch a lot of fighters to take it out without much effort may suffer badly - a good salvo of pellets can take away an entire wing of fighters.

Against most ships, a "tongue attack" is suicide, and showering the opponent with little anti-matter pellets is more potent, but on occasion it's fun to charge in and "lick 'em good", and against mega-ships like the Chmmr Avatar, it's your only chance to inflict any damage at all.

The tongue can intercept heavy enemy shots. It is not hard to use it to knock out a plasmoid from a Mycon Podship or a blade from a Kohr-Ah Marauder. It can even be used to block a fusion blast from an Ur-Quan Dreadnought, though this is a much harder shot. The tongue will not beat the fully charged, red projectile of a Melnorme Trader, nor will it disrupt a Kohr-Ah F.R.I.E.D..

Notes and references

¹The Zoq-Fot-Pik refer once to the weapon as a "spray gun." The source code refers to the bullets launched by the primary weapon as "spit."

3DO Zoq-Fot-Pik Stinger Basic stats Crew: 10 Value: 6 pts Battery: 10 Batt. Regeneration: 0.2 units/frame Armament Primary: Antimatter spray gun Secondary: Tongue attack Refire delay: 1 frames Refire delay: 6 frames Energy use: 1 units Energy use: 7 units Propulsion Max speed: 40 world units/frame Turn rate: 0.5 facings/frame Acceleration: 10 units/frame Mass: 5