Drone Harbinger

The Drone Harbinger  is a Tau vehicle that is not designed to directly engage enemy forces, but instead act as a mobile Drone factory and hangar that is able to transport and deploy Gun Drones where needed on the field of battle. Once deployed, the Drones disperse and attack any enemies that come within range, or can be directed to attack a specific target. However, each Drone produced by a Drone Harbinger only has a limited supply of energy to act upon before it is depleted and the Drone deactivates.

Construction/Crew
The overall design of the Drone Harbinger is based off the ubiquitous Devilfish chassis, which consists of a sleek and light design powered by complex dual anti-gravitic and jet-propulsion motive systems so that the vehicle almost glides over a planet's surface. The anti-gravitic engines generate "cushions" of air which the Drone Harbinger floats upon, and its armoured bulk is then driven forwards by its two powerful multi-directional jet engines mounted on the rear sides of the hull. By pivoting the propulsion units downwards, a Drone Harbinger pilot can gain extra lift to clear the many obstacles and terrain that often litters a battlefield; obstacles that more mundane tracked vehicles can never hope to traverse. These jet engines are reliable and efficient compared to Imperial designs, but are still relatively noisy. There are also two lift fins mounted on the front of the tank, each with a weapon cupola always filled with a Gun Drone. This is the Drone Harbingers only offensive armament.

Most of the space within the tank is taken up by production and storage facilities for its Drones, and the rear half of the vehicle has been enlarged to account for this. As such, a Drone harbinger cannot carry troops. However, the vehicle does features a hatches on each side to allow the crew inside to disembark if necessary. The rear features a pair of deployment hatches for produced Drones.

A Drone Harbingers primary sensors are located in an array under the tank's forward housing in the vehicle's nose. The armour of the vehicle is made from a dense nano-crystalline metal, named Fio'tak in the Tau Lexicon, that is light, malleable, strong and corrosive resistant, reducing the weight of the vehicle whilst also providing excellent protection.

Trivia

 * The Drone Harbinger is a unit only featured in the Dawn of War PC game series.