Athena Cannon

The Athena Cannon is an artillery unit unique to the Future Alliance, which relays a target for the Mercury satellite to strike with a powerful laser attack.

One of the more interesting concepts to be fleshed out in the Future Alliance arsenal is the Athena Cannon. A large, but fragile vehicle that uses its communication devices to connect with the Mercury Satellite and give it information about the enemy location so that the weapon can adjust to the new coordinates and perform a powerful orbital laser strike.

In comparison to the Mercury Strike controlled through the primary Uplink structure, the more precise coordinates set thanks to the use of mobile units in the field make the attacks requested by the Athena Cannon more focused and allow the satellite to deal more damage to enemy structures. However, the radius of such attack is smaller than the one the Allied commanders can order with the control building alone. Nevertheless, while the power of an Athena-controlled Mercury attack is great, it might be tricky to use against moving objects due to the activation lag.

The Athena Cannon's attack has a short pre-delay due to the need to recalibrate the satellite's location and angle, however if a Mercury Strike has previously been used in the vicinity of Athena Cannons' current position, their attack power will further be increased for a short while.

Alternatively, an Athena Cannon can order a satellite to fire at its mounted collector dish, allowing it to absorb the energy of the beam and project an "Aegis" energy shield, which protects it and any surrounding units from enemy fire. The shield does hinder movement, however and the Athena must remain immobile while the shield is up.