Widow Mine

The widow mine was a terran support weapon, a quadrupedal device that represented the next step in Dominion automated weaponry. Controlled remotely, it was piloted into a contested area and set to activate when enemy units drew near, at which point it launched a missile that exploded in a firestorm of shrapnel to eliminate its target and any foes nearby. It was built on the lineage of the earlier terran spider mine and saw use in roles ranging from perimeter defense to political assassination.

Design and operation#

A support unit, the widow mine was a quadrupedal device standing just under half as tall as a terran wearing CMC armor. It was controlled remotely, piloted into a contested area and then set to activate when enemy units approached. Once triggered, it launched a missile designed to explode in a firestorm of shrapnel, eliminating its primary target along with any foes that happened to be nearby. These sentinel missiles were of short range and carried a fragmentation warhead that delivered superheated shrapnel to the target and the adjacent area on detonation. The missiles were assembled in an automated manufacturing plant located in the thorax of the unit.

After numerous friendly-fire incidents, widow mines were outfitted with a powerful friend-or-foe identification system loosely based on the operative algorithms present in all Crucio smart shells. The system initially worked as intended, but it did not take long for casualty rates to rise once again. The widow mine also carried a simple onboard AI for self-preservation: if it sustained crippling damage to any of its systems, an advanced heuristics recovery algorithm would run multiple simulated scenarios, reroute power from affected systems, and reprogram the unit's behavior to either complete its mission or return home for repairs.

History and development#

The widow mine was inspired by zerg burrowers and constructed around a modified version of the spider mine pioneered by Victor Kachinsky. Field tests revealed that the weapon's burrowing capabilities could be improved at nominal cost. The addition of neosteel carbide tips and sonic oscillators, which allowed each leg to vibrate independently at high speed, significantly reduced burrow times, eventually cutting them by two-thirds. The enhanced claws also saw much use in "Mine Fighting," a popular and illegal sport that pitted two of the robots against each other for credits and glory. The design was further improved through the research and development of Redell Quinton of Project Blackstone.

Widow mines were used in diverse scenarios, including perimeter defense, tactical ambushes, and political assassinations. An apocryphal record even attested to a single widow mine killing a corrupt colonial magistrate and his entourage of like-minded officials by destroying the dining room they were in. Under the reign of Valerian Mengsk, technicians who remained perplexed by the weapon's occasional misfires added more protective plating to better contain accidents and guard against unintended injuries.

Variants and culture#

Several terran factions developed their own widow mines. Mira's Mercs modified theirs to accommodate additional weaponry and explosives after a long period of destructive experimentation. The Umojan Protectorate, always fond of robotics, held an exclusive competition to craft the perfect widow mine and were thrilled to discover that the winner was still a student finishing her degree; that winning design was incorporated into their arsenal. The widow mine also held a curious place in terran culture. The robots were common pets among the upper-class households of Tyrador IX, despite the occasional gory accident that made the news, and Dominion marines were known to pit widow mines against one another in friendly scuffles at the barracks, disabling the drilling-claw upgrade and the missile launcher for the sake of balance.