Dragoon (StarCraft)
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The Protoss Dragoon is a mechanized assault and support unit in the game Starcraft.
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Game Role
The Dragoon is a Protoss ranged attack quadrapedal mecha that deals medium explosive damage. The Dragoon can be upgraded for longer range, higher damage and stronger armor and shields. The Protoss Dragoon possesses 100 hit points and 80 points of plasma shielding. It has a base armor of one and is considered a large unit. One Dragoon takes up four "slots" in a Protoss shuttle, which has eight available slots in total. Creating a Dragoon requires you to have a Gateway and a Cybernetics Core.
Role in Protoss Society
Dragoons are created from Zealots who have been crippled or mortally injured in combat and are thus unable to continue fighting in their preferred manner - with a pair of psionic blades. They continue to volunteer their services, however; their crippled or mortally injured bodies are placed within large exoskeletons which contain any life-support equiment required by the individual Protoss.
Dragoons are somewhat ostracized by other Protoss, however, and they frequently see themselves as lesser units.
Until recently, the Dragoon has been the only ground Protoss unit that can fire ranged attacks. However, the Protoss Vindicator, also known as the Purifier, has appeared in StarCraft: Ghost.
Dragoon Technology
Dragoon weaponry consists of a psychically shielded bolt of antimatter, capable of being directed towards both air and ground units. The weapon is functionally similar to that of the Photon Cannon and Protoss Arbiter. The Dragoon itself is often used as a support unit for heavy ground attack units, or alternately as a multipurpose assault unit capable of being massed and sent against enemy positions.
Within the Cybernetics Core, the structure required to summon Dragoons, are the mysterious essence translators that bond the spirits of fallen Protoss to the cold metal exoskeletons of the Dragoons. Eventually, by focusing through the Khala, the fallen warriors can control the movements of the Dragoon as naturally as if they were within their former bodies.
Terran operatives often had a vested interest in Zerg and Protoss alien technology, as evidenced by the Starcraft Map of the Month scenario Deceptions, in which Kimeran Pirates steal (among other things) a data file titled "Utilizing Dragoon Technology For Human Reconstruction" from a Confederate installation.
Famous Dragoons
- Fenix
- Eredas (introduced in Enslavers: Dark Vengeance)
- Taldarin (introduced in Ressurection IV)
Fenix had said, of becoming a Dragoon: "After my unfortunate defeat, my ruined body was recovered by our brethren. I now reside within the cold, robotic shell of a Dragoon.
"There is no shame in defeat so long as the spirit is unconquered, and I am still able to serve Aiur to a degree."
References
- StarCraft homepage at Blizzard Entertainment (http://www.blizzard.com/starcraft/)
- Battle.net StarCraft Compendium (http://www.battle.net/scc/)
- Underwood, Peter, Bill Roper, Chris Metzen and Jeffrey Vaughn. StarCraft (Manual). Irvine, Calif.: Blizzard Entertainment, 1998.