First Impressions: Scorpion SRV
10 Dec 2021Streya Jormagdnir
When the Vodel advertisement first hit the holos a few days ago, there was much buzz in the mercenary community about what its capabilities will be. Sure, the advertisement looked nice, but advertisements always look nice. Weapons manufacturers always want to make their equipment look shiny and at the peak of their performance, but how does Vodel's SRV Scorpion do in the mud?I got together with my buddy CMDR Arsen Cross for some preliminary tests. Being the most skilled and well-equipped ground combatant I've encountered to date, it was a worthy test! Preliminary tests seemed to show the main cannon having a very wide spread when initially spinning up, making it less useful against smaller targets like individual infantry. And for some reason, while the missiles work fine against most combatants, the fuse sometimes goes off prematurely for some target types (namely our ships and CMDR Cross himself). All of this left me feeling a bit down about the SRV Scorpion after its much-anticipated release in the merc community.
So I took it to a war in the Chemaluk system to see how it does in a live-fire environment against common troops, rather than against other top-tier CMDRs capable of dodging and weaving in their jump packs. And I have to say it doesn't disappoint as a combat vehicle! You will need to spool up the main gun for it to start hitting troops, but once it does it begins to shred, and it can lay down an impressive field of suppressing fire for an extended period. While the Scarab's guns perform better at range, the Scorpion's can lock down a street intersection with its rapid-fire saturation. The missiles could use some work in being smarter and going over cover, but they put the fear of death into the enemy either way.
Where the SRV Scorpion was much more impressive, however, is in its anti-vehicle capabilities. This thing almost feels like it was never meant to fight troops, but rather act as a mobile anti-air and anti-vehicle platform. This thing shredded through the shields of our engineered Krait and Python in private testing, and in live testing on the battlefield was punching through the Frontline dropship Vultures' shields (to the point where their turrets began firing on my Scorpion!). The shield durability is also much more impressive than the Scarab's being almost four times stronger; the armoring however is only about 50% stronger and so once the shields get low you'll still want to roll to a new position. In my first testing I opted to simply bail out once the hull integrity went below 25%, since the shields gave a false sense of invulnerability the first time around.
All in all I give this vehicle a 7/10 for its impressive anti-vehicle properties, durability, and extra seat. While not invincible, it has much more durable shields to soak up incoming fire. For explorer and salvage pilots out there, you'll still want to carry a Scarab for its pulse radar and better thrusters, but if you have an extra bay the Scorpion is worth the slot! On some missions I deploy SRVs to act as resupply and recharge points and dismiss my ship to the safety of orbit, and going forward the Scorpion SRV will definitely replace the Scarab in that role. And if pirates want to drop their own special-ops squad down on me during my adventures, I now can shoot their dropship clean out of the sky!
Edit: After further review of evidence sent from CMDR Arsen Cross, the Scorpion's turret telepresence UI provides *much* more detailed information about a target, including faction and wanted status. This alone definitely ups the Scorpion to a solid 9/10; you should definitely be carrying this SRV if your business is in the Bubble. I may have also been too harsh on the Scorpion's turret, as it does get more accurate once spun up and its anti-aircraft capability alone makes it cherished. You *can* always just run troops over if your shields are charged, after all.
