Sectopod

General Information

The Sectopod "Walker" is, perhaps, one of the most dangerous terror units X-COM has come up against. Their armour is nearly impervious to all weaponsfire, but they appear to be vulnerable to lasers.

Sectopods are seen in the company of Ethereals in base defenses and terror missions. Beware, their weapon is a chin-mounted dual-heavy plasma, which can make short work of any enemy of the Sectopod in seconds.

Every Sectopod is nearly completely identical and is built not only for self-sufficient commands and operation, but also psychic/psionic manipulation - an Ethereal could potentially control a Sectopod as if it were it's own body, from millions of miles away.

If X-COM ground forces encounter Sectopods on Earth, it will usually be during an assualt by the aliens on a Human Base, or terror site. Terror attacks by Ethereals are the most dangerous for both civilians and X-COM units - apart from having to deal with their psionic abilities, we also have to fight against Sectopods themselves.

Autopsy

The Sectopod appears to be capable of selfsustained propulsion and attack. It's "brain", whilst small compared to modern electronics, is incredibly powerful, anywhere from 5 to 10, to even 20 times as powerful as standard Earth processors. This may be a machine, but it is a machine with near sentience, it's intelligence supressed so that it does not start thinking of it's own accord.

There are signs of specialised biomechanical components, which may be used to psionically, remotely control the Sectopod. Unlike the Sectoid Cyberdisks, it's powermodule is far more robust and as such, despite our best attempts, the module cannot, and will not explode, except where immense amounts of energy are involved.

Whilst it is nearly impervious to most damage types, it's "screen" has the "unfortunate" effect of amplifying lasers that strike, making them do considerable amounts of damage to the circuitry and mechanical "brain". It is elerium powered.