The FT design bureau had a concept already in the books when Vaught asked for a means of transporting assault robots to space stations in combat. Taking a basic heavy asteroid mining transport design and adding armor, turrets, more powerful engines, and launch equipment for the robotic "grunt" assault machines was quickly accomplished and assaulting and capturing an enemy space station was revolutionized. Before the Penetrator made its appearance, grunts had been mounted and dropped from fighters, or "smuggled" close to a target station inside a normal transport. A fighter burdened with the heavy assault machine had dismal performance and speed, and a normal transport simply could not survive in an arena where the lines had already been drawn and shots were being fired. The Penetrator has the ability to survive to launch of its fighting cargo and escape back behind friendly forces.

With their predictable and relatively slow flight from an assault ship to a carrier's docking bays, grunts are easy meat for a fleet defense gun platform or the guns of a fighter, so it's vital an assault ship has friendly fighters along to destroy the defense guns and any enemy fighters before launching his cargo. The docking bays are near the rear of a carrier, so you need to release your grunts from a point where they have a clear flight to the bays. If not, they will collide with the hull of the carrier itself looking for an entry point.

Standard Railgun (RG) - 500 rounds (pilot fired)
Grunt (GRUNT) - 4 (first launcher)
Grunt (GRUNT) - 4 (second launcher)
Grunt (GRUNT) - 4 (third launcher)
Pilot Laser - 1
Laser Gunner station - 4