Second, and much more importantly, the Hatchlings are used to breach key areas of enemy vessels. This task is accomplished through their powerful welding laser (8D damage). Once activated the droids proceed to cut holes into vital areas of resistance, especially the cockpit and gun wells. The Hatchlings typically only slice a 0.3 meter diameter hole, but the gap is of sufficient size to insert stun grenades to clear the immediate area.

DEXTERITY 2D, Blaster 5D, blaster: welding tools 7D, dodge 4D, KNOWLEDGE 1D, MECHANICAL 1D, PERCEPTION 2D, Search 4D, STRENGTH 4D, TECHNICAL 1D

EQUIPPED WITH: Repulsorlift + thruster package (allows movement in atmosphere with a flight ceiling of 10 meters, thruster package allows movement in space), Six arms, Welding lasers (0.3 meter range, 8D damage), Various repair appendages (fitted for specific missions), Broadband transmitter/receiver package, Repair database (adds +1D to all repair rolls to spacecraft)

MOVE: 6 (in atmosphere) / 15 (space), SIZE: 2 meters long, COST: 2,050

Invariably the stun grenades are soon followed by folded up TS-Arach droids. The small profile of the pest control units makes them ideal for this function. Thanks to their acoustic signalling, the crew refers to the small spider droids as "tweeters". Once inside, the tweeters proceed to sweep the ship ahead of the marines. Tweeters use their motion and lifeform sensors to locate and stun any enemy crewers. Each tweeter is equipped with an upgraded blaster pistol with 100 rounds of ammunition, an ultrasonic communications device and a comlink with a low-quality video feed.

While they aren't particularly bright, the tweeters follow a simple model of rendering unconscious any lifeform that is not a boarder. Due to their roots as agricultural patrol droids, the tweeters categorize MDPC crewers as "good bugs" and everyone else as "bad bugs". It is important to note that the TS-Arach droids are not fully reprogrammed as security droids. Their primary purpose is as search-and-destroy farmland patrol drones. The Silver Hawk's engineers simply corrupted the droids' identifaction database so that sentient lifeforms were cross-referenced as agricultural pests. This avoided the much more difficult task of directly disabling the tweeters' life protection programming. Mon Calamari, Quarren, Givin and Duro are always identified as "good bugs". Those species are never fired upon, although their presence is still logged.

The marines have control gauntlets through which they can issue simple commands to the tweeters. The gauntlets include a small vidscreen so the marines can see what the tweeters see. Typically the tweeters are sent ahead in clusters to scan for traps and enemy resistance. The agridroids will mindlessly clamber through ductwork or patrol down hallways, but they are very thorough in their search for hostiles. As it turns out, big dangerous sentients tend to be much easier to find than thumbnail-sized maize mites. Since the TS-Arach units were designed as farmland drones, they are completely fearless in the face of their own destruction. Some of the older units have actually become more stealthy and exhibit better awareness of sneaking up on their prey. These units also tend to whistle and chirp amongst themselves in acoustic signals, adopting what might be considered a pack hunting mentality. It is not clear if the Merendata designers actually intended the droids to work this way in groups, or if the droids have acquired this behavior because of their hotwired databases and lack of memory wipes.