MLDs in action
What just blew up our vehicles? Artilery? Orbital bombardment? Oh...no, it was a bunch of metal bugs. Huh.
—A Rebel officer upon witnessing MLDs in action
The Mobile Limpet Drone, often just called the MLD, was a robotic Imperial combat drone designed for use against vehicles. When deployed, it would seek a target and then attach itself to said target. After a few seconds, it would explode. Such was the explosive power of the MLD that a single one could comfortably take out a light tank. For hardier vehicles, MLDs would often attack in unison. To counter enemy fire, MLDs were made as soundless and small as possible, meaning that enemies would have a hard time spotting them, but usually Imperial commanders would simply deploy them in swarms. They had simple programming for the sake of mass production, but this also meant that captured versions could easily be repogrammed for use against Imperial vehicles. For this reason, the Empire did not choose to use them in widespread campaigns, but FIST made very heavy use of them. However, by the end of the Galactic Civil War, they were largely obsolete, but were still in use amongst criminals and a few very desperate Imperial remnant groups.