Name: Floater
First Encountered: First Alien War
Designation: Lightly armed flying alien soldier race
Known Sub-categories: Soldier, Navigator, Engineer, Medic, Leader, Commander
Frankly, not much is know about Floater's as a race or even as a xeno-biological lifeform in general. After massive bio-reengineering by an obviously far technologically superior race (Ethereal's? Sectoid's?) what is left of the original biological structure is of little use in research conducted in relation to establishing a genotype or prior evolutionary progress. Our scientist's are even unsure as to whether the original mode of locomotion for the floater's was bipedal or as in the case of Snakemen hydraulically unipedal and future research will hinge on the aquisition of new specimen's which does not seem likely since the end of the First Alien War.
What can be briefly summarized is the odd means of locomotion (from which "floater's" draw their name) which involves a massively miniaturized gravitic lift generator much like the ones developed for Hovertank series Heavy Weapons Platform's. This unit, which takes up the majority of the body cavity, allows the creature to float in any direction through the air and hover at need though the power source for this device remains rather problematic.
There are no real specific weaknesses that can be capitalized on in regards to the Floater, though in general it is not difficult to kill with even standard conventional weapons. It has been conjectured by D-Block researcher's that the Floater's may have been a relatively new and abortive experimental race initiated by a "higher" (conjectured) intelligence and since abandoned as being not noticeably more effective in combat than the Muton or Snakeman. The fact that XCOM has not had any further contact (since the First Alien War) with this alien race seems to support this hypothesis.
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