Cicada

The Cicada is a flying vehicle, first seen in Unreal Tournament 2004 with the Editor's Choice Bonus Pack. It has two seats.

Pilot
The Cicada is known to be less flexible in turning than the Raptor, but it is more apt at climbing and diving. The primary fire sends a stream of rockets towards a point with limited precision. The alternate fire marks a point that will be attacked when the corresponding button is released (or the maximum capacity is reached) by up to 16 rockets. (When the primary fire button is pressed and held while the rockets are being loaded using the alternate fire button, the loading pauses.)

Gunner
The second position gives access to a rapid-firing laser cannon that is instrumental in protecting the vehicle. The gunner's HUD also marks incoming homing missiles (such as those of an AVRiL or a Raptor), which, via the gunner's alternate fire, can be lured away from the Cicada using a flare.

The Cicada is notable for continuing to hover in the air even if only the gunner (and no pilot) is present. It falls to the ground when both seats are vacant.

Tactics
The primary purpose of the Cicada is for taking out enemy Power Nodes. As a flying vehicle, it is designed to reach enemy Power Nodes before ground attackers, especially on terrain that is extremely rough and forces ground troops to detour around areas that they cannot climb over; the Cicada truly excels under such conditions. Using its secondary fire, it can mark the enemy node, and then, due to its fast ascent/descent rate, duck safely behind a hill while it loads its massive payload of rockets. However, some skill is needed in marking the node precisely while the Cicada bobs up and down in the air. This tactic of hiding behind terrain while loading rockets, coupled with a skilled gunner, makes the Cicada one of the best tools in a team's arsenal for direct node assault.

Unreal Tournament 3
"The Axon Cicada provides versatile near-air support for both offensive and defensive operations.

Dual wing-borne rotors allow for vertical takeoff and landing, hovering capability and multi-vectored propulsion. Side mounted rocket pods can be fired in quick succession to suppress a target at distance, or loaded up to 16 at a time and launched in a single volley that will home toward and annihilate its intended target. A secondary gunner position controls the underslung ball-turret plasma cannon.

The Cicadas low top speed and distinctive flight signature make it a ready target for anti-vehicle rockets so the secondary gunner also has chaff defensive countermeasures available."

- UT3 manual

Using the Cicada
The Cicada is best used with a pilot and a gunner. The pilot controls the side-mounted dual rocket pods and can either spam random death from above with individual rockets or lock on to a target to load up and fire up to 16 rockets at once. The gunner's main task is watching for incoming AVRiL rockets and keep them away using the secondary chaff fire mode. The turret's primary beam fire mode provides additional fire power against ground-based targets and at least some defense against attacking flying vehicles as long as they stay below the Cicada. If there is only one player in the vehicle, and you switch to the gunner seat, the craft will continue to hover in the air at the spot where you switched seats. Press the 1 key to switch back and continue flight. If you dont have someone in the second seat, you can quickly switch to deploy the chaff countermeasures and switch back which might save your skin.

Going against the Cicada
A Cicada with an experienced gunner can be quite a problem for ground-based players, since its chaff will lure AVRiLs away from it. The best vehicle to use against a Cicada, probably is the Raptor, since its rockets are not affected by the chaff.