Liberator

"Liberation is at hand."

- Liberator The liberator is a terran air unit introduced in StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void.

Overview
The liberator was developed to ensure terran air superiority on the battlefield and was based off of the designs of the United Earth Directorate valkyrie. Initially designed only for air combat, questions of its versatility lead to the introduction of transformation technology and a powerful air-to-ground plasma cannon. An aerial counterpart to the siege tank, the liberator is a versatile medium-sized gunship, armed with twin missile launchers to strike at clusters of aerial threats and can also deploy an anti-ground cannon after transforming into a stationary air platform. This cannon is strong enough to pierce even the armor of the Thor.

The Dominion Special Forces used advanced neosteel research to improve their liberators, giving them a more complex plating system that augmented their transformation process. These liberators are the pride of the Dominion Fleet. Some mercenaries were able to acquire liberators, though they were a rare commodity. Similarly, the Umojan Protectorate was able to develop its own version of the liberator only a few years after it was first deployed. Its wholly reimagined rear thrusters became the envy of the Dominion engineering team behind the original design.

Alexei Stukov deployed infested liberators against the forces of Amon during the End War.

Game Unit
The liberator is introduced in Legacy of the Void. The liberator attacks in two mutually exclusive combat modes, switching from one to another and back is not instant (roughly 1 second). Each liberator in the selection is ordered to target an area (liberation zone) independently. Ordering them back to anti-air mode affects all selected liberators. Liberators cannot attack buildings.

In anti-air mode, the craft is mobile, and can only deliver multi-targeting anti-air splash attacks. These anti-air splash attacks are useful against massed air units like Vikings and mutalisks.
 * Anti-air mode

In anti-ground mode, a 5(9) diameter circle area on the ground is selected (not directly beneath the craft, but anywhere within 5(9) range); once an area is selected, the liberator is immobile and can only attack units within that circle, dealing very high single-target damage (enough to kill most ground targets in one to three shots). The circle can only be repositioned by switching back to anti-air mode, and then again to anti-ground. it receives vision of the targeted location.
 * Anti-surface mode

Campaign
Although liberators do not actually appear in the Legacy of the Void single-player campaign, Amon's void shades can take the forms of liberators.

Co-op Missions
In Co-op Missions, liberators can be utilized by Amon's Forces in some missions. Raid liberators are available to Nova, while infested liberators are available for Stukov.

Nova Covert Ops
In Nova Covert Ops, the player gains the ability to construct liberators in the mission "Night Terrors." These liberators can attack structures and do bonus damage to armored units in defender mode.

Quotations

 * See: StarCraft II Liberator Quotations

Development
The liberator's AG mode originally required a tech lab attached to a starport.

Originally, when in defensive mode, the liberator gained a flat buff to its vision. This was changed to selective vision in order to make it easier for enemies to sneak around its vision and/or attack from alternate angles.

Known Variants

 * Infested liberator
 * Raid liberator

Trivia

 * The portrait of the pilot strikingly resembles Captain Lola Beck from Starship Troopers III: Marauder.
 * Lexington and Concord were the sites of battles early in the American Revolution.
 * The liberator's quotes are similar to that of the valkyrie.