History Main / BoarDingPod

Subtrope of BoardingParty and ThereWasADoor, and the [[SisterTrope ship-to-ship version]] of a DropPod. May be part of a StandardSciFiFleet and may be used in a HighSpeedHijack. Contrast EscapePod, which is when the pod is for getting ''off'' the ship, and RammingAlwaysWorks for a more direct form of attack.

** At the start of the ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' expansion ''Knights of the Fallen Empire'', Darth Marr's flagship is boarded by Eternal Empire skytroopers using pods launched from their warships. In the third mission of ''Knights of the Eternal Throne'', the PlayerCharacter returns the favor when Vaylin attempts to capture the ''[[CoolStarship Gravestone]]'', using a boarding pod to get aboard from an Alliance cruiser and retake the ship.

* ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'': A variant appears in ''Heir to the Empire]]''. Grand Admiral Thrawn uses mole miners, airtight digging vehicles he stole from Lando Calrissian earlier in the book, to drill into the control centers of a number of mothballed warships at the Sluis Van shipyard and commandeer them for his fleet. [[spoiler:Lando foils this by using his administrator commands to re-engage the mole miners' plasma torches, barbecuing Thrawn's boarding parties.]]

Fear not, for TropeCo/TropeCo has come to the rescue with the Boarding Pod, which allows an enterprising commander to stuff some troopers into a hollow missile and ''shoot'' them at the enemy. Boarding pods are usually single-use weapons that penetrate the target ship's hull by brute force, [[DungeonBypass bypassing defenses]] and unloading SpaceMarines in unexpected places. Alternatively they attach to the hull and cut through it with saws or fusion torches or what-have-you. They may or may not have their own propulsion systems and guidance, though those that do have advantages (since {{space is big}}, it's easier to hit the target when you can adjust your trajectory).

* ''Anime/GallForce II'' had Solonoid fighters designed to penetrate the shields of Paranoid ships and fire pods containing PoweredArmor-wearing cyborgs into them at close range.

* The page picture comes from the ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' companion comics to ''VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed II'', where an unidentified TIE variant fires several of these to get Terror Troopers aboard the Rebel frigate ''Salvation''.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': Franchise/WonderWoman's rebels are seen using small sharp nosed vessels with clamp arms to board a Sangtee Empire ship after their tech crew ensures the Empire ships can't detect the approaching rebel fleet. The Empire only realizes they're under attack once their ships are breached and boarded.

* The F-117X "Remora" aircraft from ''Film/ExecutiveDecision'' has elements of this, being able to silently inject a boarding party into a flying jetliner. The system doesn't work perfectly--one of the team gets killed when they're thrown out in mid-air after the connection is broken.

* In ''[[Film/TheLastJedi Star Wars: The Last Jedi]]'', Rey uses one of the ''Millennium Falcon'''s {{escape pod}}s to board Snoke's ship, ''Supremacy''.

* ''[[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Heir to the Empire]]'' by Creator/TimothyZahn has a variant. Grand Admiral Thrawn uses mole miners, airtight digging vehicles he stole from Lando Calrissian earlier in the book, to drill into the control centers of a number of mothballed warships at the Sluis Van shipyard and commandeer them for his fleet. [[spoiler:Lando foils this by using his administrator commands to re-engage the mole miners' plasma torches, barbecuing Thrawn's boarding parties.]]
* ''Literature/TheMachineriesOfEmpire'': the Hexarchate forces use those to deliver their Shuos infiltrators, propaganda and drones into the enemy fortress.
* ''Literature/TheMoteInGodsEye''. After the Imperial battlecruiser ''[=MacArthur=]'' is taken over by Motie miniatures, the battleship ''Lenin's'' cutter is used to get a boarding party onto the ''[=MacArthur=]'' by ramming through its Langston Field and into the ship.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'':

** The third ''Literature/SpaceWolf'' novel has an {{exaggerated}} case: a Wolves warship attacks a Chaos warship with an "assault ram", whereby ''the entire ship'' becomes a boarding pod. The Wolves use a {{ramming|AlwaysWorks}} attack aided by [[ThisIsADrill a giant neutronium drill]] to penetrate the other ship's armored hull and allow their infantry to board.

* In ''Series/StargateSG1'', Replicator ships are known to board other vessels by firing a projectile composed entirely of Replicator blocks, which then rearrange themselves into combat forms.

* In the finale of ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'', the '''entire ''Galactica''''' was used as one to board a Cylon colony. In the same operation, we see that Raptors can perform as more conventional boarding pods, latching on the hull prior to cutting in with torches.

** In "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS6E23Fury Fury]]", a Vidiian cruiser attempting to board ''Voyager'' latches onto it with huge grappling cables that cut through the hull. ''Voyager'' tears off a section of hull breaking free.
* ''Series/TheExpanse'':
** In "Critical Mass", a breaching pod is shown in action when the ''Anubis'' attacks the ''Scopuli''.
** In "Doors and Corners", the OPA rig up some field-expedient breaching pods [[TrojanHorse out of cargo containers]] for the assault on Spin Station that are regarded as deathtraps--a "beer can taped to a rocket" with no means of defense other than what the ''Rocinante'' can provide.

* Flying Buffalo's ''TabletopGame/{{Berserker}}'' board game, based on Creator/FredSaberhagen's ''Literature/{{Berserker}}'' stories. The Human player has ram ships which can pierce the hull of a Berserker ship and release boarding parties inside it.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'':

* In ''TabletopGame/HcSvntDracones'' Breaching Pods are available as a variant of AttackDrone that carries passengers, such as the adventuring party, onto enemy ships.

* ''VideoGame/{{X}}'':
** ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X3: Terran Conflict]]'' and ''Albion Prelude'' allow missile frigates to fire boarding pods, and even have one that can do nothing else (though in practice the Sirokos has a CripplingOverspecialization). This has both advantages and disadvantages over spacewalk boarding: on the one hand it requires less mechanical skill for your marines to penetrate the hull[[labelnote:*]]this is particularly useful against Terran and ATF ships, which often carry tech that increases hull resistance[[/labelnote]], and the pods are a good 200 times faster than jetpacks which makes release position almost a non-issue. On the other hand you now have to distract the enemy's point-defense in addition to keeping their shields lowered[[labelnote:*]]''Albion Prelude'' makes pods not targetable to make this easier[[/labelnote]], and then there's the logistics issues since there's no factories available to build your own pods.
** Boarding pods return in ''Videogame/XRebirth'': the ''Albion Skunk'' can deploy dozens of boarding pods for marines to attack capital ships. They're significantly slower this time around, but since pods are now one-man affairs, [[WeHaveReserves losing one isn't the end of the world]]. Pilots will also use boarding pods when claiming abandoned ships.
* A specialty of the Zuul (whose species name means "pirate" in their own language) in ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars''. Other species can research them but only specialized ships can carry them, while the Zuul mount them on other ship classes and get the tech for free. While [[PointDefenseless PD missiles]] are generally good at quickly taking care of the pods, if even one latches onto the hull of a ship (even a massive dreadnought), it will be taken over in a matter of seconds. A bit of FridgeLogic, as this implies that a crew of thousands can't fight off a few dozen enemy marines.
* Used by the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Covenant]] in ''Franchise/{{Halo}}''. They first appear in the opening level of ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'', where they are, naturally enough, deploying troops onto our heroes' ship. They repeat this in ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'', boarding three of the space stations in Earth's orbital defense grid to blow them up and open a hole for the Prophet of Regret's flagship.
* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'': At the start of the ''Knights of the Fallen Empire'' expansion, Darth Marr's flagship is boarded by Eternal Empire skytroopers using pods launched from their warships. In the third mission of ''Knights of the Eternal Throne'', the PlayerCharacter returns the favor when Vaylin attempts to capture the ''[[CoolStarship Gravestone]]'', using a boarding pod to get aboard from an Alliance cruiser and retake the ship.
* ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'' features the SpacePirates using strangely organic versions of these to attack and swarm the GFS ''Olympus'' during the ActionPrologue, and they are also present attached to the derelict GFS ''Valhalla.'' Scanning them reveals that they are practically ArmoredCoffins, as the explosives use to breach the hull frequently go off prematurely or are improperly directed.
* One part of ''Warhammer 40,000: VideoGame/FireWarrior'' has Shas'la Kais fighting off Imperial Guard stormtroopers who entered an ''Emissary''-class cruiser with these.
* In mission two of ''VideoGame/TheBabylonProject's'' "The Raider Wars" campaign, the Raiders attack an Earth Alliance freighter convoy, destroying some ships with fighters and attempting to HighSpeedHijack the others with breaching pods.
* ''VideoGame/StarTrekArmada'' has Klingon ''[=SuQ'Jagh=]'' assault ships that can launch boarding pods capable of penetrating any shields.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'', the Grineer make use of "Ramsleds", which are capable of punching through the hulls of both Corpus and Tenno ships to deploy a full squad inside. When siding with the Grineer in Invasion missions, the player may get an opportunity to use one themselves at the level's midpoint. Generally, any ship larger than a fighter will be able to deploy at least one Ramsled. The Corpus and Tenno also make use of boarding parties when in pitched space combat, but handle the delivery of said parties differently (Portals for the Corpus, and either phasing through the hull or entering through the airlock for the Tenno and simply slingshotting their frames through the hulls of ships).

* ''VideoGame/SpaceHulk'' has the Blood Angels board the space hulk ''Sin of Damnation'' with boarding torpedoes. The first mission has the player working to secure a beachhead.
* In ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight'', you or your enemies can launch boarding drones, an AttackDrone that pierces the hull and automatically starts destroying/killing everything in its path. They're very hard to kill, being as tough as the Rockmen with the offensive capabilities of a Mantis, and if they are killed the ship can just fire another. In the Advanced Edition, ion drones also exist, which shut down systems and stun crewmembers. Getting regular crew over is done by transporters.
* ''[[VideoGame/GarrysMod Spacebuild]]'' has assault pods that can launch players into enemy spaceships.

* Naturally present in ''VideoGame/BattlefleetGothicArmada'', a RealTimeStrategy game based on ''TabletopGame/BattlefleetGothic''. The JustifiedTutorial has the player's Imperial cruiser use its boarding torpedoes to send troops aboard a space station that has been taken over by Chaos.
** The feature returns in ''VideoGame/BattlefleetGothicArmada2'' in a variety of forms. Regular boarding assaults deploy swarms of single-use pods to deliver their payload, ships with launch bays can unleash squadrons of assault boats for boarding actions at long range[[note]]these vessels are normally reusable in the fluff, but in this game they're also one-shot[[/note]], and Adeptus Astartes ships can use unique boarding torpedoes with slight homing capabilities that're launched from torpedo tubes. Each method varies in its range, the amount of troops it deploys, as well as the type of countermeasures it has to defeat to reach its target.

* Starkiller witnesses the boarding action shown in the page image, from ''inside'' the ship being boarded in ''VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed II''.
* ''Videogame/HeatSignature'': All the available vessels are variations of these, which can quietly plug into a ship's airlock without alerting any systems and let the pilot board the ship for covert operations. Only one of them can actually ''breach'' ships to board them through the hole, but needless to say this is [[WithCatlikeTread less than subtle and immediately raises alarms]].

* The ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' fan film ''WebAnimation/{{Astartes}}'' opens with an Impulsor Squad of [[SpaceMarine Retributor Astartes]] boarding a rebel spacecraft via a Caestus Assault Ram, including a POV of the Ram itself up to the moment of impact with the hull.

* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' Petey has been known to use [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2005-03-25 this tactic]] [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2005-04-18 on occasion]]. The equipment they use is generally referred to as "boarding party favors," and it's one of the mercenaries' favorite jobs.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' featured these in the second season climax. Each pod was loaded with cloned Ultimen, and had triple buzzsaws for cutting through the Watchtower's hull. But given that their goal was shooting down the Watchtower, the [[FridgeLogic question has to be asked why they didn't just fire normal missiles]].

--> -- '''Literature/CiaphasCain''', ''The Emperor's Finest''

* Starkiller witnesses the boarding action shown in the page image, from ''inside'' the ship being boarded in ''VideoGame/TheForceUnleashedII''.
* ''Videogame/HeatSignature:'' All the available vessels are variations of these, which can quietly plug into a ship's airlock without alerting any systems and let the pilot board the ship for covert operations. Only one of them can actually ''breach'' ships to board them through the hole, but needless to say this is [[WithCatlikeTread less than subtle and immediately raises alarms]].

* The TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 fan film ''WebAnimation/{{Astartes}}'' opens with an Impulsor Squad of [[SpaceMarines Retributor Astartes]] boarding a rebel spacecraft via a Caestus Assault Ram, including a POV of the Ram itself up to the moment of impact with the hull.

* In ''Anime/OutlawStar'', the titular ship has an extendable boarding tube in its nose that can be used to punch through the armor of an enemy ship while grappling it and let Gene go aboard in order to confront its crew in person. He uses it on two separate occasions. The single-seat fighters used by pirates are sometimes seen trying to attach themselves to enemy ships using harpoons, presumable in order to let them board (but they're always destroyed before they can do anything of the sort).

* In ''Series/StargateSG1'' Replicator ships are known to board other vessels by firing a projectile composed entirely of Replicator blocks, which then rearrange themselves into combat forms.
* ''Series/BabylonFive''
** In "Severed Dreams" President Clark's forces use boarding pods in their attempt to retake the station from the heroes. They turn up a couple other times as well. As a side note, the Earth Force breaching pods share some obvious design traits with the [[StarFighter Starfuries]], implying that the two share a basic underlying design. This makes sense when you think about it a bit, because a boarding pod ''would'' have basically the same maneuvering requirements as a starfighter, just not as intense.
** Used for covert infiltration in "The Gathering" when a Minbari assassin uses a one-man breaching pod (he was originally going to use a changeling net to alter his appearance and just enter B5 normally, but had to change his plans).

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}''. In "PK Tech Girl", Sheyang SpacePirates launch one-man versions from a giant rotary launcher on their vessel, through only one is able to penetrate the DeflectorShields of the vessel they are attacking.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''
** In "Maneuvers", the Kazon use a shuttle with a modified bow to smash through Voyager's hull so they can steal some of Voyager's advanced technology, much to the surprise of their NativeGuide Neelix who says he's never heard of them using such technology. It's a sign that their former foe Seska is back and is using her knowledge to help the Kazon.
** In "Fury", a Vidiian cruiser attempting to board Voyager latches onto it with huge grappling cables that cut through the hull. Voyager tears off a section of hull breaking free.
* ''Series/TheExpanse''

[[folder:Web Comics]]

** In "Severed Dreams" President Clark's forces use them when attempting to retake the station from the heroes. They turn up a couple other times as well. Incidentally, the Earth Force breaching pods share some obvious design traits with the [[StarFighter Starfuries]], implying they've been modified from that design.

* ''LightNovel/RebornAsASpaceMercenaryIWokeUpPilotingTheStrongestStarship'': The "suppression ship" introduced in volume 4 is a vehicle consisting of little more than a crew compartment, an engine, and a NighInvulnerable DeflectorShield (Hiro hits it with an AlphaStrike from the ''Krishna'' and can't even dent it), as well as a shield neutralizer module to punch through opposing shields. It's designed to send a BoardingParty aboard opposing capital ships for sabotage operations; Balthazar Daleinwald uses it to board Count Abraham Daleinwald's mothership in an attempt to DungeonBypass the fleet the Count gathered to fend off his younger son's attempted MilitaryCoup and settle matters with a DuelToTheDeath.

* ''Literature/TheMoteInGodsEye''. After the Imperial battlecruiser ''[=MacArthur=]'' is taken over by Motie miniatures, the battleship ''Lenin's'' cutter is used to get a boarding party onto the ''[=MacArthur=]'' by ramming through its Langston Field and into the ship.
* In ''Literature/StarCarrier: Deep Space'' a battalion of USNA Marines use one-man pods to board a Slan warship to rescue a captured fighter pilot. The pods use the setting's ubiquitous nanotech to disassemble their way through the hull.
* ''[[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Heir to the Empire]]'' by Creator/TimothyZahn has a variant. Grand Admiral Thrawn uses mole miners, airtight digging vehicles he stole from Lando Calrissian earlier in the book, to drill into the control centers of a number of mothballed warships at the Sluis Van shipyard and commandeer them for his fleet. [[spoiler:Lando foils this by using his administrator commands to re-engage the mole miners' plasma torches, barbecuing Thrawn's boarding parties.]]
* ''Literature/TheMachineriesOfEmpire'': the Hexarchate forces use those to deliver their Shuos infiltrators, propaganda and drones into the enemy fortress.
* ''Literature/RedRising'': Star Shells are massive armored pods launched at ships and [[ItsRainingMen planets]].
* ''Literature/{{Starsnatcher}}'': In this setting, boarding pods are torpedo-shaped crafts with explosive tips to punch through enemy hulls. The crews are immersed in a viscous gel that cushions impact forces. The pods are only deployed once the enemy ship is too damaged for defensive maneuvers. To protect the crews from point defenses, it is standard to spam unmanned probes shielding the manned ones.

* In ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight'', you or your enemies can launch boarding drones, which cause a hull breach where they land, then start blasting things. In the Advanced Edition, ion drones also exist, which shut down systems and stun crewmembers. Getting regular crew over is done by transporters.

* In the the {{MMORPG}} ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'', at least two flashpoint missions ("The Black Talon" and "The Esseles") feature the players defending against boarding pods or boarding other ships via boarding pods.