Spirit

Spirit is an enemy most frequently found in Vaculab.

Alpha Lore (unlocked by killing Alpha variants)
Spike Aeration Unit.

After the sharp decline in National Soil Health continued into the early 2030s, the Corp's award-winning Lawn Health division was directly contracted to develop an autonomous answer to the deepening soil crisis. Their answer became the symbol of Ultimate Hope for a population in soil-related turmoil, and so the Spirit was born. This quadrupedal mechanobeast roams the land in search of low soil quality, and extracts trace units of energy from the soil it aerates to keep itself going.

Beta Lore (unlocked by killing Beta variants)
In the same way that a traditional, organic cow grazes in a pasture, the Spirit grazes in this great nation of ours. It wanders the land, resolute in its soil-enhancing purpse. It does not waver, and it does not despair. Improved models gained the ability to phone home for instructions when failing to detect sufficiently low-quality soil, but the early models without this trait simply go into sleep mode, or wander in a straight line. A Spirit knows that failure to find unhealthy soil is the greatest achievement, and so it does not worry when no soil is found for a long span of time.

Gamma Lore (unlocked by killing Gamma variants)
The Spirit was a noble beast, constructed for a noble cause, and it carried out its duties with the grace of the loveliest princess. Enough were produced that, despite the world's other troubles, any country developed enough to have purchased more than a scant few Spirits has achieved record-breaking soil quality, and so the retired models were acquired by Control on the cheap. Contractor resistance to Spike Aeration is an important feature to any potential buyer, and so these noble Spirits are set to work with fatal modifications to their soil quality sensors, thus removing any ability to tell what is or is not aeration-requiring soil. In their panic, they aerate endlessly, hoping only to rise to their former grace.