After the Tirolian attack on Optera, the Invid prepared to take their war for revenge to the stars. For this, they needed spaceships. Instead than building Invid copies of the heavily armed and armored Tirolian starships, the Invid decided on a large number of relatively inexpensive carriers and landing ships of several designs, and, eventually, a single armed gunship. For very large-scale attacks the Invid also deployed the valuable Hive Ships, vessels that could dwarf even Zentraedi warships, but this was only for emergencies. The favored vessel of the Invid was a simple mecha carrier that came in several varieties. Three of the long-lived landing ship designs were made, based on a common shape similar to that of a seashell. The largest, called the Mollusk Class Mecha Carrier by the REF, served as the primary carrier of mecha for the Invid forces. The second, nearly as large and identical in appearance except for its narrower beam, was the Oyster Class Landing Ship. The third, which resembled a smaller version of the Mollusk, was known as the Clam Class Troop Transport. The last two designs carried a variety of mecha, but the Clam class was mainly used to transport the Inorganic legions of the Invid Regent during the final years of the Invid invasion of the Tirolian Mercantile Empire.
The favored tactic of the Invid was to deploy a number of the Mollusk carriers to a battle, have them release their legion of mecha and then retreat to a safe distance to pick up the surviving mecha at the end of the battle. The most effecient way of pursuing this strategy was to build a ship capable of releasing its mecha within seconds of deploying and to build a ship capable of retreating from combat as quickly as possible, both at sublight speeds and with a fold drive. Unfortunately, this tactic left the Invid mecha vulnerable to heavy firepower from ships that did not have to worry about engaging other ships, but the far superior numbers of Invid mecha in a battle could easily overwhelm numerically inferior fleets. The Zentraedi, and later the REF, found out that the best way to deal with Invid space attacks was to destroy the Mollusk ships before they could release their cargo. But as the battles over Earth showed, the Invid could usually fly in more ships than could be destroyed, and as the Invid mecha destroyed an enemy ship's powerful anti-ship cannons, more and more carriers would survive long enough to release the mecha they carrier.
The Mollusk carrier performed its mission so well that there were no changes in its design from the first model produced to the last model manufactured on Earth during the Third Robotech War. However, there were drawbacks to the design, the most important of which was the lack of any defensive or offensive weapons. The lack of any anti-mecha weapons on the Mollusk Carrier was not such a great oversight, because few enemies ever made it through the Invid mecha lines to the Mollusk carriers. The few enemies that did manage to reach the carriers would find them to be quite maneuverable for their size
The Mollusk Class Mecha Carrier is a vaguely saucer-shaped craft with two blocky protuberances on the top and bottom of the ship, and three large thrusters bolted on the back. There are also four highly visible maneuvering jets spaced at equal distances around the rim of the vessel. Twelve smaller jets are distributed around the vessel. The mecha bay takes up the entire forward section of the vessel and each bay is subdivided into four smaller bays, two to starboard and two to port. One mecha bay is located on the dorsal side of the vessel and can be used under all circumstances, the ventral bay can only be used in space or at extremely high altitudes. Both bays open in a very distinctive fashion, universally known to the Invid's adversaries as 'opening the maw'. In this way, the covering hull of the mecha bays rotates upwards or downwards, with the assistance of two dedicated thrusters, around the forward edge of the engineering spaces. The resulting sight is similar to that of an opening oyster.
Inside each bay the hundreds of mecha can be seen, each sitting in a dedicated launch slot in the deck of the mecha bay. The slots were designed to accommodate the Iigaa Armored Scout's engine section, but the vessel can be modified to carrier other types of mecah. All of the mecha carried on the ship could be launched within seconds of opening the bay hatches, greatly assisting the Invid 'superior numbers' tactic and with a mecha delivery time / numbers ratio that was unmatched by anyone to face the Invid. So successful was this method, the REF developed a hangar bay similar in design: the fast-reaction Alpha Launch Bays built on the Ikazuchi Class Heavy Cruisers and the Izumo Class Super Dimensional Fortresses.
| 896 | Iigaa Scout or... |
| 896 | Iigaa Armored Scout or... |
| 448 | Iigaa Scout with Space Booster or... |
| 448 | Iigaa Armored Scout with Space Booster or... |
| 360 | Gurab Trooper or... |
| 360 | Gurab Shock Trooper or... |
| 240 | Gamo Pincer Command Unit or... |
| 240 | Gosu Royal Command Battloid |
| * | Destroying the main engines will severely impair the ship, forcing it to rely on its maneuvering thrusters and its anti-gravity engines. Reduce atmospheric speed by a quarter and rate of acceleration in space by 50%. |
| ** | Destroying more then half of the anti-gravity domes will prevent the ship from leaving an Earth-like atmosphere and will reduce its atmospheric speed by 50%. If all of the domes are destroyed while the is in an atmosphere the ship will crash, and reduce rate of acceleration in space by 5% for each destroyed dome. |
| *** | Depleting the M.D.C. of the main body will shut down the entire ship, including life support, gravity control, communications, weapons, and engines. The command bridge will also be destroyed. |
