Sontaran scout ship
Sontaran scout ships, also called battlecruisers (TV: The Two Doctors) battlespheres, (AUDIO: Starlight Robbery) space pods, (TV: The Last Sontaran) pod ships, (AUDIO: The Five Companions) drop-pods (PROSE: A Soldier's Education) or gravity spheres, (AUDIO: Heroes of Sontar) were spherical spacecraft used by the Sontarans to scout ahead of fleets to investigate or infiltrate the enemy, usually the Rutan Host.
There were considerably smaller than nine metres in diameter, (AUDIO: Absolute Power) and equipped with a tractor beam. One was issued to every soldier upon starting training, and they were expected to clean and maintain their ship everyday. (AUDIO: The Five Companions) Scout ships had "automatic return," enabling them to return to a ship. (AUDIO: The Sontaran Ordeal) The Sontaran Subliminal Education Matrix claimed that each drop-pod was painted a bright and reflective silver so that they could be clearly seen against the sky, refusing to adopt the "cowardice" of camouflage. (PROSE: A Soldier's Education)
Usage
When the Sontarans joined the Pandorica Alliance, formed to imprison the Eleventh Doctor in the Pandorica and save the Universe, several Sontaran scout ships were part of the Alliance fleet which arrived at Stonehenge in 102 A.D. (TV: The Pandorica Opens)
In the 13th century, (TV: The Sontaran Experiment) Jingo Linx had to perform an emergency landing his ship, which was damaged on a reconnaissance mission, on Earth. Linx was forced to use his osmic projector to kidnap scientists from the future and equipment to repair his ship. Linx and the ship were later destroyed. (TV: The Time Warrior)
In 1522, a Sontaran scout ship crashed in China. (COMIC: Dragon's Claw)
UNIT believed that a Sontaran scout ship crashed in Tunguska in the early 20th century, though they weren't entirely sure. They kept some of this wreckage in the Vault. (AUDIO: Tales from the Vault)
Several scout ships orbited the main Sontaran flagship during the Sontaran invasion of Earth in 2009. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky) Kaagh was in one of these scout ships when it crashed to Earth. With his arm strap he moved the ship to a hidden location and even made it invisible. (TV: The Last Sontaran)
In 2010, UNIT Underbase contained a Sontaran scout ship. (COMIC: The Age of Ice)
In the early 21st century, UNIT's Vault contained a fragment of a Sontaran scout ship. (AUDIO: Tales from the Vault, The Screaming Skull)
In the 24th century of an alternate timeline, Gabby Gonzalez and Cindy Wu piloted a scout ship to distract the lead CyberKing during an invasion of Sontar to allow the Tenth Doctor, piloting another scout ship, to sneak up on it. When Cindy and Gabby's ship was swatted out of the sky, the Doctor slammed his craft directly into the CyberKing. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen)
The Time Museum contained several Sontaran scout ships. (AUDIO: The Time Museum)
Undated
There also existed a variant of the Sontaran space pod with four legs. The black-armoured Apostasy of the Goatee used grey pods while the blue-armoured 17th Veteran Cohort used bronze pods. (COMIC: The Judas Goatee)
