SmokeDragon then 'present time' would also implicitly describe your present location in that multiverse, and at the present time VR zero-k still wouldn't exist. Sadly.
Athena is a unit with a very high cost for what it does, especially if you don't already have a strider hub. The only reason I've ever built one (apart from rezzing my trollcom) is precisely because I wanted to implement a strategy that needed several of the specialist units it can build - like moderators, cloakers, shields, skythes and fleas, so removing cloak and
dagger shield from the build options would severely hurt its usefulness.
Snitches or - even better - roaches would be a useful and theme-fitting addition to the athena loadout, though - who doesn't like stealthed stealth mine layers?
While I like the idea of adding some build options, heavy units like crab, reaver or sumo really feel out of place being built by a flimsy, invisible plane - neither do they fit the theme, nor are they particularily useful to a specops nor to a backdoor strategy style.
And instead of charon, I'd suggest adding surfboards to athena (water transports units can shoot from, and which allow mobile sea shielding and cloaking, which in turn would make sea battles much more interesting.
