[CraazyCanuck]

How about something along the same lines as restoring a base directly. Give it the ability to also be used as a relay when delployed. It can either try to make it into a base directly for greater immediate returns or they can establish a relay that while not as effective as getting an Ant inside the doors, can stem the drain to buy the defenders more time by slowly bleeding of the nanites stored within its resevoir. XP return would work similar to repairing but with a possible larger end reward. A ribbon would also be available for it. Call it Resupply Ribbon or whatever.

To limit the effects of a large outfit simply deploying an army of Ants, implement a no-deploy zone similar to a sundy but make it larger so that only 3 ants could supply a large facility, 2 ants a med facility, and 1 ant on a small outpost.

If the devs implement the option of a relay system, they could go as far as having a relay pipeline being possible as well, with a multiplier to xp returns depending on distance and number of ants involved to establish the pipeline from one facility to a besieged one. The resource return would drain from the connected facility so there may be limited supply available if the supply facility is smaller then the facility being supplied in correllation with what's in each ANT if any. Also if there is a difference in size between the two, the drain may occur faster or slower depending on who's larger. The transfer rate would also have to be much faster overall to make it worthwhile in comparison with establishing individual relays.

The initial success for establishing the pipeline would give an immediate bonus xp equivalent to what you would receive for defending a facility. These pipleline relays would also need defense, so they could also implement a defense kill bonus within these no-deploy zones to those defending them so there is incentive to keep defending them.

And in turn, we would all receive another tactical mission as attackers to search and destroy these indiviual relays or the pipeline with a reward corresponding to the target.

This would also open up a new cert tree for these ANTS. Could give an ANT driver the ability to increase the size of their nanite resevoir, the rate at which it transfers, and increase the range at which they can transfer. Similiar to the system we already have in place for repair/heal guns.

Edit 2: The reward for a direct supply would also fluctuate according to how much nanite is left in the tank. So if the lane to the facility opened up during a siege. A deployed ANT could make the run with whatever he has left in the tank and get an immediate reward as opposed to maintaining the slower relay transfer. Again the cert tree for increasing the nanite capacity of an ANT would give return in a greater xp reward.

Make any other cert trees available for it, strictly defensive in nature. Stealth, Composite, Nanite Repair,etc. That way we have those who specialize in this field, but at the same time they will see a return on their investment with improved return on their xp rewards with these new cert trees. If running solo relay, the driver can sustain a base longer, and have a chance to receive more xp overall. If they increase the transfer rate, they will get that xp faster and will be able to return to the fill terminal sooner for another run while cutting down on stationary vulnerability. Range, opens up more option for where a ANT can deploy and will make guessing location of their deployed ant more difficult for the attackers.

Edit 1: The no deploy zone could be waved in favor of just limiting the number of 'connected' relays. This would allow for a better defence of those ANTs as you could have them all in one spot instead of spread out around the base while also being easier for the attackers to focus their efforts on one location. Gives more options overall.