I just noticed something I have never seen before in any of the previous 4 attempts doing the missions - At the start of the fight at the end of Cutting the Cord, I noticed a few "Iconian Probes". They were quickly destroyed ,so it is possible they have always been there, but did I really miss them the previous 4 times?

If you perform the Science optional objective on the ground, you will not see any Iconian probes when you beam up.

Only 2 out of the 5 chars have been Science Officers, so... I mus have missedm them the first time. Are they supposed to actually achieve something in that battle? If so, they must have died way too fast each time...

They generally get caught by tractor mines, and easily destroyed. They also seem to target NPCs a lot. They're cool to see, but ultimately useless.

It would be cool if that didn't eliminate them, but made them target enemies instead.

I have never seen them, I have mostly sci toons and when I did it with my engy or tac? I was grouped.