Category: Robotics

#Lore 24 – Entry #118 – Sci-Fi Month II #27 – BDSM Cybersystems Model S/M-02 Scouting/Mapping Drones

From the Personal Journal of Chiasa Charity Chiasakaniki, Systems Analyst and Programmer, IT Division, assigned UEF-04, Maharani Morgiana.

I’ve always enjoyed playing with drones, and now that I’ve finally had the chance to mess around with these bleeding edge scouting drones they’ve loaded us up with on this mission, I’m like a kid again.  These things are just awesome!  Is the name of the manufacturer a bit on the shady side?  Absolutely, but there’s no signs of whipped asses or kinky shit here, just the unfortunate naming scheme these people settled on way back when they just did custom tech mods.  Or maybe it was fortunate?  Certainly gets a lot more diverse crowd on your product, that’s for sure.  I looked’em up before, seems like they do good work, and they hit it off big time back when Aphelion Station was barely a year old with their security bots, so I reckon they were brought in to handle some new drones for these exploration gigs too.

Anyway, these drones are preem!  Their bodies are light weight and durable carbon fiber, and they make use of micro-grav field generators so they can fly around without worrying about getting propellers stuck or broken.  They kinda look like little black flying saucers, about a foot in diameter, but once they’ve activated their adaptive camo, you won’t even notice.  You can take control of them directly through a comm app or dedicated controller, and they’re packed with multiple small sensor packs, high-def multi-spectrum cameras, and an all-round laser mapping setup that’ll create super-accurate 3D maps of whatever they’re scanning.  I almost couldn’t believe the amount of hardware they’re packing in these little things; total super-spy stuff right here!  Curiously, I did get the sense there was magic in these things, so I’m thinking that maybe they’ve taken normal equipment that is usually much larger and micro-sized it. 

Talk about one hell of a price tag!  When I asked exactly how much these things cost, all my boss would say was that I’d better not break one, or I’d be paying it off the rest of this trip. 

Luckily for me I didn’t have to be the one who broke one to get a look inside; once we arrived in the Vellion sector and picked up the scout teams, we found out a couple of the drones had been damaged, and I convinced one of the BDSMC techs to let me help out, being the super-talented IT tech and leet hacker I am and all.  So, that’s when I learned these things are using the same kind of advanced AI as the security bots, specialized for evasion and recon operations.  They’ve not really been field tested in extreme conditions, so bugs are bound to show up, and that’s what happened here.  Some of the local wildlife didn’t like these things getting close, even if they are silent and almost invisible, and were able toss some rocks or bash them with sticks.  Pretty lame way for these things to go down, but it’s a harsh world out there, I guess.  Can’t make them invulnerable and this light; those electronics are protected from the elements, but an angry monkey with a rock is just too much.

So, like, I kinda maybe managed to make a copy of the AI code…not that I really intended to, of course, it just kinda happened when I wasn’t paying too much attention to what I might’ve been doing while running a diagnostic with the tech.  I’ve been pouring through it, and like, holy shit, this is advanced stuff!  There’s all kinds of options in here that aren’t even in the official specs, just waiting to be turned on or off or applied to different type bots!  I am going to have so much fun playing around with this code!  I gotta get my hands on some parts now, build my own little buddy bot!

You know…thinking it over, I might actually hint at the BDSMC techs that I could improve the AI on these things, make their evasive routines more responsive, that kind of thing. Or at least help them with the debugging stuff.  I’m pretty good at running code, I’d say.  And it’d like, be a lot less suspicious if I wound up building my own little bot, right?  Seriously, sometimes my hands just do things without my mind even being there!  I blame my tail-brains, lol.  They’re always getting me in trouble, moving on their own without me realizing it.  Kerryns and ferians probably get it.

#Lore 24 – Entry #95 – Sci-Fi Month II #4 – Robotic Security Drones

 

From the Personal Journal of Kiara Mizutani, Arcane Support Division, assigned UEF-04 Maharani Morgiana

All things considered I think the date went fine.  Nothing serious of course, just a little hook-up to pass the time before heading out, that kind of thing.  Martin was pleasant enough, a bit nervous after I showed up with a crop top, my new fancy shorts, a pair of those super-long slouchy socks I used to wear back at the Academy, and my super-sexy heels.  Apparently I did tell him, and he was totally okay with that, just didn’t think I would show up looking so hot.  He just couldn’t keep his eyes off the shorts.  I think I’ve got a winner with these!  Anyway, after he bought dinner we slipped off to his motel room for a little sexy time.  I think that was his first foot-job.  Pretty sure I blew his mind with that one 😉

I had to take care of some work stuff today, so I didn’t get to explore too much, not until I was given an updated list of items I was expected to have along for the expedition and realized I was missing a few things, so off to the Big Bazaar and the shopping modules for me!  But I wasn’t expecting that security alert at all!  I had my defensive ward up before I realized it!  I guess that’s a good thing, though?  I mean, it seems like a good thing to me, anyway.  I guess there was some criminal or something like that got spotted or tried to rob someone or something, I never could get a straight answer, but I did not expect that kind of security!  Like, robotic drones!

But not the ones I’m used to, like, nothing of the sort!  There were several of the flying camera drones you see everywhere, yeah, but these, I thought they were big guys in heavy armor, but these were robots!  Humanoid robotic drones!  Turns out, I’d seen them before, just standing around here and there when I was exploring, but they never moved, so I thought they were some kind of fancy statues or something for decoration.  Nope!  These things kind of put me in mind of old-style armored knights in a way, like a bit on the bulky side, and with heads that were a bit too squashed to fit a standard humanoid, with some angular antennas on the head and glowing red monoeye scanners.  They even had the shields too, but were using stun batons instead of swords.  They had stun guns, too, and I think some other weapons for restraining targets, but I didn’t get to see them in action.  The group of them just came through the street, scanning all over, and then continued on, followed by some regular meaty security and some technician I think.

I had to kill some time waiting for the module lockdown to end, but once I got back to the office I asked around about them.  Turns out they’re pretty new, still a little experimental even.  I really have to give it to the company head!  Ms. Veylani isn’t the least bit afraid to push the envelope and try new things!  Apparently there was this little startup company who wanted to test these new style drones out here in the Demon Sector since so many places back across the Barrier are against the idea, but once she’d found out about it last year, she totally jumped on the idea!  There are even some experiments going on relating to arcane enhancements and golemcraft, but I couldn’t get much on that; top secret company stuff, so yeah, a newbie like me just isn’t going to have that kind of clearance.

Still, pretty neat!  I wonder if we’ll have any of these onboard the Morgiana for our big trip?  Apparently since VTC partnered with the SealTech people, these things even carry some kind of proprietary restraint tech, too.  Like, some kind of “goop” grenades to immobilize several people at once and some are equipped with guns that shoot bullets made of the same stuff.  I guess they won’t give them actual lethal weaponry.  Not that I’d expect something like that on a station, of course.  I mean, what if one of these things went crazy and started shooting up the place?  There are supposedly precautions in place to stop that kind of thing, but you know…robotics haven’t really developed much for reasons…but I guess that would make sense why they’re looking at ancient golemcraft then, wouldn’t it?