The Nepleslian Advanced Tactical Electronics suite was created in YE 34 by Origin Industries to replace the aging, and questionably loyal Drei AI.

During the Second Mishhuvurthyar war, a series of events transpired that brought to light a possible security leak with the current computer systems used for Nepelslia's starship fleet. A Concerned Nepleslia sought to replace it, but, busy with the war, could not devote the time and resources to doing so themselves. Instead, they approached Origin Industries with a request for a computer core that would synchronize with their systems, provide the necessary processing power, and most importantly, be unquestioningly loyal to Nepleslia as a nation, rather than one specific person.

With these requests in hand, Origin did what it was best at- re-purposing existing products to fill a specific role. Therefore, Origin took a Destiny core and modified it accordingly, taking it from being an integrated computer/sensor/communications suite, to simply being a drop-in, self-contained computer capable of interfacing with a wide variety of sensor and communication hardware.

The NATE system's most notable feature, to the most people, is it's Artificial Intelligence construct. Unlike most AI, which come with a pre-programmed personality, the NATE AI is designed to learn and develop a personality based on its interaction with the people and conditions it comes into contact with. The Default personality is, actually, a lack of one. The AI will begin its life fairly dry and business-like, and it will develop as time goes on. Due to this, each NATE AI will be a unique individual, and will often reflect the personality of its crew.

The NATE uses a standard QUEEN AI core, keeping intact all the processing power available to it. It is a quantum computer which is capable of making a nearly infinite number of calculations, with infinite variables, at any given time, which allows it to produce results extremely quickly and accurately.

The NATE computer core is capable of vast information storage, which cannot be quantified in normal terms. Effectively, the NATE can run for years without ever losing any processing power, despite never deleting any information it has taken in. On top of this, the NATE's memory can be searched in an instant to bring up asked-for information.

The NATE is capable of easily synchronizing with a variety of hardware, software, and other computers. It has both Physical and wireless connectivity, allowing it to be hard-wired into a ship,as well as allowing it to communicate with objects which are not physically wired into the ship's computer system.

To meet the demands of the SMDIoN, the NATE AI is capable of linking multiple ships within a battle group or fleet. This allows a squadron of warships to coordinate their own maneuvers as well as multiple squadrons to remain organized in fleet actions. The system can handle up to 200 warships on the same network without difficulty. At its most strained, though with reduced capabilities, NATE can handle up to 600 warships working on a single battlefield network.

The NATE computer system, due to being a quantum computer with a unique AI, has some innate intrusion protection. however, beyond this, the computer is capable of creating firewalls and other software protection for itself do protect from electronic intrusion. If these measures do not work, the core can shut off its wireless networking, as well as physically disconnect hard connections if it becomes absolutely necessary. These measures, however, are very rarely used and often need approval from the ship's commanding officer in order to be activated.

Interaction with the NATE can be as simple as speaking to it, and as complicated as using a volumetric or physical control panel to interface with the computer's deeper functions. On top of this, the NATE AI is fully capable of supporting an avatar, such as a Yorna.

The NATE is capable of understanding speech, in many different accents and several different languages, including Nepleslian, Yamataian, and Abwehran. It may be spoken to conversationally, given requests, and given orders. Depending on the situation and the level of development of the AI, it may respond simply, conversationally, or even with just the action of which it had been requested. More developed AI may even initiate conversations with crew members of its own accord.

The NATE will, if the ship is equipped with volumetric projectors, create and maintain volumetric windows and other images as necessary in order to interact with the crew of the ship. This allows a visual and often tactile way of interaction without the need for physical controls and displays.

The NATE can be interfaced with manually, via control panels. These control panels are placed around the ship, often in convenient locations where they are easy to access by the crew in times of need. In certain situations, these controls may not be available, and the NATE will have to be accessed by its own dedicated control panel, which is physically built into the NATE unit itself.

The NATE can easily interface with wireless devices such as Datapads, communicators, and communication cybernetics. As well as these more mundane items, it is capable of wirelessly interfacing with powered armor, vehicles, and other such non-connected objects that may come within the NATE's domain. This is usually in the form of written texts for most platforms, though on the more advanced ones such as communicators, power armor and warships, NATE is capable of speaking verbally.

NATE is also capable of controlling various systems of a warship such as maneuvering, damage control and weapons. In the event of the destruction of the bridge, the AI would be able to regain control of the warship and alert the rest of the Fleet as to the status of the warship, acting as an emergency command protocol. It also allows the ship to make the harder, logical decisions, such as sealing a breached compartment before everyone had evacuated, in place of a more hesitant human commander.

To ensure that the NATE system cannot take command of a warship in an arbitrary fashion, it can only assume command during the following circumstances.

• Loss of bridge personnel
• Loss of human/Nepleslian control of the ship. Relevant to cases of enemy boarding actions.
• Absence of ranking officers aboard the vessel in times of emergency

In all of these cases, the NATE AI will control the warship but will defer to instructions from higher authorities without fail. Finally, as a failsafe, all NATE are equipped with an override protocol that can be input from any shipboard interface. This protocol, however, is only shared with ships' officers and the most senior enlisted.

While normally installed in a brand-new ship, the NATE computer core is capable of being retrofitted into older ship classes, taking the place of an outdated computer core. In most cases this is simply plug-and-play, by physically removing the old core, and placing the new one where it went. After such time it is then either plugged, or hard-wired into the ship, at which point it will run a program that allows it to learn what systems are present, and bring them under its control. This learning process usually takes an Hour, but can be as short as ten minutes on smaller ships, and as much as a day on very large ships.

When Multiple computer cores are needed, the process is the same; the computer cores will learn where one another are, and form a local network that shares information and computing power.

When the NATE is installed in a ship with an existing, mature AI, it is capable of taking on that AI's personality and name, however, it does add an extra step to the process. The two computers must be physically connected, and the AI can then be copied into the new hardware, which will, in most cases, be fully capable of supporting the AI.

In cases where this is not possible, the AI personality may be copied into a form of data storage device, where it will remain until the switch is complete, before being placed into the new computer core via a special retrofitting program that will modify the AI's software for compatibility without changing the AI's personality.