The Pest Tracked Drone is a mixed-tech drone cobbled together by the Iron Company in late YE 44.

The Pest has a Top Speed of 54 KPH, and it's range thanks to its brain slave is virtually unlimited, the internal nutrient storage is only good for 3 hours.

The Pest Drone originally started out as more of a “Proof-of-Concept” Design, initially Designated “Brain-Trooper Drone, Model X-1” little more than a turret on treads, as a means to test the Iron Company's attempt at replicating NMX Brain Slave technology. When first assembled-their limited understanding of the technology combined with their admittedly archaic technology base in the realms of cybernetics led to a barely functioning, lethargic machine that 'died' within the first hour of being activated.

Not to be deterred by this failure, the Iron Company's R&D put their heads together and came up with a plan; they would utilize a mixture of salvaged Star Army of Yamatai, Democratic Imperium of Nepleslia, and NMX technology for the internals. After a lot of yelling, booze, crossed wires, chewed resin, and more than a few kicks the first drone rolled off the 'production line'; little more than a dusty workbench in a dingy armory it rolled off the line. Given the fact it was responsive, functional, and actually able to follow orders the unit was green-lighted.

Someone should've stopped the smiths in charge of the project or at least ensured that there were no failures in sobriety as the design did indeed function; albeit many of the components had been essentially brute forced together and allowed the drone to function in spite of the numerous system errors piling up. And that was nothing to say of the Brain's personality itself.

The personality has been described as 'particularly dim, playful, and far too curious'; often taking off with equipment, running off to who knows where, and mouthing off to the yeoman. This earned it the nickname, among others, “Pest”-though its behavior can usually be curbed through the use of percussive maintenance. The unit sees some use as either a watchdog, a scout, or (preferably) cannon fodder, and is produced in limited numbers as salvage allows.

The Pest, when one can get it to listen makes an excellent scout and light gun platform, though its limited intelligence often means it needs near-constant supervision to ensure its tasks are completed.

The Pest's systems consist of a capacitor system used for power-these provide enough power for 24 hours of standard operation, or 12 hours of combat operations-they can be charged via a port on a Wrath Series Fusion Reactor or be adapted to charge on a similar power source, a trio of cameras-one mounted in the middle of the body of the unit; and two more mounted on the top of the machine. It has two weapon hard points one on each side consisting of a KE-W2921 Plasma Rifle and a HPAR with 200 rounds of ammo-though this may change depending on salvage available. It's armor is the Iron Company's standard ablative composite and is fairly durable. It electronics package is a kludged together mess taken from various types of power armor and made to some how work-having infrared and basic radar effective out to 250 meters. Finally, it has a pair of manipulators in the front for pushing/pulling objects up to 250lbs. The brain-unit is located in the middle of the unit with a feeding unit that provides all the nutrients and hydration that it requires.

Commissar Farzi created this article on 2023/05/31 17:28.

This article was approved on 2023/10/04 by Wes.¹⁾