A new-generation Freespacer automata mass production body, designed and deployed by the Wire Guided. They became available in YE 39.

Image: The SIv2.0a “Wireman Partisan” Automata Body

During the early days of construction for the USO fleet on the planet 188604, lack of easily trainable crew members became a major concern. Many of the culturally isolated locals simply weren't up to the task, and Alex Tasuki approached the stranded Freespacer Steelrender Lycosidae to construct a militant-style automata crew as a stopgap. The idea was to use the massive Stratops-3 computer mainframe to create a 'kindergarden' of new AIs, that could be supplanted into new bodies judging by suitability. These could then be mass-produced by the Wire Guided, within their massive planetside facility known as the throne of brass.

The Wireheads took their original subtle, robust design… And promptly threw it out. There was no such thing as a standing army in spacer culture, and thus the concept of producing one for a foreign empire was beyond insulting in their eyes.

Instead, they came up with a thoroughly independent, self-reliant robot body that espoused their own ideas. These were not soldiers in a battleforce, or even mercenaries; These were a new armed populace that didn't desire fighting, yet wouldn't be pushed around.

The net result was something more complex and expensive than the old Militant, yet also much smarter, and built with more contemporary technologies in mind. Not only that, but with the new psuedo-organic toys the Wire Guided have obtained, they can also do things like self-repair and operate alone for extremely long periods of time. It can speak fluent Trade, drive vehicles, access the polysentience, and generally perform in all respects like a normal organic member of the Freespacer race.

Despite all of this, it is still not uncommon to hear people refer to the Partisan as the 'Militant II', as it shares a great deal of the same appearance and components, newfound intelligence aside. It's unclear whether the Partisans themselves take this as an insult or a badge of honor, yet.

Even though it is a relatively new creation, there were several small control system variations produced, in order to allow a more diverse group of AI personalities to be developed in the future.

Organization: Freespacers / The Wire Guided Type: Automaton Class: Heavy Infantry / Light PA Designer: Polysentience Subnodes, Steelrender 92, Linelayer 88, Largegear M447. Manufacturer: The Wire Guided Production: Limited Production (MAX about 80 every two months, based on Stratops-3 hardware limits.) Availability: Negotiable (Can serve in foreign armies independently, but cannot be bought as retail item.)

Width: 2ft Height: 7ft Mass: 390 lbs.

Running/rollerblading speed: 40 mph / 65 km/h Air speed: 500 mph / 800 km/h Microgravity speed: 220000 mph / 350000 km/h

Thruster Range (0G): 25 AU Lifespan: 30 Years.

Physical Armor: (Tier 3) Composite Durandium / Tungsten / Boron / Buckypaper

With nothing but a rifle and a head-mounted stun laser as standard, the Partisan can seem a little anemic in terms of armament at first glance. But typical to most other Freespacer designs, the real core of the design is versatility and ruggedness, which the Partisan accomplishes by being able to carry several unique ammo types.

Somewhat based on the old Rude Gesture gun, as well as the multi-launch gun system of the deathcrawler. It's a phonebook-sized hand cannon, that uses the magnetic rail in the barrel to accelerate fist-sized rockets past the sound barrier in an instant. The resulting kinetic energy can effectively penetrate the armor of light PAs and vehicles, and the weapon can be set to semi-automatic, to boot. The downside is that the awkward bulky shape makes it difficult to use for even other power armored individuals, and the magazine size is a mere six rounds.

It's surprisingly long ranged for a weapon which such large projectiles, but rarely accurate enough to make it worthwhile… Yeah, and don't even think about trying to fire it if you're just a squishy human or outside of power armor. It's a rocket weapon. Even if you survive the recoil, your ass is going to get chargrilled by the muzzle flare alone.

The Partisan comes with a special storage hangar for this weapon as standard, on the left side of their upper back.

Location: Left Arm Standard Primary Purpose: Anti-personnel Secondary Purpose: Anti-armor Damage: Various Range: 3 km max Rate of Fire: Three rounds a second. Payload Alternate ammo types are loaded as pre-prepared magazines.

Location: Left side of the face. Purpose: Less-than-lethal incapacitating laser system. Effect: Nausea, dizziness, visual hallucinations, temporary narcoleptic conditions, intense hunger sensation. Secondary Effect: Audio and visual sensor data input in electronic targets. Damage: (Technically a Tier 2 weapon, even though the effects only last about five minutes). Range: 7 meters / 23 feet. Rate of Fire: Constant.

As to be expected, the composition and armament of this automata are rather simple compared to some of the reality-bending systems used by more prosperous nations. None the less, it can be maintained or repaired almost anywhere in the known galaxy with simple physical tools, and yet also has a handful of surprising hidden abilities such as a pseudo-organic 'bloodstream', and a highly efficient anti-grav system.

Thick slabs of durandium cover an endoskeleton of tungsten and boron beams, coated on the interior with buckypaper mesh. This makes it extremely robust despite the machine's sly appearance, able to withstand impacts from lasers, plasma and kinetic weaponry on the same level as many modern power armor systems. The sheer weight of the individual components are somewhat of a design flaw, however, despite certain applications in melee combat. It's also worth noting that the Automata lacks any other defenses, too, making it somewhat vulnerable to energy weapons that attack or bypass atomic bonds.

When voltage is applied to these polymers they will change their shape in a predefined way, not dissimilar to the way human muscles will contract when they receive a signal from the nervous system. Carbon nanotubes are the staple of the polymers, allowing for the extreme tensile strength needed to lift thousands of pounds. Lining the structure of the muscles is a membrane of buckypaper treated with a coating to protect against atmospheric corrosion.

Flowing around inside pipes that are spread around the interior of the entire body, a genetically engineered organic zooid fluid assists in both hydraulically assisted movement and miniature-scale internal repairs. If the exterior shell of the Automata is fractured and the pipes broken, green blood flows out… Before immediately forming into several Liquid Allies, which go about repairing the damage! Every Partisan contains about four spiders worth of the jelly, but it can produce more if it consumes organic material. These allies are not actively controlled under normal circumstances, however, and are programmed to return to the host upon completion of the repairs.

Partisans use the same T04 “Fallout” Fission reactor as the Militant. It utilizes a design style which makes them especially unstable in comparison to other fission reactors designs; they will commonly suffer from nuclear meltdowns in the event of coolant loss (as opposed to other designs that will automatically lose their ability to sustain a reaction in such an event). However, this same reactor design also makes them especially efficient in that they do not require any special isotopes to function; T04 reactors can produce large amounts of power using only natural elements as fuel and drinking water as coolant, rather than requiring enriched fuels or the manufactured moderators that other reactor designs. T04s can be modified to run on any number of fissile fuels, including MOX, thorium, natural uranium, and so on. However, if using highly enriched fuel a T04 won't need to be refueled for up to 30 years.

The T04 uses electromagnetics to hold its control rods out of the core. This feature is so that in the event of a power loss, gravity will instantly pull the rods back into the core and shut down the nuclear reactions before a meltdown can occur.

Note 1: Unless an exponential reaction rate is triggered by a nuclear self-destruct mechanism or certain high energy weapons, the T04 reactor will not be able to achieve the supercriticality needed to cause a nuclear explosion. Under normal circumstances, an uncontrolled chain reaction will result in a nuclear meltdown; the core will increase in temperature until it melts through the reactor, spilling forth molten fuel and dangerous amounts of radiation. Such an event would most likely be caused by faulty control rod mechanisms or coolant loss.

Note 2: Though the Partisan uses the same power source as the original Militant, it is no longer designed to have a self destructive capability out of the box. Such an action can only be made as the result of a jury-rigged modification.

Mounted inside the large box on it's back, the Partisan possesses a miniature interialess drive with a considerable amount of clout to it's name. The 'bubble' projected actually only covers the torso of the unit, which works in conjunction with the heavy metal limbs to produce tremendous running speeds, powerslides, rocket punches and spiraling sound-barrier kicks! It can also fly entirely without the aid of thrusters, but the weight of the limbs does unfortunately mean it isn't much faster than the original model, despite the improved technology.

Partisans have audio and visual capabilities usually on par with most humanoid species, via a high resolution camera array and electroactive polymer sensors (touch-sense nerves). Infra-red, night vision, ultra violet and radar scanners all come as optional swap-out modules for the Hypnotron stunner.

A syntelligence construct generally acts as the control mechanism of this model Automaton. These machines are always self-aware entities with developing personalities, unlike the original Militant model. It's a matter of ideology for the Wire Guided, who seek only to create independent beings.

The Partisan has a standard mindware interface compatible with the standard organic types. It is also capable of wireless radio connection with Freespacer junkers, ships, and even some foreign starship AIs. With the new advances in technology, the system can communicate up to a quarter of an AU, even serving as a miniature polysentience antenna that other Freespacers can log onto! Connection speeds vary depending on distance and physical obstructions, however.

Primitive Polygon created this article on 2017/04/15 17:14.