Rusty
Purveyor of Fine Weaponry
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To create a miniaturized robot for use in antipersonnel applications
- Image Source
- Canon Link: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Primary Source: N/A
- Manufacturer: Oxidation Industries
- Affiliation: Oxidation Industries
- Market Status: Open Market
- Model: B.E.E.S.
- Modularity: Payloads may be swapped out, depending on mission needs
- Production: Mass
- Material: Robotic Bee Components
- Small
- Versatile
- Easy to produce
- Versatile- A B.E.E.S. device can be fitted with a variety of different payloads, depending on the needs of the mission. Stinger models can be equipped with a hypodermic needle that injects a variety of different substances. Drones, as the name implies, can be fitted with short ranged surveillance gear. They can be fitted with incendiary charges (Fireflies), acid packs (Squirters), or even tiny chainsaws (Shredders). They can also be deployed in a number of different ways, depending on the needs of the mission.
- Swarm- While individual B.E.E.S. are quite stupid, so are the natural variety. Their strength lies in swarm behavior. Each B.E.E.S. unit is capable of reacting to stimuli and broadcasting that message to the swarm. Individual units don't need much in the way of processing power, as the swarm itself mimics the decentralized processing of a beehive to address stimuli in the appropriate manner. Although each swarm is significantly less capable of improvisation than a natural beehive, they're typically deployed with a mission in mind, and can work together to accomplish this mission.
- Small- Each B.E.E.S. unit is slightly smaller than the average coin. Although the base model is fairly obviously artificial in nature, they can be equipped with a number of different "shells" that mimic the appearance of local swarming insects.
- Easy To Produce- There's not a whole lot that goes into a B.E.E.S unit. They can, pardon the pun, be produced on the fly and in large quantities with only the most basic of equipment. Only the proprietary swarm software and the payload packages need to be purchased from Oxidation Industries to get a swarm up and running. We like to think that our production models are the best, but realistically speaking, all you need is some scrap circuit board and a 3D printer to make your own.
- Fragile- In order to make something that small fly, it's necessarily scant on things like structural supports. It'll hold together perfectly fine in normal conditions, but all you really need to do to defeat a B.E.E.S. unit is pop it one good time with a rolled up newspaper.
- Short-Lived- Since it's so small and lightweight, the B.E.E.S. cannot mount much in the way of power supply. Some payloads, such as the Drone package, can increase longevity, but for the most part, combat models are only designed to work for a few minutes once released.
- Kinda Dumb- B.E.E.S. are not droids. Even the most basic of droids have enough processing power to make the B.E.E.S. seem like an idiot by comparison. Their entire "minds" make up only a scant couple thousand lines of code, just enough to get the job done. While swarms can react to stimuli in a coordinated manner, they don't really "think." They just carry out their mission in accordance with their parameters, with no room for improvisation or adaptation. If you tell them to attack someone behind a glass window, they'll gladly pound away at it until one makes its way around the sides by chance.
The B.E.E.S. was created in response to the most common complaint behind the Jar of Bees weapon system: namely, that live bees are damnably difficult to work with. You have to keep them alive in transport, and you have to hope that the jar itself doesn't break prematurely. Once released, they're unpredictable, and potentially as dangerous to friend as they are foe.
B.E.E.S. answers that problem with automation. Each B.E.E.S. unit is a tiny robot with a pair of wings, a chipset with just enough processing power to hold the extremely simplistic program, a battery, and a payload. They can be issued simple commands before deployment and launched in the general direction of the enemy, with the expectation that something useful will happen. Although an individual unit has little chance of success, the swarm algorithm raises those chances dramatically. Where one B.E.E.S. might fail, it can tell its friends how it failed, and the swarm can attempt to avoid the problem. Although this extremely basic approach can be seen as wasteful, as it pretty much depends on some or even most of the swarm failing to find a path to success, B.E.E.S. units are extremely cheap and easy to produce.
The heart of the B.E.E.S. is the payload. Each payload package comes with preprogrammed instructions for how best to deploy it. To avoid friendly fire, they're designed to recognize preprogrammed IFF tags. Anything else, at least for the combat models, is fair game. The models currently in production are as follows:
- Stinger- As the name implies, the Stinger model is equipped with a hypodermic syringe capable of delivering 3ccs of the user's drug of choice to the target. They can be fitted with everything from tranquilizers to poisons designed to cause debilitating pain, even death. The syringe is retractable, with a total length of 3cm when deployed.
- Fireflies- The Firefly model is equipped with a couple of grams of incendiary material. Not enough to be useful in traditional demolition, but enough of them working together can create quite the conflagration. As a bonus, the brilliant sparks they produce upon ignition can serve as a blinding distraction to an enemy.
- Squirters- Much like the Stinger, the Squirter delivers a liquid payload to the target. Unlike the Stinger, the Squirter fires its payload from a range of about twenty centimeters. Although typically loaded with industrial acid (the special 3cc container included is inert to just about everything short of the nastier fluorine compounds), the only real limit is the user's creativity. An optional upgrade allows them to deploy pressurized gas instead of liquid.
- Lightning Bugs- Similar to the Stinger in that they use a syringe to deliver their payload to the target. Different from the Stinger in that the payload is a nasty jolt of electricity designed to temporarily impair. Think of it as a flying stun gun.
- Shredders- Tiny, industrial diamond-tipped chainsaws designed to shred through flesh. They can hack away at armor, but the power source is so miniscule and the chainsaw such a power drain that they won't get more than a few seconds before the battery runs dry to make the attempt. By default, they're programmed to go for vulnerable areas, such as the neck, face, hands, and groin, to conserve power.
- Drones- The surveillance model. Drones, unlike the other models, are designed to find a quiet place to land and watch/listen with miniaturized cameras, while conserving their meager power supplies as much as possible. Though their transmitters are short ranged, they can provide decent, but not great, video and audio footage of the target area.
