HK-36
The Iron Lord Protector (Neutral Good)
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To create a dedicated electronic warfare and anti-shield drone
- Image Source: DeviantArt, Mechanical Death Worm by Drawnentity link here
- Canon Link: Shield-Disrupting Projector
- Restricted Missions: N/A
- Primary Source: Abregado Combat Shield, ARGH Jet Systems
- Manufacturer: Abregado-Rae Guild of Hammers
- Model: Mechanized Autonomous Combat Unit- Electronic Warfare Drone "Leech Drones"
- Production: Minor
- Affiliation: Metal Lords, ARGH, Firemane, GA, Closed Market
- Modularity: N/A
- Material: Durasteel, Duranium teeth and drills
- Classification: Class 2 (Engineering)
- Weight: 4 kilograms
- Height: 1 meter in length, .25 meters in diameter when curled up
- Movement: Slithering, repulsorlift and jet system
- Armaments: Duranium vibro teeth and drills
- Misc. Equipment: Military grade heat sensors and scanners (75 meters of range)
HUD with tracking and targeting systems (75 meters of range)
Build-In Communication Systems
Abregado Combat Shield
Magnetic Anchors
Internal Coolant Systems
Self-Destruction Systems
Tracking Unit
Kill Switch
Copper Farraday Cage
Shield-Disrupting Projector
Electronic and Droid Brain Slicing Systems
- Slicing Systems
- Abregado Combat Shield
- Internal Coolants
- Magnetic Anchors
- Copper Farraday Cage
- Jet Systems and Repulsorlifts
- Drills and Vibro Teeth
- Shield-Disrupting Projector
- Slicing Systems- Each drone is equipped with slicing systems designed to target and overwhelm enemy data communication systems and droid brains. This is done by each drone borrowing into the electronic components, usually by drilling through outer armor and hull first, and integrating with their data lines, for example cables or the components directly, before pumping them full with dummy data packets. While this does not directly take control of the enemy droid brains it does fill them with false commands that slow down their action more and more over time the longer the drone is attached and the more drones are attacking the same component until finally crushing the system and forcing its shutdown.
- Abregado Combat Shield- combat shield that grants them additional protection from ranged weapons and provides resistance against electrical and ionic attacks
- Internal Coolants- internal coolants allow the drones to withstand overheating, for example from heat and flame based weaponry, or allow them to work closer to hot objects such as streams of lava or active engines
- Magnetic Anchors- magnetic anchors in the tentacles allow the drone to stay attached to metal structures
- Copper Farraday Cage- adds additional passive protection against electrical and ionic attacks
- Jet Systems and Repulsorlifts- the drones are equipped with personal jet systems and repulsorlifts, allowing them to hover and fly as well as move easier and quicker in the vacuum of space.
- Drills and Vibro Teeth- Duranium vibro teeth and drills designed to eat away at outer vehicle and ship armor over time, allowing the drone to burrow it in. It could be potentially used as melee weapon against enemy troops, the tougher the armor is the longer it would take for the drone to burrow through it.
- Shield-Disrupting Projector- The drones are equipped with miniature shield-disrupting projectors based on the previous Iskalloni designs, these projectors are short ranged devices, which means the drones do not have to physically touch the deflector shield to affect it although do have to get closer to its energy surface. They are mostly used by the drones to open up a temporary drone-sized pathway within the shield through which the drone, or other small drones and beings, could sneak through. They could be also used by multiple drones at the same time to drain an energy shield and perhaps deactivate it if allowed to work long enough.
Strengths:
- Shield-Disrupting Projector- One of the biggest strengths of these drones come from the built-in miniature shield-disrupting projectors, these devices can open up drone-sized pathways in energy shields that would normally fry the drones upon contact. They could also be used to leech energy from shields and weaken them, although that would require a larger amount of drones acting together.
- Swarm- these buzz drones are built in very high numbers and designed to work in swarms of multiple units at the same time, as such while weak on their own their numbers make them more potent enemies. These tactics also make each drone highly expendable.
- Slicers- Another strength of the drones comes from their use of slicing devices that allow them to connect to electronic devices and interface with them, attacking the droid brains and processing units controlling the devices. While the drones cannot take direct control of these devices, they can pump them with dummy data packets of nonsense orders, gradually slowing down their processing speed over and over until eventually causing the whole system to crash and shut down.
- Partial Electrical and Ionic Resistance- due to the built-in Farraday cage these drones can withstand electrical and ionic attacks, however while they are not outright deactivated by them such attacks would at least temporary disable the drone's maw, limbs, and the shield disruptor, making them unable to move or use some of its build-in equipment.
- Quick- the multiple appendages, jet systems, and repulsorlift allow these drones to move quickly, whether skittering or hovering above the ground, or zooming around in the vacuum of space.
- Stupid- these drones have very low only animalistic intelligence, as required by ARGH to have them semi-sentient, as such they could be outsmarted rather easily, especially individually, and when it comes to repairs and dismantling enemy targets they tend to go for whatever is closest rather than focusing based on the importance of tasks.
- No Ranged Weapons- The drones do not possess any ranged weaponry, unless one would count the shield depleting projector as one but it does not do actual damage, as such, when coupled with their low armor, they are a rather easy prey to enemy infantry who could just shoot these drones down before they close in, especially when caught alone.
- Low Defenses- outside of the Combat Shield the only defense these drones have are their standard durasteel hull, which could be blasted through by plasma blaster shots or pierced by slugthrower, making them rather vulnerable to range attacks once their shields are down.
- Low Electromagnetic Resistance- the Combat shield can only absorb a single electromagnetic assault from an EMP grenade or the equivalent, afterwards the drones would be vulnerable to electromagnetic attacks which could slow them down or temporarily deactivate them, making them useless until rebooted.
- Low Disruptor Range- The shield disruptors built into these drones are only effective over rather short range, forcing the drones to close in on their target to use them, this could put them in path of enemy escort who could then attack these drones, or point-defense cannons, should they be able to keep up with their speed and small size
Intro: As ARGH developed more and more designs using Abregado Combat Shield there came concerns about the effectiveness of their designs should they come to face each other, for example a stolen ARGH ship or infantry drones. Born out of these concerns the Leech Drones were designed, small buzz-droid similar drones equipped with shield depleters and slicing equipment, meant to overload or bypass combat shields, like Abregado deflectors, and combat mechanical systems like vehicles, ships, or other drones by slicing into their systems and overloading their droid brains.
Description: The Leech Drones are elongated and serpentine in appearance, small but long, most of their bodies are composed of the miniature Shield-Disrupting Projector with armor plates, based on the previous Iskalloni designs which were examined by ARGH during production of their War Galleys, mechanical muscles, slicing, and cutting equipment built around it. Their maws are composed of the projector's emitter surrounded by drills and vibro-teeth designed to allow the drones to eat their way through vehicle and ship armor, burrowing themselves inside it. There are also miniature limbs extending from the sides of their maws, these limbs contain their slicing equipment, such as dataspikes, used to interface with targeted components or data lines like cables to conduct electronic warfare attacks on them. The bodies of the Leech Drones contains various power units and systems to keep the miniature shield-disruptors running as well as contained jet systems and repulsorlifts to increase the speed of the drone as well as give it ability to float above the ground and move in the vacuum of space.
Special Features: The two most important special features of the drones consist of the slicing equipment built into its little mouth-mounted limbs and the shield-disrupting projector contained within most of its body. The slicing equipment physically integrates with electrical components by touching and entangling into data lines like cables before sending out electrical impulses into them or pushing the spike-claws into data slots, jacking in. The slicing is then conducted by sending in streams of dummy data-packets containing false and nonsense orders meant to slow down the processing units and droid brains of enemy systems by forcing them to either follow these nonsense orders that do nothing but waste time or divert more and more processing power into determining what's a true order and what is false. As such, while the drones do not take control of enemy systems when they slice into them, instead they begun to cause lag within their systems which increases the longer their attack is conducted and the more drones are attacking, until eventually they cause the system to crash and shut down, usually repeatedly if they are allowed to be still connected to the systems after the crash. The shield-disrupting projector of the drones does exactly what it sounds like, it disrupts enemy shields, either creating small openings through which the drones could slither in, or other small drones and beings like buzz drones can enter, or by leaching energy from the shields, weakening them until eventual shut down, although doing so requires both multiple drones and prolonged period of time. The drones also possess Combat Shields which boost their defenses and give them a degree of resistance against electrical and ionic attacks, along with their Farraday cages, and magnetic anchors to stay attached to metal surfaces while working.
Strengths: The biggest strength of these drones comes from their ability to use the shield-disruptors in order to bypass enemy shields or deplete them and make them an easier target for other drones to pray on, along with their ability to slice other machines and cause them to work slower or shut down completely, again making them an easier target for other drones to prey upon. These drones are also meant to be used in groups, following swarm behavior, as such their effectiveness is increased when larger numbers of them are assigned to singular tasks and they are manufactured in equally large numbers, making them very expendable. The drones have also partial resistance against electrical and ionic attacks, although their appendages and projector could still be damaged or deactivated by such hits once their combat shield is deactivated, and they are rather swift both in space and on the ground, due to their jet systems, multiple limbs, and repulsorlifts, making them individually harder targets to hit.
Weaknesses: The weaknesses of these drones come first from their low intelligence, as with other ARGH-made drones these mechanical beings are only semi-sentient, more animalistic in their behavior than anything, as such they could be outsmarted relatively easily when caught alone and they do not really distinguish which targets are more important than others, rather simply burrowing and trying to slice whatever enemy machine is closest. These drones are also not equipped with any weaponry outside of their drills and vibro-teeth, which could be used as melee weapons against soldiers who would allow them to get dangerously close, outside of them these drones do not have any way of defending themselves. This is coupled with their relatively weak durasteel plating, making them vulnerable to personal blasters and slugthrowers which would be able to damage and destroy the drones. They also cannot defend themselves against more than one EMP grenade or the equivalent, afterwards electromagnetic attacks of such magnitude would damage the drones and temporarily deactivate them. Another problem is that both their slicing and disruptor systems are very short ranged, forcing them to close in on their targets, coming under range of their escorts or point defenses, which in turn opens them up to early destruction if the enemy is able to keep up with their quick movements and low profile.
Conclusion: In conclusion, the Leech Drones are a highly specialized variant of buzz drones designed to bypass or deplete enemy energy shields before closing in on their machines and assaulting them with slicing attacks which are aimed towards slowing down their processing units like droid brains over time until eventually forcing them to crash and shut down. In return these drones lack any ranged weaponry and their only way of protecting themselves are the vibro-fangs and drills within their mouths, that coupled with their relatively weak durasteel plating makes them an easy target for enemy troops and vehicles who can cope with their small profile and swift movements.
