[SolaraTron Industries] R.I.C.O. Dog, the making of

[Ice]

Ice walked into the R&D labs of SolaraTron Industries with an idea to create a new droid. This was to be the first one the new company would come up with. Sitting down in his chair, he looked at the engineers who were already present and waiting.

"Good morning ladies and gentlemen. For our first order of business, I want us to create a military/guard dog unit. It should perform everything a normal dog can, and then some. The benefit of course being that they can be mass produced, don't need to worry about being fed, and "training" is instantaneous. So it would cut down on a lost of costs for security, police, and military teams. Might even look into a civilian model for family pets. So with that in mind, go! Let's see what you guys got."

He then sat back and watched his team.

 

[Ice]

The teams began discussing the idea, and very soon ideas were starting to be thrown around.

"How about we add a couple guns that are draped across its back and rest along it's side?" Came one suggestion.

"What about fitting him with some stealth features so he can do scouting?" Came another suggestion.

And so the brainstorming continued. Back and forth.

 

[Ice]

Ice started to shake his head. "No. No. No. We need this unit to be inexpensive. Nothing to fancy. Like I said. Let's keep this as close to a regular dog as possible. So no laser death ray eyes." He said eyeing the engineer who had suggested it with a smirk. "And no jet packs!" He added with a chuckle. Though he had to admit a dog with a jetpack, was a most amusing thing to picture.

"How can we improve on what mother nature has already provided? Let's get down to basics. What does a dog posses that we can improve?" With his team refocused on the realm of reality. He turned them loose to brainstorm again.

 

[Ice]

"Well how about the claws? Why don't we make them a little more feline in nature. That way it could have an easy to build and cheap offensive capability right off the bat." A few of the engineers nodded in agreement at the simple but effective idea.

"What about it's jaws? We could add a simple, yet small hydraulic pump and give it an extremely powerful bite. That's also cheap and easy to install." The engineer looked like he was going to say something else when another person chimed in. "Oh! And how about we electrify the teeth!!! We could turn the teeth into tasers to help it take down targets more easily....and less lethally."

One of the men laughed a bit and jokingly added. "Oh sure, why don't we add a sonic rifle for the bark while we're at it too!?" He laughed for a moment, but then stopped as a hush fell over the room as everyone considered it seriously. "Wait....That's actually a good idea too isn't it?"

 

[Ice]

Ice laughed at the new found enthusiasm of the team. He was pleased they were coming up with a more realistic approach to this droid. "How will this dog see? If it's going to enter military service, it will need better than standard eyes. Also hearing, smell. All that jazz. I'd like to program these animals to be able to handle most all functions security dogs are used for today. Detecting drugs, explosive material, tracking, the whole 9 yards."

He paused for a moment as he considered what they had so far. "Also don't forget we need to think of ways we can make this more of a civilian model as well. Any thoughts on that?" While his team continued bantering on, Ice had been jotting down all these notes for review later. Sometimes he thought of things hours after the fact. So he kept notes around on his datapad that he could add to later. It was then another thought popped into mind. "Also if anyone has any ideas for names, let's hear those too."

 

[Ice]

The first thing considered was the eyes. "How about we do a triad system. Standard, infrared, and night vision. Add the programming in to combine them all into one visual stream, and the dog will be able to see just about anything at any time of day." A quick pause was soon interrupted by the first real objection. "You'll have trouble with the night vision overloading the photo receptors. Especially during the day, or if a flashlight gets shown into the dogs face at night. I say we use more of a radiation scanning system. By far more effective, without the drawbacks. A bit more expensive sure, but worth it in my opinion." Again the group nodded seeming to agree. This was proving to be an interesting build.

Hearing and smelling, was decided that the team would simply install higher quality units to accomplish those details. When it came to how to differentiate between the models, several ideas were thrown out. Ideas such as lowering the strength level of certain features like jaw pressure and sonic rifle effectiveness. But also adding padding, synthskin, and fur to make the droid realistic looking. After all, no small child really wanted a metallic dog. They wanted something soft and fluffy that they could hug.

Tons of names were also thrown out for consideration. Eventually, the team decided on R.I.C.O. The Recon, Infiltration, and Covert Ops Dog.

 

[Ice]

"Ok people." Ice finally said after further discussion had started to flesh the design out. "Let get this thing designed out officially and sent to testing. I want to see how our ideas can perform." Looking over his notes to see if he missed anything he soon added. "Make sure we get our programmers to add in some safety protocols as well. The last thing we need is a super dog going rogue. Other than that, is there anything else we need to discuss?" He asked politely.

After seeing a round of heads shaking no. He nodded in reply. "Very well. Have a good day then, and I look forward to seeing the finished product." And with that, Ice left them to their work.

 

[Ice]

The team was able to work fast with the design. In truth it wasn't all that difficult what they were trying to accomplish. Most the work was in the detailing and design of how they wanted the dog to look. Eventually all the features started coming together. The head of course being the most challenging, due to the fact they had to fit a lot of electronics into this relatively small area. To work around this challenge, the team ended up going with a design that had the dog looking a little stalky. Very reminiscent of a fighting dog.

Compared to the rest of its, body, it's neck and head were a little bit on the large side. Still it was not so much so as to be distracting. Ice was soon sent a message to return so as to review the trials the new droid model was about to undergo. Everyone was a little bit nervous. It was always like that though, when the big day finally arrived for a team to show off what all their hard work had accomplished.

 

[Ice]

Having received the invitation from his team to return, Ice was only too excited. He was surprised to see the test was to actually be done on Libertalia itself. In the ice biome more specifically. He wasn't going to complain though. That meant less of a trip for him. Having gotten up early, he headed out to the meeting ground where he soon found his team. And standing next to them was a brand new R.I.C.O. Dog.

Ice couldn't help but smile at the creation they had all worked so hard on. It turned out really well. It was then he realized something. A slight frown beginning to appear on his face, Ice looked to his team and asked. "Wait a minute. This is the military version. We had also discussed a civilian version. You don't have one of the those bui---" His words were cute off when another "dog" bounded around from behind the group. Apparently panting from having been running around.

He raised an eyebrow as he studied the creature for a moment. The animal was beautiful. He had a feeling someone had been feeding the team information on what kind of dog he personally was going to want. Because the animal that lay before him was exactly what he had been picturing in his mind.

​

Once more, the dog after seeing Ice seemed to get excited and went running up to him. The dog immediately began to nuzzle Ice and lick his hand as he moved to pet it. Looking back, to his team, he smirked.

"Well I would love to know HOW you all found out what kind of dog I would want....or for that matter, that I even wanted one in the first place." He gave a small laugh as he crouched down to pet the friendly "animal". Someone finally spoke up saying that the dog had already been programmed to view Ice as it's master. But although it was created to look like the civilian model, it still retained the combat effectiveness of the military version.

Ice spent just another minute or so with the dog, before turning back to his team. "Well Thank you all very much! So far, I am very impressed. But I think we still have some challenges to prove can be handled yes? Let's see what they got." Ice then shooed the dog away playfully, so that the handlers could carry on their demonstration.

 

[Ice]

First thing the handler did was blow a whistle really quick to get their attention. Producing two balls from a bag, the man threw them in toward the icy lake in the distance. They landed with a small splash and promptly sunk. The two "dogs" lit after them and dove into the water like an otter. They too almost instantly disappeared under the water. The speed with which they moved was impressive. Ice noted it was definitely faster than a normal dog. More akin to the speed of a racing dog.

It took a few moments, but eventually the dogs resurfaced. The handler spoke up at this point. "Sir. We went ahead and added a lightweight lining to the inside of the support structure effectively making them waterproof. The amount of trapped air inside means the dogs are neutral buoyancy when they hit the water. Thus making it easy for them to swim and retrieve something. Be it a lost object or perhaps even a fleeing suspect."

 

[Ice]

Ice had to admit he had been a little nervous when he first saw the two droids jump on in. The original specs never called for that feature. Still, he was pleased his team had thought to add that ability. It was something he hadn't thought of, and had him now curious as to what else he should be looking for. As the dogs climbed out of the water, he could see them make use of the claws that had been brought out before. And a small smirk came to his face as he lowered and whistled for the droids. The units quickly perked up, and dashed toward their owner excitedly. Dropping the balls at Ice's feet.

"Good boys." Ice cooed playfully. Instinctively he began to pet them, even though they couldn't feel it. Glancing back to the man taking the lead in this demonstration, he asked simply. "So what's next?"

So far, he was loving the demonstration. The units had the look he was after, they had the speed, and basic characteristics of a dog people all over the galaxy would love. But he was now ready to see the more important features.

 

[Ice]

The man nodded to Ice and soon withdrew a police baton. The dogs looked at it curiously but gave no other indication that they cared. He then called the military version and ordered it to sit aside from the demonstration as he only needed one of the dogs. Turning back to Ice's model, he gave another sharp whistle and held the baton up.

Instantly, the dog jumped to a defensive stance. The fur on the back of it's neck stood up as it barred it's teeth at the demonstrator. What happened next actually caused Ice to flinch. A loud crack broke the relatively peaceful quiet as electricity coursed its way across the dogs teeth. The whole display would be rather terrifying for an enemy.

Without warning, the demonstrator moved to strike at the dog. R.I.C.O. responded immediately, quickly clamping down its powerful jaws onto the baton and wrenching it from it's "trainer". The man quickly let out another sharp whistle as he backed off. And the dog likewise, quickly responded by sitting down and looking as pleasant and friendly as he ever had. The demonstrator meanwhile, picked up the badly bent baton, soon handing it off to Ice.

"The military units posses 3,700 pounds of force in those jaws, and are strong enough to rip apart lightly armored droids as easily as easily as they can flesh. Though the civilian units will "only" have 1,000."

 

[Ice]

The rest of the team who were all standing farther aside were looking on with barely contained enthusiasm. They could see Ice was pleased. And there was nothing better to an engineer to see the customer happy with their work. And so far, the droids had been working flawlessly. They should. The team had after all, spent many a long day and night working on the engineering and programming of this droid. Making sure they got everything just right before demonstrating what would be the first model SolaraTron Industries put out.

Ice took the baton, in wonder and just a little bit of horror after having watched the seemingly peaceful droid so easily and quickly disarm the "target" as well as render the weapon nearly useless. After glancing it over and back to the dog a couple times, he lowered the item to the floor and gestured for the demonstration to continue. "Please, proceed."

 

[Ice]

The man nodded and quickly continued on with the show. He had a previously set up course for the dog to prove he could track a target in any light or condition all ready to go. After letting R.I.C.O. get the target scent, the unit immediately set out looking for its target. It didn't take long for it to pick up the "trail", and soon the chase was on. Over and under obsticles, the unit pressed on. The course challenged all of the dogs senses. But in the end, they were all overcome.

Finally, the droid closed in on it's "target". After receiving a specific command, the dog charged. While it did, it began to "bark" at the enemy. That was where it's only ranged offensive capability was finally put on display. The dummy target, had packets placed all over its chest. In the event of a hit. The packet would explode. Nearly every packet had been destroyed when the dog lunged at the dummy. Ferociously attacking it with it's powerful jaws and razor sharp claws.

A whistle from the demonstrator caused the dog to immediately halt its attack and come to heel next to the man.

"And that sir. Is our demonstration. Though one last item that we couldn't demonstrate here, is the "paws" on the dog are magnetic. So even in a ship type environment, if gravity were lost. The unit would still be able to move. Albeit at only a walking pace for obvious reasons."

 

[Ice]

Ice clapped slowly as the man concluded his demonstration. He then waved over his team to join them. "You all have done an amazing job." He said excitedly once they all had approached. "Truly, you have surpassed my every expectation with this unit. To show my appreciation, I wish to give each of you who worked on this project a 1,000 credit bonus. I do believe we are going to have a winner on our hands with this unit!"

Ice then went through and shook each team members hand and thanked them all personally. He couldn't wait to see what the reception was going to be from the galactic community for this droid. When all the tahnks and congratulations were over, he spoke again to them as a whole. "Ok I want this unit here." He said while pointing to the military version of the two dogs. "As well as a new unit that looks similar to mine, but at civilian specs. To be used for demonstrations to prospective clients. I want them as soon as possible. I mean to get these out into the public eye immediately."

With nods of understanding from his team, the demonstration broke up, and everyone went back to work.