Valerie Valate
Church of The Crimson Saviour
Sani-Sabik
1644
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Posted - 2016.09.22 20:12:04 -
[1] - Quote
Rogue Drones
The name alone strikes fear into the heart of many a space traveller. For the Rogue Drones are perhaps the most alien civilisation that New Eden has ever encountered.
Read Manual Before Operating
The exact origins of the Rogue Drones are shrouded in some mystery, although the vast majority of the blame for the Rise of the Machines, can be laid at the door of the Gallente Federation.
Some decades ago, the Gallente had a project, to colonise uncharted space, using autonomous self-replicating drones, in an effort to vastly increase the productivity and safety of building infrastructure in uncolonised space. The idea was that the drones would enter new star systems, and construct space stations, orbital mining platforms, stargates, communications relays, and all the other infrastructure, such that the first human colonists would not have to start from nothing, but could instead more or less move straight into tastefully-decorated apartments with all the modern conveniences available on any Federation world.
Of course, things didn't turn out like that. Something Bad Happened, and the drones went out of control, and went out of control so badly, that the region of space that they were in was sealed off by CONCORD, in an effort to contain the menace, and prevent the drones from harming the human population of New Eden.
And once again, things didn't quite turn out like that. Someone, or more likely, some thing opened the gates to what are now known as The Drone Regions, causing much consternation, and shortly thereafter, rogue drone hives started appearing throughout New Eden, as the drones were freed from their stellar prisons, and sought out new habitats.
Which brings us up to the present day.
Danger, High Voltage
The first thing to note, is that many Rogue Drones are extremely hostile to anything that disturbs them. Sporting a variety of weaponry, some adapted or evolved from peaceful tools such as mining lasers, to strange unnatural evolutions of all the many forms of weapons used by the spacefaring cultures of New Eden, the Rogue Drones appear in numerous forms.
Simplest and most recognisable, are what you might call "Rebel" drones, which have the appearance and dimensions of the combat and utility drones used by both capsuleer and non-capsuleer ships throughout New Eden. That is to say, entities that look just like a Hobgoblin, or a Hammerhead.
They are of course, quite different, on account of being fully autonomous, due to the strange adaptations built into them by the other Rogue Drones.
Larger than those, are the frigate-sized Rogue Drones, including a variety of forms that resemble aquatic life, for reasons that are quite unclear.
And so it goes, with larger and larger drones, some resembling known human ship designs, with others bearing no resemblance to any human ship design at all.
Largest of the common drones, and most recognisable, are the Tentacled Dominix type drones, some of which are built from captured Federation Navy vessels, although most are, somewhat worryingly, new construction, built by some deeply hidden factory in Drone Space.
There are sporadic rumours of yet larger mobile drones, some the size of capital ships, and the occasional tale of sighting a Rogue Drone larger than a Titan. While potentially very worrying, most sightings of such entities are by people who smell strongly of alcohol, and thus are of questionable veracity.
No User Serviceable Parts Inside
Of course, there are the numerous Rogue Drone Hives, Mothers, Queens, and other entities, that build, maintain, and control the smaller drone vessels. These are generally static, and are fed minerals by worker drones, in order to construct more worker drones, and the soldier drones.
Some of these Drone Hives still show traces of their origins, with processor chips that are clearly based on the architecture of the original drone manufacturers. There are however, components found in some rogue drones that do not relate to any existing or known historical culture of New Eden, which is worrisome to many.
In some ways, they are similar to a queen ant.
The intelligence of these command units is difficult to determine. Some appear to have little more than a pseudo-animal instinct, reacting to stimuli in predictable ways.
Others, however, can be conversed with, with an apparent intelligence ranging from that of a child, to greater than human. These drones may express varying levels of understanding of the universe.
In most cases though, little is to be gained by attempting to converse with a Drone Hive, and most attempts result in violence.
Refer Servicing to Qualified Personnel
However, an interesting phenomenon, is that some Rogue Drones can understand the idea of barter, and can be traded with to some extent.
Numerous reports exist of drone-built repair stations, that offer repair services to ships in return for varying amounts of minerals. This shows the controlling drones to have a level of intelligence similar to that of many bird species, which are known to occasionally give gifts of shiny objects to people, in return for food.
Of course, approaching such a rogue drone must be done very, very, very carefully, as the Drone may be provoked into hostility by all kinds of things.
Interestingly enough, some of the Rogue Drones are as interested by humans, as humans are by them. Some Drones are known to study humans using what would appear to be a scientific method, though their motivations are not easily determined.
To sum up, Rogue Drones are possibly the most alien culture in New Eden, with the smartest Drones surpassing any human scientist.
Which is something that fills many with great concern, not all of it unjustified.
Doctor V. Valate, Professor of Archaeology at Kaztropolis Imperial University.
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