Defence Rider Drones OXZ

Downsizing

Galcop, in a final drive to economize on personnel and vehicles (particularly its costly Police Viper and Viper Interceptor models), sanctioned the galaxy-wide production and adoption of a smaller, cheaper enforcement platform.

The result, under consultation with several manufacturers, primarily FE Shipyards, is the Mambita - a fully autonomous reduced-scale defence craft, dubbed Ship Defence Drone (SDD).

For the project, FE Shipyards took its proven Mamba II design, scaled down its hull to less than half the size of the original and dispensed with the need for an organic pilot, integrating instead advanced robotic AI systems, all of which can be mass-produced. The SDD Mambita's internals are almost wholly taken up by a powerful - for an organic, 'too powerful' would be understating the case - non-Hyperspace engine. What remains houses a laser mounting of military specification.

Mambita SDD is a fire-and-forget weapon, in effect, and belongs officially to the Mine-class, being too light in mass to lock or hinder any vessel.

Police forces have begun a gradual phase-out of their manned Viper patrol vehicles, and are introducing artfully programmed Mambitas to take their place. Remaining Vipers are being modified to carry Mambita SDDs as Rider drones, couched along the mothership's underside, to be released and recalled when occasion demands.

Trials have proven an outstanding success. The Mambita's speed and acceleration, turn rate, and reaction-time, outstrip those of opponent ships, and their miniaturized electromagnetic and visual profile renders the drones hard to detect and hit. Loss rates are low, far lower than those of manned Vipers in dangerous systems. The SDD's future looks bright.

'Drop a drone' is becoming a popular phrase not only among the shrinking Galcop Police Corps, but increasingly among non-uniformed crews. And thereby hangs another tale...

Civilian SDD

At some stage in the project, an unknown Galcop nabob had a brainwave: A de facto space police force might soon become unnecessary. All that would be required was licensing - a stringent, Galcop controlled form of licensing, granted; a licensing of SDD for the use of approved civilian vessels. A trader vessel, for example, sporting its own Rider drone hardpoints and Mambita complement, could effectively carry its own police enforcers along with it.

Plans were quickly realized for the formation of a new Civilian SDD Authority, whose responsibilities include approval and licensing of applicants, along with outsourcing of Mambita production for the general market. All accompanied by the close and seamless integration of the 'product' not only with individual ship systems, but with the Galcop communications network itself, every aspect of SDD deployment to be monitored and recorded.

SDD capability requires one thing and one thing only of any applicant: a clean and spotless Galcop record and a history of compliance with galactic laws.

The SDD Authority, once satisfied, will grant approval and a duly legitimized licence for the carrying of Rider drones. There is little room for abuse of the system as it has been put in place: Special codes are issued and hard-coded in to every drone alotted; no drone can function without them. Hardpoints are mated with a unique coded link; an SDD will not attach itself without such a code. Every 'drop' is recorded, every retrieval, every kill, every loss.

The SDD, as a weapon of the ship on which it is installed, and certainly not accounted a vessel or craft in its own right, but a Mine, carries out its allotted task of targetting offending vessels of its own selection or that of its mothership, and on their elimination registers a 'kill' with the on-ship and Galcop systems simultaneously. Galcop credits the launching vessel with the kill, awarding the ship its bounty plus 100 credits. Galcop regards the bonus as 'incentive to policing', but charges the licensee 100 credits for every drone lost. The dropping of a drone is accompanied by a (negligible) tax.

Some crews noticed that there can be profit in this. Some, reputedly, have become hunters using SDDs only. The Galcop Administration must be smiling. They have a free Police Force that does not require wages or great expenditure, merely ongoing production and licensing. Licensing fees swell Galcop's coffers and the spacelanes become safe for all (except offenders). Win-win.

Onboard SDD Mechanisms

An automated comm-link is established with all attached SDDs on station launch.

The deployment mechanism is mated with the WEAPONs (online/offline) switch. An organic commander must toggle ship weapons ON to drop an SDD. Toggle OFF, then ON again to deploy another Mambita.

There are various ways and situations in which deployed SDDs are recalled and retrieved:

1) Manually. In flight, from the F5 ship status screen, press [x].

2) On Torus-drive engagement, all deployed drones are automatically recalled and retrieved.

3) On requesting docking clearance, any deployed SDDs are automatically recalled and retrieved.

4) On engagement of the hyperspace motor (witchdrive), all deployed drones are recalled.

Hostile encounters

Frequently, on encountering a group of Offender ships, deployed drones will select appropriate targets and initiate their own attack. Whether they do will depend on the gravity of the offences the scanned group has committed or is in the process of committing.

Otherwise, when their mothership fires on an identified Offender, every deployed drone will join in attacking this target. In fact, any ship their mothership fires on will become a target, regardless of legal status. The only class of ship an SDD is prevented from attacking is a vessel of CLASS_POLICE or CLASS_PLAYER.

When the mothership receives hostile fire, drones will be assigned to attack the attacker.

When the alert condition changes to RED, any currently unengaged (idle) drones will be assigned the nearest hostile to attack.

General SDD status and other observations

As already observed, the SDD Mambita is officially classed as a Mine. As a Mine it cannot mass-lock other ships.

All SDD Mambitas are identified as CLASS_POLICE, with role 'police', as they are in every sense Galcop property. Additionally, as mentioned, Galcop Police Corps increasingly assigns SDDs to its own patrols, replacing organic crew and expensive Vipers.

On the scanner, a Police SDD can be recognised by its lollipop colours flashing purple and blue. Civilian-licensed SDDs when dropped are distinguished by their red and blue flashing blips.

SDD Charges and Credits

The nominal cost of a Galcop SDD Licence is 1000 credits, renewable every LY (Lave Year).

As mentioned already, each drone deployment or 'drop' carries a small tax.

Loss of a drone through destruction incurs a Galcop penalty of 100 credits.

On registration of a kill, each kill by an SDD is credited to the mothership pilot's Elite score (the SDD is a weapon fired by the mothership, just like any other missile or mine.) The mothership pilot's account is credited with the bounty on the destroyed vessel plus Galcop's 'policing incentive' bonus of 100 credits. All accounting occurs in realtime.

Thus, with the aid of SDDs, a reasonable living can be eked out through hunting Offenders insystem - a practice Galcop tacitly if not overtly encourages via its 'policing incentive'.