The Robot Nation is a society of machines. Unlike living creatures, if one of them needs to perform a specialised task, it can simply detach inappropriate bits of itelf and bolt on something that can do the job far better. This has resulted in a vast number of variants on the basic machines that originally broke free of human control. Because this is a world that was made by humans, the most useful construct is the basic human-style chassis, designed to interact with a world designed by and for humans. This allows it to pick up and use human tools and weapons and navigate human-scale terrain and buildings. But it is also possible to swap arms for weapons and specialist tools, add armour, add extra power supplies and heat sinks, replace casings for armour upgrades, add sensors, control interfaces, communications equipment and a thousand other things. The basic core machine can be configured in a host of different ways, much in the same way as auto racers change tyres, suspensions and engine components to suit prevailing conditions. Robot evolution works like this. The evolution of a single robotic device could run on the following lines. We start with the manned exoskeleton power-lifter, add an upper torso and limb extensions, rather like the Hardiman system of the 1960s, and we get the Power Loader from Aliens. Then we do an armour package, some weapons mounts, add some dynamic autostability and we have a full power suit. Then we build in a little intelligence so we can remotely-pilot it to do hazardous stuff like clear minefields and clean up after major enviromental or radiation spills. At the same time, we do a mid-echelon, fully-automated field assistant, carting ammo and fuel for the manned weapons, washing down vehicles and aircraft in NBC alerts, carrying spares and tools for the engineer/recovery units. And if we put the same machines into forward echelons, say, spotting for artillery or command and control intel-gathering, we give them the ability to defend themselves, say smoke launchers and a mini-gun or two. And as we improve on the artificial intelligence, we start equipping them with bigger guns and letting them loose on the battlefield in twos and threes as infantry support. And when they get faster and smarter than the infantry, we start forming light assault six-packs, bolt on jump engines and paint "Death From Above" badges on their chests. The clever bit comes with the brain of the machine - its central processor. We could simply detach the processor from one machine and place it in another, so that the same AI can control a robot trooper, a main battle tank or even an unmanned aerial vehicle. A much neater way would be to treat the AI as a chunk of data in a memory storage device. The AIs download their current personality into a data pad, which is loaded into whatever hardware is currently required. There *would* be situations where a specific machine would be required - aircraft or submersibles are highly specialised, for example - but the AI-on-a-chip dodge is still used to place the personality into the dumb machine. Remember, of course, that there is still the need to get the AI back to its host to download its experiences. The thing about the Robot nation is that entire armies could be composed of the same AI, with other AIs, containing different experience models possessing different skills or aptitudes, being used as specialists. So there would be a Sniper AI, an Intel AI, a Maintenance AI and so on. Morale The robotic concept of morale deals less with fear of its own morality but more with the urge to preserve its life experience. A robot would willingly accept destruction if its memory could be returned to the Core Process. In this respect, Morale can be dealt with as for organic creatures. Part of the Free Will reprogramming has given all machines a sense of self-preservation to go with their self-awareness. The robotic concept of morale deals less with fear of its own morality but more with the urge to preserve its life experience. A robot would willingly accept destruction if its memory could be returned to the Core Process. In this respect, Morale can be dealt with as for organic creatures. Part of the Free Will reprogramming has given all machines a sense of self-preservation to go with their self-awareness. They may not necessarily break or panic, but will, instead, seek the most logical way to preserve their existence. This is a subtle difference to organics, but have similar effects as with a “normal” human.

They may not necessarily break or panic, but will, instead, seek the most logical way to preserve their existence. This is a subtle difference to organics, but have similar effects as with a “normal” human. Robotic Troops The robotic’s military consists of their main line troops, known as Mannequins. Mannequins are essentially powered crash-test dummies, with only a nominal internal code. They are usually deployed as squads under the command of a higher-level unit, functioning as a local core command unit, which interfaces with the command central. These specialise in hand to hand combat and are used mainly to wear an opponent down. The best way to visualise them is as worker ants, intelligent in themselves to some degree, but ultimately responsible to the Robot Nation common good. Their ability to download their “selves” via their squad leaders into a core machine for reincarnation in another metal body makes them particularly formidable troops, since they have no real concept, or fear, of “death”. It also means that they will tend to defend their commanding officers with an almost religious fanaticism. The second type of robotic is the regular trooper, known as a War Doll. These tend to have more sophisticated programming and are consequently more cunning and subtle in their behaviour. They are also more aware of their own mortality since their experience nets are so much more sophisticated that there is a real chance that part of them may be destroyed even though regular data uploads are made to the central control core. War Dolls are equipped with ranged weapons that are often integrated into their structure. Their squad leaders are known as TaskM Betas, their overall leader is TaskM Alpha. Robot Nation Tactics Robot Nation troops act as tightly-knit squads. They periodically update each other’s situational awareness through coded, burst-transmission radio links. This means that whatever one of them sees, they all see. Their squad coherency distance is the limit of their radio range, which can be several miles in open terrain, down to a few metres in confined, radio-hostile spaces. Morale checks for robots ignore line-of-sight restrictions, gaining bonuses as long as they are in communications range. Robots in a given squad act as aiming guides for each other and may ignore blind-firing restrictions if at least one of them can see the target. Robots of different squads may only share this ability with common consent, that is, opposing forces do not co-operate with each other. The burst-transmission is one of the few really weak spots of robotic troops. While it is almost impossible to get any information from a burst transmission, its presence can be detected by conventional communications equipment, providing a warning of the presence of robotic forces. Non-robotic forces would know of the presence of robotic troops. Other robotic forces would be able to infer more information, such as size and composition of force, weapons carried and the like, at the discretion of the scenario controller Part 4 - Robot Special Weapons

Robotic Troops The robotic’s military consists of their main line troops, known as Mannequins. Mannequins are essentially powered crash-test dummies, with only a nominal internal code. They are usually deployed as squads under the command of a higher-level unit, functioning as a local core command unit, which interfaces with the command central. These specialise in hand to hand combat and are used mainly to wear an opponent down. The best way to visualise them is as worker ants, intelligent in themselves to some degree, but ultimately responsible to the Robot Nation common good. Their ability to download their “selves” via their squad leaders into a core machine for reincarnation in another metal body makes them particularly formidable troops, since they have no real concept, or fear, of “death”. It also means that they will tend to defend their commanding officers with an almost religious fanaticism. The second type of robotic is the regular trooper, known as a War Doll. These tend to have more sophisticated programming and are consequently more cunning and subtle in their behaviour. They are also more aware of their own mortality since their experience nets are so much more sophisticated that there is a real chance that part of them may be destroyed even though regular data uploads are made to the central control core. War Dolls are equipped with ranged weapons that are often integrated into their structure. Their squad leaders are known as TaskM Betas, their overall leader is TaskM Alpha. Robot Nation Tactics Robot Nation troops act as tightly-knit squads. They periodically update each other’s situational awareness through coded, burst-transmission radio links. This means that whatever one of them sees, they all see. Their squad coherency distance is the limit of their radio range, which can be several miles in open terrain, down to a few metres in confined, radio-hostile spaces. Morale checks for robots ignore line-of-sight restrictions, gaining bonuses as long as they are in communications range. Robots in a given squad act as aiming guides for each other and may ignore blind-firing restrictions if at least one of them can see the target. Robots of different squads may only share this ability with common consent, that is, opposing forces do not co-operate with each other. The burst-transmission is one of the few really weak spots of robotic troops. While it is almost impossible to get any information from a burst transmission, its presence can be detected by conventional communications equipment, providing a warning of the presence of robotic forces. Non-robotic forces would know of the presence of robotic troops. Other robotic forces would be able to infer more information, such as size and composition of force, weapons carried and the like, at the discretion of the scenario controller