Approved Tech ARD X-5 Ambrosia Droids

[Enyo Typhos]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: To make use of tech Archangel subbed several years ago.
Image Source: Here. Terminator 3 artwork. Found on flickchart.com.
Canon Link: N/A
Permissions: N/A.
Primary Source: ARD X-1 Human Replica Droids, Archangel Processing Machine, Archangel Processing Machine MKII. Similarities exist with Eldorai Spirit Gems, though these were actually based on the Archangel tech. Onadax Droid Technologies.

PRODUCTION INFORMATION
Manufacturer: Archangel Research and Design.
Model: ARD X-5
Production: Limited
Affiliation: Archangel Research and Design, Closed-Market (select customers).
Modularity: Appearance, height, gender, appearance and programming are all changeable. Can be tailored to resemble any humanoid being.
Material: Durasteel, high strength polymers, cloned organic coverings, souls of the damned (or ascended, depending on your point of view).

TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Classification: Third/Fourth Degree. HRDs straddle the line between combat and human interaction models.
Weight: Average.
Height: Heavy.
Movement: Bipedal.
Armaments: Small vibroblades concealed in palms. Aside from this, the units have no inbuilt-weapons and rely on their strength. They are programmed to utilise a wide variety of ranged and melee weapons though. Also programmed in various martial arts.

Misc. Equipment:

• Visual processing modes; Infrared, Thermal, X-Ray, Low-Light, 20x Magnification.
• Vocabulator capable of mimicking any known voice and speaking several thousand languages.
• Invisible communicator with audio or text broadcasting to other units on the same planet. (Secret holonet transceiver used by Archangel to control or monitor units.)
• Heuristic Central Processor
• Droid Parabolic Guide
• DNA Tracer
• Fire Suppression System
• Criticality Light
• Emergency Reactivator
• Probability Guide
• Perception Sensors
• Micro-Optics
• Gabonna Memory Crystal.
• Ionization Buffer.
• DNA Tracing Module.

Resistances:

• Blaster: High
• Kinetic: High
• Lightsabre: Average
• Ion/EMP: Average
• Elemental: High

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Created via a modified entechment process. This makes them more effective infiltrators, to the point of having the ability to fool Force-Users.
• Able to be disguised as any humanoid
• Advanced search and identify protocols.
• Endowed with sophisticated infiltration, combat and assassination protocols.
• The unit is adaptable and able to learn as it progresses, making it more dangerous.
• Sophisticated anti-malware software and anti-slicing protocols

Strengths:

• Incredibly strong. An HRD posseses incredible strength, allowing them to dish out with brute force and lift heavy objects in excess of their body weight. As they also feel no pain they can use their bodies as weapons or to smash through barriers.
• Resilient. An HRD can take several blaster bolts to the head or chest before the unit fails. They are very resilient against blasters and kinetic attacks as well as elemental threats such as lightning. Limbs can be severed and severe damage done, but it will press on regardless.
• Skilled Infiltrators and assassins. HRDs are designed to look, act and seem human. They can blend into social situations, using their abilities to get close to their targets. HRDs are assassins and combat droids of a highly advanced level. They know neither fear nor any other emotion except when they mimic it. They are implacable and ruthless.
• The HRD is able to identify infiltrators who use image altering techniques such as holographic disguise matrices, ooglith masquers protheses and makeup. It is also very good at reading body language and social cues, enabling it to potentially pick up on clues that could reveal a potential infiltrator or enemy agent.
• This model differs from Archangel's other HRDs by having organic essence enteched inside it. This makes it a more effective infiltrator. They are more effective at simulating mannerisms of their organic self. Because there is an organic essence, they feel more 'human'. It is assumed that only Force-Users with a very high skill in mental techniques will be able to discern the difference. A unit created by this process is more an individual and less a drone that has left the assembly line.

Weaknesses:

• While sophisticated, the droid's search and identify protocols are not flawless. Use of the Force, the right identification codes and similar may succeed in overcoming the droid's capabilities.
• HRDs are powerful, but in the high tech modern galaxy they are not invulnerable. Heavy or prolonged blaster fire to the head or chest can disable them, as can powerful explosives and especially lightsabres. Their bodies provides hthem with no special resistance to lightsabre attacks. They can withstand glancing blows, but a direct hit will cut through them.
• While the skeleton is more resistant to damage, their organic overlay is vulnerable In an infiltration situation, damage to it will easily break their cover, as it will expose the metal beneath their synthskin. Likewise, high-grade scans could notice something is off.
• They are machines and thus vulnerable to ion and EMPs. Their ion buffers are only effective against small arms or glancing shots.
• Not Human. HRDs can look, act and seem human, but they are not. Even humans processed into machines soon lose the ability to actually empathise and ‘be’ human. While they are good at fooling in the short term, their inherent ‘wrongness’ comes through and someone in daily contact every day will eventually realise that something is off and they are not as they seem.
• Their creation process makes them more effective infiltrators, but may introduce organic unpredictability. There is the risk that that they may become more and individualist than machine.

DESCRIPTION

Archangel has always aimed to create as good an HRD as possible. To this end, it has created a variety of models, ranging from heavy combat models such as the Myrmidon to cunning Infiltrators that are virtually impossible to distinguish from the humans they try to pass as. All this is accomplished through use of a Processing Machine. Every HRD designed by Archangel is based on an organic.

The device scans their minds and appearance, and Archangel creates a body in their likeness and a droid brain with their memories and experiences. Old personality traits carry over, but are purged of organic illogic. One wonders whether the fact that Moira Skaldi and Maelion Liates, the founders of Archangel, were based on organics is the reason that they very organic ambitions such as galactic conquest, genocide and so on.

Regardless, early in its existence Archangel learned that one of its rivals had been working on perfecting an entechment process pioneered by Onadax Droid Technologies centuries ago. This process created HRDs imbued with the essence and sentience of living beings, using a variant of Ssi-Ruuvi entechment. This method enabled the droid designers to copy a being's sentience, personality, and conscious completely from one body to machine. Needless to say this was a lot safer than Force-based essence transfer. Sadly, Jaina Solo, not understanding the potential of this technology, had put a stop to Onadax' experiments.

But once the genie is out of the bottle, it cannot be put back in. The process had many similarities with Archangel's, but differed from it in the crucial respect that the HRD created in this manner was not a facsimile of the organic. Rather the organic was 'perfected'. So Archangel did what any machine cult masquerading as a legitimate business does. It carried out a covert assault, murdered its competitors, 'upgraded' their scientists, stole their tech and adapted it for its own purposes. Then it bought good will by hiring many of the workers who had lost their jobs due to their bosses being dead, and donated lots of money to the local police. Truly a model citizen.

Anyhow, the fruit of Archangel's activities was a new version of the processing machine. Unlike the old one, its use required the organic being processed to be fully alive, as otherwise there would be no essence to entech. Once a suitable subject is organic and rendered unconscious, it is placed inside an enclosed chamber device. Much like the first and more common incarnation of the processing machine, it scans the body and mind of the organic in order for Archangel to create an HRD in its likeness.

Scanning the human brain and mapping the data turns the analogue into digital. That data is stored like a computer program. Thereafter, the organic's essence is pulled from the body. The squishy flesh and blood body dies, for it is no longer needed. Archangel is a strong supporter of recycling, so the body in question is disposed of in an environmentally friendly way. The essence is stored in a holding unit, while the machine body is being constructed. The procedure is destructive of the organics it processes. The living organic body which is scanned is killed during the process, but in return a massively detailed selection of information is collection. This information is stored in a central computer whilst the body of the HRD and its coverings are fabricated, whereupon the essence is transferred. Whilst the data can be used to create more than one HRD based on a single template the length of time needed to create and program a single unit makes it more efficient to create them one after another. Further, since these droids are created primarily as infiltrators with retained knowledge having several active at once is generally not useful, therefore creating extras as spares is more common

Droids receive secret backdoor protocols and the programming they would need to function, depending on their intended role. Naturally, they are programmed to be loyal to Archangel. There is a shutdown process should the essence make the new HRD troublesome. Usually, the mechanical body is made in the likeness of the organic template. However, appearance can be customised as needed or desired by the customer. Unlike the entechment process used by the Ssi-Ruuvi, there is no torture of organic souls involved. The process is clean, efficient, and impersonal.

The organic's mind and memories may reprogrammed to fit their new role in life. Like other Archangel HRD models, they can sweat, cry, eat and drink. Their organic exterior conceals a machine. The new units are better at copying the mannerism of an organic and have an enhanced ability to deceive Force-Users, as they feel more 'human' in the Force, though they are not infallible. Outside of this, the HRD created in this manner is similar to the baseline HRD. It is a highly skilled assassin, combatant and infiltrator. HRDs can be programmed to fill virtually any role, and are marketed in such a manner. They do not tire, feel pain or fear. Their skin feels realistic, theyn can eat, drink, sweat and cry. The droids are good combatants and resilient against various forms of damage, but their primary purpose is infiltration. The complexity of the creation process means that they are only produced in limited numbers.

Organics, so the party line goes, can transcend their organic weaknesses. When marketing the machines to very select customers, Archangel appeals to their fear of entropy. The rich and powerful can escape the frailties of flesh by having their consciousness transferred into a superior droid body. Someone whose loved one has say suffered an accident and been put in a coma need not despair, for they can be given a second lease at life - in a body that is better than the original one. High society figures whose beauty has faded or who never had the dream body to begin with can now be beautiful and strong. Soldiers who have suffered crippling or near-fatal injuries can return to the battlefield stronger and harder. Of course, there is a price to be paid. Archangel calls its new design the Ambrosia Droid.

 

[Runi Verin]

Approved.