mechagrunt

Trope-a-Day: Mecha Mooks

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Mecha Mooks: Oh, indeed.  These are the actual AI fighting robots (“autonomous mechagrunts”) which occupy the spot in the military food chain between the Attack Drones and the actual people in the command chain.  They also do the majority of the fighting, the eldrae with their long lives and slow population growth having a very good idea as to the place of their precious, irreplaceable, valuable selves in mass warfare: namely at the back, cheating.

In their case, however, neither fragile nor graduates of the Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy.  They’ve learned how to cheat really well.

Trope-a-Day: Attack Drone

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Attack Drone: Hell, yes!  From personal protection drones, through the combat drones that make up the larger part of pretty much any fireteam (half-a-dozen slaved to each mechagrunt), through the wingdrones accompanying aerospace fighters, to the Imperial Navy’s AKV-drones, the Imperial military (and mercenaries, and law enforcement, and private security) does love its drones.

Now, some might say that being AI controlled, these aren’t drones, these are Mecha Mooks.  Well, no, those are one step up the chain.  Those are the autonomous mechagrunts and AKVs that the drones are slaved to, and which in turn answer to the actual people in the command chain.  This isn’t mere force multiplication, this is force raising-to-the-power-of!

And that has been the name of the game ever since they were big, lumbering, steam-powered things with Stannic cogitator brains.