Artificially intelligent androids known as bots have been working for organic beings for centuries. Nearly all interstellar species employ bots for labor, security, and as servants. They are especially common on the battlefield and in the workforces of large corporations such as Protostar.
ADDITIONAL REFERENCE
Robot [ROH-bot], Noun
- Any machine or mechanical device that operates automatically.
Bot [BOT], Noun
- Any machine that resembles a humanoid and performs tasks on command.
Freebot [FREE-bot], Noun
- Any robot or bot that attains sentience and "breaks" it's programming, resulting in a sapient individual. Only known to happen on planet Nexus.
- (Protostar only) The scourge of profits and a blight on mechanical entities everywhere that must be utterly annihilated and/or reprogrammed to retain maximum resale value.
Bots and robots[]
The word "bot" is derived from "robot" but where robots are generally highly specialized for specific program tasks and only communicate via text interface, bots are usually built with more multipurpose bodies, possess limited self-aware AI programming and voice synthesizers with substantial vocabularies. Bots are usually identified by their general specialties, such as mining, cooking, or security, with the suffix "bot" attached to the end. Specific individuals are given alphanumeric identifiers. Typical bot types include minerbots, cookbots, guardbots, battlebots, and medibots.
ADDITIONAL REFERENCE
Battlebots keep the city strong,
Cambots watch for those doing wrong.
Dancebots shake their metal things,
Electrobots are charged with extra zing.
Firebots keep the flames at bay,
While guardbots don't' have much to say.
--From A Child's Bot Primer, a free pamphlet provided free of charge by the Protostar Corporation to children for the uncharacteristically low price of "free."
Battlebots[]
Bots employed for combat are commonly called battlebots. They are built to intimidate, with aggressive-looking faces and oversized chassis. Most models possess modular limbs that can accept a wide variety of lethal and non-lethal weapons attachments.
Exile Battlebots[]
The Exiles, up against a vastly better-funded military apparatus, employ a wide variety of bots as battlebots - from standard combat models to modified laborbots. Exile battlebots typically show signs of extensive repairs and jury-rigged weapons attachments made from spare parts. Scans indicate these models often lack basic security lockouts and have a reputation for being easy to hack and reprogram.
Minerbot programming[]
Like automated mining drills, many automated minerbots - which do not require complex reasoning skills or motivational programming - can be activated and given limited commands via the data feed of a science scanbot. This could provide additional resources to a resource-poor scientist who needs raw materials.
Dominion Ultrabots[]
The imposing automatons known as ultrabots are frequently employed by the Dominion on the surface of Nexus, where such an intimidating foe can rout the enemy before a single shot is fired. When called into combat however, they are a devastating mobile weapons platform of immense destructive power and range. In the FCON rules of engagement Exile mercs are told to avoid direct confrontation with an ultrabot unless heavy weapons, armor, or artillery is available. If facing an ultrabot alone, the rules of engagement recommend the use of environmental tactics and strategic retreats to avoid being crushed beneath the monstrous bots metal feet
Warbots[]
Massive, oversized automatons carrying primal power cores and bristling with heavy ordnance, warbots are used by the Exiles, the Dominion, and non-aligned groups such as the Marauders. Many different models can be found on Nexus, from the shiny, expensive new warbots fielded by Dominion forces to the patched-up, bodged-together varieties employed by Exiles and space pirates.