Recon drone
At one point in its history, the Sontaran Empire used armed, remote-control reconnaissance drones for unmanned patrols and security work. Half a hundred of these drones were later repossessed by the War Chief and modified for his own use. (GAME: The Legions of Death [+]Loading...["The Legions of Death (game)"])
Nature[[edit] | [edit source]]
Physically, a recon drone appeared as a "flattened cone", which was "1 meter long by 0.75 meters wide and 0.25 meters thick". It hovered thanks "using gravitic field", (GAME: "Player's Handout" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"Player's Handout","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) specifically an "anti-gravity field of movement". (GAME: "Special Equipment" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"Special Equipment","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"})
"Like all Sontaran equipment", and in spite of their "innocuous name", Sontaran recon drones each "carr[ied] the equivalent of a small truckload of deadly equipment" (GAME: {{cs|The Legions of Death (game)|namedep=Shadows in the Night})) including "two blasters, a disruptor, and a small-caliber hypervelocity cannon". (GAME: "Player's Handout" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"Player's Handout","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) Being "ringed with visual, infra-red audio and motion detectors", a recon drone "could react almost instantaneously to any perceived threat", but "two simultaneous threats from exactly opposite directions tend[ed] to short out [the drone's] reactions, leaving it vulnerable to attack". (GAME: "Shadows in the Night" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"Shadows in the Night","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) A more complete list of a recon drone's "wide array of sensor devices" included "visual, infrared, audio, radio, radiation, electromagnetic", and "special sensors" intended to detect "the electrochemical fields surrounding any concentration of Rutans". (GAME: "Player's Handout" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"Player's Handout","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"})
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
The recon drones began to be used by the Sontaran Empire around 71,500 TL. (GAME: "Player's Handout" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"Player's Handout","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"})
At some point, the War Chief acquired a stash of "perhaps 50" Sontaran recon drones. He modified them, replacing the small-caliber hypervelocity cannon with a rho wave a relay and amplifier, (GAME: "Special Equipment" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"Special Equipment","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) as well as "equipment te project holographic images", (GAME: "Shadows in the Night" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"Shadows in the Night","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) soon using them to set up his Inner Mysteries cult in 43 AD Great Britain. He sent them to the far corners of the land, and, through holograms, appeared to various leaders as a "divine vision" calling them to meet at the Sacred Wood and renew their war against the Romans despite Caractacus and Cattigern's defeat. (GAME: "The War Chief" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"The War Chief","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"})
Thereafter, he deployed six drones on a regular pattern around Emperor Claudius's camp, three around the Britons' camp, and "another ten at more distant locations", keeping the rest in a special storage room within his TARDIS. (GAME: "Special Equipment" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"Special Equipment","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) While sleeping in the Roman camp, a group of time travellers investigating the mysterious disturbance to history heard the nearby hum of the recon drone, and managed to deactivate the unit, analysing it and discovering how it had been modified. (GAME: "Shadows in the Night" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"Shadows in the Night","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) If this occurred before they found themselves in the Sacred Wood, the travellers would go on to recognise the humming sound there, although it was too dark to locate the drones producing it in that instance. (GAME: "The Sacred Wood" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"The Sacred Wood","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) The adventurers would ultimately destroy the War Chief's equipment for remote-controlling the drones, alongside his Processing Machines, rendering the remaining ones useless. (GAME: "Ending the Adventure" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"Ending the Adventure","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"})
After 72,100 TL, the recon drones were phased out by the Sontarans in favour of the similar, but deadlier Scout Seekers, although some remained in use here or there. (GAME: "Player's Handout" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"Player's Handout","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"})
