Scouts

From OPU Wiki

Properties

• Common Metals Cost: 250
• Rare Metals Cost: 0
• Build Time: Short
• Hit Points: Low
• Armor: None
• Track Type: Wheeled
• Speed: Very Fast

Commands (not always available): Move, Stop, Patrol, Attack, Guard, Stand Ground, Transfer, Self-Destruct.

Description

The Scout is a light, mobile sensor platform equipped to act as a mobile listening post and guard vehicle. Scouts are commonly known as "dogs," referring to a domestic Earth animal that was used to warn of intruders. Later versions of the Scout have been equipped with a variant of the neutrino-imaging technology first employed on Robo-Surveyors. The neutrino imagers allow detection of even tiny flows of water in the deep rock, the first signs of microbe encroachment. Operational Notes: Scouts are the only units that will tell you when they have spotted enemy units; others will only report when they have been attacked. Accordingly, they have a longer sight range than most other vehicles. In addition, specially-fitted Scouts are sometimes used for special purpose missions in the Campaign Game. See the Mission Briefing for details. In Multiplayer Games, Scouts can be used to "spy" on enemy structures to gain information about their colony. Move the scout adjacent to an enemy structure and wait a moment for a report.

Tales from New Terra

Scout 7 had a name, though Scout 7 didn't know it had a name. Some wag mechanic had painted "Rover" on Scout 7's flank, but Scout 7's - Rover's - limited computer intelligence didn't make it aware of that. Rover's intelligence was directed in very specific ways, into navigation sensors, guidance systems, and drive circuits that allowed it to traverse the rocky landscape of New Terra's equatorial highlands, and into the array of sensitive instruments, its eyes and ears, that allowed Rover to locate and track threats.

Right now, Rover was tracking a tiny electromagnetic disturbance. It could have been nothing, a fluctuation of New Terra's magnetic field, piezoelectricity generated by fault movement, or even a leak in Rover's own internal shielding, but Rover had been tracking it for the better part of a day, tireless and determined. The signal was stronger now. Rover was very close. The Scout moved slowly up a steep ridge, picking its way around boulders larger than the vehicle itself. Stronger now, but Rover felt no excitement, no fear; that wasn't part of its programming.

Rover topped the ridge, and immediately the threat was apparent. One, two, three targets, enemy heavy combat units, heavily shielded, worked their way slowly up a gully. Immediately Rover sent the signal back to base, quickly beaming all the information it could collect about the threat. One of those pieces of information was about the weapons turrets that were now homing in on Rover's position. Self-preservation was part of Rover's programming, but not the most important part. Human operators could have ordered Rover to safety, but their slower brains were just beginning to respond to the signals it was sending. A sensor detected a target lock, and finally, Rover's programming instructed it to move to safety.

But fast as Rover was, Lasers were faster. Even as Rover's armor was boiling off as plasma, it was sending the final alarm, "We're under attack!" And then Rover was no more, and it didn't know that either.