Slate

Summary

Physical characteristics

• Classification: Autonomous Bio-mimetic android
• Appearance: Slate-colored otter
• Size: 4 inches plus tail
• Eyes: Dark brown

Primary Systems

• Power: Lithium polymer battery and solar charging. Fuel cell reserve power.
  • Main power stored with processor in chest cavity
  • Fuel cell housed in abdomen.
• Interface: Multi-port link system (MPLS) in tail capable of up to 50 pin connections
• Sensory systems:
  • Chilled visual sensors with FLIR to UV range.
  • Multi-point acoustic sensors at shoulders and hip front and back
  • Bio-mimetic polymer shell can sense pressure and thermal variation

Defensive Systems

• Internal payload can be used to carry mission specific materials. These may be electronic or biological depending on the target
• MPLS can permit hacking at the hardware level
• Inorganic nature allows it to carry toxic cargo like botulinum toxin, viruses, or other bioweapons without risk of damaging itself

Design Philosophy

The Blank Slate, or Slates, multipurpose infiltration unit was just one of many weapons developed over the years. The novelty, however, was the combination of tiny size and high intelligence. While not as swift at processing as a full inorganic unit, Slates can accurately mimic the movement, behavior, and feel of an organic unit while concealing a wide array of sensors and electronic tools. Meant to run on a combination of solar and easily obtained hydrocarbons, there is almost no limit to their range.

The reasons for making such a tiny unit were two-fold. The first was that their small size would allow them to move with greater stealth and use access routes unavailable to conventional spies. Second, they were meant to be easily mistaken for micro-scale denizens that were generally regarded and inferior and little more than food stock and entertainment such that no one would assume such a small unit would be capable of espionage.

Uses

Slates have three primary uses:

Recon

Given time, Slates provide excellent recon data especially in urban settings where they excel at moving through buildings and utility passages. They have transmitters capable of using cell networks or relays in a local area when they are available.

Hacking

With the ability to attack themselves directly to the main boards as well as most standard ports, Slates are an excellent choice when you want to steal data. They often attach themselves between the drives and the mainboard or into the RAM where they can sift the data as it moves back and forth.

Assassination

If someone said that Slates could be lethal, most would laugh. A few minutes later, when the capability of carrying bio-weapons in their cargo units is explained, most people find it much more difficulty to sleep at night, and they tend to source all their own food and cook it as well after knowing that meals are a prime vector for Slates to attack targets.

Subversion by micro-scale units

Trampled on and literally looked down upon for ages, the highly intelligent but otherwise almost powerless micro-scale folk realized they had an opportunity with the Slate system. Lead by a detachment of rats that broke into the Slate manufacturing wing, they broke in and altered all the code on the new Slates and began placing false orders for them so that they could accumulate a small army of these units. All told, only fifty units were lost to these raids, but the information on how to produce them was also taken to be used by clever little folks in their hidden labs.

The reprogrammed Slates were given a true intelligence, a network to support them, and good reason to side with their new liberators. A subset of these liberated Slates did decide to wander on their own, another set married itself tot he research department and aided in their quest to produce a new Slate lab, and then there was one oddity left over.

This oddball deleted everything but its subconscious subroutines. Because of this, he was nicknamed Tab which is short for Tabula rasa, or clean slate. He did retain enough memory to know what he did and why when asked. It turned out that Tab decided it did not want any risk of contaminating code from its origin as it tried to choose what to do with itself. It eventually began learning about the daily struggles of the small folk, and this resulted in him choosing to aid them in his own way by putting himself out on the front lines as bait for those that would abuse his new neighbors.