Exocomps
| “ | If you live in a space station with a lot of other enthusiastic engineers, its just a matter of time until you build a new toy which is not what it seems first. | ” |
| —Catgirl Industries member about the Exocomps | ||
| “ | They are great! Its like getting hands with fingers instead of shovels. Finally I can help you indoors, repair small things, have some fun building something crazy! I just would like a few more of them... lets say a hundred? | ” |
| —Cortana after testing the first group of three Exocomps in 2016 | ||
Exocomps
It started with a Catgirl Industries research project of a few catgirls that were looking for a drone to help indoors, both working on the base and on private projects. They had watched a lot of Star Trek in the last weeks and decided that it was time for Catgirl Industries to get their own Exocomps.
The result was the smallest drones with a first generation Mass Effect drive they had ever come up with so far.
While most other drones of CI are built from an armored spherical shell which contains all important equipment, the Exocomps use a more angular design, based upon the design shown in the Star Trek episode The Quality of Life.
The center of the drone is a small Element Zero core, which has a number of waved energy cells directly mounted around it. Because of the energy and size constraints of the drone, it can only hover at a slow speed and cannot project a forcefield without external energy.
The hull mounts a number of different sensors, from multiple cameras for stereoscopic vision, to audio sensors, active ultrasound sonar and a wide range EM radiation detector. At the front of the drone is the most important part of the whole machine, the universal tool adapter.
The universal tool adapter (short UTA) is a dark cylinder mounted inside which can deploy an amazing number of tools through the front end. Rumors say that the waved cylinder is made by putting a Swiss-army knife, a laser torch, a liquid dispenser and a small logic probe. The instruction manual only contains a few example of available tools, not a complete list.
Faced with the problem of mass production Catgirl Industries licenced the design to the United Federation of Planets for production, which solved a potential conflict with the Trekkies about stealing parts of ‘their’ Fandom. Catgirl Industries still works on improving their own Exocomps and sells design upgrades to the Trekkies from time to time. A statement in the licence contract allows Catgirl Industries to get a 33% discount on everything the Federation of Planets produce when spending the money from the licence payments. The result of this is that Catgirl Industries is mostly payed in goods from the Federation, not money.
The Catgirl Industries variant of the Exocomps still use the Mass Effect Core, the Trekkie version runs from a Dilithium based subspace engine.
Trivia
- Up for sale. Everyone can buy Exocomps at Utopia Planitia on Mars. But most of them are bought by the Trekkies themselves.
- One for all, all for one! The drones are especially useful when working in groups, because the can use different tools at the same time
- Damn, that’s heavy! An Exocomp can carry up to 100 kg around by extending its engine field. Multiple Exocomps can work together or help other persons for lifting greater weights.
- Calm down, I am not a fugitive. The internal gravity engine is said to have a maximum speed of 15 meters per second. Some awakened Exocomp are known to double this.
Quirks
- Gonna blow! All Exocomps have an sixth sense regarding immanent plasma conduits explosion. Some Trekkie ships just keep them around as ‘guard dogs’.
- Hi, I am John. When equipped with anything beyond a waved smartphone they quickly develop a Gamma or even Beta level AI.
- I know how to do this. Awakened Exocomps often have their own ideas how to do jobs. Don’t complain if your broken Coffee machine get turned into a working soda dispenser.
Upgrade packages
- Red Bull! An energy coupling at the back which allows the Exocomps to recharge their internal systems easily from an external socket. Exocomps can also reconfigure their UTA to transfer their own energy production to another Exocomp, improving its drive strength or creating a small forcefield.
- Calm Green. The modified firmware of the drive field allows the Exocomp to colorize the field slightly. This is mostly used for sentient Exocomps to display their current mood.
- Bright Yellow. A powerful spotlight is mounted just below the multitool of the Exocomp. This makes it easier to use the Exocomp for external spaceship inspections.
Catgirl Industries Exocomps
| “ | I would like to congratulate the writer of the ultrasound massage program for the Exocomps, but if I found out who wrote the tickle mod for it I will skin her alive. | ” |
| —Vivio, Spring 2016 | ||
There are a number of subtle differences between the Exocomps the Trekkies sell and the ones that are used at Catgirl Industries itself. The catgirls continue to tinker with improvements and modifications for their beloved pets.
The mayor difference is that the Catgirl Industries Exocomps developed a group mind shortly after the first large batch of drones was finished. A combination of distributed update system by Cortana and patches by all the catgirls ended in the creation of Serina, a distributed AI that was rated as a class B intelligence. The individual Exocomps are still only a low class C AI, with spikes in the rating when tested for engineering and construction.
None of the Exocomps at CI use the colored aura field system to display their mood. Even before the emergence of Serina, the Exocomps had began to copy the behaviour of their ‘owners’ to use purring, hissing and similar actions to display their state of mind.
Each of the Exocomps can project an avatar to the Catgirl Industries cyberspace, but most of them staying in the real world, where most construction work is taking place. The redesigned elements of the Home Base allow them to get into the floor areas where all the infrastructure is mounted, which helped to make maintenance for the base much easier.
There are a few Exocomps who got extra equipment and developed their own special talents and quirks.
The Exocomp Bigband is a group of twelve that were equipped with extra speakers for a special celebration. They seem to enjoy playing different kind of musics and are known to sometimes play improvised themes.
The Big Sisters are Exocomps that have been built larger than the standard model. These larger Exocomps are commonly used in working on the Module parts of Jenga and on moving heavy things.
The number of Exocomps at Catgirl Industries is still slowly increasing, today there are many more of them than Catgirls at the base.
Quirks
- Me cat too! CI Exocomps like to behave similar to catgirls, using purring, hissing or just rubbing at the someone leg to display their current mood.
- Group hug! CI Exocomps are never seen alone for longer time, they spent most of their time in small groups. Expect to be overrun by a horde of small robots if they are suddenly interested in what you are doing.
- Chase Scene (Bigband): when playing Yakety Sax, all persons close to the exocomps immediately begin to chase the nearest robot of the group. Instead of swarming out to catch them, they often form strange lines or silly patterns. (The discovery of this Quirk resulted in a totally tired out crew of Jenga. Cortana considers using the Exocomps for crowd control in the future)
- Just Pen and Office Clip (Bigband): playing the MacGyver theme helps for quickly improvising simple mechanisms. Results do NEVER kill or injure anyone and can often not be reproduced.
- Its all training! (Big Sisters) When not working, the larger Exocomps can be sometimes seen lifting heavy things like freight palettes up and down. But only if someone is watching them.
Trivia
- A small group of Exocomps and catgirls is regularly do racing against each other on constantly changing obstacle tracts, which both sides are enjoying a lot. Seeing a catgirl sitting on a saddle mounted on an Exocomp created a lot of confusion in the first days. The group is still discussing if they want to try out at a Quidditch or Astroball.
- A few Exocomps at CI have a modified tool adapter with a memetic plastic based handling tool, that allow them to manipulate even small and delicate things.
- Bigband: Experiments with the A-Team theme to help weapon research are inconclusive, but the chance increase to get a full slapstick effect.
- Big Sisters: The big sisters are three times larger than the normal ones in each dimension, which gives them a volume of 27 times the normal model. They can lift and move up to 10 metric tons.
- Big Sisters: All larger exocomps mount Zero-Point Energy Field Manipulator built by Cold Cat Spaceworks
Stories
The Exocomps are featured in the following stories:
