Buddy drones are small equipment drones that are often included in units of troops, weapon teams, vehicles or other larger drones. They float in the air upon suspensors and are extremely nimble and very adept at keeping pace with their parent units. There are many different kinds of buddy drones – each with their own specific purpose.
Batter Drone
The batter drone is a defensive buddy drone that projects a kinetic energy shield or batter shield that can deflect or absorb incoming attacks. Kinetic shields are kinds of suspensor fields – the same sort of invisible energy fields that enable drones to hover and vehicles to move effortlessly through the air. Batter drones are often attached to weapon teams to provide them with mobile cover. They are also assigned to vehicle units both to provide stand-off protection and also to shelter accompanying infantry.
Gun Drone
Gun drones are armed buddy drones whose role is to act as guardians or sentries. A gun drone can be armed with any standard type of weapon but is usually equipped with a plasma carbine.
Compactor Drone
A compactor drone carries a generous material load in a stable compressor field. It is employed to transport equipment up to a certain size. One use is to enable a bike mounted unit to function temporarily as infantry by folding its machines into its compression field. The other common function of these buddy drones is to provide a unit with two alternative kinds of equipment. E.g. Concord Interceptor squads use compactor drones to transport support weapons into action. The bike riders swap their bikes to serve as crew to the weapon. When necessary they can swap the weapon back for their bikes if they need to move quickly.
Shield Drone
Shield drones are small, agile sacrificial buddy drones whose role is to protect the units they are with by intercepting enemy shots or blows before they can inflict any serious damage. They are almost always destroyed as a result of their efforts, but fortunately they are created to be entirely cheerful about their fate and take their protective duties extremely seriously.
Camo Drone
Camo drones radiate nano-dampeners that make it difficult to detect a unit’s energy signature and which confuse or blind enemy combat shards. They also project a three-dimensional soft light imago that disrupts visible light round about them. They are often attached to infiltration units.
Medi Drone
A medi-drone is a mobile medical drone that is able to administer immediate care to wounded. Medi-drones are often included in units of troops, especially command units.
Also available are drones and probes for specific factions, from small to very large!:
Sam Phillips