Mitsuhama Computer Technologies Dachshund Pest Control Drone

Mitsuhama Computer Technologies Is proud to introduce the newest in its long line of realiable and effective specialist drones to the Public and Private sectors. Many Paranormal and Emerged animals are able to laugh off traditional pest control methods and products that have traditionally been used by exterminators. They are also much more destructive then previous vermin infestations. Many facility managers are having increased problems managing these pests in their access tunnels, Conduit pipes, sewers and other small enclosed spaces. These spaces are where vermin like Devil Rats, Bandits, Jauchekafer their ilk breed and spread disease and destruction.

The Dachshund Pest Control Drone is designed for the task or rooting out and eliminating these hard to kill pests. Armed with its integral multisprayer it is capable of dispensing whatever poison or pest repelling chemical you can imagine. And for times when you just really need to burn out a particularly bad infestation it easily converts into a conventional flamethrower in a few seconds. It is armored enough to take a beating, and with its Lizard-Toed™ walker legs, it is agile enough to navigate even the most difficult terrain. The DPCD is also fully amphibious, allowing it to operate in water, sewers or even large liquid storage tanks.


Description: The Dachshund Pest Control Drone is a long walker style medium drone that is built for narrow passageways. The “Head” of the drone is actually the nozzle for the spraying unit and it’s sensors. This combined with its long, low profile gives it the silhouette of its name sake (as well as its general tunnel fighting purpose). The drone weighs 50kg fully loaded and measures 1m long, 1/2 meter tall and 15cm wide.

Stats:
Handling: +1
Accel: 5/10
Speed: 30
Pilot: 3
Body: 2
Armor: 5
Sensor: 3
Avail: 8F
Cost: 6,000

Std. Upgrades:
Walker Mode
Improved Sensory Array
Amphibious Operation Upgrade I
GecoTips
Mitsuhama MultiSprayer (Both use Light Pistol Ranges. It takes 2 complex actions to change out tanks and change nozzle)
Damage as Flamer: Damage: 8P AP:-1/2 Mode: SS Ammo:10
Damage as Sprayer: Per chemical being dispensed. Reservoir carries 10 Shots.

heh, i take it that this is not something for dealing with a roach spirit infestation?

Load it up with KE IV it will do one hell of a number on them.

Heh, definitely something I can see them making, though I think they'd go with something besides a flamethrower to avoid burning the house down; maybe some kind of dart gun (or silenced light pistol). It actually does beg the question of how they keep devil rats and other Awakened pests in check though. Poison won't work and apparently traps are iffy, so I'd assume the primary method of killing is a guy going along and killing them. Seems like the sort of thing that the SINless would be hired to do (I recall there being standing bounties on devil rats in a lot of places); could this mean a shadowrunner could start with a Small but Vicious Dog and d6 devil rats on a stick from a previous occupation? .

The flamethrower is more for burning out nests (as designed) and to scare runners. As for the dart gun, small critters are to numerous and fast for most things. Need something that can take on large groups and is specialized for close quarters.

As for poisons, I'm sure there are tons of poisons that can go into the multisprayer. KE IV is just one, but technically you can load it up with acid or cyanide. I might need to create a list of less exotic poisons as my next project. Stuff that doesn't cost hundreds of per dose, but are easly cured in hospitals and deadly against vermin and such.

And there are still bounties on some critters, but I'm sure Ares doesn't want SINless lurking below their munition factories either. Technically they would use a drone like this to drive them out as they would be considered "vermin" by the corporation. Same for ghouls.

why is it forbidden instead of restricted?

I'll echo that sentiment. It should be Restricted at most, and it probably can be even had legally without a permit. Just because Shadowrunners can come up with nefarious ways to use them shouldn't make them restricted in the public market.

It costs too much to be a good measure against vermin, even Awakened ones. I'd say that a successful drone would scale back some features and lower the cost. I don't think the Flamethrower is a good anti-vermin measure, notably because of the damage it will deal to structures. This is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

I'll tackle a few of these questions in order.

1) The F rating is because of the flamethrower. If you want a more "Commercial" Orkin type drone you can drop the flamethrower and the price will be 4,000 with an availability of 10.

2) I added the flamethrower as it is sort of a security drone meant for close quarter combat. I created it because I tend to see runners trying to use access tunnels and sewers a lot to infiltrate places and I wanted something to throw at them.

3) The description is fluff. I tend to write them like advertisements. The long and short of it is you don't want to put in your ads "This will burn to death those pesky squatters, ghouls and shadowrunners who are in places you don't want them." Its what they sell them for in addition to being able to get rid of devil rats and such, but it was intended to to be a security drone. Hence the word "pest" and not animal control.

4) Fear and Paranoia are big in my games. Like I've said before I tend to run photo-realistic settings. In the SR setting things are portrayed as being very clean and neat for a reason in in affluent areas. VITAS wiped out 25% of the planets population in 2010, another 10% in 2022, and in 2046 an outbreak killed another 120K people in England. Add on top of that HMHVV, a disease with no cure (You can get treated for it though before it gets full blown) that turns you into a flesh eating monster if you get it. This lends itself to socty that is germophobic for a good reason. Throw on top of that the general "There are bad things out there." and you very quickly get to mentality of overkill when it comes to dirty creatures and vermin. (Because who knows what the SINless carry? Its part of why they are kept out of civilized areas.)

5) The price is based on upgrades from Arsenal made to the Ferret drone (I added 1 extra body to make it more buff and the Ferret has a list price of 3,000 ). Most of the extra cost was 1,800 for the flamethrower. You get rid of those two things and the price drops dramatically, but its combat effectiveness is now nill. As for it being "too expensive for people to use." I agree that flame thrower prices are WAY over priced, but I tend to stick to RAW when making my stuff. However I see how much we pay currently for where I work for pest control and we pay more than that a year (in USD) for Ecolab to come in. It is a piece of specialist equipment, so it is a bit pricey. Hiring people to go into the tunnels to keep them clean would cost a lot more.

6)Collateral damage. The flamethrower is only intended to be used for counter intrusion or when there is an infestation that is so bad that burning it out is the only option. Keep in mind that the people that this is targeted at think nothing about having trolls with LMG wondering their halls. Extraterritoriality means never having to worry about lawsuits.

Glad to have people give me feedback though. Glad to know people are at least looking at the stuff I put up here.

heh, why am i reminded of the shocking spider-bots from deus ex?

the flamethrower is crazy shite, but as a whole, its a pretty diggable drone concept.
I would have went for something like a pain inducer/tear gas combo for the big "bugs"(read squatter/etc)
the damage from splashing napalm to the purchasers house seems a lil extreme-
rich people have a lot of rare and nice tokens to make themselves stand out more amongst their peers,
you know, the tokens some shadowrunners have to steal.


And Edit, as i awaken sipping my coffee, and seeing that your original post had nothing to do with
rich people...
I could so see the flamethrower in the sewers...except the large amounts of methane gas at times.

I thought about pain inducers, but that wouldn't really get rid of a pest. Just drive it off.

I'm thinking that I might make the non-flamethrower drone the standard and add the flamethrower as an option in my "final" version. Starting to get enough materiel together to think about making a website.

Same purpose. Different take.

add in the anti-theft system and have them ram their target in the event the supersquirt isn't deadly enough? a couple of jolts from the anti-theft system will kill most critters that are going to be crawling around in ventilation shafts...