lately i have found myself pondering how a hacker can provide something to a fight without actually being a combat person.

this line of thinking came to me while wondering what the major complaint was against the current hacking rules, and finding that most ways required the GM to specifically put hacker related objects in the game. If the hacker is the wizard of the matrix, the basic problem is that unlike the wizard, the hacker do not have combat "spells". Sure, he can hijack a drone, much like how a wizard could hijack a spirit, but that would still mean that the GM would have to provide some drones for the hacker to play with in the first place. That or the hacker would have to bring drones, turning him into something of a drone rigger. And yes, this is where i am going, but not with the normal LMG packing drones that are the size of a dog.

at first i toyed with a new set of spoof programs, some way to combo a spoof with attack, crash and black* programs. That is, they would provide a one shot attack vs device or user by having the spoof carry the combat program payload into the device in question. and if the device was hosting a persona, it could effect said persona.

this however would require reworking the current rules, and not something i am fond of (for one thing it makes rules debates hard, as one first have to establish what rules set is being used).

so i started digging into the books to see what options one had for remote controlled guns or similar that was not bordering on anti vehicle scale.

what i found was both interesting and disappointing, as most results ended up with the hacker going drone rigger.

here are what i found or created.

first off the mentioned suitcase gun drone.

ares executive protector with smartgun option (arsenal p24)
+ pilot upgrade rating 4 (anything higher will make it unavailable as starting gear, arsenal p152)
+ propulsion system, crawler (a 14F option, sadly, so break out that gear quality, arsenal p152)

end result, a SMG drone in a case that i envision the hacker can put down and have deploy legs if a fight should happen.

the drone would use its own stats for all the combat, with the hacker picking its targets.

a similar option is something that showed up in augmentation, p42 (heh).

i am talking about the external weapons mount. Not exactly a subtle cyberlimb mod from what i can tell, but its basically a smart firing platform (sr4a p322).

this then allows the hacker to attach a gun, expose it to the fight, and let the drone system provide the actual weapons control.

the last is a bit more non-lethal (tho i guess either of the guns used above could use SnS ammo if non-lethal is wanted).

aztechology crawler (sr4a p350)
+ anti-theft system (arsenal p132)

end result, something the size of a comlink (if those drone sizes from arsenal is anything reliable) that can deliver 10S electric damage to anything it can come into contact with.

heck, give it a level of mimic and it can maybe pass as a pet spider

or maybe gecko tips for that "shock from above" effect.

You can take Restricted Gear three times. (Runner's Companion, p101)

Also by RAW you use the highest Availability on a weapon and its mods in chargen. Or at least by RAI by Synner I think.

Really? I've been wondering if that was the case - especially for vehicles - and hoping it was. Do you know where I could find such clarification.(if not a book, then a post here?)

The Aztechnology Crawler is the size of a medium dog (body 2 drone).

step 1: create a matrix node with your choice of particularly nasty malware. (note: this could be a junker commlink that you carry around with you as needed)

step 2: obtain sufficient information to spoof target.

step 3: spoof target to download particularly nasty malware from matrix node.

(steps 4 and beyond will largely depend on what exactly it is that your particularly nasty malware does, but i'm sure you'll think of something)

bonus points if you spoof the target to incorporate your device into it's PAN, and your device has more than one piece of particularly nasty malware in it.

and there you have it, something for a hacker to do in combat that isn't the least bit drone rigger-ish.

and by that time the sammie probably have put whatever the hacker targeted down. Software based options as they exist takes to long to deploy compared to a bullet or a spell.

the arsenal size table goes:

micro (0): insect

mini (1): large insect to mouse

small (2): comlink or toaster to large dog

medium (3): large dog to human or motorcycle

large (4): motorcycle to small car

sadly neither SR4 nor SR4a gives any real description of the physical appearance of the crawler.

Personally I think that if you want something that looks like a spider you should be looking at a pet drone, which according to AR would basically have stats similar to a bust a move. Add gecko tips if you want it to be able to climb walls, and probably a mimic option along with your anti-theft system and you've got yourself an electric spider. Not as fast as the Azentechnology Crawler, but then with speed like that it probably is on the dog size end of the small drone range anyway.

Just my 2

sadly the anti-theft system is defined as "standard", meaning it needs a body 2 or larger drone (small), as anything smaller can not take "standard" modifications.

a little something btw, the aztech crawler found in rigger3 is a tracked drone. But the one in SR4 lacks that description and is even given a walker modification as standard in arsenal.