Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Tesla Drone

The Tesla Drone is an type of drone used by the Socialist Union of Voshkod.

History
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The Tesla Drone is the result of an interesting experiment undertaken by the Ministry of Experimental Science. Little more than a collection of capacitors and equipment on stilts, the Tesla Drone is an example of technology that just didn't quite work as intended but found a place in the Voshkod military none the less.

The Tesla Drone started life in the early days of the 2004 V.C. Invasion of Aquila as an experiment to test the possibilities offered by the then-new electostasis ray. A Terror Drone was taken off the production lines and brought to the Ministry.

There, the Voshkod scientists took apart the drone and reassembled it. In the process, they packed the drone full of capacitors. In the process, much of the drone's programming was removed so as to reduce the size of the hard drive storage and make more room for capacitors. The side effect was that the drone could no longer take apart enemy vehicles.

The electrostasis ray was modified and upgraded so that in addition to shutting down the targeted vehicle, it would also damage them like a Tesla Coil would. From that point it wasn't too much of a stretch of the imagination to name it the Tesla Drone. The idea seemed workable on paper.

However, on its first test, the Tesla Drone prototype failed before it could even fire off a shot. The capacitors and wiring and equipment that the prototype now lugged around was heavy, and when activated, the drone tried to rise for a few seconds or so - until, unable to take the strain of supporting the weight of the drone, the legs snapped. Back to the drawing board.

From then on, nothing went smoothly. Several more prototypes were constructed, and none of them worked. Every time a problem was solved, another one would pop in its place. And the results of each successive test were quite disastrous - drones would burn out and in some cases, melt due to overheating, drones exploded in a shower of sparks when their equipment overloaded, some drones ran out of power after firing only one shot, others had their programming scrambled somehow. Even when the drone seemed to have no problems, the drone would fail quite inexplicably. The Voshkods would prod, disassemble, reassemble, and generally find out what was wrong with that particular prototype - and fail.

The Tesla Drone project quickly gained a reputation for bad luck - the number of laboratory accidents had shot up like a rocket in the past few months, and that the 13th prototype had killed the project head when it began firing arcs of electricity uncontrollably only served to lend superstition to it. As those working on the project were killed, badly injured, or decided to leave, and few people wished to join the project because of the superstition and supposed bad luck that surrounded it, the number of those working on the project dwindled. In addition, the Ministry was breathing down the project's back, irritated by the fact that so many good scientists and (more importantly) hundreds of thousands of rubles had gone down the drain as a result of this "experiment".

It was quite an accident that an unwitting technician became the inventor of the Tesla Siphon Beam. While stripping down and reassembling the electrostasis ray of one of the Tesla Drone prototypes (the 18th and then newest one) he reassembled it incorrectly without realizing what he had done. The result was that, later that day, when the scientists tested the drone, instead of targeting the tank in the middle of the lab, instead caused a power failure throughout the entire Ministry of Experimental Science Complex, causing severe disruptions in other parts of the building. The Tesla Drone then exploded, since its capacitors could not handle all the power they had just taken in, leaving the scattered remains of a drone, one scorched lab, and several soot-covered scientists.

The scientists were put in the gulag for causing severe disruptions (and causing a minor functionary to spill hot coffee all over an important official's lap and burn him quite badly).

While in prison, however, the scientists wondered what had gone wrong, and one of them realized that they (they were quite unaware of the technician's role) had invented a siphon beam.

The scientists then attempted to get an audience with a high-level Ministry official and convince him to let them continue their work. After several attempts, they succeeded and were released from prison and given a small building (with its own power generator separate from the power grid) outside of the main Ministry complex (to prevent a repeat of the power failure incident).

After several prototypes and failed attempts to replicate the siphon beam, they were stuck. The technician, however, eventually realized that he had accidentally invented the siphon beam and went to tell the scientists. The scientists were furious at the technician for landing them in the gulag, until they realized that he could help them build a siphon beam. They became furious again once they learned that the siphon beam was an accident, although in the end, the technician stayed to help after the scientists explained to the Ministry that the technician had been responsible for the siphon beam and, as such, the power failure.

Eventually, however, the scientists finally succeeded in creating a workable siphon beam and had attached it to the (33rd) Tesla Drone prototype. However, the same bumbling technician had connected the wires incorrectly, which would result in his unfortunate death.

The siphon beam worked fine, with the capacitors designed to prevent overload through careful discharges of electricity. Unfortunately, the technician's unintended modifications had resulted in the discharges going through the claws. The scientists managed to shut down the drone before it killed them, although the technician was reduced to a pile of ashes.

Following a short memorial service, the scientists went to work on the Tesla claws. This time, it only took the scientists three more prototypes to perfect the design.

36 prototypes later, the Tesla Drone finally entered production. It was quite different from its original intent. Built on a unique chassis with electrified claws, the Tesla Drone could enter a hostile vehicle and turn it into an unwilling Tesla Coil, which could discharge electrical arcs that would shut down other vehicles, much to the detriment of the drivers. The siphon beam served as a secondary weapon; it could be used to shut down enemy buildings by draining off their energy and slowly releasing the siphoned-off energy to prevent a capacitor overload, something which would eventually lead to the Invader, which was then stolen by the Collective. The result is a very useful support drone.

The scientists managed to claim credit for the discovery, while conveniently ignoring the contributions of the technician. Ironically, however, all four scientists would later go on to be killed in separate lab accidents, leading some of the more superstitious to say it was the revenge of the technician's ghost. Most in the ministry consider such claims to be complete rubbish.