Spotter's Guide: Drones On and On…

Drones have been in the news lately so we thought we'd offer a public service by creating a short inventory that will allow you to properly identify any kind of drone you might spot in the night sky! For our purpose, a ship must have been specifically referred to as a drone rather than just acting by a specific definition.

The Steltek Drone

The Wing Commander universe's most famous drone is also its most deadly: the Steltek drone was abandoned in an asteroid field in the Troy System when the Steltek left the galaxy over two billion years ago. In 2669, Grayson Burrows accidentally activated it with an errant missile strike and sometime later his acquisition of a Steltek gun caused the drone to lock on to his ship and begin destroying everything in its path to reach him. Burrows would ultimately assist the Terran Confederation Navy in ambushing and destroying the drone (a feat only made possible thanks to a boost to Burrows' gun from a present-day Steltek scout).

TOBY Drone

Wing Commander Prophecy opens with several TOBY drones scanning the remains of Kilrah for minerals. It's not completely clear why TOBYs are even considered drones since they carry at least one crew; perhaps their actual flight was automated or handled remotely from the Devereaux!

Decoy Drones & Long-Range Communications Drones

The Wing Commander movie introduces two types of Terran Confederation drones frequently carried by capital ships and bases: long-range communications and decoy drones. We see both during the movie: Pegasus launches a communications drone to inform Admiral Tolwyn that they're under attack and then the Tiger Claw launches a decoy drone to distract the destroyers hunting it in the asteroid field using electromagnetic signatures. The 'Claw later attempts to launch a communications drone but finds the drone launching system is offline. Peter Telep developed this two-drone system significantly, using them throughout Pilgrim Stars and Pilgrim Truth. The Kilrathi also use both types of drones. Kilrathi decoy drones are cone-shaped; a Snakeir is capable of launching eight at once during a battle.

Nephilim Remoras

The Nephilim Ray Node cluster is surrounded by a cloud of seven Remora interceptor drones. While orbiting the Ray, the mother ship generates power for the Remoras. In the event of their Ray's destruction, the Remoras will swarm its attacker with their single light burst maser weapons.

Simulated Kilrathi

Put this one in the maybe-qualifies category: in Wing Commander Prophecy's first simulator mission, the flight instructor refers to the Dralthi you are using to learn to target as a drone. But of course in reality it's completely simulated!

Dynamite Productions' Ecantona

One of Privateer 2's BBS missions features a request from a television producer named Buddy Carlson who wants to hire you to re-enact a historical space battle with the Papogod cruiser Rarmus One for a show called Space Jox. The Rarmus One is defended by five drone-piloted Papogod Ecantona fighters.

Sex Robots & CosmoDrone & Custard Pies

Privateer 2 also uses the term done in several news stories to define… uh, well, sex robots, tiny robots that do your makeup and machines that create… pies. Check them out:

The Tarawa's Makeshift Drones

In End Run, the Tarawa crew use a landing craft and a Ferret to create a pair of drone ships. These ships carry a pair of atomic mines that would be detected by the Kilrathi. The hope was to divide the enemy force by making them think the drones were trying to launch a suicide run against Kilrah.

Other Drone Types

The Baen Wing Commander novels, especially End Run and Fleet Action, establish a number of drone types that are used by different navies for different specific roles. We've collected them below:

• Automated Stratospheric Defense Drone (Pilgrim Alliance): these drones provide planetary defense; an automated stratospheric defense drone killed Major Arnold Blair during the Siege of Peron.
• Drone Probe (Free Republic of the Landreich): Atmospheric drone for recording and transmitting live footage offworld. A drone probe relayed damage to the Hell Hole to President Kruger following the 2668 Kilrathi attack.
• Intelligence Drone (Terran Confederation): unlike reconnaissance drones, intelligence drones physically return gathered data instead of transmitting it home. In Pilgrim Stars, Admiral Tolwyn received an intelligence drone from K’n’Rek indicating a Kilrathi battlegroup had been destroyed by the Olympus.
• Messenger Drone (Union of Border Worlds): messenger drones transmit physical items between two ships. Sosa sent Blair a physical chip via messenger drone from the Princeton while he was preparing to infiltrate Axius.
• Reconnaissance Drone (Terran Confederation): recon drones stealthily enter enemy territory, gather signal intelligence for one week and then transmit it back to the Confederation via burst signal. The signal would alert the Kilrathi to their existence and result in their destruction.
• Relay Drone (Terran Confederation): relay drones are used to relay messages where intersystem communications systems have not been established. Admiral Tolwyn left a relay drone between Hari space and the Landreich to allow the Tarawa to transmit messages back.
• Remote Sensing Drones (Empire of KIlrathi): remote sensing drones are used to detect traces of jump transit. Prince Thrakhath monitored a remote sensing drone to track the Tarawa in End Run.
• Surveillance Drone (Terran Confederation): surveillance drones are used to monitor subspace transmissions in deep space.
• Remote Surveillance Drone (Terran Confederation, Empire of Kilrah): remote surveillance drones guard distant jump points that do not warrant a garrison. They are dropped off and maintained by picket ships. In Fleet Action, the Bannockburn arranges for 'an accident' which destroys a Kilrathi remote surveillance drone.
• Scout Drone (Terran Confederation): a scout drone is a surveillance drone which is left hidden in the path of expected enemy movements. The Confederation developed a tactic to hide surveillance drones in minefields which would be avoided by the Kilrathi, but by End Run they had become wise to the ploy.
• Target Drone (Free Republic of the Landreich): an automated drone for target practice and weapons testing
• Unnamed Exploratory Drone (Kilrathi): soon after the Iason incident, the Kilrathi used exploratory drones to locate and investigate McAuliffe. These drones dispatched information via radio signal which allowed the military to begin plans to attack the base there.