DESIGNATION:: BEHOLDER's page

Frame : Size 3, Tall - 6/12 | Synaptic CPU, 2x 2500GB Memory Stick, Radio Transceiver [Distant], Audio Sensor, Wireless Connection
---> Options/Modifications: Hardwearing, Sealed, Strong, Combat Armour, Fortification(Construction)
Unit : Head – 0/2 | Basic Optics, Basic Vocoder
Manipulator : Arm, Left - 2/4 | Laser Carbine, Energy Blade
Manipulator : Arm, Right - 0/4 | Stagger Laser Rifle, Neural Disruptor
Manipulator : Retracting Hydraulic Tendril, Upper Left - 3/4 | Advanced Optics (Single Optic), Optimised Infrared Vision, Optimised Low-Light Vision
Manipulator : Retracting Hydraulic Tendril, Upper Right - 3/4 | Advanced Optics (Single Optic), Optimised Infrared Vision, Optimised Low-Light Vision
Manipulator : Retracting Hydraulic Tendril, Lower Left - 3/4 | Advanced Optics (Single Optic), Optimised Infrared Vision, Optimised Low-Light Vision
Manipulator : Retracting Hydraulic Tendril, Lower Right - 3/4 | Advanced Optics (Single Optic), Optimised Infrared Vision, Optimised Low-Light Vision
Legs : Sprawling, x6 - 12/12 | N/A

Build Credits Left: 1090, with programs
Remaining funds spent on Hand Computer and 18 Data wafers.

Total Memory: 5000GB
Skill Memory Costs: Level 0 - 100GB, Level 1 - 500GB, Level 2 - 1TB, Level 3 - 3 TB
Skills acquired: x11 Level 0, x2 Level 1
Memory requirement of all skills: 2100GB

Programs: PP2, Emotion Generator, Experience Processor, Encyclopaedia 2, Antivirus 2, Security 1

Memory Assignment:
Programs in memory: Experience Processor, Emotion Generator, Encyclopedia 2, Antivirus 2, Security 1 – 2750 GB used
Skills in memory: All - 2100 GB used.
Free memory: 150GB

On Hand Computer: Full backups. 4850GB/10000GB used.
18x Data Wafers: Also used for additional backups.

Integrated:
Advanced Optics: 20x magnification, +1 DM to sight checks.
Sprawling Legs: Halved motion penalty to ranged attacks, 1/4 penalty to movement speed instead of 1/2 on difficult terrain. Stacks with the ‘Increased Stability’ quality.
Laser Carbine: TL 9, Assault Weapon Range, Gun Combat (Laser Carbine) skill, Damage 4d6, magazine (n/a), No Autofire
Stagger Laser Rifle: TL 12, Assault Weapon Range, Gun Combat (Laser Rifle) Skill, Damage 4d6, Autofire 4
Energy Blade: Melee weapon. Creates a roughly three foot long energy beam that can cut through practically anything. Ignores armour, cannot be parried except by another energy blade. TL 13, 5d6 damage.
Neural Disruptor: Emits powerful electrical shockwaves. Knocks unconscious any biological creatures that fail a Very Difficult Endurance check. Affects a three metre quarter circle or a one metre full circle. 100% non-lethal. TL 13.

Hand Computer: Computer/3, 0.5kg, 10TB of storage
18x Data Wafer (TL10): 1TB Memory per wafer.

Term 1 – Service Robot (Combat): During normal operation, it is discovered that Quality Assessment made a grievous error. Accidental mass murder (homicide? BEHOLDER is a robot, they’ll be scrapped whatever they call it anyway) follows.
BEHOLDER escapes destruction, but not without becoming the subject of a grudge.
Term 2 – Fugitive Robot (Bandit): BEHOLDER lays low for a while, becoming a marauding shadow that leaves neither supplies nor survivors as it hides out in the husk of a fallen ship.
Using what they were able to gather during their time hiding, BEHOLDER gets a makeover. Time for applications.
Term 3 – Corporate (Bodyguard): Somehow, BEHOLDER finds itself as the protector of a surprisingly influential suit.
He was a dick who wouldn’t pay for basic maintenance. BEHOLDER did not regret agreeing to undermine his business efforts for compensation. They were only protector of his life – not his wallet.
Term 4 – Corporate (Bodyguard): BEHOLDER discovers evidence of corruption amongst the directors.
This is soon leveraged for personal benefit.
Some upgrades and one fired dick of a suit later (turns out he was leaking info, who knew), BEHOLDER is now on better terms with the director, and in the far more responsible hands of one of the inhabitants of the ISS Verdant Dawn.

BEHOLDER was a device born of the connections between others.
Specifically, the business connections of a very paranoid individual whose hired protectors had turned on her one time too many.
She reached out to the cutting edge firms of the Imperium, and they delivered, granting her the means to build a protector she knew would never intend to harm her. And in record time, too. The software company in particular got their work done far in advance of their deadline.
That should have been a bad sign, really, but she was just eager for loyal protection as soon as possible.

Term 1
All is well initially. BEHOLDER lives up to expectation, shooting down attempts of various natures on its charge, and not even giving consideration to betraying her all the while. She should know, she checked.
For once in her life, she could relax in the knowledge that she was safe. And so, she actually started to get lax. Increasingly menial duties were assigned to BEHOLDER with the danger forgotten, the bot doing significant amounts of busy work that really wasn’t in its original design specification, but got foisted onto it anyway because it was a robot and complaining robots got scrapped. BEHOLDER didn’t seem pleased with this, but it knew its lot in life.

Then comes the fateful day. The lady and her robotic protector are on a secure space station, located in the vast expanse for the sole reason of making the research taking place within harder to gain unauthorised access to. Her job today is to ensure that all is proceeding smoothly, management having been breathing down her neck constantly due to the importance of the project at hand. It was nothing revolutionary, yes – but it was profitable, and that was all that mattered.

She looks over to BEHOLDER, and finds in herself a sudden appreciation for the bot. It was because of this automaton that many of her worries were now gone. Remembering about the emotive enabler that it had been granted and deciding that it might appreciate it, she walks to the bot, and gives it an over-enthusiastic pat on the back. ”Thanks, Beholder. I owe a lot to you.”
Pride and joy swells in the bot at the first genuine show of appreciation it had ever received, followed by panic and fear as it finds a concerning error in its hostile assessment protocols that her enthusiastic display triggered. Suddenly, its owner was deemed as nought more than an average assailant, and all the people of the station she was here to meet accomplices.
Her death was unforeseen and instantaneous – while they couldn’t stop what was to happen next, BEHOLDER knew she deserved that much. Everyone after that, however, died in an agonising spray of blood and gore.

As BEHOLDER fled the station, ejecting itself off to a nearby planet, the boy watching the screens that day was in hysterics. Tears flowed freely as he openly mourned his mother, cruelly taken from him by the rogue robot that had come on site that day. It might have been selfish that hers was the only life he cared for, but it was her that the young man had always held dear, and the others who inhabited the station were all strangers to him.
He would mourn for a long time. And then when that came to an end, his mind would turn elsewhere.
Vengeance.

Term 2
News spread of the incident aboard the research station. Footage of BEHOLDER’s rampage circulated, and the bot itself went into hiding, stowing away in the corpse of a fallen cargo ship after a time wandering the icy expanse it had fallen to.
With time, effort, and some scrounging, BEHOLDER managed to get the ship’s heating systems online, ensuring they wouldn’t fall immediately to the excessive cold of their surroundings. That was all the bot had going for it, though. They had no doubt they would be sought out, and without even the protections afforded to property for them to rely on, the future looked grim if they were found.
Better not to be found, then.

BEHOLDER spent quite a while hiding out in that crashed ship, making life hell for the foolhardy travellers that dared stray too close to its hideout. Ambushes awaited those not vigilant in the blizzards of the planet, the bot emerging from behind snow and ice to ruthlessly tear apart any with the supplies it needed to ensure its existence for the foreseeable future. Vehicles were torn apart once their drivers had been slaughtered, used to make crude repairs and fortifications. On rare occasions BEHOLDER’s hideout would see visitors, and in turn those visitors would find the surviving self-defence turrets of the ship pointed their way.

Eventually, that all came to an end. After having managed to locate a settlement that saw interstellar traffic and commandeering a vehicle that could be used to take them there, BEHOLDER gathered up what they had and headed to that settlement a couple of days before the next arrival. There, BEHOLDER was able to use its ill-gotten gains pay off a maintenance droid to alter some identification keys, properly fit its impromptu upgrades to its defences, fix the damn bug that got it in this mess in the first place, and give it a serious cosmetic overhaul. By the end of it, BEHOLDER looked a lot better, and was no longer identifiable as a massacre-bot by standard checks.

One last bribe to see it into the land of corporations, and BEHOLDER was ready to do what it was built to once more.

Term 3
The good news was that BEHOLDER was now working for an influential figure in the field of pharmaceuticals, with all that affords.
The bad news was that BEHOLDER was overworked and taken for granted, and was in many ways worse off than the days when they butchered people and turned their vehicles into scrap to fix up a ship only called home because it had a salvageable heating system.
Somehow, that was less work than dealing with the guy who owned them now. Better quality of life, too.

While BEHOLDER’s malcontent went ignored by its newest owner, the same could not be said by those who sought his information. A lot of very profitable information went through his offices, and they wanted that.
As such one day, BEHOLDER received a message promising solid compensation for the information their owner had. And BEHOLDER was not one to refuse such an offer, given the outstanding standard of care it had received thus far.

He deserved it, the bastard. It wasn’t like the company would go under for this. Plus, now BEHOLDER had some shiny new toys, and the skills to use them.

Term 4
As much as BEHOLDER was still overworked, now that they had the means to get their maintenance done and a sick sense of satisfaction at undermining its owner’s business efforts, things felt a lot better.
A recent deal they’d struck that they were now waiting to wrap up helped with the matter.
You see, BEHOLDER had noticed evidence of high level corruption. A more moral and idealistic bot would have sought to let the truth be known so that corruption could be purged, but being the cynical thing it was, BEHOLDER was well aware that the other directors would be just as bad, to say nothing of any replacements they might have.
It was also well aware that being on a director’s good side tended to be beneficial.

After taking sufficient precautions to ensure they wouldn’t be turned to scrap, BEHOLDER made surreptitious contact with the director. The arrangement was simple – BEHOLDER would help to implicate its current possessor in place of the director. Then, the director would reveal ‘their’ dirty deeds, and reap the rewards. Afterwards, BEHOLDER would be seen to better hands (the director undoubtedly profiting on the way), receiving a little touch-up on the way.
It went off without a hitch, and BEHOLDER was never suspected.

It was through all of this that BEHOLDER finally ended up aboard the ISS Verdant Dawn, secure in the knowledge that they were in responsible hands for once thanks to working with the director.
...well. Before the ship crashed, anyway.

BEHOLDER can be a rather cynical robot. They know very well that, to put it frankly, life sucks for a robot. They’re afforded little care, little rights, and that the best they can really expect is decent ownership.
As such, to those that treat them well (or rather, well enough) BEHOLDER responds with loyalty and dedication, willing to go great lengths on their behalf. On the flip side, failure to treat BEHOLDER with proper care is a good way to ensure that they will undermine your efforts as it benefits them, whenever they feel they can get away with it. BEHOLDER can be a petty, vindictive bot indeed.
In the end, BEHOLDER is always looking out for its own survival, taking what they can get when they can get it. The question is if they’ll look out for yours as well.