4Game

I was thinking what a third SRV orientated towards exploration would be like, thinking of a hover-capable quick scouting craft that avoids all the bumps of rough terrain (what came to mind was the basic Soviet fighter from “Battlezone”), just an agile means of traversing a planet’s surface to look for the next plants to scan. Was thinking skimmer drones operated on a similar principle. Then it hit me that it needn’t be a vehicle at all.

We need to be able to deploy a palm-sized “skimmer” drone of our own. It can lift off, fly up high enough to see what’s in the area, being virtually piloted the same way you would a ship. No weapons, just recon. Maybe send out a pulse in lieu of night vision. Let us set waypoints with it. Limit its range with battery life and signal strength. Your foot-mobile self just takes a knee to fiddle with the controls.

I could see this having applications in combat too, especially if more complex objective-focused missions ever get implemented. Spotting targets for ships to bombard, scoping out enemy positions, etc. Maybe even charting out patrol routes before attempting to infiltrate a settlement.

Think of the handheld drone deployed in season 4 of The Expanse to explore the giant Protomolecule structures on Ilus. Maybe even make it a consumable that you have to pilot back to yourself before its battery dies or lose it.