Drones (Oblivion)

Drones are weapon technology that features in the movie Oblivion.

History
Drones were automated machines that were created by the alien structure known as the Tet after it devastated Earth and settled into its orbit. Once control was achieved, the second wave of operation saw fleets of Drones being deployed to maintain control over the planet. Their purpose was the security of the alien installation's on the planet and elimination of the remaining human survivors. To support them, multiple clones of Jack Harper and Victoria Olsen were created where they were brainwashed into believing that mankind had suffered an alien invasion with the Tet along with the Drones being products of human technology. The two cloned human personnel that maintained the planetary facilities were stationed in a tower facility where one of them namely Tech 49 Jack Harper was responsible for drone maintenance. When damaged, maintenance personnel assigned at Tower 49 were dispatched to repair the units and when threatened then drones were sometimes deployed to assist the technicians. The few remaining humans that lived on the planet were labeled as aliens by the Tet who claimed to their cloned support personnel that they were remnants of the invaders that attacked Earth who were called Scavengers or Scavs. In reality, the Scavengers were the remnants of mankind who managed to survive underground and in hiding where they adapted tactics to fight the Drones dispatched against them. These included using old stealth technology to mask their bodies from scanners and voice scramblers to confuse the automated hunting machines. In order to defeat the Tet, the Scavengers began targeting Drones so that one could be used to carry a weaponised fuel cell to the station to destroy it.

In 2077, Tech-49 Jack Harper encountered two damaged drones with Mission Control wanting these repaired to protect the hydro rigs overnight from Scavenger attacks. During his attempt at recovering one underground, he was ambushed by Scavengers that intended to take him alive. He was saved by the support of a drone that attacked the Scavengers and forced them to retreat. Afterwards, a beacon brought a crashed vessel to the planetary surface with the Tet dispatching Drones with the intention of eliminating the human occupants. This was a fact unknown to the crew of Tower 49 who believed that the Scavengers were alien invaders and that they themselves were serving their people that had migrated to Titan. Tech-49 Jack Harper managed to save only one of the survivors within their sleeper tube whilst the others were eliminated by the drones. Afterwards, Harper took the survivor Julia Ruskova back to the crash against the orders of Vika in order to recover the flight recorder but were ambushed by Scavengers. A distraught Vika decided to hide this fact during her report to the Tet and simply stated that Harper had gone on a pre-dawn patrol where she requested some added support for him. Sally at the Tet ultimately agreed unaware of the true nature of the request and dispatched a drone to the site. Its search led it to unknowingly finding the Scavenger base where the humans managed to destroy it with this act of destruction being registered both by Tower 49 as well as Mission Control at the Tet. Thus, Vika requested permission to task two additional drones to the area but when Jack managed to escape her informed Tower 49 by code that he was alive leading to those drones being re-tasked to rig support.

At Tower 49, Vika managed to remotely view Jack Harper with Julia Ruskova and became heartbroken leading to her reporting to the Tet that Tech-49 was compromised thus leading to them not being an effective team. This saw one of the drones being activated and tasked with eliminating both clone personnel with it succeeding in killing Vika but Julia managed to critically damage the machine before it could kill Harper. When Harper went on the run, Sally re-examined old reports from Tower 49 Vika and managed to pinpoint the suspected Scavenger base leading to the Tet ordering Drones to the area. At the time, the human survivors were rigging a Drone with the help of Tech-49 Jack Harper in order to get it to deliver a weaponised fuel cell into the Tet to destroy the alien machine. The arriving Drones, however, destroyed the capture re-programmed machine thus preventing it from being used and also eliminated many of the nearby humans before being destroyed. This saw Jack Harper delivering the bomb himself as part of a suicide machine where he tricked the Tet into believing he was delivering Julia Ruskova. In reality, it was another human Scavenger who cradled the bomb and upon learning of this deception the alien machine dispatched Drones to eliminate the human base. This attack was stopped when Harper detonated the bomb which destroyed the Tet severing its command of the Drones that shut down thus ending their oppression of the human populace allowing them to reclaim the planet.

Overview
In appearance, these machines resembled large spheres somewhat larger than a human with visual sensors being on one side with four weapon barrels at this location. These were arranged in pairs with two on one side and two on another. Weapon fire from these turrets were capable of annihilating a human target with a single strike. The gun placements were able to move in their slots at the side in order to better aim at their targets but when unneeded retracted to their sides. This moving nature of the gun placements allowed them to rotate to the back allowing the Drone to fire two paired guns forward and two backwards thus allowing it to engage multiple enemies. Alternatively, they could both face backwards in order to fire on targets chasing the Drones. In the front, was a single red receiver that was linked to its database allowing them to identify weapons and vocal identification was able to prevent the unit from killing friendly forces. A further sensor was used to project a scanning beam to determine targets in areas of low visibility. These sensors were also located on the three other sides of the main body in order to quickly ascertain enemy targets. A threat identification system determined targets that were clear to those that were designated for termination. Their scanners were fine enough to determine a bio-trail that allowed them to track down organic targets.

Locomotion was achieved through seemingly hover technology as the drones were able to rise or fall or fly in the atmosphere at high speeds allowing them to keep up with moving aerial craft. Their maneuverability was to such an extent that they were able to rotate their bodies backwards and move their way in the opposite direction. A carefully placed projectile shot was able to disturb this hover mechanism causing the Drone to lose control of its movements. Their body was encased in armor that shielded them from heavy damage and without it were easily destroyed. Should their movements be impaired, the Drone was capable of crashing into solid structures and being destroyed as a result of the impact. Electrical strikes from storms were also able to temporarily knock out the Drones cause them to fall if in mid-air but they quickly recovered and continued with their mission. Part of the components was the central core alignment that sometimes could not be repaired on-site by drone maintenance due to lack of necessary equipment. Fuel cells were also needed to be placed within the drone. It was claimed that the Drones watched everything that happened on Earth during the course of their operations.

At Tower 49, badly damaged units were expected to be repaired where their external covering was removed whilst within dock in order to bring the unit to full operational status. In the field, drone maintenance personnel were provided by technicians in order to bring the machines back to operational status so that they could move about on their own power. A Drones programming meant that they served as hunter killers designed to find and eliminate any humans discovered. Only authorized personnel were removed from this directive and were provided a security command in order to prevent the machines from terminating them. The Tet made use of clone technicians of humans that were brainwashed into thinking the Drones served mankind when in reality they were repairing machines that eliminated their fellow humans. If disabled, the Drones did not respond to unauthorized humans and required reprogramming in order to follow another user. The Drones did not target their clone support personnel until a command from the Tet indicated that these agents were compromised whereupon the machines ruthlessly targeted them down even within their own Tower.

In addition to being in the Towers, Drones were also stationed in alcoves within the structure of the Tet where they provided added security to the giant machine.

Known Units

 * Drone 109 : when Drone 166 was down, Sally asked whether Drone 109 could be used to secure the compromised perimeter but Victoria Olsen said that the drone was in dock awaiting parts to repair it.
 * Drone 166 : a drone down in Grid 37 with Tech 49 Jack Harper dispatched to repair it.
 * Drone 172 : Sally gave the directive to Tower 49 to find this drone that had fallen into a sink hold.
 * Drone 185 : encountered by Jack Harper during his daily check on drone operations and noted for being active without any fault. It was later dispatched to Grid 22 to find to Harper but was destroyed by the Scavs.

Appearances

 * Oblivion: (2013)