Clockroach

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*"As I was saying before Scribe Winters interrupted us with her vomiting, this is only one of several varieties of clockroach that serve the Order. All attempts by artificers to build clockroaches that can scavenge raw materials in the field and build new clockroaches have been deemed grave offenses to the Order after that mess on the French Riviera ten years ago."*

- Erik Svensgaard, Master of the Forges
## Tactical Analysis

* **A Friendly Fix**: Clockroaches can latch onto friendly vehicles and automatically repair them, more slowly than a Sanctuary Cart or an Alchemist, but are much less expensive and don't require construction of a Reliquary.

* **Winding Down**: While inexpensive to produce, only a small clockwork motivator can fit in clockroaches and will wind down fairly quickly, removing the clockroach for maintenance. You still have to pay the artificer initiates for their service, of course.

* **Insecticide**: Clockroaches are not durable machines and can be readily shot, bombed, burned, torn apart, or just stomped on, and anything strong enough to destroy a vehicle host to a clockroach will destroy the automaton as well.

* **Just a Roach**: Clockroaches roles are as simple as their design and are extremely cheap. Thus the Talso sees absolutely no reason to upgrade them beyond their role (and even if they wanted to the thing was simply too small to attach anything else without enlargement or breaking).

## Background

**++NODE ACTIVATION: AURORA. TASKING: SALVAGE ANALYSIS -> ITEM 7542 UPSILON.++**

*:Understood. Item is artificial construct 14 inches in length, 5 inches wide.:*

**++PROTOCOL INCORRECT. METRIC ANALYSIS REQUIRED.++**

*:You've been spending too much time as an Obliterator. As I was saying, it's an artificial mechanical construct with a distinct resemblance to common insects, specifically beetles and cockroaches, if rather larger than most species. It is built primarily from brass, and has a very interesting central processing unit. It's something akin to a prehistoric punch card reader, but both much smaller and far more advanced. Interesting. None of our records show human production of mechanisms like this.:*

**++CORROBORATED. HUMAN TECHNOLOGY: EVOLUTION: MECHANICAL -> ELECTRONIC. ITEM: TECHNOLOGICAL BASIS: INTERMEDIATE STEP. INFORMATION GAP: REASONS -> HYPOTHESIZE.++**

*:Who knows. Humans lose records all the time. This could also have been a secret government project, or some under-appreciated genius. Not that we'd know **anything** about that last one, of course.:*

**++UNIT AURORA: PRATTLE -> TOO MUCH.++**

*:Pushy pushy pushy. At any rate, I doubt it. Observe the weathering on the machine.:*

**++QUERY: WEATHERING. ENTROPY: ITEM 7542 UPSILON -> MINIMAL.++**

*:Exactly. Either this thing sat in a museum for a century or it was made recently. Considering how we found it, I'd suggest the latter.:*

**++EVIDENCE: SUGGESTS TECHNOLOGICAL BASIS -> NOT ON RECORD.++**

*:I agree. Take a look at these notations. This machine may not be very advanced in terms of the technology used to build it, but I haven't seen craftsmanship like this since I flew that parasite-fly into those museums in London. It's downright beautiful.:*

**++AURORA NODE: BUILDER OF ITEM 7542 UPSILON -> ADMIRATION?++**

*:It's inspiring, don't you think? Someone, somewhere, is building beautiful little machines like this. It's futile, of course - nothing can hold back the inevitable march of all things into dust - but they build beautiful things all the same. An act of defiance, proudly cast into the teeth of entropy.:*

**++DEFIANCE: MERIT -> NOTHING. ENTROPY: INEVITABLE. TASK: WORTHWHILE RESULTS FROM AURORA NODE -> CONCLUDED.++**