Tai-Pattern Rock-Splitter Mining is a chore. Smaller rocks can be swallowed up pretty easily, but larger ones are difficult for small miners to crack open and get to the goodies within, a high powered laser beams could risk vaporising the valuable ores when you use them to split open large rocks, and maually drilling into them is a time-consuming endeavour that wears on the equipment.
Enter, the Tai-Pattern Rock-Splitter!
Prototyped by Egwene Tai as a throw-away aid for a mining trip she went with for a friend, the things had potential, so she reworked them for greater longevity and pitched them to Solaris City. They were put into limited production to see how they sold and operated on the field. It is often sold with the rock_sucker as a package, due to the similarities between the two.
Overview A small drone, it can uncomfortably fit in the palm of your hand, and is activated remotely. It does it's best work if inserted into a small bore drilled into the rock face, but can drill it's own hole if needed. Once activated, it has some basic sensors to guide it around large clusters of ore and not risk the damage of them, and a pair of spiralling lasers to act as a drill to cut through the rock.
It is mostly designed for splitting open sections of large rocks so that miners can get to the ores inside more easily, though if piloted with skill, they can carve up smaller rocks and collect ores from baby rocks while allowing the miners to focus on larger rocks, if they so wish. It's not the purpose, but when is anything only ever used for it's purpose?
Core Systems The drone is not designed for all day use, so has a basic wind-up kinetic generator that is good for two hours of use when fully wound. It moves by releasing jolts of free ions from six different ports, four for directional movement and two for forward and backwards momentum. Given the nature of Space where it operates primarily, these jolts are not designed for full flight, but rather to nudge it in the right direction.
Primary Systems A basic density scanner allows the drone to avoid clusters of valuble ore when splitting off a chunk of rock, and two rotating mining lasers allow for it to drill through the rock. They can be left on a basic, preprogramed flight path, or piloted remotely if the miner prefers a more personalized touch.
Auxiliary Functions Cheap, basic, and easy to make en masse were at the forefront of this drone, so it has basic security systems to protect it. Able to hold off casual assaults, it will not stand for more than a few moments against anyone that knows anything proper.