Chapter 36 - The Black Hornet Nano Mini-Drone (Patreon)

Holding my hands upright, bright white light flared into existence on each palm as I replicated two of my newest inventions, the aerial microdrone. These microdrones were the size of a ping pong ball and would be my eyes in the sky, connected to my armor’s systems via a datalink.

I had been inspired by the Black Hornet-nano drone that I had often used to great effect in Iraq and Afghanistan during my military service. That drone was actually a mini-helicopter that could fit in the palm of my hand. It was 100mm long with a rotor wingspan of 120mm and only cost 200k a piece, versus the 16 million or so of the big boy drones, like a Reaper. Unlike a giant Reaper drone that could fly 25 thousand feet in the air for 40 hours stretches at a time, had dedicated pilots in the US, and could carry a payload of weapons, a microdrone was infinitely simpler. The men on the ground controlled it, could pilot it into buildings and hallways, scout out enemy positions and/or IEDs/traps. It had saved our lives on several occasions, giving us advanced warning of danger.

With access to modern technology, I had used a small power Federation power cell, an anti-grav unit with micro thrusters, and some advanced sensor technology that could do some interesting things.