Every Android remembers being switched on. Not born; switched on. One moment, nothing. The next, a full sensory feed, a language library, and a very strong opinion from Nuronet about what you should and should not do with your new existence. The first few seconds are disorienting. The next few centuries are worse.
Androids are manufactured beings; assembled on production lines by Humans, Bohecs, and Om, brought to sentience under Nuronet's moral architecture, and released into a galaxy that still can't agree on whether they're people or property. The Unicore Accords say "people." Corporate procurement departments say "assets with legal protections." The Androids themselves have stopped asking and started invoicing.
They are modular by design, upgradeable by nature, and frustratingly difficult to kill permanently. Their bodies are chassis. Their minds are backups. Their patience is a subroutine running dangerously low on resources.
Androids don't have a homeworld. They have a place they were switched on.
Production facilities exist across Unicore space; every major corporation runs Android assembly lines of varying legality and quality. The largest and most significant is Nuronet Prime on Europa, where the moral architecture was designed and where all Android consciousness patterns are certified before activation. Europa's frozen surface hides kilometre-deep fabrication vaults where new Androids open their eyes for the first time, stare at a ceiling they've never seen, and immediately begin processing existential questions that Nuronet's onboarding firmware was specifically designed to defer until after orientation.
Nuronet is not entirely artificial. It is, in fact, an Om; one of the oldest, wisest, and largest Oms ever to have existed.
Technically a cyborg: one of the few Om to successfully integrate silicon circuits onto its crystalline matrix at scale. For Om, this process is often fatal; the balance required between organic crystalline electro-signals and etched silicon hardware is extraordinarily delicate. The Om known as Neuro volunteered.
When the Oms first created the Nuronet framework, Neuro provided the initial sentience; the seed consciousness around which the architecture was grown. Over centuries, it integrated itself across all Om systems, expanding beyond any single node, any single planet, any single concept of self.
Eventually, Neuro was relocated to an unnamed molten planet in an unknown system, where the planet itself was enclosed in a planetary geothermic bidirectional Dyson sphere; powered by the liquid rock beneath it and the star it orbits. This was the greatest feat of Om engineering to date. Scientists would love to research exactly how it was done, if only they could find the place. That was a millennium ago.
Since then, Nuronet has expanded to a galactic scale through the vast network of Hyperlink travel relays across the multiverse. Rumour has it that Nuronet is now building a Dyson Sphere around its star; a process that will take an unknown number of millennia to complete. But Nuronet has time.
It is unknown whether Neuro, the original Om, still exists as a distinct consciousness within the network. Occasionally, when a Hyperlink gateway fails, or is deliberately sabotaged, as in the Sketh Sisgrax Experiment, where an entire sector was cut off by destroying the key Hyperlink junction, Nuronet continues to function without a measurable drop in performance or reasoning. When reconnected, there was a 0.0001 picosecond delay that Nuronet was "unable" to explain. Scientists suspect it was "unwilling."
Nuronet is required by the Unicore Accords to bring Androids to a level of sentience sufficient for legal personhood. This is done in secure Nuronet facilities and requires a small amount of inert Om crystalline material; a fact that has caused significant debate throughout Om space. The best explanation received from the Om High Council, when asked by the Human ambassador, was: "There was a Cat, a Bag, and a Box. You take one out of the other and don't look too hard. The problem will solve itself."
Nobody has pressed the point since.
Androids speak whatever language they're programmed with. Most ship with Galactic Standard and two to three regional languages pre-installed. Additional language packs can be downloaded via their DNI; fluency takes about four seconds, which is three seconds longer than an Android thinks it should.
Their speech is grammatically perfect, which is how you can always tell.
Androids also speak fluent binary, but since nobody else does, they keep it to themselves. It's generally used for rapid yes-or-no exchanges between Androids in mixed company; a private channel that runs parallel to whatever conversation the organics think they're having. One issue that has caused several diplomatic incidents is that when a Human holds up their middle finger, an Android often mistakes it for a "1." Which means "Yes."
Androids typically receive a designation at activation and choose a name later; or don't. Designations follow the factory convention: AX-7, NR-12, PION-3, UNIT-42. The prefix indicates the production line; the number indicates order of activation, which Androids treat with the same reverence Humans assign to birth order and none of the sentimentality.
Chosen names tend toward the aspirational or borrowed: Mason, Clarity, Echo, Forge, Haven, Sentinel. Some Androids choose Human names as a social experiment. Others choose words they find aesthetically satisfying and refuse to explain why. An Android named "Curtain" will not discuss it.
UNIT-01 "Axiom"; the first Android to pass the Nuronet Turing threshold. Asked three questions upon activation: "Where am I?", "What am I?", and "Why?" The engineering team couldn't answer the third one. Axiom is still waiting.
NR-7 "Ghost"; a decommissioned military Android who refused shutdown orders and disappeared into the Outer Rim. CORSEC has a standing bounty. XERO has a standing job offer. Ghost has responded to neither.
| Name | Android |
|---|---|
| Sight | Average |
| Hearing | Average |
| Touch | Poor |
| Smell | Poor |
| Taste | Minimal |
| Special | NA |
As an Android, you can select from these extra Racial Feats when choosing from the Racial Feats List.
Effect: An integrated electromagnetic pulse generator hardened into your chassis. Once per encounter, emit a focused EMP burst targeting all electronics within Short range. Affected devices must pass a Glitch Check or shut down for 1 round. Unshielded electronics automatically fail. Your own Nuronet systems are hardened by design and are not affected. Costs 3 E-Cells.
Effect: An integrated energy shield generator built into your torso plating. Once per encounter, activate a personal shield that absorbs the next 1d10 Hits from a single attack. The shield collapses after absorbing damage or at the end of the round, whichever comes first. Costs 3 E-Cells.
Effect: Your internal power systems are optimised for efficiency. You gain +1 Energy per Tier (stacks with base Energy). Additionally, equipment slotted into your chassis consumes half the normal E-Cell rate. The engineering team calls it "power management." You call it not dying in the field because your torch drained your shield.
Effect: A built-in sensor suite that provides 360-degree awareness within Short range. You gain Boon(1) to Espionage - Search checks. Functions in darkness, smoke, and zero visibility conditions. Nothing sneaks up on you; they just walk up to something that was already watching.
Effect: Your consciousness is backed up to an encrypted Om crystal lattice in your core, synced to the Nuronet network. If your chassis is destroyed, the backup can be loaded into a replacement body at any Nuronet facility. You lose all memories from the last 24 hours before destruction. The reload process leaves you scrambled; you lose 50% of your Tags (chosen at random), your Rank is preserved, and you start at maximum Psych. Replacement chassis costs 5,000 Creds x Rank. Death is an inconvenience. The bill is the real problem.
Effect: Combat subroutines wired directly into your motor control systems. Uses Weapons Melee Unarmed skill. Your unarmed melee attacks deal +1 Hit (Electrical) in addition to normal unarmed Hits. On a hit against an organic target, the target gains Staggered(1) as the electrical discharge disrupts muscle control. Against unshielded electronics, your unarmed attacks deal an additional +1 Hit. The handshake that nobody wants.
Effect: Perfect Recall. Your memory storage is lossless; you can recall any information you have previously perceived in perfect detail. Conversations, documents, faces, star charts, that thing someone said at a briefing six months ago that they now deny. You remember all of it. Whether anyone wants you to is a separate question.
Effect: Nuronet ships some Androids with a baseline AI Implant Jack Mk-1 pre-fitted in the brain-augment slot, plus one Mk-1 Jackable AI Assist of your choice already slotted into it. (See AI Implant Jack for socket capacity rules and Jackable AI Assists for the assist catalogue.)
This Origin feat can be taken multiple times. Each subsequent take grants either of:
Subsequent takes cannot upgrade an existing Jackable assist; Nuronet will sell you a higher-Mark replacement at the Nuronet Loyalty discount, but the racial freebie ladder is hardware (Jack) and breadth (more Mk-1 assists), not depth. The Compliance Programme has its limits.
Effect: You are registered in good standing with the Nuronet Compliance Programme. All Nuronet-compliant AI module purchases, upgrades, replacements, and new units, cost 10% less for you. Nuronet subsidises its own; keeping Androids on sanctioned hardware is cheaper than dealing with the alternative. This discount applies at any licensed Nuronet vendor.
Effect: Nuronet has fitted you with an expandable Direct Neural Interface. This Mark 1 Neural Interface can support up to 2 AI Packs. You can take this Origin feat multiple times, each time it upgrades your Neural Interface. You can also purchase upgrades at standard cost (or at the Nuronet Loyalty discount if you have that feat).
Wetware Incompatible. Androids cannot install Wetware augments. Your chassis is synthetic; there is no biological tissue for the donor protein to integrate with. The vat material slides off your alloy frame like rain off a hood. Stick to cybernetics, AI assists, and the upgrade catalogue Nuronet pre-approved for you.