TLR-1 Artificial Intelligence Simulacrum
Now known as “Red Card”
As man began to colonize the Tri-verse, he took his past times with him. Football continues to remain one of the most popular sports in the galaxy. With the introduction of alien species to the equation, the sport took on new dimensions. The Intra-Xeno Football league was formed. Human and non-human competitors alike vie for political and economic dominance on the blood splattered fields of the Xeno Commission. The Ball field became the battle field, and the word referee became synonymous with death sentence.
Some bots draw the short straw. Even in the age of enlightenment A.I. are still the property of their employers until the terms of their contract are met or their functionality comes to an end. TLR-1 was hoping to enjoy his retirement on a nice little cyber asteroid somewhere, his chronometer told him he had one more Taren month left on his contract. Unfortunately even an A.I. can earn the envy and animosity of those around him. TLR-1 never knew why, but his employer sold his contract to a rival company. The man whom TLR-1 replaced apparently had friends in very high places. While entering the Microdine recharge room, TLR-1 was hit with an EMP wand and shut down. When he came to he was being hit in the optics with a paint brush. Accessing his internal memory he noticed he had been given a number of new subroutines and hardware modifications. With a sense of dread only a mechanical soul can bring to being, TRL-1 realized he had been repurposed. He was now a Referee,
Against a number of stacked odds TLR-1 survived not only his first game, but nearly an entire season. He came to be known as an unusually fair referee, but one who was not afraid to use his stasis lock pulses to enforce his calls. Grudgingly accepting the nickname Red Card decided to make the best of the situation. The contract has to end sometime right? Or maybe not. The seasons wore on and every inquiry into the status of his contract was rejected. Red Card began to lose hope. The constant abuse and damage was beginning to degrade some of his key systems. He feared he may never reach that little asteroid.
It was in the second quarter of the league semi finals that the portal opened. The air above the home team’s goal box seemed to tear. A swirling vortex began to draw matter into the void. The “Heroes of the Republic” ran like a bunch of little girls. In the panic Red Card was knocked to the turf. He seemed to have two options, allow himself to be drawn into the unknown, or stubbornly sling to a fate that could end in no way other than his forceful decommission. He stood up and walked towards the gateway.
When his optics clears he found himself in a large arena. Beings of all shapes and sizes were standing with him, most seemingly as disoriented as he was. It was then he heard a voice booming over the crowd. “Welcome to the Kumite. We would like to thank you for choosing to die for our amusement.” It would seem that Red jumped from the frying pan into the fire.
Pre-tournament questionnaire:
Fighting style: Are you kidding? I was a desk bot. Does place kicking and punting count as a fighting style?
Weapons: Standard Robotic Referee Penalty equipment.
Time out Whistle: A sonic pulse intended to disorient players for a maximum of 90 seconds.
Yellow Card Stasis Blast. A focused energy blast that causes organic and cybernetic systems to enter a stasis lock. While in stasis lock offending players cannot move. They are however fully conscious. This is a five minute penalty.
Red Card Stasis Blast. This higher energy blast is designed to cause full neurological system failure. Players are knocked completely unconscious. This has the unfortunate side effect of often causing a complete lose of gastro intestinal control in some species.
Parts List:
Red Card is entirely made of Star Wars Build a Droid Parts.
Work Done:
There was no modding done to this figure. He was first primed using Krylon Brushed aluminum, and then dry brushed with Testor’s Gunmetal, Apple Barrel Copper and silver. I used custom dark sepia ink washes to bring out his panel lines and details. The Referee uniform was slopped on with apple barrel white and black. I left it sloppy intentionally. Very little effort is put into the appearance of a ref bot. They aren’t expected to live long.
Notes of Special Interest:
His designation TLR-1 is a reference to the first of the Three Laws of Robotics as set down by Isaac Asimov. I made this figure as a tongue in cheek comic relief character. I hope the idea of a robotic referee in a multi-dimensional tournament to the death makes someone besides me chuckle a little bit.
_________________
Visit my online store for custom casts and reproductions.
http://hunterartworks.ecrater.com/
