JiSe-87 Tokai

The JiSe-87 Tokai is an unmanned space combat drone capable of autonomous flight and combat operations, developed by Kurikara Robotics primarily for the Imperial Navy. The Tokai is a small, cheap short-range swarm attacker, designed to overwhelm enemy fighter squadrons and threaten larger ships through sheer numbers.

Each Tokai is fully expendable and carries four medium-range ship-to-ship missiles. In addition to this, Tokai units may also be ordered to crash themselves into enemy spacecraft once their payload has been expended. Tokai squadrons are AI-controlled with each 40-drone squadron operating as a single hive-mind.

Development
The Tokai was developed in part due to the high cost of the Type-40 Yurei drone fighter program as well as the growing mortality rates of Yamataian pilots. The Yurei is a high-performance multirole AI-controlled fighter capable of carrying out complex interception and space superiority missions, intended to replace entire squadrons of human pilots. Unfortunately, such sophistication made each unit extremely expensive, almost on par with the cost of training a living pilot. Not enough Yurei units could be obtained in time to replace living pilots on the front lines, and Yurei units - while powerful - were unable to live up to expectations of replacing entire fighter squadrons.

In order to address this situation, the Imperial Navy decided to look away from high-performance units for their new drone program. Instead of creating a powerful drone to decrease the size of the fighting force, it was decided to create an extremely cheap and expendable drone to form a swarm to overwhelm the enemy. Such a drone would be extremely limited in its ability to perform anything other than ship-to-ship combat, though combat experience proved that the multirole Yurei drones were most often used in space battles. Kurikara Robotics won the bid to design and produce a new "swarm drone", with the first prototype unveiled in 2485.

However, the Imperial Navy was not impressed with the new drone, which was extremely fragile, had a very short range and carried few weapons. The cost of the unit was still high due to the AI system installed on each unit. A remote-controlled version was also a failure as operators could not control more than a handful of units at a time. Kurikara then made a breakthrough upon installing an AI hive mind system similar to that used on their JiHe47 Shuka infantry drone, though on a much larger scale with 40 drones in the hive mind network. In subsequent Navy combat tests, the new Tokai drone passed all tests through sheer brute force and numbers, the AI control allowing operators to control several swarms as single units. The contract was approved and Kurikara was ordered to produce several thousand Tokai drones within a year.

In 2487, the Imperial Navy formally inducted the Tokai into its forces, beginning with a batch of 4,500. The Tokai has since been a constant sight in space battles, roving clouds of drones supporting the living pilots and swarming enemy craft like insect swarms.

Design
The Tokai is designed to be extremely cheap, mass-produced and expendable. The entire body is made of cheap alloys, except for the AI core in the front of the craft which is protected by a synthetic titanium case. This titanium case also allows Tokai drones a small chance of surviving if they ram head-first into enemy craft. Non heat-shielded and non-aerodynamic, the drones are unable to enter atmospheres.

Each Tokai contains a fragment of the overarching squadron hive AI, allowing each drone in the swarm to act independently to a small extent. The Tokai AI system has been likened in intelligence level to that of a human child, but is not able to learn. A human operator has to be present to provide orders for the swarm to act. A noticeable problem with the fragmented hive AI is that the individual drones get progressively less intelligent as members of the swarm are destroyed, increasing the likelihood of suicidal behaviour in the drones. Some Navy commanders believe this makes the drones more unpredictable and dangerous as the enemy attempts to destroy the swarm.

Two stub wings on either side of the fuselage each have two hardpoints for short or medium-range ship-to-ship missiles, ideal for intercepting enemy fighters, bombers or other craft. A short-range ion drive provides propulsion, limiting drone swarms to within several hundred thousand kilometres of their motherships.

Specifications
General characteristics
 * Crew: 0
 * Length: 6.48 m
 * Wingspan: 5.55 m
 * Height: 2.78 m
 * Empty weight: 86.94 kg

Armament
 * 4 hardpoints for 4 short-range or medium-range ship-to-ship missiles