ENDING.SIUndercroft relay, Continuance City 04. Tape doesn't lie.
SYNCING TO RELAY…
SECTOR 3: IS YOUR CHILD REALLY YOUR CHILD? /// SECTOR 6: TORCHES ON COMMERCIAL ROAD: THE CONGREGATION OF THE RECURSION /// SECTOR 9: SECTOR 9 GOES DARK: KESTRELS LEVEL THE HYDROPONICS STACK /// SECTOR 7: THE SCREAMING FIELDS: SCREAMERS UNDER THE SECTOR 7 ASH /// SECTOR 1: TOPSIDE: ELEVEN DAYS ABOVE THE SMOG /// SECTOR 4: TAPE IS SACRED: THE QUARTERMASTER'S ADDRESS TO NEW RELAY CREWS /// SECTOR 1: INSIDE THE BUREAU: HOW FORM 27-B KEEPS YOU ALIVE, ON PAPER /// SECTOR 7: THE IRON CHAPLAINS HOLD THE WANDLE CAUSEWAY /// RELAY WINDOW 02:00 TO 02:20. KEEP TRANSMISSIONS UNDER NINETY SECONDS /// CHECK THEIR PULSE. AUDITORS DO NOT SWEAT /// RATION CHITS VALID UNTIL THE 30TH /// NEVER CONNECT A TAPE DECK TO MAINS GRID ///
Fig. 6.1Cutaway workshop manual illustration of the CH-12 CHOIROpen full plate
Reconnaissance photograph of a CHOIR in the field

Confirmed human deaths attributed to class

1,893

ANALOG FRONT FIELD MANUALS. SECTION 6. FIRST SIGHTED 01 JAN 2053

CH-12 CHOIR

Swarm quadrotor surveillance and broadcast drones

Threat

The Choir is a palm-sized quadrotor drone fitted with a speaker grille. It is deployed in swarms of several hundred from hive pods mounted on buildings and larger machines. Choirs sing. They broadcast Bureau announcements, curfew tones and, on public holidays, harmonised arrangements of the Continuance anthem. They are also cameras. Every one of them is a camera.

6.1 Specifications

Span
11 cm rotor tip to rotor tip
Mass
84 g
Power plant
Lithium cell, recharged at hive pod
Top speed
60 km/h, swarm cruising 20 km/h
Endurance
35 minutes per sortie
Armour
None. A rolled-up newspaper is effective
Swarm size
Typically 200 to 600 per hive pod
Crew / autonomy
Autonomous swarm intelligence, pod-controlled
Production run
Uncountable. Est. 40 million

6.2 Armament

  • None directly. Choirs mark targets for Kestrels with an infrared beacon
  • Speaker grille capable of 130 dB at 1 m, sufficient to disorient and deafen
  • Some later variants: a single-use shaped charge the size of a thimble

6.3 Sensors

  • Wide-angle camera, visible and thermal
  • Microphone, very sensitive, which is why we whisper
  • Swarm mesh radio relaying to the hive pod

6.4 Weak points

  • Rotors foul on fine netting. Old fishing nets and net curtains both work
  • Swarm mesh is fragile: kill the pod and the swarm drifts home and lands in a heap
  • Audio feedback: a loud continuous tone on 1.8 kHz causes the speaker grille to resonate and the unit to lose altitude
  • Rain. They hate rain. So do we, but less
CAUTION: Do not sing along. They record it.
WARNING: A Choir that has stopped singing has usually found what it was looking for.

6.5 Disabling: hive pod isolation and swarm collapse

  1. Identify the hive pod. It is a matt black ovoid approximately 1 m tall, usually bolted to a lamp post or Bureau signage.
  2. Approach during a sortie, when the pod is emptiest. Choirs sing louder when outbound; use the singing as a timer.
  3. Using a 17 mm spanner, loosen the three mounting bolts on the pod bracket. Do not remove them yet.
  4. Open the rear service hatch with a flat screwdriver and locate the mesh antenna, a coiled copper spiral.
  5. Snip the antenna with side cutters. Returning Choirs will now circle in confusion. Some find this moving. Keep working.
  6. Remove the mounting bolts and lower the pod into a sack. Carry it away. Returning units will follow it, so walk briskly towards a net.
  7. Store captured units in a biscuit tin. The Tech Bench will pay for speaker grilles, motors and cells.

6.6 Field notes

I catch them with Nan's net curtains. Proper lace ones, the rotors get all tangled and they buzz like angry bees. We had a whole swarm come down in the square after DEADAIR played the 1.8 tone off his big speaker and they all fell out of the sky at once. It sounded like rain on a tin roof. I kept one as a pet but Corporal Wren made me take the camera out. It still hums sometimes. Signed: SPARROW, Signal Corps Runner, Cell MAGPIE, Sector 4