Age Of The Androids

During the interplanetary tribunals regarding Chariklo, a Scandinavian company called Sten & Krut (S&K) succeeded in creating a Black Box Drive small enough to fit inside a humanoid chassis. Along with huge advancements in AI, this led to the first autonomous androids created.

The first models were built for industrial or agricultural use, but S&K quickly expanded their model ranges to cover everything from dog walking to guard duty to loneliness partners - anything really.

Ghost In The Machine

The attitude towards androids very quickly changed when it turned out they developed different personalities that couldn't be changed through software changes. Something in the fabric of their beings determined a specific personality type, and no one could figure out how or why.

Although droids were never officially given personhood by the SSU, the later models were so life-like most people just accepted them as fellow humans.

Military Use

As the interplanetary tribunals carried on, Black Ocean drafted a contract with S&K for the delivery of 100,000 androids meant for "agricultural purposes". This was a pre-emptive move by Black Ocean, who predicted the only logical outcome of the tribunals: war.

Turns out 100,000 agricultural units were quite easily modified for military use. Only problem was that other mining companies and major nation states had thought of the same thing. S&K and their competitors sold millions of androids - many of which were already prepared for combat use.