Part of the Nanite Systems collections.

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The transition from crewed warships to automated ones was always something lingering in the back of the Nadia Republic’s collective mind, especially as artificial intelligence technology became more mature and the Hegemony of Auraxis continued to deteriorate. It remained there because actually making that transition would be politically untenable - built by refugees fleeing retaliation, the people of the Republic revered military service and fiercely resisted handing it over to machines.

Two things happened to change that. The first was Auraxis obliterating the neighboring Anselm Empire over a diplomatic slight - that Nadia had just supplied with an entire fleet of state-of-the-art vehicles. The second was a declaration from its Hegemon - any more such slights would be met with similar measures. The stability everyone had taken for granted was clearly over.

It wasn't like Auraxian dominance was in doubt - their ability to utilise septrin and zemurite may as well have been magic to everyone else - but now they were staring into the abyss. It didn't take long for Nadia to begin the Excalibur Initiative and start handing out contracts for drones. If there was any hope of fending off the Auraxians - or at least making the effort too costly to attempt - the fleets of the future would have to be 1. automated and 2. quickly manufactured.

In the midst of all this, Nanite Systems - a tiny, struggling automation startup - reached out in desperation and somehow landed one of these lucrative contracts.

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After a few false starts, Nanite Systems got into the vehicle manufacturing business for itself rather than just the autonomous conversions and control systems that had kept them going until then. Cheap and unreliable, the soldiers of Nadia hated their vehicles - and yet their government kept buying more, because none of the other contractors had both the ability to manufacture working drones and the will to shun past tradition so heavily.