-Excerpt from "Memoirs of the First Great Celestial War, chapter 17; Cold"-

Perhaps the greatest atrocity committed by the New Martian Federation during those 8 years of war was the development of the grotesquery that came to be known as the "Exa-Drake". When the initial control group which eventually turned into the New Martian Federation went rogue, the 12,000 or so drakes who had been assigned to it refused to co-operate with the rebels, and as a result were rounded up and put into containment. After many failed attempts, the NMF scientists eventally managed to perfect the process to acchieve what they wanted; fully weaponised, obedient drakes. They accomplished this by removing the brain, and most of the top half of the drake's head, replacing it with a powerful computer, which didnt ask questions. The drake's powerful body was preserved and cannibalised as if it was a spare part, the spine being replaced with a neural interface for the computer, fully integrating the computer with the nervous system of the drake's body, allowing it to trick the body into thinking its still alive, The muscles being controlled via electrical pulses delivered by the synthetic myofibre covering the limbs. The tail has also been severed in favour of a direct uplink to the Exa-drakes spinal nerve interface, which allows them to connect to various pieces of hardware, but most notabley the central "Nexus" which allows them to download their objectives and orders. The Nexus is a central system that controls all Exa-drakes, allowing them to function in part like a hive-mind; Exa-drakes in close proximity are capable of working together in a team by sharing information with each other, so if one Exa-drake sees something, they all do.

Exa-drakes share the resiliance of their living counterparts, but they don't feel pain, and don't need to eat or sleep. an exa drake can continue to try to attack even with multiple limbs removed and heavy bodily damage. Only through heavy damage to the computer brain, or mutilation to the point where the body simply isnt capable of doing anything anymore can an Exa-drake be considered "terminated". They also operate constantly at the maximum potential of a regular drake.

During the war, Exa-drakes were considered to be responsible for approximately 80% of the deaths that were not attributed to things like bomb strikes. Yes, it truly is reasonable to say that those monsters were the greatest abomination to ever disgrace peaceful life in all of recorded history. May we be collectively blessed with the foresight to never make a mistake like that again.

-End of excerpt-