Guardrone



The Guardrones (ガードローン Gādorōn) are a new class of human weapons (人間兵器, ningen-heiki) designed by and overseen by World Government scientist, Dr. Prometheus. Unlike their Marine counterpart, the Pacifista, the Guardrones were specifically ordered for manufacturing by the government itself, as they felt that the successes of the Pacifista would lead to other great breakthroughs in technology, if the same concept was applied. And thus, the first attempts at recreacting a human weapon were made. However, as the World Government was unable to contact Marine head scientist, Dr. Vegapunk at the time, the technicians and scientists involved had many more instances of trial and error than the Marines had. It had gotten so bad, that the laboratory itself had been occassionally referred to as "a human butcher shop," or even "the shinigami's office" by some of the employees there. This is due to the fact that since the Guardrones were human weapons, that effectively made all active Guardrones living cyborgs; humans with technological modifications implanted into them.

As explained by surviving Guardrone experiment, Forge Mary, she was among the many unwilling guinea pigs used for the tests required, in order to see if a successful Guardrone could be created. Unfortunately for those involved, the fatality rate was disturbingly high. Only Forge Mary herself managed to survive the ordeal. It's also been said by her that while she was originally going to be spared, due to her usefullness as one of the more skilled engineers among the World Government's technicians, she was ultimately sacrificed for the good of scientific progress. After the surgery involved, Forge Mary was labeled as "Experiment #14," as she was the 14th in a list of subjects who were made into cyborgs. She was branded with this number on her right shoulder, and was expected to now carry out her new duties as a Guardrone. However, Mary rebelled against her former colleagues and flew into an uncontrollable rage, effectively destroying a good portion of the lab she was in. The scene was enough to frighten quite a few of her fellow technicians who were involved at the time. After the incident, Mary became the first and only Guardrone to escape the government's influence, and went out to sea as a nomad from then on, before ultimately joining a crew of pirates known as The Jolly Pirates.

After Mary's escape, the government continued its Guardrone operations in secret, hoping to perfect the so-called "flaws" it saw in them. While Mary was an employee for the World Government and had retained her humanity throughout the traumatic experience and afterward, the future Guardrones that were made after Mary's escape were chosen from various prisons throughout the world, as the government considered using criminals for Guardrone bases as "more ethical." These "perfected" Guardrones would later lose their sense of humanity and become strictly loyal to the World Government after completion. While there have been a few attempts by the government to place their Guardrones within the ranks of the Marines, the Marines have consistently denied their requests, as they have told the World Government that they feel secure with their Pacifista, and do not see the need in using the Guardrones so long as the Pacifista continue to show outstanding work when called upon. Nevertheless, the government is still persistently making offers to aid the Marines with their Guardrones.

Trivia

 * The name for the Guardrones was suggested to me by fellow user and good friend, 1NF3RNO.
 * Guardrone is a portmanteau of the words Guard and Drone. This reflects the very nature of the Guardrones themselves.

Related Articles
Forge Mary - The sole surviving test subject for the Guardrone prototypes