The underlying concept of Dronemasters dates back to the Violent Century (2000AC-2100AC), and has been given new life in the past few centuries. Dronemasters provide a wide range of infantry support ranging from a suppression machinegun, to several drones that act as significant force multipliers. Equipped with a specialized Powersuit variant, Dronemasters carry, maintain and deploy various drones and also provide fire support and situational awareness for their lancemates. Because of these abilities, Dronemasters take up the role of leader in a typical infantry lance.
Dronemasters carry two Semi-Autonomous Supplemental Combat drones, spider-like robots with advanced terrain navigation programming that allows them to scale walls and rough terrain on their spindly legs. SASC Drones are equipped with an 8mm caseless machine gun that allows them to ambush and engage enemy forces from unpredictable angles. In addition, each Dronemaster carries four Remote Aerial Recon drones, frisbee-like machines that are deployed with a flick of the wrist and remotely controlled to provide an aerial view of the area of operations.
Dronemasters control both their drones and their lancemates using an intuitive system of gestures and haptic feedback installed within their gauntlets, that allow them to establish waypoints or designate targets with simple hand gestures. Their view of the battlefield is through a high-resolution heads-up display that allows them to seamlessly switch between aerial overviews, first-person views of Drones or lancemates, or even combinations. These systems grant Dronemasters incredible degrees of situational awareness and tactical control that is unrivaled on the modern battlefield.