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Theories > Race Of Drones Theory
Rewritten By Geoffrey Duke, August 2004
 
Azel combined her own DNA with the DNA of a human found inside Sestren to spawn a human/drone hybrid whom she names Orta, a word meaning rebirth or dawn in Panzerese (if I'm not mistaken). As we are all no doubt aware, Edge was the only human to visit Sestren, which simplifies any reasoning when it comes to deducing who Orta's biological father was, unless of course, someone wants to tell me the Divine Visitor was human, or real for that matter. In A.F. 156 the Empire deployed its anti-gravity warships and flying aircraft carrier Vermana to attack the Seeker stronghold in Yelico Valley where Orta happened to be imprisoned. Powerful search lights pushed through the darkness to illuminate their path as the Vermana and her escort ships prepared to unleash the most fearsome arsenal of weapons the world has ever known upon their unsuspecting target below. The Vermana was no ordinary aircraft carrier as the residents of Yelico Valley would soon find out for themselves, but a ship carrying a squadron of vicious dragonmares whose orders were to burn Yelico Valley to the ground. The truth is Orta's presence in Yelico Valley was the sole reason for the attack; the Empire launched an attack on the Seeker stronghold in order to capture Orta who it was led to believe was a drone. The dragonmares swooped down on Yelico Valley, obliterating anyone or anything that dared to resist. The Empire's own dragons swept across the Seeker city killing countless innocents almost before the city's occupant's knew what had hit them, and left nothing but piles of burning rubble in their wake with little to no real resistance. To make matters more interesting, we later discover that Abadd, a drone fleeing the Empire, was also searching for Orta.
 
Abadd was well aware of Orta's true drone nature but how he became acquainted with that knowledge is another story. Drones were never meant to reproduce, and yet Orta was an exception to this rule. Since Abadd knew all about Orta down to every last detail including where to find her, his knowledge of her and her whereabouts must've been the reason for the attack. The answer to the question of how the Empire found out about Orta can only be Abadd. Abadd agreed to help the Empire bio-engineer their infamous dragonmares by operating an excavated Bio-Reactor, but in exchange for what? Ah, now isn't that the question? The Empire would've no doubt given him anything if it meant controlling its very own dragons. Did Abadd make a deal with the Empire? Did Abadd's aid in creating the dragonmares come with a price? Was that price the retrieval of Orta? Remember, it's just one of my insane theories, but I hope our readers can nonetheless appreciate it for what it is: a possibility. It is possible that capturing Orta was the price the Empire had to pay to secure Abadd's continued cooperation. Abadd used the Empire to retrieve Orta from the heavily fortified Seeker outpost in Yelico Valley for him simply because he couldn't do it himself. The city soon became yet another smoldering shadow of its former self at the hands of the Empire in a long list of victims of the Empire's war machine. I can only surmise that Abadd escaped the Empire because he couldn't trust the Imperials to bring Orta back to him intact. The Empire continues to walk down a destructive path totally oblivious of the perils that may lie ahead. Blinded by its obsession with acquiring the ultimate living weapons, the Empire gave Abadd a chance to escape once the original dragonmares were created. Did Abadd earn the Empire's trust, only to betray that trust once the Empire no longer served his needs? The Imperials wouldn't even suspect that Abadd was plotting their destruction behind their backs if he was maintaining the illusion of siding with them. Iva's father who helped design the genetic template used to bio-engineer the dragonmares went with the Imperial fleet to Yelico Valley to retrieve what he called materials for his research. Of course, these research materials were none other than Orta herself, so we're forced to ask ourselves if the Empire planned to capture her alive. Not bringing her back alive in one piece may have been all the incentive Abadd needed to flee; Abadd hoped to convince Orta to aid him in his quest to resurrect his ancient masters. Whether the Imperials captured Orta alive or not may not have been important to them if they planned to study her physiology. After all, it was Orta's DNA that held the secret to operating the Bio-Reactor in Abadd's absence and breeding their own drones to do their bidding.
 
For whatever reason, Azel left Orta in the protection of Skiad Ops Gash, the leader of the Seekers, many years ago, or Orta otherwise came into Gash's possession who then took the necessary steps to keep her out of harm's way. In one of Sestren's memory cells in Forbidden Memories the voice of Gash is quoted as saying "she is the seed of our future", followed by "we must protect *it* at all costs", referring to Orta as if she wasn't a person. These quotes alone tell us that Gash was very protective of Orta because he was well-aware of not only what she was (a half-drone), but whatever role she was meant to play in steering the course of humanity's future. I view these recordings as clues that shed light on the truth behind Orta's creation; they were obviously put in the game to help us piece this puzzle together. They're not the most revealing of clues as to why Azel created Orta, but clues nonetheless. They are, in actual fact, smaller pieces in a much larger puzzle put into the game by its creators to provide us with an insight into why the Seekers would feel it was necessary to raise Orta in complete solitude (i.e. to protect her from the world, or to protect the world from her). Something else we must remember is that new players who have no prior knowledge of the series (who have no idea who Gash is) would want an explanation for why the Seekers raised Orta in isolation as well as older fans of the series who would naturally have a firmer grasp of the facts, and these recordings adequately do the job in my opinion.
Perhaps the Seekers were a little over-protective of Orta in the light of their poor treatment of her. They were no better than the Empire since they intended to use Orta as a weapon in whatever war they planned to wage in the near future. Perhaps their plans for Orta were inspired by a change in leadership. We have no way of knowing. However, from what I can gather Gash hated the weapons of the Ancient Age that enslaved humanity with every fibre of his being (a sentiment shared by many of his fellow Seekers, and one that was inherited by Orta's jailors). We all assume that Gash wouldn't, or rather couldn't imprison the daughter of the man who saved the lives of everyone on the planet to keep her safe, but is he really incapable of committing such a callous act especially when we consider his hatred of the tools of the ancients? Remember, Gash put the lives of his people before anything else; imprisoning Orta may have been a necessary evil. In the end the Seekers locked Orta away in fear of her; they believed she was a harbinger of destruction for some as yet unknown reason. Many fans suspect that this was partly because the Seekers feared something they didn't understand and mostly because they couldn't help but see drones as nothing more than the living weapons of the ancients designed to kill without mercy or question (in other words, bad experiences taught them not to trust drones). I have a sneaking suspicion, however, that the Seekers knew the true reason why Orta was created. Was she nothing more than a weapon in their eyes, or more than a mere weapon? Unfortunately for us, the Seekers took this dark secret with them to their graves. What sinister or grandiose purpose was Orta meant to fulfill? The Seekers obviously know something about Orta that we don't.
Maybe we will learn what motivated the Seekers one day and finally understand why the they felt it was necessary to imprison Orta. Unlike the goals of the Empire, the Seekers' motivations are never simple. In any case, Orta was indeed the harbinger of destruction the Seekers described her to be considering the ensuing carnage and fiery destruction of the dragonmare invasion centred around her. The Seekers should've known that Orta would be the death of them. Orta can only watch out of the barred window of her dark prison cell at the top of a stone tower where she had been held captive in chains for so many years as the invading dragonmares rapidly approach the tower itself, and soon tear through the walls. Orta comes face-to-face with the dragonmares before Lagi, the dragon the people of the new Empire hold responsible for destroying the last Empire, comes to the rescue, blasting them into oblivion where they belong.
 
The Empire wanted to capture Orta because after Abadd disappeared under mysterious circumstances it was in urgent need of another drone to operate the Bio-Reactor to finish a batch of unfinished dragonmares. Naturally, Orta wasn't going to be freed from the cold clutches of one captor only to fall into the hands of another if she had any say in the matter. She was now the one in control of her own destiny, or was she? Once Orta succeeded in escaping the burning Seeker outpost in Yelico Valley on the back of her dragon savior, the Vermana launched a group of fighters to pursue her in a last desperate attempt to stop their prize from slipping through their grasp. Without the protection of its dragonmare squadron the Vermana was left vulnerable to attack. The ship made easy prey for Orta who didn't give attacking the ship and killing all of its crew a second thought. The Vermana quickly imploded under Orta's merciless onslaught of searing laser blasts. Of course, the ship's crew was no less deserving of their fate than the dragonmares which had burnt Yelico Valley to the ground mere moments ago. However, it seems that the scientists who helped create the dragonmares, including Iva's father, were aboard. Orta sent them all to hell out of some dark desire to make them all pay for their sins when in reality there was no pressing need to kill any of them. Could this dark side manifest itself again in the future? No one can claim that Orta is guilt-free in this entire affair. The Empire's belief that Orta could operate the Bio-Reactor was probably based on the little information it had gathered about drones over the years; in other words, a belief based on ignorance. What made the Empire even think Orta could operate the Bio-Reactor at all? The truth of the matter is the Empire believed there was something about her drone nature that could shed light on how to operate any and all of the advanced ancient technology it has a nasty habit of recklessly digging up on a regular basis. I'm sure being made aware of a drone who could reproduce would pique the Empire's curiosity. The only way Abadd could entice the Empire to capture Orta for him was to inform the Empire of her nature that was unique even by drone standards. Again, Abadd can be the only answer.
 
How else did the Empire discover the location of the secretive Seeker outpost in Yelico Valley, let alone the existence of Orta, if not through Abadd? The Seekers are an extremely secretive organization, so prying the existence and location of Orta out of them wouldn't have been easy. Imperial spies could've discovered the Seeker stronghold located in Yelico Valley without any outside guidance, but finding out who and what Orta was when that knowledge was probably confined to the minds of a few high ranking Seekers would've been a far more difficult task by comparison. Abadd must've traced Orta through Azel by following the footsteps she left behind while she was creating Orta. He followed her tracks all the way back to the Seekers. The fact that the Empire only attempted to capture Orta when Abadd disappeared and when it needed a new drone to operate the Bio-Reactor raises more than a few questions. I can't see how the Empire learnt of Orta's existence from anyone besides Abadd. The Empire couldn't access Sestren to retrace Azel's footsteps even in its wildest dreams; Abadd arguably could. The Empire only unearthed Abadd in recent years and likewise only launched an attack on Yelico Valley recently. What a coincidence. The Empire must have learnt of Orta not long before attacking the Seeker stronghold, otherwise the Empire would've invaded Yelico Valley a long time ago regardless of whether or not the Empire actually needed Orta. I think the Empire *somehow* only learnt of Orta recently. The how in the somehow being Abadd, of course. Evren, the leader of the dragonmare squadron, accuses Abadd of betraying the Empire, which suggests he had willingly aided the Empire at one point in time. The Imperials considered him loyal to them when his loyalties in fact layed elsewhere. He could have pretended to side with the Empire for as long as it was convenient for him. I doubt the Empire could force the drone to work for it; what's the worst the Empire could do if Abadd didn't obey its wishes? Kill him? Kill the only drone within its reach who could operate the Bio-Reactor? One could argue that the Empire learnt of Orta because it started a wide-scale search for another drone after Abadd fled. However, could Abadd retrieve Orta from the Seeker stronghold in Yelico Valley alone? I doubt it. I'm sure the Imperials made some kind of deal with Abadd to capture Orta for him in exchange for his services (no one else could operate the Bio-Reactor). He could've agreed to help the Empire in order to acquire his own dragonmare, but in Abadd's eyes, Orta was vital to his mission. Nothing else mattered to him.
 
Abadd is a mindlessly loyal yet highly intelligent drone in the service of the ancients given the task of reviving them from hibernation. When he couldn't accomplish the task assigned to him, the inconceivability of it drove him to the verge of insanity. He was at a loss as to what he should do next in the absence of his masters. Abadd is a drone vaguely resembling a human being whose sole solution to the fact that his masters were all dead was to replace the current human population with a new race of half-drones. As we know, drones cannot reproduce, which presented Abadd with a problem, yet within Orta's DNA was the means of breeding the race of half-drones he coveted so desperately simply to fulfill the will of his dead masters *somehow*. Populating the world with half-drones must've been the next best thing to his twisted sense of logic: if his creators couldn't inherit a world that rightfully belonged to them, then their creations claiming it as their own was the closest the ancients would ever come to reclaiming it themselves. When he couldn't convince Orta to aid him in his doomed mission, he was driven completely insane (he was pushed completely over the edge) to the point where he was quite willing and prepared to capture Orta's body alive or dead without hesitation. You could say the inspiration of madness began to dominate Abadd's every waking moment. Abadd couldn't complete his original mission to resurrect his masters, so sought out Orta to find another way of completing the task assigned to him (the Empire was a convenient tool to help him capture Orta). As soon as Orta refused to lend a helping hand, he simply went out of his mind. In Abadd's eyes, using Orta could help him complete his original mission in his own way. When faced with the very real possibility of never being able to bring his ancient masters back to life, he eventually went insane to the point where the ancients' servants would make good substitutes. In a way, he would be resurrecting his masters, but only in a really twisted way. The ancients creations were the embodiment of their creators' collective will after all. That would explain why he went to such drastic lengths to achieve this goal: he was still fulfilling the will of his now dead masters.
Reviving his masters was impossible, and yet Abadd still searched for a way to carry his mission in complete desperation because he had no other purpose in life. He was lost without his creators to guide him. Abadd wouldn't waste time finding a way to revive his dead masters since he'd be searching in vain, but he could bring them back through their creations. Nothing would stand between Abadd and his goal of acquiring Orta's body alive or dead, because buried deep within her DNA lay the key to unlocking the secret of how Azel created her. The only obstacle who stood in his path was, dare I say, Orta herself. She put an end to his insane plan before he could execute it. What strikes me as odd is why Abadd sought out Orta and not Azel. This could mean Azel was either dead, or beyond his reach. How Abadd learnt of Orta at all is the real question. He didn't know everything the Seekers knew, and their knowledge came from the source: Azel. Abadd couldn't figure out the exact method used to create Orta unless he dissected her; figuring out how Azel created Orta and for what purpose eluded him. Now considering his relationship with the ancients it must give you some pause for thought: the ancients would only task the most intelligent of their drones with their revival. However, Abadd did say he had foreseen Orta's destiny. If Orta wasn't bio-engineered for a purpose, or with an ultimate purpose in mind, save the purpose she chose for herself, then her foreseeable future would be hers to decide. Perhaps Abadd did know why she was created, just not how. Although I'm holding onto the hope of her being more than a mere weapon, perhaps Orta is indeed nothing more than a weapon of mass destruction whose only purpose in life is to wage war in the name of others (don't let her innocent exterior fool you). Only time will tell. If Abadd knew how Azel created Orta via the hybridization of human and drone genes, he wouldn't have hesitated to attempt it himself. What was stopping him?
  Abadd was probably meant to awaken from hibernation after the world had been turned into a paradise by the Towers, yet the Towers never completed their task. Abadd found himself being unearthed by the Empire and woke up to find his masters dead. Although gripped by insanity, Abadd did dream up a rather inventive solution to his problem; there's no doubt in anyone's mind that Abadd was one of the few higher end drones created by the ancients.
 Lest we forget, Abadd could interface with the Bio-Reactor and synchronize with a dragonmare, meaning he was just as advanced as Azel. If his mind could become one with a creature as complex as a dragon then he could only be a higher end drone. Why would the ancients leave a lower end drone in charge of their revival? They wouldn't. A higher end drone would no doubt be better equiped for the task at hand.
Abadd enhanced his own dragonmare to the point where its size and strength went far above and beyond even the collective offensive capabilities of the Empire's entire dragonmare squadron. He used the Bio-Reactor to upgrade his mare with extra layers of reinforced armour-plating and biological weaponry. This shows that Abadd possessed intimate knowledge of the inner workings of genetic engineering. By any measure, Abadd together with his enhanced dragonmare was a force to be reckoned with.
Emotions are the first symptom of higher intelligence and Abadd was quite emotional, even though his voice was somewhat cold and monotonous. If you're looking for proof of the presence of emotions, then you needn't look any further than the fact that he was very determined indeed to find another way to carry out his mission. Both Abadd and Azel had difficulty expressing their emotions, but they expressed their emotions in their own way nevertheless. Abadd seemed both intelligent and loyal to the ancients, but at the same time, he probably couldn't imagine living a life as anything other than a slave. He even recognized that he was a slave in fact, and yet chose to give his loyalty to the ancients. Only he knows why. I think Abadd chose to obey his ancient masters because, and only because, servitude was all he had ever known. It was all he would ever know. I believe it's simply a drone's nature to want to serve someone or something. Even Azel struggled against her own servile nature. She served Craymen with the same fierce loyalty that Abadd served his creators who had long since perished. She gave her loyalty to Craymen in a manner with all the same hallmarks. Azel was singleminded in her approach towards aiding Craymen just like Abadd was towards completing his mission. She endeavoured to protect Craymen at any cost, even her own life. That's how loyal she was. I'm not sure if Azel ever broke the shackles of her drone nature... even when she had come to fully appreciate the reality of her situation. When Azel saw the true purpose the Towers served with her own two eyes and how inarguably evil that purpose truly was, only then did she come to realise she was a slave who had become an instrument of destruction. She had allowed herself to be turned into little more than a weapon without even realising it. The will of the ancients, which was immortalized by their Towers continuing to enslave the world, was wrong in every sense of the word. Azel decided to forge her own destiny in the end by becoming a solution to the problem of the Towers still bending the world to their will instead of part of the problem.
Some advanced drones decided to remain faithful to the ancients even after experiencing problems associated with higher intelligence such as becoming self-aware. As long as such drones were loyal to the ancients and didn't question that loyalty, it wouldn't matter how intelligent they were. Abadd himself was unquestioningly loyal to his ancient creators; there would be no need to restrict his abilities. So, why couldn't he figure out how Azel created a human/drone hybrid? There's something special about Azel in terms of what she can control, though a drone given the important task of reviving the ancients wouldn't have been any less sophisticated. The higher end drones were assigned to priority locations, which means the ancients trusted them to do their bidding, so who knows what technology they could and couldn't interface with. You wouldn't limit the abilities of the drone tasked with your revival, lest you invite unforeseen trouble. Placing restrictions on a drone in that position could spell disaster, especially if they couldn't think on their feet or adapt to problems that weren't anticipated. For all we know all higher end drones could interface with any complex ruin. We have no way of knowing what Abadd's limitations were, but I still don't believe his masters would restrict the abilities of a drone assigned with the important task of bringing them out of hibernation if that drone was 100% loyal to them. As such, we have to ask why Abadd couldn't do what Azel did: combine his DNA with human DNA in an attempt to spawn a half drone. If breeding half-drones was so easily accomplished Abadd would have done it already; what makes Azel so special?
 My guess is Azel was some form of prototype drone and that was part of the reason she was stolen in the Ancient Age from the clutches of her maniacal creators. Either Azel could interface with something Abadd couldn't, or the method Azel used to create Orta took years to formulate on her own - something Abadd lacked the patience or creative intelligence to figure out by himself. Either way, there's more to this mystery than meets the eye because the nagging question of how, not to mention why Azel created Orta still lingers at the back of our minds. When Azel told Orta that she had the power to change the world in the message Azel left for Orta in Sestren, I'm willing to bet that Azel was speaking in literal terms. The Seekers can almost certainly testify to what Orta was capable of. On one hand, drones are sometimes thought to be specific keys to unlocking the power of specific ruins. Following in the footsteps of her mother, I'm almost convinced that Orta is some kind of master key to all the ancient technology. Smilebit must've had something in mind. On the other hand, perhaps all higher end drones like Abadd and Azel are master keys. The Seekers did believe that Azel was designed to control any number of Towers with a measure of certainty. Ultimately, we can only speculate, as there's no way of knowing. How is any of this significant you ask? It would explain why the Seekers imprisoned Orta: they knew how to harness her. The Seekers seemed to have grand designs for the future revolving around Orta which can throw yet more fuel onto this speculative fire: Abadd may have had the Seekers wiped out because knowing how to harness Orta made them a potential threat to him.
 Gash declares his intention to protect Orta "at all costs", Abadd says that Orta is the only one who can "save this dying world from itself", and Azel says that Orta has "the power to change the world". Even Lagi was keeping an eye on her from afar while she was locked behind bars before leaping to her defence when she was moments away from death. Do you think they were trying to send us a message? There's no doubt in my mind that Orta is destined for greatness; the story of Panzer Dragoon Orta built up Orta's character to be someone of future importance. I almost pity Orta. The Seekers want to wield her as a weapon, the Empire wants to use her to operate the Bio-Reactor, and Abadd is eager to dissect her to discover how to reproduce himself. Even the kind-hearted Iva wants to see her suffer for murdering his father. Will Orta ever know the meaning of the word peace? A half-drone who hates the world for depriving her of her childhood holding the fate of the world in the palm of her hand sets the stage for a sequel perfectly in my opinion. If I grew up in isolation and was robbed of my childhood, I might be tempted to hate the world and everyone in it too. Orta could potentially become the most terrifying villain ever to impose their will on the world of Panzer Dragoon. If Orta one day decided to use her dragon to wipe out the Empire, would the Empire stand even the slightest chance of safeguarding itself from her insanity come to life? Almost everyone I've discussed the series with is eager to see Orta return in the next game in the hopes of seeing her continue on her journey of self-discovery, but I believe a much darker path lays ahead of her...
Azel said that Orta was the answer to her fruitless searches, but search for what? A way to save the world? A way to eradicate humanity? Panzer Dragoon Saga ended with Azel searching for Edge, and no doubt provides the likeliest answer: she was searching for her lost love. When Azel found Edge's lifeless body floating in Sestren, she must have created a child using his DNA so that a part of him and her could live on long after they had both passed away. At least, that's how I interpret this sequence of events. Perhaps Azel was searching for an answer to the question of why she was brought into this world against her will. By creating Orta, Azel had found a purpose in life that went beyond fulfilling her ancient duty to her equally ancient masters. In any case, the answer Azel was searching for came in the form of Orta. Whether or not Team Andromeda had any of this in mind for her original character is dubious at best, which suggests Smilebit rewrote her background to lay the foundation for Panzer Dragoon Orta. What's worse is Azel wasn't present to raise Orta. What happened to her? I find it how believe that Azel would allow her daughter to grow up without a mother. Did she die? The information contained in Panzer Dragoon Orta states that whole tribes of drones masquerading as humans lived in the borderlands before the foundation of the Empire. I'm left wondering how they managed to survive for so long on their own. Are drones immortal (as in ageless) or did these drones only recently emerge from hibernation? Pure type sentries guarding the ancient ruins never deteriorate as time goes by and spring into action whenever they sense the presence of intruders. Since drones are also pure type creatures, does this mean their bodies aren't affected by the passage of time either? If Azel didn't just simply die of old age (because she couldn't age), then she must have met with a grisly fate to pry her away from her daughter. The tribes of drones unheard of before Panzer Dragoon Orta that have now existed in the borderlands before the rise of the Empire actually seems like a revision (a newly introduced plot device) Smilebit wrote into existence in recent real life years to me (rather than something that was planned from the start). And thus, sheds light on a future story that could go in any number of directions. Drones are quite fascinating since they are sentient beings who were born into slavery, but now face a future without the aid and guidance of their masters. Why do I receive the distinct impression that we will be seeing more drones in the next game?
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