The product of a civilization centuries ahead of that of the PCs', the guardian robot is a deadly menace...too deadly for some folks taste. Should the PCs wish to make the guardian less formidable, requiring more thought and skill rather than firepower to best, the following guidelines may be used.

Stat: Mass 6.5 tons, Height about 4 meters. Armor: ATV+0 Screen: Standard, can absorb maximum of twelve shots a turn before collapsing and letting the rest of the turn's shots through. DF: 500 "creature" damage points, distributed as noted on the hit-location chart. When the first total is reached, the part is "Damaged"; when an additional number of points equal to the second figure has been dealt to the part, the part is destroyed.

Hit Location: Rather than having a all-over score for damage, the robot now has individual systems. When a shot hits the robot, roll a D10 and see the chart below:

The players may also specify a aiming point. The robot is on the large size so they have a 50% chance of hitting the preferred point (roll randomly if this roll is failed). See below for the effects of disabling the various parts.

Arms: The arms contain the deadly monofilament whips. When damaged, the use of these whips are lost, but the arms can still be used as bludgeons. Destroying an arm makes it fall off completely, to wriggle and thrash on its own.

Mobilizer: The robot's drive mechanism. Normally, the machine can move 18 meters in each six-second melee round, making a total of 180 degrees of turns (it's a bit clumsy when it comes to making changes of direction). When damaged, the mobilizer only operates at one-third efficiency (6m/round, 60 degrees of turns). When destroyed, the robot must drag itself about on its tentacles at a rate of 2m/round per arm left.

Torso: The torso holds the weaponry and some sensory gear. When damaged, the guns lose autofire ability and all ranges are halved. When destroyed, the robot will be crippled, only able to talk (and only then if the dome is intact) and issue dire threats. The giant computers deep in the asteroid's crust will begin to consider waking up a replacement robot if this happens.

Dome: The dome/head has sensory gear and local processing circuits. The robot starts with a skill of 6 in all of its weaponry when intact, and can see in Sonar and conventional Radar. When damaged, the robot is reduced to expertise/2 in its weaponry department, and loses Radar. When destroyed, the robot becomes almost blind (Torso sensors will be able to provide "tunnel vision"), and hearing reduced to 10 meter range with poor direction-sensing ability. The robot's jolly voice will become slurred and harsh, too.

The GM may have had the STAR SCAMP's crew damage the robot, making it an easier target for the PCs. A disabled arm or battle-scarred torso will make the terrible machine a lot less formidable. Also note that the robot's function is to terrify and drive off more than utterly destroy; only vandals and stupid boobs who'd melt down the treasures for their gold content really deserve to be trashed. A second function is to prevent the PCs from totally emptying the vaults and preventing return visits. Four trips to the caverns on the PCs initial visit will probably set them up for life. If they return with a fleet of bulk freighters equipped with digging equipment, the robot and the mighty computers that control it could stoke the asteroid`s defenses up to full blast. There is enough firepower in the Tower/Dome system to wipe out entire fleets of over avaricious types, but use this sparingly; leaving the PCs with an interesting tale to tell the grandkids and a crippled ship should be enough.