Once again I'm thinking about how to avoid paying karma if I can do the same with ¥.
1. Hardware and Armorer
Hardware is a useful skill, especially if you do experience matrix damage or have a lot of electronic loot.
The Transys Office Maid drone from Stolen Souls is a very interesting model: It has a pilot rating of 4 and has articulated arms. Instead of cleaning you give it autosofts Hardware and Armorer
For 14.000¥ you have an automatic assistant with 10 dice to take care of all your hardware related tasks.
That's ok for simple projects but if you want to go into "changing ownership" territory, your maid needs help.
Enter Bust-A-Move Drones: Those toys are cheap, can walk and have been used to carry out robberies. Six of them go for 9.000¥. Add a cheap rigger console Radio Shack Remote Controller for 8.000¥ and the two autosofts for 6.000¥.
For 37.000¥ you now have a team of robots assisting your maid for +6 to limit and 16 dice to every test.
Buy a hardware shop for 5.000¥ and an armorer kit for 500¥.
Best of all, you can go shadow running while those guys are working in your garage.
[spoiler=For the criminally inclined]Changing ownership without geeking the previous owner is always dangerous since he can trace his device and alert the authorities. If you are willing to pay 95.000¥ you can get a truck with a nice trailer (Conestoga Trailblazer). Now you have a rolling workshop, that's really hard to converge upon.
With 4 bought successes per hour your robo crew needs about six hours to complete a job. [/spoiler]
2. "Self defense"
Having more actions is a significant advantage in combat. So, why not have a loyal little companion with you who does the fighting for you?
Especially the Aztechnology Crawler (4.000¥) is a cut above the rest in the pilot department. Also, it sports just enough body to have a weapon mount (2.500¥). A really efficient weapon for this is the Ares Alpha: For one autosoft (3000¥) you get both an assault rifle and a grenade launcher. Add gas vent III (600¥), under barrel weight (50¥), shock pad (50¥) and an imaging scope (300¥). Install a smartlink (2.000) and flare compensation (250¥) into the scope.
Now your brave little crawler costs 12.750¥ and has 4 (Pilot) + 6 (Autosoft) +1 (Smartlink), with 10 recoil compensation (3 Body + 3 Gas Vent + 2 Ares Alpha +1 Under Barrel Weight +1 Shock Pad) for full auto shots.
Add active targeting and it becomes pretty hard to evade a full auto salvo from this little buddy.
Now this is nice offense, but the drone is notoriously bad in the taking damage department. So first and foremost, do add autosoft for evasion (3000¥) for 10 dice.
Mount a flash pack (250¥) on your drone, so attackers receive -4/-2 on their attacks. Use (thermo)smoke grenades and ultrasound to obscure your firing position. Have the small drone take cover (+4 defense) whenever possible.
Total cost now 16.000¥ for autonomous fire support.
3. Transport
Have you ever bought a Honda Spirit or a Harley-Davidson Scorpion? Both cost 12.000¥ and are totally earthbound. For the same price you can get an AEROQUIP M.E.D.-1 “DUSTOFF” MEDICAL EVACUATION DRONE (Bullets & Bandages) - your own VTOL.
It's a bit fragile since it's a drone, but for another 8.000¥ you get chameleon coating to make it look like any corporation's property you like. Add a spoof chip (500¥) to make the illusion complete and while you are at it get a good pilot, stealth and evasion autosoft (9.000¥). 10 dice for those operations should be enough, so you don't have to learn how to fly.
Now whenever you are in desperate need of evac, just call your drone with the right color scheme/spoofing and just fly away from your troubles or at least to the next doc wagon hospital since those cowards won't fetch you from extra territorial areas. For the low, low price of 29.000¥.
If you are feeling like it you can also use this drone to deliver your crawler for fire support...
