Drone

The Imperial Drones are akin to genetic debt collectors of troll society, and facilitate the reproduction of the troll race. They travel around Alternia collecting genetic material that has been combined by trolls paired both as matesprits and kismesisses. Their separate arms imply matesprits produce a different genetic material than kismesisses or just that they want both.

They bring this genetic material to the Mother Grub, who combines it all in an incestuous slurry and lays hundreds of eggs at once - genetic material from stronger bonds of either nature see more representation in the resulting brood, while weaker relationships result in more recessive genetic traits.

We should all take a moment to lament how pedestrian the human reproductive system is, and further lament that the phrase "incestuous slurry" is not a feature of common parlance in human civilization.

Failure to contribute to each filial pail when prompted results in death. Trolls unable to find a mate have nothing to contribute to troll society and are therefore removed from the gene pool. This is referred to as "culling," although failure to contribute to the filial pails is not the only reason a troll can be culled. Consequently, the Imperial Drones may be related to the Culling Drones mentioned here, potentially even being one and the same.

The Drones may also be related to His Honorable Tyranny (seen here), or the Carpenter Droids who assist young trolls in constructing their Hives.

Post-scratch Earth

Three Crocker Drones, seen in the EOA6I1

The End of Act 6 Intermission 1 showed a group of Drones with the rebranded Crockercorp logo, which is also the Battleship Condescension logo. They also appear in [S] Jane: Enter, heading towards the locations of Dirk and Roxy respectively, presumably to attack them.

They were created by the Condesce after she took over Earth and initially were part of her scheme to force the Alternian reproduction system upon humanity. After humans go extinct they serve as a sort of "police" of her twisted regime, patrolling the world in large numbers and carrying out her orders. Unlike their Alternian counterparts they are robotic instead of organic. Dirk states that this is because on Earth the Condesce was unable to successfully breed things the traditional Alternian way. Like all other Crocker Corp tech they are bright red.

Trivia

• If they are indeed unfertilized Mother Grub eggs, then it is unknown what blood colour they would possess as they lack troll genetic input.
• It is apparent that the drones only take genetic material from adult trolls. What defines 'adult' is yet unknown.
• It makes sense that the Imperial Drones would be unfertilized Mother Grub eggs because this matches the pattern of most social insects (bees, ants, etc.) and would also explain why in post-scratch Earth, there had to be robotic drones; no Mother Grub means no living drones.
• The drones look somewhat similar to His Honorable Tyranny.
• It is unclear what happens if one quadrant's worth of material is provided but not the other.