Anti-Robot Warfare

1. Explosive Rounds

The most common method of 'Bot Busting is the use of large caliber explosive rounds. Shotguns can be loaded with said explosive rounds, allowing them to be effective at short range against these machines. These rounds are devastating in close quarters combat, can be used to breach doors and walls, and are almost a guaranteed killed against an unarmored target.

Drawback - explosive rounds are indiscriminate, and at close range are as dangerous to the shooter as the target. The rounds can also be dangerous to transport, and can be accidentally detonated by stray shots, excess heat, and can be detected by chemical snooping devices.

2. Sledgehammer Guns

Sledgehammer guns are very simply guns that shoot very large rounds, like 20mm rifles. These guns move into cannon territory, have very low ammo capacities, low rates of fire, and terrible recoil. The kinetic potential of the oversized high mass rounds are typically enough to damage or destroy cybernetic components. They are impractical for combat, due to the weight and unwieldy nature of the weapons. Most Sledgehammer style weapons are fired from a prone or braced position, and rather than firefights are used in ambush scenarios against said armored targets.

Drawback - a 20mm rifle is heavy, the ammo is heavy, and if not seated properly in the shoulder, the recoil can break the collar bone, dislocate the shoulder, and the same goes for the hand inside the trigger guard. The weapons require special training. The size of the guns make them hard to hide, hard to smuggle, hard to move. The most common perceived user of sledgehammers are augmented ops and the robots that they are designed to destroy.

3. EMP Devices

The electro-magnetic pulse device disrupts the operation of electronic systems, even burning out electric systems. These can shut down machines, short out cybernetic augmentations, and disable the computer systems of power armor. These devices tend to be on the small size, due to limits in power supply, and the desire to limit the destructive potential of the weapon. No good using an anti-robot weapon that blacks out half a neighborhood. EMPs are typically grenades, satchel charges, or other similar deployment methods.

The use of EMPs in the electrically dependent Cosmic Era is considered a serious crime, so their use is highly restricted even among forces that are technically allowed to have them. The more common application is the IEMP, improvised electro-magnetic pulse device. These homemade bombs are the calling card of terrorists and amerikka command.

4. Anti-Robot Tactics

ART is a specific school of combat training designed around identifying the exploiting the weaknesses inherent to machines. This ranges from specific weak points in their construction to understanding the logic and decision trees used by commonly available machines. An exampled of ART is Kyle Reese's fight against the Terminator in the first movie of the franchise, utilizing automated machinery to counter motion detection, starting fires to confuse thermal sensors, and improvised weapons to damage the weaker components of the machine pursuing them.

ART take time to learn, and can foiled by non-tradition programming in robots. These tactics are also designed to exploit low to mid range synthetic intelligences. High level and unique intelligences can counter-exploit ART. These tactics are generally used by mid-range mercenaries and law enforcement, the sort that dont have the money for dedicated equipment, but do run into rogue machines on a regular basis. These by-the-book ops can quickly go to piss against a dangerous machine.

5. Armor Penetrating Weaponry

The domain of the military, AP weaponry was originally designed for busting tanks and bunkers. The same gear can very easily be used to destroy machines and power armor. This includes things like rocket propelled grenades, bazookas, short range guided missiles, and large bore cannons.

The drawback of military hardware is that it is illegal to buy, it's large and bulky, and it is the opposite of subtle. Pulling out an RPG in the middle of an urban area is a good way to end up on a wanted list even without firing it. Many of these weapons are also primitive, cannot be integrated into smart systems, and are favored by wastelanders.

6. The Crusher

The Crusher is a Robot-Hunter robot. Bounty Hunter robots are specifically built for the purpose of stalking and disabling rogue robots, using their own strengths against them. The Crusher is a crab like robot with very long arms and legs, keeping it's body away from the robots it captures. When it ambushes another robot, like a spider, it quickly decapitates the machine, and then severs the power transfers generally found the back of the torso. Crushers are rare and considered really frightening machines.

Robot-Hunters are the most dangerous robots to go rogue, which limits their usefulness, plus they are vulnerable to the rest of the anti-robot warfare techniques. They are also quite expensive, limiting how many people and agencies can afford them.

7. Viral Weaponry

Computer Viruses can and have been weaponized. The Virus bomb is a device that must be connected physically to the robot in question. Once there, it will start interfacing with the machine's control system, utilizing a known viral weapon like KiKi to infiltrate the system. While a data miner like KiKi would allow the hacker to gain access to data, other viruses could rewrite base code, completely take over the machine, or initiate shutdown, even a self destruct mode if the machine has one.

Viral weapons are very specialized, and the machine builders and software designers are in a constant battle with hacker code designers. Yesterday's killer virus is tomorrow's easily defeated malware. Using these devices require surface contact with the robot, which can be very dangerous. Possession of these devices are also highly illegal. Most are home built, and not always reliable.