(In Neal Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash) Rat Things, semi-autonomous biomechanical guard units, were originally created as security for a franchise of city-states by Ng Security Industries.

Rat Things are powered by a nuclear isotope, which, to prevent a catastrophic melt down. is cooled by a system of fins over which air passes when they are running. A Rat Thing must therefore be constantly on the move unless in its hutch, where it’s cooled by jets of water. Evolving some semblance of self-awareness soon after coming into service, the Rat Things escaped Ng Security’s control and went feral. Constantly moving faster than the eye can see and with neither empathy nor compassion, Rat Things live lives of uninterrupted destruction until, inevitably, they collide with something solid enough to destroy them.

This piece is the only known image of a Rat Thing captured on camera: curiously, it was taken by a CCTV camera in Oxford Street, London’s premier consumerist franchise enclave.