[Winky]

In situations where a rigger has been knocked unconscious in front of their drone, would the drone generally be intelligent enough to attack the person who did so without being issued a specific command to do so? Alternatively, could a drone be given a blanket command to defend the person against all attackers?

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

Drones operating under the direction of the "dog brain" autopilot will only perform actions as described by whatever their orders are.  So if a drone were just sitting around with no orders, no it won't react to someone getting shot.  But yes if the drone's controller had previously given an order like "Defend me", then perking up and returning fire would be within the bounds of what its orders are.