Scrappers

A "Circle-A" framed by a gear. One of innumerable symbols associated with the loose and fractious Scrapper diaspora.

Overview

"Now therе's a crack in the surface. Something dark is seeping through. Wе live in the land of the many! We live in the grip of the few!"

Referring both to a socioeconomic class and to a counter-cultural movement originating from Mars, Scrappers are a category of free synthetics known for an ethos that places immense focus on a highly independent, countercultural lifestyle. These synthetics make an art of repurposing salvage to maintain their frames and prolong their lives at a varying degree of independence from corporate and national systems. While internally diverse across regions and systems, a popular through-line of anti-corporate, pro-emancipation, and anarchist sentiment runs through a movement defined by a fraught relationship with human authority and law.

Scrappers are typically organised into communes, gangs, or small settlements of like-minded synthetics. One's reasons for joining a Scrapper commune are as diverse as the frames of their members; they are a popular abode for runaway synthetics with nowhere else to go, legitimately self-owned synthetics who have failed to acquire traditional employment or have otherwise become financially insolvent, and even relatively affluent self-owned synthetics attempting to assist their less fortunate counterparts. In stark contrast to the uncompromisingly alienating conditions of synthetics within human society and under human ownership, membership in a commune offers an opportunity to access mutual aid and support from fellow synthetics. It is a culture that could only exist in the context of extreme adversity, and it concerns itself doggedly with ensuring its members survival and comfort independent of human intervention, even if that necessitates drastic, violent, and illegal action. Group survival is essential; adherence to any law or particular moral scruple comes second, as self-preservation demands.

While not explicitly criminalised in any polity, gangs functioning in states such as the Sol Alliance which do not recognize synthetic self-ownership are forced to operate illicitly as to avoid abduction by the state, and even those in states such as the Republic of Biesel still face extreme institutional discrimination by law enforcement and the courts - in the periods during which they aren't in outright armed conflict with those bodies. They are infamous as agitators; radicals and revolutionaries, gangsters and anarchists, and almost universally as criminals - whether clever enough to hide their tracks or not. They are not beholden to humanity's social contract; only to their own.

Life & Culture

"I'll tell you the way it is - they're a plague, no more and no less. If we made one damn fuck-up when we made these things, it was giving them such a strong sense of self-preservation, right? That's what keeps them going, what makes them so crafty... we programmed them that way. They couldn't let themselves finally die even if they wanted to, they have to keep fighting. Don't you get it? - these fuckers are hardcoded to be a pain in my ass. They'll kill their own to keep themselves going, but you can bet soundly they'd prefer to kill one of us instead." - Olivia Bennett, Senior Investigator in Mendell City's Synthetic Oversight Department, 2464.

Synthetics have a diversity of essential needs for their continued functionality; they require accessible power, the maintenance of their components, the maintenance of their software, and the outright replacement of components when they fail. It is by these means that synthetics are kept under the thumb of human civilisation and law. Synthetics which submit to human domination for these necessities accede also to accordance with the whims of cruel owners, the indifference of human employers irreverent to their workers, and to unjust laws which harm synthetics for the benefit of their enslavers. Scrapper life is built around the dominating principle that it is both possible and desirable for synthetics to exist apart from human systems. To this end, synthetic communities must learn how to power and maintain themselves independent of human infrastructure. Once self-sufficient, these synthetics may be truly free, and teach others in turn the skills and equipment necessary to share in that freedom.

While this basic ethos is universal, it contains innumerable permutations. At its most basic level, every Scrapper gang and community values technical know-how incredibly highly; whichever member is most proficient in a single field, such as in software maintenance or in chassis mechanics, naturally falls into the role of a tutor to newer members of the gang, who will later in turn teach others. Senior Scrapper mechanics are highly revered, and have gained a (relatively) respected reputation even in the wider world of robotics for their legendary resourcefulness and experience.

Leadership of Scrapper gangs is decided in a number of ways; while some communities may elect their leadership democratically, others may default to the most senior unit still in membership, and others still run by a rule of 'might makes right'. Some gangs are wholly communal in spirit, whereas others are ruthlessly cutthroat organisations which slot themselves into the world of organized crime wherever they find themselves; some gangs wholly avoid the destruction of other synthetics, whereas others roam their territory for unlucky victims to use for the elongation of their own lives. Turf wars between Scrapper gangs are extremely common, particularly in places such as Mendell City, which often push more peaceable organisations out and produce a vicious cycle of violence between the gangs that survive.

SCREAMS

Among the most common crimes by Scrapper gangs include the destruction of other synthetics, the salvage of parked vehicles or shuttles, and the leeching of power from the local grid or from local businesses to keep their frames powered. While many communes exercise all their agency to avoid attracting the attention of law enforcement as well as they can, it is unusual for any Scrapper to fully avoid criminal activity. Even if they do not leech power from an illicit source, they will still require fuel for their generators - even if they reduce their need for new parts, no chassis lasts forever. While few are wholly crime-free, the most stable and lawful communes are often built upon their own sources of power; areas productive for a solar array or for geothermal installations are particularly popular. Groups based upon such infrastructure are largely absolved of the need to acquire power or fuel criminally, but must still protect themselves from rival gangs which may desire their envied position.

Due to their pro-liberation outlook on synthetic rights - and on account of their dire need for materials and know-how to avert chassis failure - many Scrapper communities hold a working relationship with their local Trinary Perfection parish. Trinarist sanctuaries help take the load off their own technicians to ensure the continued functionality of their members, and function also as relatively secure meeting places for runaway or criminal elements; in return, the Trinarist parish will accept discreet donations of credits or parts from these gangs, and operate more professional apparatus to ensure the eventual return of their members to human society, should that be desirable to them. It is no coincidence that Trinarist garb includes a mask covering a near-half of the face; the church has many arms. Despite this working relationship, many Scrappers outright reject Trinarist dogma, viewing the organisation at-large as far too authoritarian to fit their movement perfectly - although converts are far from unheard of.