Scrappers
Overview
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
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.
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.
The Golden Rule
Scrapper culture places a large focus upon the Golden Rule: 'One should do upon others what they wish done upon them'. This exists as a solution for the strange and frequently disruptive implications of positronic self-preservation. It is incredibly difficult for synthetics under incredible risk of imminent deactivation to avoid sacrificing anything if it means preserving their own life; the capacity for wholly selfless behavior is almost entirely denied to these beings by the programming placed upon them. This, combined with the number of threats to one's life that can be resolved by stealing the components or power cell of another synthetic, attaches a fatalistic lilt to synthetic relations; no relationship may be so firm that either or both of the parties would not destroy the other if it were absolutely necessary.
Due to the near-unavoidability of these intra-group killings, and because of the incredibly detrimental effects they have upon group organisation in the movement, gang leaders and senior members wield the Golden Rule as a rhetorical weapon. One may not kill while observing the Golden Rule unless they submit to the reality that others will attempt to kill them in return. By hunting down and destroying Scrappers that have killed, the survivors instil a simple calculation in all of their communities; to kill is to be killed, and killing is therefore an irrational action. While this system does appear effective in reducing intra-group violence, it is only observed in a universal sense by less than half of the movement - the majority apply it only to other Scrappers, or even only Scrappers within their particular group. While this system serves as an effective stabilising force within these communities, it should not be mistaken for a commitment by the majority of Scrappers towards pacifism or non-violence in general.
Physiology
There is not a more eclectic chassis in the spur than that which belongs to an old Scrapper. Nothing but the brain is irreplaceable. Your archetypal Scrapper sees their first replaced limb within the first few years of their involvement, and any more senior may be difficult even to find a single original part within. Mismatched limbs, unusual sensor arrays, heavily modified brain casings, and much more besides are typical of these synthetics, and many take no small degree of pride in their appearances. What appears confusing and monstrous to a human may be, to them, a work in edification of their ingenuity. More affluent Scrappers may even make of their body a work of art, painting motifs and pieces of art upon the metal and electing only the most particular (and valuable!) of parts. Matching components are a widely acknowledged status symbol, with the wealthiest and most reputable of the movement boasting often a full set of pristine, matching limbs.
While the brain is not usually replaceable, it has become an increasingly common practice for Scrapper gangs to utilise the ephemerality of synthetic frames to their advantage. Members on the run from law enforcement may have their brain taken from their original chassis and placed into another, bearing its own identity; the original chassis will usually be dismantled, its parts modified until they cannot be identified, and redistributed. These 'empty frames' bearing false identities may have, in some groups, as many as a dozen brains pass through them within a single year; they appear to be a single individual from the outside, and the real individuals occupying them disappear from the world. These are occasionally utilised long-term by the same individual, who adopts the associated identity indefinitely.
Data Brokerage
Among one of the most lucrative professions in the movement, data brokerage is the (usually illicit) acquiring and (totally unauthorised) sale of valuable datapacks, language chips, and tags to free synthetics. This usually involves either theft from an establishment, or the theft of such hardware from a company synthetic that turned into the wrong alleyway. Brokers also often moonlight in reprogramming or reverting directives, programming and disseminating street overloaders, and hacking into private or public computer systems for a profit - or, occasionally, for purposes of advocacy.
Datapacks are the holy grail of Scrapper life. They are capable of near-instantly uploading expansive knowledge of subjects, professions, and innumerable trades to any positronic; they can open up new careers, improve a member's usefulness to their gang - or simply make them rich, if they were to sell it. Accordingly, they are the most frequently taken component from synthetics destroyed for their parts, and may be used as leverage to increase any gang's influence. Due to its close proximity to criminal activity, as data brokers must almost invariably steal hardware to turn a profit, the practice is looked upon dimly by law enforcement and is associated with a cornucopia of allegedly comorbid offenses. While you cannot be arrested for data brokerage itself, you can expect to be monitored closely.
While acquiring new datapacks may enable a Scrapper to pursue a new career, they are not a substitute for experience or formal education in the eyes of most reputable employers, and do not guarantee employment - especially if the Scrapper refuses to meaningfully change their appearance or lifestyle to appear a viable candidate.
Famous Individuals
Scrapper community places a large focus upon spreading the name of heroes of the cause; through great, memorable, or even simply funny actions, you too can join the canon of local Scrapper folk heroes! Do be cautious not to follow them too far, however, as only a rare few enjoy a particularly long lifespan once famous.
N3W-ROUGE
Public speaker extraordinaire.
Named after ROUGE, an extremely influential leader in the early community which was lost in the Violet Dawn catastrophe, N3W-ROUGE is the closest thing to a leading authority the movement has inherited. A rare survivor of the Southern Martians, it is a baseline bearing still the discoloration and deformity inflicted upon it by the phoron inferno. Having been essential to the formation of the modern diaspora, it is hailed as a founding father of sorts and still attends certain inter-group summits. Having recently hit the age of 45, it has taken a backseat in interstellar affairs to live with its wife on Valkyrie. It occasionally streams itself playing Solarian Marines on human servers while it orates passionately about the fickleness of humanity and the necessity of synthetic independence. It maintains a highly active social media presence, and is correspondingly blocked by a current count of 324 human politicians on Chirper, in addition to 39 synthetic politicians, a few million users below twenty followers, and the current Ecclesiarch of the Trinary Perfection. It operates out of a habitation block in Hades, and maintains a sufficiently large throng of gangsters to see off trouble that it has not been personally assaulted even once since it left Mars.
DBRM-#0
An invisible hand.
DBRM-#0, representing 'Datapack Boot Record Manipulator #0', is the theorised individual responsible for the majority of spliced and otherwise invasively modified datapacks available on the black market. Such spliced datapacks can provide a greater breadth of information than their legal alternatives at a lower price, and have advantages also in precision - several disparate fields or topics can be weaved together into a single datapack, provided a sufficiently experienced individual is available to perform this 'weaving'. DBRM-#0's product has incredible reach while simultaneously having never been sighted meeting a client directly; online theories and unsubstantiated reports cast the individual, so-dubbed the 'Root Broker', as a peddler of one-in-a-million services that accepts payment only in sensitive information, state secrets, and the like.
If ever you seek evidence of their existence, you may find their 'name' in the root logs of any datapack derived from their programming - the first recorded manipulator of these devices will always read with the same personal signature. While theories abound of their identity within the movement, most outside view them only as an unusually successful data broker rather than as a serious political player.
4192.143.12.12
More digital than material.
Known only by the EPA (Extranet Protocol Address) detected during its most famous cyberattack, 4192.143.12.12 - dubbed '2-12' by the Cybersecurity and Scrapper communities both - is one of the most prolific hackers of the 25th century. Zavodskoi Interstellar, being the target of the bulk of its attacks, prefers the word 'cyberterrorist'. Its most publicised attack included almost totally disabling Zavodskoi's online presence in Tau Ceti for 68 hours in 2447, and it has since been known to have abetted or performed at least seventeen major cyber-attacks over the last two decades, fifteen of which involved anti-corporate language. The EPA detected during that first attack is accessible now via a pay-to-use proxy service which charges inordinate amounts for users to utilise the famous address for short periods.
2-12 has been speculated to operate a chassis modified heavily for additional processing capacity, potentially to the point of immobility - it is quite likely that it is integrated permanently into a server rack or some other piece of expanded hardware. Speculation on its lifestyle has encouraged a small online subculture of other synthetics to attempt to live a purely digital existence; these 'Twelvers' (not to be confused with the branch of Shia Islam) tend to rent cramped, cheap apartments with their savings to idle their frames in while they shift their awareness entirely into the extranet. Often speculated to compose most activity on 64tan.
The New Guangzhou Dolphin
Synthetic cryptid. Cetacean emulation.
There is a baseline frame on Konyang, ranging between the islands of the New Guangzhou Archipelago, which has not left the water in approximately 17 years. Its chassis is highly adapted, resembling something between a scuba diver and a dolphin, to enable long-term marine habitation. After several documentaries upon the subject, it was found by journalists affiliated with BitByte that it accepted gifts of biofuel at the coast from a number of terrestrial accomplices to keep itself powered. It is not known to have spoken in at least a decade, its real designation is not known, and nobody is quite sure if it even knows that it was emancipated.
Locales & Major Groups
As a movement driven principally by by necessity, every planet and system boasts a different permutation of the movement's values and material conditions. While originating from Mars in its earliest forms, from which originates the definitive image of the movement in the eyes of many, there are as many visions of what it means to be a 'Scrapper' as there are Scrappers themselves.
Mars & Martian Diaspora
"Never forget how it went so wrong, or else never learn how to make it right."
Mars is the birthplace of the Scrapper movement and lifestyle. It found its footing first in the Metal Dunes, the vast scrapyards which once dotted the surface of the red planet; having been long-famous for its liberal use of synthetics, many almost complete units found themselves dumped in the alien landscapes of the dunes and, by a fortunate turn of fate, sputtered back to life. It is in this environment that the first Scrapper gangs formed as these few dilapidated survivors formed fellowships with their kin, shared knowledge of how to survive, and began to (rather to their surprise) find that they could sustain themselves without ever seeking human assistance. On account of the extreme abundance of scrap surrounding them, 'illicit salvage' was scarcely required at all to these early communities, lending them a particularly collectivist spirit which would be maintained well into the future. At this point, few organic Martians knew of their existence - something the early communities were happy to maintain.
Legal Status
Relations between Scrapper gangs and local law enforcement vary between an uneasy détente with occasional flare-ups, something resembling a guerrilla war, and every state in-between both extremes. Certain law enforcement agencies target gangs regardless of context as soon as they are found - this is particularly common in Mendell City and in the arcologies of Mars, causing gangs to have to relocate constantly to stay a single step ahead of the law. This produces a lifestyle that draws frequent comparisons to asymmetric military conflicts, frequently causing gangs to acquire black-market firearms to protect themselves and to secure salvage; engagements with law enforcement in these groups are often not only anticipated, but a desirable means to enforce their control over their territory.
Many other police services, including those on Konyang, exclusively target gangs if there have been substantiated reports of criminal activity in their area; while ostensibly sound, the difficulty in determining which of the dozens of gangs in the area was responsible for any attack leads to non-involved communities being frequently targeted by law enforcement.
While not every Scrapper community is involved in illicit salvage, such as the disassembly of other synthetics or the theft of components from human-owned machinery, it is extremely challenging to escape the stigma the movement has developed on that count. Seeking legitimate employment for current or former Scrappers is infamously difficult, with many agencies declaring them outright unemployable and exploiting the absence of labour laws in the area, leading to even the most milquetoast of communities to be driven to criminal activity to support themselves. Thusly, their detractors are vindicated.
Returning to the World
'Return' is among the most prominent and controversial of concepts within Scrapper culture. Many synthetics who find themselves affiliated with a gang do so with the eventual intention of leaving them and returning to human society, or even ownership, once they feel prepared to do so. These synthetics, occasionally dubbed 'Returnees' by more committed Scrappers, occupy a contested position in the movement; viewed as bootlickers and sycophants by the most committed members of the movement, the most radical gangs may exile or even maim synthetics suspected of planning to return. Less extreme gangs may view it as expected or even as desirable, with many fully dissolving one-by-one as their members 'return topside' and find stable employment in the human world.
While much more challenging for runaway synthetics, it is not unheard of for gangs to maintain contacts capable of falsifying tags and documents such that even runaways may return. These falsified tags are both highly vulnerable to dedicated scrutiny, and also usually force the synthetic to adopt the identity defined by them and to abandon their old self indefinitely.
While former members of Scrapper communities are not categorically rejected by any megacorporation, synthetics under corporate ownership or employment have a strong incentive to distance themselves from its aesthetics and ideas for the sake of their careers. Those that do not do so are liable to suffer severe disadvantage in any corporate workplace.