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.
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.
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.