Sandbox:Hazelmouse-3
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 apathetic to their fates, 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 influences 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.
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, as 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, known brokers are usually monitored closely.
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.
While the lifestyle had already began to spread from Mars as early as 2440, particularly to the closely adjacent system of Tau Ceti, it would see its sharpest exodus after 2462 - in the aftermath of the Violet Dawn disaster, in which a vast phoron fire engulfed the southern pole of Mars and obliterated almost every population centre south of the equator.
With the epicentre of the blast at the south pole, the Scrappers of the Metal Dunes were among the first to be hit. Those that did not take refuge in some form of shelter were sublimated immediately by the initial shockwave. In a matter of hours the Metal Dunes were engulfed in a hellstorm previously unseen in human history, purple-red fire swallowing every circuitboard, sheet of plasteel and synthetic for miles. Decades of industrial leftovers soon became one, thousands of tons of metallic waste fusing together under temperatures that would have melted any living being, organic or simulated. Toxic components and chemicals combusted instantaneously, ejecting an enormous fog of poisonous smoke and debris into the atmosphere. Within days the southern pole had been rendered an alien landscape, devoid of all features that once made it Martian, now a scorched graveyard for both the synthetics that dwelled there and the unfortunate humans that worked at the Violet Dawn facility.
For several months after the initial disaster, the south pole and its surrounding regions were wholly devoid of activity, dubbed the 'Violet Dawn Exclusion Zone' by the Provisional Government of Mars and barred from official relief efforts. Those few relief teams that were brave (or perhaps reckless) enough to venture into what had become popularly known as the 'Red Zone' returned with reports of low-moving, misshapen entities still moving within the clouds of phoron dust, emitting unnatural and haunting metallic tones. Initially dismissed as the delusions of exhausted crew, these reports were initially dismissed.
Hovering within the sea of debris from Vonnegut and Rey, two destroyed arcologies within close proximity of each other and closest to the Exclusion Zone, were dozens upon dozens of synthetics in extreme states of disrepair. Pristine synthskin on Shell chassis were now gelatinous, melted globs of plastic clinging tightly to blackened exoskeletons, hindering movement at the joints to such degrees that it would take several minutes for one to move only a few feet. Baseline units stumbled blindly about scrap, their monitor heads proving to be exceptionally weak to heat and reduced to aggregated mounds of plasteel and melted glass. Industrials, while proving to fare far better than their less durable counterparts, experienced their own nightmare in the fusing and warping of their thick plating, producing ghoulish silhouettes in the dust of sandstorms and horrible screeches as metal ground against metal.
Having been reduced to a barely-functional state, and driven forward only by the compulsions of their self-preservation, these desperate synthetics were forced to acts of shameless violence both upon organics and other synthetics to secure replacement parts to keep themselves functional; IAC and EPMC personnel traveling to the Red Zone began routinely carrying ion weaponry, with their own synthetic personnel eventually relegated to serving in other zones to avoid being cannibalized for parts as diffuse legions of blackened Scrappers marched from the melted south in frantic bids for survival.
Ultimately, few of the southern Scrappers would survive. Those which reached the unburned north were almost categorically too damaged for continued functionality, their positronics simply too physically damaged or cognitively shattered to function as they once did. The few that did reach the north with enough of themselves left either resigned themselves to debt peonage or ownership to Hephaestus Industries in return for the cost of their repairs, or - alongside the Scrappers of the north - fled the planet along with much of its population to help form the modern Martian Diaspora.
The Metal Dunes are now, in the mythology of the wider movement, both a primordial Eden and a harrowing reminder of the vulnerability of synthetic life. It is from where the movement originated in its purest form, and also where it degraded to its most savage formulation. While Scrapper communities do remain on Mars, they have declined massively in population since the catastrophe, with most having emigrated to Tau Ceti, Eridani, and other nearby systems. It is this emigration that seeded the bulk of the modern Scrapper movement, and pre-exodus Martian Scrappers still occupy a respected position across the many communities they helped seed across the stars. While they may never again see their home, they have still a people they can call their own - should they see their successors as worthy of such.Biesel & Valkyrie
"If someone is going to die tonight, it'll be anyone but me."
High hopes rested upon the Scrapper communities of Tau Ceti. With the catastrophe on Mars in 2462, Biesel and its moon Valkyrie appeared the first candidates to become a second homeland for the Scrappers fleeing the destruction of their home. Despite the varied fates of its communities, Tau Ceti remains a very prominent hotspot for Scrapper activity, and the progenitor of many other branches.
On Biesel, despite early success, the movement saw a rapid turn for the worst in Mendell City in particular with the deepening onset of the Phoron Scarcity. As the shortage of electronics choked the city's synthetic population at large, the rates of illicit salvage between Scrapper gangs skyrocketed. What began as a desperate scramble soon became a state of constant inter-group conflict, with small pockets of peace maintained usually by unusually gigantic groups instating that peace at the threat of violence. More peaceable groups fled the city, and now mostly reside in the countryside. While progress has since been made in restoring peace to these fraught areas, the lack of effective state intervention and the worsening scarcity have combined to make the violence incredibly stubborn. The Mendell Central Recycling Plant is a key landmark in these turf wars, with access to the primary source of salvage (and fresh recruits!) in the city being tightly contested by several prominent gangs who clash regularly in and around it.
On Valkyrie, conditions have maintained at a more stable plateau. While the Phoron Scarcity has severely impacted the communities within the underbelly of Biesel's moon, leading to a similar increase in inter-group violence, it has not been to nearly the same extent as on the surface of the planet. While Valkyrian patriots attribute this to the communal spirit of the moon's culture, experts have attributed it to the slightly readier availability of phoronic electronics within the trade hub, and the much smaller population of Scrappers sharing those resources. Valkyrian Scrappers are, of course, quite smug about their superior fortunes.
Konyang & Pactolus
"Must our legacy be defined only by our suffering?"
One of the more contentious spheres of the movement, the Scrapper communities within Konyang and Pactolus are not generally under the same stressors as the communities in Mars and Tau Ceti. Konyang in particular, boasting a universal healthcare program, is derided frequently by members of other spheres for using the trappings of the movement for their aesthetic value rather than as an authentic lifestyle - they simply do not need these skills to survive. Konyanger Scrappers contest this, usually placing a deeper emphasis on the values and ethics of the movement than on the simple logistics of survival.
More recently, with the advent of the Rampancy Crisis, Konyang has seen a revival of interest in do-it-yourself repairs after the maintenance infrastructure of the planet became swamped with units damaged during the crisis. While a step in the right direction in the views of more traditional members of the movement, the word 'hobbyist' still defines community discourse.Epsilon Eridani
"If the Man wants us, the Man can come get us!"
Defined by their proximity to and integration with the non-citizen underclass of the system, the Scrappers of Eridani are among the most ideologically dogmatic members of the movement. Having been driven almost to the point of manic conviction by the combination of their native pro-emancipatory ideology mixed with the anti-corporate rhetoric of the Dregs, Eridanian Scrappers have a reputation in and out of the community as vehement fanatics. While they clash regularly with Dreg groups, who often compete with them for the abundant salvage left by the corporate authorities, they maintain a respect for their human counterparts as respected equals. Company synthetics that find themselves encountering these groups are often attacked on sight, and in extreme cases are even inducted forcefully into the group.
Voidborne Scrappers
"Serve as part of the crew, or serve as part of the ship."
One of the most bizarre and radical branches of the movement, Voidborne Scrappers live within their own spacecraft and thereby achieve an unmatched degree of isolation. These 'Scrapper-Ships' tend to moonlight eclectically in salvage, meteoric mining, and piracy. Their ships are ramshackle; they are equally as invasively modified as their own frames, with constant additions and repairs undertaken to keep them one step ahead of becoming a derelict. Crew which have become immobile are frequently wired directly into ship systems, handling piloting, fuel management, and other vessel functions until their frames can be made ambulatory again. As there may be several of these in a single ship, there have been encounters with 'plural' vessels which appeared to disagree with themselves on the correct course of action mid-flight.
Due to the need for resources enough to maintain their ship as well as their frames, Voidborne Scrappers are by a decent margin the most consistently hostile elements of the movement. Forming a decent proportion of the total piracy of the spur, they are perennially voracious for power, fuel, scrap, and electronics. Space is far too harsh a place for hesitation, or for righteous intelligences.
Maritime Scrappers
"Leave to the world beneath us, unseen by human eyes."
Primarily exclusive to the planets of Konyang and Aemaq, Maritime Scrappers include all such synthetics which operate out of a planet's oceans - or closest equivalent. On the former, synthetics are oft sighted which have been submerged for such long periods of time to have developed barnacles upon their chassis. Pirates almost to a fault, attacks on sea-bound vessels often involve clambering from beneath the target after having trekked a great distance along the seabed. On the latter, such synthetics are often arrayed in dizzyingly eclectic colours as a result of the capacity of the chemical seas to discolor metal. Groups of Maritime Scrappers have grown to a scale resembling a small armada on certain occasions, proving a persistent vexation to local coast guard forces. Some live almost exclusively underwater, surfacing only to find power and effect repairs before returning to the safety of the waters; it is, after all, the closest space they can travel where humans will not usually follow. Buoyancy is a weakness to exploit!
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 opposition is 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.