Frontiers and Pioneers (sci-fi, NSFW(violence,possible teases), robots)

@Coriolanus  
Jade: “despite our extensive preparation work, war is the LAST thing we want, especially remembering the pangaea colony and how that went up in smoke. with you there we suspect the majority of the bots can be made to return peacefully… on that note you have been asked to rework the AI encodement of the nonsapient bots, but do it really just on the side in your spare time, please.”

@Cerebrate  
“I’ll definitely assist Cais-01 on that end, what with controlling the bots, since, as you could tell what with all these unsanctioned defenses around the mountain, there’s a bit of a bugbear I have pertaining with that, because, well… Twenty kroner says at some point down the line, we’ll befall into a runaway ‘emergent’ effect, that we’ll have no choice but to react accordingly with.”  
_{“Unless the boss doesn’t mind just nuking that icecap they’re holed up in…”}
 
“…I mean, they have assemblers and control over synthbugs, and so do we… What’s the worst that could happen there?”
 
“It’s something censored from general knowledge to avoid giving credible fuel to anti-synth sentiment, but I’ll tell you what it is; in a schism against another, one hive could end up logarithmically reacting with the other one, building ever more bizarre structures to keep control of themselves while attempting to suborn the other.”
 
“Imagine it… a ‘frontline’ spanning on for kilometres, bordered by two factions of massive hive-like ‘barrows’, soon encapsulating the whole northern glacial region in attempt to surround eachother, each constructed out of whatever materials scrounged from an inhospitable hellscape, by drones working either for Cais, or the opposing director, or even occasionally switching sides.”
 
“The barrows themselves; ever growing gothic structures, with elaborate defenses against the opposing hive, despite that none of it makes any kind of sense to our eyes. Massive spires, bristling with antennae trying to drown out the signals sent by the other side, in themselves intended to disrupt the first side’s jamming, making just about any form of communication impossible, if not outright hazardous, like painting a big target unto oneself.”
 
“It’ll be just like Pangaea’s ‘White-Noise Exclusion Zone’; surreal, chaotically lethal, and a permanent no-man’s land.”
 
“…if it wasn’t for that, I’d be much more liberal with field experiments, or applications of tech I wouldn’t worry about getting reverse-engineered then turned against us all. Not to mention, thinking ahead of this crisis taxing our efforts so far makes me wonder where the colony will be, once the boss’s five-year tenure is over. To cut it short, this crisis is costing us, in a ways. If we don’t get to work capitalizing this world, someone else eventually may instead when the time presents itself.”
 
“Between thinking about all that said, and then on top of that, meditating on ways of abiding to a ‘compatibility doctrine’ found within a manual I, eh… pilfered off those hired mercenaries, well… it’s been like a scary game of 5D chess in my head, lately.”

@Coriolanus  
Jade: “which is the reason mapping efforts continue apace to the south, Nyanta is expected to reach the Equator soon, helps that Borea is a relatively small marble offering only 6G as opposed to the usual 10. surveying of natural ressources has begun and a number of locations for production of export goods are being identified as we speak third wave deployment should be possible within timeplans.”

@Cerebrate  
“I’m all for manifest destiny, within limitations of course, but, eh… as things are now, you think the boss may have to ‘embellish’ for more colonists?”

@Coriolanus  
“not really, the goldenrock colony needs to import water and they’re thriving. despite being just a desert and a lot of rock diggers.”

@Cerebrate  
“Rampant synthbugs and subversive alien artifacts don’t quite equate with that… though it’s not too bad here, I suppose. I’ve heard of worse gigs, like routine ‘sundiving’ for bulk hydrogen. And at least there’s plenty of foliage here, wildlife too.”
 
“…If it ever becomes necessary, I could agree to have Cais or the ‘spin docs’ back at the ship alter my behavior, to be more, well, less of a conscientious objector I suppose, in regards to conflict. I wouldn’t mind spending a few centuries if I had to of directing a buffer zone here between the north and south, not that I really have a say in the matter, though.”

@Coriolanus  
Jade: “can you pelase stop talking as if amy is pointing a gun at your processor? having said that, it would be a wise decision to stop deriding amy as a dictator or wannabe queen in front of her trusted synth and part time lover… OR the military grade AI assistant with the notoriously nonexistant temper.”

@Cerebrate  
“Not being derogatory, just institutionalized, I guess.”
 
“She has given me plenty of liberties, but it all seems novel, to be honest–especially what with my mind and an armature to myself, to that matter. I’ve been assuming it’s only just so empirical work done here goes steadily, and that at any point, all of these privileges could eventually be altered or rescinded, not out of any punitive notion either, but merely because it’s efficient to not leave assets idle. That, ladies, is how I personally know indenture contracts used to be run.”
 
“Is it that different here, though? Do they not poke around inside your heads on a whim, or even let you keep your own body?”

@Coriolanus  
Jade: “you are born in slavery and without it the universe doesn’t make sense to you. If you had, upon acquiring your senses again, sent a copy of the contract or better yet a report of your situation to a real federation official, those doing that to you would have been arrested so fast they would red shift. Contract clauses like that do pop up sometimes, but no judge that values staying out of prison would ever declare them legit.”

@Cerebrate  
“Back then, I would’ve just fled to somewhere for political asylum, preferably somewhere that death penalty is abolished.”
 
“If it were that easy though, do you really think anyone would’ve created artificial beings, let alone uplifted cold-bloods?”

@Coriolanus  
Jade: “there are no uplifted biological coldbloods… besides the biosynths. the main motivation behind the creation and uplifting of autonomic robotics is labor, but to an AI puppeteering a synth body that is not laborious, it is a double standard, and it should be. as a born organic i suppose that is not easy to understand, but you can break, smash, crash and mangle a synth body all you like, we are not bothered, Imos has returned to service from having a bridge dropped on him, he filed it under a rough day at the office.”

Having sent her report and gotten her crew training harder, Riggs kicks back and tiredly has a drink, then ignores her lack of sleep to try and design a gun to suit their upcoming needs, mentally noting her first draft would be trash.

@Cerebrate  
“I know reinstantiation into a new body is a possibility. I’m even privy to ‘backups’, so even if ‘I’ were somehow physically obliterated, an inert instance of myself archived about a day ago could take my place. What I mean is, like, ‘self-determination’, though I doubt synthetic bodies can survive long without specialized maintenance. Not sure then if I should consider it a undeniable career, or some kind of techno-caste system, but in the end though, it doesn’t really matter, I suppose.”
 
“The original me died a very long time ago, alone in a gutter, succumbing to a transmissible wasting disease that we have medicinal-nanites for purging that infectious prion, not that I have to worry about illness to even begin with. Now I’m here, far away from home on another planet trillions of miles away from earth, and about to deal with undead aliens. So comparing my current and former selves, I’d say I’ve got the better of the comparison in the end.”
 
“…besides asking me to study what’s left in the aftermath of the expropriation and arrest that’s soon to occur, did you three come all this way just to wax about life?”
 
^"Because if you did, that’s the first nice gesture anyone has ever done for me in a very long time.”^  

@EclecticInspiration  
“I’d ask if it was a rough day at the office, but seeing what the other mercs are currently putting the regulars through answers that.”

@Coriolanus  
Jade: “we did not COME for anything else, but that is mainly because we didn’t know the dossier… which in fact does not mention any of that at all, as far as self determination goes though, you do have that, and with sada proving biosynths as a concept a body is but the wait time of a protein growth tank away. returning home… if you are willing to call it that because it doesn’t sound like home… will take a little bit longer, namely the time needed to construct and stress test a spacecraft with an FTL system, but it is all in place, no chains hold you down… aside from the request to name a successor to the office.”

@Cerebrate
 
^"Moving to this mountain wasn’t far away enough… that L ₄ Greek Camp seems alot more enticing, once I’m done with this snowball-full of sphinxes.”^  
 
“I’ll see what I can employ with tele-presence, maybe build up a neutrino source for beaming a farcasted copy of myself to distant locales, so I can arrive to anywhere on this planet that can receive the signal and demands my presence; since I’m effectively immortal, there’ll be no worries about ever needing a successor. Now get the fuck off my mountain.”

@Cerebrate  
She’d find herself startled by the sudden noise, not having known someone else had entered, nor who it was. “-huh?,

@Coriolanus  
(so he doesn’t want to quit or is he too insane to realize he is not a BLOODY slave? it’s starting to annoy me cor, tell us how you really feel!)
 
 
@EclecticInspiration  
(she was in the common room, where the minibar was, right?)
 
the voice belonged to a tiger, by the outfit belonging to one of the mercs Amy had brought on for additional security… sure enough there was the APEX logo, a mech pilot.

@Cerebrate  
(He won’t quit, and he now figures things are better than he believed before his latest rambling, but he’s conflicted between either keeping in touch with people he believes he can’t get along with, or becoming some kind of solipsistic space-hermit that occasionally beams down to the colony from the distant trio of dwarf planets to exchange information and do business. ^P:)  
_{(in other words, he feels responsible, & likes the responsibility because of the power & benefit that comes with it, yet also feels treated like a leper.)}

@Coriolanus  
(that guy needs a break.)

@Coriolanus  
(Yeah, youre even irritating me with that whole “im a slave” thing my man. Tone it back.

@Cerebrate  
(Was meant to be in her mini police station, but this works all the same- like me, she’d be tired of seeing the same room every day)
 
She blinks, settling down. “‘S long as no one gets injured…what’s going on?”

@Cerebrate @Jinx  
(he’s over it, but feels alone in a universe with no peers except maybe the alien constructs if he speaks to them, concerningly.)

@EclecticInspiration  
“a few mercs got it in their head that if the security boys can’t properly wrestle down a struggling suspect there’s gonna be trouble, so they introduced… what did they call it… advanced arresting techniques. twisting someone’s arm to make them bend down, messing up their center of gravity so they stay down, that kinda stuff. oh, name’s MAtt by the way, APEX Field chief.”

@Coriolanus  
(he’s far from the only old digitized person.)