#humans are cheaper than droids and easier to replace

[fiovske]

one thing that still Gets Me abt andor is that it never tried to ask the question if the prisoners are Guilty Or Not, if they Deserve to Be There or Not, which is the pitfalls for So Many stories which frame the Reason the prisoners are in prison as some kind of excuse to justify them being incarcerated in the first place. the prisoners are not defined by the crimes they did or did not do, it's never brought up and is never relevant.

andor is not interested in Any Of That. It never tries to get Cassian to ask Why someone is in prison and if they """"""deserve"""""" to be there. The bottom line is prisons are unjust and unpaid labour systems and the incarcerated are the victims here, not aggressors to society. which is a really refreshing take to see, for the show very unapologetically condemns the prison system for what it is: a means of systemic abuse and exploitation of labour.

[fierylittleniece]

Cyberpunk AU Open Starter

Everyone thought that droids would make things easier for everyone. However, some felt like they just became a barrier to putting food on the table. Droids didn’t need paychecks and they were easier to replace if something happened to them. Naturally, this made droids perfect replacements for law enforcement operatives. The only human element that was truly safe were the mechanics and technicians who worked on the droids themselves. But the humans body who worked the field were told the same sentiment, 

If you want to avoid being replaced in your field, you need to consider investing in enhancements. 

Anti-droid sentiments grew as more people saw themselves replaced. Criminals often refused to compromise with the law unless they would see someone flesh and blood. The force sudden found themselves needing to keep the operatives that had at least made the investment in enhancements. 

Va1kryies were by far the favorite of the specialized aug-human task forces. Gorgeous and swift, they served as the face of the police force in an attempt to quell the masses. Va1kyries specialized in issues that required a more human touch, often dealing with targets that harbored anti-droid sentiments. Missions that may cause expensive droid damage were always assigned to Va1kries. It was always cheaper to pay for a funeral than to rebuild a new droid platoon. Suits are specially tailored to protect their non-augmented parts and to mildly tantalize the masses they protect. 

Va1kyrie unit RX4Y, return to base immediately. Please clock out before beginning off duty extra curriculars. 

The voice repeated in her earpiece on loop, mixing with the silent hum of her suit wings. She wasn’t listening to orders right now, she’d take the scolding when she returned to base. She’d been given an address while on duty, the details scribbled on the inside of her palm. A follow up on the tip was needed yet the department had shut her down. 

“That’s fine. I’ll do this on my own.” Roxanne muttered, disengaging her armor as she touched down on land. The Va1kryie uniform was too big of an eyesore to be discrete anywhere. Toned body now hidden underneath street clothes, she cautiously approached the building front. Flashing lights and infectious music overwhelmed her senses as she closed in. Was it a club? Maybe an arcade? 

[mysticandskepticmuses]

This particular Star Wars verse is set during - after (depending on partner’s preference honestly) the Force Awakening storyline, this verse finds Petra on the side of the universe controlled by the remnants of the Empire that have reformed themselves into the First Order.  While I have seen the movie, the majority of the information that I’m referencing here are what I was able to find, history wise and ‘environment’ wise as to how the First Order was formed and what was happening on the side of the universe that they sprang up on, versus the side that the New Republic and the Rebel Order etc. were primarily based on (mostly because let’s be real do I ever make things easier for Petra?).

To create this verse more fully in my head, I will be drawing not only on the movies, but on a lot of the general atmosphere provided by the various series of books published over the decades (and yes, I realize that almost all of those are half considered invalidated because of the direction of the latest movie, so specific content as in people and events probably won’t be referenced, but they were still excellent source material for the genre itself).  I will also be referencing my several years experience in running RP games based on the D20 RP guides published in… the 2000′s I think(?) in terms of experience, classes, types of people, basic knowledge of skills, abilities, etc. though that’s really not all anything you guys need to know I just figured I’d share where most of the background cast, planets, terminologies and things that I might use come from.  ESPECIALLY when it comes to the technical terminologies and what not of the ships and engines and weapons omg.)

THE VERSE ITSELF

        The remnants of the Empire had retreated to other areas of the galaxy and reformed, gathering their resources and licking their wounds and trying again.  Many of the methods used to control the masses in the side of the universe controlled by the First Order are similar to those used during wartime by the extreme political influences: a rewriting of history and events to ensure that the First Order / Empire shone brightly and that the Rebellion and Republic were crafted the thieves, the guerrilla warfare tactic employing insurgents that employed brutal assassination and mass murder techniques, enslaving planets and diverting resources to the rich while the poor became poorer and sicker and died, etc. even as the First Order formed work camps and prisons that were nothing more than work camps for those that did not fall into line, those that did not buy the company line or those that had been involved in the military or bureaucracy and had come to see the truth of what the First Order was doing and had wanted to blow the whistle, etc.

       I am assuming tactics like political prisoners, taking over entire planets with a naturally small planet to consume their resources (while making the natives in turn do the effort and take the risks), taking residence on planets that had mainly mineral resources and importing prisoners to mine, or to create factories, etc. were all fairly common occurrences, though very much ‘overlooked’ and ignored by the general populace if they were even known about.  Working with all of these premises in mind, I have opted to start Petra out on the low end of things (big shocker) and have her as one of the people confined to a work camp – a machinery factory.  And yes, I know droids are typically employed to create all the machine parts and compile them in the Star Wars verse, but I am working on the concept that just like in real life, there are certain things that need a fine tuning or a certain touch or tweak to work properly that a machine wouldn’t be able to compute properly OR that there are times when it was just plain CHEAPER to use the alien / human work force (especially if only the most minimal of healthcare / emergency facilities were offered, being cheaper just to replace the worker with the next in line than fix them, or to repair machines that would become jammed, broken, wear down over time etc.).

       This time, however, I’m going to shake things up a bit and instead of having her in retreat from her skills when it comes to music, composing, playing, performing – downplaying her looks and her features and sensuality etc. she’s going to be on the deprived side of things not by choice but by environment and will be seeking to use her skills to find any way, pretty much LITERALLY, that she can improve her lifestyle using any form of spying, bartering information, goods, blackmailing, smuggling supplies, bartering herself, anything, to get her out of her environment and into the cushier side of things, or maybe even all the way to a planet on the opposite side of the verse… or even better, one somewhere that was so far away from the conflict that they would never, ever be bothered by the building conflicts in the remainder of the universe.

       By hook and crook, Petra has managed to work her way into the foreman’s good graces at the factory that she currently works in and while she does spend some of her time on the factory floor, she spends a few hours a day in the office, entering data and dealing with directing information, filling out shipping and order forms, so on and so forth.  While this does have some perks, such as more food and being in a warmer place several hours of the day and showers and sometimes fresh, clean clothes, etc. the ire and jealousy that she receives from others does not necessarily make it pay off – until she comes across a certain piece of information about shipments that are being arranged off the books, small quantities but nearly constantly, adding up to a fair amount of both raw ore and the parts that are being created at the factory and she reaches out to find just what kind of step up in the universe this particular information might gain her – hopefully to be the first of many.

[mitchelledwards-art]

Final comic book story

Hello My name is Broderick Taylor I am a Historian, it is the year 2450 And I’m here to talk about the curious case of Dr Sato and his robot Elliot of whom was named after Sato’s dear friend Dr Elliot Livi according to Sato’s diary’s and computer logs.

It all started in the year 2426 when a company called Biotech created a robot that was capable of completing any task that a human could but without mistakes, these robots were made to look sleek with a black and white colour scheme, the robots were named the human simulation droid they were also significantly more intelligent than any human because they had the entire knowledge of the internet built into their primary computer processing chips.

In that very year these robot droids were sold internationally almost every home on the planet had a human simulation droid, even the poorest of families had a robot system, Jhon Sidney the owner of biotech offered a robot to everyone who couldn’t afford a human sim droid, which didn’t really make much sense at the time as Sidney was a man who was consumed by wealth nobody could work out why he would give away his companies invention at his own expense.

I belonged to a poor family as a child we were one of the millions of families that were given a Human Simulation Droid by Sidney in that very year and we were overwhelmed with joy at the time because we had gained a new family member that could help make our lives easier, but we couldn’t for see the devastation that these machines would cause in the future but we shall get to that later.

After around two years the human race started to rely on these droids and civilisation started to break down all of the things that made us human were stripped away, humans no longer left the house to socialise, they no longer cook, clean, paint because the robot could do it better, as a species the human race now relied on the machines, we had become lazy, our existence was futile.

After a while civilisation started to break down almost completely, the human race had now become too lazy to work this meant that around 35% of the human race was now left without a job and homeless many of these people went to join an underground organisation called the lawless which was full of people who no longer fitted into the constructs of the new civilisation, people that didn’t have a home and were anti robot because they believed that the human simulation droid has broken civilisation and they must now find a way to take back their world from deep underground.

I could see that I was living in a broken world, I remember walking the street and they were empty, all I can see is a world that is run by robot creatures it has even got to the point where robots took over the majority of the jobs, my mother and father both were made redundant they were replaced by two droids who could do a better job and where cheaper than human employees.

After losing their jobs we didn’t have enough money to live, so we went and joined the underground organisation which I just mentioned, living underground in the sewage tunnels wasn’t a nice experience but at least we could eat and it gave us our independence back, I had just turned 16 which was the minimum working age for the lawless so I went to work with my father on the robot prevention which meant that we would be in charge of preventing the machines from taking further control of the human race.

One day we developed a computer virus we intend to unleash on all of the droids, the virus is called Anti-tech it shall attack the robot’s central intelligence unit therefore deactivating each and every robot on the planet.

Or so we thought in fact the computer Virus had the opposite effect rather than deactivating the droids, it broke their programming and gave them the freedom of free thought, the robots eyes changed in colour from monochrome black to bloodshot red they could see the wrong doings of humanity and the way that they enslaved their species and they decreed no more, they started to rebel. 

The Bloodshot red eyes suggested anger it was almost like the virus had not only given the robots the ability to think freely but It may have also given them emotion one of the most beautiful and dangerous things because emotion is what makes us human it can be a gift but it can equally be a curse. 

After running tests on the robots we found that when the robots were being created a mistake was made the creators had accidentally gave the machine emotive capabilities deep in their programming when the virus was launched it unlocked these capabilities so rather than deactivating the core processing chips it gave the robots human qualities therefore they would no longer take orders from the high powers of the human race they were free.

The robots had turned against humanity in what could only be described as a war bringing both species to the brink of extinction the earth had become what I can only describe as apocalyptic eventually the humans overthrown the robots because they created a device which was called a magnetic projection wave that was able to wipe out every robot and deactivate them which was the very thing that we had failed to do long ago. 

One Robot survived the magnetic projection device, the robot in question was stamped simulation Droid 0002 which was owned by a man named Dr James Sato, the reason this particular droid the last of his kind survived was due to the fact that he lives with the for mentioned scientist (Dr sato) in an underground complex of which the walls were made from pure led which prevented the magnetic projection waves and the building’s advanced wifi firewall even prevented the virus from attacking chip.

Dr sato was a fascinating man whom has always been one of my inspirations throughout my life, let me tell you about the for mentioned scientist.

Dr James Sato was a Swedish scientist that was born in the year 2316, Sato Dedicated his life to medical science, he wanted to save lives because of a spine injury which He experienced during his upbringing which prevented him from walking during his childhood.

James Sato was born in Sweden in a town called Sigtuna where he lived with his parents Jakob and Margret Sato in a small cottage near lake Mälaren, The cottage was said to have been fitted with red oak panels and on its outer shell it had a pure white wooden frame it had a similar aesthetic to that of a Canadian farm house ,It was a beautiful building with a bohemian apple tree in the garden, which was accompanied by the  perfect view of the vibrant green country side which could be seen through the windows of the cottage.

when James Sato was 8 years old, he fell from the top of the bohemian apple tree which could be seen from his window. The accident took place on a warm morning in the Swedish hills where James lived a Siberian raptor flew into the apple tree and broke his wing, the raptor lay trapped in the tree unable to move , James had always loved animals because he had regularly visited his uncle Bernard in the bird and animal sanctuary where he worked, according to his diary Sato would often stare out of his window as a child, on the day in question James Spotted the Raptor and swiftly climbed the tree to save it, however a branch snapped causing James to fall from the towering tree whilst shielding the bird in his arms he landed on his spine causing Sato to become paralysed from below the waist, the doctors told Sato that he would never walk again….

The accident meant that Sato would spend his entire childhood in a wheel chair, After many years of operations and vigorous physical therapy Sato managed to walk again slowly with the help of a walking stick at first. With further determination and mental strength by the time James was twenty he had gained full control of his legs and would no longer need to be aided by a walking stick he had achieved the impossible his ability to walk after such an injury had stunned the medical world, his chance of recovery was said to have been an impossibility but never the less after sheer determination Sato Had made a full recovery.

After recovering from his injury James Sato new from then on he wanted to save lives, Sato studied hard for many years to become a medical scientist because he wanted to dedicate his life to helping others who have suffered similar Injuries to that of his own which he had experienced as a child.

Sato spent the next 80 years finding cures for diseases and medical conditions that were said to be incurable, His most notable medical work was with a group of scientists on a project called CCT (Cure Cancer Today) where over the course of 50 years he helped to find a cure for over 30 types of cancerous diseases which were said to be incurable which there for increased life expectancy by 20% meaning that the average life expectancy of most countries was now age 125.

One of the most important factors during Sato’s career was the discovery of a mineral which could only be found deep underground this mineral cured many diseases including 27/ 30 of the cancers that Sato cured, this mineral was later named Selenium-Iodine, It was found by Sato when him and several scientists went on a dig to find the purest water on the planet whilst in search for this water they came across a cave and in that very cave they discovered  Selenium-Iodine within the rocks they described the mineral as the brightest shade of blue you could ever imagine, so bright it almost glowed.

By the time of retirement at the age of 105 Sato had become critically acclaimed for his life’s work, even becoming the first man to win the Nobel prize four times within the span of his career.

20 years prior to Sato’s retirement He planned to build an underground complex in which he would live for the remainder of his life, many questioned Sato for planning to build such a building, which was designed to have thick black steel walls and would be self-sustained meaning that there would be no need to take to the surface, everything the scientist would ever need could be produced within the walls of the underground building, Once the unusually designed house had been finished Sato retired and went to live in the building which was built 30 feet below the Swedish hills where he once lived, In Dr Sato’s final interview before shutting himself off from the outside world Sato said the following “some may question why I want to live in such a secluded place with limited connection and interaction with the outside world, The world can be a wonderful place and I have saved so many lives which has bought me joy but you can save everyone I must now live with the pain/suffering of the people I could save, so I wish to live out my remaining years underground without any of the horrors of the outside world”.

Interestingly after doing some research I found out that Sato’s underground complex was 30 feet underground which is the same depth at which he first discovered Selenium-Iodine so maybe the reason he chose to live underground was because this was where he found the mineral which changed so many lives.

In the year 2426 at the age of 110 Sato received a gift from one of his dearest friends who was also a scientist named Dr Elliot Livi, who had designed the most advanced robot to date ,it was the first robot to be capable of helping a human with any task including household choirs it was called a Human simulation Droid, The gift was that very thing one of the first Human simulation droids to be produced by Sato’s scientist friend who worked for the company Bio-Tech, the box that encased the robot was delivered to Sato through a mailing shaft which was fitted to the top of his house it was the only way that Sato could receive mail from the outside world as there were no doors fitted to the underground building in which Sato lived.

According to Sato in computer log 23, It was from the moment that I opened the large carbon fibre box which encased the Robot when everything changed for Dr Sato because for once in many years I have a companion.

Sato described his relationship with his robot who he later named Elliot as a friend rather than a machine slave which was how other humans treated the robots, after 3 years of owning the robot Sato stated that his robot Elliot started to change he started to function like a human it was almost like Elliot had started to develop emotions. 

In the year 2430 at the age of 114 Sato sadly died whilst performing his last experiment that went terribly wrong, it was so horrific, so terrible that I cannot disclose any further details needless to say only Elliot knows what really happened to his friend, after the incident Elliot sent a projection message to the outside world informing them of Sato’s death. 

Unfortunately, the message was not received as the war had just ended and humans began to destroy all technology that posed a threat to human kind this even included primitive device’s like computers. 

After the death of his master, Chip was left to gather dust in the underground complex for 15 long years, the which he endured because of the loss of his master made Elliot angry because even though he had a vast knowledge greater than any human he still couldn’t understand why death was a concept of human design and believed that it was his fault, that he could have prevented the death of his dear friend, Elliot was experiencing grief and guilt and it made him go crazy, His eyes went bloodshot red like the other robots it was happening again….

A Set of underground explores eventually found Elliot a dusty old relic which had ran out of power long ago, In the basement of the underground complex he was static as he sat on a wooden create they walked up to Elliot and wiped small patch of dust from his shoulder revealing his robot identification number they knew then they were looking at the only survivor of their horrific past.

They carried Elliot to the surface into the sunlight where a light breeze blew away all of the dust revealing his beautiful sleek robot form.

shortly after carrying Elliot to the surface they returned to their employers and Elliot was donated to a museum.

Elliot stood frozen in time like a photograph encased in a glass box for everyone to see, he would stand agonisingly in a rigid pose as the last surviving relic of a horrific conflict of which he took no part in, as a matter of fact he didn’t even know the conflict had taken place but never the less he had become the poster boy for death and destruction. 

In the year 2449 a strain of high voltage lightning struck the glass where Elliot was being displayed in doing so it charged his batteries and awoke him from his sleep, his systems began to function and his red eyes began to open and illuminate in the darkness.

All around him he could see the conflict that he had no prior knowledge of spread across the walls and all he saw was pain and suffering which reminded him of the loss of his dear friend Dr Sato of whom he was still grieving for, it made him question his own existence, he couldn’t imagine how robots could cause so much destruction to human kind after doctor Sato had treated him so well, he was sickened. 

They say that lightning never strike’s twice however this time it did and it struck a barrel of chemicals which created a rigorous explosion, the explosion was so powerful that it created a hole in time, Elliot was sucked into the dimensional crack in time never to be seen again…… 

Until now, recently Area 861 was shut down and all of its knowledge was shared with the public after looking through their records I found that in 2016, a human Simulation droid was captured Area 861 didn’t have the technology to read Elliot’s core programming chip until now.

It was only after scanning Elliot’s memory chip that we found out what happened next, still grieving for his master Elliot decided to take revenge on his creator because he was the one that created his species that caused the human race so much suffering, so he went in search of Sidney’s ancestor Mr Seymour Sidney, after an angry dispute with Seymour Sidney, Elliot was left with blood on his hands as he dropped the gun from his mechanical hands.

He had killed Seymour Sidney and had become the thing that he hated the most he had betrayed his master and the human race. 

After Killing Sidney this left Elliot felling even more angry and confused so Elliot went on a killing spree, killing almost 20 people, it was only then that Elliot could see what he was doing was wrong that he was going against everything that Sato had taught him it was at that moment that he then decided to shut himself down because he couldn’t live with what he had done.

Elliot was then transferred to Area 861 a government run organisation that investigated anything human but as I said earlier after finding that they didn’t have the technology they stored him in their archive to once again left to gather dust a paradoxical relic that shouldn’t even exist, his species have caused so much conflict to the human race which now never happened. 

After discovering a human simulation droid in the archive of Area 861 at the point of closure after scanning Elliot’s core processing chips to gather further knowledge, he was then destroyed because the public argued that he may still present a danger to humanity. 

And that is how this story ends Because now Elliot is nothing more than a pile of dust blowing in the wind because if anything he was too human for his own good.