Tech Scum

A group of religious die hards, criminals, the psychotically delusional and those who had been mentally programmed to serve states which no longer exist, the umbrella term of 'Tech Scum' covers an unknowably vast category of degenerate individuals still clinging to existence in the depths of Freehold Factory, System "Port Hope", various other forgotten hulks of former freespacer motherships, and space graveyards throughout the sector.

There is no overall direction or community past mere survival- Creatures like these group together merely because of a mutual hatred of the self proclaimed 'enlightened' races, because they had their name codes revoked when performing a criminal act within true Freespacer kind, or are on some holy mission that the cyber-gods of ancient lore have personally gifted them with.

Encountering them in any circumstance is not recommended. Their simultaneously self-repairing and disintegrating technology is known to project the worst aspects of toxicity and radioactivity of the Freespacer race. Some may seem friendly but have mysterious religious motives, whilst others are straight up looking to harvest the organic parts of others to heal or sustain their kin.

They seem to be using the Leyline network to jump planets, despite the fact the Astral Locksmiths should have secured such abuses.

Existing in high numbers on Freehold, it is natural that they increasingly engaging in armed skirmishes with Shasta No Sekai.

Arguably existing far before the Freespacers made contact with other races, Tech Scum have always been the simple result of social undesirables being rejected from the tightly knit wrungs of the original Free State.

After the genocide and YE 30 and subsequent splintering of the race, as well as general increased contact with other races, the size of secret Tech Scum communities exploded, mostly appearing as space pirates and general scavengers. Cyborgs too adapted to zero-G life were being abandoned by motherships turning back to planetary colonies. Political prisoners and religious zealots were becoming more radical, as the only voidfolk who preferred a civilized life, could now simply leave and become citizens of Democratic Imperium of Nepleslia.

The situation has simply snowballed out of control as Spacer factions continue to disintegrate, creating a seeping primordial chaos in every lost and abandoned place throughout the sector.

The majority of Tech Folk are, put simply, cyborgs highly adapted for survival in extreme environments and the general concerns of space travel. Originally servile clones created for the terrible working conditions of their late tyrannical state, their organic components are hardened to radiation and industrial toxins- In the present day, this is pushed to it's limits, with chemical burns and missing limbs being quite common. Almost every Tech Scum nomad is highly cyborgized (Both by description and necessity), sporting multiple varieties of crude cyber-limbs and ungainly industrial attachments- Often absconded from previous deceased owners and passed down the generations like holy relics.

Clothes tend to come in the form of old worn down space suits, military fatigues from failed revolutions, and the exotic yellow-blue checkered robes of the religiously stalwart. Those further on the road to turning completely feral might wear as little as some ripped rags and bandages, with a heavy metal pipe as their sole possession. Others higher up the food chain are fully encased combat cyborgs, covered in guns, coolant tubes and rusted blade-fingers.

Once connected by a vast and complex digital hivemind, the brains and spinal columns of the Tech Scum are almost universally augmented with a crude array of ports and digital connectors known as 'mindware'. Once used to communicate and tap into shared knowledge, now half-broken, obsolete, virus infested and malfunctioning… Put simply, Tech Scum have a sort of localized ECM noise emanating locally from every single one of them. Unprotected wireless mechanisms seem to corrupt and break down in their mere vicinity, and when one plugs their brain into a system manually, it is forever left with a distinct viral-taint that is next to impossible to remove.

It is apparently a common belief the garbled head-noise that the broken mindware constantly subjects it's bearers to, is in fact the voices of corrupted AI ancestors, and so the religious Children of the Dirge often invite such entities into their heads willingly.

Junkers are just as widespread as the Tech Scum, and thus share a lot of commonality- But some junkers operating under outdated orders or broken limiters can become truly monstrous and vicious animals. They will savagely attack any mobile being with a horrific variety of anti-organic weapons such as pyrophoric explosive missiles, acid sprayers, radiation projectors- Only tolerating the Tech Scum because of bootlegged security codes, never obeying them.

Perhaps the most unsettling of these are dubbed 'Liquid Enemy'- Oversized debased versions of the Liquid Ally, which have become lumbering gelatinous plant monsters, capable of squeezing through tiny gaps and spraying gusts of uranium spores.

Either metal or organic, the seemingly immortal and unconcerned creatures are living talismans for the Tech Scum, sometimes outright objects of worship and devotion.

(Also known as Inheritor Program Selected Individuals IPSI)

Initially created from 40 zealous but primitive human soldiers that answered the space pirate Yamog Genry Versanti's call to fight during the Slug War on Richards World IV in YE 45, the Shasta No Sekai-aligned mutant used her newfound wealth not only to heal their radiation sickness, but also buy them space equipment and transport to take them offworld. Abbhorent in their devotion and hideously uneducated, they proved the perfect testbed for genetic experimentation and anti-sensor system implants, using the specialities of allied Tech Scum scientists such as Phage and Mitochondrion.

The result is a gaggle of mentally unhinged fanatics armed with radiation guns, explosive hammers and monoedged chainsaws, driven to acts of religious fury by simple orders like “Please go find something to eat?” or “Could you clean this corridor please? I think I saw a rat!”. In Yamog's eye, they are pure and innocent children, uncorrupted by capitalism or the excesses of modern living. To everyone outside of Shastacorp, they are distressing night creatures that are as likely to eat you, as they are to try and convert you to their cause.

Never the less, it is notable as a Tech Scum organisation that is both internally organised, as well as actively recruiting from primitive human populations. They have some overlap with The Path, but are more religiously focused on the idea that ancient alien genetics, such as that of the Black Claw Empire, can be revived through human experimentation and careful recruitment. They are also much more likely to simply turn up on frontier human colonies, and assimilate local star-worshiping cults into their cause (Such as the former 'Heralds of the Heavenly Skyriders' on Osman).

• Freehold Factory
• The Great Lighthouse.
• Planet Osman.
• Null And Void.
• Port Hope.

Primitive Polygon created this article on 2023/07/11 08:54.