[TEXT]

[serialmurderbot]

NICE SUGGESTIONS TO NOT FUCKING DIE

[Thanks for the name suggestion Arcade; SecUnit clearly didn't take to heart any of the other parts about not being able to tell people what to do.]

1. Never leave the Convoy [Convoy defined as the main trailers plus the radius of the shield and additional vehicles, approximately 80 meters] alone. Survey and scavenging groups should consist of at least 2 members.

2. When leaving the Convoy always inform someone outside of your party of your intended itinerary and duration of travel.

3. Perform regular check-ins during the excursion [ideally every 15 minutes] via the radio.

4. Bring a method of defense that you have training and certification in. This should be used as a LAST RESORT, if unable to avoid aggressive wildlife. Call for backup before engaging.

5. In an emergency situation safety of survey personnel is priority one. Abandon all equipment if necessary. Yes, even if that means the aggressive fauna will destroy it. Or eat it.

6. Never operate a vehicle or weapon while any of the following: Intoxicated, sleep-deprived, distracted, experiencing physical illnesses such as migraines, gastrointestinal symptoms, blood loss, etc.

7. Do not consume or touch unfamiliar plants or other food items without first confirming their safety for human ingestion. Licking counts as consuming.

8. Don't startle your SecUnit.

Comments

[constantvrunning]

I have recounted what I know if it before, if you'd prefer a recording.

[Because V does record what they post to the Network.]

It is why I can't be sure humanity made it to space, from the Earth I know.

[Or, if they did, they never came back.]

[serialmurderbot]

Send it to me.

[Of course it's going to take more detail. It just might have to process it later because it's trying not to get into some kind of shitty feedback loop in its non-organic parts about Synth societies.

It doesn't change anything, anyway. Just because V exists doesn't mean the Corporation Rim doesn't. It doesn't change Preservation.

It doesn't change this place, where it's reasonably certain that they're the only two in quite this situation. Serph doesn't count, he wants to be human. Is human? It doesn't know what the fuck is going on there.]

Fine. So no space travel experience. But survivalism and resource management.

[constantvrunning]

[Boop
And while V sends that along, they respond to SecUnit's next statement.]

Yes. Dealing with people is - not more difficult, as such. But it has a much less positive history for me than reverse-engineering old tech.

[serialmurderbot]

[Oh, SecUnit snorts at that. Yeah, it knows exactly what V means. It's already got the skin on its organic parts crawling with just how many people are here, and that's after the understanding and acknowledgement that most of them aren't going to be terrified of the big scary SecUnit.]

No combat experience?

[constantvrunning]

[V flinches.]

While I- understand what the soldiers were trained in, how to operate their weapons, the Empire- didn't want all of their workers to be able to fight back.

[The Red Empire was not interested in all its 'acquired assets', human or otherwise, being fully independent.]

[serialmurderbot]

[Another point in favor of 'the Corporation Rim would never.' Middle management is exactly the kind of thing that they would leave either to humans, or to an automated bot program - a construct, or a synth, would be way too expensive for a job like that.

On the other hand: The CR definitely doesn't want its disposable labor being able to fight back, either. It's a common theme in some of the more fantastical shows it watches, set in a fictional section of space or a fictional pre-CR planet, a controlling Empire and the brave humans who fight against it.]

And they marked you.

[constantvrunning]

No.

[V shakes their head.]

I saw it happen to others - people I had met before, and strangers. I never saw my family again one way or the other, though. But the process itself, and the pain - even the possibility of inflicting the brands myself - that was something the Empire held over me.

[They looked down, remembered shame pressing on them.]

So that my 'superiors' could always make things worse. Keep me complicit.

[serialmurderbot]

[Huh. With the way they'd reacted to the discovery of that mark on the back of their neck, it had figured that V had pretty personal experience with that. It guesses watching it happen is still a kind of personal, but -

Whatever. It's not like being a brain-zapped governor-moduled SecUnit is fun. It's a good threat for compliance. ]

And after that?

[constantvrunning]

[V has a guess as to what SecUnit means.]

I couldn't keep getting on with it all. It wasn't so much any new horror being introduced, as just... cumulative weight. Like a fracture giving way to a complete shift.

I ran, and found M-Bot on the way. It was somewhat damaged, but I was able to help it, and we were better able to escape together than alone.

[They sigh.]

We were far from the only ones to escape the Empire, let alone the first. A band of mercenaries acted as our escorts for part of the journey.

[Unwillingly, they pause, then push through.]

M-Bot flew away at one point. I followed, and... by the time we turned back, everyone else on that team had been slaughtered. The Empire thought they had gotten everyone of that group.

[Which meant the only thing left to do was to run more.]

[serialmurderbot]

[In the shows it likes, there's always a big, dramatic moment that causes a character to change sides, like being asked to shoot a loved one, or a child, or something. It's seen the ways people actually get broken. It... kind of had one itself, actually. But that wasn't enough to make it go really rogue. It just stayed anyway.

So it gets that.

And it gets the horror that sentiment evokes, too.]

... There was a mining corporation that kept indentured wage slaves on a colony - they had started to smuggle people out, but the Corporation tried to kidnap them back. They're like that.

[Which sounds kind of callous, so it attempts adding,]

It sucks.

[constantvrunning]

To put it mildly.

[Though words often didn't feel like enough to express such... evil, that people did.]

... They can't follow us here, though. I had found more people to stand up against the Empire with, there, as well as make our own lives, but can't contact them here either.

[serialmurderbot]

They can't do shit if they don't have power, even if they do show up.

[Though, SecUnit has a vivid memory of a particular speech... Corporates, or V's Empire, can still do a lot of damage just from people giving them the benefit of the doubt. To what end... Humans have all sorts of motivations.

It'll have to keep being careful.]

... You trying to keep it secret?

[constantvrunning]

And if they did show up, they would be new here. We have an advantage of local knowledge, however slight.

[They consider SecUnit's words, trying to weigh the consequences either way.]

It won't specifically hurt me, to have others know. To make it a conversation I can initiate. But it is... emotionally... still a lot to explain.

[SecUnit is free to imagine an undertone of 'ugh, emotions', even though that's not quite how V feels about the matter.]

[serialmurderbot]

[SecUnit wonders at that - they can't exactly drive someone away from the Convoy. Or if they did, it wonders how the others would react.

... Maybe it should be starting to make contingency plans. It's had to do that for Corporate spies, but it hadn't considered the need to disappear someone.]

Yeah. Explaining is shit.

[And that's even just with those who might get it.]

[constantvrunning]

[... There is one possibility.]

I recall there being significantly more people around the Convoy when we first arrived. Not everyone continued the journey.

[So there is some degree of 'people just disappear' going on, dark as the implication may be.]

[serialmurderbot]

[Yeah it's been trying not to care about that before it just finds its Convoy room and never moves from it again.]

They're probably dead by now.

[constantvrunning]

[Until they get to see a Husk turn back into a person INSTEAD of a monster, V's going to have to take that at face value.]

A plan we can work on in the meantime is writing up prep-files. Rehearsing, before we actually do have to explain to everyone at large, or just more people.

[serialmurderbot]

[That actually gets V a sidelong look, because. What.]

Like an annoucement?

[It sounds like that's the last thing it would ever want.]

[constantvrunning]

Or a disclaimer.

There's no even moderately favorable option, here. And not choosing is a choice.

[Albeit still with its hazards.]

[serialmurderbot]

That's fine.

[It's entirely fine with not spelling out exactly what it is and what that means. People will assume things already based off of what it posted for Rule 8 - it's not going to include a legal packet of what it means to be a SecUnit and why exactly everyone here should be afraid of it according to various sources.]