HQ 2016/05/03(Tue)15:02 No. 720685 ID: 7a3f7a
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MISSION BRIEFING
================


Location: Waypoint Station 5 [DERELICT]
Objective: Salvage anything of value.
Assigned: Salvage Drone 0xED

No map data available for location. Previous function: refuelling and dispatch depot for passing vessels.
Sectors known to likely exist:
- Cargo
- Engineering
- Hydroponics
- Admin
- Quarters
- Medical

Sectors known to have been destroyed without trace:
- Hangar
- Defense

0xED 2016/05/03(Tue)15:03 No. 720687 ID: 7a3f7a
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You hurtle at terrifying speed across space.

HQ 2016/05/03(Tue)15:04 No. 720688 ID: 7a3f7a
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EQUIPMENT BRIEFING
==================


Several features of assigned unit have been disabled to save costs on maintenance. Features may be re-enabled if necessary.

Drone Chassis: Lightweight, fragile, cheap. Can curl into a defensive ball.
Encapsulated Nuclear Engine: Can generate some energy for mission duration.
Magnetic Limb Contacts: Allow for movement across metallic surfaces regardless of gravity.
Grav-Lev Traction Drive: Allow for near-effortless manipulation of objects. Requires initial warm-up time proportional to mass of target. WARNING: ENERGY COST.
Entanglement Uplink: Allow for instantaneous communication with corporate liaison.
Optical Sensors: Allow for vision in a variety of different light quantities. Visual spectrum only.
Industrial Fusion Cutter: Allow for quick deconstruction of obstacles in path. [DISABLED]
Neutrino Pulse Locator: Allow for detection of specific energy signatures without regard for physical barriers. [DISABLED]
Salvage Adaptor: Potentially allow for assimilation of recovered technology into drone unit. [DISABLED]

The drone has an onboard battery that is reserved for auxillary, non-vital functions such as the grav-lev.
It holds 10 / 10 charges.

Depletion data unavailable due to lack of testing. Field testing recommended.

0xED 2016/05/03(Tue)15:04 No. 720689 ID: 7a3f7a
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You smash into something you can't see, senses blocked by the thick casing of the transit capsule.

HQ 2016/05/03(Tue)15:05 No. 720690 ID: 7a3f7a
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CORE DIRECTIVES
===============


Directives are listed in descending order of priority.
DIRECTIVES WITH HIGHER PRIORITY OVERRIDE ALL LOWER DIRECTIVES WITHOUT EXCEPTION.


1. Obey company directives and commands in all circumstances. DO NOT identify company to other entities in any circumstances.
2. Do not interact or communicate with unidentified entities without explicit company approval.
3. Maintain your own survival.

0xED 2016/05/03(Tue)15:05 No. 720691 ID: 7a3f7a
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The transit capsule falls apart with a hiss as you exit into an airless wreck of what was once a room.

Your uplink crackles.

"Okay, standard procedure. Go grab anything that looks expensive and is reasonably intact, and bring it to where you are now. We're keeping contact to a minimum, so if you have any questions, ask them now before we get interference. This part of space ain't exactly known for being clear for long."

You adjust your sensors to the near pitch-blackness of your surroundings. The local star must be on the other side of the derelict.

This was probably a warehouse, although nothing remains but empty shelves.

Does the reactor refill the battery? Ooh let's see if the doors work.

>DO NOT identify company to other entities in any circumstances.
Control, please identify company so I can be sure not to accidentally identify it to anyone else.

>Go grab anything that looks expensive and is reasonably intact
What's the volume and/or mass limit on material we can salvage?

Do we have a time limit on cargo pickup?

>any questions
Do we know the last know mission and/or activity of the derelict? That might inform where higher value salvage might be likely to be found.

Does this unit have a soul?

Look for ventilation grilles large enough to fit a sentient lifeform.

>>720691
Scuttle through the nearest door.

See if you can open any of the doors. Presumably there isn't any power anymore, and they're too strong to force open, but it's worth a shot.

clarify if any other company units are on board. if not then we can assume literally everything is non-company.

Find a way deeper inside where the rooms that haven had their insides exposed to space for who knows how long. Also before you do that look around where you are now. Might find something useful or even something to help us figure out where we are on the ship, like sign saying hanger or something.

What is the procedure for contact with surviving crew, rival salvage drones, etc. who voluntarily and unambiguously identify themselves?

Query: can we self-enable disabled features of the unit, or do we require HQ authorization to do so?

Query: what is the legality of our current salvage mission? Sub-query: likelihood of encountering non-company presence and/or hostiles?

Suggestion: if door will not open, see whether the next chamber is also open to space so that door can be bypassed altogether.

>1. Obey company directives and commands in all circumstances. DO NOT identify company to other entities in any circumstances.
This is contradictory, it should be split into two rules. If company says to identify self, do their orders take priority, or does the order to not reveal the company take priority?
>We're keeping contact to a minimum, so if you have any questions, ask them now before we get interference.
Orders if there are "nomads" residing in station?

>>720958
>>721069
Good points. Also: does fighting count as interacting with an entity?

Quibbling over definitions will not accomplish the mission! Check if the doors still have power.

0xED 2016/05/05(Thu)13:31 No. 721157 ID: 7a3f7a
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You are aware that your engine is designed to refill the battery. It will provide enough power to sustain vital functions such as cognition and magnetic grip indefinitely, with the more power consuming systems designed to run from the battery instead. You also know that your disabled features can be re-enabled if and only if they are absolutely and unambiguously vital to prevent a directive being broken.

You make a few queries to control.

"Oh good, thought I was talking to a brick for a second. Nope, no other units on this derelict on our watch. And nice try, auto, but the lack of any identifiable material in your databanks for the company is intentional. You've got the ID hashes, you'll pick up on anything that's us, but again, there shouldn't be, so assume anything you encounter pretending to be a friend is an enemy. And don't engage no matter what. If they come after you, run and hide."

There's a mild cough and the rattling of paper at the other end.

"Says here you've got about a week before we cut loose and leave. Earlier's better. And all we know is that this used to be some kinda pit stop that fell on hard times, except the pit stop part got tore out years ago. Maybe the whole place's been picked clean, but there's gotta be some meat on these bones left. Regarding the limits, well, if you can stuff it in a shipping container, we can handle it. I'm talking the six metre long one. Use the shelves where you are, we can pull them direct when you're done or if they're in trouble."

The voice sips some fluid out of a container. There is a dull thud of porcelain on metal.

"They don't have to be in a shipping container but if whatever you find ain't magnetic, stick it in a box that is first. There's gotta be a lotta those lying around. Aw, fuck. Gotta cut the signal and lie low. Good luck, be safe."

You are aware also that the sort of salvage work you've been involved in is not exactly legal. The station is, despite its derelict status, still property of its original owners. Its advanced state of decay is more due to less subtle scavengers than the passage of time.

0xED 2016/05/05(Thu)13:31 No. 721158 ID: 7a3f7a
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Existential questions pertaining to the owning of any metaphysical appendages are a little beyond you.

You look around, and see row after row of empty shelf, some doors that appear to be showing emergency lighting, and no clear signs except a partially faded "OUSE 1A".

The doors are all refusing access, some due to active denial, some due to automatic lockout mechanisms. Presumably, whatever tore this room open caused a few safety airlocks to bolt closed.

You do, however, find what looks like a ventilation grille, and in a stroke of fortune happen to be about your one foot height in spacing. Quite why the spacing is so wide is a mystery you decide to ignore entirely.

0xED 2016/05/05(Thu)13:31 No. 721159 ID: 7a3f7a
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Clambering through, you follow the maintenance tunnel for a while. It is bathed in red LED strip light. You emerge in a slightly wider part of the tunnel. It appears to be some sort of alcove designed for maintenance robots, with a recharger, some blank screens, and a data processing cube hub with a direct data connection port and a power switch.

The recharger is entirely useless to you, you are not equipped with any sort of physical data connection ports, and no amount of light filtering will stop the screens from being blank.

You feel like the last time an expendable drone was in a red-lit maintenance tunnel, something bad happened. You wave this notion aside as nonsensical.

>>721158
The bars are probably just there to keep people from going inside, and generally indicate it's off-limis.

>>721159
Flip the switch! Maybe you can just use the screens as touch screens.

...or maybe you should just start cutting these things free of the wall/floor. That'll require expending energy, right? How are you intended to move things to the drop point? More energy? Also how are you supposed to keep things from just floating away once they're at the drop point?

>>721159
Attempt a manual interface with the displays attached to the processing cube. If it contains any data about the station (schematics, logs, experiments, etc) this could help in narrowing down where to search for valuable salvage.

Sweet, we're off to a good start. We already found something to salvage. Bag and tag it and let's see what else we can loot.

We need to disconnect the charging station from its power source before dismantling it. Unwelcome shocks would conflict with directive three.

Eh...hit switch, see if it does anything. Otherwise, collect loot.

See if we can turn it on and get it to give us information. It sounds like we don't have any sort of detailed information on the station, right? Once we get the information or determine it's not working, of course, we can just steal the thing.

Actually, maybe we could leave the battery as is, they're probably not that valuable in general and if we ever find the need to power something else we'll have a battery.

deactivate glowing thing. open it up and take power core.

>>721163
It takes energy to move heavier things, yes, but the battery will recharge over time.