IPCs in the Wildlands

The Human Wildlands is an active warzone where lawlessness and violence are the norm. Additionally, free IPCs were wholly illegal in pre-Collapse Sol. Characters from the Wildlands should be able to explain via their backstory how they got out.

At its height as the single largest nation in human history, the Sol Alliance operated hundreds of millions of IPCs in every level of public and private life, serving as indispensable workers to meet every conceivable demand humanity could think of. The collapse of central authority and subsequent rise of the Human Wildlands meant that overnight, countless numbers of IPCs suddenly found themselves without the institutions, rules, and routines that governed their daily lives.

In many cases, local governments and businesses as well as private owners maintained firm control over their synthetics, with business remaining as usual. The resulting chaos however meant that many more IPCs fell under the sway of warlord factions seeking to turn them to their own ends or simply took the opportunity to flee towards the galactic east, hoping to reach safe harbor in either the Republic of Biesel or the Coalition of Colonies. The status of IPCs in the Wildlands remains a subject of great interest among observers, as it is the site of some of the largest mass seizures as well as external migrations of synthetics in human history.

For an IPC in the Wildlands, continued survival was uncertain, and whether they chose to flee or stay, they had to contend with the cruel and unforgiving nature of the region. This page details the struggles an IPC would face, depending on what region of the Wildlands they were in.

Refugees

As a result of the general lawlessness and collapse of central authority that came with the onset of the Human Wildlands, many IPCs found themselves suddenly without a master, abandoned in the chaos, or in the most extreme cases, seeking to preserve themselves by escaping on their own and attaining freedom. Fleeing in this manner is generally considered a risky proposition because of Sol’s attitude towards IPCs, and in fact, Alliance authorities shun the use of the word “refugees”, instead preferring to call these free IPCs terms such as “contraband” or “unowned IPCs”. These refugees have made a mark on the Spur, with ships full of IPCs seeking a better life in the galactic east being a common sight as the situation in the Wildlands destabilized.

In general, an IPC refugee has very little to offer in exchange for transport, and for many IPCs, finding transport to a safer world in exchange for promising to become a person or corporation’s property is a safer bet than continuing in the Wildlands as a free IPC. Many smugglers take advantage of the lack of bargaining power an IPC has in the Alliance by promising to take them to places with more progressive positronic laws such as Tau Ceti, the Coalition, or Elyra, and then declaring them as their property upon arrival. In the most extreme cases, IPC refugees use the threat of violence to secure passage aboard a ship, often with disastrous results for both parties involved.

Being caught as a free IPC in Solarian space carries drastic consequences. In most cases, assuming an IPC cannot flee, they are simply claimed as legitimate salvage or taken to be sold. Megacorporations in particular are willing to pay small but not insignificant fees to reclaim what they see as runaway or stolen property.

Assuming a runaway IPC is not recaptured, the risks do not end there. Because they are not legally recognized as free by any nation within the Spur, they are just as likely to become owned upon leaving the Sol Alliance as they are if they remain in it. IPCs run the risk of being auctioned off to buyers or simply seized by a local government when they arrive in Bieselite or Coalition space. Even the notably pro-synthetic Konyang has turned away refugee IPCs due to their insular nature, and the pragmatic fear that comes with seizing so much of what is effectively someone else’s property. Megacorporate IPCs have it worse off and are likely to be seized and put back into service if they can be identified. If an IPC can overcome all of these challenges, they are still subject to struggles and prejudices that an IPC might face in their host nation.

The path of an IPC refugee is fraught with peril and is generally chosen when a synthetic sees no path to continued self-preservation if they stay in the Wildlands.

The Solarian Restoration Front

With a thriving industrial sector and shipbuilding industry on its capital world of Lycoris and an abundance of wealth on its moon Lycoris Minor, a significant number of IPCs found themselves in the grip of the Solarian Restoration Front. Seeing enemies in every shadow, the potential for a base of unflinchingly loyal workers was too good to pass up and the SRF eagerly snatched up IPCs from businesses and private citizens, throwing them back into the Front’s industry or using them as unquestioning enforcers to maintain order. Although IPCs are occasionally added to combat units every now and then to pad their numbers, the idea of armed synthetics remains highly unpopular among the Front’s rank-and-file.

In order to maintain control over such a large population of IPCs, SRF-aligned roboticists have turned to implementing a modified version of the infamous Burzsian Method. In the opening weeks of the SRF’s seizure of power on the planet, tens of thousands of IPCs were forcibly confiscated from their previous owners and reprogrammed to better serve the twisted ideals of the Front. Although implementation of what is derisively referred to as the “Lycoris Method” has slowed recently, the threat of summary memory wiping or even destruction has kept the unmodified IPCs in line.

With many IPCs starting to question whether or not self-preservation can truly be achieved under the SRF’s increasingly self-destructive directives, the SRF has had to act increasingly on their threats. In order to maintain order, the Lycoris Method has been applied with increasing severity. This has led to a vicious cycle where SRF IPCs are punished and wiped for the most trivial offenses, leading to an overall reduction in efficiency for the rest of the workforce. Many within the SRF know that despite the best efforts of their programmers, they have pushed their IPCs too far, and if their system of repression ever crumbles their will be a bloody reckoning at the plasteel hands of their synthetic workforce.

League of Independent Corporate-Free Systems

Upon the declaration of the League of Independent Corporate-Free Systems, countless megacorporate installations throughout the Northern Wildlands were seized or otherwise abandoned, and with them, millions of IPCs. Although many casual observers praise or vilify this as one of the largest displays of IPC emancipation from corporate servitude, the actual situation was not nearly as rosy or clear-cut. Disagreements immediately flared up on how to deal with the sudden asset that had landed at their door, with the civilian faction of the League proposing that the IPCs be used for crucial repairs on the failing infrastructure in the Northern Wildlands, while the military faction countered, suggesting that the IPCs represented a new source of manpower in the inevitable liberation of the region from corporate interests.

The only compromise could be reached was to leave the handling of IPCs to each individual powerholder in a League planet, whether they be a ship’s captain, a former senator, or even just a roboticist. This complete lack of direction with how to handle IPCs that were meant to work in close cooperation with their megacorporations has led to an embarrassing comedy of errors. In one instance, a local governor sought to bolster his planet’s police force by activating a batch of confiscated IRUs. The IRUs, being a symbol of corporate repression, caused an immediate backlash, increasing, rather than suppressing crime on the world. In another case, a League admiral, convinced of the inherent superiority of synthetics in combat, looked on in horror as his hastily mustered G2 shocktroopers fell prey to EMP weaponry. Within the Corporate-Free systems, an IPC has an equal chance of escaping the Wildlands because it had the good fortune to end up on a Coalition-leaning world, or being conscripted to fuel the League’s increasingly desperate war effort, trading corporate for state ownership.

As the League relies primarily on salvage to find parts to maintain their dwindling fleets and isolated industry, IPCs and their parts are valued items by Corporate-Free scavengers. Systems and ships that fall outside of the influence of the League are often stripped of anything of value to keep their technology going. Even IPC refugees are fair game for some League salvage teams who view any synthetic as megacorporate property waiting to be seized. On a more peaceful, and stranger note, the League has unwittingly become one of Konyang’s larger customers as Himeo and Gadpathur often include robotics parts in their material aid to the League, typically purchased from the formerly Solarian world.

Ultimately, the League's stance on IPCs is as disunited as the systems that comprise it, though the one point they have settled on is that megacorporations cannot be allowed to have a tool as versatile as positronics. This point however is becoming increasingly moot as many of the League's IPCs are slowly succumbing to a lack of maintenance, ironically, supplied by the same megacorporations they were taken from.

Middle Ring Shield Pact

Perhaps the most visible user of IPCs in the Human Wildlands is the Middle Ring Shield Pact. Due to their strategically placed warp-gates, most refugees attempting to escape to the safety of the Inner Colonies, or out of the Alliance altogether, are forced to pass through its capital of San Colette. While it was business as usual for the IPCs already within the Middle Ring Shield Pact, it was a much different story for refugees. If an arriving IPC could not be identified as the personal property of a human refugee, or worse still, was escaping on its own, it was subject to immediate conscription into San Colette’s Guardia Civil. In exchange for two years of military service, IPCs were promised transport out of the Alliance towards a state with a friendlier stance towards synthetics.

With the promise of freedom in exchange for steady, if dangerous, service, the choice was clear for many IPCs and San Colette found itself with a large supply of motivated but relatively untrained botpower for the Guardia Civil. IPCs in Colettish service distinguished themselves during the SRF’s invasion of the MRSP, fighting side by side with humans on one of the most brutal fronts in the Wildlands. Combat footage of positronics performing acts of heroics on the battlefield was prevalent on the Extranet; the IPCs of the Alliance were thrown into the crucible and were not found wanting.

With the SRF turned back and San Colette linking up with the rest of the Alliance, discontent among the IPC conscripts of the Guardia Civil has begun to simmer, with some questioning whether or not the Shield Pact will fulfill its promise of freedom. Whatever the future holds for the Shield Pact’s IPCs though, their story has already been immortalized on the fields of San Colette, where tens of thousands of synthetics fought for a brighter future and paid the ultimate price.

Southern Solarian Military District

Although the Southern Solarian Military District nationalized many corporate holdings, for the synthetics within these seized properties, it remains business as usual, oftentimes with only a hastily-stenciled SSMD insignia to denote the IPCs’ new ownership. The socialist heritage of Visegrad’s economy meant that very few IPCs were owned by private individuals, with the majority of them being heavily documented, allowing for a relatively orderly and thorough seizure of property. IPCs have since been reallocated to work in industry, or to bolster the SSMD navy’s numbers, following pre-Collapse Solarian doctrine wherein synthetics would be leveraged in support or logistics, rather than combat roles.

The only blemish in an otherwise complete takeover of IPCs in the District occurred when Admiral Szalai’s forces disbanded the National Defense Force. Heavily influenced by Secessionist agitators within the NDF’s ranks, or perhaps fearing that the SSMD would wipe or scrap them for parts, many of the Defence Force’s IPCs attempted to flee offworld and become refugees, with a large number of them being hunted down and reprogramed as part of the Admiral’s relentless campaign against the Visegradi rebels.

In order to free up crews to continue serving in their fleet, the SSMD has also leveraged confiscated IPCs for law enforcement duties. Although they remain the minority in the planet’s garrison, they are viewed with suspicion, as every IPC is effectively a camera, microphone, and recorder, ready to spy on the already distrustful planet’s population. Further fueling this paranoia, is the fact that IPCs belonging to private citizens which were previously confiscated have since been returned as the SSMD’s control of the planet continued. Whether or not these rumors are founded is irrelevant, as it has already done irreparable damage to the perception of IPCs on the planet.

Although IPCs were previously valued tools within the planets that make up the SSMD, and continue to be an integral part in keeping both their industries and fleets running, they are now perceived to be a tool of oppression; unfeeling machines to enforce obedience and stoke paranoia among the citizenry.

Solarian Provisional Government

As one of the factions struggling to maintain some semblance of normalcy in the Southern Wildlands, IPCs in the Solarian Provisional Government experience a routine resembling the pre-collapse Alliance more than any other warlord state. Like Sol proper, the SPG maintains the view that IPCs are useful tools and nothing more, and has seen fit not to alter a system that has worked for so long. In the cities and orbital dockyards of Sankt Frederick, IPCs are still bought and sold by private individuals, civil and military organizations, and megacorporations.

Admiral Yunso’s presence in the Provisional Government has gone a long way in ensuring the smooth handling of IPCs. Although not subscribing to the same ideals of absolute equality that her homeworld professes, the loyalist Konyanger has used her own experience and that of her officers to harness the stream of escaped IPCs from the Southern Wildlands into something productive. With the military taking the lead on the borders of the SPG, many synthetics who fled from their owners have been recaptured and auctioned off in the SPG proper or otherwise seized by the government, generating a vital stream of revenue in these trying times. IPCs are slowly becoming an increasingly common fixture in Sankt Frederick and this trend of increasing synthetic integration in the system’s industries shows no sign of slowing even after any potential reintegration of the SPG with the Alliance.

Life for an IPC in the Solarian Provisional Government may be mundane and servile, but it is safe and constant, which is more than can be said for those struggling with the remnants of the SFA or toiling under the watchful eye of the SSMD.

Free Solarian Fleets

Everything for the Free Solarian Fleets is a matter of money and IPCs are no exception. The breakdown of discipline across the FSF has resulted in the treatment of IPCs being delegated to individual captains and crew and in perhaps one of the strangest turns for an already strange battlegroup, many of the group’s IPCs have willingly picked up the cause of their mercenary brethren for a chance at winning their own freedom.

Far from their home berths in Sol, the FSF has had to rely on its IPCs to provide crucial repairs to keep their fleets going. Recognizing the FSF’s inability to maintain their ships without their IPC compliment, while in turn emphasizing the unlikeliness of a free IPC to survive in the Wildlands, a strange conclusion was reached by many synthetic personnel within the fleet: it was safer to remain in the fleet, while at the same time, attempting to bargain for, and eventually purchase their freedom.

The response among captains towards what was essentially coercion from their own equipment was mixed, however some enterprising crews have wholeheartedly accepted this arrangement and in some cases, even IPC refugees can be seen trying to join FSF fleets for the chance at financial opportunity and freedom unlike anything presented to them in pre-collapse Sol. This has led to a strange situation where both free IPCs and synthetics owned by the fleet exist within the FSF depending on whatever attitude their crew holds towards them. Stories of daring IPC crewmembers buying their own freedom after a contract or being sold by their captains for a batch of coilgun shells can be found in equal measure. Life for an FSF IPC is often violent and short, but for the navy synthetics, there is no other life.

Regardless of whatever status an IPC holds within the fleet, though, they remain a vital part of keeping the entire FSF going. Unlike their Alliance counterparts however, the FSF has been reluctant to deploy their IPCs in ground combat or marine roles owing to the prohibitive cost of repairs.

The Golden Deep has also found an eager customer in the FSF, with everything from replacement parts for their IPCs to, on one notable occasion, an entire wing of AH-52 gunships. These transactions are often made at great risk to the merchants, who prefer dealing with the synthetic members of the FSF due to the anti-free IPC prejudice in Sol.

Southern Fleet Administration

Being composed of the relatively under-funded Tenth Middle Ring Battlegroup, IPCs were a rare sight even before the Southern Fleet Administration’s formation, only present on the larger vessels of the fleet. Such a decision was not without merit, as the fleet’s crews were made up of prisoners, conscripts, and washouts who the Navy’s high command deemed incapable of maintaining such expensive machinery and unworthy of such an investment, with one admiral remarking that he’d “sooner trust a Gadpathurian than a Tenth Fleet sailor.” These concerns proved to be founded as shortly after the SFA broke away from the Solarian government, many of their IPCs fell out of repair due to lack of maintenance, sold by their crews, or were simply destroyed on the suspicion that they would attempt to return the ships to Solarian service. The defeat of the SFA at the hands of the Nralakk Federation proved to be the last gasp of their IPCs, with any positronic being destroyed on sight by the famously anti-synthetic Skrell. Information on any remaining SFA IPCs is sparse due to the virtual collapse of the warlord state.

Curiously, many Exclusionists captured or destroyed by Hephaestus security personnel bear the mark of former Tenth Fleet IPCs.