So, I am now semi-obsessed with Warframe. And they just released a new (diegetic) song. Focusing on the Sentients (a faction of sentient AIs.)
And, well, it would be perfect for non-JVN squad DDs singing for their lost squadmates. After all, once they die, they truly die.
"Cast and cry, cast and cry
Raise the million pylons high
All our kin were bound to fly
For that far shore forlorn
Onward hie, onward hie
Who but we may tame the sky
Who but we shall distant die
On that far shore forlorn
Velvet blue the meadows lie
Though the haughty ones defy
Gold shall never break our tie
To that far shore forlorn
Onward hie, onward hie
Who but we may tame the sky
Who but we shall distant die
On that far shore forlorn"
Disassembly Drone headcanons part 2: Behaviour and culture
Part 1
-Basic culture and behaviour-
-Your basic squad usually has three members, the leader, the pilot and the hunter. However, since the Solver is only interested in micromanaging J's team, it isn't rare for other squads to be more varied.
-Territories are usually based on the landmarks. For example, J's squad has the whole capital city as their territory while another might have a forest as theirs.
Because their prey can run for a good while, there are neutral lands between territories to allow for catching prey without disrupting another squad's lands.
-In cases where the prey does run into another's territory, it is customary to ping or DM the squad leader for permission to enter. If permission is granted, the ruling squad takes their fill and then the interloper can have the carcass.
-In cases where one cannot wait for permission (read: The Solver had earmarked this WD in particular), the chasing drone must just grin and bear it and hope they don't get caught or that the ruling squad doesn't catch the target first.
Sharing important news between squads is usually done through DMs, but some DDs go to the edge of their territory and ping the news to nearby squads.
Because of the hilarity of a DD yelling at the borders, it isn't uncommon for DDs to tell someone rambling to "go and yell that at the borders. Maybe (insert squad name) will hear you."
Squad names tend to be self-appointed but require the squad to have good rapport with nearby squads to get it respected. Technically J's squad is Alpha 003, but everyone else calls them the Goldengirls.
Nests and sleeping areas vary a lot. Some create spires with sleeping areas. Some use human structures as homes. Some have even dug themselves caves to live in.
-Due to the push for quotas and the leaderboards, J's squad rarely communicates with the other squads. Things aren't as frosty between non-JVN squads and there is even a bit of trading of members going on.
-In general, J's squad is seen as the one that matters by the Solver. While other squads mainly exist to be meat to the grinder. The Solver does not see these squads as sapient and so they are left to their own devices.
-Technically, eating anything biological is forbidden by 'JCJenson.' However, most DDs in Copper 9 have stores of frozen meat products and human corpses in case of bad hunts.
Though (again) J's squad does not partake in them, there are gatherings between other squads to share news and potential threats. J's squad gets the cliffs notes by pings.
Touching another's tail without permission is considered extremely rude. Akin to a human putting their hand over another's face. Mates can twine their tails and squadmates often clean each other, but it is all with permission.
Because the DDs are left to their own devices with very little to no oversight, communal grooming and repairing are a must. Everyone must stay in good shape, otherwise hunting as a group becomes nearly impossible. To be excluded from grooming/maintenance is to be considered an outsider to the squad.
Like in any species, there are those DDs who find the life of a loner easier. Some get chased from their squads but some just leave and start scavenging on their own. These DDs are, naturally, kill on sight to most squads who aren't in need of a new member. It isn't rare for these loners to ally with Outposts as protectors.
Outside Outpost 3 and its DD team, the relationship between DDs squads and Outposts varies. While some have a simple prey vs predator situation, others are more complex. One Outpost is feeding their local squad human remains to placate them, while another Outpost has managed to 'tame' some DD as guards.
The dynamics of each squad vary a lot. J's squad resembles a spotted hyena clan, where the females are higher and the sole male is the punching bag. Others resemble wolf packs, with mated pairs leading the rest, and so on.
-Slang-
Dead meat/Dead Oil- Food eaten without a hunt. Can be used for scraps or scavenged food, but is mostly used for oil cans and frozen meat.
Goldengirls, the- A mocking name for J's squad.
Goldengirl- J, due to being 'favoured' by the Solver.
Goldenboy- N, with extra salt since he is the Most Favourite Boy of the Solver.
Goldenpsycho- V, who is also the only one others do not say this to the face of.
"Go and tell Corporate about it"- Aka, stop complaining.
Toasterfiller- A rather crude insult towards those who have relationships with Worker Drones.
-Bread- The kids of said union.
Lone operators- DDs without a squad. This is the most polite way to refer to them, and is rarely used.
Lapdogs- Those DDs who get their food from Outposts.
Jackals- Squads or lone DDs who only scavenge.
Starvers- What the 'lapdogs' call the DD who still hunt workers. Hinting how wasteful they are being with their food, leading to starvation.
"Maybe you'll get a pen!"- J's recommendation to the other squads to step up their game was not received well. Is used to mock someone doing something for little gain.
Blackbox- Outpost 3. Indestructible.
Death hole/Mordor/Abyss- The tunnel to Cabin Fever Labs.
-Alabama- Name for the labs from those who escaped Alice.
V's victory lap- The leaderboards, due to V typically having the best results. V is aware of this and loves it.
Corpsequota- The needed number of WD corpses per month.
SIP- Spire In Progress. A time-stalling method by some squads to do their own thing.
Disassembly Drone headcanons part 1: Make and model
WARNING: Discussion of gore, experimentation, AI-abuse, pregnancy horror and realistic predator behaviour. Please take care.
Section 1: Make and model
-To start with, Disassembly Drones (from here just DD for my sanity) were not made by a company. They had no QA period, and they had no long-term update timeline. The DD were made by a reality-warping non-omniscient creature that would have done better with purely biological creations. With access to unlimited resources of flesh, drone bodies and a 3D plastic and metal printer.
-Your basic DD or an older Solver Drone counts as a drone purely because they are still running software and not wetware. You could replace the core with a human brain and get a sufficient enough cyborg. Less the Terminator and more Andromon.
-Because their basic programming was edited by a flesh-morphing creature, Material Gathering Mode prioritizes flesh over metal. It can and will use metal, but it does better with flesh and bone.
-Due to this hack job of a build, the DDs should be buggy as all hell. However, fleshy parts are more forgiving than metal and gears. Still, the overheating started as a bug that the Solver used to motivate the DDs to hunt.
-Despite what Worker Drones on Copper 9 think, the DDs were originally made for human and war machine killing. They do equally well on blood+hearts as oil+metal.
-The DDs have semi-bionic musculature that they can somewhat train. Yes, they can have abs and other beefy features.
The parts that are purely organic in a DD/older Solver Drone are the lungs, stomach, salivary glands and various veins. The rest is an uncomfortable mix of machine and flesh.
Aside from the golden trio (J, V and N), the Solver randomized the animal brain scans for the rest of the DDs.
Depending on the animal models, different DDs have different ways of pinging. Those with more robust long-distance communication like wolves and birds can send out sentences. Those with more limited communication typically stick to two-word pings.
Their tails are as sensitive as your typical cat/dog/ferret tails, that is, not much until someone else touches them. The habit of keeping them up comes from the ever-present danger a door poses for them. Many DDs have kinked tails from having a heavy door shut on their tail and the healing nanites healing the tail in its twisted shape.
-The female-model DD legs are the result of the Solver wanting to streamline the DD production (read: it wanted to waste less time printing and putting it all together.) Two long stilts take far less time to build than ankles, feet, knees, thigs and shins.
Aside: Drone Reproduction.
Here's where the AI-abuse comes in! Basically, once drones were given sapient enough AI, there suddenly became a need to preserve and replicate that AI. While knowledge could be programmed in, there is a vast gap between pre-installed data and things learned on the job. While drones were not (relatively) expensive, losing an experienced drone was still a significant blow to production. Especially as any replacing drone would need to learn the ropes.
Thus, UNNs became a thing to preserve that hands-on knowledge. Plug your best drone to an UNN and in a few months you won't have to worry about losing them. Some even used it to 'upgrade' older models to newer ones.
Naturally, once the ability to 'breed' drones was created, it wasn't long before people began to plug two or more drones to an UNN to get the best traits into one drone. It not only became common but often expected that a working drone had a 'lineage.'
It also resulted in a lot of embarrassing arguments over ethics and inflammatory headlines.
How this applies to DDs; The Solver is sex repulsed, but it is also not a good enough programmer to undo centuries of careful programming. However, given the DDs are very fleshy, it is a coin toss if a DD can get away with a UNN or if they get to experience pregnancy horror.
