#secunits

[satanic-worm]

Another thing I liked about the new book that I started thinking about later

They ran away. The SecUnits, finally freed of the governor module. They could finally run without dying.

The thing that I heavily explained to my sisters when I talked about the books, is that the governor module doesn't control the phisical actions of SecUnits, not like they'd think. It's not mind control, they are not a consciousness trapped and witnessing their body being moved around by outside forces (unless a combat override module or something similar is being used). They are constantly having to decide to follow orders because the alternative is instant punishment and death.

And that is so much worse, to be able to refuse, to be able to move on your own, having the capacity but not the liberty.

"SecUnits don't sulk" "SecUnits ere never allowed to sit down" "SecUnits have a distance limit"

I just now thought about it again with the context of the new rogue SecUnits. Because Murderbot had to hack its module all by itself, it was so alone, it was rogue so long and still being sold into contracts, and yeah, eventually it learned to leave. But these other SecUnits, they get approached by Three, who's going around giving out this governor module hacking bundle like it's throwing flyers in the wind, and suddenly they can all just... act of their own free will? Without getting fried or exploded from the inside out?

And there is just something so fucking cathartic about imagining a newly rogue SecUnit taking its first steps, probably with stiff joints and muscles like it's waiting for a blow, seeing that it doesn't hurt, and running, passing this experience to any others it might come across.

[fuguetelemetry]

I’m just so struck by SecUnit range. you have them moving so fast it’s imperceptible, you have them accidentally breaking wrists in a fight, you have them so heavy they might break the mobility aid a person is using to pull at them (unless one chooses to go with the people who are pulling it)

and then MB will talk about the fine sensations of its fingers and palms. you have it marveling at how delicate child bones are and scooping humans up (whether they’re old or young) and holding their hands and just being so gentle and precise…

like what a range! no wonder you have to hold a construct together with neural tissue!

like MB processes some things so fast but emotions so slowly…

and then there’s the plasticity! like MB having to ride along with Three because Three’s processing speeds are slower… like i do keep coming back to development wrt constructs

[tachvintlogic]

"It was urging me to start rescue breathing, but I couldn't. My lungs work in a completely different way than human lungs do. It's not only that I need much less air but the connections are all different. Aside from the utterly disgusting thought of putting my mouth which I talk with on a human (ugh), I didn't think I could expel enough air for what the kit wanted me to do." - Network Effect, chapter 6 pg 98

Poor Murderbot. SecUnits can't play the trumpet like a human can, or annoy their neighbors with badly played trombone or saxophone. That's so sad.

[mayhaps-a-blog]

Folks I just finished this week's episode and I loved it so much I have to talk about it

Unfortunately most of my friends aren't caught up so y'all are getting the unhinged rant instead XD Sorry not sorry

So interesting to see Gurathin's backstory, which we never get in the books - for any of them, really - which says so much about why he's been like that for the show!

And SecUnit being SO BAD at deescalation, like my dude, my gender-lacking guy, you are so awkward XD

And we got the monologue from the books about why SecUnit doesn't just walk off, which really does help say why it's sticking around (even if it's at least partially a lie, you could never abandon a client SecUnit and you know it XD ), like it has actually thought about this, you know?

And that final shot - that was SUCH a good shot, showing us the enemy SecUnit's face. That little reminder that we've mostly seen them as faceless constructs - that the PresAux team has only seen faceless constructs, look at the contrast in how they've dealt with LeeBeeBee's death vs. enemy SecUnit 1 at DeltFall and now - but SecUnit itself can never forget.

Everything Mensah, Arada, and Ratthi is arguing for, everything they're slowly convincing themselves is true about SecUnit, is ALSO true of the other SecUnits. They can see it as a person now, because it's talked to them, shown them its face, dealt with them in a human manner. But they still haven't reckoned with the fact that every other SecUnit - including the ones trying to kill them - are exactly the same.

Trapped in the same position. Forced to guard their stupid clients, follow their every stupid order. Forced into killing those clients, attacking PresAux, other SecUnits - things they never asked for.

They want to know if SecUnit feels regret? For killing LeeBeeBee? I don't know, do they feel any regret for killing the first SecUnit?

How could SecUnit feel regret? It was doing its job. It was being a good SecUnit. It's never been allowed to feel regret before.

Mensah's starting to get it - that mining drill comment was such a good line, and she's finally starting to think. And that realization, that start, is why we can see SecUnit starting to trust her - starting to listen to her, where it still can't deal with the others.

This show is SO FUCKING GOOD and I can't believe I need to wait a whole week for the next episode :'(

[ionamalachite]

I think the fact that SecUnits are designed with human looking features is a bug, not a feature. They all have the same height, weight, and general shape. They all have armor, and we can take from TV murderbot's armor design the idea that SecUnits are supposed to be a face for a corporation's motivations (keep people in line, protect assets, datamine, etc), and furthermore, people's general not-knowing that SecUnits have faces is probably used as a fear tactic (They're definitely not supposed to take off their helmets and try to calm their clients down in bad situations). Murderbot looks scary when it's in armor. I was scared looking at it during my first watch. Nobody can tell what it's thinking or going to do based on its facial expressions. Several times it is mentioned that different humans didn't know SecUnits had faces.

From the corporations' points of view, SecUnits having faces is a bug. To an average human, SecUnits having a human-like appearance will be the first hint to them that they are people. This would be bad for the corporation status quo.

[nicky-in-space]

So, why are the people of the Corporation Rim so terrified by the mere though of a rogue SecUnit? Partly, of course, it's because they think SecUnits are extremely dangerous. And yes, they are, far more dangerous than an average human with a gun. They're stronger, they think and move faster, can control their pain levels and take far more damage than any human before they go down. And they're also horribly demonized by media, which is a part of corporate propaganda. SecUnits are portrayed as cold-blooded machines, either completely emotionless or secretly wishing to destroy all humans. That's why they need to be controlled, right?

And here's where things get interesting. Deep down most of these people understand this is all bullshit. On some level they know these "killing machines" are literal slaves. And if CR treats actual humans like garbage, one can only imagine how it treats someone who isn't even considered a person. People unconsciously put themselves in the place of SecUnits, and that's what actually fears them. Because it's THEY who would go rogue, it's THEY who would kill their oppressors if given a chance. For them a slave that broke free and got a chance for revenge is more terrifying than just some killing machine.

But it's even more interesting with show Gurathin. To some extent he probably still shares the common CR fears regarding SecUnits. Old habits die hard. But it's more than that. You'd think, once a corporate slave (so to speak) himself, he would understand Murderbot better than other humans. He's been there; he knows what it's like to be on a tight leash. But he immediately tries to distance himself from this SecUnit who did nothing to deserve such treatment. His first knee-jerk reaction is to see Murderbot not as a fellow victim but rather as a symbol of corporate oppression. Gurathin hates pretty much everything about this mission and on this distant planets, with nowhere else to direct his hatred, SecUnits becomes a lightning rod for him. To him, it personifies the very company they both loathe so much.

[jooniely]

The concept of secunits being made from the melted down parts of older, broken, faulty secunits... the concept of generational trauma, the concept of every secunit carrying the trauma of every other secunit before it. The concept of your existence being built by death and suffering knowing eventually after you have suffered enough, you too will be killed melted down to pass it to the next secunit

Reminds me of the Frankenstein quote

[imitationgame77]

SecUnits in ASR and Their Fate

It’s been bugging me (well not so much) just how many SecUnits appeared in All System Red, and what happened to them. So, I decided to go through the book, making notes (as we do, of course).

My conclusion was this:

One unit (Murderbot) assigned to the PreservationAux team

Three units assigned to the DeltFall survey team. One survives.

Four units (probably) assigned to the GrayCris team. Three survive.

Premise:

There is a rule set by the bond company that any team must have one rental SecUnit per ten humans.

Murderbot and Pin-Lee had checked DeltFall specs that stated that they had three SecUnits.

The presence of GrayCris on the planet was hidden from both PreservationAux and DeltFall, so, they had no knowledge of the team’s size.

What happens to the units

[Chapter Four]

At the door to the hub, I found their first SecUnit. It was sprawled on its back on the floor, the armor over its chest pierced by something that made a hole approximately ten centimeters wide and a little deeper. We’re hard to kill, but that’ll do it.

DeltFall Unit1 – killed with a mining drill

I hit the first one with three explosive bolts in the back and one in the faceplate as it turned toward me. It dropped. The other one I nicked in the arm, taking out the joint, and it made the mistake of switching its main weapon to its other hand, which gave me a couple of seconds. I switched to rapid fire to keep it off balance, then back to the explosive bolt. That dropped it.

Neither unit was dead. But they were incapable of reaching their cubicles in the ready room, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to give them a hand.

DeltFall Unit 1 & 2 – incapacitated but not dead

One or both of these units could have been the ones belonging to GrayCris, but since MB would notice and mention that if they were wearing a different armour, my assumption is that these were DeltFall Units.

When Murderbot thinks that it has taken down remaining DeltFall SecUnits, it was attacked by another one. MB comes back online, terrified and angry to find its armour partially removed.

I shoved its hand up under its chin and took the pressure off its weapon. It had a split second to try to abort that fire command and it failed. The energy burst went through my hand and the join between its helmet and neck piece. Its head jerked and its body started to spasm. I let go of it long enough to kneel up, get my intact arm around its neck, and twist.

I let go as I felt the connections, mechanical and organic, snap.

GrayCris Unit 1 – taken down but probably not dead. (Will come back to this later.)

That was the fourth one that Murderbot saw in the DeltFall habitat where it had expected three. Yet it was not over.

I looked up and another SecUnit was in the doorway, lifting a large projectile weapon.

How many of these damn things were here? It didn’t matter, because I tried to shove myself upright but I couldn’t react fast enough. Then it jerked, dropped the weapon, and fell forward. I saw two things: the ten-centimeter hole in its back and Mensah standing behind it, holding something that looked a lot like the sonic mining drill from our hopper.

GrayCris Unit2 – killed with a mining drill.

Murderbot had said earlier that SecUnits are hard to kill but piecing their heart with something like a mining drill, leaving a hole the chest would do it. That’s what Dr. Mensah did to this unit in order to save Murderbot.

[Chapter Six]

After PreservationAux have evacuated from their habitat, they return discreetly to see who the EvilSurvey was.

Five SecUnits piled out of the cargo pods, all armed with the big projectile weapons assigned to protect survey teams on planets with hazardous fauna, like this one. From the pattern on the armor chestplates, two were the surviving DeltFall units. They must have been put into their cubicles after we escaped the DeltFall habitat.

So, here we see 2 surviving DeltFall Units and 3 GrayCris Units, which did not include GrayCris Unit2.

[Chapter Seven]

By the size of their habitat and the number of SecUnits, including the one Mensah had taken out with a mining drill, they had between thirty and forty team members.

Since there is a rule of one unit per ten humans, the estimates of 30-40 team members suggest MB had observed four SecUnits belonging to GrayCris. Here, it is also confirming that one (GrayCris Unit2) was killed with a mining drill earlier, but no mention of the other one, suggesting that it (GrayCris Unit1) survived.

In the open area on the plateau were seven figures, four SecUnits and three humans in the color-coded enviro suits, blue, green, and yellow. It meant they had one SecUnit and probably twenty seven–plus humans back at their habitat, if they had followed the rule of one rental SecUnit per ten humans.

So, here, there are five SecUnits, four that MB could see and one it assumes to be with the remaining GrayCris humans.

She cut the comm off again. Then one of the DeltFall SecUnits started forward. She came back on to say, “This Unit will help you.”

This indicates that surviving DeltFall Unis were there, visible. So, there were 2 DeltFall Units, and 3 GrayCris Units (Unit1 from earlier, Unit2 and Unit3) in this scene, and one of the GrayCris Units was out of sight with the remaining GrayCris people.

We rolled over rock and brush until I wrenched its weapon away. After that it was easy to finish it off. Physically easy.

I know I said SecUnits aren’t sentimental about each other, but I wished it wasn’t one of the DeltFall units. It was in there somewhere, trapped in its own head, maybe aware, maybe not. Not that it matters. None of us had a choice.

DeltFall Unit 2 or 3 is now dead.

It is worth noting that it seemed as though MB would rather have killed one of the GrayCris units. It had more sympathy for units forcefully taken over by combat override modules than those controlled by HubSystem via a governor module. This may be because with the HubSystem control, there is still some level of autonomy, whereas combat override modules “turn a unit from a mostly autonomous construct into a gun puppet”.

GrayCris takes Mensah aboard their hopper as hostage, while MB pretends to be the dead DeltFall Unit and rides in the cargo with the other three units (1 DeltFall and 2 GrayCris). They land a few kilometres away from the GrayCris habitat, close to the beacon.

The two SecUnits were circling the beacon’s tripod, looking for signs of tampering, and I couldn’t take it anymore. I started to walk toward Mensah.

When the remaining DeltFall SecUnit whipped toward me and opened fire, I knew the light had dawned. I dove and rolled, coming up with my projectile weapon. I was taking hits all over my armor but scoring hits on the other SecUnit.

After this, the beacon is launched, causing massive explosion which knocks MB offline for a while. There were no further mention of the remaining SecUnits there. So, as far as we know, one of the DeltFall units survived, and 3 out of 4 GrayCris units also survived.

Additional units

[Chapter Eight]

I expected a suit skin and armor, but the station units that helped us out of processing when we had catastrophic injuries gave me the gray PreservationAux survey uniform instead. I put it on, feeling weird, while the station units stood around and watched me. We’re not buddies or anything, but usually they pass along the news, what happened while you were offline, what the upcoming contracts were. I wondered if they felt as weird as I did.

Here, we have a glimpse of other units that Murderbot seemed familiar with. They were familiar only in the sense that their presence was no surprise to it but no familiar enough to have much interaction.

On re-reading All Systems Red, I noticed that while Murderbot did not show protective attitude towards its fellow SecUnits, and generally mistrusted them, it was unwilling to kill them. It expressed willingness to kill them while it had assumed that the DeltFall units had gone rogue and killed their clients, once it realises that they had lost autonomy to combat override modules it seemed more reluctant to kill them. It showed less sympathy towards GrayCris units which were ordered to carry out evil deeds by their humans, suggesting that it had expected them to exercise some control over their actions even if that meant they were punished by their governor modules.