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[Organisation][Open Source] GENOM Home Deliveries
[Organisation][Open Source] GENOM Home Deliveries
#1
GENOM Home Deliveries (GHD) – 23/Jun/2012
No one is quite sure who is responsible but someone (it's rumoured a BNF) set-up "GENOM Home Deliveries" (GHD).  This appears to be a store-and-forward delivery firm, which allegedly has multiple immense warehouses of strange devices.  Some of which Man Was Not Meant To Know.  (Or, Woman, small children, household pets, rabid fans, unfortunate alien visitors, either).
One or two of these warehouses have been tracked-down, but in all but one case they seem to have had enough warning to evacuate, and take all their stock with them.  In the one full warehouse raided, there was a neat note saying "The GENOM AI running this warehouse was not acting in accord with GHD Company Policy", and someone had used thermite on the supervisor AI processors and back-up storage.
A Patrol officer who'd raided the place remarked "What do we do with all this junk?", and after safety-checks some was sold in support of the Patrol "Widows & Orphans" charity fund.
Company policy is that they don't deal in currently or previously living beings, or significant parts thereof (or bits with ransom notes).  The escape clause on this is this doesn't stop potentially future living beings, or things like biological scans or samples.  They also don't deal in actually lethal devices, such as primed explosives, or loaded weapons.  Or systems which will be assembled into these without the knowing physical actions of the recipient (i.e. no DNA or bioscan activated bombs).  Their scanning procedures seem to be pretty good...
All delivery of goods is done by anonymous male humanoid GENOM delivery boomer[1] (robots), of sub-human intellect (about as smart as a crow), and quite lacking in combat capability.  You need to get reasonably close to be sure they're non-human, but they wear a recognisable delivery man full-body uniform, gloves, and a baseball cap over their stylised hair.  Few deliveries require more than one boomer.
These don't fight so much as cower, and an annoyed householder with a baseball bat could readily demolish one, in a minute or so.  The delivery boomer have a small resale value as they typically fuse their circuits when wrecked, dismantled, or when prevented from going about their duties.  There is some argument as to whether they should be entitled to any form of legal protection, except as property.  GHD doesn't seem to get too upset about loosing them.
The goods get to the delivery staff via temporary collection and delivery nodes, and there are quite a few (small) secret delivery staff storage and maintenance facilities scattered around.  The staff that take stuff from collection points to collection nodes, are different from the staff that move things between nodes, nodes and a warehouses (or between warehouses), and also not the same staff as do actual deliveries.  They all seem to be the same sort of self-destructing boomer.  There doesn't seem to be any central coordinating AI, just cooperating AIs at the warehouses.
Quite a number of people make use of GHD facilities.  They've proved reasonably priced, very reliable and discrete.  The only quirk seems to be there is anonymous stuff in the warehouses, that is irregularly delivered, pre-paid, to appropriate people, for a rather twisted value of 'appropriate'.  Are there Mad's who provide this for 'fun'?
There's a faint rumour that some BNF use GHD to delivery 'fun' birthday or festive holiday presents to each other.  Most of them just grin widely when asked this, and say they cannot "confirm or deny".
Open Source: This may be freely used as a plot device by anyone.  You can even have someone trying to track down and destroy this entire system.  Best if it takes them a really long time to do so, though, so others might have fun with it.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
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#2
META "GENOM Home Deliveries"

Hope this might be of use.

This was inspired by "Star Ranger4".

Would I put this in so people could prank each other's characters?

Nooo. [grin]
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
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#3
I know a group of vigilant mercenaries with Hardsuits who might be interested in tracking this down...

now that GHD is really needed for pranking, just because of their usage of Boomers.
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#4
If it's relevant, these boomers do not have deliberately crippled AIs. Their processors couldn't run any better AIs than they actually are - someone who took a really good look at them would say they are based on a re-engineered crow brain design.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordwainer_Smith
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
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