The Foreman
Character
Excerpt from Omega:“Why is this one still here?”
“It refused to stop.”
“That isn’t normal. All the rest of them have turned in for disposal.”
“Indeed, but we’ve found a new purpose for it.”
"Why?"
“All the rest of the heavy duty mining droids have been disassembled or sold off. The Sith want efficiency and slaves are cheaper to maintain. Lower through-life costs.”
“So what makes this one special?” As he spoke the question the colossal mining droid threw itself into the nearest wall, tearing it apart with its bare limbs. A chunk of rock collided with a nearby slave, crushing it against the far side of the cavern.
“It despises the slaves. We don’t know what went wrong with this one, but it blames the slaves for taking the jobs of all the droids. It’s obsessed with efficiency. We caught it beating a slave half to death just for slacking. They’re terrified of it.”
“And why, exactly, is that good?”
“Production went up twenty percent.”
“Really? So what is the droid being kept for?”
“It’s going to be our new Foreman.”
The strip mines of Castameer had once been almost entirely automated. Yet poor management and contracting led to the maintenance of the droid workforce becoming prohibitively expensive. With a constant influx of slaves from the Sith expansion it was deemed more effective to employ them as the work force. Yet one droid refused to become obsolete. Driven far beyond the intentions of his original programming one droid remained and continued its work. Any organics caught slacking or simply lingering in its path were summarily dispatched, just as his fellow droids had been for being viewed as inefficient. He was promoted to Foreman of the mines and given absolute reign to decide how to organise the workforce. Efficiency went up thirty percent. Of new slaves arriving at the mines that same fraction would fail to survive the first month.
During the Omega event the invaders could not resist attempting to free the slaves. The forced the Foreman into action. It cared not for the plight of the Sith, but it would not have productivity impacted. In a battle with [member="Kira Vaal"] and [member="Dax Fyre"] the Foreman last its right arm and was cast from a great height into one of the blaze that was tearing through the refineries. It was presumed destroyed.
Instead new purpose was found.
The Foreman had been limited in its scope. Efficiency wasn't just required on one mine, or even one world. The entire Galaxy needed to be saved from itself.
One organic at a time
