External Rescue Signal (2)
[This is Aegis Civilian Disaster City Type 1, abbreviated Shelter. Responding to your distress signal.]
This was the first message we'd sent. Not knowing how long they could maintain comms, I'd packed the essentials into a short sentence. But it was unnecessary worry.
Their response was explosive. It must've been a desperate hail Mary from a hopeless situation. When our reply far exceeded their wildest hopes, they lost it—babbling nonstop in a frenzy. It took a while to calm them down.
"Won't cut it. Calm down. You the decision-maker over there? I don't wanna repeat myself twice or thrice."
"This is System Administrator Seo Jinsu. I'm provisionally commanding full authority over city operations."
Seemed like we could hash everything out here.
"Can you hold comms? Situation sounds dire."
"You said 'provisional'—what happened to the original warden?"
My PDA displayed info Artemis had edited and summarized.
"Give me a detailed rundown of the current situation."
Loss of control was implied in their distress signal.
"How'd the riot start?"
By the time they were rushed to the Offshore Prison, the system was on the brink of collapse. Amid the chaos of evacuations and war, female inmates couldn't be conscripted like penal units, nor simply released. And with illegal immigrants headache piling on, they lumped everyone together in a corner—hasty and sloppy. This was the result.
The big picture matched our expectations.
"Even we took massive losses during emergency lockdown. No need to tell you how hellish the outside is. How'd you all survive?"
Did the brass who issued those orders think we'd win the war? Or did they know we'd lose?
"True enough. You're damn lucky—and now you've reached us."
"One more question, then I'll answer. Total headcount?"
"Controlling over ten times as many inmates?"
Numbers were beyond imagination, but I had the basics.
"Ask away."
"Yes."
Color returned to Seyoung's voice.
They didn't know about this place, despite the pre-apocalypse ad blitz.
"Town-scale underground city with semi-permanent closed-loop systems. Can house your entire group no problem. Plenty of food, housing, medical supplies. Perfectly isolated from the outside."
"Haven't decided to take you yet. We have considerations."
A gasp echoed over the comms, followed by silence—broken only by ragged breathing.
Seyoung seemed composed. Even with survival or death hanging on our word, she calmed in seconds and pitched her case. No sobbing pleas or outbursts—impressive.
"Not refusing. Just not my call alone. More questions?"
Comm chatter grew noisy—shouting arguments, smashing, pounding. They were sacrificing to keep the line open.
"Got it. Pausing comms. Need decision time."
"Resuming contact soon."
Comms with Seyoung cut.
"Over 3,000 souls, 90% plus criminals."
Beyond what I'd pictured.
"Scraped every last one nationwide for isolation."
Even accounting for that, it's less than last Statistics Agency data. Likely released the elderly or light-sentence ones.
Rose chimed in.
High ratio of illegals too.
No bandwidth for repatriation in crisis—they just dumped 'em in the prison.
"Pros and cons of intake?"
Screen showed a loss-gain comparison chart. Left: gains. Right: losses. Results surprising.
"More gains than expected?"
Left side filled the screen; right barely half. Thought it'd be pure moral burden, but practical upsides too.
AIs broke it down. Logistics chief Chloro first.
Factory utilization at 22%. Inject some, jumps to 83%+. Manual processes gain real efficiency: 40% unskilled baseline, up to 210% at skilled after six months.
Chloro's screen showed stockpiles: human goods rotting in excess, robot parts tight despite materials.
Solves resource skew. Robots need periodic parts/batteries; humans run long on organics and water.
A tad cold for her—公私 distinction?
"Security risk?"
Controllable with current guard bots and human guards cooperating.
Rose's screen: security blueprint. Projectile-armed guard bots and combat drones at key areas. Human guards backed by their firepower control inmates. Basically standard prison ops—just robots hold the guns.
Absurd outside, but what's "society" left in Korea besides here? Available guard bots: shy of two platoons. Drones mass-producible.
If male inmates, total veto. Strong physiques, industrial skills—major threat. Harsh prison labor bred homemade guns/explosives for riots. Female inmates unlikely to have such lethal skills.
Discriminatory? Logical.
Not just factories. Closed-loop city means cycles must circulate at scale to stay healthy.
"Empty houses turn haunted quick?"
Precisely. Human breath, waste—even minutiae fuel the cycle. Cleaning, rust removal, production labor goes without saying.
"Sounds like villainous slave-labor scheming."
Ask outsiders: Work here or stay out?
"..."
Life here beats outside, hands down.
He who does not work, neither shall he eat.
"No free lunch. Incentives tied to output would ease control too."
One more curiosity.
"What's been bugging me—that option?"
Pointed to the button at top-right of the loss assessment: 'Control Intensity: Medium'. Game-graphics style.
Touching it on my linked PDA opened options. Cranked to max: 'Control Intensity: Maximum'.
Gains exploded—scroll city. Losses shrank to 10%.
"...Artemis, what does max control mean?"
Mandatory shock collars on all residents.
Starts strong. Shock collars: Battle Royale bomb necklace lite. Zaps for violations, disables. Black box tracks talk/location. Third-world hellhole fare—we had dozens stocked. Artemis could reverse-engineer for mass production.
She listed more:
Endless insane clauses. Pure efficiency, zero risk. Even dictators would balk.
"You weren't seriously planning this?"
Just contingency options. Knew you'd nix it. Briefed medium from the start.
"Hmm."
Brutal, but salvageable bits.
"Hypothetical—purely."
From medium, escalate as needed. Mild additions: 62% success.
She'd read me. Not committing—just prep. Tiny sparks ignite catastrophes in closed loops. Some items fit emergencies.
62% mild? "Other methods?"
She fired up a 3D sim. Hundreds of female inmates rioting in Shelter. Guard platoon lines up front; human guards with shock collars behind. Top-right: Negotiation 62%.
One inmate approaches—guard bot rifle-butts her jaw off, salts the next. Non-lethal, but she convulses. Silence falls. Negotiation jumps to 89%.
"Aggressive. Perfect results."
Not aggressive—'medium'. Want radical? 100% success.
"...No. Good enough."
Checked min intensity: pre-war Korea mid-tier living standard. Gains evaporated; losses ballooned—disruptive. No-go.
We discussed risks, controls, city benefits awhile. Resumed with Seyoung, approved intake—she was over the moon.