Reaver Citizenship

Story so far

Explaining Gunnery Sergeant X2, The AI lays out how Reaver citizenship works. Unless you are a vat-born progeny of The Initial, gaining citizenship — with its profit-sharing and financial benefits — is an epic pain in the ass. First you must lose your biological form; that initial "upgrade" is free. After that there are only two paths.

One is paying for the upgrades yourself, usually a non-starter, since the only employers who will hire someone who let the Reavers swap a good hand for an expensive grasping claw are the galactic equivalent of a Wendy's or an interstellar carwash. The other is working for the Reavers for free: food, housing and unlimited health care, plus exactly one more upgrade per three-cycle deployment — more if something gets shot off. That work means being dropped feet-first onto land leases to evict settlers so the Reavers can expand their factories. X2's own path was a 400-cycle journey, ended by Tina's jaws.

Role

The economic trap that manufactures Reaver cyborg soldiers out of desperate recruits.

Relationships