Skysweeping

Skysweeping is a specialized hazardous-condition salvage reclamation operation which involves clearing debris from inflection layers and commissures before it impedes inter-cube air traffic - or, worse, falls into the populated spaces below.

Career

Payment & Reimbursement

Like with HCSR work, crews who conduct skysweeping operations are paid with the proceeds of the sales of the salvage they collect. However, organizations with a vested interest in keeping the airlanes clear - especially the Navigator's Guild - will sometimes pay additional dues to skysweepers in exchange for their necessary work. These dues might include ongoing contracts for work done in the inflection layers over known conflict zones and 'bounties' for the cleanup of spontaneously-created debris fields (i.e. as the result of accidents).

Operations

Tools

Skysweeping operations often employ airship or skystation recovery modules specifically adapted for the purpose of capturing nearby chunks of large debris. These modules feature numerous turrets festooned with net and harpoon launchers which can be used to ensnare debris; in this way, a deployed module can sometimes superficially resemble an industrial fishing vessel's kit, albeit one designed for especially large prey. Modified air interceptors (especially R1-B "Reeve" Advanced Fighters can be used to redirect larger chunks and shred smaller ones into debris with much lower terminal velocities. These interceptors are often fitted with coatings of soft rubber or adhesive gel to snag fast-flying shrapnel and provide better grip on larger chunks as they nudge them towards the recovery modules. Because the performance of these aircraft is rather hindered by the low air pressure, they are often equipped with primitive liquid fuel rockets (fed with refined biodiesel and liquid oxygen) instead of their usual props; these vehicles require specialized training to operate. Sometimes - especially in the case of doomed airships - the skysweepers can only hope to strip the most dangerous components and any survivors from a vessel before it inevitably plummets to the ground. In these cases, skysweepers in auto-armor tethered to their recovery module with umbilicals are dispatched to conduct search-and-rescue and explosive ordinace disposal work on the stricken vessel. HC-1 "Meantwig" Hazardous Condition Auto-Armor is ideally suited for this work on account of its environment seals, though any appropriately equipped suit (including a combat suit) may be used in a pinch.

Dangers & Hazards

Skysweeping work is usually done remotely or in specialized Dieseltech auto-armor to help mitigate the extreme risks of the environment in which it takes place. Small, dense fragments of debris can strike workers like bullets as they whiz through the atmosphere, requiring stauch ballistic armor. Unlike in the case of most HCSR work, skysweeping is time-sensitive work. While objects found in the microgravity of an inflection layer or commissure is not strongly impelled to leave the area, with whirling air currents from below keeping the smaller fragments suspended effectively indefinitely, larger pieces of debris or those moving at high velocities will eventually begin to fall towards the ground (or commissure walls) 'below.' This presents an additional danger when trying to deal with unexploded ordinance in particular, as these must quickly be disarmed in addition to merely being intercepted - often without the comfort of gravity and from within a pressurized suit to prevent hypoxia. Furthermore, moreso than in other HCSR work, the time-sensitive nature of skysweeping means that workers will often find themselves working in or above active battlefields to intercept debris before it can fall. Skysweepers often find themselves on the recieving end of weapons fire, whether intentionally or not. Stricken airships, skystation, and auto-armor are sometimes found with still-living (and livid) combatants inside, presenting the workers with difficult moral quandaries; these unfortunate souls may be too injured to help in time, might overwhelm the skysweepers' airships' lifting capacity or medical facilities, or might even represent a violent threat in the case of those who belong to factions opposed to the skysweepers' own.

Type

Raw Materials Gathering

Legality

Skysweepers carry many of the same legal liabilities and responsibilities of other HCSR techs. Skysweepers attached to politically neutral factions (i.e. the Navigator's Guild, Church of the Unexpected, or the Sorority of Solace) can be argued to take on a duty of care for any living people they find among the wreckage, being obligated by simple morality (if not by the letter of shared international laws) to preserve life in lieu of any valuable salvage which might otherwise be gained.

Other Associated professions