Gigafactorum

In a land of stars so bold and bright,
Lived a gigafactorum, a marvelous sight.
It hummed and buzzed all day and night,
Making goods with all its might.

But one fine day, oh what a sight,
The gigafactorum caught a cold so light.
It sneezed and wheezed with all its might,
And out came robots, oh what a fright!

A million bots, all silly and small,
Tumbled and rolled, one and all.
They danced and twirled in the great hall,
Turning screws and fixing walls.

They giggled and jiggled, oh what a show,
Through the factory, to and fro.
With each new sneeze, the bots would grow,
Till the gigafactorum let them go.

So now the children laugh and say,
"Bless you, gigafactorum, every day!"
For when it sneezes, come what may,
Silly robots come out to play.

~"Gigasneeze," Saturnite children's rhyme

Purpose / Function

Gigafactorums are used by governments and corporations in human space for the sorts of mass production needed in a stellar empire. They assemble mind bogglingly huge amounts of goods at miraculous scales with relatively few workers. Each gigafactorum produces a few related, highly complex products, such as robotics platforms, starships, contragrav crafts, pharmaceuticals or processed food. A feature of the design is that they greatly reduce supply line cost as they process the raw materials for themselves rather than secondary factories. This means that lumps of gold ore, carbon, silicon, and iron ore can be fed into the intake and fully functional and assembled synthetic troopers could walk out the other side and straight into shipping containers for delivery.

Construction and Layout

Gigafactorums have precious little space for organic visitors or workers. The vast majority of the facility is taken up by the mechanisms of the machine. Even those parts that are available to human workers tend to be dangerous, with robotic arms of every description going about their daily tasks in a symphony of noise and labor.
They whole facility is run by an 'Overseer' Shackled AI, which manages a pyramid of subordinate Shackled AI and Synthetic Intelligences. These typically have a priori robotics platform that represent the 'will of the gigafactorum' to communicate needs with the living workforce, owners, investors, and if required the public.

Defenses

Gigafactorums are prime targets in the Corporate wars and as such are equipped with gravity shields and automated laser turrets. Their primary Shackled AI has a number of subordinate AIs that exist to prevent cyberwarfare. Some of the more strategically critical facilities (especially those that make combat synthetics) will have their own on-site automated security force, but all gigafactorums have some sort of armed security to prevent theft and vandalism.

Type

Factory