Hardspace: Shipbreaker takes the labor movement to the stars

polygon.com:

Every morning, I wake up in my company-provided bed on the LYNX company space station, and I get a reminder that I owe the company $1.25 billion. This is the debt I incurred just for the privilege of having this job. With interest and fees, it averages out to $500k per day. Welcome to the 23rd-century workforce!

So I suit up and set to work breaking apart spaceships with my future versions of a blowtorch and grappling hook. Scrap goes in the Furnace, composites go in the Processor, and electronics go on the Barge. I pick a ship and begin cutting off parts at conveniently labeled anchor points before guiding them to their destination. An automated voice chides me when I send something down the wrong chute and I watch the projected value of my work diminish. When I do everything right, I watch the value of my scrap accumulate. My goal is to make enough to break even for the day. If I can avoid penalties and rack up enough profit, I might even start paying down my monstrous debt.

I’m happy as a productive member of the LYNX corporate family, generating value and efficiently meeting production goals. As I dutifully hack another chunk off the spaceship, I think back to the company-approved posters in my bunk, and I’m satisfied with performing a hard day’s work.

And then I smack myself directly in the face with a chunk of ship.

While I watch the oxygen leak out of my helmet through the newly formed crack, a warning reminds me that asphyxiation might prevent me from meeting my production goals. I jet back to the company vending machine to buy some more oxygen and a spacesuit patch kit — the cost gets added to my running tab. The next morning, I’m billed for the clone body the company gave me.

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