Colony Broadcasting Service: - Printable Version

In a completely unexpected and unprecedented move earlier today, Deep Space Engineering president Aliester Brown announced that DSE was going to terminate all of its robotics production and use. Brown was quoted as saying, "Many of these resources used for robotics could go toward the war effort or other sectors of civilian industry. We don't want to be greedy here, and there's frankly many more things that we could be doing with our time and effort than putting civilians out of jobs with robots." DSE is not only going to end production of robots, but is also going to end their use - "We're going to remove all robots from the fields where they are not absolutely necessary," Brown was recorded as saying after the press conference as he walked to his private shuttle. DSE claims that it will maintain an unspecified amount of research and development in robotics for strictly military applications, as "unmanned fightercraft ... have saved countless invaluable lives in the war with Rheinland, and will save many more. To discontinue their research and production would be ... cruel and illogical."

In the past, DSE has been one of the leaders in robotics development and production in Sirius, pioneering the general components that are now on every technical store's shelves. Kishiro Technologies has always been on the cutting edge of advanced technology, but DSE's specialisation has been the on the edge of practicality and ingenious innovation, providing practical robotics for low cost and maintenance to the general public. The development of the fully autonomous mining robot was heralded as their greatest achievement in this field, and led to a boom in mining across Sirius and the exodus of many employees from this otherwise exceedingly dangerous field when it was developed years ago, letting them take on other, safer, better paying jobs.

There is no indication of where DSE expects to find skilled labour to fill these large gaps the liquidation of robotics is going to create, or what it is going to do with its robotics-specific factories and production lines that will be stopped within a month, only serving to fill outstanding foreign orders for robotics components. DSE remained adamant about "fulfilling all contracts and obligations before proceeding with our course of action." Although these factories were primarily robot-run themselves, the relatively few workers who were employed on these lines are out of a job. Any of these personnel affected when the new policies come into effect have been given job opportunities in other sectors of the company or twelve months full unemployment pay, DSE Human Resources director Robert Steele reports.

An expert source claims that plans to lease the facilities to an independent company have been considered in the past, but future plans for the lines are currently unknown. CBS will keep you posted on all further developments in this unprecedented change of direction for DSE.

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