System Collapse characters

Also known as SecUnit

Appears from the start

Still on the contaminated colony world after the crisis with the alien remnant technology, the SecUnit is not working properly. Something happened during that operation that it will not describe, even in its own account, which it keeps redacting whenever it gets close. Its performance reliability drops at bad moments and it insists there is nothing wrong, while everyone around it can see that there is.

Also known as Perihelion

Appears from the start

The research transport's bot pilot, restored, reunited with its crew and deeply involved in the operation on the colony. It is the one presence the SecUnit cannot avoid or deflect, and it has already noticed that its friend is malfunctioning.

Appears from the start

A member of ART's crew, leading much of her people's part of the operation and negotiating with a corporation that regards the colonists as inventory.

Appears from the start

The security construct whose governor module the SecUnit removed during the earlier crisis. Now free, working alongside the SecUnit and steadily assembling a personality of its own, it is more patient with humans and much newer to the business of choosing anything.

Appears from the start

Leading the Preservation contingent, and responsible for making the case that the colonists have an alternative to signing corporate labor contracts.

Appears from the start

A member of the Preservation contingent, married to Arada, and one of the people quickest to notice that the SecUnit is not functioning as it should.

Appears from the start

A member of the Preservation contingent, reliably willing to talk to anybody, which makes him useful when the job becomes persuading frightened people that strangers can be trusted.

First appears in chapter 2

The researcher from the original survey contract, here to make a documentary about constructs and about the SecUnit in particular. Her interviews are the last thing the SecUnit wants to sit through, and her footage ends up mattering to the outcome.

First appears in chapter 2

The Barish-Estranza officer still on the planet, working to get colonists' signatures on labor contracts before anyone can offer them anything better. Courteous, calculating, and prepared to make temporary arrangements with opponents when the alternative is losing everything.

First appears in chapter 2

A senior member of ART's crew, involved in planning the mission and cautious about the risks it keeps requiring.