text: The Johansson shipbreaking yards in orbit of and on the surface of Mars' smaller moon, Deimos, was a near constant flurry of activity at all times. Johansson shipbreaking was not the only facility of its type, but it was certainly the largest. The entire surface of the moon was a massive graveyard for space faring vessels of all kinds. Every ship from RMC freight haulers to UN Destroyers to CMF mobile foundries all found themselves at Deimos at the end of their life. Their first stop was in orbit, where UN observers watched as any weapon systems and the ship's interstellar drive, if installed, was carefully removed. These systems were then packed and loaded onto UN military vessels for transportation to military shipyards. Once the ship was decommissioned it became the property of the Johansson shipbreaking company and was scheduled for deconstruction. The first group of shipbreakers aboard were always bulk fluid specialists, or waterboys, as they were commonly known, their dark blue EP suits were easy to spot against the surface. Once they arrived in orbit they drained and purged all ship systems of any liquids, from the potable water in the mess halls, to the nitrogen in the fire suppression systems, to the hydrogen isotopes in the reactor. Once extracted all the fluids are shipped back down to Deimos, where it is stored and eventually resold. Times needed to hit on time bonuses for the waterboys ranged anywhere from one standard day to four standard weeks, depending on the ship's class and tonnage. Up next were general shipbreakers, who were not granted a nickname until they became a specialist. They wore standard issue fluorescent orange EP suits. They simply and quickly cut the reactor out of the ship's hull using plasma cutters and tethers. There were no on time bonuses for this task as it could be completed by a crew of four in less than six standard hours. It was generally considered a shit job that nobody wanted to do. Once removed the reactor was classified and resold to shipyards. The third group of shipbreakers were the electrical systems specialists, clad in yellow EP suits and known as narrowbacks. This group would squeeze into the space inbetween the ships hulls and under a ships grated floors and remove as much of the electrical wiring and batteries they could find in four standard weeks. This group’s bonus was not based on time, but rather by how much electrical cabling they could remove during a four week period. Each meter removed would give the group $1. The group of four could usually pull out $1000 worth of cable if they were good and working on a large enough ship. Smaller ships only had a few hundred meters of cabling, but the larger ships would have upwards of several kilometers of cable. The current record is held by Electrical Systems Specialist Shipbreaker Crew 17, who in early 2282 managed to pull $4721 worth of cable out of the UNS Mavis Grind, humanity's first ever highliner. Their picture still hangs on the wall in the crew cafeteria. After the narrowbacks finish the ship is handed off to the computer systems specialists, who walk around Deimos wearing purple EP suits, feeling better than everyone else. Nobody knows if you have to be an asshole to become a slycer, or if becoming a slycer makes you an asshole, but there is fierce debate any time a purple EP suit walks into the crew cafeteria. The team of four remove all of the ship's computer hardware, and AI systems. Their on time bonus is based on the ship's class, but is generally never more than a week long. The computers, circuit cards, AI cores and computer chips are all cataloged and sorted on the surface by general shipbreakers, who return any proprietary software and AI back to their company of manufacture as required by law. UN fines are no joke. 17 years ago Grey Star Shipbreaking in the Proxima Centauri system was fined 90% of their yearly profits for not returning a proprietary AI system. Everything not proprietary is reduced to component parts and sold back to manufacturers as raw materials, unless special orders are placed with the companies for specific parts. An unknown buyer from Yost had recently placed an order for an exceedingly rare and old AS400 micrologic controller and was willing to pay up to $37,500 for it. Computer Systems Specialist Shipbreaker Crew 199 found one aboard the TNC Clear Waters, and were paid a bonus of $1000. The next group into orbit are the engine systems specialists, wearing red and calling themselves ASE’s. Why and when they started doing this has been lost to years of telling and retelling of drunken stories. Nobody knows what it stands for anymore. The group of four carefully cut and remove the ship's engine or engines, depending on the ship's class. Once fully removed it is loaded onto a transportation ship and shuttled back to the surface, where it is classified, cataloged and put up for sale by the company. If a group of ASE’s can remove a ship's engine in one week they’ll get their on time bonus. Almost none of them do. Once everything valuable has been removed from the ship it will be tethered to the moon and then crashed into the surface, where ground crews of general shipbreakers will spend their days cutting apart what remains. For every 100kg of ship that is pulled out of the graveyard and brought to the recycling facility on the surface of Deimos a shipbreaker is paid $3.50. Once brought back to the recycling facility the final speciality class of shipbreakers, process men, will go to work. Clad in verdant green they analyze the material composition of the ship pieces, further separate metals and then smelt them down into liquid. If a process man can produce 100kg of a single liquid metal in ten standard hours they will have hit their bonus requirement. The liquid metals are then loaded into specialized containers which keep their liquid state and are sold to shipyards as is. 1kg of liquid aluminum was currently trading for $4.75. 1kg of liquid titanium could easily net the company $19.50 in profit. In total, after all expenses are accounted for, each ship brought into the Johanssen shipbreaking yards obtained for the company anywhere from $400,000- $82,000,000. Depending greatly on the prices of the metals pulled out of the graveyard and how many of the shipbreaking crews hit their bonuses. It wasn’t easy work, but the shipbreakers union had some of the highest paid workers across the entire system.