Dredgers
Dredgers were those who went into the ruins of the Bay Area in search of lost technology and data to sell to Aempian Data Archaeologists. They were named because the work required diving down into the submerged parts of the bay and digging through the silt and ash and mud to find these buildings. Some of the higher-security data was stored in hermetic vault buildings with many layers of security to protect them against hacks, attacks, monsoons, earthquakes, and more.
The common dredging ship is not much larger than your average fishing vessel, and was likely adapted from it. It has a winch, a radar, and a crew of 1 to 5 Dredgers. Some crews will team up together to pull something out of the water, and it's not unusual for crews to fight over finds or sabotage each others ships. Once a site has been declared, the Jadey Government will then pay a properly equipped dredge crew to pull it up or break in — ideally the crew which originally found it, although there are smaller vessels which make their living simply as scouts.
Dangers
The waters of the bay are polluted and murky, with unseen lines and debris threatening to damage or even capsize unwitting vessels. Many Dredger-Divers have returned from their dives with sepsis or other bacterial diseases, with any open sores infected terribly by the toxins.
The other dredge slammed into their own, throwing Malcolm from her perch and down over the railing. The dark, green waters rushed up to meet her, coursing through the cracks and fissures in her skin and causing them to erupt in pain and irritation. She flailed uncertainly, limbs cutting through the water in every direction but unable to find stability.
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