I found this story on Mastodon, about a maritime shipping disaster and the first-on-the-scene, questionably-legitimate emergency responders who rescue crew, contain the ecological impacts, and restore infrastructure damaged by a megafreighter crash before the official response can get into gear. And who take a bunch of loot when they leave.

Fully Automated's setting is generally more responsible than the capitalist one suggested in this story, so there might be less of a vacuum for a group like this to fill. But the world is big and varied, and it has a messy history, with plenty of war and strife, in which groups like this could thrive. Some of them may still be around. And some regions might just genuinely need someone to step up and respond to disasters, regardless of legitimacy.

Either way, I think it's a neat concept with decent execution.