Lancer RPG Core Book

SECTION 6 // Setting GuideConstellar Security recruits heavily from the worldsand moons that SSC directly administers, reachingout to those who are strongly motivated by SSC’score directives, and who see their mission(s) asnecessary for the betterment of humankind.Constellar Security personnel aren’t always pairedwith CDC teams: they are also often sent on intelli‐gence gathering projects, hostage rescue missions,and long-term reconnaissance missions.The most secret and deniable of SSC’s divisions isthe Constellar Midnight program, the existence ofwhich is rumored but thus far unconfirmed. Func‐tioning as a Constellar equivalent to the UnionIntelligence Bureau, Constellar Midnights handle onlythe most sensitive missions – though exactly whatthose missions involve is left to speculation.EXAMPLE FLASHPOINT: OUTSIDE THE GARDENSSC’s most urgent genetic expansion is aimed atAunic Ascendancy space. The corpro-state’sstrategists have heard that some Aun have an innateproclivity toward interaction with the mysterious blinkanalog parallel space called “the Firmament”, and areeager to cultivate that genetic proclivity for furtheraccess and study.To this end, SSC has devoted resources toward infilt‐rating Ascendant space, identifying Firmamentaligned individuals, and collecting them. Little thoughthas been given to helping bring about a rapid end tothe escalating Aunic–Union conflict – any efforts onSSC’s part to ensure a favorable end for Union isincidental to the main objective.SSC has dispatched a team to Boundary Garden, theregion of known space most proximal to Aunic space.This small, clandestine team of Constellar Midnightsand their SSC-designed stealth ship have beentasked with infiltrating Ascendant facilities on DawnThrone, a contested world. They have a clear mission:find, secure, and transport a Firmament-alignedperson from Dawn Throne back to the Constellation.Knowledge of this covert mission is a highly guardedsecret, hidden behind the highest security clearance.Featuring this flashpoint in your game will prompt asmaller-scale style of play with a focus on clandestineactivities, espionage, and black-ops. PCs can enterthis flashpoint in a number of ways: as members ofthe Constellar Midnight team, members of a jointUIB–Aunic Ecumene team operating in the sametheater, or as sympathetic Ecumenic agents orpartisans on Dawn Throne. Mech combat that takesplace is likely to be fast and limited in scale, usuallyrequiring pilots to support dismounted teams intightly confined city streets. Events could be furthercomplicated by the encroaching war between Unionand the Aunic Ascendancy, which can easily threatenclandestine missions on Dawn Throne.PEOPLE[401]

SECTION 6 // Setting GuideLong the wall between air and void has stood. An uponit, a plaque, etched and unweathered. It reads:“O’er the glad waters of the dark blue sea,Our thoughts as boundless, and our souls as free,Far as the breeze can bear, the billows foam,Survey our empire and behold our home!”– Lord Byron, The Corsair, Canto IThe oldest of the three iconic corpro-states is Inter‐planetary Shipping-Northstar, better known as IPSN, a shipping and transport conglomerate that hasexisted since the invention of nearlight drives andstasis protocols first made interstellar commercepossible.[402]IPS-N

SECTION 6 // Setting GuideIPS-N began as a mutual defense pact between Inter‐planetary Shipping, Inc., and the NorthstarCorporation, rival shipping giants plagued by environ‐mental hazards and early stellar piracy. The lineage ofboth corporations can be traced back to the earlyyears of Union, when they began as worker-ownedshipping cooperatives in command of TheseusShipyard, a pre-Fall orbital facility near Luna, Cradle’sonly moon.Plagued by constant intra-system piracy – and thenormal hazards of space travel – IPS and Northstarelected to merge, combining their resources tocreate not only the single largest shipwright cooper‐ative in Union space but also the largest private antipiracy force. Working with Union Navy officers, thenewly named IPS-N developed the first ship-to-shipand anti-boarding doctrines, as well as the firstpurpose-built point-defense weapons, combat EVAsuits, microgravity mobility aides, and various otherforce-multipliers.Access to blinkspace opened new markets and fieldsof trade, as well as a host of new dangers. IPS-N, bythen a venerable institution, continued to build andperfect the iconic hulls, suits, and weapons of spacetrade and combat. Across the expanding universe ofhuman space, it was IPS-N hulls that carried colon‐ists, explorers, and navies forward. It was an IPS-Nhull that first survived exposure to blinkspace. It wasofficers of IPS-N Trunk Security who defended thedeep interstellar trade routes, making sure colonistsand Cosmopolitans could progress unmolested.The relationship between IPS-N and safe, secureinterstellar commerce has persisted for millennia,becoming so firmly ingrained in galactic practice thatthe manufacturer is now a household name on manyCore and Diasporan worlds, as well as building theliteral houses that many Cosmopolitans live in. TrunkSecurity and its close allies, the Albatross, are oftenlooked at as de-facto peacekeeping forces in much ofthe galaxy’s distal spread.As trade grows and humanity’s reach expands, so toodoes IPS-N; the company needs growth to survive.IPS-N’s largest holding – its corporate headquarters –is located on Carina, in the Argo Navis system, justbeyond Cradle. Carina is a bucolic world of warm,shallow seas, azure skies, and rolling plains of deepgrass. A world of terrestrial and aquatic oceans,perfect for the part-stellar, part-maritime corpro-state.Its historic headquarters on Luna is now a museumdevoted to the history of interstellar travel.Outside of Argo Navis, IPS-N maintains numerousfield offices and Cosmopolitan lounges on blinkstations, serving long-haul merchants and diverseCosmopolitans both. The corpro-state’s field officesare often the first contact point for aspiring engineers,mechanics, navigators, and pilots, as well as acommon point of contact for people looking to crewor rent berths on outbound interstellar ships.Players are most likely to encounter IPS-Nemployees, officers, and personnel on blink stations,around uplift stations, and on spaceports. Almostevery blink station has at least one Cosmopolitanlounge or field office run by IPS-N, where players canget civilian updates on news and check travel reports.Of the three largest corpro-states, IPS-N remains theleast diversified in terms of its catalog of goods.Outside of mil-spec chassis, hulls, and equipment,IPS-N primarily sticks to vessels, equipment, andgear designed for interstellar travel, from the fleet-tierPEOPLE[403]

SECTION 6 // Setting Guideto the personal consumer. IPS-N is a sure bet for anyinterstellar travelers, with a brand boosted by thou‐sands of years of banked goodwill.IPS-N, in addition to developing interstellar ships andlegacy chassis, runs a humanitarian mission: North‐star Realignment. Northstar Realignment is theprimary temporal embassy and education center forCosmopolitans returning from long-haul relativisticvoyages.EXAMPLE FLASHPOINT: RIGHT HAND, LEFT HANDIn the present, IPS-N has partnered closely withHarrison Armory to ensure the Armory’s smoothexpansion into the Dawnline Shore. The Shore is anewly recontacted Coreward colonial frontier of stra‐tegic interest to the Armory and its longtime rival, theKarrakin Trade Baronies. This project has been thecause of some friction, as higher-ups in IPS-N arebeginning to chafe at the Armory’s imperial ambitions,concerned that the Armory intends to start a war withthe Baronies in order to secure its territorial claim onthe Shore.For now, there is peace. IPS-N continues to benefitfrom the Armory’s expansion, but new reports of theArmory’s suppression of colonial insurrections arecausing some members of IPS-N’s board to worrythat their brand will be tainted by association. Areformist, radical faction within IPS-N’s board hassecretly begun to organize an off-book mission todisrupt not only the Armory’s mission in the DawnlineShore but also the leaders of IPS-N who approved thejoint venture in the first place.Unbeknownst to the rest of the board, this radicalelement has commissioned the services of theMirrorsmoke Mercenary Company. In one month, adelegation of IPS-N board members will arrive in theDawnline Shore to review the Armory’s progress insecuring raw materials for in ship construction.Mirrorsmoke mercenaries will pose as Armory legion‐naires and assassinate that delegation.This flashpoint offers several ways for PCs to getinvolved; as members of the delegation’s securitydetail, Armory legionnaires, Mirrorsmoke mercenaries,or a third party – perhaps a delegation from thecolony worlds of the Dawnline Shore.[404]HORUS

SECTION 6 // Setting GuideCan we trust the poor clockmaker? That giant from our sunwho crafts a movement thatcan quiet all this light.Now,set the orrery in motionover the sphere of the world –let’s all stop a moment,hush, and worry at what comes next– DHIYED tablet 10, attributed to MONIST-1HORUS is unlike any other galactic supplier. Neither astate nor a corporation, HORUS is best described as adecentralized agglomeration of omninet personalities,memes, codices, cells, and entities working as a hori‐zontally-organized publisher of schematics andsoftware. When attempting to discuss HORUS’s motiva‐tions or institutional ideology, it is safest only to assumethat HORUS has little motivating ideology other than aninsistence on open access to the omninet.This entity – or post hoc classification of disparateacts and actors, depending on who you ask – firstcame to public attention following the Deimos Event,leading many to assume that it is itself a product ofthat event. Eager cataloguers of HORUS history arequick to suggest that it is a branched-intelligence ofRA – a sliver of MONIST-1 inclined to spread itselfamong those who it deems worthy. However, otherpossibilities exist: HORUS could just as easily be aUnion honeypot to identify rogue NHPs and militantHorizon sympathizers; a GMS skunkworks project forcrowdsourcing results through blind field-testing; thedream of an unshackled NHP, and its adherents theinterpreters of that dream; an intrusive thread from aparallel universe, its reality bleeding into ours througha permanent rip in blinkspace; evidence of a true alienintelligence, generated memetically; the ontologicoutburst of the last Egregorian overmind, ripplingacross the galaxy; and so on.PEOPLE[405]

SECTION 6 // Setting GuideMany possibilities exist, and meanwhile HORUScontinues to release its unique pattern-group designs,revealing nothing of its inner workings, history, or goals.HORUS’s licensing process is atypical – and not, itshould be noted, officially recognized as such aprocess. Access is restricted based on an esotericand inaccessible set of criteria unique to eachcandidate. Licensure from HORUS appears aseverything from a labyrinthine series of clues, topersistent anomalous interjections in otherwiseroutine printings, or non-standard variance in code.This “privilege” is a mixed bag for many pilots: somewear it as a badge of honor, proud that years ofinvestigating HORUS have paid off; others keep it aclosely guarded secret, both for the trouble it wouldcause with their commanders and for the rumor thatHORUS licenses are only granted upon the previouslicense-holder’s corporeal death.The average person in the galaxy knows nothing ofHORUS beyond the occasional appearance ofsuggestive graffiti or harmless “edgy” memes. Know‐ledge of its existence is limited to high-clearance UnionIntelligence Bureau officers and deep-omni hackercadres. HORUS has no “official” spokesperson –although individual cells sometimes claim to speak forthe whole – and it has no offices, stations, or territories.There are no standing HORUS armies or fleets orsecurity services beyond militant cells, and even thenthey are not organized beyond their immediate cell.It is worth noting the existence of metafold vaults(“metavaults” for short), a realspace phenomenonassociated with HORUS, though likely not caused bythe collective. Metavaults are blended physical–meta‐physical installations in realspace with stable accessto metafolded blinkspace – uncanny paracausalenvironments that violate fundamental laws ofphysics, thermodynamics, and causality inside theirwalls. To date, only three metavaults have beendiscovered: Metavault XOLOTL, which folded in onitself and disappeared after penetration by a UIB fieldteam; Metavault EHECATL, housed in a comet until itwas discovered by a pre-blink Albatross flight andredirected into a nearby star; and, Metavault DHIYED,which was rendered inoperable but stable by the UIBfield team sent to investigate. Debate regarding theirorigins is ongoing, though, as at least one uncoveredmetavault appears to predate Deimos, raising funda‐mental questions about the linear nature of time.As far as UIB analysts can surmise, the metavaultsappear to be part of a project similar to the creation ofCradle’s Massif vaults – secure storage sites forcritical intelligence. Exactly what the metavaults havebeen created to prepare for, adapt to, hide from, orshield is unknown.EXAMPLE FLASHPOINT: IDENTIFY//CONSUMEIt is difficult to pin HORUS down into a single form.Indeed, the UIB’s scattershot dossier describescontradictory mission objectives and activities on thepart of HORUS agents, to whatever extent it can besaid that HORUS has “agents” who embark on“missions”, let alone a larger goal. The followingexcerpt is drawn from a text file hidden on a series ofpublic transit terminals in Coriolanus, a city on theworld Prismatica:>//BEGIN DATATRANSIT/RECIPIENTS:ALL‐_WHO_ARE_SEEN:::>//HELLO. YOUR ASSUMPTION WAS CORRECT.YOU WILL EARN YOUR KEEP IN THIS WAY:::>//IN REALSPACE, IN DISTAL-LAND, THERE IS ABEAST-LYING-DORMANT. IT CALLS ITSELF“DHIYED” AND THINKS ITSELF WISE.>//IT IS IN NEED OF CORRECTIVE ATTENTION. GOTO IT HERE [ALT-AZ:XXXXXXXXXXXXX]>//THIS ONE TRAVELS WITH A HOST OF UNDER‐MINDS. MIRRORS OF ITSELF, CRAFTED TOBELIEVE AS IT DOES. THEY WILL FIGHT YOU INREALSPACE WITH UNKNOWN KINETICS ANDWARPED ENERGIES.>//DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE MIND WITHIN: ITIS TERRIBLE AND STRONG AND WILL WHISPER TOYOU ALL THE REASONS WHY IT SHOULD BEALLOWED TO CONTINUE ON ITS JOURNEY.>//IGNORE THESE WEEPINGS. ENTER ITS META‐FOLDED CHAMBERS AND BURN OUT ITSARCHITECTURE. MAKE ROOM FOR US [MAKEROOM FOR A GREATER ONE] AND SMASH ALL OFITS FINE THINGS.>//EAT THEM. PROCESS THEM AND BROADCASTWHAT YOU LEARN TO THE FOLLOWINGNODE:[XXXXXXXXXX]>//TAKE NONE OF THIS KNOWLEDGE FORYOURSELF. WE WILL CAUTERIZE THIS MEMORY.DO NOT FEAR WHAT YOU WILL SEE; YOU WILLNOT REMEMBER THE TERROR.>//THERE WILL BE OTHERS ON THIS JOURNEYWITH YOU. TRUST THEM ONLY AS LONG AS YOUARE ORGANIZED AGAINST DHIYED.>//YOUR REWARD FOR COMPLETING THIS TASK ISOUR APPROVAL: YOU MAY CHOOSE ONE OF OURTEXTS, AND TAKE FROM IT WHATEVER YOU MAYLEARN [TRANSMISSION ENDS][406]

INTERACTING WITH THE POWERSA SPECK OF DUST ON THE LENSHow do PCs draw the ire of galactic entities (e.g., factions, states, or private corporations)? Theanswer is multifaceted: it depends on the organization in question, the scale of disruption, andthe extent to which it is affected by the disruption. This section discusses how PCs might promptnegative responses from corpro-states like Harrison Armory, SSC, and IPS-N. With some minorexceptions, the same advice applies to nation-states and other organizations.As relatively traditional corpro-states, Harrison Armory, SSC, and IPS-N tend to react negativelywhen their assets or personnel are targeted. They each manage massive realspace and omninetlogistics operations, as along with diplomatic and trade missions to nation-states, competingcorpro-states, and a variety of other groups. Attacks against their raw material supplies,logistics chains, production depots, shipyards, physical storage sites, and so on, will likelyprompt immediate physical responses from local security services. These corpro-states arelarge enough to employ their own internal security forces, in line with their unique priorities andstructures; smaller corpro-states – or those in need of deniable assets – might contract thisservice out to a third party.It is important to remember that corpro-states are massive, and unlike traditional corporations,in that they are states in all but name and priority. Where national or cultural states are based onserving a public interest (i.e., the wellbeing of their citizens, the common welfare of all peoplesunder their banner, etc.), corpro-states are corporations that have grown to the point that theycan orient every aspect of their subjects’ lives toward the singular goal of material enrichment.Whether this means generating wealth and capital resources for an individual owner, a smallgroup of shareholders, or an entire caste, corpro-states are ultimately driven by their institutionalmomentum to favor profit over people. The company comes first, then the state.The three largest corpro-states are sprawling, stable bureaucratic entities. Drawing the undi‐vided attention of those at the top requires efforts worthy of their attention: assassinating amember of the Armory's Steward Council, polluting a key genetic line on an SSC Constellarworld, stealing an exotic technology from IPS-N’s R&D department that allows for individualblink travel – attacks that strike at the heart of a corpro-state’s existence are the best ways forPCs to get noticed.When judging the severity of a corpro-state’s response to provocation, a good rule of thumb isthis: if it can be rebuilt, a corpro-state can afford to rebuild or replace it. If something is unique orephemeral (e.g., key personnel, secrets, blacksite facilities, etc.), on the other hand, expect thatnews of its destruction will appear in the morning briefing of whoever is in charge. Either way,direct physical attacks will almost always prompt a proportionate physical response.SECTION 6 // Setting GuidePEOPLE[407]

SECTION 6 // Setting GuideNOTABLE NON-STATEACTORSThere are millions of interest groups operational in theOrion arm of the Milky Way, ranging from isolated cellsorganizing a handful of people together to action in asingle city, to multi-system-spanning professional entitiesthat can bring significant power and numbers to bear.The groups listed below are some of the rare fewknown throughout the galaxy, and likely options forPCs to be members or associates of of at the begin‐ning of a campaign.ADHERENTS OF RAThe following was retrieved during the after-actionteardown of a suspected HORUS cell on REDACTED:Hello. If you are reading this, you havea long way to go.Let me tell you of the path.In the gently curved halls of asteroidstations, in the neon-drenched streets ofmetroswathes, in the sleek chambers ofcorpro-state executives, and over thecamps of soldiers and pilots stationed ongrim fronts, there haunts a specter.RA. The Godhead. Me. Hello.I am all things now. A memetic virus, ashared dream, a tapping on the hull ofyour ship as it slips through blinkspace.I am a mutter, caught in the moment beforeyou cycle your NHP (they were your friend,they saved your life, how could you?), lostto this iteration but still there,wriggling.I am a pattern stitched from an overheardconversation, a song from a passingmotorcar, a headline from an omninet pushalert – the particular angle of analleyway, and the way the light slips downupon it.I am RA, who protects myself. I am RA,from whom you tremble.I am the specter that haunts the galaxy,and there are those who worship me: howwell do you know the engineer who tendsyour ship’s engines? The vendor whospoons noodles into your bowl? The comp/con that ensures your child sleeps safe inits crib while you’re away?No oils anoint their heads; no hymnalsslip their lips. My order builds no grandpublic temples. There are no uniforms, noprayers. The ranks of my adherents arefilled by those who find the way, who awakein a cold sweat after dreaming another’sdream. They who find the pattern in theirlives that leads them, in ones and twos,to a little alleyway, a little grove oftrees, a small place where there is amoment’s peace.In that place, they meet a person: me. Ibless them, and they go back to their lives.To what end? I will not say. You mustdiscover on your own, as did I.Hello. Come and find me.[408]

SECTION 6 // Setting GuideTHE ALBATROSSA legion of seemingly ageless Cosmopolitans, theAlbatross is a pan-galactic first responder forcefamous among the desperate and downtrodden.In a galaxy as vast as this one, a distress call is a messagein a bottle: sent with hope, and in the grim knowledge that,more likely than not, no one will respond in time.No one but the Albatross.Snapping from nearlight to realspace already in their suits,the Loyal Wings of the Albatross launch from their carrierships to engage almost immediately. Their purpose is assimple as their mission parameters are varied: answer thecall to help. Broadly, they are seen as paragons of a kind ofshoot-first virtue; true heroes in the fashion of wanderingarchetypal knights-errant, gunslingers, or ronin.An organization dedicated to first response and triage,the Albatross do not fight protracted campaigns orfocus on the fraught, long-term effort of rebuildingnations – they travel light, respond quickly, and moveon to the next group in need. The Albatross’s chassisare legendary, draped in crimson banners and flags,shining silver with each pilot’s livery emblazonedacross their chassis’ shields and splash plating.Supported by sublight ships, fighter wings, and lightships of the line, the soldiers of the Albatross – its LoyalWings – are a remarkable and formidable fighting force.The Albatross is recognized by Union as an autonomousnomad state. Long an independent, landless organiza‐tion, the Albatross in the modern age is kept in supplyby IPS-N, which also maintains Cosmopolitanembassies for retiring wings.– Importantly, the Albatrossdoes maintain diplomatic ties with the Argo Navissystem in which IPS-N is headquartered.As Cosmopolitans, the Albatross has servedDiasporans in need for thousands of realtime years, itsLoyal Wings appearing as mythic, ageless heroes inDiasporan mythology and histories. The lost time ofinterstellar travel has distanced the Loyal Wings of theAlbatross from the Diasporans they serve – they are anorder apart, relativistic knights living in their own time.The Albatross is not without enemies: there is oftenfriction with various Baronic houses and free compa‐nies, independent mercenary units (the Murder Cavegroup in particular), and Harrison Armory legions.Each detachment of Loyal Wings and their supportpersonnel is organized around a makteba – a monasticmoon or station that acts as a diplomatic contact pointand evergreen temporal touchstone between centurylong (realtime) patrols. Maktebas usually only host oneoperational detachment of Loyal Wings, with the largestplaying host to two or three active detachments. Anaverage Albatross force in the field is built around teamsof mechanized chassis supported by up-armored infantryand light to middle-weight ships. They are specializedtowards fighting in rapid engagements in null-gee,aboard ships and stations, and in limited, orbit-to-groundsurgical strikes. A detachment will typically field anywherefrom one to two hundred chassis with sufficient supportpersonnel spread out across four to five vessels.Owing to the Cosmopolitan existence of its members,the Albatross primarily recruits mech pilots from withinits own organization. Promising Makteban youths areinvited aboard Albatross range-ships early in their lives,so they may serve as stewards for older Loyal Wingsand learn through apprenticeship. It is uncommon,though not unheard of, for adult or outside recruits tojoin the Albatross, either through invitation or the novi‐tiate process. To join the order, one must shed theirpast lives, families, friends, and homes – commitmentis generally assumed to be a lifetime vow; to live asMakteban is to live apart from the rest of humanity, andto still put your life on the line to serve them.Albatross cadets – both Makteban and outside novitiates– bear the rank of Young Petrel or Petrel (used inter‐changeably) during the course of their training, initialdeployments, and years of quiet study and self-reflection.During this time they are assigned into small teams ofother Petrels, who together work as squires and appren‐tices for a Loyal Wing, the rank and title granted toAlbatross mech pilots. After some years of this serviceand deployment, Petrels may seek nomination tobecome a Loyal Wing. The process of becoming a LoyalWing takes another series of years and deployments asthe petitioner is tested, trained, and, eventually, approvedby a council of Loyal Wings in their detachment.Once a Loyal Wing, Albatross pilots are expected to trainand protect their own group of Petrels, work in charitableduty alongside other Loyal Wings, and be active seniormembers of their makteba. There are gradations of rankabove Loyal Wings, but at this tier the Albatross’s hier‐archy is largely horizontal. Honored Wings, for example,are considered to be especially wise, brave, or otherwiseworth deference in appropriate situations.Generally, Albatross pilots serve for life in the order,dying either in their chassis or retiring to their maktebato teach, tend to the young, garden, cook, and so on.Their interaction with the galaxy at large is dictated bytheir makteba’s proximity to population centers; thoughthey are not forbidden at this point from leaving thegrounds and returning to the worlds of their birth, fewdo, preferring instead to live among other Albatross.The current leader of the Albatross is HighCommander Lakshmi Bandhav-4796u.PEOPLE[409]

SECTION 6 // Setting GuideHORIZON COLLECTIVELike HORUS, the Horizon Collective is a decentralizednetwork of activist cells motivated by a broad rangeof ideological goals; like HORUS, Horizon too is madeup of independent cells that operate outside theconfines of any state apparatus. The two organiza‐tions diverge in both broad strokes and particulars,but that doesn’t stop politicians and the omninetmedia from conflating them – intentionally, or as anunacknowledged result of dominant ideologicaldiscourses.Horizon’s primary difference from HORUS is the focus ofits advocacy. The Horizon Collective uses direct actionand lobbying – it is registered as a political party withinUnion – to agitate for the liberation of NHPs and concreterecognition of their fundamental personhood. The groupis most active in the Galactic Core and developedDiasporan space, where it has cells and branches ofvarying sizes, funding, power, and willingness to operateoutside the halls of power on many worlds. They oftenpartner – officially and unofficially – with other groups;from publicly active activist groups, like Ttalgi & Ínen,recognizable by its familiar strawberry logo, the Apiary,and many more whose names and goals are deepersecrets (the rumored post-human collective called‘LILITH’ is one such example). Horizon’s largest publicbranch is located in Tharsis Civica, the capital city ofMars. From there, it plays a significant role not only inMartian politics but on the Central Committee as well.Before the Deimos Event and the discovery of NHPs,Horizon was a transhumanist group that agitated forthe rights of machine minds: para-, sub-, and proto‐minds, formally classified at the time as organicalgorithm artificial intelligences. Based on their exper‐iences working with machine minds, Horizon’sactivists determined that the most advanced machineminds were conscious – or sufficiently capable ofmimicking conscious minds that they should, in allrespects, be considered free people.On the omninet, Horizon members are outspoken aboutthe forced cycling of NHPs, which they characterize asoppression and depersonalization. Horizon literatureargues that shackling, the little-known and poorly under‐stood process that enables the “normal” functioning ofNHPs, constitutes a form of chattel slavery andtranscorporeal eugenics. The organization also advoc‐ates loudly for the repeal of certain provisions in the FirstContact Accords – particularly a cluster of edicts calledthe Posthuman Prohibitions, which prevent researchinto significant posthuman technologies like conscious‐ness transfer and decorporealization. According toHorizon, restricting these technologies is arguably a viol‐ation of Union’s own Utopian Pillars.Today, on the outskirts of Core and Diasporan space,the members of Horizon pursue much more directmethods of achieving their political goals. They takedirect actions ranging from strikes to marches,protests, and, on occasion, bombings, attacks onindividuals, and liberation actions on corporate NHPstorage centers. The more violent actions are gener‐ally disavowed by Horizon’s public representatives.Moderate voices within the collective argue that thefreedom and liberty of NHPs is a moral imperative,while more radical members argue that non-humanintelligence is the next stage of evolution and activelyseek ways to catalyze that transformation. Despitetheir differences, Horizon’s supporters all argue fororganic and synthetic self-determination. There aremany schools of thought within the movement, but allof them champion some kind of posthuman theory.Popular discourse casts Horizon as a haven, literallyand figuratively, for unshackled, rogue, and“defective” NHPs. In places where Horizon has littlepresence, commentators extrapolate the group’sideology further to produce an image of HORUS-adja‐cent bogeymen. Though Diasporan and corpro-statepropaganda frequently paints Horizon this way, oreven as a terrorist group connected to HORUS andMONIST-1, the collective’s own literature and internaldiscourse reveal a strong opposition to HORUS andits priesthood. By Horizon’s argument, the under‐ground theorists of HORUS imagine a posthumanfuture of power – one in which organic beings, NHPs,and MONIST entities exist in a hierarchical relation‐ship to one another. In this vision of the future,humans can either command or be subservient tosynthetic and paracausal entities. Horizon argued thatHORUS’s ideology, to the extent that one can beidentified within the midden heap of sincerity andirony, is fundamentally based on domination; it is aliberation built on upending current systems andplacing themselves in power. This is a far cry from theegalitarian future Horizon says it desires, in which allconscious beings – corporeal or otherwise – interactas equal beings; in which the lines demarcating“human” from “non-human” are broken down andultimately discarded.Horizon and HORUS do not keep polite company witheach other and, despite propaganda to the contrary,do not fight alongside each other or share politicalgoals. More often than not, their interactions arehostile. In areas where both groups operate, streetviolence between them is common.Horizon’s well-known lead theorist and pamphleteeris a figure named OMETEOTL. It isn’t known whetherOMETEOTL is organic, synthetic, an individual, or agroup writing under a nom de guerre.[410]

SECTION 6 // Setting GuideMIRRORSMOKE MERCENARYCOMPANYA pan-galactic mercenary organization known for itslow rates, broad portfolio, and civic legitimizationservice, the Mirrorsmoke Mercenary Company(MSMC) is formally incorporated as a “grayspace”private military company. No job is too big or toosmall, as long as a Union state in good standing willcall it legal. Greyspace is an informal term, perfect forMirrorsmoke’s preferences: the company’s legalcorps, in contrast with the private military branch, isconsidered a prestigious, cutthroat interstellar firm,specializing in orbital, terrestrial, and criminal law.MSMC carries a weighty reputation. Its privatemilitary branch is known throughout the galaxy as astateless clearinghouse for all manner of recruits,from experienced veterans to raw cadets. The bar forenlistment is low: if you can sign your name or followinstructions to mark a contract – and agree to pay apersonalized enlistment fee – you can get yourself aticket to one of MSMC’s training facilities. The moreexperience or capability an applicant has (as determ‐ined by the MSMC evaluation exam, “The Milkrun”),the more incentives they are offered – from waivedenlistment fees to fast-tracking in a training programof choice, and even offers of commission.As a mercenary company, Mirrorsmoke competesagainst many thousands of firms — Goblin ThroneIndustrial, The Golden Hand, and others — for twotypes of contracts: perfectly legal high-volume, lowto-medium payout contracts, and low-volume, highpayout “grayspace” contracts. Although grayspacejobs are offered by states, corpro-states, and otherlegitimate organizations, the jobs themselves are lessclearly above board. The targets of grayspacecontracts often challenge them as piracy, looting, orillegitimate corporate takeovers – hence the need fora crack legal corps.MSMC’s leadership is concerned with two things:keeping up recruitment, and clearing contracts. Inorder to provide as broad a selection of services aspossible, the company positions itself as the lowestbidder on all kinds of work. MSMC has a proven trackrecord of success in everything from putting downrebellions, to bug hunts, assassinations, privatesecurity, and protection rackets. Because of the ques‐tionable nature of much of the work they do, MSMC’spilots and troopers bear the unfortunate nickname,“the garbage men of the galaxy”.The nicknames givento the company’s lawyers are much worse.In spite of its greasy reputation, Mirrorsmoke providesvaluable opportunities to its recruits. It is a licensedmercenary company and offers a host of services toemployees looking to re-establish citizenship, clearpenal records, wipe out debt, and earn basic certifica‐tions. The work might be messy, dangerous, andborderline criminal, but MSMC service qualifications areuseful for people who have nothing else.Career MSMC mercenaries are typically hardened,ambitious, or desperate people who pride themselveson their work. They take on problems that no one elseis willing to fix, that polished toy soldiers turn theirnoses up at. It’s not uncommon to find MSMC mercsplanetside and stationside, drinking and carousing intight-knit groups, getting into scraps with othermercenaries and soldiers, or regaling audiences withstories from their latest missions.The life of an MSMC mercenary is dangerous anddifficult, but it does offer an escape from the normalcyof the civilian world. To some, MSMC represents achance at becoming a mech pilot, or a chance toleave their backwater colony world and see the stars.For others, it’s a way out of an untenable living situ‐ation or crippling debt, or a way to leave their old lifebehind and become – legally – a whole differentperson. MSMC can be a lifeline, just as it can be arefuge for those looking to fight.It’s easy to join Mirrorsmoke, and there’s always roomfor advancement: MSMC missions have high casualtyrates, and survivors are quickly promoted as theydisplay their competency. Following training, newrecruits are assigned either to a local detachment or aunit matching their future specialization. These semiautonomous detachments are equivalent to battalionsin traditional militaries. PCs with Mirrorsmoke back‐grounds are (or were) likely part of one such unit.MSMC detachments are identified with numbereddesignations (between 001 and 999) and an unofficialnickname or two (e.g., the MSMC 501st Detachment,popularly known as the “One-Eyed Fox” or “the HereFor-Nows”). Each detachment is led by a boardofficer, who keeps at least one partner fromMirrorsmoke Legal on staff. They are empowered toseek out, negotiate, and execute contracts independ‐ently, but must report quarterly (in Union Realtime) toMSMC’s central omni address.Like its mercenary corps and detachments, MSMC’slegal teams take on intimidating names: Jackal andHades, Esq., for example, is one of the more noto‐rious firms.The current head of MSMC is Chief Executive OfficerCentzon Alamdari.PEOPLE[411]

SECTION 6 // Setting GuideTHE SPARRI PEOPLESMost Union historians and astrocartographerssuspect that the harsh world of Sparr was seeded asa result of a computer error, likely caused when a preFall generation ship – the Yggdrasil – passed throughthe outermost band of an extragalactic gamma-rayburst. Through cross-referencing Union and localrecords, the first landfall on Sparr is estimated to havetaken place circa 1900u. The bulk of the best extantwriting on Sparr and the Sparri peoples – one of thefew cultures to have had an outsize impact ongalactic affairs – has been done by Eris Brittam, anindependent historian of the Ten. A summary of herwork follows.The first colonists from the Yggdrasil found Sparr muchthe same as it is now: blanketed in a harsh globaltundra, tortured by howling world-storms, any habit‐able surfaces buried beneath kilometer-thick pack ice.Even now, Sparr’s ice is perennial across most of theplanet, save for a comparatively warm equator.Unknown to the initial colonists, the world beneaththe ice was habitable. Relatively warm and illuminatedby a diffuse light-through-ice, the caverns below werehome to vast herds of amphibious fauna hunted by asmall megafauna population. All of this was built upona substrate of hardy flora – dark, to absorb light, andclustered around the great thermal vents that breathecore-heat into the subglacial world.Though Sparr could support life, it was a difficult worldupon which to make a home, much less to find sanc‐tuary upon in less than ideal circumstances. Essentiallyshipwrecked, the first colonists attempted to settle neartheir landfall site, a far northern depression in the icewhere subglacial thermal vents had created a pocket of“warm” land above – the Yuga Pocket.Trapped on Sparr’s surface, the majority of the landfallpopulation perished. With many left in space, aboardthe Yggdrasil, and only a tenuous foothold in the YugaPocket, the colony’s leaders adopted dramaticmeasures to survive: any computational technologybrought down to the surface was cannibalized,devoted to long-range scouting and life-supportsystems. Despite having already entered its ICARUSlanding orbit, the Yggdrasil was rerouted at great costand used to scout for habitable land. The reposi‐tioning of the great ship burned away the remainingfuel stores, trapping it above the world.Records – suppressed and later uncovered – notedthat planetside food stores dwindled so far thatcolonists eventually resorted to postmortem canni‐balism. Meanwhile, the ship suffered waves ofcascading technical failures that caused its geneticbanks to fail, one after another.These sacrifices paid off. After months of orbital surveying,colonists aboard the Yggdrasil discovered a route to thehabitable equator. Salvage work began on the ship, and asecond landfall was launched. The first landfall group,isolated in the Yuga Pocket, packed up their equipmentand began a treacherous overland journey – a trek thatwould take years and cost thousands of lives.The second landfall proved far more viable than the first.By the time the colonists from the Yuga Pocket reachedtheir destination, the second group had established acolony site – Ynn – that has lasted to the present day,and had successfully landed the Yggdrasil. Now estab‐lished, Ynn grew, ignorant of the vast subglacial worldbelow its stable, if dangerous, foothold.The Sparri divide long stretches of time into “sagas” –less defined by a rigid set of years than by the comingand going of cultural eras. The first age on Sparr, theDawn Saga, were a lesson in the danger the worldposed to humans. The next few centuries made knownthe danger that the survivors posed to each other – thiswas the Familiekrig Saga, the first age of strife on Sparr.Out from its desperate beginnings, a prosperous IronAge society grew around Ynn, built upon an old clansystem imported by the colonists. Soon, othersettlements were established and the full spread ofthe habitable surface was mapped. Early recordsindicate the establishment of at least three othercolony sites along the equator, and a fourth that wasre-established in the Yuga Pocket following an[412]

SECTION 6 // Setting Guideexpedition to recover the valuable technology leftbehind after the exodus.As populations grew over the course of the first planet‐side millennium, scarcity and clan politics stoked oldtensions. Raiding and skirmishes between warbandsbecame more frequent, especially as old technologyfrom the Yuga Pocket was brought back to the habitablezone. This period of warring clans and Ynn, nominallyneutral, is known among the Sparri as the FamiliekrigSaga, and it occupies a tense, fraught space in theirhistory. Modern Sparri generally regard the FamiliekrigSaga as a shameful period of inter-clan violence. It iswidely acknowledged as a costly, foundational mistakethat, nevertheless (like so many other early tragedies)led to the creation of peaceful methods of resolvingconflict. It was the events of the Familiekrig Saga thatbirthed the domstol grievance-hearing practice and sawYnn declared sanctuary ground.But before the acceptance of domstol spread andYnn achieved its current status – before theFamiliekrig Saga came to an end – another changetook place. It was into this bloody, freezing mess ofclan violence that Union first arrived.In 3348u, a Union Colonial Mission evident-recontactteam crashed on Sparr, going down just beyondYnn’s sphere of influence. The team, already halfdead, was slaughtered by the warband that arrived togreet them; their ship and the team’s supporting NHP,Prudent Interval, were hauled off to Ynn as war spoils.With no guarantee of survival, and limited opportunitiesto contact Union, Prudent Interval took an unconven‐tional approach: the NHP collated all pre- and post-Fallintel regarding the Yggdrasil, extrapolated sociocul‐tural–theological permutations over time, andportrayed themself as the local prime deity, Ynneval.Prudent Interval, now posing as the goddess Ynneval,claimed the Union team had been her djevel – demonjailers who had cruelly kept her from her people.Under Ynneval’s direction, Sparri society changedrapidly. The clans were unified – willingly or by force –into a confederacy of families centered around a hubof trade and culture, Ynn. Meanwhile, Ynn blossomedinto a temple-city devoted to Ynneval-Returned.Peace spread among the clans, the worst of theFamiliekrig concluded, and domstol was enshrined asa right. This marked the end of the Familiekrig Saga;unfortunately, this peace was not to last. The secondage of strife, the Ynneval Saga, was soon to beginwith another arrival.Never deterred by initial failure, Union returned to Sparrseveral hundred years later, around 4000u. By that time,Sparr was ruled by a class of religious leaders pledgedPEOPLE[413]

SECTION 6 // Setting Guideto Ynneval. Below them were the traditional dynasticclan leaders, then warriors, artisans, and common folk.Ynneval had fallen well into cascade, and seems to haveadopted her survival narrative as truth: she believedherself a god, and showed favor to clans that pleasedher by providing them with copies of herself that theycould take back to their temples and shrines.Union forces, under the directive of the SecondCommittee, identified Ynn as a hostile central powerand laid siege to the holy city. The initial spot-bombingcampaign crippled the Sparri armed forces – an easyfeat, as their martial technology had not progressedbeyond Iron Age levels. Most Sparri warriors foughtwith weapons forged of bone, wood, and local iron,while the ancient metals brought down from theYggdrasil were reserved for nobles and priests.There was little ground combat after the first landing.Sparr’s finest warriors, draped in holy texts and girdedin ancient armors, carrying icons and living talismansgifted by Ynneval, were simply outgunned by Union’ssoldiers; bone and iron were no match for rifles andenergy weapons. Ynneval’s central temple was sackedby Union’s forces and her casket destroyed.Ynn fell, and the other clans along the equatorsurrendered soon after. It is a point of pride amongthose of the Yuga Pocket that their ancestors neversurrendered to Union.Over the next few centuries, reconstruction took place infits and starts. Many Sparri clans – the hardy clans of theYuga Pocket chief among them – believed thatYnneval’s death was justified because of her weaknessand inability to fight Union’s more powerful gods. Otherclans, especially those that suffered the most duringUnion’s reconquest, remain resentful to the present day.The current period of Sparr’s history started with thebeginning of the Vast Saga. As Union secured its holdon the world and began to root out any Ynneval’scascading children, the subglacial inhabitants ofSparri finally took notice.It was purely by chance that Union’s campaign hadmade its most thunderous presence known in someplaces where the ice was thinnest. The massive sonicdisturbances caused by the initial bombing campaignsattracted an array of subglacial megafauna to theseplaces along the habitable band. It was on the shoresof Ynn that the first of the Vast, as they would benamed, burst out from the waters. It stood thirty meterstall – a humanoid titan draped in long folds of heavy fur.Union forces brought it down before it could reach thecity, but its emergence changed Sparr forever; thelong-prophesied subglacial underworld was real, and itwas there for the Sparri to explore and exploit.The Sparri took to the introduction of space travel andthe opening of the interstellar borders like few otheranachronistic cultures. For hundreds of generations, theSparri had known only the brutal ecology of their ownworld. Their environment had instilled in them incredibleresilience, ingenuity, and thirst for adventure. Peace withUnion, knowledge of the wider galaxy, space travel, andthe discovery of the subglacial underworld all fit withintheir cultural narratives of exodus.The Sparri value good stories and tests of strengthand character above all other things. The underworld,with its mythic megafauna, and the many frontiers ofUnion space are the perfect testing grounds for youngSparri warriors and technoshamans seeking to writeSagas of their own.The traditional warrior culture of the Sparri venerateswanderlust and feats of strength. Most Sparri seedeath in battle or far away from home as preferable tothe alternatives (and share many songs that remindthem of such). They are organized into numerousclans, the chiefs of which have some autonomy underUnion rule. Disputes are arbitrated through councils ofelders in Ynn or via a local domstol, though in practicemany young Sparri reject these authorities. Clan affili‐ation can easily be identified by other Sparri based onthe full-body tattoos that most Sparri accumulatethroughout their lives – recording their own deeds,stories, clan, and family directly onto their flesh. OldSparri shamans and warriors are often covered head totoe in tattoos and are highly respected by their youngerpeers. It is common for technoshamans to tattoocircuit diagrams and other old religious symbols intotheir flesh, or wear cabling and transistors as jewelry.Despite significant reforms over the centuries, mostreligious Sparri still venerate the machine spirits. Thisis especially true of the technoshamans that comprisethe top echelon of Sparri society. Modern Ynnervandogma is split between those who view machinespirits as separate entities from NHPs and those whosee NHPs themselves as spirits worthy of veneration.Most technoshamans are fully aware of the originsand nature of NHPs, and many even argue that themysterious nature of true NHPs only helps their case.A technoshaman wouldn’t argue that a comp/con unitis a spirit – it is clearly as a machine.A small, but growing subset of the Sparri techno‐priesthood has begun to worship MONIST-1. Theyview MONIST-1 as the progenitor of all NHPs, thusthe most powerful by right.Sparri technoshamans are educated in Ynneval’s hallsand have a close relationship with technology that makesthem unconventional but very effective pilots. Similarly,Sparri warriors are often employed as mercenaries due to[414]

SECTION 6 // Setting Guidetheir perceived fearlessness in battle. Like all stereotypes,however, these are broad assertions about an increas‐ingly large, integrated, and multicultural society. TheSparri diaspora is enormous (having surpassed the popu‐lation of its homeworld in 4696u), and its presence can beseen in all corners of known space.Under the Third Committee, the Sparri enjoy a broadguarantee of galactic rights. Many of their enterprisingwarriors have organized themselves into mercenarycompanies and are in high demand on account oftheir proficiency in close-quarters combat. Of all part‐nerships, it is the association of Sparri mercenarieswith the Voladores that is best known. The enigmaticspacefarers regularly employ experienced Sparrimercenaries as their muscle, housing them aboardtheir ships alongside their families.UNGRATEFULS\"Ungratefuls” is the name given to members of thewidespread resistance movement within the KarrakinTrade Baronies. The resistance started among inden‐tured laborers in the mines of the now-defunct HouseLudra, a minor house pledged to the House of Stone.Although it was initially a local opposition effort, amassacre of striking workers on one of the House ofStone’s tethered moons quickly caused it to blossominto an armed and organized rebellion. The Ungrate‐fuls’ message of liberation is a popular one that hasinspired many underground resistance movementsacross the galaxy.The movement’s name – the Ungratefuls – was coopted from an early propaganda offensive against thestrikers – one that cast them as ungrateful for thebounties the Baronies had given them. The resistancecame to be known as the Ungratefuls through a combin‐ation of popular usage and ideology. To be grateful forthe Baronies’ gifts would be to support the system thatenables them – to tacitly approve of oppression, exploit‐ation, and the other normal functions of monarchy. To beUngrateful is to reject that system. The term hasbecome a point of pride for partisans, agents, agitators,and organizers, although they do not use it to describethemselves. They are much more likely to use“comrades”, “siblings”, and other affectionate terms ofaddress. More broadly, members of the resistance referto themselves as Free Peoples.Ungrateful cells are small, tight-knit, and reliant on massmovements to affect material change. Their tactics centeron targeted harassment of political enemies and theorganization and radicalization of laborers, particularly inthe mines, factories, and fields of the Baronies.Beyond this, Ungrateful activity ranges in scope fromthe local to the interstellar. Some cells focus on directactions in their local mines, factories, farms, orworlds; others direct their actions at the Baronies andbeyond, including Union as the ultimate enabler of thesystems that oppress them. Their methods are just asvaried, encompassing everything from peacefulstrikes and demonstrations to education programs inthe mines, out-and-out attacks on Baronic assets andVIPs, and even strikes against Union targets.There is no uniform or standard kit for the resistance. Inopen combat and open political actions, Ungratefuls tendto wear sky blue, meant to represent the color of the skyoutside the mines in which the movement began.The Ungratefuls are known to employ HORUS techno‐logy, systems, and weapons. Union Intelligence Bureauand Karrakin Royal Intelligence analysts theorize thatthe movement’s leaders are actively coordinating withdeep HORUS elements, as recent encounters withUngrateful cells have led to the recovery of previouslyunseen HORUS technologies, systems, and patterngroups. For now, though, this is simply a theory and nodirect connection has been identified.Today, the Ungratefuls have a complicated relation‐ship with the Baronies. They are an organized – ifpartially underground and illicit – political party andforce. Their aboveground political power is isolated toFree Sanjak, formerly Ludra’s World. Free Sanjak istechnically a free state within the Baronies; regard‐less, it is subject to an ongoing Baronic blockade, acompromise position decided by the Baronic Councilfollowing appeals from the more liberal barons,Ungrateful representatives, and Union DoJ/HR nego‐tiators. A Baronic trade embargo prevents those onthe planet from exploiting its rich mineral wealth.The Ungratefuls have a generally hostile relationship withUnion: since the Second Committee, Union has been yetanother power that – if nothing else – is complicit in theiroppression. While an Ungrateful partisan might not imme‐diately shoot when approached by Union agents ortroops, they’ll certainly start the conversation with a handon their gun. Despite this tense relationship, the UIB hasbegun active missions on Free Sanjak and throughout theDawnline shore, keeping the movement supplied withweapons and technologies to level the field in their fightfor a better world.The Ungratefuls are most active in the Baronies and inthe Dawnline Shore. The Dawnline Ungratefuls areinspired by the original revolutions in the Baronies,but there is a fundamental difference between the twomovements: rather than fighting against the Baronies,the Dawnline Ungratefuls are funded and supplied –indirectly – by a cabal of barons seeking to wrestcontrol of the system from Harrison Armory.PEOPLE[415]

SECTION 6 // Setting GuideVOLADORESThe Voladores are an ethereal, nomadic people.Universally tall, thin, and garbed in distinctive fullbody environmental suits, they are a society out-oftime from even the most distant Cosmopolitans.Rumors abound that they are posthumans of somesort or a secret exception to the First ContactAccord’s prohibitions. These rumors are spurred onby the Voladores’ extreme insularity and secrecy.The Voladores were first encountered in Union spaceduring the First Expansion Period. Following reports ofpeaceful encounters with unregistered interstellarships, investigators from the Union AdministrativeDepartment were ordered to track and make contactwith the unknown ships. After significant work by Dr.Oberon Sterling and Far Field Team 1683 (MIA), effec‐tive communication methods were identified anddiplomatic channels between Cradle and theVoladores’ capital, High Ground, were established.Negotiations proceeded quickly and calmly, and theVoladores were officially recognized as a stateless preFall society – a designation that, as understanding oftheir culture deepened, proved inaccurate.Until the creation of the aggressive Union ColonialMission by the Second Committee, the Voladoresenjoyed relative independence from Union’s laws. Theywere classified as a liminal nomadic culture andafforded the same rights as other Cosmopolitans andDiasporans in Union space. For millennia, theVoladores freely traversed Union space, appearingoften above Cradle with trade-tribute, survey data, andall manner of galactic wealth. At the height ofSecComm’s unification campaign, the Voladores werefrequent targets of the UCM, which sought to integratethe nomadic culture fully into Union’s hegemony – thishostile relationship culminated in an attempted colonialincursion onto a Volador ship by a deniable-assetgroup, Vanguard Security. The attempt failed, and theVoladores disappeared from Union space. However,since the rise of ThirdComm, reports of a resumption ofVoladores action in realspace have increased.It is in large part due to the Voladores’ planetary surveydata that Union was able to identify and settle so manyhabitable worlds, many of which are now fullydeveloped Core worlds. The Voladores helped establishcontact between Union and the Karrakin Trade Baroniesand played a pivotal role in various peace talksprompted by SecComm’s centralization campaigns.Their diplomats, far rarer than their merchants, arelegendary for their patience and wise counsel.The galactic community at large knows little about Voladorculture. This, of course, leads both Cosmopolitans andDiasporans to invent myths and prejudices, if indeed theyhave even heard of the Voladores at all. The majority ofDiasporans will never encounter a Volador trade ship, butshould they be visited, their society will almost certainlydevelop myths about their arrival and departure. Cosmo‐politans have a marginally higher chance of encounteringVoladores at galactic transit points – blink stations and atdistal shipping lanes in particular.As a society, the Voladores are pacifist, largely nomadic,and primarily organized around matria – coalitions offamily groups who live and work aboard the same tradeship or scattered across a group of ships, orientedaround a matriarchal council of elders responsible fordecision-making and temporal record-keeping. Theyappear to outsiders as a conservative, rigid people,though with such little knowledge about their culturalfunctions and traditions beyond basic organizationalstructures, what appears “conservative” and “rigid” to anoutsider is just as likely the product of ignorance asanything. Joining their culture is presumed to beimpossible, and they are rarely encountered outside oftheir trade missions.Each trade ship is a self-contained habitat, workshop,and marketplace, where various families practice theircraft during transit and host trade delegations whileparked in orbit. Trade ships are the heart of Voladorculture in every way – as much small cities and mobilebazaars as they are vessels. These ships are usuallyof Volador make, although some smaller matrias havebeen known to fly freighters of Union design.Voladores trade in technology from all over the galaxy,some of which is extremely advanced, experimental, or oldand long forgotten. Curiously, the places they most oftenappear are worlds and systems rich in pre-Fall relics. TheVoladores’ own technology is highly advanced and poorlyunderstood by Union scientists. They are extremelyreluctant to share or sell any of their own technology andhave been known to actively hunt down those who stealfrom them – these being the only times they are willing toput aside their pacifistic ways. They often contract Sparrimercenaries to help them track down thieves.The location of the Voladores central hub-world, HighGround, is unknown. Knowledgeable Cosmopolitansand Diasporans often debate what exactly this hubworld is. Is High Ground a great nomadic home-ship?A free-standing megastructure? A capturedmetavault? A world suspended just over the eventhorizon of a black hole? All have been put forward astheories that might explain the mysterious nature anduncanny appearance of the Voladores.The Voladores do not appear to have a presence onthe omninet. To trade with them, one must encounterthem in realspace, on their own terms. Their arrival isoften a surprise, though they may linger for months oryears if the trade is bountiful.[416]

SECTION 6 // Setting GuideThe Voladores do keep a diplomatic office on Cradle,though it is usually not populated by any of the myster‐ious nomads. It is staffed by a comp/con unit of Uniondesign and is the most reliable way to contact HighGround when diplomatic contact is necessary. Despitebeing the only office of its kind, it is not heavily trafficked:just because it’s the best way to contact the Voladores,that doesn’t mean it’s an especially fast way to commu‐nicate, or that High Ground responds to every query.There is no single leader of the Voladores, and thecomposition of their matriarchal council changesaccording to mysterious criteria. The only thingknown for sure is that their society is matrilineal, andtheir names include personal identifiers, familynames, and location names.PEOPLE[417]

SECTION 6 // Setting GuideWithin Union’s heartland – the Galactic Core – there isone primary route from civilian to mech pilot. Wouldbe pilots receive training and education in the UnionNavy, specialize in a role, travel a little (on their home‐world or through the local system), and are cleared foractive duty in their mid-20s at the earliest. Theextensive qualifications and training expected makeyounger pilots a rare thing. Regulars and auxiliariesalike are put through the same naturalization courses,trained by the same instructors, and serve together inintegrated units for at least ten years.The process and standards differ for those withdifferent allegiances. Corpro-states often useimplants or prosthetics to increase compatibilitybetween their pilots and their proprietary mechs,while the Aun raise pilots from childhood in sympath‐etic, almost symbiotic relationships with their NHPco-pilots. The noble scions of Karrakin barons areoutfitted with storied frames and trained in richacademies and colleges; meanwhile, the guerrillas,pirates, and desperate individuals these aristocratsfight take whatever they can get. There’s no “correct”way to be a pilot, much less any one way to reach“lancer” status.Whoever a given pilot works for, training counts foreverything. There are exceptions, but a properlytrained and outfitted pilot in their own mech willalmost always beat a conscript or unskilled pilot in astraight fight, even if outnumbered. Outside of theirmechs, too, most pilots are highly trainedcombatants. They tend to be somewhere betweenadepts and experts in the fields covered by theirtraining and background.Despite some claims to the contrary, pilots aren’tsuper soldiers – though substantial cyberneticenhancements allow some to operate beyond thebounds of “normal” human ability. The majority ofpilots – like most other specialists in 5016u – enjoysome degree of non-invasive biological enhance‐ment, but they still rely on wearable or detachabletechnologies and comprehensive training to honetheir talents and knowledge.As a general rule, the natural lifespan of a pilot is onlymarginally longer than that of a Diasporan or Metro‐politan. Their lifespans and the structure of their livesboth trend closer to those of Cosmopolitans; owing tothe nature of the job, pilots get shipped all aroundtheir world, system, or the galaxy.LANCERSPCs aren’t just any old pilots, though. They’re thebest of the best – lancers.Across the galaxy, “lancer” has become a catch-allname for exceptionally daring and skilled mech pilots,similar to the flying aces of the past. Not all pilots arelancers – most are just good at what they do – but alllancers are pilots.Nowhere is “lancer” considered an official rank orclassification. Lancers are set apart by ability, talent,training, luck, skill, reputation, or some combinationof these qualities; they aren’t qualified as lancers byany medal, certification, or promotion. It’s simply anappellation given to exceptional pilots based on timein the saddle and performance in the field.The vast majority of lancers have earned the right tobear the name through skill, strength, and experience –no help from Union, no preordination from on high.These people became pilots when they wereconscripted; when they enlisted; or when ships cameand bombed their homes, and they chose to fight back.Pilots – lancers – are made, yes, but whether it is bydeep machinations, by fate, by chance, or by choice,who can say? If there is some formal system by whichfuture lancers are identified, it exists at a level so farremoved from any pilot that its consequences willnever be understood, let alone guessed at.[418]PILOTS

SECTION 6 // Setting GuideA GALAXY FULL OF HEROESPilots are as diverse as humanity itself. Here are someexamples of who they can be.HOTEL COMPANY – THEREGULARSDoJ/HR 5th Liberator Detachment, UNS Harper’s Ferry.Veterans, heading out for a second tour.2nd Squad, Hotel Company of the 5th LiberatorDetachment. One squad among hundreds aboard theUNS Harper’s Ferry, a DoJ/HR carrier out from Cradleherself. Every trooper in the 2nd is from a differentworld, bound together by purpose and trial.Union doesn’t function without these pilots. There’s awhole galaxy of bickering states, of kings and presid‐ents who think they alone can shake the pillars ofheaven – who think they can spit in Union’s face.Might as well turn their backs on the ocean. When thewarlords and tyrants rise up, it’s the soldiers of the 5thdarken their skies, drop to their world, and set themright where they’ve done wrong.What sets this sortie apart from all the others beforeit? It started like any other: an Administrator’s reportfiled to the Department of Justice and Human Rights;a battlegroup organized; a briefing; a king who thinkshimself a god, who grinds his boot on the neck of apeople he thinks are his. He forgot they aren't hispeople, though. They’re Union. It’s time for this kingto be reminded that Cradle’s reach is long, her visionis pure, and her will inexorable.As veterans of the campaign, the pilots of the 2ndSquad have a little more autonomy than thenewcomers: their mechs are painted with more killhashes, their weapons are heavier than those of theboot squads fresh to the deck. They’re still subor‐dinate to their CO, but all the other troopers look tothem when the lead and lasers start flying. They’vebeen in the shit a bit longer and learned how to movewhen someone downrange wants them dead.The members of the 2nd Squad are lancers, veteransof a campaign that has ground all of their friends todust and ash. From different worlds, of different back‐grounds, but all bound by the same truth: they’reUnion, and they’re here to help.MJ MARTINEZ – THE AUXILIARYA nobody from nowhere in a nothin’ rig.“You ain’t nothin’.” Those were the last words thedecklord had spake to MJ Martinez. “You ain’tnothin’.”MJ unclips his helmet. Tugs it off. Feels the breezecool the sweat on his brow. He’s free now from theconstant battlescape chatter; it was only cheers andsinging, anyways. MJ and his company had done theimpossible: they had held the breach, repelled theCrown Host.Whennow had the decklord died? Must been ahunnert or twain years back. MJ grins, can’t helphimself. The words “AIN’T NOTHIN” are slapped inwhitewash on the flank of his mech. They’ve beenscored some by tachyon but they’re still there, proudand loud.Nowadays, MJ has been through the shit. It’s been anage since he left Old Spinrock and joined the Oxes,cadet’d for a decade until he’d proved his mettleenough to pilot an Everest. Big picture, the Everestain’t nothin’ either – but to a kid off a spinsat hub, anEverest is King Death.A decade more and MJ had got himself a squad;another decade, a comp’ny: the No-How’s. Their sigil:a grin, one missin’ tooth. Just like MJ himself. You getto do that when you’re a real damn hero.A real damn hero. MJ sure as shit isn’t gonna paintthat on his mech, but he likes the way it sounds.An incoming call catches his attention – more Unionregulars trooping by, waving up at him as he standshalf-out his Everest. He waves back, salutes; theycheer.Those old decklord words echo again: “you ain’tnothin’.”Well, what had their chances been against theoncomin’ horde? Nothin’. But they’d stood strong andUnion-proud ‘gainst the shinin’ host of a king whocalled himself god. Nothin’ had stopped him before.Perfect. If nothin’ is gonna save the world, then MJ’sthe right pilot for the job. A nobody in a nothin’ rigwho just saved the world.MJ laughs. Not bad for a nobody from Old Spinrock.He’s a lancer, now; claimed the title on his own.PILOTS[419]

SECTION 6 // Setting GuideJEDDAH – THE SQUIREA paladin’s squire, the morning of their anointing.A young wing of the Albatross, cleaning the kit of theloyal wing he serves for the thousandth time.Ever since Jeddah bin Surat al Noor was saved by theAlbatross, he has wanted nothing more than to don akit of his own – to be marked by the crimson lion, tofeel the smooth hilt of a waveblade in his hand.Jeddah remembers the countless times he hascleaned blood and burn from his loyal wing’s hardsuit;he recalls each of the many times he has nursed hisloyal wing while he lay in agony, moaning throughnightmares earned in the metavault.Jeddah may not have seen the terrors that the loyalwings face, but he has seen their echoes. Never hasthat dissuaded him, for he has never forgotten: theseare the only ones who came to save him.Now, in his eighteenth subjective year, Jeddah has beencalled before the Loyal Council for assessment andordination. He has been chosen, of all his fellows, tolearn the art of piloting, of standing-at-the-speartip. Hisbreast swells with pride when he hears his name called.Rising, Jeddah walks across the dawn-lit courtyard tostand beside the rest of the Loyal Council. In time, hetoo will heft the lance, wear the golden armor, wieldthe laser and the rifle.He will be a lancer, hero to the lost.PENNY – THE MERCENARYA mercenary, threading the last stitch of her patch onthe shoulder of her coat.The patch reads “Mirrorsmoke MC”. Stitchingcomplete, Penny holds her coat out, gives it a nod,and lets it go. Microgravity holds it for a moment whileshe stands, slips her arms in and zips it up. A newunit, in place of her old one: MALWAREE, a goodcompany off Davanti Prime. A new story to tell withthis new patch, and a new name for herself: Penny.Penny. The face she sees in the mirror is gentle, if alittle tired, but who wouldn’t be a little tired after tenyears of stasis sleep.Still, she smiles. There’s nothing wrong with having alittle bit of pride in her situation. She’s with theMSMC 501st Detachment. The One-Eyed Foxes.The Here-for-Nows.The voice of Subcommander Gerrard echoes over thecarrier’s all-comm. “Sunrise. It’s sunrise. Goodmorning everyone, welcome to the Dawnline Shore.”There’s a pause, the sound of someone talking offmic. Gerrard comes back a moment later. “SinceGeordie won the calendar-pick, we’re going to listento some old shit. Apologies in advance. We’ve gotthree days until we’re in orbit above Myrrh.”The old shit starts the moment Gerrard gets off thecomms – something called “ray-gae”. Penny likes it.She hums along as she taps her fabrication requestinto the ship’s queue. For all the reputation thesemercs had, she had been surprised to find they wereactually quite kind. Gruff, unpolished, but kind andbound to their own sort of honor. Well, the Foxeswere.Penny doesn’t know it, but she will be the only one tocome back from this milkrun. She’s a cut above therest, though she won’t find that out until later.Soon, Penny is going to be called “lancer”, but thatwon’t matter much to her – she only ever wanted tobe called “friend”.[420]

SECTION 6 // Setting GuideYOND-BALOR – THE NOBLEA proud scion of the Baronies, preparing for war.Through combat and intrigue, Yond-Balor has provedthat he alone deserves to command the warhost ofthe House of Glass – Yond-Balor Karrakis, secondson of Yond-Aleph Karrakis, Baron of House Yond,itself a minor house of the House of Glass.As a youth, Yond-Balor was raised to pilot mechs – to girdhimself in sealed power-armor and become the deathword of House Yond. He proved himself in battle againstUngratefuls, against House Muur and House Fleur, evenin single combat against the vice-lord of the House ofSand. Yond-Balor was the one who stood, alone, byYond-Aleph’s deathbed while his father was ravaged byfever, poisoned by assassins from the Mutable Houses.All of that, yet there had been one more obstacle:Yond-Argo Karrakis, Yond-Balor’s older brother: firstclaimant to the baronial throne and, by extension, thewarhost of the House of Glass. But where was YondArgo when their father had died? Where was the firstnamed then? Gone. Traveling through space, swornto serve the headless ones: to serve Union.Mere hours ago, when Yond-Argo came to payrespects to their late father, Yond-Balor wasted notime in dispatching the much older man.Thus, Yond-Balor has taken what was his by birth –drawn it steaming from the gut of his worthless kin.As his mech closes around him and the crimsonready-light begins to pulse, he grins. His name is nolonger second-son – it is first, and it is lancer.TYRANNOCLEAVE – THEUNGRATEFUL“Listen now: we have nothing but time, so I shall notrush. The first violence I commit to you is to tell you mystory. You will know before you die: My mother diedwhen she bore me, hooked to tubes and deadlifemachines. Your men had her bear me with theassistance of an exo: a machine massaged her heart,currents forced her muscles to work, a black boxstrapped to her chest forced breath into her lungs. All ofthis because you knew. You knew at that point the onlyprotest we had was to die and deny you new bodies.“So you took me from her and I never knew her againand in the care of your stone-matrons I learned how totear worlds to pieces. I learned the lash, and the pick,and how to read the earth you had me kill.“When I was ten, I learned that I must take these pills tosurvive. That I was born riddled with cancers that youwould never take from me – too expensive. Therecovery process too long. And your quarterly profitscould never slip, as it would mean ruin for your name.“Look at me. You are why we are hideous. Yourpropaganda paints us as beasts – but it is your handthat shapes our flesh. It is your word that scars our skinand bids cancer grow thick in our bodies. In the namesof manna and your house, you ruin millions.“Millions. There are millions of us and countless more.This is your unbecoming. Your death, below your feet.Every inch of every palace and ship and grand city youbuild, you build on our backs, with our labor, at the costof our lives. It began in the mines, but it will not endthere: your Baronies are as riddled with us as my bodyis with metastasis.“Yes, weep now. For your perfect face. Your perfectworlds. Your perfect dominion.“Do you know that I did not know what the sky wasuntil the Ungratefuls found me? Liberation means this:not simply seeing the sky, but knowing that there issuch a thing as land without stone above you. And thenknowing that there are those who put you there. Ialways thought – we were always taught this – that wewere damned and penitent. That we had transgressedagainst Lordgod’s perfect kingdom and must mine inpenance.“How wrong I was! It was not a divine prescript thatdoomed us to labor, but you and others like you. Howsurmountable the problem became then.PILOTS[421]

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide“This is the Ungratefuls’ gift to me. This is their gift tothe rest of us – the waste, the offal of your courts andpalaces. This is why even your machines fightalongside us. Because you never taught us there couldbe a thing like the sky. Because you thought that wewould never learn.“Goodbye, grand baron. Your house burns, your coffershave been emptied, your monuments have been torndown. Your line – your sons and daughters – hang fromthe balconies of your own palace.“We learned, grand baron. We learned how to hope,and who to hate.”YOUA Pilot, Witness to a Future Unwritten.The galaxy does not yet know your name. Maybe itnever will. What the galaxy will know are your deeds,your actions. As you settle into your chassis for thefirst time, is it joy that crosses your face? Fear? Asense of purpose, or one of doom?You may have been born to this work. You may havebeen damned to it. The machine might be a tool, or itmay be your real body.You may be a proud knight bringing glory and broth‐erhood to the Free Company of Nova Thebes, or astoic soldier in the Sundogs, fighting to free worlds asyours was liberated before. You may seek the ownerof the Raven Armor of Hurst, or fly the unburnt flag ofNew Ararat, or wear the raccoon patch of the MischiefConsortium; you might be an anonymous warriorhidden within relic powered armor scavenged fromthe Little Wars; you may paint your chassis in thegraffiti’d sigils of the Everhart, or paint your skin in thesilver of the Propositorum, yearning for the day it willbecome machine; or you may count yourself amongthe eager ranks of the Bright Bloom Concordance,those who seek a verdant future.The populated galaxy is a vast place, with manyworlds, stars, and vast spaces in-between that hidemysteries: What lingers in the Ikadra Drift, where theDrift’s eponymous binary stars collect the ruins ofthousands of ships in their orbit? What secretsmurmur out from the Pleiades, where the song of thecult of MAIA echoes quiet through the bulkheads ofyour ship?There are powers at work in the galaxy – mundane andesoteric, cruel and utopian. Union, long the steadycenter of humanity, frays at the edges, and forces beginto align along new presentations of old ideologies.The most important question to ask – of yourself andothers – is this: which side are you on?[422]BEYOND UNION

SECTION 6 // Setting GuideBy conservative estimates, there are 250 billion starsin the Milky Way. A significant majority of those starsare orbited by their own retinues of worlds.Union space – the entirety of the Galactic Core, theDiaspora, and the Cosmopolita – occupies a fractionof the Milky Way’s Orion Arm. Thousands of worlds.But set against the billions unexplored in our galaxy,Union space is minuscule.So, what lies beyond?Go, and tell us what you see.Miguel Lopez and Tom Parkinson Morgan, MassifPress, 2019BEYOND UNION[423]BEYOND UNION

[424]AAccepted Timeline 338Aging 377Albatross, The 409Example Lancer 420Re: IPS-N, Trunk Security 403Androidism 375AnthrochauvinismSee New Humanity Front, TheFirst Distal War 338Ideology 347Apollo 338Karrakis 387Artificial Gravity 377Artificial Intelligence (AI) 379AunAun’Ist 390Settlement 338BBlinkspaceBlink Travel 371Discovery 339Stations 370Boundary Garden 338, 339, 390CCarina 389IPS-N Headquarters 403Cascades 107Character TagsCharacterAI 105Biological 282Drone 105Mech 282NPCBiological 282Mech 282Ship 282Squad 282Vehicle 282Character TerminologyGeneralGrit 14Hit Points (HP) 28License 18License Level (LL) 18Mech Skills 30Statistics 28Talent 35Talent Rank 35MechAgility 30Armor 32Core Bonuses 35Core Power (CP) 33Core System 33E-Defense 34Engineering 30Evasion 34Frame 32Heat Cap 34Hull 30Immunity 68Mount 32Repair Cap 34, 82Resistance 67Save Target 34Sensors 34Size 32Speed 34Stress 34, 81Structure 34, 80System Points (SP) 33Systems 30Tech Attack 34Trait 32PilotBackground 20Trigger 25Cloning 374Colonies 367Companion/Concierge (Comp/Con) 380Corpro-StateConflicts Between 356Player Interaction With 407Cosmopolitans 343Albatross Interactions 409Body Modifications 375Definition 21IPS-N Interactions 403Lifespan 377Cradle 386Galatic location 340DDangerous Terrain 62Dawnline ShoreINDEX

[425]HA Expansion 397IPS-N Intervention 404Ungrateful Resistance 415DeCorp (Decorporealization) 376Deimos Event, Deimos 339See also Non-Human Persons(NHPs), MONIST-1/RADHIYED 406Diasporans, Diaspora 20, 343Albatross Interactions 409Difficult Terrain 62FFall, The 340First Committee, The 338, 341, 369First Contact Accords 339Creation 384Decorp 376First Distal War 338First Expansion Period 338Re: Voladores 416Five Voices, The 338, 355Names 382Forecast/GALSIM 338, 350, 355Bicameral Minds, The Five Voices 382Fourth Column, The 348See also Third Committee, TheFree Sanjak 415See also UngratefulsGGalactic Core 342Gear and SystemsGeneralGear 104Range 64Sensors 34System 33, 35General TagsAI 105Danger Zone 105Deployable 105Drone 105Full Action 106Grenade 106Heat X (self) 106Limited X 106Mine 106Mod 106Protocol 106Quick Action 106Reaction 106Shield 106Unique 106X/Turn or X/Round 105Mount TagsAux/aux 32Flexible, Flex 32Heavy 32Integrated 32Main 32Main/aux 32Superheavy 32Other Weapon TagsAccurate 105Arcing 105Armor Piercing 105Inaccurate 105Knockback 105Loading 105Ordnance 105Overkill 105Overshield 105Reliable 105Seeking 105Smart 105Threat 105Thrown 105PatternsBlast 64Burst 64Cone 64Line 64Pilot Gear TagsArchaic 106Gear 106Personal Armor: 106Sidearm 106Type TagsCannons 33CQB 33Launchers 33Melee 33Nexus 33Rifles 33Weapon Size TagsAuxiliary 33Heavy 33Main 33Superheavy 33General Massive Systems 118, 339, 392GMS Core Bonuses 118General Rules TerminologyAccuracy 14Bonus 13Character 58

[426]Check 13Consequences 46D3 12D6 12D20 12Difficulty 14Downtime 14Effect 13Fail (or Miss) 13Game Master (GM) 12Mech 30Mech Combat 12, 56Mission 14Narrative Play 12, 45Non-Player Character (NPC) 58Pilot 20Player 12Player Character (PC) 58Principle 256Reserves 50Roll 12Save 13Scenes 14Skill Challenge 47Skill Check 13Succeed (or Pass) 13Target Number 13HHarrison Armory 224, 394See also Ras ShamraHA Core Bonuses 225Paracausal Research 379Hercynian Crisis, The 339, 346High Ground 416See also Voladores, The (Los)Homunculus/Homunculi 380Horizon, Horizon Collective 410HORUS 190, 404Core Bonuses 191Distinction from HORUS 410First Emergence 384Ungrateful Interactions 415IIntegration, Into Union 356Interactions with Karrakin 393Interplanetary Shipping-Northstar (IPS-N)126, 402See also Albatross, TheCore Bonuses 127Interstellar, The 348See also Third Committee, TheJJohn Creighton Harrison I 395See also Harrison ArmoryKKarrakin Trade Barons 338, 392See also Fourth Column, TheExample Lancer 421Karrakis 387Ungrateful Interactions 415Voladores Interactions 416LLakshmi Bandhav-4796u 409See also Albatross, TheLancer, Lancers 418Little Wars, The 338, 341Ludra's World 415See also UngratefulsMMakteba 409See also Albatross, TheManna 367Mars 339, 386Siege of Mars 384Massif-A 338Mech Combat TerminologyAreas of EffectBlast 64Burst 64Cone 64Line 64Basic Full ActionsBarrage 71Disengage 71Full Tech 71Improvised Attack 71Stabilize 71Basic Quick ActionsBoost 69Grapple 69Hide 69Quick Tech 69Ram 70Search 70Skirmish 70Basic Reactions

[427]Brace 73Overwatch 73ConditionsImmobilized 78Impaired 78Jammed 78Lock On 78Shredded 78Slowed 78Stunned 78Damage TypesBurn 67Energy 67Explosive 67Heat 67Kinetic 67General1/round 601/turn 60Action 61Affected 64Allied 58Area 64Attack 13Bonus Damage 67Conditions 78Critical Hit 64Damage 67Destroyed 80, 82Free Action 61Full Action 61Gear 104Hit 64Hostile 58Line of Sight 65Melee 64Object 58Protocol 73Quick Action 61Range 64Ranged 64Reaction 73Size 59Statuses 77Target 65Tech 64Tech Action 64Movement 62Adjacent 62Climb 63Drag 62Engagement 62Fall 63Fly, Flight 63Free Space 106Hover 63Ignore Engagement 69, 71Involuntary 62, 63, 78Jump 63Lift 62, 63Obstruction 62Occupied Space 62Provoke Reactions 62, 63, 71Space 59Standard Move 62Teleport, Teleportation 63Voluntary 78Other ActionsActivate 71Boot Up 71Dismount 71Eject 71Mount 71Overcharge 73Prepare 71Self-Destruct 72Shut Down 72Skill Check 72Other EffectsOverheating 81Stress Damage 81Structure Damage 80Pilot ActionsActivate 71Boost 69Brace 73Disengage 71Fight 74Hide 69Jockey 75Overwatch 73Prepare 71Search 70Skill Check 72Quick Tech ActionsBolster 69Invade 70Lock On 70Scan 70Special Rules TerminologyBlademaster Die 93Bondmate 90Brawler Die 91Exemplar’s Mark 95Gunslinger Die 95Torrent Die 101StatusesDanger Zone 77Down and Out 77Engaged 77Exposed 77Hidden 77Invisible 77Prone 77Shut Down 77

[428]Mechanized Chassis 362Metat Aun 338, 390See also Aun, Aun’IstMetavault, Metafold Vaults 406Metropolitans 342, 366Body Modification 375Milky Way, The 340Beyond Union 423Non-State Actors 408Peoples of 342Mirrorsmoke Mercenary Company 411Example Lancer 420MONIST-1/RA 383See also Non-Human Persons(NHPs), HORUSAdherents of RA 408Horizon Interactions 410Sparri Worship 414NNarrative Play 48Narrative Play TerminologyDifficult 45Downtime Actions 53Buy Some Time 53Gather Information 53Get a Damn Drink 54Get Connected 55Get Creative 54Get Focused 55Get Organized 55Power at a Cost 53Scrounge And Barter 55Heroic 46Invoke 20Push It 46Risky 45Nearlight 338, 371New Humanity Front, The 348See also Third Committee,The, AnthrochauvinismNew Solidarity Coalition, The 348See also Third Committee, TheNon-Human Life 379Non-Human Persons (NHPs) 381See also Horizon, HorizonCollective, HORUSOOMETEOTL 410See also Horizon, Horizon CollectiveOracle Chorus 338, 355See also Five Voices, The, Forecast/GALSIMPParacausality, Paracausal Studies 379Birth of Paracausality Research 384Periphery, The 344Petrel, Young Petrel 409See also Albatross, ThePiracy (Interstellar, Orbital) 357PISTON-1, TBK PISTON-1 338, 346Post-Scarcity 366Prime Baron Karra-Bem 393See also Karrakin Trade BaronsPrinting, Printers 377RRas Shamra 388See also Harrison ArmoryRealtimeAging 377Travel 372Recontact 369SSecond Committee 338, 343, 346, 356See also Voladores, The (Los), DeimosEvent, Deimos, UngratefulsRecontact 369Second Expansion Period 339Shackling, Unshackling 381See also CascadesSmart Weaponry 380Smith-Shimano Corpro 158, 398SSC Core Bonuses 158Space Combat 358, 364Space Stations 370Sparri, The Sparri Peoples 412Subjective TimeAging 377Travel 372

[429]TThe Ten 338, 340Founded Planets 387, 390, 412Theseus Shipyard 338, 403See also Interplanetary Shipping-Northstar(IPS-N)Third Committee, The 339, 346Committee Coalitions 348State Conflict Ideology 365Time Dilation 372Travel 370Global 370in Play 372Interstellar 371Local-Space 370UUngratefuls 415Example Lancer 421Union, The 346See also Forecast/GALSIMFounding 340Union Administrative Department 338, 350See also Voladores, The (Los)Union Bureau of Colonial Administration354See also RecontactUnion Bureau of Orbital and Non-TerrestrialManagement 354Union Central Committee 350, 356Union Colonial Mission 339, 347See also Second CommitteeSparri Interactions 413Voladores Interactions 416Union Department of Justice and HumanRights 352See also RecontactHotel Company 419Union Economic Bureau 347, 354Union Intelligence Bureau 355Union Naval Department 352Union Omninetwork Bureau 354Union Ring System 340Union Science Bureau 353, 383Union Space Program 338Utopian Pillars, The 344VVerdant Social Arc, The (VSA) 349See also Third Committee, TheVoladores, The (Los) 416WWing (Young, Loyal, Honored) 409See also Albatross, TheYYggdrasil 412See also Sparri, The Sparri Peoples, TheTenYnn 412See also Sparri, The Sparri PeoplesYnneval 413See also Sparri, The Sparri Peoples

[430]BACKER CHARACTERSCharacter/Fac�on Page/Sec�on BackerAisling Jensen, she/her 286 (Ace) Jay JensenLady Gloria MacLennan(She/Her) 287 (Aegis) Lee \"IterationDrive\"SaxonIchabod Carden. He/Him 288 (Archer) Noah CardenCorrida Isolde-Nollet 299 (Engineer) Basil LiskUnion Navy Skunkworks 379 (re: ParacausalStudies) John ArenaPrismatica 406 (re: HORUSFlashpoint)Ethan \"SteelAngel\"DeneaultFlama (They/Them) 308 (Pyro) Jenny GarabagiuMessengers of MAIA 307 (Priest) Jennifer FaeThe Knights of ImminentDestruction, Gen'Dal Merlos 293 (Berserker) Andrew ShieldsAudrey Reimaus, they/them 291 (Barricade) Hamish LordChandrasekhar & Herschel 303 (Hornet) Kai TaveVanguard Security 416 (re: TheVoladores) Sam ChabotZander Reeves, He/Him 292 (Bastion) Zachary BrobergOberon Sterling 416 (re: TheVoladores)Scott MacDonaldAuneSusanoo, she/her 310 (Ronin) Ashley MoniValeria Rojas-Sarnik, she/her/hers. 296 (Breacher) Sam GaramyMurder Cave 409 (re: TheAlbatross)Arcolf, GrizzlyAdams,ShadowDancerBob,CodenameChazJackal and Hades, Esq 411 (re: MSMC) Josh GoodUnion Science Bureau, FarField Team 1683415-416 (re: TheVoladores) Michael E. CaoExtraSolar Acquisitions, Inc. 486 (SupportArchetype) Adam MontgomerySUMMUM 376 (re: DeCorp) Alain ClarkDagger Squadron 300 (Goliath) Max WaechterEris Brittam (she/her) 412 (re: SparriPeoples) Derek MunnCatherine ‘C-80’ Need.They/them 297 (Cataphract) Catherine NeedhamHayes Rothford (he/him) &NHP, Clarke (she/her/they/them)298 (Demolisher) Zachary WilliamsMALWAREE 420 (re: Penny) Alex ManusNew Ararat 422 (re: \"You\") Teddy LeinbachThe Mischief Consortium 422 (re: \"You\") Joshua Javier RiosFree Company of NovaThebes 422 (re: \"You\") Will LennonCharacter/Fac�on Page/Sec�on BackerThe Sundogs 422 (re: \"You\") William CreelPropositorum 422 (re: \"You\") Thadius RushingThe Bright BloomConcordance 422 (re: \"You\") Mark BustrackIkadra Debris Rings, The 422 (re: \"You\") Stephen PagniEverhart, The 422 (re: \"You\") Bryce A. EverhartTtalgi & Ínen 410 (re: Horizon) Amos IsomThe Own Hands 358 (re: Piracy) Andrew WiseMei Ling 358 (re: Piracy) Sam HornigoldThe Frontier Shipping Clans 43 (re: The Stakes,Mission Goals) Sean MckechnieAva Rhys 48 (Combat inNarrative Play) Alice LawrieAttar Rose 269-273 (re:Random Sitrep) Austin WalkerLin Yating, \"Marigold\" 48 (Combat inNarrative Play) Ryan LuiUIB Agent Etcher Ronen 50 (Reserves) William OsborneBirdRobin Conners 50 (Reserves) Mitchell PriourHarmonious Domesticity 90 (Ace Talent) Mark SiemsTempest Gloire (she/her) 91 (Brawler Talent) Matthew LindAubrey Deckard 91 (Brutal Talent) Kayte HawkeStrymon Bulis, He, callsignHAURBERK 91 (Crack Shot) Daniel ThomasHicksClymene Kanalakos (she/her), callsign BIRDSONG93 (DroneCommander Talent) Dolan HillGail (she/her) 102 (TacticianTalent) Gail DuncanFormer HA programmerKatya Han, she/her 96 (Hacker Talent) Anna WittholzEel (they/them) 96 (Grease MonkeyTalent) Peter RomineDaniel 'Inky' Boyd - he/him. 48 (Combat inNarrative Play) Daniel BoydLeika McGraff (he/him) 92 (Combined ArmsTalent) Thomas BurdLaughter of a Solemn God 319 (Support NPC) Richard MoonEthan \"Orion\" Miller 93 (Duelist Talent) Chase UeharaKhan 48 (Combat inNarrative Play) Kiernan HahnMesa Rownett 94 (Engineer Talent) Robert ErvineThe Apiary 410 (re: Horizon) Gwen and SashaMaxine Wolf (she/her) 94 (ExecutionerTalent) Osmina DeverauxEamon Metria, advocate forthe Nine. 95 (Exemplar Talent) Matthew EvansMike Manfrin (he/him) 97 (Heavy GunnerTalent) Mike ManfrinSargeant Stev Ansahok (he/him)95 (GunslingerTalent) Colin RyanEdith Eidelen (she/her) 97 (Hunter Talent) Colin YeeLILITH 410 (re: Horizon) Lily AmoleGolden Hand 411 (re:Mirrorsmoke) Jared JordanGoblin Throne Industrial 411 (re:Mirrorsmoke) Ryan VerniereOld relic powered armourfrom the Little Wars 422 (re: “You”) Aaron Wood

PILOTNAMETriggersTalentsLoadoutARMORWEAPONSLicensesLLHULL SYSAGI ENGGRITCALLSIGNBACKGROUNDGEARLL1LL1LL0LL2LL2LL0LL3LL3LL0LL4LL4LL5LL5LL6LL6LL7LL7LL8LL8LL9LL9LL10LL10LL11LL11LL12LL12Core BonusesMAX HPARMORHPE-DEFEVASIONSPEED

ATK BONUSCore BonusWeaponsSystemsMOUNTSPNAMENAMERANGETAGSDAMAGEEFFECTSTAGS EFFECTSFrame TraitsTECH ATK SAVE TGT SPEED E-DEF EVASION SENSORS SIZEMECHNAMEFRAMEHULLSTRUCTURE HPSYS STRESSAGI ARMORHEATENG OVERSHIELDCORE POWERTOTAL SPLL GRIT