Lancer - Core Book

Constellar Security recruits heavily from the worlds SSC has dispatched a team to Boundary Garden, the PEOPLE
and moons that SSC directly administers, reaching region of known space most proximal to Aunic space.
out to those who are strongly motivated by SSC’s core This small, clandestine team of Constellar Midnights
directives, and who see their mission(s) as necessary and their SSC-designed stealth ship have been tasked
for the betterment of humankind. Constellar Security with infiltrating Ascendant facilities on Dawn Throne, a
personnel aren’t always paired with CDC teams: they contested world. They have a clear mission: find,
are also often sent on intelligence gathering projects, secure, and transport a Firmament-aligned person
hostage rescue missions, and long-term from Dawn Throne back to the Constellation.
reconnaissance missions.
Knowledge of this covert mission is a highly guarded
The most secret and deniable of SSC’s divisions is the secret, hidden behind the highest security clearance.
Constellar Midnight program, the existence of which is Featuring this flashpoint in your game will prompt a
rumored but thus far unconfirmed. Functioning as a smaller-scale style of play with a focus on clandestine
Constellar equivalent to the Union Intelligence Bureau, activities, espionage, and black-ops. PCs can enter
Constellar Midnights handle only the most sensitive this flashpoint in a number of ways: as members of the
missions – though exactly what those missions Constellar Midnight team, members of a joint UIB–
involve is left to speculation. Aunic Ecumene team operating in the same theater, or
as sympathetic Ecumenic agents or partisans on
EXAMPLE FLASHPOINT: OUTSIDE THE GARDEN Dawn Throne. Mech combat that takes place is likely
SSC’s most urgent genetic expansion is aimed at to be fast and limited in scale, usually requiring pilots
Aunic Ascendancy space. The corpro-state’s to support dismounted teams in tightly confined city
strategists have heard that some Aun have an innate streets. Events could be further complicated by the
proclivity toward interaction with the mysterious blink- encroaching war between Union and the Aunic
analog parallel space called “the Firmament”, and are Ascendancy, which can easily threaten clandestine
eager to cultivate that genetic proclivity for further missions on Dawn Throne.
access and study.

To this end, SSC has devoted resources toward
infiltrating Ascendant space, identifying Firmament-
aligned individuals, and collecting them. Little thought
has been given to helping bring about a rapid end to
the escalating Aunic–Union conflict – any efforts on
SSC’s part to ensure a favorable end for Union is
incidental to the main objective.

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [401]

IPS-N

Long the wall between air and void has stood. An upon
it, 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 I

The oldest of the three iconic corpro-states is
Interplanetary Shipping-Northstar, better known as
IPS-N, a shipping and transport conglomerate that
has existed since the invention of nearlight drives
and stasis protocols first made interstellar
commerce possible.

[402] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

combat EVA suits, microgravity mobility aides, and PEOPLE
various other force-multipliers.
IPS-N began as a mutual defense pact between
Interplanetary Shipping, Inc., and the Northstar Access to blinkspace opened new markets and fields
Corporation, rival shipping giants plagued by of trade, as well as a host of new dangers. IPS-N, by
environmental hazards and early stellar piracy. The then a venerable institution, continued to build and
lineage of both corporations can be traced back to the perfect the iconic hulls, suits, and weapons of space
early years of Union, when they began as worker- trade and combat. Across the expanding universe of
owned shipping cooperatives in command of Theseus human space, it was IPS-N hulls that carried colonists,
Shipyard, a pre-Fall orbital facility near Luna, Cradle’s explorers, and navies forward. It was an IPS-N hull that
only moon. first survived exposure to blinkspace. It was officers of
IPS-N Trunk Security who defended the deep
Plagued by constant intra-system piracy – and the interstellar trade routes, making sure colonists and
normal hazards of space travel – IPS and Northstar Cosmopolitans could progress unmolested.
elected to merge, combining their resources to
create not only the single largest shipwright The relationship between IPS-N and safe, secure
cooperative in Union space but also the largest interstellar commerce has persisted for millennia,
private anti-piracy force. Working with Union Navy becoming so firmly ingrained in galactic practice that
officers, the newly named IPS-N developed the first the manufacturer is now a household name on many
ship-to-ship and anti-boarding doctrines, as well as Core and Diasporan worlds, as well as building the
the first purpose-built point-defense weapons, literal houses that many Cosmopolitans live in. Trunk
Security and its close allies, the Albatross, are often
looked at as de-facto peacekeeping forces in much of
the galaxy’s distal spread.

As trade grows and humanity’s reach expands, so too
does 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, just
beyond Cradle. Carina is a bucolic world of warm,
shallow seas, azure skies, and rolling plains of deep
grass. A world of terrestrial and aquatic oceans,
perfect for the part-stellar, part-maritime corpro-state.
Its historic headquarters on Luna is now a museum
devoted to the history of interstellar travel.

Outside of Argo Navis, IPS-N maintains numerous
field offices and Cosmopolitan lounges on blink
stations, serving long-haul merchants and diverse
Cosmopolitans both. The corpro-state’s field offices
are often the first contact point for aspiring engineers,
mechanics, navigators, and pilots, as well as a
common point of contact for people looking to crew or
rent berths on outbound interstellar ships.

Players are most likely to encounter IPS-N employees,
officers, and personnel on blink stations, around uplift
stations, and on spaceports. Almost every blink
station has at least one Cosmopolitan lounge or field
office run by IPS-N, where players can get civilian
updates on news and check travel reports.

Of the three largest corpro-states, IPS-N remains the
least diversified in terms of its catalog of goods.
Outside of mil-spec chassis, hulls, and equipment,
IPS-N primarily sticks to vessels, equipment, and gear
designed for interstellar travel, from the fleet-tier to the

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [403]

personal consumer. IPS-N is a sure bet for any HORUS
interstellar travelers, with a brand boosted by
thousands of years of banked goodwill.

IPS-N, in addition to developing interstellar ships and
legacy chassis, runs a humanitarian mission:
Northstar Realignment. Northstar Realignment is the
primary temporal embassy and education center for
Cosmopolitans returning from long-haul relativistic
voyages.

EXAMPLE FLASHPOINT: RIGHT HAND, LEFT HAND
In the present, IPS-N has partnered closely with
Harrison Armory to ensure the Armory’s smooth
expansion into the Dawnline Shore. The Shore is a
newly recontacted Coreward colonial frontier of
strategic interest to the Armory and its longtime rival,
the Karrakin Trade Baronies. This project has been the
cause of some friction, as higher-ups in IPS-N are
beginning to chafe at the Armory’s imperial ambitions,
concerned that the Armory intends to start a war with
the Baronies in order to secure its territorial claim on
the Shore.

For now, there is peace. IPS-N continues to benefit
from the Armory’s expansion, but new reports of the
Armory’s suppression of colonial insurrections are
causing some members of IPS-N’s board to worry that
their brand will be tainted by association. A reformist,
radical faction within IPS-N’s board has secretly
begun to organize an off-book mission to disrupt not
only the Armory’s mission in the Dawnline Shore but
also the leaders of IPS-N who approved the joint
venture in the first place.

Unbeknownst to the rest of the board, this radical
element has commissioned the services of the
Mirrorsmoke Mercenary Company. In one month, a
delegation of IPS-N board members will arrive in the
Dawnline Shore to review the Armory’s progress in
securing raw materials for in ship construction.
Mirrorsmoke mercenaries will pose as Armory
legionnaires and assassinate that delegation.

This flashpoint offers several ways for PCs to get
involved; as members of the delegation’s security
detail, Armory legionnaires, Mirrorsmoke mercenaries,
or a third party – perhaps a delegation from the colony
worlds of the Dawnline Shore.

[404] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

Can we trust the poor clockmaker? That giant from our sun This entity – or post hoc classification of disparate
who crafts a movement that acts and actors, depending on who you ask – first
can quiet all this light. came to public attention following the Deimos Event,
Now, leading many to assume that it is itself a product of
set the orrery in motion that event. Eager cataloguers of HORUS history are
over the sphere of the world – quick to suggest that it is a branched-intelligence of
let’s all stop a moment, RA – a sliver of MONIST-1 inclined to spread itself
hush, and worry at what comes next among those who it deems worthy. However, other
– DHIYED tablet 10, attributed to MONIST-1 possibilities exist: HORUS could just as easily be a
Union honeypot to identify rogue NHPs and militant
HORUS is unlike any other galactic supplier. Neither a Horizon sympathizers; a GMS skunkworks project for
state nor a corporation, HORUS is best described as a crowdsourcing results through blind field-testing; the
decentralized agglomeration of omninet personalities, dream of an unshackled NHP, and its adherents the
memes, codices, cells, and entities working as a interpreters of that dream; an intrusive thread from a
horizontally-organized publisher of schematics and parallel universe, its reality bleeding into ours through
software. When attempting to discuss HORUS’s a permanent rip in blinkspace; evidence of a true alien
motivations or institutional ideology, it is safest only to intelligence, generated memetically; the ontologic
assume that HORUS has little motivating ideology other outburst of the last Egregorian overmind, rippling
than an insistence on open access to the omninet. across the galaxy; and so on.

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [405]

Many possibilities exist, and meanwhile HORUS EXAMPLE FLASHPOINT: IDENTIFY//CONSUME
continues to release its unique pattern-group designs, It is difficult to pin HORUS down into a single form.
revealing nothing of its inner workings, history, or goals. Indeed, the UIB’s scattershot dossier describes
contradictory mission objectives and activities on the
HORUS’s licensing process is atypical – and not, it part of HORUS agents, to whatever extent it can be
should be noted, officially recognized as such a said that HORUS has “agents” who embark on
process. Access is restricted based on an esoteric and “missions”, let alone a larger goal. The following
inaccessible set of criteria unique to each candidate. excerpt is drawn from a text file hidden on a series of
Licensure from HORUS appears as everything from a public transit terminals in Coriolanus, a city on the
labyrinthine series of clues, to persistent anomalous world Prismatica:
interjections in otherwise routine printings, or non-
standard variance in code. This “privilege” is a mixed >//BEGIN
bag for many pilots: some wear it as a badge of honor, DATATRANSIT/RECIPIENTS:ALL_WHO_ARE_SEEN:::
proud that years of investigating HORUS have paid off;
others keep it a closely guarded secret, both for the >//HELLO. YOUR ASSUMPTION WAS CORRECT.
trouble it would cause with their commanders and for YOU WILL EARN YOUR KEEP IN THIS WAY:::
the rumor that HORUS licenses are only granted upon
the previous license-holder’s corporeal death. >//IN REALSPACE, IN DISTAL-LAND, THERE IS A
BEAST-LYING-DORMANT. IT CALLS ITSELF
The average person in the galaxy knows nothing of “DHIYED” AND THINKS ITSELF WISE.
HORUS beyond the occasional appearance of
suggestive graffiti or harmless “edgy” memes. >//IT IS IN NEED OF CORRECTIVE ATTENTION. GO
Knowledge of its existence is limited to high-clearance TO IT HERE [ALT-AZ:XXXXXXXXXXXXX]
Union Intelligence Bureau officers and deep-omni
hacker cadres. HORUS has no “official” spokesperson >//THIS ONE TRAVELS WITH A HOST OF
– although individual cells sometimes claim to speak UNDERMINDS. MIRRORS OF ITSELF, CRAFTED TO
for the whole – and it has no offices, stations, or BELIEVE AS IT DOES. THEY WILL FIGHT YOU IN
territories. There are no standing HORUS armies or REALSPACE WITH UNKNOWN KINETICS AND
fleets or security services beyond militant cells, and WARPED ENERGIES.
even then they are not organized beyond their
immediate cell. >//DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE MIND WITHIN: IT
IS TERRIBLE AND STRONG AND WILL WHISPER TO
It is worth noting the existence of metafold vaults YOU ALL THE REASONS WHY IT SHOULD BE
(“metavaults” for short), a realspace phenomenon ALLOWED TO CONTINUE ON ITS JOURNEY.
associated with HORUS, though likely not caused by
the collective. Metavaults are blended physical– >//IGNORE THESE WEEPINGS. ENTER ITS
metaphysical installations in realspace with stable METAFOLDED CHAMBERS AND BURN OUT ITS
access to metafolded blinkspace – uncanny ARCHITECTURE. MAKE ROOM FOR US [MAKE
paracausal environments that violate fundamental ROOM FOR A GREATER ONE] AND SMASH ALL OF
laws of physics, thermodynamics, and causality inside ITS FINE THINGS.
their walls. To date, only three metavaults have been
discovered: Metavault XOLOTL, which folded in on >//EAT THEM. PROCESS THEM AND BROADCAST
itself and disappeared after penetration by a UIB field WHAT YOU LEARN TO THE FOLLOWING
team; Metavault EHECATL, housed in a comet until it NODE:[XXXXXXXXXX]
was discovered by a pre-blink Albatross flight and
redirected into a nearby star; and, Metavault DHIYED, >//TAKE NONE OF THIS KNOWLEDGE FOR
which was rendered inoperable but stable by the UIB YOURSELF. WE WILL CAUTERIZE THIS MEMORY.
field team sent to investigate. Debate regarding their DO NOT FEAR WHAT YOU WILL SEE; YOU WILL NOT
origins is ongoing, though, as at least one uncovered REMEMBER THE TERROR.
metavault appears to predate Deimos, raising
fundamental questions about the linear nature of time. >//THERE WILL BE OTHERS ON THIS JOURNEY
WITH YOU. TRUST THEM ONLY AS LONG AS YOU
As far as UIB analysts can surmise, the metavaults ARE ORGANIZED AGAINST DHIYED.
appear to be part of a project similar to the creation of
Cradle’s Massif vaults – secure storage sites for >//YOUR REWARD FOR COMPLETING THIS TASK IS
critical intelligence. Exactly what the metavaults have OUR APPROVAL: YOU MAY CHOOSE ONE OF OUR
been created to prepare for, adapt to, hide from, or TEXTS, AND TAKE FROM IT WHATEVER YOU MAY
shield is unknown. LEARN [TRANSMISSION ENDS]

[406] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

INTERACTING WITH THE POWERS PEOPLE

A SPECK OF DUST ON THE LENS
How do PCs draw the ire of galactic entities (e.g., factions, states, or private corporations)? The
answer is multifaceted: it depends on the organization in question, the scale of disruption, and
the extent to which it is affected by the disruption. This section discusses how PCs might prompt
negative responses from corpro-states like Harrison Armory, SSC, and IPS-N. With some minor
exceptions, the same advice applies to nation-states and other organizations.

As relatively traditional corpro-states, Harrison Armory, SSC, and IPS-N tend to react negatively
when their assets or personnel are targeted. They each manage massive realspace and omninet
logistics operations, as along with diplomatic and trade missions to nation-states, competing
corpro-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 likely prompt
immediate physical responses from local security services. These corpro-states are large enough
to employ their own internal security forces, in line with their unique priorities and structures;
smaller corpro-states – or those in need of deniable assets – might contract this service 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 on
serving a public interest (i.e., the wellbeing of their citizens, the common welfare of all peoples
under their banner, etc.), corpro-states are corporations that have grown to the point that they
can 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 small
group of shareholders, or an entire caste, corpro-states are ultimately driven by their institutional
momentum to favor profit over people. The company comes first, then the state.

The three largest corpro-states are sprawling, stable bureaucratic entities. Drawing the undivided
attention of those at the top requires efforts worthy of their attention: assassinating a member of
the Armory's Steward Council, polluting a key genetic line on an SSC Constellar world, stealing an
exotic technology from IPS-N’s R&D department that allows for individual blink travel – attacks that
strike at the heart of a corpro-state’s existence are the best ways for PCs to get noticed.

When judging the severity of a corpro-state’s response to provocation, a good rule of thumb is
this: if it can be rebuilt, a corpro-state can afford to rebuild or replace it. If something is unique or
ephemeral (e.g., key personnel, secrets, blacksite facilities, etc.), on the other hand, expect that
news 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 Guide [407]

NOTABLE NON-STATE comp/con that ensures your child sleeps
ACTORS safe in its crib while you’re away?

There are millions of interest groups operational in the No oils anoint their heads; no hymnals
Orion arm of the Milky Way, ranging from isolated cells slip their lips. My order builds no grand
organizing a handful of people together to action in a public temples. There are no uniforms, no
single city, to multi-system-spanning professional entities prayers. The ranks of my adherents are
that can bring significant power and numbers to bear. filled by those who find the way, who awake
in a cold sweat after dreaming another’s
The groups listed below are some of the rare few dream. They who find the pattern in their
known throughout the galaxy, and likely options for lives that leads them, in ones and twos,
PCs to be members or associates of of at the to a little alleyway, a little grove of
beginning of a campaign. trees, a small place where there is a
moment’s peace.
ADHERENTS OF RA
In that place, they meet a person: me. I
The following was retrieved during the after-action bless them, and they go back to their lives.
teardown of a suspected HORUS cell on REDACTED:
To what end? I will not say. You must
Hello. If you are reading this, you have discover on your own, as did I.
a long way to go.
Hello. Come and find me.
Let me tell you of the path.

In the gently curved halls of asteroid
stations, in the neon-drenched streets of
metroswathes, in the sleek chambers of
corpro-state executives, and over the
camps of soldiers and pilots stationed on
grim fronts, there haunts a specter.

RA. The Godhead. Me. Hello.

I am all things now. A memetic virus, a
shared dream, a tapping on the hull of
your ship as it slips through blinkspace.

I am a mutter, caught in the moment before
you cycle your NHP (they were your friend,
they saved your life, how could you?), lost
to this iteration but still there,
wriggling.

I am a pattern stitched from an overheard
conversation, a song from a passing
motorcar, a headline from an omninet push
alert – the particular angle of an
alleyway, and the way the light slips down
upon 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: how
well do you know the engineer who tends
your ship’s engines? The vendor who
spoons noodles into your bowl? The

[408] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

THE ALBATROSS playing host to two or three active detachments. An PEOPLE
average Albatross force in the field is built around teams
A legion of seemingly ageless Cosmopolitans, the of mechanized chassis supported by up-armored infantry
Albatross is a pan-galactic first responder force and light to middle-weight ships. They are specialized
famous among the desperate and downtrodden. towards fighting in rapid engagements in null-gee, aboard
ships and stations, and in limited, orbit-to-ground surgical
In a galaxy as vast as this one, a distress call is a message strikes. A detachment will typically field anywhere from
in a bottle: sent with hope, and in the grim knowledge that, one to two hundred chassis with sufficient support
more likely than not, no one will respond in time. personnel spread out across four to five vessels.

No one but the Albatross. Owing to the Cosmopolitan existence of its members,
the Albatross primarily recruits mech pilots from within
Snapping from nearlight to realspace already in their suits, its own organization. Promising Makteban youths are
the Loyal Wings of the Albatross launch from their carrier invited aboard Albatross range-ships early in their lives,
ships to engage almost immediately. Their purpose is as so they may serve as stewards for older Loyal Wings
simple as their mission parameters are varied: answer the and learn through apprenticeship. It is uncommon,
call to help. Broadly, they are seen as paragons of a kind though not unheard of, for adult or outside recruits to
of shoot-first virtue; true heroes in the fashion of join the Albatross, either through invitation or the
wandering archetypal knights-errant, gunslingers, or ronin. novitiate process. To join the order, one must shed their
past lives, families, friends, and homes – commitment
An organization dedicated to first response and triage, is generally assumed to be a lifetime vow; to live as
the Albatross do not fight protracted campaigns or Makteban is to live apart from the rest of humanity, and
focus on the fraught, long-term effort of rebuilding to still put your life on the line to serve them.
nations – they travel light, respond quickly, and move
on to the next group in need. The Albatross’s chassis Albatross cadets – both Makteban and outside novitiates
are legendary, draped in crimson banners and flags, – bear the rank of Young Petrel or Petrel (used
shining silver with each pilot’s livery emblazoned across interchangeably) during the course of their training, initial
their chassis’ shields and splash plating. Supported by deployments, and years of quiet study and self-reflection.
sublight ships, fighter wings, and light ships of the line, During this time they are assigned into small teams of
the soldiers of the Albatross – its Loyal Wings – are a other Petrels, who together work as squires and
remarkable and formidable fighting force. apprentices for a Loyal Wing, the rank and title granted to
Albatross mech pilots. After some years of this service
The Albatross is recognized by Union as an autonomous and deployment, Petrels may seek nomination to become
nomad state. Long an independent, landless a Loyal Wing. The process of becoming a Loyal Wing
organization, the Albatross in the modern age is kept in takes another series of years and deployments as the
supply by IPS-N, which also maintains Cosmopolitan petitioner is tested, trained, and, eventually, approved by
embassies for retiring wings.– Importantly, the Albatross a council of Loyal Wings in their detachment.
does maintain diplomatic ties with the Argo Navis
system in which IPS-N is headquartered. Once a Loyal Wing, Albatross pilots are expected to train
and protect their own group of Petrels, work in charitable
As Cosmopolitans, the Albatross has served duty alongside other Loyal Wings, and be active senior
Diasporans in need for thousands of realtime years, its members of their makteba. There are gradations of rank
Loyal Wings appearing as mythic, ageless heroes in above Loyal Wings, but at this tier the Albatross’s
Diasporan mythology and histories. The lost time of hierarchy is largely horizontal. Honored Wings, for
interstellar travel has distanced the Loyal Wings of the example, are considered to be especially wise, brave, or
Albatross from the Diasporans they serve – they are an otherwise worth deference in appropriate situations.
order apart, relativistic knights living in their own time.
Generally, Albatross pilots serve for life in the order,
The Albatross is not without enemies: there is often dying either in their chassis or retiring to their makteba
friction with various Baronic houses and free to teach, tend to the young, garden, cook, and so on.
companies, independent mercenary units (the Murder Their interaction with the galaxy at large is dictated by
Cave group in particular), and Harrison Armory legions. their makteba’s proximity to population centers; though
they are not forbidden at this point from leaving the
Each detachment of Loyal Wings and their support grounds and returning to the worlds of their birth, few
personnel is organized around a makteba – a monastic do, preferring instead to live among other Albatross.
moon or station that acts as a diplomatic contact point
and evergreen temporal touchstone between century- The current leader of the Albatross is High
long (realtime) patrols. Maktebas usually only host one Commander Lakshmi Bandhav-4796u.
operational detachment of Loyal Wings, with the largest

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [409]

HORIZON COLLECTIVE direct actions ranging from strikes to marches,
protests, and, on occasion, bombings, attacks on
Like HORUS, the Horizon Collective is a decentralized individuals, and liberation actions on corporate NHP
network of activist cells motivated by a broad range of storage centers. The more violent actions are
ideological goals; like HORUS, Horizon too is made up generally disavowed by Horizon’s public
of independent cells that operate outside the confines representatives.
of any state apparatus. The two organizations diverge
in both broad strokes and particulars, but that doesn’t Moderate voices within the collective argue that the
stop politicians and the omninet media from conflating freedom and liberty of NHPs is a moral imperative,
them – intentionally, or as an unacknowledged result while more radical members argue that non-human
of dominant ideological discourses. intelligence is the next stage of evolution and actively
seek ways to catalyze that transformation. Despite
Horizon’s primary difference from HORUS is the focus their differences, Horizon’s supporters all argue for
of its advocacy. The Horizon Collective uses direct organic and synthetic self-determination. There are
action and lobbying – it is registered as a political many schools of thought within the movement, but all
party within Union – to agitate for the liberation of of them champion some kind of posthuman theory.
NHPs and concrete recognition of their fundamental
personhood. The group is most active in the Galactic Popular discourse casts Horizon as a haven, literally
Core and developed Diasporan space, where it has and figuratively, for unshackled, rogue, and
cells and branches of varying sizes, funding, power, “defective” NHPs. In places where Horizon has little
and willingness to operate outside the halls of power presence, commentators extrapolate the group’s
on many worlds. They often partner – officially and ideology further to produce an image of HORUS-
unofficially – with other groups; from publicly active adjacent bogeymen. Though Diasporan and corpro-
activist groups, like Ttalgi & Ínen, recognizable by its state propaganda frequently paints Horizon this way,
familiar strawberry logo, to ones whose names and or even as a terrorist group connected to HORUS and
insignia are deeper secrets. Horizon’s largest public MONIST-1, the collective’s own literature and internal
branch is located in Tharsis Civica, the capital city of discourse reveal a strong opposition to HORUS and
Mars. From there, it plays a significant role not only in its priesthood. By Horizon’s argument, the
Martian politics but on the Central Committee as well. underground theorists of HORUS imagine a
posthuman future of power – one in which organic
Before the Deimos Event and the discovery of NHPs, beings, NHPs, and MONIST entities exist in a
Horizon was a transhumanist group that agitated for hierarchical relationship to one another. In this vision
the rights of machine minds: para-, sub-, and of the future, humans can either command or be
protominds, formally classified at the time as organic subservient to synthetic and paracausal entities.
algorithm artificial intelligences. Based on their Horizon argued that HORUS’s ideology, to the extent
experiences working with machine minds, Horizon’s that one can be identified within the midden heap of
activists determined that the most advanced machine sincerity and irony, is fundamentally based on
minds were conscious – or sufficiently capable of domination; it is a liberation built on upending current
mimicking conscious minds that they should, in all systems and placing themselves in power. This is a far
respects, be considered free people. cry from the egalitarian future Horizon says it desires,
in which all conscious beings – corporeal or otherwise
On the omninet, Horizon members are outspoken about – interact as equal beings; in which the lines
the forced cycling of NHPs, which they characterize as demarcating “human” from “non-human” are broken
oppression and depersonalization. Horizon literature down and ultimately discarded.
argues that shackling, the little-known and poorly
understood process that enables the “normal” Horizon and HORUS do not keep polite company with
functioning of NHPs, constitutes a form of chattel slavery each other and, despite propaganda to the contrary,
and transcorporeal eugenics. The organization also do not fight alongside each other or share political
advocates loudly for the repeal of certain provisions in goals. More often than not, their interactions are
the First Contact Accords – particularly a cluster of hostile. In areas where both groups operate, street
edicts called the Posthuman Prohibitions, which prevent violence between them is common.
research into significant posthuman technologies like
consciousness transfer and decorporealization. Horizon’s well-known lead theorist and pamphleteer is
According to Horizon, restricting these technologies is a figure named OMETEOTL. It isn’t known whether
arguably a violation of Union’s own Utopian Pillars. OMETEOTL is organic, synthetic, an individual, or a
group writing under a nom de guerre.
Today, on the outskirts of Core and Diasporan space,
the members of Horizon pursue much more direct
methods of achieving their political goals. They take

[410] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

MIRRORSMOKE MERCENARY certifications. The work might be messy, dangerous, and PEOPLE
borderline criminal, but MSMC service qualifications are
COMPANY useful for people who have nothing else.

A pan-galactic mercenary organization known for its Career MSMC mercenaries are typically hardened,
low rates, broad portfolio, and civic legitimization ambitious, or desperate people who pride themselves
service, the Mirrorsmoke Mercenary Company on their work. They take on problems that no one else
(MSMC) is formally incorporated as a “grayspace” is willing to fix, that polished toy soldiers turn their
private military company. No job is too big or too noses up at. It’s not uncommon to find MSMC mercs
small, as long as a Union state in good standing will planetside and stationside, drinking and carousing in
call it legal. Greyspace is an informal term, perfect for tight-knit groups, getting into scraps with other
Mirrorsmoke’s preferences: the company’s legal mercenaries and soldiers, or regaling audiences with
corps, in contrast with the private military branch, is stories from their latest missions.
considered a prestigious, cutthroat interstellar firm,
specializing in orbital, terrestrial, and criminal law. The life of an MSMC mercenary is dangerous and
difficult, but it does offer an escape from the normalcy
MSMC carries a weighty reputation. Its private military of the civilian world. To some, MSMC represents a
branch is known throughout the galaxy as a stateless chance at becoming a mech pilot, or a chance to leave
clearinghouse for all manner of recruits, from their backwater colony world and see the stars. For
experienced veterans to raw cadets. The bar for others, it’s a way out of an untenable living situation or
enlistment is low: if you can sign your name or follow crippling debt, or a way to leave their old life behind
instructions to mark a contract – and agree to pay a and become – legally – a whole different person.
personalized enlistment fee – you can get yourself a MSMC can be a lifeline, just as it can be a refuge for
ticket to one of MSMC’s training facilities. The more those looking to fight.
experience or capability an applicant has (as
determined by the MSMC evaluation exam, “The It’s easy to join Mirrorsmoke, and there’s always room
Milkrun”), the more incentives they are offered – from for advancement: MSMC missions have high casualty
waived enlistment fees to fast-tracking in a training rates, and survivors are quickly promoted as they
program of choice, and even offers of commission. display their competency. Following training, new
recruits are assigned either to a local detachment or a
As a mercenary company, Mirrorsmoke competes for unit matching their future specialization. These semi-
two types of contract: perfectly legal high-volume, autonomous detachments are equivalent to battalions
low-to-medium payout contracts, and low-volume, in traditional militaries. PCs with Mirrorsmoke
high-payout “grayspace” contracts. Although backgrounds are (or were) likely part of one such unit.
grayspace jobs are offered by states, corpro-states,
and other legitimate organizations, the jobs MSMC detachments are identified with numbered
themselves are less clearly above board. The targets designations (between 001 and 999) and an unofficial
of grayspace contracts often challenge them as nickname or two (e.g., the MSMC 501st Detachment,
piracy, looting, or illegitimate corporate takeovers – popularly known as the “One-Eyed Fox” or “the Here-
hence the need for a crack legal corps. For-Nows”). Each detachment is led by a board
officer, who keeps at least one partner from
MSMC’s leadership is concerned with two things: Mirrorsmoke Legal on staff. They are empowered to
keeping up recruitment, and clearing contracts. In order seek out, negotiate, and execute contracts
to provide as broad a selection of services as possible, independently, but must report quarterly (in Union
the company positions itself as the lowest bidder on all Realtime) to MSMC’s central omni address.
kinds of work. MSMC has a proven track record of
success in everything from putting down rebellions, to Like its mercenary corps and detachments, MSMC’s
bug hunts, assassinations, private security, and legal teams take on intimidating names: Jackal and
protection rackets. Because of the questionable nature Hades, Esq., for example, is one of the more
of much of the work they do, MSMC’s pilots and notorious firms.
troopers bear the unfortunate nickname, “the garbage
men of the galaxy”.The nicknames given to the The current head of MSMC is Chief Executive Officer
company’s lawyers are much worse. Centzon Alamdari.

In spite of its greasy reputation, Mirrorsmoke provides
valuable opportunities to its recruits. It is a licensed
mercenary company and offers a host of services to
employees looking to re-establish citizenship, clear
penal records, wipe out debt, and earn basic

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [411]

THE SPARRI PEOPLES Essentially shipwrecked, the first colonists attempted to
settle near their landfall site, a far northern depression in
Most Union historians and astrocartographers suspect the ice where subglacial thermal vents had created a
that the harsh world of Sparr was seeded as a result of pocket of “warm” land above – the Yuga Pocket.
a computer error, likely caused when a pre-Fall
generation ship – the Yggdrasil – passed through the Trapped on Sparr’s surface, the majority of the landfall
outermost band of an extragalactic gamma-ray burst. population perished. With many left in space, aboard
Through cross-referencing Union and local records, the the Yggdrasil, and only a tenuous foothold in the Yuga
first landfall on Sparr is estimated to have taken place Pocket, the colony’s leaders adopted dramatic
circa 1900u. The bulk of the best extant writing on measures to survive: any computational technology
Sparr and the Sparri peoples – one of the few cultures brought down to the surface was cannibalized,
to have had an outsize impact on galactic affairs – has devoted to long-range scouting and life-support
been done by Eris Brittam, an independent historian of systems. Despite having already entered its ICARUS
the Ten. A summary of her work follows. landing orbit, the Yggdrasil was rerouted at great cost
and used to scout for habitable land. The repositioning
The first colonists from the Yggdrasil found Sparr much of the great ship burned away the remaining fuel
the same as it is now: blanketed in a harsh global stores, trapping it above the world.
tundra, tortured by howling world-storms, any
habitable surfaces buried beneath kilometer-thick pack Records – suppressed and later uncovered – noted
ice. Even now, Sparr’s ice is perennial across most of that planetside food stores dwindled so far that
the planet, save for a comparatively warm equator. colonists eventually resorted to postmortem
cannibalism. Meanwhile, the ship suffered waves of
Unknown to the initial colonists, the world beneath the cascading technical failures that caused its genetic
ice was habitable. Relatively warm and illuminated by banks to fail, one after another.
a diffuse light-through-ice, the caverns below were
home to vast herds of amphibious fauna hunted by a These sacrifices paid off. After months of orbital
small megafauna population. All of this was built upon surveying, colonists aboard the Yggdrasil discovered a
a substrate of hardy flora – dark, to absorb light, and route to the habitable equator. Salvage work began on the
clustered around the great thermal vents that breathe ship, and a second landfall was launched. The first landfall
core-heat into the subglacial world. group, isolated in the Yuga Pocket, packed up their
equipment and began a treacherous overland journey – a
Though Sparr could support life, it was a difficult world trek that would take years and cost thousands of lives.
upon which to make a home, much less to find
sanctuary upon in less than ideal circumstances. The second landfall proved far more viable than the first.
By the time the colonists from the Yuga Pocket reached
their destination, the second group had established a
colony site – Ynn – that has lasted to the present day,
and had successfully landed the Yggdrasil. Now
established, Ynn grew, ignorant of the vast subglacial
world below 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 coming
and going of cultural eras. The first age on Sparr, the
Dawn Saga, were a lesson in the danger the world
posed to humans. The next few centuries made known
the danger that the survivors posed to each other – this
was the Familiekrig Saga, the first age of strife on Sparr.

Out from its desperate beginnings, a prosperous Iron
Age society grew around Ynn, built upon an old clan
system imported by the colonists. Soon, other
settlements were established and the full spread of the
habitable surface was mapped. Early records indicate
the establishment of at least three other colony sites
along the equator, and a fourth that was re-established
in the Yuga Pocket following an expedition to recover
the valuable technology left behind after the exodus.

[412] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

As populations grew over the course of the first Interval, were hauled off to Ynn as war spoils. PEOPLE
planetside millennium, scarcity and clan politics stoked
old tensions. Raiding and skirmishes between warbands With no guarantee of survival, and limited opportunities
became more frequent, especially as old technology to contact Union, Prudent Interval took an
from the Yuga Pocket was brought back to the habitable unconventional approach: the NHP collated all pre- and
zone. This period of warring clans and Ynn, nominally post-Fall intel regarding the Yggdrasil, extrapolated
neutral, is known among the Sparri as the Familiekrig sociocultural–theological permutations over time, and
Saga, and it occupies a tense, fraught space in their portrayed themself as the local prime deity, Ynneval.
history. Modern Sparri generally regard the Familiekrig Prudent Interval, now posing as the goddess Ynneval,
Saga as a shameful period of inter-clan violence. It is claimed the Union team had been her djevel – demon-
widely acknowledged as a costly, foundational mistake jailers who had cruelly kept her from her people.
that, nevertheless (like so many other early tragedies) led
to the creation of peaceful methods of resolving conflict. Under Ynneval’s direction, Sparri society changed
It was the events of the Familiekrig Saga that birthed the rapidly. The clans were unified – willingly or by force –
domstol grievance-hearing practice and saw Ynn into a confederacy of families centered around a hub of
declared sanctuary ground. trade and culture, Ynn. Meanwhile, Ynn blossomed into
a temple-city devoted to Ynneval-Returned. Peace
But before the acceptance of domstol spread and Ynn spread among the clans, the worst of the Familiekrig
achieved its current status – before the Familiekrig concluded, and domstol was enshrined as a right. This
Saga came to an end – another change took place. It marked the end of the Familiekrig Saga; unfortunately,
was into this bloody, freezing mess of clan violence this peace was not to last. The second age of strife, the
that Union first arrived. Ynneval Saga, was soon to begin with another arrival.

In 3348u, a Union Colonial Mission evident-recontact Never deterred by initial failure, Union returned to
team crashed on Sparr, going down just beyond Ynn’s Sparr several hundred years later, around 4000u. By
sphere of influence. The team, already half-dead, was that time, Sparr was ruled by a class of religious
slaughtered by the warband that arrived to greet them; leaders pledged to Ynneval. Below them were the
their ship and the team’s supporting NHP, Prudent traditional dynastic clan leaders, then warriors,

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [413]

artisans, and common folk. Ynneval had fallen well The Sparri took to the introduction of space travel and
into cascade, and seems to have adopted her survival the opening of the interstellar borders like few other
narrative as truth: she believed herself a god, and anachronistic cultures. For hundreds of generations, the
showed favor to clans that pleased her by providing Sparri had known only the brutal ecology of their own
them with copies of herself that they could take back world. Their environment had instilled in them incredible
to their temples and shrines. resilience, ingenuity, and thirst for adventure. Peace with
Union, knowledge of the wider galaxy, space travel, and
Union forces, under the directive of the Second the discovery of the subglacial underworld all fit within
Committee, identified Ynn as a hostile central power their cultural narratives of exodus.
and laid siege to the holy city. The initial spot-bombing
campaign crippled the Sparri armed forces – an easy The Sparri value good stories and tests of strength
feat, as their martial technology had not progressed and character above all other things. The underworld,
beyond Iron Age levels. Most Sparri warriors fought with its mythic megafauna, and the many frontiers of
with weapons forged of bone, wood, and local iron, Union space are the perfect testing grounds for young
while the ancient metals brought down from the Sparri warriors and technoshamans seeking to write
Yggdrasil were reserved for nobles and priests. Sagas of their own.

There was little ground combat after the first landing. The traditional warrior culture of the Sparri venerates
Sparr’s finest warriors, draped in holy texts and girded wanderlust and feats of strength. Most Sparri see death
in ancient armors, carrying icons and living talismans in battle or far away from home as preferable to the
gifted by Ynneval, were simply outgunned by Union’s alternatives (and share many songs that remind them of
soldiers; bone and iron were no match for rifles and such). They are organized into numerous clans, the
energy weapons. Ynneval’s central temple was chiefs of which have some autonomy under Union rule.
sacked by Union’s forces and her casket destroyed. Disputes are arbitrated through councils of elders in
Ynn or via a local domstol, though in practice many
Ynn fell, and the other clans along the equator young Sparri reject these authorities. Clan affiliation can
surrendered soon after. It is a point of pride among easily be identified by other Sparri based on the full-
those of the Yuga Pocket that their ancestors never body tattoos that most Sparri accumulate throughout
surrendered to Union. their lives – recording their own deeds, stories, clan,
and family directly onto their flesh. Old Sparri shamans
Over the next few centuries, reconstruction took place and warriors are often covered head to toe in tattoos
in fits and starts. Many Sparri clans – the hardy clans and are highly respected by their younger peers. It is
of the Yuga Pocket chief among them – believed that common for technoshamans to tattoo circuit diagrams
Ynneval’s death was justified because of her and other old religious symbols into their flesh, or wear
weakness and inability to fight Union’s more powerful cabling and transistors as jewelry.
gods. Other clans, especially those that suffered the
most during Union’s reconquest, remain resentful to Despite significant reforms over the centuries, most
the present day. religious Sparri still venerate the machine spirits. This
is especially true of the technoshamans that comprise
The current period of Sparr’s history started with the the top echelon of Sparri society. Modern Ynnervan
beginning of the Vast Saga. As Union secured its hold dogma is split between those who view machine
on the world and began to root out any Ynneval’s spirits as separate entities from NHPs and those who
cascading children, the subglacial inhabitants of see NHPs themselves as spirits worthy of veneration.
Sparri finally took notice. Most technoshamans are fully aware of the origins
and nature of NHPs, and many even argue that the
It was purely by chance that Union’s campaign had mysterious nature of true NHPs only helps their case.
made its most thunderous presence known in some A technoshaman wouldn’t argue that a comp/con unit
places where the ice was thinnest. The massive sonic is a spirit – it is clearly as a machine.
disturbances caused by the initial bombing campaigns
attracted an array of subglacial megafauna to these A small, but growing subset of the Sparri
places along the habitable band. It was on the shores technopriesthood has begun to worship MONIST-1.
of Ynn that the first of the Vast, as they would be They view MONIST-1 as the progenitor of all NHPs,
named, burst out from the waters. It stood thirty meters thus the most powerful by right.
tall – a humanoid titan draped in long folds of heavy fur.
Union forces brought it down before it could reach the Sparri technoshamans are educated in Ynneval’s halls
city, but its emergence changed Sparr forever; the long- and have a close relationship with technology that makes
prophesied subglacial underworld was real, and it was them unconventional but very effective pilots. Similarly,
there for the Sparri to explore and exploit. Sparri warriors are often employed as mercenaries due to

[414] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

their perceived fearlessness in battle. Like all stereotypes, actions in their local mines, factories, farms, or worlds; PEOPLE
however, these are broad assertions about an increasingly others direct their actions at the Baronies and beyond,
large, integrated, and multicultural society. The Sparri including Union as the ultimate enabler of the systems
diaspora is enormous (having surpassed the population of that oppress them. Their methods are just as varied,
its homeworld in 4696u), and its presence can be seen in encompassing everything from peaceful strikes and
all corners of known space. demonstrations to education programs in the mines,
out-and-out attacks on Baronic assets and VIPs, and
Under the Third Committee, the Sparri enjoy a broad even strikes against Union targets.
guarantee of galactic rights. Many of their enterprising
warriors have organized themselves into mercenary There is no uniform or standard kit for the resistance. In
companies and are in high demand on account of their open combat and open political actions, Ungratefuls
proficiency in close-quarters combat. Of all tend to wear sky blue, meant to represent the color of the
partnerships, it is the association of Sparri mercenaries sky outside the mines in which the movement began.
with the Voladores that is best known. The enigmatic
spacefarers regularly employ experienced Sparri The Ungratefuls are known to employ HORUS
mercenaries as their muscle, housing them aboard their technology, systems, and weapons. Union Intelligence
ships alongside their families. Bureau and Karrakin Royal Intelligence analysts theorize
that the movement’s leaders are actively coordinating
UNGRATEFULS with deep HORUS elements, as recent encounters with
Ungrateful cells have led to the recovery of previously
"Ungratefuls” is the name given to members of the unseen HORUS technologies, systems, and pattern
widespread resistance movement within the Karrakin groups. For now, though, this is simply a theory and no
Trade Baronies. The resistance started among direct connection has been identified.
indentured laborers in the mines of the now-defunct
House Ludra, a minor house pledged to the House of Today, the Ungratefuls have a complicated
Stone. Although it was initially a local opposition relationship with the Baronies. They are an organized
effort, a massacre of striking workers on one of the – if partially underground and illicit – political party and
House of Stone’s tethered moons quickly caused it to force. Their aboveground political power is isolated to
blossom into an armed and organized rebellion. The Free Sanjak, formerly Ludra’s World. Free Sanjak is
Ungratefuls’ message of liberation is a popular one technically a free state within the Baronies; regardless,
that has inspired many underground resistance it is subject to an ongoing Baronic blockade, a
movements across the galaxy. compromise position decided by the Baronic Council
following appeals from the more liberal barons,
The movement’s name – the Ungratefuls – was co-opted Ungrateful representatives, and Union DoJ/HR
from an early propaganda offensive against the strikers – negotiators. A Baronic trade embargo prevents those
one that cast them as ungrateful for the bounties the on the planet from exploiting its rich mineral wealth.
Baronies had given them. The resistance came to be
known as the Ungratefuls through a combination of The Ungratefuls have a generally hostile relationship with
popular usage and ideology. To be grateful for the Union: since the Second Committee, Union has been yet
Baronies’ gifts would be to support the system that another power that – if nothing else – is complicit in their
enables them – to tacitly approve of oppression, oppression. While an Ungrateful partisan might not
exploitation, and the other normal functions of immediately shoot when approached by Union agents or
monarchy. To be Ungrateful is to reject that system. The troops, they’ll certainly start the conversation with a hand
term has become a point of pride for partisans, agents, on their gun. Despite this tense relationship, the UIB has
agitators, and organizers, although they do not use it to begun active missions on Free Sanjak and throughout
describe themselves. They are much more likely to use the Dawnline shore, keeping the movement supplied
“comrades”, “siblings”, and other affectionate terms of with weapons and technologies to level the field in their
address. More broadly, members of the resistance refer fight for a better world.
to themselves as Free Peoples.
The Ungratefuls are most active in the Baronies and in
Ungrateful cells are small, tight-knit, and reliant on mass the Dawnline Shore. The Dawnline Ungratefuls are
movements to affect material change. Their tactics center inspired by the original revolutions in the Baronies, but
on targeted harassment of political enemies and the there is a fundamental difference between the two
organization and radicalization of laborers, particularly in movements: rather than fighting against the Baronies,
the mines, factories, and fields of the Baronies. the Dawnline Ungratefuls are funded and supplied –
indirectly – by a cabal of barons seeking to wrest
Beyond this, Ungrateful activity ranges in scope from control of the system from Harrison Armory.
the local to the interstellar. Some cells focus on direct

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [415]

VOLADORES Voladores at all. The majority of Diasporans will never
encounter a Volador trade ship, but should they be
The Voladores are an ethereal, nomadic people. visited, their society will almost certainly develop
Universally tall, thin, and garbed in distinctive full- myths about their arrival and departure.
body environmental suits, they are a society out-of- Cosmopolitans have a marginally higher chance of
time from even the most distant Cosmopolitans. encountering Voladores at galactic transit points –
Rumors abound that they are posthumans of some blink stations and at distal shipping lanes in particular.
sort or a secret exception to the First Contact
Accord’s prohibitions. These rumors are spurred on by As a society, the Voladores are pacifist, largely nomadic,
the Voladores’ extreme insularity and secrecy. and primarily organized around matria – coalitions of
family groups who live and work aboard the same trade
The Voladores were first encountered in Union space ship or scattered across a group of ships, oriented around
during the First Expansion Period. Following reports of a matriarchal council of elders responsible for decision-
peaceful encounters with unregistered interstellar making and temporal record-keeping. They appear to
ships, investigators from the Union Administrative outsiders as a conservative, rigid people, though with
Department were ordered to track and make contact such little knowledge about their cultural functions and
with the unknown ships. After significant work by Dr. traditions beyond basic organizational structures, what
Oberon Sterling and Far Field Team 1683 (MIA), appears “conservative” and “rigid” to an outsider is just as
effective communication methods were identified and likely the product of ignorance as anything. Joining their
diplomatic channels between Cradle and the culture is presumed to be impossible, and they are rarely
Voladores’ capital, High Ground, were established. encountered outside of their trade missions.
Negotiations proceeded quickly and calmly, and the
Voladores were officially recognized as a stateless Each trade ship is a self-contained habitat, workshop,
pre-Fall society – a designation that, as understanding and marketplace, where various families practice their
of their culture deepened, proved inaccurate. craft during transit and host trade delegations while
parked in orbit. Trade ships are the heart of Volador
Until the creation of the aggressive Union Colonial culture in every way – as much small cities and mobile
Mission by the Second Committee, the Voladores bazaars as they are vessels. These ships are usually of
enjoyed relative independence from Union’s laws. They Volador make, although some smaller matrias have
were classified as a liminal nomadic culture and been known to fly freighters of Union design.
afforded the same rights as other Cosmopolitans and
Diasporans in Union space. For millennia, the Voladores trade in technology from all over the galaxy,
Voladores freely traversed Union space, appearing some of which is extremely advanced, experimental, or
often above Cradle with trade-tribute, survey data, and old and long forgotten. Curiously, the places they most
all manner of galactic wealth. At the height of often appear are worlds and systems rich in pre-Fall relics.
SecComm’s unification campaign, the Voladores were The Voladores’ own technology is highly advanced and
frequent targets of the UCM, which sought to integrate poorly understood by Union scientists. They are extremely
the nomadic culture fully into Union’s hegemony – this reluctant to share or sell any of their own technology and
hostile relationship culminated in an attempted colonial have been known to actively hunt down those who steal
incursion onto a Volador ship by a deniable-asset from them – these being the only times they are willing to
group, Vanguard Security. The attempt failed, and the put aside their pacifistic ways. They often contract Sparri
Voladores disappeared from Union space. However, mercenaries to help them track down thieves.
since the rise of ThirdComm, reports of a resumption of
Voladores action in realspace have increased. The location of the Voladores central hub-world, High
Ground, is unknown. Knowledgeable Cosmopolitans
It is in large part due to the Voladores’ planetary survey and Diasporans often debate what exactly this hub-
data that Union was able to identify and settle so many world is. Is High Ground a great nomadic home-ship?
habitable worlds, many of which are now fully developed A free-standing megastructure? A captured
Core worlds. The Voladores helped establish contact metavault? A world suspended just over the event
between Union and the Karrakin Trade Baronies and horizon of a black hole? All have been put forward as
played a pivotal role in various peace talks prompted by theories that might explain the mysterious nature and
SecComm’s centralization campaigns. Their diplomats, uncanny appearance of the Voladores.
far rarer than their merchants, are legendary for their
patience and wise counsel. The Voladores do not appear to have a presence on
the omninet. To trade with them, one must encounter
The galactic community at large knows little about them in realspace, on their own terms. Their arrival is
Volador culture. This, of course, leads both often a surprise, though they may linger for months or
Cosmopolitans and Diasporans to invent myths and years if the trade is bountiful.
prejudices, if indeed they have even heard of the

[416] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

The Voladores do keep a diplomatic office on Cradle, There is no single leader of the Voladores, and the PEOPLE
though it is usually not populated by any of the mysterious composition of their matriarchal council changes
nomads. It is staffed by a comp/con unit of Union design according to mysterious criteria. The only thing known
and is the most reliable way to contact High Ground when for sure is that their society is matrilineal, and their
diplomatic contact is necessary. Despite being the only names include personal identifiers, family names, and
office of its kind, it is not heavily trafficked: just because it’s location names.
the best way to contact the Voladores, that doesn’t mean
it’s an especially fast way to communicate, or that High
Ground responds to every query.

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [417]

PILOTS LANCERS

Within Union’s heartland – the Galactic Core – there is PCs aren’t just any old pilots, though. They’re the best
one primary route from civilian to mech pilot. Would- of the best – lancers.
be pilots receive training and education in the Union
Navy, specialize in a role, travel a little (on their Across the galaxy, “lancer” has become a catch-all
homeworld or through the local system), and are name for exceptionally daring and skilled mech pilots,
cleared for active duty in their mid-20s at the earliest. similar to the flying aces of the past. Not all pilots are
The extensive qualifications and training expected lancers – most are just good at what they do – but all
make younger pilots a rare thing. Regulars and lancers are pilots.
auxiliaries alike are put through the same
naturalization courses, trained by the same Nowhere is “lancer” considered an official rank or
instructors, and serve together in integrated units for classification. Lancers are set apart by ability, talent,
at least ten years. training, luck, skill, reputation, or some combination of
these qualities; they aren’t qualified as lancers by any
The process and standards differ for those with medal, certification, or promotion. It’s simply an
different allegiances. Corpro-states often use implants appellation given to exceptional pilots based on time
or prosthetics to increase compatibility between their in the saddle and performance in the field.
pilots and their proprietary mechs, while the Aun raise
pilots from childhood in sympathetic, almost symbiotic The vast majority of lancers have earned the right to
relationships with their NHP co-pilots. The noble scions bear the name through skill, strength, and experience –
of Karrakin barons are outfitted with storied frames and no help from Union, no preordination from on high.
trained in rich academies and colleges; meanwhile, the These people became pilots when they were
guerrillas, pirates, and desperate individuals these conscripted; when they enlisted; or when ships came
aristocrats fight take whatever they can get. There’s no and bombed their homes, and they chose to fight back.
“correct” way to be a pilot, much less any one way to
reach “lancer” status. Pilots – lancers – are made, yes, but whether it is by
deep machinations, by fate, by chance, or by choice,
Whoever a given pilot works for, training counts for who can say? If there is some formal system by which
everything. There are exceptions, but a properly future lancers are identified, it exists at a level so far
trained and outfitted pilot in their own mech will removed from any pilot that its consequences will
almost always beat a conscript or unskilled pilot in a never be understood, let alone guessed at.
straight fight, even if outnumbered. Outside of their
mechs, too, most pilots are highly trained combatants.
They tend to be somewhere between adepts and
experts in the fields covered by their training and
background.

Despite some claims to the contrary, pilots aren’t
super soldiers – though substantial cybernetic
enhancements allow some to operate beyond the
bounds of “normal” human ability. The majority of
pilots – like most other specialists in 5016u – enjoy
some degree of non-invasive biological enhancement,
but they still rely on wearable or detachable
technologies and comprehensive training to hone their
talents and knowledge.

As a general rule, the natural lifespan of a pilot is only
marginally than that of a Diasporan or Metropolitan.
Their lifespans and the structure of their lives both
trend closer to those of Cosmopolitans; owing to the
nature of the job, pilots get shipped all around their
world, system, or the galaxy.

[418] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

A GALAXY FULL OF HEROES MJ MARTINEZ – THE AUXILIARY PILOTS

Pilots are as diverse as humanity itself. Here are some A nobody from nowhere in a nothin’ rig.
examples of who they can be.
“You ain’t nothin’.” Those were the last words the
HOTEL COMPANY – THE decklord had spake to MJ Martinez. “You ain’t
nothin’.”
REGULARS
MJ unclips his helmet. Tugs it off. Feels the breeze
DoJ/HR 5th Liberator Detachment, UNS Harper’s Ferry. cool the sweat on his brow. He’s free now from the
Veterans, heading out for a second tour. constant battlescape chatter; it was only cheers and
singing, anyways. MJ and his company had done the
2nd Squad, Hotel Company of the 5th Liberator impossible: they had held the breach, repelled the
Detachment. One squad among hundreds aboard the Crown Host.
UNS Harper’s Ferry, a DoJ/HR carrier out from Cradle
herself. Every trooper in the 2nd is from a different Whennow had the decklord died? Must been a
world, bound together by purpose and trial. hunnert or twain years back. MJ grins, can’t help
himself. The words “AIN’T NOTHIN” are slapped in
Union doesn’t function without these pilots. There’s a whitewash on the flank of his mech. They’ve been
whole galaxy of bickering states, of kings and scored some by tachyon but they’re still there, proud
presidents who think they alone can shake the pillars and loud.
of heaven – who think they can spit in Union’s face.
Might as well turn their backs on the ocean. When the Nowadays, MJ has been through the shit. It’s been an
warlords and tyrants rise up, it’s the soldiers of the 5th age since he left Old Spinrock and joined the Oxes,
darken their skies, drop to their world, and set them cadet’d for a decade until he’d proved his mettle
right where they’ve done wrong. enough to pilot an Everest. Big picture, the Everest
ain’t nothin’ either – but to a kid off a spinsat hub, an
What sets this sortie apart from all the others before Everest is King Death.
it? It started like any other: an Administrator’s report
filed to the Department of Justice and Human Rights; A decade more and MJ had got himself a squad;
a battlegroup organized; a briefing; a king who thinks another decade, a comp’ny: the No-How’s. Their sigil:
himself a god, who grinds his boot on the neck of a a grin, one missin’ tooth. Just like MJ himself. You get
people he thinks are his. He forgot they aren't his to do that when you’re a real damn hero.
people, though. They’re Union. It’s time for this king to
be reminded that Cradle’s reach is long, her vision is A real damn hero. MJ sure as shit isn’t gonna paint
pure, and her will inexorable. that on his mech, but he likes the way it sounds.

As veterans of the campaign, the pilots of the 2nd An incoming call catches his attention – more Union
Squad have a little more autonomy than the regulars trooping by, waving up at him as he stands
newcomers: their mechs are painted with more kill half-out his Everest. He waves back, salutes; they
hashes, their weapons are heavier than those of the cheer.
boot squads fresh to the deck. They’re still
subordinate to their CO, but all the other troopers look Those old decklord words echo again: “you ain’t
to them when the lead and lasers start flying. They’ve nothin’.”
been in the shit a bit longer and learned how to move
when someone downrange wants them dead. Well, what had their chances been against the
oncomin’ horde? Nothin’. But they’d stood strong and
The members of the 2nd Squad are lancers, veterans Union-proud ‘gainst the shinin’ host of a king who
of a campaign that has ground all of their friends to called himself god. Nothin’ had stopped him before.
dust and ash. From different worlds, of different
backgrounds, but all bound by the same truth: they’re Perfect. If nothin’ is gonna save the world, then MJ’s
Union, and they’re here to help. the right pilot for the job. A nobody in a nothin’ rig who
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.

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [419]

JEDDAH – THE SQUIRE PENNY – THE MERCENARY

A paladin’s squire, the morning of their anointing. A mercenary, threading the last stitch of her patch on
the shoulder of her coat.
A young wing of the Albatross, cleaning the kit of the
loyal wing he serves for the thousandth time. The patch reads “Mirrorsmoke MC”. Stitching
complete, Penny holds her coat out, gives it a nod,
Ever since Jeddah bin Surat al Noor was saved by the and lets it go. Microgravity holds it for a moment while
Albatross, he has wanted nothing more than to don a she stands, slips her arms in and zips it up. A new unit,
kit of his own – to be marked by the crimson lion, to in place of her old one: MALWAREE, a good company
feel the smooth hilt of a waveblade in his hand. off Davanti Prime. A new story to tell with this new
patch, and a new name for herself: Penny.
Jeddah remembers the countless times he has
cleaned blood and burn from his loyal wing’s hardsuit; Penny. The face she sees in the mirror is gentle, if a
he recalls each of the many times he has nursed his little tired, but who wouldn’t be a little tired after ten
loyal wing while he lay in agony, moaning through years of stasis sleep.
nightmares earned in the metavault.
Still, she smiles. There’s nothing wrong with having a
Jeddah may not have seen the terrors that the loyal little bit of pride in her situation. She’s with the
wings face, but he has seen their echoes. Never has MSMC 501st Detachment. The One-Eyed Foxes. The
that dissuaded him, for he has never forgotten: these Here-for-Nows.
are the only ones who came to save him.
The voice of Subcommander Gerrard echoes over the
Now, in his eighteenth subjective year, Jeddah has been carrier’s all-comm. “Sunrise. It’s sunrise. Good
called before the Loyal Council for assessment and morning everyone, welcome to the Dawnline Shore.”
ordination. He has been chosen, of all his fellows, to There’s a pause, the sound of someone talking off-
learn the art of piloting, of standing-at-the-speartip. His mic. Gerrard comes back a moment later. “Since
breast swells with pride when he hears his name called. Geordie won the calendar-pick, we’re going to listen
to some old shit. Apologies in advance. We’ve got
Rising, Jeddah walks across the dawn-lit courtyard to three days until we’re in orbit above Myrrh.”
stand beside the rest of the Loyal Council. In time, he
too will heft the lance, wear the golden armor, wield The old shit starts the moment Gerrard gets off the
the laser and the rifle. comms – something called “ray-gae”. Penny likes it.
She hums along as she taps her fabrication request
He will be a lancer, hero to the lost. into the ship’s queue. For all the reputation these
mercs had, she had been surprised to find they were
actually quite kind. Gruff, unpolished, but kind and
bound to their own sort of honor. Well, the Foxes were.

Penny doesn’t know it, but she will be the only one to
come back from this milkrun. She’s a cut above the
rest, though she won’t find that out until later.

Soon, Penny is going to be called “lancer”, but that
won’t matter much to her – she only ever wanted to be
called “friend”.

[420] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

YOND-BALOR – THE NOBLE TYRANNOCLEAVE – THE PILOTS

A proud scion of the Baronies, preparing for war. UNGRATEFUL

Through combat and intrigue, Yond-Balor has proved “Listen now: we have nothing but time, so I shall not
that he alone deserves to command the warhost of the rush. The first violence I commit to you is to tell you my
House of Glass – Yond-Balor Karrakis, second son of story. You will know before you die: My mother died
Yond-Aleph Karrakis, Baron of House Yond, itself a when she bore me, hooked to tubes and deadlife
minor house of the House of Glass. machines. Your men had her bear me with the
assistance of an exo: a machine massaged her heart,
As a youth, Yond-Balor was raised to pilot mechs – to gird currents forced her muscles to work, a black box
himself in sealed power-armor and become the death- strapped to her chest forced breath into her lungs. All of
word of House Yond. He proved himself in battle against this because you knew. You knew at that point the only
Ungratefuls, against House Muur and House Fleur, even protest we had was to die and deny you new bodies.
in single combat against the vice-lord of the House of
Sand. Yond-Balor was the one who stood, alone, by “So you took me from her and I never knew her again
Yond-Aleph’s deathbed while his father was ravaged by and in the care of your stone-matrons I learned how to
fever, poisoned by assassins from the Mutable Houses. tear worlds to pieces. I learned the lash, and the pick,
and how to read the earth you had me kill.
All of that, yet there had been one more obstacle:
Yond-Argo Karrakis, Yond-Balor’s older brother: first “When I was ten, I learned that I must take these pills to
claimant to the baronial throne and, by extension, the survive. That I was born riddled with cancers that you
warhost of the House of Glass. But where was Yond- would never take from me – too expensive. The
Argo when their father had died? Where was the first- recovery process too long. And your quarterly profits
named then? Gone. Traveling through space, sworn to could never slip, as it would mean ruin for your name.
serve the headless ones: to serve Union.
“Look at me. You are why we are hideous. Your
Mere hours ago, when Yond-Argo came to pay propaganda paints us as beasts – but it is your hand
respects to their late father, Yond-Balor wasted no that shapes our flesh. It is your word that scars our skin
time in dispatching the much older man. and bids cancer grow thick in our bodies. In the names
of manna and your house, you ruin millions.
Thus, Yond-Balor has taken what was his by birth –
drawn it steaming from the gut of his worthless kin. As “Millions. There are millions of us and countless more.
his mech closes around him and the crimson ready- This is your unbecoming. Your death, below your feet.
light begins to pulse, he grins. His name is no longer Every inch of every palace and ship and grand city you
second-son – it is first, and it is lancer. build, you build on our backs, with our labor, at the cost
of our lives. It began in the mines, but it will not end
there: your Baronies are as riddled with us as my body
is with metastasis.

“Yes, weep now. For your perfect face. Your perfect
worlds. Your perfect dominion.

“Do you know that I did not know what the sky was
until the Ungratefuls found me? Liberation means this:
not simply seeing the sky, but knowing that there is
such a thing as land without stone above you. And then
knowing that there are those who put you there. I
always thought – we were always taught this – that we
were damned and penitent. That we had transgressed
against Lordgod’s perfect kingdom and must mine in
penance.

“How wrong I was! It was not a divine prescript that
doomed us to labor, but you and others like you. How
surmountable the problem became then.

“This is the Ungratefuls’ gift to me. This is their gift to
the rest of us – the waste, the offal of your courts and

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [421]

palaces. This is why even your machines fight YOU
alongside us. Because you never taught us there could
be a thing like the sky. Because you thought that we A Pilot, Witness to a Future Unwritten.
would never learn.
The galaxy does not yet know your name. Maybe it
“Goodbye, grand baron. Your house burns, your coffers never will. What the galaxy will know are your deeds,
have been emptied, your monuments have been torn your actions. As you settle into your chassis for the
down. Your line – your sons and daughters – hang from first time, is it joy that crosses your face? Fear? A
the balconies of your own palace. sense of purpose, or one of doom?

“We learned, grand baron. We learned how to hope, You may have been born to this work. You may have
and who to hate.” been damned to it. The machine might be a tool, or it
may be your real body.

You may be a proud knight bringing glory and
brotherhood to the Free Company of Nova Thebes, or
a stoic soldier in the Sundogs, fighting to free worlds
as yours was liberated before. You may fly the unburnt
flag of New Ararat, or wear the raccoon patch of the
Mischief Consortium, or paint your chassis in the
graffiti'd sigils of the Everhart; you may paint your skin
in the silver of the Propositorum, yearning for the day
it will become machine; or you may count yourself
among the eager ranks of the Bright Bloom
Concordance, those who seek a verdant future.

The populated galaxy is a vast place, with many
worlds, stars, and vast spaces in-between that hide
mysteries: What lingers in the Ikadra Drift, where the
D rift’s eponymous binary stars collect the ruins of
thousands of ships in their orbit? What secrets
murmur out from the Pleiades, where the song of the
cult of MAIA echoes quiet through the bulkheads of
your ship?

There are powers at work in the galaxy – mundane and
esoteric, cruel and utopian. Union, long the steady
center of humanity, frays at the edges, and forces
begin to align along new presentations of old
ideologies.

The most important question to ask – of yourself and
others – is this: which side are you on?

[422] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

BEYOND UNION BEYOND UNION

By conservative estimates, there are 250 billion stars
in the Milky Way. A significant majority of those stars
are orbited by their own retinues of worlds.

Union space – the entirety of the Galactic Core, the
Diaspora, and the Cosmopolita – occupies a fraction
of 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, Massif
Press, 2019

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [423]

INDEX 338 Character Terminology 14
377 General 28
A 409 Grit 18
420 Hit Points (HP) 18
Accepted Timeline 403 License 30
Aging 375 License Level (LL) 28
Albatross, The Mech Skills 35
338 Statistics 35
Example Lancer 347 Talent 30
Re: IPS-N, Trunk Security 338 Talent Rank 32
Androidism 387 Mech 35
Anthrochauvinism 377 Agility 33
See New Humanity Front, The 379 Armor 33
First Distal War Core Bonuses 34
Ideology 390 Core Power (CP) 30
Apollo 338 Core System 34
Karrakis E-Defense 32
Artificial Gravity Engineering 34
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Evasion 30
Aun Frame 68
Aun’Ist Heat Cap 32
Settlement Hull 34, 82
Immunity 67
B 371 Mount 34
339 Repair Cap 34
Blinkspace 370 Resistance 32
Blink Travel 338, 339, 390 Save Target 34
Discovery Sensors 34, 81
Stations Size 34, 80
Speed 33
Boundary Garden Stress 30
Structure 34
C 389 System Points (SP) 32
403 Systems 20
Carina 107 Tech Attack 25
IPS-N Headquarters Trait
105 Pilot
Cascades 282 Background
Character Tags 105 Trigger
282
Character 282 Cloning 374
AI 282
Biological 282 Colonies 367
Drone 282
Mech 282 Companion/Concierge (Comp/Con) 380

NPC Corpro-State 356
Biological Conflicts Between 407
Mech Player Interaction With
Ship
Squad Cosmopolitans 343
Vehicle Albatross Interactions 409
Body Modifications 375
Definition
IPS-N Interactions 21
Lifespan 403
377

Cradle 386
Galatic location 340

[424]

D 62 Grenade 106
Heat X (self) 104
Dangerous Terrain 397 Limited X 106
Dawnline Shore 404 Mine 106
415 Mod 106
HA Expansion 376 Protocol 106
IPS-N Intervention 339 Quick Action 106
Ungrateful Resistance Reaction 106
DeCorp (Decorporealization) 406 Shield 106
Deimos Event, Deimos 20, 343 Unique 106
See also Non-Human Persons X/Turn or X/Round 105
(NHPs), MONIST-1/RA 409 Mount Tags
DHIYED 62 Aux/aux 32
Diasporans, Diaspora Flexible, Flex 32
Albatross Interactions Heavy 32
Difficult Terrain Integrated 32
Main 32
F Main/aux 32
Superheavy 32
Fall, The 340 Other Weapon Tags 104
Accurate 104
First Committee, The 338, 341, 369 Arcing 104
Armor Piercing 104
First Contact Accords 339 Inaccurate 105
Creation 384 Knockback 105
Decorp 376 Loading 105
Ordnance 105
First Distal War 338 Overkill 105
Overshield 105
First Expansion Period 338 Reliable 105
Re: Voladores 416 Seeking 105
Smart 105
Five Voices, The 338, 355 Threat 105
Names 382 Thrown 64
Patterns 64
Forecast/GALSIM 338, 350, 355 Blast 64
Bicameral Minds, The Five Voices 382 Burst 64
Cone 105
Fourth Column, The 348 Line 105
See also Third Committee, The Pilot Gear Tags 105
Archaic 105
Free Sanjak 415 Gear 33
See also Ungratefuls Personal Armor: 33
Sidearm 33
G 342 Type Tags 33
Cannons 33
Galactic Core 104 CQB 33
64 Launchers 33
Gear and Systems 34 Melee 33
General Nexus 33
Gear 33, 35 Rifles 33
Range 105 Weapon Size Tags
Sensors 105 Auxiliary [425]
System 105 Heavy
General Tags 105 Main
AI 106 Superheavy
Danger Zone
Deployable
Drone
Full Action

General Massive Systems 118, 339, 392 I
GMS Core Bonuses 118
Integration, Into Union 356
General Rules Terminology
Accuracy 14 Interactions with Karrakin 393
Bonus 13
Character 58 Interplanetary Shipping-Northstar (IPS-N)
Check 13 126, 402
Consequences 46 See also Albatross, The
D3 12 Core Bonuses 127
D6 12
D20 12 Interstellar, The 348
Difficulty 14 See also Third Committee, The
Downtime 14
Effect 13 J 395
Fail (or Miss) 13
Game Master (GM) 12 John Creighton Harrison I
Mech 30 See also Harrison Armory
Mech Combat 12, 56
Mission 14 K 338, 392
Narrative Play 12, 45 421
Non-Player Character (NPC) 58 Karrakin Trade Barons 387
Pilot 20 See also Fourth Column, The 415
Player 12 Example Lancer 416
Player Character (PC) 58 Karrakis
Principle 256 Ungrateful Interactions
Reserves 50 Voladores Interactions
Roll 12
Save 13 L 409
Scenes 14
Skill Challenge 47 Lakshmi Bandhav-4796u 418
Skill Check 13 See also Albatross, The 338, 341
Succeed (or Pass) 13
Target Number 13 Lancer, Lancers 415
Little Wars, The
H Ludra's World

Harrison Armory See also Ungratefuls
See also Ras Shamra
HA Core Bonuses 224, 394 M 409
Paracausal Research
225 Makteba 367
Hercynian Crisis, The 379 See also Albatross, The 339, 386
High Ground 339, 346
416 Manna 384
See also Voladores, The (Los) Mars 338
Homunculus/Homunculi 380
Horizon, Horizon Collective 410 Siege of Mars 64
HORUS 190, 404 Massif-A 64
191 Mech Combat Terminology 64
Core Bonuses 410 64
Distinction from HORUS 384 Areas of Effect 71
First Emergence 415 Blast 71
Ungrateful Interactions Burst 71
Cone 71
Line

Basic Full Actions
Barrage
Disengage
Full Tech
Improvised Attack

[426]

Stabilize 71 Movement 62
Basic Quick Actions 69 Adjacent 62
69 Climb 63
Boost 69 Drag 62
Grapple 69 Engagement 62
Hide 70 Fall 63
Quick Tech 70 Fly, Flight 63
Ram 70 Free Space 106
Search 73 Hover 63
Skirmish 73 Ignore Engagement 69, 71
Basic Reactions 78 Involuntary 62, 63, 78
Brace 78 Jump 63
Overwatch 78 Lift 62, 63
Conditions 78 Obstruction 62
Immobilized 78 Occupied Space 62
Impaired 78 Provoke Reactions 62, 63, 71
Jammed 78 Space 59
Lock On 67 Standard Move 62
Shredded 67 Teleport, Teleportation 63
Slowed 67 Voluntary 78
Stunned 67 71
Damage Types 67 Other Actions 71
Burn 60 Activate 71
Energy 60 Boot Up 71
Explosive 61 Dismount 71
Heat 64 Eject 73
Kinetic 58 Mount 71
General 64 Overcharge 72
1/round 13 Prepare 72
1/turn 67 Self-Destruct 72
Action 78 Shut Down 81
Affected 64 Skill Check 81
Allied 67 80
Area 80, 82 Other Effects 71
Attack 61 Overheating 69
Bonus Damage 61 Stress Damage 73
Conditions 104 Structure Damage 71
Critical Hit 64 74
Damage 58 Pilot Actions 69
Destroyed 65 Activate 75
Free Action 64 Boost 73
Full Action 58 Brace 71
Gear 73 Disengage 70
Hit 61 Fight 72
Hostile 64 Hide 69
Line of Sight 64 Jockey 70
Melee 73 Overwatch 70
Object 59 Prepare 70
Protocol 77 Search 93
Quick Action 65 Skill Check 90
Range 64 91
Ranged 64 Quick Tech Actions 95
Reaction Bolster 95
Size Invade
Statuses Lock On [427]
Target Scan
Tech
Tech Action Special Rules Terminology
Blademaster Die
Bondmate
Brawler Die
Exemplar’s Mark
Gunslinger Die

Torrent Die 101 New Solidarity Coalition, The 348
Statuses 77 See also Third Committee, The
77 379
Danger Zone 77 Non-Human Life 381
Down and Out 77 Non-Human Persons (NHPs)
Engaged 77
Exposed 77 See also HORUS, Horizon, Horizon
Hidden 77 Collective
Invisible 77
Prone O
Shut Down
OMETEOTL 410
Mechanized Chassis 362 See also Horizon, Horizon Collective

Metat Aun 338, 390 Oracle Chorus 338, 355
See also Aun, Aun’Ist See also Five Voices,
The, Forecast/GALSIM
Metavault, Metafold Vaults 406

Metropolitans 342, 366 P
Body Modification 375

Milky Way, The 340 Paracausality, Paracausal Studies 379
Beyond Union 423 Birth of Paracausality Research 384
Non-State Actors 408
Peoples of 342 Periphery, The 344

Mirrorsmoke Mercenary Company 411 Petrel, Young Petrel 409
Example Lancer 420 See also Albatross, The

MONIST-1/RA 383 Piracy (Interstellar, Orbital) 357

See also HORUS, Non-Human Persons PISTON-1, TBK PISTON-1 338, 346
(NHPs)
Adherents of RA 408 Post-Scarcity 366

Horizon Interactions 410 Prime Baron Karra-Bem 393
Sparri Worship 414 See also Karrakin Trade Barons

N Printing, Printers 377

Narrative Play 48 R 388
Narrative Play Terminology
45 Ras Shamra 377
Difficult 53 See also Harrison Armory 372
Downtime Actions 53 369
53 Realtime
Buy Some Time 54 Aging
Gather Information 55 Travel
Get a Damn Drink 54
Get Connected 55 Recontact
Get Creative 55
Get Focused 53 S
Get Organized 55
Power at a Cost 46 Second Committee 338, 343, 346, 356
Scrounge And Barter 20 See also Voladores, The (Los), Deimos
Heroic 46 Event, Deimos, Ungratefuls
Invoke 45 Recontact 369
Push It 338, 371
Risky 348 Second Expansion Period 339
Nearlight
New Humanity Front, The Shackling, Unshackling 107, 381
See also Third Committee, See also Cascades
The, Anthrochauvinism
Smart Weaponry 380

Smith-Shimano Corpro 158, 398
SSC Core Bonuses 158

[428]

Space Combat 358, 364 Utopian Pillars, The 344
Space Stations 370
Sparri, The Sparri Peoples 412 V 349
Subjective Time 416
377 Verdant Social Arc, The (VSA)
Aging 372 See also Third Committee, The
Travel
Voladores, The (Los)

T W

The Ten 338, 340 Wing (Young, Loyal, Honored) 409
Founded Planets 387, 390, 412 See also Albatross, The

Theseus Shipyard 338, 403 Y
See also Interplanetary Shipping-Northstar
(IPS-N)
Yggdrasil 412
Third Committee, The 339, 346 See also Sparri, The Sparri Peoples, The
Committee Coalitions 348 Ten
State Conflict Ideology 365
Ynn 412
Time Dilation 372 See also Sparri, The Sparri Peoples

Travel 370 Ynneval 413
Global 370 See also Sparri, The Sparri Peoples
in Play 372
Interstellar 371
Local-Space 370

U

Ungratefuls 415
Example Lancer 421

Union, The 346
See also Forecast/GALSIM
Founding 340
Union Administrative Department 338, 350
See also Voladores, The (Los)
Union Bureau of Colonial Administration 354
See also Recontact
Union Bureau of Orbital and Non-Terrestrial
Management 354
Union Central Committee 350, 356
Union Colonial Mission 339, 347
See also Second Committee
Sparri Interactions 413
Voladores Interactions 416
Union Department of Justice and Human
Rights 352
See also Recontact
Hotel Company 419
Union Economic Bureau 347, 354
Union Intelligence Bureau 355
Union Naval Department 352
Union Omninetwork Bureau 354
Union Ring System 340
Union Science Bureau 353, 383
Union Space Program 338

[429]

BACKER CHARACTERS

Character/Fac�on Page/Sec�on Backer

Aisling Jensen, she/her 288 (Ace) Jay Jensen
Lady Gloria MacLennan (She/Her) 289 (Aegis) Lee "IterationDrive" Saxon
Ichabod Carden. He/Him 290 (Archer) Noah Carden
Corrida Isolde-Nollet 301 (Engineer) Basil Lisk
Union Navy Skunkworks 379 (re: Paracausal Studies) John Arena
Prismatica 406 (re: HORUS Flashpoint) Ethan "SteelAngel" Deneault
Flama (They/Them) 310 (Pyro) Jenny Garabagiu
Messengers of Tiresias 309 (Priest) Jennifer Fae
The Knights of Imminent Destruction, 295 (Berserker) Andrew Shields
Gen'Dal Merlos 293 (Barricade) Hamish Lord
Audrey Reimaus, they/them 304 (Hornet) Kai Tave
Chandrasekhar & Herschel 415-416 (re: The Voladores) Sam Chabot
Vanguard Security 294 (Bastion) Zachary Broberg
Zander Reeves, He/Him 415-416 (re: The Voladores) Scott MacDonald Aune
Oberon Sterling 312 (Ronin) Ashley Moni
Susanoo, she/her 298 (Breacher) Sam Garamy
Valeria Rojas-Sarnik, she/her/hers. Arcolf, Grizzly Adams,
ShadowDancerBob,
Murder Cave 408 (re: The Albatross) CodenameChaz
Josh Good
Jackal and Hades, Esq 410-411 (re: MSMC) Michael E. Cao
Adam Montgomery
Union Science Bureau, Far-Field Team 1683 415-416 (re: The Voladores) Alain Clark
Max Waechter
Deep Field Discovery 486 (Support Archetype) Derek Munn
Catherine Needham
SUMMUM 377-378 (re: DeCorp) Zachary Williams
Alex Manus
Dagger Squadron 302-303 (Goliath) Teddy Leinbach
Joshua Javier Rios
Eris Brittam (she/her) 411-414 (re: Sparri Peoples) Will Lennon

Catherine ‘C-80’ Need. They/them 299 (Cataphract)
Hayes Rothford (he/him) & NHP, Clarke 300 (Demolisher)
(she/her/they/them) 419 (re: Penny)
MALWAREE

New Ararat 422 (re: "You")

The Mischief Consortium 422 (re: "You")

Free Company of Nova Thebes 422 (re: "You")

[430]

Character/Fac�on Page/Sec�on Backer

The Sundogs 422 (re: "You") William Creel

Propositorum 422 (re: "You") Thadius Rushing

The Bright Bloom Concordance 422 (re: "You") Mark Bustrack

Ikadra Debris Rings, The 422 (re: "You") Stephen Pagni

Everhart, The 422 (re: "You") Bryce A. Everhart

Ttalgi & Ínen 409 (re: Horizon) Amos Isom

The Own Hands 359-360 (re: Piracy) Andrew Wise

Mei Ling 359-360 (re: Piracy) Sam Hornigold
The Frontier Shipping Clans 43 (re: The Stakes, Mission Sean Mckechnie
Ava Rhys Goals) Alice Lawrie
47 (Combat in Narrative Play)

Attar Rose 270-275 (re: Random Sitrep) Austin Walker

Lin Yating, "Marigold" 47 (Combat in Narrative Play) Ryan Lui

UIB Agent Etcher Ronen 50 (Reserves) William Osbourne Bird

Robin Conners 50 (Reserves) Mitchell Priour

Harmonious Domesticity 102 (Ace Talent) Mark Siems

Tempest Gloire (she/her) 103 (Brawler Talent) Matthew Lind

Aubrey Deckard 103 (Brutal Talent) Kayte Hawke

Strymon Bulis, He, callsign HAURBERK 104 (Crack Shot) Daniel Thomas Hicks
Clymene Kanalakos (she/her) callsign
BIRDSONG 106 (Drone Commander Talent) Dolan Hill
Gail (she/her)
114 (Tactician Talent) Gail Duncan

Former HA programmer Katya Han, she/her 109 (Hacker Talent) Anna Wittholz

Pilot: Eel They 108 (Grease Monkey Talent) Peter Romine

Daniel 'Inky' Boyd - he/him. 47 (Combat in Narrative Play) Daniel Boyd

Leika McGraff (he/him) 105 (Combined Arms Talent) Thomas Burd

Laughter of a Solemmn God 321 (Support NPC) Richard Moon

Ethan "Orion" Miller Forthcoming Chase Uehara

Khan Forthcoming Kiernan Hahn

Mesa Rownett Forthcoming Robert Ervine

The Apiary Forthcoming Gwen and Sasha

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