CONTENTS

The GCPS Today 4 Asterians 54

Galactic Topography 7
A History of the GCPS 18
Map of the Galaxy 20
Timeline of Events 26
The Mandrake Rebellion 32
The McKinley Drive 46
Enforcers 72
Forge Fathers 100
The GCPS 118
Marauders 140
Plague 154
Veer-Myn 174

CREDITS
Editor: Sculpting:
Thomas Pike Juan Miguel Lpez Barea
Daniele Cattarin
Background Material: Dave Kidd
Michael Grey MKUltra Studio
Christopher Verspeak Tim Prow, Ben Skinner
Layout & Graphic Design: Luigi Terzi
Francesco Volpe Painting:
Jay Shepherd Leigh Buckett
Photography: Rob Jenkins
Ben Sandum Leicester Phat Cats
Ben Macintyre
Artwork:
Dave Allsop Tyler Mengel
Shen Fei Chan Dave Neild
Roberto Cirillo Will Simmons
Daniel Comerci Chris Webb
Juan Diego Dianderas
Heath Foley
Michele Giorgi
Hai Hoang, Inkognit
Rob Jenkins
Pierre Loyvet
Thomas Marvelli
Jonas Springborg
Luigi Terzi
Eric Wilkerson

1
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THE GCPS TODAY
:WELCOME TO THE
GALACTIC CO-PROSPERITY SPHERE
INFO-NET, CITIZEN:
The GCPS Today
It has been a century and a half since the
Council of Seven took control of the Galactic
Co-Prosperity Sphere and began directing the
corporations to reclaim the stars. It inherited an
empire shattered by the Mandrake Rebellion,
when a million war-hardened Marauders rose
up against their former masters and smashed
the Co-Prosperity Sphere to an extent some
thought it could not recover from.
But recover it did, and with vigour. It is hard to
imagine the now burgeoning empire butting
aggressively against the empires of the Forge
Fathers and Asterians was only a hundred and
fifty years ago on its knees, one planet away
from complete annihilation. Now the spheres
burst with economic activity, the interstellar
trade lanes run hot with traffic, and the life of
a sphere citizen is thought to be so saturated
with luxury that some species actively seek to
be incorporated into it.
4
Which is of course true, to an extent. Within
the GCPS, opulence is not an extravagance
it is an expectation. With enough credits a
citizen can buy anything. Food seasoned with
spice grown half the galaxy away, political
influence, slaves, or genetic enhancements
to slow aging. The life of the core worlds is
rich, filled with consequence-free thrills. Any
desire can be satiated, and life is as close to
the concept of heaven preached by Council-
approved religions as can be.
But outside the core, out in the Third Sphere
and beyond, average has a whole different
meaning. Here are the engines of the galactic
conquest machine. Here, the corporations
which make up the GCPSs political power
houses rule, and earn the credits that account
for their influence. There are manufactory
worlds; filled with enormous factory districts,
operated by subsistence-salaried workers, or
robots where people are too inefficient - entire
planets whose ecologies and atmosphere have
been disregarded or actively stripped for the
sake of profit, where the bottom line is held
more sacrosanct than the lives of workers.
These worlds harden the men and women who
make up the armies of the GCPS. Humanity
has a reputation for adaptability to hardship
and a stubbornness to die, and the Marines
drawn from the outer spheres are the ones
who made it.
And they need every edge they can, for out in
the darkness of space aliens await.
The clans of the Forge Fathers expand in an
inexorable march from system to system,
tearing apart planets, leaving nothing behind
that could be put to use. Their ponderous
spread away from the galactic core sees them
compete with the human corporations for
resource-rich worlds. Outright war has been
avoided, so far.
But while the Clan Lords have patience
centuries-deep, it is being worn thin by the
upstart corporations, and no amount of good
relations ever stopped a war over a commodity
both sides wanted.
Half the galaxy away, the aloof Asterian
Empire watches with feigned indifference.
The Asterian race is old. Old enough to have
watched the stars grow and spin around the
galactic core. By sleight of hand they have
guided the galaxy towards balance, and want
5
nothing but the natural order to continue and
the galaxy to endure. But the humans have
reached too far, and looked into things best
forgotten. A scourge has arisen once again,
and the Asterians have abandoned their
passive dogma and are forced into taking a
direct hand to preserve equilibrium.
To the Co-Prosperity Spheres galactic north-
west lays the mysterious Death Arc. A vast
swathe of silent, dead worlds, abandoned
for reasons that have become all too clear;
the Plague has arrived on GCPS shores. A
virus-born mutagen that delivers to its hosts
a painful, tormented existence with the
uncontrollable urge to kill and spread the
Plague to new, virgin worlds.
Within the Co-Prosperity Sphere itself danger
swells. Beneath the very feet of the citizenry
the nests of the Veer-myn bloom with the
fortunes of the society it feeds from.
The Brood Mothers nurture their offspring
where there is food and shelter to find;
abandoned buildings, derelict freighters, busy
space stations, or the subbasements of core
world megacities; and will defend their nests
when they have to bursting up beneath the
feet of the humans, unleashing weapons of
manic and terrifying design.
 Moving unseen among the GCPS crowds is one
of the greatest threats to its continued existence;
insurgency. The Rebellion grows daily across
the spheres, fuelled by dissatisfaction with
THE GCPS TODAY

the status quo, the immense equality gap, the

corporations treatment of aliens and slaves,
or just a sick desire to see the galaxy burn. The
Rebs commanders do not care why a person
would want to see the GCPS made to pay for
its uncountable offenses, only that they be
willing to rise up when called, and fight for
freedom until their final breath.
And then there are the Marauders. Despite
shattering the outer spheres only centuries
ago the Orcs and their kin are still free
to move about the GCPS. They seek
employment as mercenaries, lending their
brawn to corporation armies and freebooter
companies, or preying on the inter-system
trade lanes as pirates. They are organised,
armed, and frighteningly aggressive.
And it could be that the galaxy holds dangers as
yet undiscovered. A pandemic more virulent
then the Plague, or a race more violent than
the Marauders; a threat so grave it would be a
great filter to all life were it ever to break out.
So far the galaxy has been lucky, but there are
rumours from the galactic west, a buzz that
that luck could soon run out.

6
Galactic Topography A Dwarf is shorter than a human, though
The Galactic Co-Prosperity Sphere is the
largest known empire in the galaxy. It reaches
out unimaginably far from its origins on the
Orion Arm. But human diaspora share the
galaxy with thousands of other species, some
organised and advanced, others savage and
warlike, but all as hungry to grow and survive
as the corporations.
many times their mass. Forged from the
dense-gravity worlds of the galactic core
from where they originate, a Dwarf is a hard-
headed ball of antagonism tightly wound
around a compact muscular body.
Every Dwarf is a warrior, trained for in their
clan militias, each with decades of battle
experience.

The Star Realm They approach war in the same ponderous

way they go about coring planets; turning
The Clans of the Forge Fathers were the their engineering expertise to the creation of
first real check to the corporations initial war machines.
expansion, and remain to this day one of
the few actual rivals to GCPS. And it is easy
to understand why. The Forge Father Star
Realm is older than the human race. Dwarven
artisans have been harvesting the power of
stars since before humans even knew what
one was. The sheer firepower the Forge Lords
can draw upon is awe-inspiring.
But while Forge Father technology is
impressive, it is nothing without the Dwarfs
who crew it.

7
 The Asterian Empire

Asteria is the antithesis to the blunt force of

the Dwarfs Star Realm; patient, accepting,
THE GCPS TODAY

harmonious, all these terms apply to the

Asterian Empire. At first glance it may seem
odd that a race so peaceable could survive in
such a violent galaxy, but not only have they
survived, they have thrived. It could be that
the Asterians empire is the largest in the
galaxy.
How far behind the galactic core it reaches
is unknown, but as perhaps the oldest
spacefaring race they have had more time to
spread from their home world than any other.
All that is known is their space touches the
north-western borders of the GCPS and
stretches further back, past the core and out
into space humanity has no data for, and the
Asterian Clades are in no hurry to share what
lies there with anyone.
Just as unknown to the GCPS are the Asterians
motivations. To humans these creatures
are the quintessential aliens; haughty and
inscrutable. In their actions the corporations
see a desire to control and own, but that is
merely the human tendency to look through
a filter of their own insecurities. The Asterians
seek none of these, instead they desire for the
Veer-myn
galaxy to be in balance, and they are willing
to go to any lengths to see that come to pass. Perhaps the least appreciated danger to the
Co-Prosperity Sphere is that of the Veer-
Their understanding of the physical universe
myn. It is not that the average Veer-myn is
is second to none, and despite their empire
dangerous, or that they harbour technology
being so physically removed they can deploy
that could threaten a system, but the fact they
their forces anywhere in the galaxy, and have
are everywhere. The Veer-myn are insidious,
done many times.
they bury beneath cities and make their nests
All in the name of, to them, the greater good. among the abandoned places of the galaxy,
feeding on refuse and making use of the
castoffs from a wasteful society. Individually
Veer-myn are no danger. The diminutive, rat-
like creatures are scrawny and they only fight
when cornered. Even the twisted monstrosities
which inhabit the larger nests pose no real
danger to a corporation military of a sufficient
size. The danger lies in that there is rarely such
a thing as an individual Veer-myn; they come
in swarms, and they come fast.

8
Every city and spaceport in the GCPS will have
a Veer-myn population within its boundaries.
Even interstellar ships are not immune, and
venting opening up the ships interior to the
airless void of space is a standard procedure
in an effort to eradicate any nests.
Unfortunately, cities cannot be vented, and
Veer-myn infestations are increasing in
number and severity.
Corporation militaries are becoming familiar
with the Veer-myns foul weaponry, the toxic
fluids used as ammunition, the weaponising
of their own kin into twisted beasts, and the
diseases which proceed their presence.

The Plague

And then there are the rumours from the Co-

Prosperity Spheres far north-west. Colonised
worlds are disappearing from manifests
and communications lists. Any attempt
at finding out why is stonewalled from
municipal officials, and none who have gone
to investigate have returned.
The Council of Seven have thus far managed
to keep the presence of the Plague a secret, but
that cannot last.
The Plague is a mutagen so virulent its study
is almost impossible. Spread by ancient alien
artefacts found on planets edging the Death
Arc, the Plague twists its hosts into distorted
parodies of their former selves, leaving behind
ravening monsters with the undeniable urge
to spread their infection onwards. At the
time of writing the potential of what the
Plague could mean for the GCPSs future is
not causing concern, but only because of the
success of the Containment Protocols enacted
on infected worlds. There is not widespread
panic because the average citizen does not
know it exists. But sooner or later an outbreak
is sure to happen on a heavily populated
planet, away from the outer spheres. Word
will reach the general population, and only
pandemonium can ensue.

9
 Machinery of the Stars
The Galactic Co-Prosperity Sphere is not
a single unified state; it is a collective of
THE GCPS TODAY
individual corporations, thousands of them,
in many sizes, industries and creeds. Some
are small, from a few hundred employees
stationed on emergent frontier worlds, to the
hyper corporations organisations so large
they might fulfil many of the criteria of an
empire. No one individual could hope to even
know all of a hypercorps operations let alone
govern them, spread as many are across the
spheres at intervals hundreds of lightyears
apart. Instead their running is overseen by
extended management teams that can be tens
of thousands strong. These hypercorps are
immense, and above all, old. Their history
reaches back to the very founding of the
Co-Prosperity Sphere, when one sphere was
all there was. When economically viable
space travel became a reality the nascent
corporations finished fighting each other for
the finite custom of one planet, and turned
their attention out into space.
Asteroids were snared and bored, the nearest
stars reached and stations made to hang in the
orbits of the closest rocky planets as the first
stellar colonies. But the real goal of reaching
for the stars hospital worlds with breathable
air hung beyond reach. So began the
construction of the first colony ships; giant
haulers designed to hold everything a new
settlement would need, and fitted for decades
of travel. These ships departed for the closest
stars in the hundreds. It is difficult to imagine
the fear these brave souls must have felt as
they travelled into the ultimate unknown,
unsure if they would ever set foot on solid
ground again. Many did not, but most did,
and the first colonies erupted as more and
more sought a better life away from Old Earth.
Considering how fast these colonies spread
it is unsurprising that the first alien contact
came as soon as it did. The disastrous first
meeting with the race known as the Mojat and
the following war is well documented, but the
event needs marking nonetheless, for without
the mass militarisation of the time humanity
would not have developed the McKinley
Gravitic Well Drive and the subsequent mass
dispersal of people across the stars would
never have happened.
10
Human Culture
The fact that they can afford the best
of everything - epicurean foodstuffs,
extravagantly tailored and constructed
clothing, a new model of personal
communicator and transporter every
month - tends to make the richest of the
GCPSs citizens think of themselves as being
highly cultured. But the limited spectrum of
human senses often leaves their appreciation
of alien arts somewhat less than complete,
to the amusement and sometimes horror of
its creators.
One of the best known Asterians throughout
the GCPS is the sculptor, Anai Nas. Nass
installations can currently be found on
several worlds within the Core and Second
Sphere. Her most celebrated works are four-
dimensional pieces involving psycho-reactive
heartstones that sing songs, written on the
fly and emitted at a frequency designed to
be heard only by each individual viewer.
Some are also attuned to radiate light in
reaction to local solar orbits, spectacular
displays that have won her great admiration
amongst Asterian audiences.
None of this is perceivable by the limited
sensory organs of un-adapted human
viewers though, a situation that became
apparent when Nas presented one of her
works to a diplomatic function intended to
foster relationships between the GCPS and
Asteria. To her shock, instead of standing in
silent appreciation of the beauty they were
being shown, the human attendees began
to strike their hands together, some going
so far as to whoop loudly like lesser apes.
Some even had the audacity to approach
the glowing sculpture and touch it with their
grease-covered fingers, disrupting the sub-
layers of its surface and forever sullying it.
While many Asterians still make the
joke that the typical human response to
something of great artifice is to clap its
hands together and bark like a seal, this has
not stopped Nass works becoming highly
coveted objects within the GCPS, fetching
outlandishly high prices at auction, and
being the targets of various criminal gangs.
So swift was the race to the new worlds that
the few remaining nation states of Old Earth
were left behind.
This was the age of the agile corporations
the pan-national companies, answerable to no
one but their bottom lines and their rise was
phenomenal. Free from laws, the corporations
bloomed as the systems of the immediate
galactic neighbourhood were plundered.
Despite abundant resources, frictions ran
high, and more than a few small conflicts
erupted as multiple corporations made claims
on the same planet.
With an act of self-interest the largest
corporations agreed to a formal coordinating
body; Corporation Central. Centrals power
was to be administrative - a unified body
to oversee the bidding on colony rights and
trade deals between corporations rather
than tangible. And the arrangement worked.
Now organised, the corporations spread faster
than before.
11
It was at this time that the first-colonised
planets began to truly turn into the
embodiment of extravagant luxury known
today. The first megacities of the future began
to grow across the planets surfaces tall,
architecturally glorious towers, the doing
away of dirty, slow highways in favour of the
gravity-defying cars which were once the
epitome of the future. And all this was made
possible for the lucky millions in the core
worlds by the riches brought back from the
frontier.
When the border of the First Sphere was
drawn and the Second Sphere opened for
optioning, the riches of the inner worlds grew
in parallel to the new colonies. Today the
opulence of the First and Second Sphere seems
indistinguisable to the outsider. And while
there are differences, it is primarily down to
class and pretention rather than commodities.
Indeed, recordings and pictures of the First
and Second Spheres are what corporation
contact agents show to alien species when
convincing them to join the GCPS.
 The first two spheres are almost like a
separate state to the rest of the GCPS. But
while the Third and Fourth Spheres were still
establishing themselves, setting the seeds for
THE GCPS TODAY
their own extravagant future cities, rebellion
erupted on the very edge of corporation space.
A group of the seven oldest corporations,
who sought greater power than that of mere
administration, seeded what was supposed
to be a minor revolt among the Marauder
mercenaries used as GCPS crack troops.
A small mutiny, nothing dangerous, but
large enough that after a few worlds were
lost a feeling of panic would sweep through
the corporations, fostering a feeling that a
centralised power should take control to
safeguard them all. Into that gap would step
these seven corporations.
Only the rebellion did not stop at a few
planets. The unpredictable aggression of the
Marauders had been unaccounted for. Revolt
and uprising burst from the Mandrake Sector
and out into GCPS space.
The Rebels
The GCPS is a highly aspirational society. The
shining beacon of the core worlds, the First
Sphere, serves as both leader and example to
the rest of human space. They are filled with
beautiful people who own the latest tech, drive
the shiniest personal transports, and smell the
tastiest caff. These people show what can be
achieved, what can be had, if a man or woman
only works hard enough and makes the most of
the resources and opportunities at their disposal.
But this privilege and prestige comes at a price
and it is not one that every citizen of the GCPS
finds themselves willing to pay.
For some, the relentless logging of their daily lives,
the camscreens and promo-projectors on every
flat surface in the first two spheres, the endless
slog of constant production and consumption
of conspicuous and sometimes pointless goods
becomes more than they can stand. For others,
it is the overbearing, ever-present watchful eye
of the Council and its oppressive state organs
- the Enforcers, the ETCU, and the other, even
more secretive agencies - that is more than they
can live with.
12
When the fighting ended the GCPS had only
just survived, losing over half its military
strength and many of the planets in the Third
and Fourth Sphere. In the century and a half
since, much of what was lost has been rebuilt
and the GCPSs reach has extended into a
Fifth Sphere.
However, the inner spheres were left unscathed
by the fighting, and the breadth of inequality
between them and the outer spheres is more
pronounced than ever.
Resentment simmers just below the surface
of every outer sphere planet, manifesting in
growing Rebel activity. Where this bitterness
could lead to is open to debate.
The Council, now firmly in control of the
GCPS, is sure to be aware of it. Few things
happen within the spheres it is not aware of.
Perhaps they have plans to utilise the festering
animosity for some unknown intention, or
perhaps it is far down on their list of worries.
All that is certain is this state of affairs cannot
continue without a reaction somewhere.
Yet more desire to leave the corporations when
they become sick of the endless slaughter and
enslavement of indigenous life on every planet
to which the GCPS lays claim. And, of course,
there are those who see no fault with any of this,
they simply resent the fact they are not in charge
of it all. However they get there, and whatever
their personal motivations may be, the rebellion
against the GCPS is an ever-growing presence
on the fringes of corporate space.
The rebels are, as yet, loosely organised and
widely dispersed. Early losses in the life of
the rebellion, notably at the Battle of Aizu -
where nearly two thirds of the assembled rebel
fleet was annihilated by an Enforcer armada,
have encouraged the survivors to form crews
operating largely independently of one another.
But there are signs this may change, and very
soon. The growth and establishment of the
Fourth and Fifth Spheres of the GCPS has done
two things to the advantage of the rebellion. As
more and more alien races are dispossessed of
their home planets and their resources, a steady
stream of new recruits joins the likes of Grogan,
Kraaw, and Sorak rebels.

Yet Unexplored
It must not be pre-supposed that Co-Prosperity
space is fully explored. The nature of McKinley
travel relies on pre-defined routes through
established lanes, lest a ship makes contact with
a physical body and is sucked into its own black
hole. This has led to a spiderweb of connected
systems, linked from major junction planets
or stations, leaving entire swathes of the outer
Spheres unexplored. It is possible that entire
empires exist within GCPS borders, unaware
of their encirclement or desperately working to
remain unknown. This supposition alone has
grown an entire industry of treasure hunters
who set off alone into the GCPS wilds, seeking
mythical alien nations and the riches they could
bring.
Secondly, the improvement of communications
systems, with deep-space repeater stations
and the increased availability of Q-band
technology, has allowed greater secure co-
ordination between crews.
As the rebellion becomes better funded,
manned, and supplied, the day grows ever
closer when they will re-form the fleets they
need to really take back power from the
GCPS.
Exo-Relations
The GCPS is, officially, welcoming to alien
races. Most corporations would prefer to
incorporate an existing civilisation peacefully
than by force, and not only because it is more
expensive to outfit and mobilise an army than
a diplomatic mission. High profile aliens the
civic and religious leaders of a new race are
very publicly wine and dined. The propaganda
is blatant, unambiguous, but for all that
is highly effective. The process of how a
civilisation is incorporated into a corporation
is one that has been used since before humans
reached the stars. The new aliens are met
and treated as the most respected of guests.
Gifts are given, carefully selected to give
the impression of the corporations wealth.
Steadily, the alien ruling classes come to
depend on the corporations largesse that
is when the power transfer begins. The
treatment of the aliens shifts. Demands are
made, and any denials dealt with swiftly and
forcefully. Soon the new civilisation is only
ruled ostensibly by their original leaders; it is
the corporation who make the decisions, and
a once-proud nation is just another backwater
planet among thousands in an ever-growing
human empire.
Within GCPS society aliens are tolerated,
if not wholly accepted. They will always
be considered of a less-worthy rank than a
human, especially further down the social
strata, and it is common for a corporation
law officer to arrest the first alien they see
for an unsolved crime rather than waste time
looking for the actual criminal.
Even once citizenship is attained through one
of the many routes such as military service,
prejudice is threaded into every strata of
human society, although while in military
service the tolerance is somewhat easier. In
war an aliens natural attributes are often
beneficial, and their accomplishments are
respected by their comrades. These qualities
have not gone unnoticed however, and while
it could be that the humans who fill the Rebs
ranks are more tolerant that the general GCPS
population, its possible that the aliens who
fight alongside the Rebellion are tolerated
more for what they can do on the battlefield
than for any respect of their culture.
13
 Chovar Teratons

The GCPS is dominated but not exclusively

THE GCPS TODAY

populated by humans. The Chovar are

one example of an alien race that has been
incorporated more or less completely. Originally
native to the gas giant Cho, they are large,
diaphanous, tentacled creatures, able to float in
many atmospheres thanks to buoyancy glands
contained within their bell-shaped bodies.
They are highly intelligent and psychic, and
are frequently used as witnesses and notaries
during the negotiations and signing of
important contracts. As such, many Chovar
enjoy considerable standing and influence,
even amongst the highest stratas of corporate
bureaucracy. However, questions have been
raised about the ethicality and legality of the
use of Chovar mind-nets in frontier research
outposts.
Allegedly, these shoals of Chovar are little more The Teraton Empire was well-known
than prisoners and live in secluded confinement throughout the galaxy for its advanced culture
while they serve their corporate masters. The and technological sophistication when it first
liberation of such groups is believed to be a high- encountered the GCPS. Ruled by a beneficent
priority for Rebel crews, but whether they truly
and ancient Empress and with a strong tradition
do this for the freedom of the Chovar, or simply
to obtain the information held within their giant of patient nurturing of the young, the Teratons
brains, is a matter of further debate. welcomed their new galactic neighbours with
an open heart. It had been their intent to live
peacefully with mankind, fostering the younger
races growth and knowledge, and they were
happy to sign the trade agreements and treaties
of mutual defense put before them. Too late
though, they realised they had been tricked,
trapped and overrun as corporate marine outfits
and Enforcer groups built bases deep within their
territory and effectively occupied the capital.

Despite the degradation many of her children

have suffered under the corporate yoke - the
wholesale stripping of assets and removal of
whole clutches of young in order to serve the
GCPS machine - the Empress knows a full-scale
uprising would be an incautious action, one that
would most likely result in the extinction of her
race. But this is not the first time Teratons have
dealt with a greedy predator and so she bides her
time. The Teratons play a long game and their
end stratagem is yet to be fully revealed but, in
the meantime, this has not stopped many of their
more impetuous young, including notably the
exiled prince, Celysh, quietly supporting or even
joining Rebel crews outside their empire.

14
Ada-Lorana
Beings of pure energy, able to control their
state through will alone, the Ada-Lorana were
recognised as peacekeepers and arbiters on
worlds far beyond the edges of corporate space
long before mans first interstellar voyage. Their
activities within the GCPS have, so far, largely
been confined to the gathering of intelligence.
Many Ada-Lorana, for example, currently play
DreadBall for corporately sponsored teams.
They present themselves as mere cultural
ambassadors, both glad and privileged to be part
of the corporate world, and there is no doubting
their skill on the pitch. Behind the scenes though,
the Ada-Loranas GCPS Taskforce are using the
access their fame gives them, as well as their
ability to phase through walls and bypass security
measures, to surreptitiously gather evidence of
wrong-doing and build a case for judicial action
against the leaders of the GCPS. What standard
they will apply in any eventual prosecution is
something only they know - as is their capacity
to enforce it. A new High Investigator has just
been assigned to lead the Ada-Lorana within the
GCPS and he is known to be keen on bringing
the observation phase of the operation to a close.
15
Judwan
Like many places, the Judwans home world,
Pelgar, came to the attention of the GCPS
when significant quantities of various valuable
minerals were located beneath their holiest site,
Judang Mountain. For once, armed conflict
was not necessary for the GCPS to get what it
wanted though - the Judwan follow a philosophy
known as MuShenWan, a pacifist teaching
of understanding and following the flow of the
universe rather than futilely struggling against
it. To the GCPS this enlightened attitude was
a licence to take whatever they wanted from
Pelgar, including numerous Judwan young.
Many of these abducted youths still live
within the GCPS, most notably playing for
the numerous successful Judwan DreadBall
teams. Others believe a more direct path to the
liberation of Pelgar exists though and make their
way to the Rebs where they serve as medics and
administrators.
Only one Judwan is known to have completely
broken from the peaceful ways of the rest of his
race - the assassin known as Wrath. Wrath was
one of those young Judwan forcibly removed
from his pod on Pelgar and he was subsequently
subjected to an extreme version of psycho-
conditioning, somewhat similar to that delivered
to Enforcer candidates. It was believed Wrath was
a successful product of this program and he was
presented to the Council as a fully operational
and controlled soldier. All was not as it appeared.
Wrath, after destroying the targets presented to
him in his first public demonstration, slew every
other living thing in sight, including no less than a
member of the Council of Seven and his Enforcer
bodyguard. Wrath went on to escape from the
Black Site in which he had been contained and
has been on the loose ever since.
Plague Stage 1A
Veer-myn
Chovar
Nightmare

Asterian
Kalyshi

GCPS Forge Father Veer-myn Zee Scavenger

Trooper Steel Warrior Night Crawler

vehicle size comparison

GCPS Hornet
Dropship
Enforcer Jet Bike

Strider
Veer-myn
Tunneler
Mule

16
Brokkr Bike
 creature size comparison
Plague Leaper
Teraton
Shock trooper
Orc
Commando

Yndij Rebel Enforcer Sorak Asterian

Marionette

Enforcer Accuser
Interceptor

Asterian Sky
Razor
Asterian Chroma Force
Platform Battle Tank

Iron
Ancestor

Marauder Raptor
Forge Fathers Forge Father
17 Sturnhammer Battle Tank
Bomb Bot
 A History of the GCPS
A History of the GCPS
The following notes are taken from Julius
Kareems highly-acclaimed and authoritative
account of the history of the Galactic Co-
Prosperity Sphere, The Beginning of
Progress. It should be noted that this twelve-
part epic was produced and funded by the
Council of Seven. The exact course, cause, and
conclusion of certain events may be disputed
by other parties and Kareems records cannot
be considered exhaustive.
A note on measurements
in the GCPS
Much of what had occurred on Old Earth was
lost with the Establishment of the GCPS. Some
by order of the Council, more by mankinds
natural tendency to care less for the lessons of
the past than for the appeal of future riches. As
disdainful as the Council and the newly-minted
GCPS was of the past, there were some things
they yet carried over from mans time on Earth.
The metric system still prevails through much of
the spheres, as does the notion of a standardised
time system. While planets across the galaxy
may have their own orbital patterns and local
calendars, the G-Standard, G signifying
Galactic, hour and year are of fixed durations
and remain based on the rotations of Old Earth.
With the Establishment of both the Council
and the GCPS itself at the conclusion of the
New World Wars, it was felt appropriate to
start a new dateline. Thus, in the GCPS, the
Establishment marks a new beginning or Year
0.
All dates given in the following are in the format
AE - After Establishment, or BE - Before
Establishment.
The Establishment
of the Galactic
Co-Prosperity Sphere
The First Sphere, or Core worlds, stand today
as monuments of refined luxury and the very
best the galaxy has to offer mankind and his
allies. But it was not always this way.
Mankinds first attempts to reach the stars were
a series of failures of varying degree. State-
sponsored space programmes were subject to
the same political and fiscal pressures as their
host nations. Wars on Old Earth, revolutions
in the face of ecological collapse, and an
unwillingness or inability of any single group
to take responsibility and control left most of
mankind, rather than reaching for the stars,
on its knees together in the gutter.
The betrayal at Pollux changed things
dramatically and threatened mans survival
as a species. Corporate bodies, unbound
by parochial concerns, were able to unite
the planet together against the alien threat,
but their alliance proved fragile in the long
run. Once the Mojat were exterminated, old
rivalries resurfaced and wars for territory and
future resources broke out once more. The
colonies that became what we now call the
First Sphere fought each other freely and to
a standstill. Trade broke down and expansion
halted as the survivors dug in. Pirates,
freebooters, and worse dominated the space-
lanes.
These New World Wars lasted for nearly
a century after the Mojats destruction,
and only ended as the leaders of seven of
the corporations that had once formed the
backbone of Old Earths armies enforced order.
A new age began with The Establishment -
the formal investiture of the first Council of
Seven.
18
The first Councils powers were similar, though
not as extensive, as the current Councils
and, under their benevolent guidance, peace
reigned more or less supreme amongst
humanity for many decades.
Small conflicts within the GCPS were not
unheard of though. Even then the area of
space encompassed by the GCPS was huge
and the Council could not police every part
of it and settle every dispute even if it had
wanted to.
But such arguments were not permitted to
spiral out of control and the advantages of
quick resolution were obvious to all.
Trade routes were re-opened and the rogue
groups that had enjoyed a free rein during
the wars were hunted down or incorporated.
Much of the framework, the bureaucracy and
organisation that we see in todays GCPS, was
formulated in these years, including controls
on corporate military organisations and rules
governing recruitment and leases on new
territory.
It was a golden era for the GCPS. There were
still many lessons to be learned, though and
even greater challenges than all that had come
before to be faced.
From The Beginning, Part 1

the ETCU

The Exo-Threat Counteraction Unit is one of the oldest and largest state-run bodies of the GCPS.
Its roots lie in the very earliest days of the corporations, when it was first discovered there was not
only life on other planets, but that much of it was distinctly hostile. Initially made up of scientists
and engineers developing ways for mankind to survive the harsh environs of alien-dominated space,
its remit has only grown since the establishment of the GCPS. Indeed, the growth of the two are
profoundly linked.

Its core responsibilities and authority today are wider than almost any other body within corporate
space, excepting possibly the CPA and the Enforcers. As well as research into the biology and culture
of alien races - alien in this case still meaning non-human, despite the incorporation of many species
the ETCU is responsible for the monitoring and analysis of the movements and actions of many
other civilisations, including the Forge Fathers, the Asterians and, unsurprisingly, the Plague.

The Plague has presented the ETCU with perhaps its greatest challenge yet. They are both alien
and, at least partially, human, and combating their spread has presented technical as well as ethical
challenges. Many of the same weapons and armaments the Plague armies use are the same ones
many corporate forces employ and developing effective counters has meant risking offense to, and
possible legal action from, the companies making those products. There are still some who resent the
Councils power and the idea of yet another group under their control having a military advantage
over them is worrisome. The fact that destroying the Plague also involves the extermination of large
numbers of former citizens of the GCPS is somewhat problematic too. Many of these people were
under contract to their corporate employers at the time of their infection and represent significant
material loss in the event of their destruction.

The Ethics department of the ETCU is not a well-funded one - it occupies barely a single floor of the
groups headquarters, while the Bioweapons and Counter-Propagation arm has several large research
campuses to itself on one world alone. And the Council has a way of making sure enough parties
profit from the work of the ETCU to allow it to carry on largely unhindered. The fact is, the threat
from both without and within the GCPS is larger than it has ever been and the ETCUs work is vital
in ensuring the corporations maintain the ability to overcome it.

19
20
21

A History of the GCPS
Bounty Hunters
Justice is a relative term within the GCPS
in more ways than one. While developed
systems will have at least some form of legal
framework, often complete with local policing
and a courts system, the exact standards and
maintenance of these things ultimately comes
down to the local administrative corporation.
Many do not have the resources or even
interest to manage such things, particularly
amongst the frontier worlds, and there is often
little to no cross-border co-operation between
rival outfits.
In cases where a particularly heinous crime has
been committed, or if a particularly wealthy
person has been wronged, there are methods
of ensuring the perpetrators are captured and
brought to whatever punishment is found
due, no matter where they have fled to. These
involve the hiring of private justice companies,
otherwise known as bounty hunters.
Bounty hunters must be properly licenced
with Corporation Central, indeed the Council
itself is not above their occasional use, and
many are single-licence operators. There
are also, of course, larger firms in existence,
notably the Stiegmeyer Group, most famous
for the execution of the Rogan Gang, and
the Progger, Pieters, and Indigo Company, or
PPI, who have bases across much of the Third
and Fourth Spheres. Whatever the size of the
organisation, a properly accredited bounty
hunter may operate to retrieve a wanted
fugitive across the GCPS regardless of local
jurisdiction.
The Second Sphere
A regime of free trade and the seemingly
limitless resources of the galaxy allowed
the corporations to increase their wealth
exponentially. Dozens of new companies were
formed and duly registered with Corporation
Central including the embryonic Trontek and
Xian Seng corporations and several of the
companies that would eventually form the
Reiker Corporation. But still, even as more
worlds were incorporated into the portfolios
of these nascent pan-galactic giants, one truth
was apparent to the Council: for the GCPS
to succeed and last, it must also continually
grow. The impact the creation of the McKinley
drive on both mankinds destiny and the
galaxy around him cannot be underestimated.
Before McKinley, travel between star systems,
even ones as relatively close as Psalmus and
Oberine, was typically only available to either
the very rich or the very poor. The wealthy
elite had access to the best ion-drives and it
was these engines that allowed interplanetary
trade and diplomacy to be conducted. For the
rest, cryo-tech sleeper ships, giant drifting arks
filled with deck after deck of frozen travellers,
was the only way to reach a new world, found
a new colony, and see a different sky. But with
McKinleys invention, it was now possible,
at least theoretically, to travel to the farthest
ends of space within a lifetime.
22
The galaxy suddenly became a whole lot closer
and much, much bigger.
Long-range telescopes had already identified
numerous potentially habitable worlds in star
systems outside the Core worlds. Now probe
ships were able to return detailed scans from
those worlds and the Council authorised the
issue of licences to explore and exploit the
new frontier.
Shipyards sprang up in record numbers across
the Core as entrepreneurs struggled to meet
demand - many corporations had begun
selling plots of land on these worlds, some
even before the probes had sent back their
data. And, millions of colonists signed up for
journeys into what was now being called the
Second Sphere. They were the overcrowded
and the optimistic. Millions left behind lives
on factory worlds already choked and clogged
by the same fumes of industry that had killed
Old Earth centuries before. Others were more
aspirational; the leaders and owners of new
corporations keen to make their mark on the
galaxy and claim new worlds for the GCPS.
They would not do so unopposed. Many of
the targets for colonisation were themselves
already home to intelligent and, in some cases
advanced, alien species, few of whom were
willing to share their planets, much less hand
them over wholesale to the corporations.
23
The doctrine of incorporation was drawn up
in these years of growth. After Pollux, the
Council would not, indeed could not allow
its progress to be halted by alien races. But
neither were they willing to order the complete
obliteration of a species, unless it were
unavoidable. The dead can neither produce,
nor consume, after all. So, the open hand of
friendship was offered in many instances as
Incorporation Advisers presented the benefits
of trading with the GPCS on its terms. They
were backed up, of course, by a strong fist.
Few of these advisers travelled without a fleet
of well-armed starships and several thousand
military troops equipped with the best heavy
armour money could buy. Most species quite
correctly saw incorporation as advantageous
and quickly signed contracts that allowed
their worlds and lands to be brought into the
GCPS. Only a few refused and of them there
is little more to be said.
From The Beginning, Part 3
regenics
Advances in bio-technology mean that, for
those that can afford it, the human lifespan can
be greatly extended. Some council members
are believed to be somewhere in the region of
two-hundred G-standard years old, and Jesus
Ortiz has been the head of the DGB for nearly
fifty years, despite appearing to be no more
than 30 years of age.
The maintenance of a youthful appearance,
despite the advance of time, is made possible
by various applied regenics - a catchall term
that covers a multitude of cosmetic, synthetic,
and genetic techniques, all designed to preserve
or re-establish a youthful appearance.
At the bottom end of the market, simple
skin-grafts, either from donor cultures or the
customers own preserved cells, can be applied
to stave off the first visible signs of aging.
More advanced procedures involve genetic re-
bonding, using stem cells and, occasionally,
alien DNA. The replacement of old and tired
limbs and organs with mechanical or vat-
grown parts is also a popular therapy for those
who want to truly feel as young as they look.
These varieties of regenic treatments are not
cheap, of course. But in the GCPS, appearance
and perception is often at least as important
as actual power.
 The Third Sphere been formed and grown in the interim and
they were hungry for more new worlds to
A History of the GCPS

As has been noted earlier, the GCPS was
no stranger to alien life. The corporations
rapid growth and the rate at which they had
incorporated worlds and alien civilisations
within its borders had not escaped the
attention of other, older empires either. But
it was during the GCPSs third expansion
that man first bumped up against a race it
could not simply roll up or over. Expansion
into the Third Sphere of the GCPS became
necessary roughly two hundred years after
the first licenses were granted for the Second.
A whole new generation of corporations had
exploit. Many went to the galactic east and
west, spurred on by rumours spread by alien
traders of planets filled with precious metals -
easy pickings for those quick enough to grasp
them. While they may not have found worlds
with diamonds as big as your head, a popular
though fantastic refrain of the times, many
did find habitable and profitable grounds. The
industrial powerhouses in the Zaigor system
and the trading hub at Udio were founded
during this period as was the less profitable,
though still influential, Karmic retreat at
Alonely.

Crystallans

The world of Crystallis was a well-developed and civilised place, peopled by a peaceful race of
beings on the very cusp of greatness. They had centralised all planetary governance and knowledge
databases, turning their entire worlds power towards, for the first time, interstellar exploration. So
great was their unified potential they were visited by the Ada-Lorana and given the gift of even
greater technological advancements in order to speed their journey out into the stars.
None of this was enough to stop the advance of the ships of the Forge Fathers when they reached
Crystallan space. The Forge Father fleets were unmoved by the appeals and representations of the
Crystallans and sent armoured deep-extraction rigs onto the surface of their world, intent on sucking
it dry.
The Crystallans were not defenceless. The Ada-Lorana had provided them the knowledge to build the
colossal Phase Flare - a machine intended to help the Crystallans develop truly clean power that was
quickly repurposed into a weapon.
It was, however, ill-suited to its new task though and the Crystallans were unprepared to deal with the
chain-reaction its firing produced. The Forge Fathers were driven off but at great cost. The detonation
of the Phase Flare destabilised the planet itself, causing it to eventually explode, forming a new sun
and flinging a cloud of rocky shards into space. Many Crystallans were lost. Those that survived
found themselves fused and encased within the craggy remains of their home world. They are living
monuments now to the destruction of Crystallis, powered by the twin fires of the last remnants of
Phase Flare energy and their desire for revenge on both the Forge Fathers and the Ada-Lorana -
whose meddling resulted in the death of their world.

24
But others went north, aiming to colonise
nearer the heart of the galaxy, worlds
they believed were ripe for exploitation.
Unfortunately for them, the Forge Fathers
had already laid claims to these systems and
conflict soon followed.
The loss of life during the wars with the dwarf
race was immense but it was also a time of
great innovation. Many new technologies
were developed in this period, including
those under-pinning the anti-grav pods that
support todays Lancer battle tanks and the
materials we now see in armourweave meshes.
All good things must end though, and so
peace was eventually made between man
and dwarf. The Council and the Forge Lords
agreed to recognise each others borders and
buffer zones were created where ownership
would be shared in the interest of fostering
relations. Some rights to future discoveries
were also reportedly assigned to the Lords of
the Star Realm.
How long these agreements would last could
not be known. But, most importantly, the
principle of peaceful, mutually beneficial trade
between the GCPS and the Star Realm of the
Forge Fathers had been established, something
that would become increasingly important as
the GCPS continued its inevitable expansion.
From The Beginning, Part 8

Voices of Dissent

There are several official sources of information citizens of the corporations can go to for the latest
news, reviews, and vidcasts of the best Dreadball games.
Chief amongst these is the Corporation Syndicated News Network, an always-on broadcast system
presenting officially sanctioned databursts, both local and interstellar. CorpsNet, as it is known,
always has the best programming and commercial content but there are frequently smaller scale feeds
available too, often focused either on the local news and needs of a planet or system or to re-casting
older CorpsNet material.
It is on some of these local feeds many of the dissenting voices in the GCPS can be heard. Not that this
is intended or legal - these casters must break into the signal in order to pass on their messages. But
data-activists, with enigmatic names like Solo, Karma, and Ghost, use hijacked bandwidth to tell
the truth - or at least their version of it - about the GCPS and its less savoury activities.
How they do this is a mystery. Commentators point out that breaking into a corporate feed, even
a backwaters one, requires significant know-how and technical power. More, perhaps, than any
individual could hope to muster without at least some kind of corporate sponsorship. The messages
these people proclaim, their critics say, are more likely the product of a rival corporations counter-
propaganda operation than the truth.

25
TIMELINE OF EVENTS
BE

Newman Argo Departure 2nd Sphere McKinley GCPS

157 135 133 117 0

AE

3rd Sphere Sitakund Forge Fathers Spitzenner Short Front Jindal Majula 4th Sphere

340 347 348 353 359 401 435

SP433/05 Black Gate Koris Hexagon Tamar Dreadball Niobe Prime The Plague

906 904 903 901 898 896 895 891

Execution Judwan Shisako 5th Sphere Homunculus Trotanic

931 948 951 963 982 983

78BE - The Betrayal at Pollux 353AE - The colony at Spitzenner is destroyed

73BE - The War against the Mojat
65BE - The New World Wars begin
0AE - The Establishment of the GCPS
117AE - The first stable McKinley Gravitic Well Drive
133AE - Second Sphere licensing begins
135AE - Ships begin to depart for the Second Sphere
157AE - The Newman Argo disaster at Hope
340AE - Third Sphere licensing begins
347AE - Unidentified alien remains found
348AE - First contact with the Forge Fathers
359AE - The War of the Short Front begins
401AE - The Jindal Majula is lost to Veer-myn
635AE - Fourth Sphere licensing begins
644AE - First contact with the Marauders
687AE - The Capture of Lagann
691AE - The Chovar are discovered
697AE - The first deals with the Teraton Empire
701AE - The Death Arc is declared off-limits
845AE - House Grace sends its ships into the Death Arc
850AE - The Mandrake Rebellion begins at TCx87653c

26
 event key
War & Politics &
Conflict Administration

Exploration & Invention &

New World Mojat Pollux Discovery Technology
65 73 78

Marauders Lagann The Chovar Teratons Death Arc

644 687 691 697 701

Council Nihil Rex Ichiban Mandrake House Grace

855 855 851 850 845

Hellview Sekk Assassin Nexus Psi Exham IV

984 985 986 987 989

851AE - Project Ichiban unveiled 931AE - Enforcers execute thousands of Rebels

855AE - Battle for Nihil Rex, end of Mandrake Rebellion
855AE - The Council takes full control of the GCPS
891AE - The Plague attacks House Graces ships
895AE - Hundreds of prisoners escape from Niobe
896AE - Dreadball is invented as a pastime by J. Ortiz
898AE - The Tamar War begins
901AE - The Hexagon wormhole region is discovered
903AE - The Koris confirmed within the Hexagon
904AE - Battle of the Black Gate, near Canaan
906AE - Colony on SP433/05 found destroyed
948AE - Judwan race forcibly removed from Pelgar
951AE - Shisako Mas is defeated at Gerekas Plateau
963AE - Fifth Sphere licensing begins
982AE - Shipyard on Homunculus Nebula destroyed
983AE - The Trotanic Wars
984AE - Maggnus Krestursson is killed on Hellview
985AE - Orc General Guhrhauk assault Sekk system
986AE - Councillor assassinated by Judwan Wrath
987AE - Containment Protocol on Nexus PSI
989AE - Containment Protocol on Exham IV

27
 Fourth Sphere
A History of the GCPS
The fourth round of exploratory licensing by
the Council was a bold one. The distances
involved, at least if one travelled from the Core
itself, were immense. Some sceptics suggested
it might even be the last expansion mankind
would actually be capable of, as if there were
some natural universal limit to his capacity.
The naysayers were ignored though and once
again the outer worlds erupted into a frenzy of
ship-building and colony-seeding.
Holt Starmaker
Elevation to the Council of Seven is a rare
privilege and there are many within the GCPS
that covet the position. Holt Starmaker is
perhaps closer to it than most.
Holt inherited leadership of the Starmaker
Corporation at the age of thirty-five, following
the death of his mother and father. The
Starmakers are listed in official incident
records as having fallen foul of Zeppelin sharks
while diving off the coast of Albanus on their
homeworld of Harmony IV but the partially-
eaten corpses pulled from the sea were not the
fishiest thing about the case.
Since then, Holt has aggressively increased
the holdings of the Starmaker Corp, first by
moving into the munitions business with the
acquisition of Gersher Peace Inc., and then by
moving into the worlds around Harmony IV,
using Gersher weaponry to rout the occupying
corporations.
Starmaker now controls a considerable
portion of the eastern rim of the GCPS,
and it is perhaps this geographical isolation
more than lack of ambition or ammunition
that keeps greater power out of Holts grasp.
Starmakers fleet of troop movers is rumoured
to be growing and, if his courtship of Marissa
von Drakenhof proves successful, he may find
himself in a position to challenge for greater
authority in the GCPS as fast as the heads of
two heavily-armed families can say I do.
Many of these colonists were veterans taking
advantage of the Vet-Reset scheme set out by
the Council in the wake of various wars with
the Forge Fathers and other alien races. It has
been claimed the Council may have acted
rashly in this regard, that they had promised
homes and lands to soldiers on planets that
had not yet been adequately surveyed, let
alone actually visited by a living human being.
This was also the first expansion truly driven
by the desire of corporations for material gain,
rather than a basic need for mankind to grow.
It seems a moot point. The GCPS expanded
further than it ever had before, bringing more
wealth and power within its borders than
might have been imaginable even a hundred
years earlier.
Part of the unprecedented success of the
Fourth Sphere expansion was the advent
of great advances in the fields of genetic
engineering and the elimination and repeal of
many laws binding its use on human subjects.
The incorporation of the Teraton race into
the GCPS was a factor, their chemical and
electronic expertise accelerating many
programs into post-human evolution. Now
humans could be made capable of existing
on planets with hostile or, in some cases,
no atmosphere until they were properly
engineered for pure-gene human colonists.
Mining and the refinement of toxic ores and
radioactive materials were also made far more
feasible and economically profitable, using
bio-advanced human workforces in lieu of
expensive robotic equipment.
Teratons and Chovar were not the only
significant alien race to be incorporated
during the fourth expansion. Gora had been
discovered too and while initial encounters
had many military minds in the Core
advocating the immediate use of orbital
extermination weapons, others saw a different
solution to the Green problem.
28
For all their physical strength and courage,
the Gorans were poor and technologically
backwards. So, whole tribes were simply
bought out by the Council itself.
They were offered training, materials, and
technology in return for their loyal service.
Officers, hand-picked by the Council were
sent to instil discipline and educate the savage
tribal fighters, turning them into brigades
of elite shock troopers, willing and able to
fight in theatres and against enemies human
soldiers were not.
Initially this approach was a success and
Orc units served the Council with some
distinction. Several alien races, including
the Corcorans and the Bagnus, all of them
resistant to incorporation, were defeated by
Goran soldiers, commanded and assisted by
human officers.
However, in the end, Goran duplicity won out.
During the infamous Mandrake betrayal, Orc
units spurned the generosity of the Council
and the GCPS itself, slaughtering their human
superiors and stealing corporate property.
The campaigns to bring the perpetrators of
the worst atrocities to summary justice were
long and hard fought and, some say, not as
successful as was intended. There are still Orc
troops, or Marauders as they are commonly
known, at large today. Once again it was made
clear that mankind could not rely in any
way upon an alien race to thrive and survive
amongst the stars.
There was of course, an alternative. And while
historians are again divided on the exact
moment and motive of its conception, there is
little doubt the creation of the Enforcer Corps
had a profound effect on securing the future
of humanity as it moved towards the Fifth
Sphere.
From The Beginning, Part 10

dreadball

The favourite sport of the GCPS is DreadBall and

it is easy to see why. Much of what makes the
GCPS what it is can be found on the neodurium
pitches upon which it is played. Cutting edge
technology mixes with cutthroat strategy in
fast games played with both violence and skill.
DreadBall feeds occupy the majority of the most
popular channels on entertainment networks
throughout the GCPS and the best teams and
players generate billions in revenue through sales
of merchandise and viewing rights.
Even in the outlying worlds and on the military
bases, warehouse planets, and penal colonies of
the expansion spheres, DreadBall is big news
and even bigger money. The Xtreme version of
the game is rougher though, typically resulting in
more deaths per game than points being scored
and, as a result, is not sanctioned by the DGB.
Some say the leagues on the outer worlds are
corrupt, subject to massive amounts of bribery,
sabotage, and unsafe conditions for the players
and staff. The sponsors of these underground
leagues tend to shrug off such accusations. The
only difference between Xtreme and the core
game, the say, is out there you know youre being
played.

29
 The Fifth Sphere
A History of the GCPS
We stand on the brink, of that I am sure.
Whether it is the brink of true, lasting, trans-
galactic brilliance or utter and ignominious
destruction is yet to be seen.
The Fifth Sphere is still young and yet already
shows signs of reaping rewards unmatched
by any previous expansion. New worlds
have been founded and new phenomena
explored. Almar Incorporated has, for each
of the last fifteen G-standard years reported
record applications for the establishment of
trade hubs and provision of supplementary
considerations. Corporation Central is said
to be struggling to keep up with requests for
implementation of new slide-drive routes to
colony worlds.
Much of this expansion has been found
towards the western and southern edge of the
galaxy - it is here that the Koris civilsation was
first encountered - but there are also a great
many corporations moving east. Midnight
is currently the most Core-distant outpost of
the GCPS marked on Almar maps, but it is
only a matter of time before it is supplanted
by another.
All over the galaxy, word is spreading of the
opportunities available to those brave enough
to venture into the frontier or dare life on the
fringe. The future to most appears, as always it
must, bright. And yet I, humble historian that
I am, fear we are not being told all we ought
to know.
The Fifth Sphere is wild and untamed and
dangers lurk within it. Some are remnants
of our own activities past. There are outposts
of the rebellion - the fruit of seeds sown
by House Grace, and at Niobe, as well as by
our treatment of races such as the Teratons
and the Sphyr. Pirates and renegade bands
30
of Marauders also abound on the edges of
civilised space, moreso than anywhere else.
It is a fact that there are many megacredits to
be made in the industries of private security
consultancy and arms manufacturing.
Sometimes it seems as if for every alien race
successfully incorporated into the GCPS we
find three more that are more interested in
fighting us. A peace holds with the Asterians
but, in truth, their motives, their long-term
plans, are as indecipherable as their art. As for
the Forge Fathers, well, not all the clans are
united with those that supply our Enforcers
with armour and several Ward ships roam
loose within our space, laying claim as they
will. For how long can we avoid coming to
blows with these first sons of the galaxy?
And those are just the enemies we can see.
But how many infestations of Veer-myn have
been recorded this year? A dozen? More?
Those things have bred in the shadows and
while their overall goal remains hidden, their
teeth and claw are being bared more and more
often.
And then there is the Plague. There. I have said
it. It exists. It is spreading, growing, capturing
and destroying. Turning our own armies
against us. It is only the Councils iron-grip on
power, on communication, that prevents this
knowledge becoming common. Perhaps they
are correct and containment - of the Plague
and of the knowledge of its existence - is the
correct policy. Perhaps panic would break out
and commerce break down if people knew
what horror truly awaits them amongst the
distant stars. Or perhaps we would be better
able to actually fight this thing, these things, if
we knew what and where they are. But I may
be biased in this matter.
All of history has led us to this point.
Mankind has thrown off so many shackles and
embraced so many new opportunities. The
GCPS has survived wars and invasions and
overcome disease and starvation. But what
have we learned from all this? And where do
we go next? Is our path one that leads to ever-
more, even greater technological marvels and
societal advances? Or is it, as I fear, one that
leads us towards stagnation, war, and death?
From the unpublished notes of Julius Kareem,
Prisoner Number AB-4556231-DB, Perestia,
Ultra-Sec, entitled, The Beginning, Part 13,
Restricted access only.
Jesus Ortiz
All DreadBall games within the core are
controlled and must be officially approved by the
DreadBall Governing Body, or DGB. Digby, as
it is more commonly known is, in turn, run by
one Jesus Ortiz, a human possessed of both an
immense fortune and a colourful past.
In response to a Sportline 888 investigation into
corruption within the sport, Ortiz famously
said, As long as Im in charge, DreadBall will
remain pure. That is indeed the image the DGB
continually tries to project into the public eye,
pouring millions of megacredits every cycle
into public relations exercises designed to show
DreadBall as being an honest sport. But still it
has its critics. Some suggest that Ortizs partial
ownership of more than a dozen top teams
presents in itself something of a conflict of
interest. Others have pointed out that Sportline
888 was also owned by one of Ortizs wives when
it published its ground-breaking, no holds barred
investigation into how the DGB was being run.
A few have even highlighted suspicious betting
patterns allegedly linked to accounts belonging to
members of Ortizs family and inner circle as well
as several alleged members of criminal syndicates
operating around the Pleiades cluster.
None of the muck that has been flung at Ortiz
has ever stuck and, frankly, the people that dig it
up have a tendency to either disappear without
trace or come to be involved in freak airlock
malfunction incidents. But even if something
slightly unethical were to be proven, there is
a very high possibility it would not make any
difference anyway. The fact is DreadBall makes
a lot of people in the GCPS very wealthy and
entertains even more. Ortizs position is likely to
remain secure for as long as this is the case.
31
The Nameless
While DreadBall players like Gulab-rghtk and
Re-echkth Kk-krrrk-k are not strictly-speaking
household names, there is no doubt the creatures
hailing from what the corporations call the
Nameless Federation have made their wet and
slimy mark upon the GCPS. Defying taxonomic
classification - there appear to be at least a dozen
different species amongst them - and speaking a
language, or possibly languages, that unmodified
humans can barely begin to comprehend. Several
Nameless teams have won championships in
DreadBall leagues and built up quite a cult
following along the way.
Team publicists of course take great pains to
deny there is anything cult-like about them. The
phrase, mhnfhlrggl ukhu rurufhngl, heard in
the crowds at many Kalimarin Ancients games,
has been translated by Argolian specialists as
meaning, Come forth, oh mighty Ancient God,
destroy all those your many eyes see!.
Kalimarin representatives say there is nothing
sinister about this at all, it is merely a traditional
phrase used all over the Federation to encourage
good-natured play
The truth of this is difficult to determine as,
for the time being, the mist-shrouded worlds of
the Nameless remain largely safe from GCPS
exploitation - most are believed to be swamp
planets no one in their right mind would want
to visit.
The few GCPS researchers that have dared take
up positions amongst them are yet to return to
the core and, until the ETCU develops a better
understanding of the combat capabilities and
basic drives of the Nameless, their worlds are
likely to remain safe from corporate interference.
Sowing the Seed
The event known as the Mandrake Rebellion
is scored into the mind of every sphere citizen.
Its not remarkable that in a history replete
with betrayals and double crosses the
Mandrake Rebellion should be so well
known. After all, it is one of the few events
which came genuinely close to destroying the
32
GCPS, and the study of its official history is
mandatory across all schools sphere-wide
as both an example of how alien races are
not to be trusted and of the importance of a
central governing agency to guide humanity.
Less well known is the Rebellions cause, and
for good reason the Council will do everything
within its power to keep that knowledge
secret.
 the Mandrake
Rebellion
The Rebellions seed was planted long ago,
back when the fledgling empire was facing its
first of many tests in the form of the war with
the now-extinct Mojat alien race.
At the crisis outset, the heads of the seven
largest corporations came together to create
a cohesive resistance against the threat. The
organised effort saw the humans victory, and
33
the informal group of corporations retained
their loose assembly after the wars end. The
semi-organised movements between these
corporate bodies aided in the expansion
through the First and Second Spheres of
human expansion; keeping open conflict
between the corporations vying for the new
planets to a minimum, and directing their
energies in expansion.
 But despite how integral the group of seven
were in aiding the GCPSs smooth expansion,
MANDRAKE REBELLION

it had no actual authority. The members of

the group, used to commanding the lives of
millions of people with their every order, could
not abide their authority not being recognised
by every other corporation. Moreover, since
the Mojat War, greater alien civilisations had
been encountered. So far, conflict with these
civilisations had been minimal, but should
any one of them turn aggressive the GCPS,
with its thousands of competing corporations,
would present a fractured and disorganised
defence and would be taken apart piecemeal
until the entire Co-Prosperity Sphere were
destroyed.
What the GCPS needed was a single, guiding
body, and the members of the Council knew
they were that body.
However, it would be impossible to gain a
consensus within all the GCPSs corporations
to recognise the authority of a single group,
especially from the newer conglomerates
who had no connection to any of the old
corporations who made up that group. What
was needed to establish their authority within
the GCPS was another threat of the same
magnitude which had seen its initial creation,
and in the GCPSs current mercenary of
choice the group believed they had found it.
Since the discovery of the Goran system,
Orcs had become more and more numerous
throughout corporation armies, and for
good reason. They were cheaper than
human soldiers - needing almost no training
to be combat effective - and were almost The preparation for the event took years of
unbelievably aggressive. Corporations traded meticulous research and planning. Of the
battalions of them as they would any other hundreds of corporations spread across the
commodity, buying up troops as they sought outer cusp of GCPS space, the groups agents
to conquer another system, and selling them identified Romasko Holdings as the prime
on once the fighting was finished. This almost candidate to act as their unknowing patsy.
centrifugal motion meant most of the Orc The now-defunct Romasko was one of the
battalions were on the very edge of Fourth younger batch of adolescent corporations
Sphere space, away from the core worlds and born of the cataclysm of the Tender Wars
the interests of the oldest corporations. The at the end of Third Sphere expansion. In
group of seven predicted that a mutinous Romasko the group saw a corporation with
army of Orcs, rampaging through the new large enough reserves that a sudden increase
Fourth Sphere colonies, would soon see the in activity would go unquestioned, but small
young corporate owners of those colonies enough compared to some of its peers as to
calling for coordinated action to defend their be hungry enough to take some questionable
holdings. And into this void would step the risks to position itself as a leader in the GCPSs
group. expansionist groups.

34
The plan was initiated when a shadowy figure
is said to have appeared in the boardroom of
Romaskos headquarters, during a planning
meeting of the corporations heads. The
group of seven had long used agents from
other races as go betweens, and the choice to
go with the individual known only as Blaine
worked perfectly. The story goes that during
the board meeting, when only the department
heads were allowed in the room, the doors
opened and in walked Blaine. The buildings
communications suddenly did not work,
and the alarms which should have activated
the moment a non-employee walked into
the room did not trigger. Despite Romaskos
heads fearing an assassination attempt, Blaine
gave them a business proposal - that Romasko
would in the future act as an ambassador to
the GCPS for an as-yet-un-encountered alien
civilisation. And that when this race chose
to make itself known to humanity Romasko
would act as a broker, advocating cooperation
and trade. In return Romasko would receive
an almost unlimited supply of funds to do
with as it pleased.
How the meeting went exactly is unknown.
Almost certainly it was recorded and minuted
minutely, but the Council have hunted down all
data from Romaskos servers since, destroying
all evidence. What happened afterwards,
however, is a matter of public record.
35
Romasko went on an expansion spree. In that
time, when power was marked only in how
many systems a corporation owned, Romasko
used the sudden windfall to take its place as
the largest Fourth Sphere conglomerate, and
it did so with the only tools that could do the
job; Orc mercanries.
Within months Romasko bought up almost
all the Orc battalion contracts in the Fourth
Sphere. Their movement out into what
would be the last stage of the Fourth Spheres
expansion was the quickest growth spurt in
GCPS history. Never before or since had so
many systems been subdued and brought
into the spheres hegemony, and today in
the GCPSs galactic west the Fourth Sphere
bulges out into the Fifth, the last remnant of
Romaskos short-lived growth. The CEO of
Romasko was so pleased with its progress
he could foresee a time in his own life when
Romasko would be ranked among the
wealthiest and most powerful corporations
in the GCPS, and decided it would be a
fitting tribute to his tenure that he named the
newly claimed sector after himself; Gavriel
Mandrake. The GCPS was at Romaskos feet
and Mandrake knew that soon the oldest
corporations would come to him for support.
Then the money stopped.
 Touchpaper to Rebellion
MANDRAKE REBELLION
The engine Romasko used to power its
expansion was the Orc battalions; tens
of thousands of battle-hardened Orc
Commandoes who had become accustomed
to the regular an easy payments from the
reserves Romasko were receiving from their
unknown benefactor. Payments which
stopped with no warning. Blaine, who until
that moment had been Romaskos only point
of contact with the unknown alien race
funding them, disappeared, and Romasko
found itself holding the leash of a soon to be
angry, and very dangerous animal.
The group of seven sat back and waited for the
inevitable repercussion.
The first sign of the rebellion was
disappointingly subdued. The planet
TCx87653c, so recently conquered it had yet
to be officially given a name, abruptly went
dark. TCx87653c was listed to have over
20,000 Orc troops onplanet, and in excess
of 80,000 Romasko Marines as well as navy
assets and personnel. But the tumult of
communications coming from TCx87653c
- lists of resources seized, potential mineral
36
exploitation data, the necessary infrastructure
to take full advantage of the planets potential
simply ceased. No warning, no calls for
help; all communications just cut off. Three
of TCx87653s galactic neighbours similarly
dropped communication before there was any
reaction from Romasko. Romasko put out an
emergency request for aid to any corporation
with a nearby military presence. As is usual in
these situations, response was considered by
neighbouring corporations, weighed to what
benefit could be obtained for themselves,
and then swift negotiation was made with
Romasko, laying out what aid would be sent
and what the helping corporation would gain
in return.
Romasko must have realised the danger
they were in as these negotiations were
swift, barely lasting a standard week
before three corporations agreed to send
their own battalions to take charge of the
situation. In that time another two systems
bordering TCx87653c had also dropped
communications, and another of Romaskos
newer holdings the formative agricultural
planet of Anteaus VIII, 30 lightyears core-
ward from TCx87653c and home to 15,000
Orc troops also ceased communication.
Of the three Marine battalions sent to
TCx87653c, the first to arrive was the 12th
Mechanised light infantry from Accutek.
The 12ths commander had the good sense to
initiate standard insertion procedures into a
hostile warzone. That one act saved the entire
landing party, as what they found was a world
stripped of its ready assets. Of the 80,000 plus
Romasko soldiers and staff there was no sign,
and of the 20,000 Orc Commandoes there
were only a few thousand left, dug in and
prepared to fight the GCPS reconnaissance
parties they knew would be sent.
Despite the overwhelming numerical
superiority, the human troops had been
decimated, with only the regiments held in
reserve and well away from the planet spared
any causalities.
The commander relayed his findings back to
Accutek and Romasko, but could not answer
the question of where the remaining Orc
troops were.
The answer came back almost immediately
from the second relief force en route
to TCx87653c, the 4th Heavy Division
of Mi-Gan whose convoy was assaulted
37
inter-system by a navy broadcasting the
ident codes of the Romasko navy, but crewed
by what had to be the missing Orcs from
TCx87653c.
The assault was unexpected and took place
deep inter-system, at a way-point course
change standard procedure for long
McKinley-driven journeys as a failsafe to
avoid going off course. The odds of it being
a chance encounter were close enough to zero
to be classed as nil. The Orcs knew the Mi-
Gan battlegroup were incoming, and where
they would pause to get their bearings. The
only reasoning behind this action was that
the Orcs had actively turned against the
GCPS, and were turning the knowledge of the
procedures and practices drilled into them as
part of the GCPS war machine against their
erstwhile masters.
As per the protocols of a general call for
aid between corporations, this knowledge
was available to all corporations across the
GNet. The third relief navy from Habcorp,
upon hearing of the assault on the Mi-Gan
battlegroup, cancelled their contract of aid to
Romasko, and immediately left the sector.
 The Sacking of Bovan corporations separated GasPros space from
the growing conflict, along with hundreds of
MANDRAKE REBELLION

The next series of events happened in the other colonised worlds, but that did not stop
exact order the group of seven expected. the Orc troops stationed there from launching
Accutek and Mi-Gan similarly cancelled their unexpected assaults across the four cities and
agreement to aid Romasko, citing danger not butchering the populace. By the time GasPro
declared in the contract as a way to back out could muster an army large enough to take
of their respective deals, and began to pull back Bovan, any reason to do so had been lost.
back their militaries as swiftly as possible.
Meanwhile, within the Mandrake sector more Bovan was the touchpaper, and across
and more planets fell to Orc attacks, which Fourth Sphere worlds with any sizable Orc
were suddenly erupting on an increasing detachments, fighting broke out. Before the
number of Romasko worlds. group of seven could act, a quarter of the
Fourth Sphere was at war.
The Romasko military, so heavily reliant
on the Orc mercenaries, could do nothing
in return, and the sector Gavriel Mandrake
hoped would carry his name into history,
crumbled.
All the while the group of seven waited as
the sector slowly imploded. Corporations
with interests bordering the Mandrake sector
watched, waiting to see if they could somehow
leverage some benefit for themselves out
of Romaskos misfortune. But then, as the
conflict did not dissipate, but grow as the Orcs
began to revel in their easy victories, these
same corporations began to panic. Their self-
interested silo mentality took over, and they
began look to protect their own, fragmenting
when logic dictated they should unite.
The group of seven prepared to step forward
and propose its plan to act is a facilitator for
the good of all human space.
However, this second stage this contracting
of corporation militaries to defend to their
own space never fully eventuated. For
what the group could not know was just how
explosively violent the Orc is. The GCPS had
seen the potential and harnessed it, but the
group had set it loose, and free from control
the Orc put the tactical training of the GCPS
to good use.
The first indication the group of sevens plan
had begun to unravel was the Sacking of Bovan.
Bovan, then owned by GasPro Industries, was
one of the earliest planets settled in the Fourth
Sphere. Its primary continent boasted four
cities and countless urbanised settlements,
populated by ten million citizens. It had a
healthy trade route with the Third Sphere.
It was no newly colonised backwater and,
more importantly, was hundreds of light years
removed of the Mandrake sector. Three other

38
The Council of Old Earth
The final steps of the group of sevens plan
had been to announce the presence of Project
Ichiban the ultra-secret project to create a
human super-soldier that would, ostensibly,
crush the Orc uprising and be the saviour
of humanity. The soldiers produced by the
project would of course do that, but afterwards
they would also be the loyal foot soldiers of the
Council - their fist, ensuring they would not
relinquish the newfound control.
However, the project was vastly expensive,
and the group would rely on the other
corporations panic to secure a pan-sphere
levy to fund the project and finish off what the
seven corporations had begun. While Ichiban
finished its work the group would commandeer
a portion of each corporations military, along
with all their still-loyal Orcs, to counter-act
the marauding Orcs in the Mandrake sector.
However, Bovan had alarmed the whole GCPS,
and unnerved CEOs and generals had turned
on their own Orc detachments, butchering
them in their sleep or jettisoning their orbital
barracks out into space before they too could
rebel. Where a corporation military had been
late in acting, Orc troops had risen up before
they too could be exterminated. Whether
these Orc detachments would have turned
without the panic-driven massacre of the
other Orc battalions is unknown and moot
the Rebellion was spreading, and swiftly
approaching Third Sphere space.
39
This fear, however, did feed into the group
of sevens plan. At an emergency council
of corporate heads convened at a secret
location on Old Earth neutral territory for
all corporations - the seven corporations
proposed to make up a body to oversee and
organise the retaliation to the Mandrake
Rebellion as it had already been named. They
reasoned a group would be less likely to act in
the interests of any one corporation, and not
a single dissenting voice was raised against
the proposition. The Council of Old Earth,
as it came to be known, also gave the seven
corporate heads who initiated the Rebellion
its name the Council of Seven.
Not a moment was lost. Plans which had
been laid years in advance swung into
action. The Councils generals, knowing
exactly the positions and troop counts of
every corporations armies, began a massed
coordination to stop the spread of the
advancing Orc armies. A call to stop the
extermination of non-rebellious Orc battalions
was considered in order to use this precious
resource in the war effort, but in truth the
Council had also been rattled by the amount
of apparently un-affiliated Orcs who had risen
up across the GCPS, and decided caution
was the better half of valour, and allowed the
exterminations to continue.
 Fight Back
MANDRAKE REBELLION

The plan had been originally to form a cordon

around the Mandrake Sector and hold the
Orcs in place as funds and resources were
leveraged from all corporations to complete
Project Ichiban. However, the Rebellions
unexpectedly rapid progress had overtaken
even the worst case scenarios planned by the
Councils military, and that was before the un-
connected uprisings in the Third Sphere were
taken into account. To counter this, additional
military resources were pulled from across
the GCPS to form mobile pickets behind the
defensive Mandrake lines. These pickets were
responsible for responding to the uprisings
within the sectors so-far unaffected from the
main Rebellion, and also the increasingly
numerous raids from Orc flotillas which
had broken into the Third Sphere before the
defensive cordon was established. However, it
soon became apparent even these additional
forces would be overwhelmed as the Orc
forces within the GCPS at large took on a new
tactic.
Slavery had become an increasingly large
industry within the GCPS. Indentured
service was a fact of life for millions of humans
within the space of corporations who took a
more direct view of the value of labour, and
in some corporations there were many ways
in which a person could become the property
of another: gambling, escrow, indebtedness,
even just being born the child of two slaves.
This meant within certain systems there could
be thousands, even millions, of slaves. And in
those systems the Orcs raided they had begun
to release and to arm these slaves.
It was a masterful tactic. A human slave was
of little use to an Orc. The human physiology
could not stand the hard pace of Orc life for
more than a few months before the slave
would die, but the Orc chiefs recognised
a tactical possibility when they saw it,
and now the GCPS, instead of having one
enemy within their borders, had two. This
lead to an increased urgency in the need for
Project Ichiban to produce results. Under
the Councils control every corporation
provided something to the effort, be it funds
or resources to Ichiban, or military assets to
the war. Not a single corporation was spared,
and such was the drain on production and
commerce that economic growth would be
retarded for decades after the Rebellion had
been put down.

40
More planets fell in the months Ichiban took absolute must-win for propaganda and moral
to release its initial trooper, but finally the purposes. The battle, however, did not go
test subjects were declared battle ready, and well. There were thousands of Orcs onplanet,
prepped to be released into the field. and massive battles were fought in an effort
to retake Tranquillity. The Troopers proved
effective, but there were just not enough of
them. In the end the decision was made to
bombard the planet with a poisonous gas,
developed for the sole reason to overcome
and shut down the Orcs robust metabolism.
However until that point it was untested in field
conditions. Most Marines were pulled back,
leaving only some gas masked Marines and
the Troopers to fight a rear guard. However,
the human-made battle suits the Troopers
then wore were not secure enough against
the gas. It seeped in, twisting the bodies
The first theatre which saw Ichiban Troopers in and minds of the Troopers, who turned into
combat was what is now known as the Battle of mindless, uncontrolled, twisted automatons.
Sushima Night. Orcs had seeded black hulks Tales from the fleeing marines of the twisted
massive space barges hovering powered Troopers turning on them and each other
down and very hard to detect in deep space in a green, under lit cloud are the thing of
- at known McKnienly course drop sites to nightmares. Even now, a century and a half
ambush navy ships en route to the battle front. later, access to Tranquillity is denied and the
The first batch of Ichiban Troopers were being McKinley routes into it are heavily guarded,
relayed to Draconis Major when their convey as the Council will not risk any pathogens left
dropped out of McKinley space at Sushima on Tranquillitys surface to spread out into the
Point - a military drop out point, directly into densely-populated Third Sphere space.
battle with one of these black hulks. Given
the proximity of the ships involved, the GCPS
commanders decided boarding actions would
provide a better chance of victory, and the
Ichiban Troopers were deployed via insertion
craft. The battle was an overwhelming victory
for the Troopers, however the conditioning
and psychology of the Troopers had very
much taken a back seat to the combat prowess
in their development, and the orders given
were explicit; to wipe out all combatants.
On more than one occasion, after a Trooper
detachment had wiped out an Orc vessel, they
turned on the Marine-crewed transport craft
and killed the human soldiers there also.
It was still, however, a victory, and widely
reported on the GNets infotainment channels,
omitting only the deaths of the Marines.
After the Battle of Sushima Night, Project
Ichibans advances came more swiftly as
battlefield testing allowed for a slew of data.
There were many victories for the GCPS,
although just as many losses. One of the
most notable was the loss of Tranquillity.
Tranquillity was a Third Sphere planet,
one of an increasing number of established
metropolises effected by the Rebellion, and an

41
 The Turning Tide
MANDRAKE REBELLION
However, despite the successes of the Ichiban
Trooper, the project could not produce
enough. More were required to counter the
growing fronts of war - the Orcs, and now the
ever-increasing slave revolt. Unless something
changed, the Orcs would overrun the entire
Third Sphere, robbing the corporations of
much of their heavy industrial and food
producing centres. From there the core
worlds would either fall to the Orcs or starve.
It became obvious that unless the Council
did something the GCPS would be destroyed.
After much deliberation they decided that an
all-or nothing gamble was their best chance of
success, and while victory would cost a high
price, they would survive, and the Councils
grip on the GCPS would be so much stronger
than it would otherwise be.
The first step in the plan was a mass evacuation
of almost all Third Sphere worlds to the Nihil
Rex system. Nihil Rex was one of the first of
the Third Sphere systems settled, and revolved
around an aging white dwarf star. The capital
planet, Rex Prime, was a major way point
between the Second and Third Spheres, and
it would not seem out of place to use it as a
rallying or evacuation point to the Second
Sphere.
42
While the corporation armies held up the Orc
forces as long as possible, labour and materiel
were shipped to Rex Prime and held there,
before the remaining corporation troops
staged an orchestrated retreat back to the
Nihil Rex system.
Nihil Rex was baited, and the trap was laid.
The system bristled with over half of all GCPS
military forces - foot soldiers on the planets,
navies in the void. It was the single greatest
concentration of human troops ever, and to
access the riches of the Core Worlds, the Orcs
would have to go through it.
The Marauder forces gathered and, as
predicted, assaulted the system without
hesitation. The fiercest fighting was around
Rex Prime, being the systems largest rocky
planet and loaded with the military hardware
the Orcs had been so eager to capture in the
war. Once all the Orc forces were engaged
within the system the Council launched the
second, secret phase of the plan.
The star Nihil Rex was a white dwarf; its
energy depleted, it was slowly dying and
would go supernova in the next few million
years. In the meantime Rex Prime had
become a vacation destination for the kind of
rich tourists who believed bathing in its blue-
white light would ease old joints.
What the Council had done was place a lattice
of high-powered McKinley drives around
the main sequence star. When all the Orcs
were within the Nihil Rex system the drives
orbiting this star fired, each opening the
mobile black hole which pulled the drive
though, and plunging into the stars core.
There they opened the destination in the
drives coordinates; the core of Nihil Rex. The
blackhole pulled through billions of tonnes
of hydrogen fuel, reigniting the fusion within
the dying star, and kick-starting a premature
super nova.
The star exploded.
An eruption, powerful enough to drown
out the light of distant galaxies, exploded
out across the Nihil Rex system, headed by
43
a wave of shocked gas molecules shocked
into such agitation by the explosion that their
very movement was enough to shred organic
compounds travelling at almost a quarter of
the speed of light.
Even at speeds of 100km per second the shock
wave would take 46 days to reach Rex Prime.
In that time the Ichiban Troopers had to hold
the Orc troops there, pulling out at the last
moment as the light waves, travelling slightly
faster than the shock wave, made Nihil Rex
appear to bulge, glowing in the sky. The
corporation Marines fought on, unaware as
the Ichiban Troopers pulled back, evacuating
the planet and triggering their McKinley
Drives in dangerously low orbit, fleeing the
doomed system.
 Aftermath
MANDRAKE REBELLION
The plan worked, and almost every Marauder
in the Rebellion was destroyed in the Nihil Rex
super nova, as were over half the remaining
corporation military forces.
When the Council proposed it retain authority
after the Rebellion was confirmed to be over,
the corporations, weakened both militarily
and financially, either gratefully accepted
or were in no state to object. The Council
solidified its authority on the GCPS, drawing
up laws binding all corporations under its
rule, and increasing the scope of Project
Ichiban now producing the ubiquitous
Enforcer troops to impose those laws when
a corporation broke them. The devastated
Fourth and Third Spheres were divided up
and resettled in a more organised way under
44
the supervision of the Council, and re-
expansion began in earnest. This was despite
the remnants of the Rebellion, released slaves
and others irrevocably displaced, persisting in
the area - still present to this day under the
banner of the Rebs.
The larger alien civilisations who watched
as the GCPS was almost destroyed began to
question their inaction during the Mandrake
Rebellion. They had been content to sit back
and let the humans be wiped out by the Orcs,
or at the very least watch them diminish as
a threat after being devastated in their fight
for survival. However, their victory, while
coming at a price, seemed to have galvanised
them in a cohesive force. The humans were
as dangerous as ever, but now armed with
soldiers almost unmatched across the galaxy.
45
THE MCKINLEY DRIVE

Heat Dump

It has been noted over the course of human
history that a discovery emergences just as it
is needed. Necessity breeds invention.
Over the ages, Philosophers have wondered
if these ideas are waiting to be born -
waiting for the right vessel in which to
manifest, when it is that ideas time. Or
perhaps the species as a whole holds a
kind of morphic resonance; a survival trait
where, when a danger arises so dire its very
presence threatens the race as a whole, the
required idea is initiated and developed in
a semi-hive mind until, fully realised, one
individual is subconsciously gifted it, to
provide to their fellow human. Or perhaps
the reason is more prosaic, that once every
few generations genetics conspire to produce
an intellect of such genius as to stand head
and shoulders above the rest of civilisation.
History is replete with such examples of
these; Confucius, Aristotle, Newton, Curie,
Einstein; but of them all, Isla McKinley
stands apart as the most gifted genius in
human history.

46
 Gravitational
Carbon Latticework Beams Load Emitter
(Einsteins Finger)

Bekenstein Radiation Gauge

Gravitational Feeler

Power Core

47
THE MCKINLEY DRIVE
As a child of lowly dust miners on the Jovian
station of Callisto Major, the McKinleys were
only allotted one child, and that child was
Isla. From an early age it became obvious Isla
was not an average girl. In Callisto Majors
primary school her parents were called in on
more than one occasion when Isla had been
caught disassembling the panels in the school
room walls while her peers painted and
learned how to read. Despite not having the
vocabulary to explain, Isla conveyed that since
she had dissembled and re-assembled the
grav-generator conducer, the gravity within
the school precinct no longer fluctuated as it
previously had.
Isla rushed through high school, graduating
the standard six years worth of syllabuses in a
single year, and almost being accepted on an
exceptional scholarship to Jupiter Technical
University until she was deemed to have
failed the entrance exam by the invigilating
48
professor when she corrected two of the
questions. The decision was overturned after
an appeal to the Jovian Governor, and in an act
of supreme prescience, Isla was given lifetime
tenure and a professorship, without portfolio,
to persue whatever avenue of research she
chose. She was only 16 years old.
Like most geniuses, her work could barely
be understood even by others deemed the
leaders of scientific fields in the Sol system.
From time to time, corporation militaries
would approach her with the aim of securing
her work in creating weapons which would
give them an edge over their rivals.
But MckInleys interest never ran into violence.
Instead, she would turn to what was quickly
becoming her passion; the layers of existence
she was convinced existed below what the she
called this skin of the universe. And then
humanity made contact with the Mojat race,
and the first interstellar war broke out.
War and Paranoia
McKinley was as caught up in the fear of
humanitys potential destruction as any other
citizen, but while every other able body bent to
the most massive war effort in human history
- by manufacturing weapons or training to
join the swiftly growing army, she contributed
in the way only she could.
At the time, her research had been focused
around black holes, their potential and their
cause. Their effect on spacetime had been
theorised for centuries, and it was only the
recent ability to inspect the phenomena up
close (since the advent of interstellar travel)
that their potential benefits had begun to
be identified. Her work at J.U. had been
instrumental in beginning to understand
the structure of black holes, and that - like
icebergs - most of their mass could not be
seen and was somehow beneath the surface
of the universe.
49
While the emergent militarised navies of the
corporations had the requisite manpower,
vessels and munitions to take war to the
Mojat, it became apparent they were in severe
need of a way to do so swiftly and decisively.
Little was known of the Mojats own machinery,
so technology to hide the navies warships
was considered potentially counterproductive
if it turned out that approach could be
circumvented.
The preference was for a way to quickly move
armadas from one area of space to another,
and to outmanoeuvre the Mojat using tactics
last seen during the sea wars of the 20th
Century. And it just so happened that Isla
McKinley had been working on a technology
which might do just that.
It was the original group of the seven mega
corporations who first approached McKinley.
Their web of agents were already spread
widely across the emerging GCPS and they
had kept a close eye on humanitys foremost
expert on space time. She needed little
prompting to translate her theories into
practical applications, and the first prototype
drive to bear Isla McKinleys name was ready
for testing within months.
To fully explain the drives mechanisms in
a single document would be impossible.
Universities offer doctorate courses on mere
sections of the technology and its theory. But
simply put the drive is a powerful gravitic
emitter fitted towards the prow of a ship. It
applies a vast amount of energy to generate a
localised gravitic field directly in front of the
vessel, punching a small and mobile black hole
into the fabric of the universe. The ship then
effectively begins to fall over the holes event
horizon, but as the ship moves forward the
drive keeps the black hole the same distance
from the ship, allowing it to fall forward in
perpetuity, or until the drive is turned off.
This fall moves the ship at speeds faster than
light, but due to the gravitational effect on
space time, the time spent moving is vastly
compressed until the drive is de-activated and
the ship returns to real space, shortening the
apparent travel time immensly.
THE MCKINLEY DRIVE
Because of the urgency of their need it was
deemed prudent to test the new drives in
real life conditions rather than computer
simulations. The ship which bore the honour
of the first ever test run was the Mars Corp.
Navy frigate Phoebus. To best judge the drives
efficacy the MCN Phoebus was fully crewed,
armed, and running battle drills when the
drive was triggered. The frigate disappeared
from all scanners and known space, taking all
800 crew with it. It is a sign of how indulged
McKinley had been over her life that the loss
of 800 men and women did not seem to affect
her at all, and she demanded another, identical
ship to run another test on a modified drive.
And just a standard month later the MCN
warship Warden also disappeared from
space during its own test run, followed soon
after by the Mi-Gan cruiser Pioneer. In all,
over 2,000 navy personal were lost before
the decommissioned Magani cruiser Giant
performed the first ever successful McKinley
drive journey, travelling from Io to the inner
edge of the Kuiper Belt in less than two
seconds a distance of four billion kilometres
at almost twice the speed of light. The Magani
Giant can still be viewed, and is a living
museum on J.U.s Pollux system campus.
50
After slight modifications to shore up the
potential travel distance and reliability, the
successful drive was mass-manufactured and
fitted into every available navy warship, and
with as little practice manoeuvres as possible
the first strike was launched at the Mojat.
The resulting and short-lived war within the
Pollux system is well known.
The ship-board recordings and comms
are widely available across the G-Net as
educational and historic resources. But the
sterile, level-voiced orders captured on the
digital recording from centuries ago can
do little to recreate the sheer surprise and
terror the Mojat must have felt when, to their
perception, thousands of human warships
seemed to just appear within their star system;
weapons loaded and just waiting for targets.
The resulting massacre saw the extinction of
the Mojat in a single military action, with the
Mojat homeworld being impacted by so many
munitions its mantle cracked and was thrown
from its orbit. To this day its trajectory is
steadily decaying, slowly surrendering the
ruined planet to the Pollux stars gravity and
eventual, millennia-distant death.
The Galactic Web This constant dropping into and out of
McKinley travel has developed a fairly well-
Despite its vastness, space is far from empty. established set of travel routes across the GCPS,
Besides stars and planetary systems, there known as the Galactic Web, with common
are an unknown and uncountable number of way-points, such as Priory Station based at
rogue planets, asteroids, wrecks and artificial
stations throughout the void, and they all pose Exham IV, becoming busy and lucrative hubs
a threat to inter-planetary travel. Even a field for the corporations which control them.
of pebble-sized rocks would puncture a space
ship travelling through it at a high enough
velocity, leaving it perforated and at the mercy
of the void. The McKinley Drive avoids
this issue neatly. The black hole generated
before the ship acts a buffer, pushing aside
debris or sucking it through to whatever lies
on the other side of its gravity well. But this
only works for objects below a certain mass -
small asteroids, rocks, or wrecks of shuttles.
Anything larger, such as a planetary satellite
or even a planet, would have catastrophic
effects, for the McKinley-driven craft and for
the object hit.
Because of this, a voyage across the GCPS
by McKinley Drive is not one, uninterrupted
journey. Instead, a navi-comuter plots a
course to a point in space it knows will not However, this has also lead to the less well-used
contact any objects of a larger size. At that way-points to being dangerous, and a haven
point it will drop back into real space, re- for pirates. It also means there are immense
calibrate, and once more re-engage the Drive. tracts of space within the GCPS borders yet to
Depending on the journey length, this could be fully explored as most traffic sticks to the
happen many dozen times on a single trip. well-used, allbeit uncertain travel routes.

51
A Step Too far
After the success of the Mojat War, Isla
McKinley continued to work on her drive
to the exclusion of all other work. While
achieving speeds of twice the speed of light
was a feat considered impossible to the best
physicists minds for centuries, she believed it
was only the beginning, and she turned her
attention to improving the drives potential.
She was recorded as never being satisfied that
only ships over a certain mass could effectively
use the Drive. She identified that a certain
mass would add stability to the fall over the
black holes event horizon, and succeeded in
offsetting this issue though inventing a series
of stabilising engines for smaller craft, but
even so the mass of a craft required was still
considerable.
Her last attempted contribution to science
was a development of her drive that, rather
than allow a ship to fall over a black holes
event horizon, would instead curve the vessel
around the gravity well before ejecting it from
the other side, effectively sling-shotting the
ship, attaining a velocity which would make
space travel trivial.
So sure of her own calculations, Isla McKinley
insisted on being aboard the first test flight of
her new drive.
Like the frigate Phoebus, the first ever ship
to attempt a McKinley jump, Isla McKinley
disappeared into a black hole she herself
generated.
She was only 34, and its ironic that she was
the only person who might have accurately
theorised what has become of her.

52
53
The Secret Empire
The story of the Asterian Empire is one other
races might do well to take heed of. Sadly, it
is one they are unlikely to hear in its fullness
as Asterian space today is, at best, a secretive
place. At least to outsiders. Asterians have
a reputation for aloofness - although they
maintain diplomatic and cultural relationships
amongst many of the galaxys other states and
races, visitors are most assuredly not welcome
in Asterian territory.
54
A corporate analysis might place mistrust
and arrogance at the centre of Asterian
foreign policy, and there would be some
truth in that. But, to Asterians, a race that
was shaping the orbit of stars when mankind
was still contemplating crossing the plains
of his homeworld for the first time, the rest
of the universe is simply not technologically
or, perhaps more importantly, philosphically
advanced enough to merit a share in Asterian
knowledge.

Asteria Prime has guarded its secrets for a
long time and watched as other, younger races
have made their own marks on the galaxy.
Most of their progress has been of little matter
to the Asterians - the first stumbling footsteps
of children compared to the huge strides by
which the Empire is ahead of them all. Even
when the GCPS ignored repeated warnings
and set its somewhat heavy boots down on
what it called the Death Arc, Asteria Prime
restrained its armies.
55
asterians
They chose to do so then because war and the
taking of life is anathema to most Asterians.
Even the most aggressive members of the
warrior Clades would accept that the use of
force is something best reserved as a measure
of last resort. But the time has come for the
Clades to be unleashed nonetheless.
 Across Asterian space and in the places
beyond their borders, Clade fleets have been
mobilised. These warrior brotherhoods are
intent on cleansing worlds corrupted by the
Plague and preventing the ignorant actions
of other, less enlightened races from driving
ASTERIANS
the universe further away from its natural
balance. They go to war with the full blessing
of the Tesseract and the support of legions of
remotely operated robotic warriors, drones,
and tanks, all of them carrying some of
the most powerful weapons in the known
universe. The warbands of the Kalyshi march
with them too, their skin painted and tattooed,
their ancestral weapons enhanced with
enough power to make them no less deadly
than any other warrior. On many things the
Kalyshi might disagree with their Asterian
brothers, but on this they stand together; the
universe cannot continue on its current path.
There is no enemy Asteria fears, no fight
it cannot win. The balance of the universe
must be redressed and unity preserved. After
centuries of holding their peace and hiding
their strength, Asteria goes to war.
56
The Halls of the Tesseract
The Halls of the Tesseract are numerous.
They are glowing palaces of light and life
that are distributed across the empire and
yet lie at its very heart. After the near-
catastrophic mistake that led to the Scourge,
it was the Tesseract that led Asteria and
made the hard choices necessary to ensure
the continuation of Asterians as a race.
Since then, the wisdom of the Tesseract
has only grown, their judgments passed on
through their Counsels to guide and nurture
all Asterians towards greater unity and
better understanding of the balance.
Within each Hall, the bodies of the greatest
Asterians lie entombed within pods similar
in design to those used by Clade warriors.
For the Tesseract though, the disassociation
of mind from body is complete and deliberate
- their minds are transmitted fully and
permanently to the shared conscious space
that exists between all of the Halls. Their
voice and their knowledge becomes one with
those of all the other revered and exalted
members of the Tesseract. To some observers
they become like gods as they experience a
unity with each other and the universe that
is beyond expression. To others they are
simply elders who have passed on to another
state of being. To all Asterians though, the
authority of the Tesseract is absolute.
It has been this way for as long as most
can remember, ever since the coming of the
Scourge and the fall of the Royal House. But
the question that most intrigues the spies
and intelligence operatives of the GCPS is
this; why do Asterians today continue to
refer to their territory as the Empire? Is
it simply a holdover, a term of reference
the ever-traditionally minded race cannot
bring themselves to do away with? Or does
it mean there is in fact still an Emperor at
large somewhere deep within the Empire?
And, if there is, what does he think of the
way his Empire is being run?
Familiar, Yet Alien
Asterians appear in many ways similar to
mankind. They are, on average, the same
height, weight, and shape as human beings,
though tending towards being more lightly
built and slender in comparison. They also
possess long, pointed ears, but it is beneath
the skin that the differences between the races
really become pronounced.
For a start, Asterians possess two brains - a
primary cerebrum and a smaller, secondary
one, centrally-located near the stomach.
They have three combination heart-lungs
pumping a copper-oxide-based blood and
this unique anatomy allows them to live as
many as a thousand G-standard years without
showing any outward signs of aging. It also
gives adult Asterians an acute sensitivity
to neuro-electrical impulses, a low-power
form of empathic telepathy that allows them
to feel the emotions of close companions
without extending to direct communication.
This ability is not one that is widely known
outside Asterians themselves - not out of any
consideration for secrecy but simply because it
does not occur to most Asterians that they are
doing anything special. This is perhaps for the
best - any alien race with telepathic abilities
tends to make certain heads within the GCPS
nervous - but it does occasionally present an
obstacle to communication between Asteria
57
and the GCPS. A more obvious and yet
possibly more confusing difference is that
Asterians have three genders, designated
by corporate analysts as true-male, neuter-
male, and female. While these labels may be
slightly misleading in their simplicity (both
masculine forms are completely male but
the sociobiological triggers that might move
an Asterian from neuter to true-male are
not fully understood in the GCPS) gender
certainly plays a large role in determining the
life of an Asterian.
True-males are traditionally and historically
Asterias warriors, merchants, and bankers.
Indeed, the Cypher Clades are almost
exclusively made up of true-males. In contrast,
the less aggressive neuter-males are most
commonly encountered within the political
and diplomatic parts of Asterian society, while
Asterian females tend to follow careers within
the arts and sciences.
This is not to say such things are predetermined
or cast in stone. There are female Asterian
generals and true-male Asterian scientists and
in many ways the gender system of Asteria is
less rigid and restrictive than the caste system
of the Veer-myn or the plutocracy of the
GCPS. But conformity to expected standards
is nonetheless generally the norm amongst
Asterians.
 Alien Nation

Asterian space is vast, bordering the Fifth

Sphere of the GCPS at its galactic-southern
edge and stretching away from it almost as
far as the northern rim. Asteria Prime is
ASTERIANS

its administrative centre and serves as the

home world of many Asterians today. These
dimensions are not known to anyone within
the corporations but the suspected size of
Asterian space is so great it has given rise
to the popular belief within the GCPS that
Asterians must be both ruthlessly genocidal
and highly procreative. Neither supposition is
accurate.
In truth, Asterian technology is so advanced
and their ships able to travel at such great
relative speeds that distance has become
effectively meaningless. This, coupled with
Asterian longevity, has enabled them to be
quite selective in their choice of worlds to
colonise as well as when to raise children.
Asterians can afford to live only on paradise
planets, leaving numerous uninhabited
yet quite liveable worlds, including several
peacefully settled by other races, in between
them. Most of these settled worlds are linked
by quantum-tunnelling devices, allowing
matter and, on occasion, Asterians to move
from one side of the empire to the other in the
blink of an eye.
The galactic eastern edge of their space is,
however, marked by So-var uk-ulash. To
Asterians these are the Silent Lands - within
the GCPS it is the tract of space known as the
Death Arc.
In times long past these were some of the
most densely populated planets in what was
then the Asterian Star Empire and held seats
of great learning, philosophy, and innovation.
They were some of the first worlds to become
part of the Empire and the first it lost. Today,
however, they are populated only by ghosts,
their thriving cities and glorious architecture
turned to crumbling stone and monuments
to decayed glory. The disaster that befell the
Empire and led to the creation of the Scourge
laid waste to it all and left scores of worlds to
lie dark and cold. These planets were both
surrendered and sealed off, placed in perpetual
quarantine as a memorial to mistakes made in
the past. Until, that is, the GCPS arrived.

58
Walls of Silence
Asteria Prime was aware of the corporations
long before man knew he was not alone
in the universe. Observer ships, equipped
with stealth technology, had trailed the first
starships to leave Old Earth and watched
as humanity made its first inroads into the
galaxy. Mans inquisitive nature was viewed
positively, as a sign of great potential for future
development, but his tendency to subjugate
militarily any alien race he could not dominate
commercially made it clear humanity was
not yet advanced enough philosophically to
be made aware of Asterias existence. Some
Asterians, including many of those directing
its armies, warned against allowing mankind
to flourish. But, with much of the Empire
already besieged by the Scourge, military
intervention was ruled out for the time being.

How the Scourge itself came to be is one of

Asteria Primes most closely guarded secrets -
even many Asterians are unaware of the devils
bargain once made by their leaders that led
to the death of so many worlds. Exo-analysts
within the GCPS have theorised the link
between Asteria and the Prax - one of the few
races in the galaxy more ancient and enigmatic
than the Asterians - bears investigation, while
mans allies amongst the Forge Fathers have
pointed out the similarities between images
of Plague-spawning artefacts and certain
Asterian technologies. However and whenever
it originated though, the Scourge tore through
Asterias military and corrupted every world it
touched. Asteria Prime, the seat of the empire
itself, was under threat and the Scourge was
only stopped when all links with the infected
areas were severed. The quantum tunnels
that enabled interplanetary travel to these
planets were destroyed and their remaining
populations were sealed off from the rest of
the empire with a blockade of warships.
The Scourge was stopped but the cost was
high. So great was the impact of the loss of
so many lives on so many worlds, it brought
about the end of the Empire. A new system of
governance was inaugurated the Tesseract.
This might have been an end to the matter,
were Asterians alone in the universe. But, as
time passed and generations of Clade warriors
patrolled the borders of the So-var uk-ulash, it
became clear that contact, if not conflict, with
the rapidly growing GCPS was inevitable.
Mankind, it was decided, had still not
advanced sufficiently to warrant full access to
Asterias knowledge, but could no longer be
ignored.
Once again, despite the repeated warnings of
the Clades, the Tesseract was not willing to
order the destruction of an entire race and so
more diplomatic and peaceful representations
were made.

59
ASTERIANS
Rumours of a distant race of haughty aliens
had certainly reached the core as the GCPS
grew and established itself, but first contact was
not officially made until the fourth expansion.
A triad of neuter-male diplomats, all of them
Counsels to the Tesseract, met with no less
than two members of the Council of Seven on
an uninhabited world on the edge of the Silent
Lands to discuss their future relationship. No
records are known to have been kept of this
meeting - what was said is lost to posterity. But
it is worth noting that the Council-members,
never known for being particularly reasonable
or amenable to alien concerns, were somehow
persuaded not to allow further expansion of
the GCPS to its galactic north-west. Perhaps
they were wary of further conflict with
another advanced race after several wars with
the Forge Fathers or, having only recently
initiated the Enforcer program following the
Mandrake rebellions, felt armed conflict was
simply not timely. Perhaps Asteria gave them
something more valuable than the worlds
of the Death Arc. However it was done, the
GCPS agreed to respect Asterian borders and
soon after dispatched Enforcer ships to begin
the Long Patrol - a wall of firepower designed
perhaps to stop anything coming out of the
Arc as much as preventing any ingress.
The promises of the Council may have been
sincere but they were of questionable worth.
As the Asterians say, all petals are beautiful
when they fall, but still they fade. Despite
the Long Patrol and various ordinances
forbidding trespassing into the Empire,
60
avaricious corporate entities, unable to resist
the temptation of hidden riches, eventually
found ways into the worlds Asteria had
sequestered and awoke the Scourge that lay
within.
To the horror of Asteria, the resultant
hordes of infected humans bore only slight
resemblance to the monsters they fought in
the distant past.
The Scourges interaction with mans genome
caused it to mutate significantly, making it
even more co-ordinated and rapacious. What
Asteria had encountered as a virulent and
savage bio-agent had evolved into something
far more threatening. It was as if the Scourge
had found its perfect host and evolved into a
new and unstoppable form.
The Plague, as it is now known, was no longer
containable within the Star Empire but intent
on spreading throughout the galaxy.This
development, the re-emergence of the Scourge
in an even more deadly form, is seen by many
as vindication of those that urged Asterias
rulers to exterminate mankind in days past.
But given that artefacts capable of infecting
life and mutating it into the Plague are now
being found across the galaxy, it is perhaps
a moot point. Between mans foolhardiness,
the machinations of the Forge Fathers, and
the insidious threats of both Plague and Veer-
myn breaking out with increasing frequency,
it is difficult to divine which is truly the
greatest threat to the galaxy. What is certain is
that inaction is no longer an option.
Order and Balance
Ritual and tradition govern much of an
Asterians existence. From when they wake
until the end of the day, there are rituals for
just about everything an Asterian might do.
How food should be prepared and eaten, how
peers, family members, and colleagues should
be greeted, the decoration of houses and
arrangement of streets and buildings; all these
things have a prescribed way of being done.
Colours, smells, and positioning can all have
significance and there are libraries of omens
that may be observed in everything from
weather patterns and the conjunction of stars
to the fall of petals from flowers.
These rituals are neither superstitions nor
merely conventions that bind Asterian society
into a manageable state. They are all, at least
in part, linked to two key concepts of Asterian
philosophy - the universal order, or Unity
as it is often called, and the universal balance
between life and death.
Asterians see, within the universe, an innate
spirit, a natural state of interconnectedness
that can be tapped into through meditation
and practise. This Unity is viewed by some as
a tool as much as anything else, a sensitivity
to the underlying patterns of energy that exist
at a sub-atomic level which they can use in
61
their daily lives to promote success through
harmony. For the more theistically minded,
it is a living truth as constant as gravity and
probably more powerful. The desire for Unity
has driven much of Asterian technological
progress over their long history. It is natural,
after all, that to be one with something, one
must understand that thing. Technology then,
has become so integral a part of Asterian life
as to be almost invisible. Entire cities float
above vast, picturesque, ritually organised
and shaped garden worlds. Machines
harnessing the power of cosmic strings allow
the transmission of matter and thought over
incredible distances and huge schools of
philosophy and advanced material research
exist throughout the Empire.
Striving for balance within the universe
also pervades much of Asterian culture and
dictates many actions of the state, including
the application of military force. Outside
observers, particularly GCPS military
ones, may hold a view of Asterians as being
duplicitous and underhanded, or capricious
and unpredictable in how and where they
apply force. But to Asterian generals it should
be obvious to all and sundry where the Cypher
Clades and Enigma armies of Asteria must be
sent - to the places where the balance between
life and death has been most upset.
 In times past, the more peaceable voices
within the Halls of the Tesseract have held
sway, advising caution and trust in the
universal order to balance itself. The part the
Empire itself played in creating the Scourge,
memories of how close Asteria came to its
ASTERIANS
own end in the past, may have also stayed their
hand. But more militant voices have risen to
prominence now and successfully argued the
case that inaction is no longer an option.
The Asterian Empire was built on aeons
of tradition and mediation and an almost
utopian development of technology, deployed
in ways considered most harmonious with
the universe itself. But the GCPS has marked
its stake in the universe through practically
uncontrolled growth and aggressive, even
foolhardy, acquisition. Nowhere is this clearer
than in the incursions into the Death Arc and
the release of the Plague upon the universe.
The Tesseract will not, or cannot, declare an
outright war with the GCPS, but neither can
it allow the corporations to continue to do as
they wish unchecked. However, man is not
the only threat Asteria believes it must now
counter.
The Forge Fathers Realm also borders the
Empire and the two races have never truly
seen eye to eye. The increasing number of
alliances and trade agreements between the
62
Realm and the GCPS serves only to highlight
the danger the Dwarfs could pose to Asteria
and the balance itself. There are many
amongst the Clades that would gladly see the
Forge Fathers power in the universe severely
curtailed, if not eliminated completely. Asteria
has no love for the Veer-myn race either
and, while the genocide of a species is not
something the Tesseract would countenance,
it is a fact that the uncontrolled proliferation
of Brood Mothers and their offspring can no
longer be tolerated.
And then there is the Plague.
Its existence is an affront to every Asterian and
any outbreak is likely to draw the attention of
an Asterian military force. The termination of
any infection is the only option in such cases
and Asterian commanders are under orders to
go to any lengths to ensure this occurs - even
if it means eliminating potential vectors for
the mutagen.
Recovery of artefacts is also a priority mission
and there are two reasons this should be so.
The first is linked to the desire to stop an
outbreak occurring. But the second is to
stop any other race securing the artefact and
perhaps learning the secrets of its creation
and how it is related to Asteria itself.
Another Path
There are some amongst the Asterians who do
not view all technology as beneficial in their
striving for Unity. Nor do they believe mans
nature is necessarily harmful to the universe.
These are the tuvar hokalysh, or Kalyshi as
they are commonly known.
The Kalyshi philosopher, Taris merRath
wrote, We made our machines to aid us as we
strode across the stars, but we may yet stumble
over that which we created to guide. Rather
than aiding Unity by removing inconvenient
barriers and distractions, the Kalyshi see
technology as potentially being an insulating
factor or something that can misguide an
Asterian by presenting a distorted or even
false picture of the universe he or she is trying
to perceive.
It is a contentious view and exactly when it or
the Kalyshi sect first developed is unknown.
Their well-developed culture and widespread
appearance in both Asterian and corporate
space suggest the Kalyshi are not a new part
of Asterian society. But, while any GCPS
citizens who espoused a similar philosophy
would inevitably be labelled as backwards
and then most likely quickly eradicated by
opportunistic predators, there is no such
controversy amongst Asterians. It speaks to
the power and wisdom of the Tesseract that
the Kalyshi are instead both highly valued and
completely integral to Asterian civilisation.
Asteria Prime itself is more or less evenly
divided amongst traditional, technologically
minded Asterians and the Kalyshi, and there
are Kalyshi colonies and clans throughout the
rest of Asterian space too.
The reason for this easy co-existence is
twofold. Firstly, the notion of war itself, let
alone one between two Asterian factions,
is quite unpalatable. The taking of a life is a
highly taboo act - even the warrior Clades
do not do so lightly - and the notion of a
race going to war with itself is far beyond
anything an Asterian could tolerate. Secondly,
the principle of balance comes into play. It is
a longstanding decree of the Tesseract and its
Counsels that the development and inclusion
of the Kalyshi is a natural and essential
consequence of progress towards unity. It
might seem paradoxical to a human mind,
but Asteria sees no contradiction in the whole
being made stronger by two balanced halves.
Many Kalyshi have found inspiration in
mankinds ability to absorb and control large
areas of the galaxy seemingly without concern
for balance or order. Some Kalyshi clan leaders
have even suggested the balance may actually
be best served by allowing or even helping
the GCPS grow further - that the solution to
restoring balance to the universe lies not in
mans extinction, but his elevation.
Such an idea is considered radical, even
amongst the most liberal Kalyshi, but some
of the younger clan members have gone
even further, leaving Asterian space entirely
and attempting to make their home within
the GCPS. Some of these groups exist as
entertainers, bringing their primitive and
colourful art, dance, and songs to the core.
Others find the galaxys greatest sport,
DreadBall, a better way of finding a place
within the GCPS from which they may expose
humans to their superior culture. Whether
they will achieve their goal of integrating and
permanently influencing mankind is yet to be
seen - other aliens have made similar efforts
before and very few lasted very long or rose
very high within a corporate culture so geared
towards quickly disposable fads and fashions.
63
ASTERIAN ART DPS (COMMISSION 6 VEHICLE)

64
ASTERIAN ART DPS (COMMISSION 6 VEHICLE)

65
 Noh Limits
It is perhaps fortunate for humanity that they
did not push so aggressively and so early into
Asterian space as they did elsewhere, as it is
almost certain the superior technology of the
ASTERIANS
The Clades are the elite of the Asterian military.
They are almost exclusively true-males
and their members find a life in the Clades
powerful and fulfilling, with its emphasis
on control and knowledge of self being both
desirable personal qualities and essential for

elder race would have annihilated mankind proper control of a Cypher. However they
in short order. Asterians do not allow trade arrive at the gates of a Clades operating base,
in their technology - a restriction quite easily be it a remote monastery or spaceborne vessel,
enforced in such a homogenous society - and most find it quickly becomes their home - the
they have taken great care not to disabuse last one they will ever know - and the other
either the GCPS or the Forge Fathers that the members of the Clade their brothers.
latter is the most advanced race in the galaxy.
Even the weaponry they do currently employ
in engagements outside imperial space
is carefully chosen to be only sufficiently
powerful to achieve their task. That is to say,
they are not necessarily the most powerful
weapons in Asteria Primes arsenals.
Many of the weapons that are currently seen
abroad utilise noh energy, a particularly
devastating form of radiation that when
properly focused is capable of instantaneously
destroying the bonds between molecules,
effectively disintegrating whatever it touches.
These weapons proved extremely effective
against the hordes of the Scourge but are
equally deadly against many other targets,
from the Plague to heavily armoured
Enforcers.
These weapons are usually deployed in the
hands of remotely piloted constructs - the
advanced biologically-linked Cyphers, piloted
by the warrior-monks of the Clades, or the
simpler Enigmas, piloted by the professional
soldiery of the Shosenn. Drone weapon
platforms, hovering across a battlefield and
carrying more noh weapons or projecting
effective protective shields, are also commonly
used.
These constructs are typically operated by
pilots safely cocooned in cloaked command
vessels some distance from the actual combat.
This is done in order to protect the pilots,
both physically and metaphysically, from both
the danger and the act itself of taking lives.
Very few living Asterians ever set foot on a
battlefield, a fact other races, notably Forge
Fathers and humans, tend to view with some
suspicion and not a little distain. For Asterians
though, the insistence of alien warriors on
personally taking part in bloodshed is simply
further illustration of how backwards other
races truly are.

66
Those that survive the initial harshness of
martial training and the rigors of mental
conditioning may be elevated to the ranks of
the Shuuri - the pilots of Cyphers. Cyphers are
largely mechanical in nature, but also partly
organic, having been grown as much as built,
using unique genetic sequences from their
intended pilots. The pilots very consciousness,
his self , is transmitted into the Cypher
through meditation and machinery, enabling
him to inhabit its form as if it were his own
flesh and bone. The process of bonding, of
establishing the Sokuru for the first time, can
take days or weeks, but once made, it can only
be broken by the destruction of the Cypher
itself.
The process of transmission of consciousness
may keep the pilots body physically safe but it
is not without its own risks.
Disassociation, the phenomena of the mind
being unable to reintegrate with the flesh,
leaving the pilot lost in the space between
Cypher and body, becomes more likely over
time and repeated engagement. The trauma
of the destruction of a Cypher can also
precipitate disassociation and, for this reason,
some of the most advanced and experienced
pilots will eventually be unable to risk piloting
a Cypher. Most of these warriors may find
their duties restricted to instruction, perhaps
even choosing to found their own Clade and
monastery. Only a rare few will decide to
continue with combat roles and take part in
warfare without the protection of a Cypher
body.
67
Clade Cyphers typically operate in units
of ten - three triads of Cyphers, each led by
a Secondary commander, and an overall
leader, the Cypher Prime, or Hai-san.
Battlefield control may occasionally be given
to an Overseer - a ranking officer within the
Clade, chosen by lot on the eve of battle to be
present in his own flesh. By gaining a personal
experience of the combat the Overseer
enhances his own performance and that of
Cyphers under his command in subsequent
battles.
In the wake of increasing contact with the
GCPS, and in particular the attempts at
integration by Kalyshi clans, most Clades,
under instruction from Asterian High
Command (the body acting as primary liaison
between the Clades and the Tesseract,) have
instigated the role of Watcher, or Shuutavar,
designating a senior and highly experienced
member of each Clade to safeguard its
traditions and integrity.
In battle, the Watchers role is to observe
the conduct of and decisions made by an
Overseer or Prime, and to record how well
he performed. These observations are not
necessarily made in relation to the outcome
of the battle - neither victory nor defeat are
regarded as conditions any less transient than
light from a star. The Watchers role is instead
to divine whether the commanders actions
were in compliance with the traditions of his
Clade and in unity and balance with universe.
The Shosenn pilots experience of combat,
while similar in terms of their consciousness
also being transmitted into a construct,
is a somewhat more removed experience.
The Marionettes they control are far more
mass-produced and lack many of the more
elegant features and refinements of a Cypher.
Shosenn pilots may also control one or even
several teams of constructs more or less
simultaneously, their consciousness being
rapidly beamed from one to another at will.
They see and hear what each robot can, and
give it a command or sequence of commands
before beaming into the next of their charges.
The Shosenn are the professional soldiers of
their race. They are far more diverse in terms of
gender than the Clades and all are volunteers,
choosing to spend some or all of their lives
in military service. Not all Shosenn operate
Enigmas either - it requires a particular
aptitude and months or years of practicing the
 ability to split the individual consciousness
and then process the bio-electrical input
and output associated with multiple combat
constructs. There are numerous other duties
to be carried out in service of Asteria and
many other robotic drones and constructs to
ASTERIANS
That is not to say the Kalyshi entirely divest
themselves of technology when they go to
battle - they are not fools.
Most warriors carry double-bladed glaives,
or Pysani, and huge longbows, or Busuri.

also be piloted. While they appear primitive, these weapons

The Kalyshi, of course, take a characteristically
different approach to the issue of warfare. They
too revere life in nearly all its forms but they
choose not to allow technology to insulate
them from this most intense experience and
sensation. For them, neither unity nor the
balance are well served by removing ones self
from the equation of death.
are constructed of materials and powered in
ways that make them easily the equal of an
Accutek rifle or Hailstorm gun. The bows
include power cores similar to those found
in noh-rifles and their arrows may be coated
in explosive gels or mass-driver cores quite
capable of breaking through the best personal
armour commonly found in the GCPS.

Warrior Clades

There are numerous warrior Clades within the Asterian Empire, each with its own history, fleet,
heraldry, and leadership. Some are ancient, others relatively young, but nearly all were founded by
an esteemed and experienced general who was himself once trained in a Clade. Many are engaged
within the Silent Lands, keeping them clear of intruders and watching the Long Patrol on their own
side of the border, but others are even now engaged more deeply within the territory of the GCPS
and the Forge Fathers, striking wherever it has been determined the balance can be restored.

They do so with the blessing of the Tesseract, although not necessarily under its direct control. To
a large degree it is left to each Clade to decide how best to use its warriors and the Shosenn troops
assigned to it.

The Clade of the Golden Rose is one of those tasked with monitoring the Silent Lands. Their
monastery was originally founded several thousand years before first contact with man, on one of
the worlds now lost to the Scourge. They are now an entirely mobile Clade with one of the largest
fleets in the Empire and have served as watchmen with distinction. However, as the Plague spreads
to more worlds, the discovery of each new artefact heralding the loss of many new lives, the Golden
Roses senior triad believes their time in the Lands is at an end. Tui Hu Shuuulak is one of these
leaders and he has long argued the Golden Rose should be instead pushing to seize control of more
territory and extending the Empires boundaries in order to better hunt down and eradicate its
enemies.

The most senior Overseers of the Five Daggers Clade believe that strategy is already insufficient to
restore balance. They have located and marked more than a dozen worlds within the GCPS they
believe must be taken or destroyed in order to not only prevent the spread of the Plague but begin
the process of breaking the GCPS once and for all. Attacks have already begun on several of these
targets, with the support of a full complement of Shosenn command and attack vessels.

Other Clades have not restricted their actions to attacking the corporations.

Some, such as the Wailing Song and Three Rivers Bend are engaged in campaigns against clans
of the Forge Fathers. Their territory also neighbours Asterian space and, although they are not
as rampantly aggressive as man and have not, as yet, reported the finding of any Plague artefacts
within the Star Realm, they must be kept in check. This is especially true, given the increasing
number of alliances between the two races. Even the most bullish Clade leader could not be certain
of winning a war against a combined force of men and Dwarfs.

68
The blades of the Pysani also give the
impression of being made entirely of wood
and yet, examination of captured examples
reveals the material is hardened and
sharpened in unknown ways that make them
almost as deadly as the Dionetik blades used
by Enforcer operators.
The mental state necessary for combat does
not come entirely naturally to the Kalyshi
though, and the eve of combat will frequently
be spent practising the Yahkan - the ritual
dance and singing of songs dedicated to
death itself. They are led in this by the dervish
priests.
69
The sect to which the priests belong holds
that death itself is both the universes way to
achieve balance and the way to true Unity.
For them, it is the great leveller - the only
true constant for everything in existence. It is
a hard teaching and a hard life to follow and
the priests appear outlandish even to other
Kalyshi. They carry short-bladed knives, axes,
and flails, and very little else, living a nomadic
existence and espousing any other possessions
than those necessary to make war. Whether
the dervishes are correct in their view that
death is the ultimate fate of the universe or not
remains to be seen. But for the time being it is
clear - war is the only path Asteria can take.
 Advanced Warfare
A typical Asterian army will often consist
of a solid core of Marionette robots, backed
up by a variety of drones and Cyphers. But,
despite this reliance on remotely operated
ASTERIANS
mechanical soldiers, it would be a mistake to
think of an Asterian army as being either rigid
or inflexible.
Marionettes may perhaps be slightly slower to
react than an organic soldier, it is true. But the
sophistication of their software and hardware,
coupled with the highly responsive nature of
their connection to their Shosenn pilot makes
them at least as deadly as any other frontline
troop.
Nor are they necessarily easy kills.
Narsa echo drones often accompany
Marionettes into battle, projecting protective
shields and amplifying the command and
control signals being sent from orbit. Even
at their most vulnerable moment, that
of embarking or disembarking a Chira
transporter, they can be hard to reach -
Asterian commanders regularly have a triad
of Spectra gunships on station to escort them.
The Narsa is also of use to Clade troops. The
teleportation techniques used to initially
deliver Cyphers into battle are difficult, and
potentially dangerous, to use once combat
begins. The subatomic patterns of energy upon
which such things depend can be disrupted
during exchanges of high-frequency weapons
fire, leaving the Cyphers in need of the Narsas
amplified harmonics to guide them through
short-distance point-to-point jumps.
70
Hano Var
Shosenn Hano Vars eyelids twitched in time
with her long fingers, but otherwise her body
was immobile. She lay in repose, her long
limbs and pale skin lit only by the softly
pulsing blue lights inside her transference
pod. She could have been asleep. Or, if it were
not for the occasional tap of a finger or micro-
movement of a facial muscle, dead. Aboard
the command vessel, her physical form was
completely at rest. But below her, several
kilometres distant on the surface of the world
the ship orbited, and in her mind, she was
running, looking, thinking, and fighting. She
was alive and she was free.
In her minds eye, she experienced the transfer
of her consciousness as being like entering
the nexus of a series of dark tunnels, each
one showing a pinprick of light at its end.
She could focus into one almost as fast as
she could think it and touch the construct
at its end. She would be unified with its
simple artificial sub-mind and issue it its
next sequence of orders. Then, with another
thought, she could return to the nexus and
zoom down into another tunnel.
Her team was engaged on a patrol route and
she jumped from ones head to the next in
fractions of seconds. She ordered one robot
forward, moved another into a covering
position, took a moment to evaluate the feed
from the thirds sensors, and then jumped
back to the first. When she was in their heads,
she could hear the sounds of the planet, their
footsteps crunching through stones and over
grass, and weapons firing nearby. When she
jumped out of them and flew along the tunnel
that led to a display of data harvested by the
command vessels scanners, it was quieter. It
should have been silent, like the inside of her
pod, but occasionally she thought she could
hear the whispered voices of other Shosenn
pilots, also accessing the feeds.
She felt a tugging at her consciousness, an
urgent yellow flashing from one of the tunnels
- her lead robot had found a target. In the pod,
Hanos lips twitched as she relayed its message
to her Overseer and recited a relaxation
mantra. As she did, she took a moment to
zoom into the command ships data display
again, marking the map within it so other
Shosenn would know she was engaging an
enemy. A second later she received a message
back - authorisation to attack. She began
the Ritual of Engagement and her pulses
quickened as she began issuing commands to
her robots to begin their combat routines.
 Asterian armies will often use the relatively
expendable Marionette units to pin an enemy
unit down or hold ground, allowing heavier
units such as Chroma force platforms or
weapons drones to pour highly accurate
energy blasts into targets at their leisure.
Alternately, this high-pressure fire will give
elite Cypher units time to manoeuvre into
position and use their own expertise to
annihilate at short-range or secure high-value
targets and objectives.
The Kalyshi aside, an Asterian army, with its
built-in reliance on unshakeable cyborg and
robotic troops, is largely immune to many
of the pressures incumbent on other armies.
They do not require rest or resupply and,
apart from their Overseer or Shuutavar, are
never in any danger to their persons. Their
weakness is nonetheless the perceived value
of their presence on a field.

If an enemy commander can inflict sufficient

casualties on an Asterian unit, they may
be persuaded to initiate an emergency
teleportation procedure and remove the unit
from the fight entirely rather than risk its
total destruction and the possible dissociation
of its pilot. Similarly, the Overseer can and
will fight, if it is necessary. But this is neither
his nor a Watchers primary role and threats
to their person may force their potentially
premature withdrawal. It must be noted
though, that even if an Asterian force does
quit a field, it does so more often than not for
its own reason, because it serves the balance,
rather than because of anything a lesser races
army has done.

71
to the letter
At the head of the myriad corporations and
conglomerates which make up the Galactic
Co-Prosperity Sphere sit the Council of
Seven; the elected body who oversee the
smooth running of the GCPS as a whole, and
its relations with alien civilisations.
While they hold the authority within the Co-
Prosperity Sphere, it is the Enforcers who
apply it.
72
The private army of the Council, Enforcers
are not only tools of war, but of propaganda;
the shocking violence of their assaults, the
employment of gross overkill and the trail of
destruction they leave behind are the ultimate
display of the Councils military superiority.
When a mission is so critical that failure is
not an option, or when absolutely no enemy
can be left alive, an Enforcer Task Force can
be relied upon to carry out its orders to the
very letter.

Born of Desperation
Considering how average the standard
human is in physical terms compared to
many of the alien species encountered across
the galaxy, its surprising that the GCPS went
for so long relying purely on human soldiers
during its frequent conflicts and wars of
conquest.
However, time and time again humanity has
proven surprisingly resistant and adaptable
73
enforcers
to situations other, older civilisations would
have considered unwinnable. But there is
always a desire in war for something better,
something faster, stronger; soldiers more
willing to do what is considered necessary to
achieve victory whatever the cost.
When the Klandax Corporation fleet of
General Klimt encountered the Gora system
and the violent assortment of creatures
known collectively as Marauders, the Council
thought they had found that something.
 For some time the Marauders proved the
perfect shock troops. Naturally adapted to
violence, aggressive, and entirely without
compunction, they were the leading edge of
the GCPS spear, asking only for payment,
the chance to fight more, and spoils from the
enforcers

battles they won.

Until the Mandrake Rebellion.

Its not openly known why the Marauders

turned on their previous masters, and for
good reason; the Rebellion was supposed
to be a contained revolt, formulated by the
incipient Council of Seven in order for them
to seize ultimate control of the GCPS. But
it has been argued by xenoanthropologists
that such an upheaval was a mathematical
certainty anyway, given the Marauders nature
an Orc sees the galaxy in black and white,
of what they can fight and conquer and what
they cannot and they could no more choose
not to rebel than humanity could choose to
resist its urge to see beyond the next horizon.
Regardless of the reason, for five years the
Marauders waged war against the GCPS and
almost annihilated the Corporation armies
they had, until recently, fought alongside.
Unable to counter the Marauders naked
aggression, the human troops fell like wheat
to the scythe. Millions of soldiers died, along
with an uncounted number of civilians. Entire
sectors were cut off as the Marauders took to
space naval action as if born to it, leaving the
isolated worlds to be picked off at will, and
it was soon realised that what at first was
thought only to be a major setback in the
human expansion had turned into a threat to
the races very survival.
How close the GCPS came to being destroyed
is not public knowledge. The Council
is understandably wary of showing any
weakness to other races, and the desperation
of those dark times is known only to a handful
of people. But known to even fewer is that the
Council had a plan already in motion, and as
the severity of the Rebellion became obvious
they proposed it to the corporations.

74
Project Ichiban
The body which could become the Council
had been working on Project Ichiban for
some time before the Mandrake Rebellion
broke out. Before control was lost and the
Orcs began rising up all across the Fourth
Sphere, the project codenamed Ichiban was
intended to create a human which would be
the match for an Orc Commando, and more
importantly would be answerable only to the
Council. They would be their personal army,
and after they put down the Rebellion, the
corporations would welcome them.
But as the fighting spread and more human
armies were lost it became apparent that not
only victory over the Marauders hinged on
Project Ichibans success, but the survival
of the human species as a whole. Suddenly
Ichibans brief was not only to create a soldier
75
capable of going toe-to-toe with the strongest
Orc trooper, but to best it many times over,
and to achieve that before the Marauders
reached the core worlds. Accordingly the
best geneticists, biochemists, microbiologists
and neuroscientists along with the most
experienced tacticians and military thinkers
were recruited not always willingly from
across the GCPS and brought into a single
project at a location so secret it is still classified
today.
The scientists were given all the resources
they needed, and nothing which was
necessary to fight the Rebellion was denied
to them. Funding, it was made clear, was to
be considered unlimited, and emergency
powers were created and implemented which
allowed the Council the right to procure any
corporation property required for Ichiban.
 Without the need to observe the laws or ethics
around genetic experimentation, the scientists
within the project could neatly sidestep the
pre-clinical phase of animal tests and move
straight to human subjects. Their requests for
enforcers
volunteers from the corporation militaries was
deemed too inefficient by the Council, and
instead the teams in charge of Ichiban found
themselves receiving shiploads of condemned
prisoners. As expected there were some
voices raised against the experimentation on
unwilling, live subjects, but the dissenters
were quickly moved into the test group, and
the project began in earnest. No avenues of
investigation were left unexplored in reaching
the projects goals. Building on discoveries
already made, and without the threat of
professional repercussions, surprising progress
was made in a very short time.
The first batch of subjects deemed potentially
ready were the Ichiban Trooper Version 1.12.
The 1.12s were the end result of genomic
stretching- essentially a forced miniature
evolution of human organs. But the higher
functioning metabolism still did not meet
the parameters demanded, and so additional
improvements were sought; one of which was
to replace an eye of the 1.12 Trooper with
that of a Koris alien, in an effort to give the
troopers pentachromatic vision; increasing
the visual functional range and improving
its efficiency in low light environments by a
factor of five.
When the first batch of 1.12s thought stable
enough to be given field tests were ready, there
was a level of excitement among the project
and the Council alike, and three Councillors
themselves made the trip to the black site to
witness the first steps of the Ichiban Trooper.
76
The results were reportedly horrific.
What was not known at the time was that
the Koris eye would only tolerate the human
host so long before rejection, and in a defence
mechanism still not fully understood the eye
burrowed roots into the troopers brain stem.
The resultant brain coring triggered violent
rampages and the 1.12s, being full armed and
prepped for battle, turned on their handlers,
each other, and also the bystanders.
Project Ichiban could have been terminated
right there, and was only saved by the fact that
the five prototype troopers killed over 100
GCPS soldiers, scientists, and one Council
member along with his security detachment
before they could be brought down.
The Ichiban Troopers had potential, they just
had to be controllable.
Hidden and Dangerous
The location of Project Ichiban the black
site which saw the inception of the first
Enforcer troops is one of the Councils
most closely held secrets.
The site is still operational, and constantly
refining the process of creating new Enforcer
soldiers. But the scientists there are also
continually seeking the next evolutionary
step in the program; a way to create a
soldier which will make the Enforcers of
today obsolete.
It is not unheard of for these Ichiban
Troopers to join Enforcer Strike Teams in
battle in sink-or-swim field tests.
Their performance in combat is not
guaranteed, but the Council deems the
potential reward to be worth the risk.
Project Ichiban continued, and further
refinements and trials were carried out. Ages Old
Epidermal grafts of hardened skin, stunted
growth to allow combat in tighter confines, Although the nanites that maintain an
deep brain stimulation, the removal or adding Enforcers body have been proven to prolong
to of existing organs, even synthetic telepathy;
no potentially workable theory was ignored. their hosts life, exactly how long a subject
Due to the sheer amount of man-hours could live has not been fully tested as no
poured into the project it was not long before Enforcer has lived long enough to die of old
nanites microscopic machines capable of age.
restructuring genes within the human body
were tested and the course of Project Ichiban, The exception, so far, may prove to be
and of the Co-Prosperity Sphere itself, Captain Shaaw Tlaa. (ID designate BL01-
changed forever. Ichiban had discovered what
it was looking for. 01). Captain Tlaa is the commander of the
Black Company, the elite strike force tasked
When the first troopers with nanite treatments to track and eliminate Marauder war bands.
were put through combat drills they shattered
the records of the most hardened battalions Such is the compartmentalised secrecy
without even undergoing basic training, and
when tested on manoeuvres with existing surrounding the Enforcer program, and
corporation troops left the standard human the Black Company in particular, no one
soldiers behind. is certain exactly how old Captain Tlaa is.
She claims to have fought in the final battles
Project Ichiban had been a success; the super
soldiers the GCPS needed were ready, and to of the Mandrake Wars. If thats true then
differentiate the operational troopers from Captain Tlaa is at least 180 years old.
the prototype the Ichiban label was dropped
and the now infamous Enforcer applied.
Enforcer transport to the frontlines began
immediately, but the troopers first taste of
combat came before they had even reached
the planets under Marauder attack, when
their transport flotilla was ambushed at a
McKinley way-station in what is now known
as the Battle of Sushima Night. Marauder
commanders had begun seeding black hulks
- massive barges, powered down and nearly
impossible to detect in deep space - at known
McKinley course drop sites to ambush navy
ships. The proximity of the hulks prompted
the GCPS commanders to call for boarding
actions and the Enforcers were unleashed on
the Marauders via insertion craft.
The Marauders surprise when expecting
the easy looting of a human battleship only
to have their own vessels suddenly overrun
by armoured killing machines can only be
imagined.
The battle was an overwhelming success for
Project Ichiban, a major morale boost for the
GCPS as a whole, and was widely reported on
across the spheres.

77
 More victories ensued, and wherever the
Enforcers were deployed success followed
more often than not. But however capable the
troopers were in battle, Project Ichiban could
only produce so many soldiers. The Fourth
had been abandoned, and the Third had been
enforcers
almost completely lost. If the Marauder forces
broke through to the Second Sphere and its
soft, undefended planets supporting billions
of citizens, there would be little the GCPS
military could do. Despite Project Ichibans
success the GCPS would still be destroyed
unless something drastic was done.
That something drastic has gone down in
history as the name where the final Mandrake
Rebellion battle was fought; Nihil Rex. In a
final defence attempt, all McKinley routes
from the Third Sphere into the Second were
erased from navcomputers sphere-wide,
except for one at Nihil Rex. On the systems
inhabited planet of Nihil Prime the Council
stationed almost all the remaining corporation
78
armies on planet, supported by over 10,000
Enforcer Troopers. To get through to the
Second Sphere the Marauders would have to
pass Nihil Prime, and as is their nature, could
not give up the opportunity for what would be
the biggest fight of their history.
Nihil Rex, however, was a trap. For the
Marauders as well as the corporation armies
who fought there. Their unknown purpose
was to hold the Orcs at bay while the Councils
forces initiated a premature supernova in
the Nihil Rex star. The resulting explosion
destroyed everything within the Nihil system.
The loss of 10,000 Enforcer troopers was
considered a reasonable price to pay for the
total control the Council of Seven took after
the Rebellion ended. But it is testament to
their combat presence that, even thinned
as their numbers were, spread across the
massive battlefront, they could withstand the
combined might of the Marauder armies.
The Councils Fist
After the Mandrake Rebellion, the Enforcers
were quickly established within the structure
of the GCPS.
Their role within the Co-Prosperity Sphere
was clearly defined, and their presence and
abilities made well known and used as a
propaganda tool from Corporation Central.
Corporations now respect the power of the
Council, and they know to break any of the
myriad laws surrounding their operations will
likely result in censure followed by reprisal
from the nearest Enforcer strike fleet.
Now each sector of the GCPS has at least
one Enforcer strike battalion assigned to it,
with roving strike forces on wide-ranging
sweeps through less-populated sectors, and
picket forces in reserve ready to execute the
Councils orders at a moments notice. The
increasing occurrence of Plague outbreaks
79
along the galactic north-west have seen the
Enforcers the only human soldiers reliably
able to counter this threat increasing in
numbers in those sectors. But the border to
that stretch of long-dead systems is huge and
almost empty, and the movement of strike
forces to these areas has left the other sectors
with a thin Enforcer presence. This shortage
has prompted a shift from static regional HQs
to mobile strike fleets, giving strike forces the
ability to respond to events anywhere within
their sector. Beyond the Co-Prosperity Sphere
the Enforcers have made a reputation as, if not
the best individual fighting force in the galaxy,
then at least among its number. The Asterians
and the Forge Fathers, as humanitys primary
competitors, are rightfully wary of provoking
Enforcer retaliation, and in some less
developed civilisations the sight of Stallion
class dropships descending from the sky is
their last cultural recording before being
wiped from the galactic map.
 Post-Human
The brief is for a human being moved forcibly
along our evolutionary curve. But that will not
do. Humans are beyond the need for physical
prowess. The great examples of our race are
enforcers
Those subjects who pass the test are given just
a few hours to say their goodbyes and finalise
any business before boarding the barges and
being transported back to the strike forces
HQ, and before the ships have left the planets

intellectual giants, not martial. No, I shall give
them what they need, not what they want, but
by necessity it wont be human.
- Dr. [REDACTED], lead geneticist
on the classified project Ichiban
It is arguable as to whether or not an
Enforcer soldier is truly human, as defined
by medicine. To the naked eye they can
appear to be physiologically identical to any
other human, if the onlooker were to ignore
the clearly advanced size, musculature and
bone structure which are the hallmarks of
all Enforcer troopers. However, in order to
truly understand what makes an Enforcer
an Enforcer, you need to look deeper than
outward appearance.
gravity well the recruitments second stage
begins. The recruit is injected with a general
anaesthetic. While the recruit is placed in a
cot, and restrained for their own protection,
the nano-machines which lace the sedative
begin their work altering the recruits DNA
and preparing its body for the change it is
about to undergo. The microscopic machines
are coded with instructions developed from
the program created during the Mandrake
Rebellion, and refined in the many years
since. They begin to work on the subjects cells
in their millions, changing the recruits body
at the molecular level. Red blood cells are
expanded, tensile muscle strength augmented,
bone density increased; all of which would
result in excruciating pain were the subject
not placed in a coma.

In the beginning, all Enforcers are human.

At least before recruitment. Each Enforcer
battalion is charged with maintaining its
own numbers through recruitment from the
planets within their assigned sector. How this
is done varies from one strike force to another
and ranges from voluntary enlistment upon
completion of a test, to forced conscription.
Where the enlistment is open, the potential
recruit is first given an outwardly simple
series of verbal assessments, open to non-
modified, non-disfigured human citizens
under the age of thirty. The test is designed to
identify subjects who would be most open to
the adaptations made to their brain patterns,
which would result in the ability to carry out
orders without question. For this reason,
recruitment barges also often stop at penal
colonies - places with high concentrations
of people who have already proven they are
capable of murder without a second thought.

80
The new Enforcers nervous system is rewired,
dampening pain receptor feedback without
loss to sensitivity, and giving the Enforcer
the ability to shut off signals from any part
of the body if pain becomes too much. The
whole process takes weeks, with constant
monitoring from a dedicated medical team.
By the second week, when the recruits new
body size begins to settle. The recruit will then
be administered another series of injections,
giving the existing nanites a reserve of non-
Newtonian fluid which they weave into a sub-
dermal layer, giving the recruits naked body
some protection against impacts and electrical
discharge. The subjects immune system is all
but wiped out, replaced entirely by the nanites
coursing through the recruits changing body,
coded with the ability to counteract almost all
known pathogens and diseases in the galaxy.

When the recruit wakes up, weeks later, they

feel almost superhuman and indestructible,
and they are ready for basic training.
What the new Enforcer does not yet realise
is that the nanites introduced into their body
never leave it, and continue to work. While
the recruits begin training, fascinated at their
new speed and endurance and how different
the world looks through their sharper senses,
the nanites are still hard at work, continuing
to adapt the soldiers body to its needs and
individual characteristics. Where one soldier
shows an aptitude for stamina, the machines
will adapt the respiratory system and blood
oxygen level to best take advantage of the
natural inclination; a recruit whose body mass
is greater than usual may find their muscle
volume is increased and their bone collagen
hardened to better withstand physical torsion.
The adaption is an ongoing process which
continues into the field. In a protracted, behind
enemy lines engagement the nanites will aid
in the measured processing of fat reserves into
energy, allowing the Enforcers to survive on
rations which would starve a normal human,
but allows the trooper to operate far beyond
what their body size would naturally allow.
The changes are made beyond the body and
into the brain; most notably to the increased
sensory perceptions. An Enforcers hearing
and sight is not only more acute many times
over, but spatial processing occurs at a greater
rate, factoring in a far greater number of
potential outcomes. Armed with this ability
an Enforcer can accurately judge distances of
over a kilometre to within centimetres, walk
through a pitch-black maze using the echoes
of their own footsteps, and make the best
tactical on-the-spot decisions with the most
likely outcome after surveying the immediate
surroundings. It is this ability to judge external
factors that have prompted some more
primitive alien species to believe the Enforcers
have a magical ability or prescience they can
call on in battle. But it is not witchcraft which
allows them to dodge bullets, only choosing
to be in the least-likely place an enemy will
shoot.

81
 To aid the development of these combat-
specific changes, the brain patterns are also
altered. Blood flow to the subjects frontal
lobe is increased. The purpose of this is to
over-develop the importance of allegiance
enforcers
and procedure to the Enforcer which, along
with carefully structured training, makes
them utterly loyal to the Council. At the same
time the increased sensitivity in receptors to
the prefrontal cortex shifts the desires of the
subject to find pleasure in the physical and
theoretical aspects of warfare. In essence the
Enforcer becomes an almost savant soldier,
thinking of little outside of combat and willing
to carry out the most brutal, ruthless orders in
the name of protecting the GCPS.
But it would be a mistake to think that an
Enforcer is incapable of individuality. The
preservation of each troopers persona was
set into standard procedure after the test case
of the Ichiban Trooper Version 32.3. The
trials purpose was to completely re-route the
troopers personality - forcing their thoughts
never to stray from the preservation of the
GCPS and the elimination of all its threats - to
test the theory that it would make for a more
efficient soldier. What happened was the new
strike team, after a theoretical exercise into
identifying the largest threats to the GCPS
and proactively moving to eliminate them,
covertly hacked into Corporation Centrals
closed information systems, mutinied
against its commanders, and launched an
unauthorised assault on Vardar Prime, the
headquarters of Tolvit-Hathway and home to
82
its CEO and Council member Eskander Hurte.
Hurte was not at his residence at the time but
his entire staff and household were massacred
by the renegade troopers before the estate was
vaporised by a high yield antimatter bomb
within the HQ building, apparently placed
there as a last ditch security measure.
However, despite the disastrous way the
experiment ended, the metrics did prove that
a level of individuality within the Enforcers
provided better combat outcomes. It allowed
specialisation within squads, giving troopers
the ability to explore and develop skills they
are naturally inclined towards, resulting in
better unit cohesion and promoting creativity
in overcoming tactical problems.
Experiment 32.3 was terminated, along with
the project leads, and the results quietly
forgotten. Had the matter been looked
into, links may have been found between
Councillor Hurte and the directive that
Toll Partner Holdings a minor subsidiary
of Tolvit-Hathway was to buy out what
remained of House Grace, after the disgraced
corporations liquidation following its
attempted colonisation of the planets within
the Death Arc. Further investigation may have
uncovered the syphoning off of large amounts
of Tolvit-Hathway funds to undeclared,
unregistered worlds bordering the Death Arc.
It could be that the Ichiban Troopers 32.3
had succeeded in identifying a threat to the
GCPS, but were destroyed before they could
eliminate it.
BUFFER TBC

83
Structure
The use of overwhelming force is a poor
solution to most problems, employed only by
children and amateurs.
A professional knows it is not how much force
you have, but where you direct it.
- Cpt. Bach Chaval (ID designate SC12-89-1),
3rd Strike Force, Scutum-Centaurus Battalion
84
The structure of an Enforcer battalion is
surprisingly flat, but rather than promoting
inflexibility and a weak point in the chain of
command this is a reflection of comprehensive
training and the aptitude of every Enforcer.
Each trooper is briefed on all mission
parameters before each assignment and
trusted to carry out their orders to the fullest
of their abilities.
The limited chain of command offers
unparalleled ability to adapt to changes
in combat, even down to the death of the
battlefield commander.
At the core level is the Strike Team. Strike
teams are the principal units deployed into
the field, made up of the necessary troopers
and support to accomplish the task at hand.
This could be as many as a few hundred
Enforcers backed up by Accuser air support
85
and Strider formations, or as small as a single
squad lead by a sergeant. Such is the area
of responsibility assigned to each Enforcer
battalion that a Force Commander is reluctant
to commit more soldiers to a single conflict
than is absolutely necessary, and often the
presence of a sole squad is enough to frighten
a rebellious planet back into submission.
 Load outs at the individual Team level will
depend on what is required at any given
engagement. It is here the flexibility of the
Enforcer training is first evident. The XSM-
76 Drakon Cruiser the Strike Team-level
multipurpose transport used by all Strike
enforcers
an enemy, they are much more effective when
used in conjunction with heavy fire power to
pin down the enemy first, allowing them to
descend from the sky and put their wristblades
and pistols to use.

Forces are equipped with a generous
armoury, allowing the commander on board
to adapt their tactics to the battlefield at hand.
Each trooper is trained from the day they
wake from the nanite-induced coma to be
proficient with all weaponry available to
them, and while an individual Enforcer may
have a favoured weapon there is no form of
combat they are not lethally proficient in. Each
Enforcer is more than capable of fulfilling any
role within a Strike Team.
The building block of most Enforcer groups is
the strike team; multipurpose squads armed
with Genling 45 rifles and 58 Burst Lasers, a
strike team is capable of taking on almost any
battlefield role.
Less numerous but still as deadly, assault
teams focus on close quarters fighting. It is
unusual, but not unheard of, to see assault
teams deployed alone in battle. While they
can use their armours in-built jet packs to
make full use of cover and rapidly close with
Heavy support teams have access to a wide
range of support weaponry. A single team can
carry a frightening amount of firepower for
such mobile infantry, and have been known
to decimate Forge Father tank formations.
Defender teams are a relatively recent addition
to the Strike Force structure. Utilising assault
shields and shotguns, Defenders have proven
exceptionally proficient in ship to ship
boarding actions, and creating mobile choke
points in close urban warfare against Plague
and Veer-myn foes.
Pathfinders sit a little outside the normal
structure. Pathfinders are the scouts of a
Strike Force, they act alone as eyes and ears,
confirming the presence of threats warranting
a Containment Protocol, as well as operating
as snipers, saboteurs, and fire controllers
for heavy weapons units in open warfare.
Each Pathfinder is a veteran with decades of
experience behind them, and even in an army
of super soldiers such as the Enforcers, not
every trooper can become a Pathfinder.

Mannerheim

The commander of all Enforcer operations is currently General Elias Mannerheim. The rank of
general is only held by one Enforcer at any given time and the holder is voted upon by all other
Battalion Commanders before being ratified by the Council. The position also holds the responsibility
of the Orion-Spur Battalion, keeping the role close to Corporation Central.
General Mannerheim is new to the position, after having served an illustrious career at Commander
of the Sagittarius Second, where more recently he commanded a fleet-level engagement which saw
the destruction of a Forge Father Ward Ship.
The General is known to hold the view that the Enforcer presence across the GCPS needs to be
strengthened as threats from the Death Arc and increased Veer-myn activity continue to affect
colonies across human worlds, and has promised to try and influence the Council into giving him
greater autonomy in his role.

86
Each Strike Team sits within a Strike Force,
and reports directly to a Force Commander.
This is most often a Captain, although
Enforcer officers lead from the front and its
not unusual in protracted engagements for
the position to be passed to a veteran sergeant.
The Strike Force is responsible for a specific
area within a Battalions sector. These areas are
considerable and can stretch many thousands
of light years across. Responding to evolving
emergencies from a static HQ would be
problematic, so the Force Commanders use
XSM-85 Wyvern class warships as mobile
bases of operations.
The Wyvern is a heavy cruiser, more than
capable of outer-orbit engagement, but its
remit is to transport its Strike Force to war.
In addition to the multiple Strike Teams it
assigns out to engagements within its sector,
the Wyverns bays hold additional Drakon
cruisers, along with Accuser and Persecutor
atmospheric air support craft. The Wyvern is
in essence an immense mobile army, capable
of responding with its McKinley-capable
drive to reach any sector of GCPS space and
unleash its cargo like an enormous nest of
wasps. If this were not enough, the Wyvern
carries a full payload of 200-megaton mantle-
buster class orbit-to-surface missiles, along
87
with a host of lesser-yield ordnance for
battlefield support. The Strike Force itself fits
beneath the Strike Battalion. A Battalion is
made up of dozens of Strike Forces, and the
largest Battalions can number into thousands
of individual troopers.
However, that does not mean that a Battalion
Commander can put that many soldiers into
the field at once. In the century and a half
since their creation, the Enforcers have been
established across the entire GCPS, divided up
into distinct forces, logically aligned against
the galactic topography.
Each Battalions jurisdiction is vast, and can
contain tens of thousands of star systems
and uncountable habitable colonies. It is
impossible for the Battalion to effectively
patrol the whole sector in a single group,
and as such the Strike Forces act as almost
semi-independent armies, only directed from
Battalion HQ in the direst circumstances.
The Battalion HQ itself is just as mobile as its
Strike Forces; based in a fleet of Horizon class
battleships and surrounded by an armada of
Wyvern heavy cruisers, Enforcer Battalion
HQs are perhaps the most secure places
within the GCPS.
 The Sagittarius Second - The Second
Sagittarius Battalion patrol the space
towards the galactic centre, where GCPS
space abuts the galaxys core and the Forge
Father Star Realm. At the time of the end of
the Mandrake Rebellion it had been thought
enforcers

that the next threat to the GCPS would come

from the Forge Fathers, and the Sagittarius
Battalion was the second established after the
Perseus. However, shortly after deployment
all contact was lost with the Battalion and
no sign was detected from them since. It is
thought the harsher than expected radiation
The size of a battalion is dependent on the put out by the galactic core was responsible,
sector it is responsible for. The GCPS has been and when the Second Sagittarius Battalion
long divided up into identifiable sectors, the was established it was done so with more
Commander of which each reports directly to thought to protecting the troopers and
Enforcer High Command, Headed by General equipment from the ionising radiation.
Elias Mannerheim the only Enforcer with The Second have flourished in the harsher
that rank: environment, in bulkier armour, and excel
in the use of Striders in the heavier radiation
The Perseus Force Battalions The and gravity of the core.
Perseus battalions are the oldest fighting
force within the Enforcers, having been
stationed north and south along the Perseus
arm from the Sol system the moment
the first troopers were released from the
Enforcer program. Now its remit spans the
entire length of that galactic arm within
GCPS space, a tract of the galaxy so large it
has been split into two separate commands;
Perseus North and Perseus South. So large
is its fighting force it sometimes lends Strike
Forces to other Battalions in need.
The Orion Spur Battalion - Often
referred to as the Orion Guard, the Orion
Battalion is one of the smallest in the GCPS,
but home to the most crack troops. It is
the Orion Battalion who are responsible
for the safety of the Council of Seven and
Corporation Central, and it is not unheard
of for the Guard to put entire Strike Forces
of Peacekeeper troopers into battle in an act
of gross overkill.
The Cygnus Battalion - A small
Battalion, but a fierce one. The Cygnus
patrol the stretch of space between the Orion
Spur and the galactic edge. It has long been
theorised that humanity has already met the
largest threats against it within the galaxy,
and anything more dangerous would be
sure to come from the gulfs of intergalactic
space. It is Cygnus responsibility to be ready
to face any such threats and defend the core
worlds.

88
 The Carina-Sagittarius is a long, diffused
curving streamer of stars radiating from the
galactic centre. It features a large number of
star-creating emission nebulae with giant
molecular clouds and low-density, partially
ionised gas fields. It has become colloquially
known as the Star Crche for the number of
new stars slowly birthing in its clouds of lose
elements. Because of this the region is heavy
with dust minors and cloud caravans, which
in turn draw pirates like sharks to blood.
The Carina-Sagittarius Strike Battalion
has adapted to this and have developed
and tested combat theory to cover every
possibility of ship-to-ship boarding actions.
Their fleets are highly mobile, and have the
most experience of zero-gravity combat.
The Scutum Battalion stretches across
the border with the Asterian Empire and the
Death Arc. Their territory includes mostly
Fourth and Fifth Sphere worlds, planets
89
always simmering on the edge of rebellion,
alongside constant wars of belligerence
between competing Corporations seeking
the spoils of new worlds. The Scutum
Battalion is almost always in action, and,
along with the increasing Plague outbreaks,
in constant need of new recruits. They
have an understanding with several other
Battalions across the galaxy, giving them
dispensation to seek recruits in other sectors.
The Scutum Centaurus is the most
outer arm of the galactic spiral, and also the
most thinly populated. The Centaurus Strike
Battalions sector is unimaginably vast, and
almost as unimaginably empty. This has
lead the Battalion Commander to give his
Strike Forces a unique amount of autonomy
in their operation. This is deemed necessary
when it could take weeks for a narrow band
transmission to reach Battalion HQ to
request instructions.
 Special Forces
Strike Teams
Within the Enforcer structure there are some
units with unique duties. These responsibilities
are often crucial to the running of the Co-
enforcers
The Long Patrol is the strike force responsible
for guarding the human worlds bordering the
Death Arc.
The Arc traverses a huge swathe of space,
from the Asterian border out towards the

Prosperity Sphere and as such will only
accept the best candidates from the Enforcer
enlistment programs, skimming them from
the top of other battalions recruitments with
special dispensations given directly from the
Council of Seven.
Such is the compartmentalised data
surrounding these forces it is unknown how
many there are, nor what their functions
could be, and it is almost certain that other
secret task forces exist and are known only to
a handful of senior people.
One such force is the Black Company.
galactic rim, and due to un-recorded human
colonisation from the Fifth Sphere planets,
the Patrol are not entirely certain how many
worlds are at risk from plague infections.
Because of this, the Patrols fleets are in
constant motion, acting on information from
their large compliment of Pathfinders out
among the stars, searching alone for signs of
the next outbreak.
Each member of the Long Patrol is a veteran
of multiple Containment Protocols, and can
be relied upon to do what is necessary to
contain a planetary infection.

After the Mandrake Rebellion it was decreed

that no single Marauder band would be
allowed to grow past a size that it could not
reliably be put down by a single Enforcer strike
force; the Black Company is that force. It tracks
and follows every known Marauder band in
the GCPS, monitoring their movements and
sizes. If a war band takes part in piracy or
unauthorised war the Black Company does
not care, but once the band grows too large
the Black Company move in and destroys it
before it can become a threat to the sector.
Such is the Councils concern of seeing another
Mandrake-sized event that these operations
must be carried out in utter secrecy for fear
of the general Marauder population once
again rising up if it becomes known they are
being systematically hunted and culled. To
this end, when the Black Company strikes it is
without warning, and entirely without mercy;
they cannot risk leaving a single witness lest
word escapes. Their pitch black armour is a
continuation of the Black Companys covert
motif, although the stylised white skulls some
wear on their helmets is a recent addition.

90
The Forward Observer Corps sits to one side
of the Enforcer command structure. Forward
Observers work as individuals, embedded
within Strike Forces and do not report to the
Force Commander, but directly to Enforcer
High Command and the Council of Seven.
Forward Observers are the eyes and ears
of the Council, agents on the ground who
act as a second opinion to operations and
offer insights and suggestions on how to
improve procedures and tactical theoreticals
for future engagements. Each Observer is a
highly decorated and capable Enforcer, pulled
from the general ranks and brought to their
full potential through special training and
physical augmentation programs.
91
On the field they mix with the commanders
and rank troopers alike, being everywhere at
once and taking part in any conversation they
wish. By the command of the Council no door
is to be locked to an Observer and no request
from them is to be denied.
But however much Forward Observers are
accepted into a Strike Force, they are not
welcomed. Rumours have spread of them
informing on violations of protocol. It is
tacitly acknowledged that the Council are
willing to go to any length to prevent another
potentially Mandrake-level event, but what
an Observers presence implies to an Enforcer
commander could easily cause resentment.
XSG-65 JET BIKE
The three pairs of aerofoils - the fore, mid and aft - generate the lift of the
bike at speed. Each also contributes to manoeuvrability.

Gravitational field emitters generate a localised gravity environment

which helps to stabilise the bike at low speed.
The field emitters can produce short term but intense bursts of energy,
giving a cushioning effect and allowing the Jet Bike to be dropped from
low altitude from Accuser Dropship directly into combat.

92
Beneath the saddle there is a compact pack of explosives linked to a
security check device in the handles. When the throttle is engaged
the device attempts a handshake with the onboard computer fitted
in all Enforcer battlesuits. If this check fails, the saddle explodes

The engine is a VC-30 from Saturnis Industries, a

Seebeck-style engine originally designed for the
Lancer main battle tank, scaled down for the lighter
chassis of the Jet Bike.

The under-slung weapon chassis is designed to

fit the modular nature of Enforcer weaponry, as
supplied by Genling and Recoil Industries, and
can be fitted for a variety of tactical situations.

93
 Tools of War The most efficient way to win a war is to break
the enemy without fighting.
The proper armament of the Enforcer
battalions is of prime importance to the We, are for when that fails.
Council. They will divert revenue streams and
even defund entire projects if it means making - Sergeant Howlett (ID designate LO76-16-6),
enforcers

sure their personal army is fully equipped. 14th Expeditionary Force, Long Patrol
Because of this, an Enforcer Strike Battalion is
the most well-armed human force within the
galaxy, and only surpassed in technological
superiority by the civilisations of the Forge
Fathers and the Asterians. It is therefore ironic
that their armour, with its distinctive bulky
silhouette and infamous helmet, is a product
of the Forge Fathers.
By the time of the Mandrake Rebellion, the
armies of the Forge Fathers were well known
to GCPS militaries, and when Project Ichiban
showed signs of becoming successful, the
Council approached the clans of the Forge
Fathers with a request for armoured suits of
similar design to those their Forge Guard
wore to such devastating effect. The trade
concessions the Council had to give to the Star
Realm for supply of the suits was considerable
and wide-ranging, and is still in effect today,
but in exchange the Enforcer gains a set of
powered armour which enhances the already-
augmented speed and strength of the trooper
inside, as well as protecting them against small
arms fire, hostile environments, and even hard
vacuum. In addition it houses a lightweight
jump pack, enabling the troopers to perform
high-atmosphere insertions directly into
combat and launch themselves over obstacles.
The trade does not come without provision,
however: each set of armour is installed with
anti-tamper measures, and should a GCPS
engineer attempt to open the suits systems its
internal power supply will execute a thermal
overload vaporising the suits electronic
components as well as its occupant.
Less recognised but even more dangerous
is the Peacekeeper series of armoured battle
suits. The armour is a newer and vastly
more expensive design and has come to be
known as the most advanced and efficient
personal armour available to humanity.
While Peacekeepers function as the ultimate
deterrent, the battle suit requires specialised
training to use effectively, and its use is limited
only to Enforcers who have proven themselves
time and again in combat.

94
Supporting the Enforcers - be they in
Peacekeeper or Enforcer battlesuits, or the
stripped-down armour of the Pathfinders - are
the best armaments the corporation weapon
manufacturers have to offer.
The Genling Corporation won the rights
to be the sole provider of Enforcer laser
weaponry not long after the end of the
Mandrake Rebellion, and since then have
invested the huge profits paid by the Council
into more powerful and effective firearms.
The specifications of the Enforcer-exclusive
weapons are kept strictly confidential, ensured
by non-disclosure agreements and the threat
of corporate dissolution should the design or
specifications become public.
A troopers primary loadout is the Genling
45 HLR-X assault rifle, one of the most
powerful personal armaments produced in
corporation space. These guns are capable of
projecting a hail of fire, avoiding the problems
of overheating and focus-fracture that dog
less well-manufactured laser weaponry. Each
trooper also carries a Genling 32 HLP-X heavy
pistol. Working largely on the same design as
the Genling 45, the 32 carries a smaller power
core and tighter beam focus, making the
heavy pistol suitable for close range or even
melee. At the heavy end of the spectrum is
the 58 LSW-X Burst Laser. Initially the result
of a fault in the manufacturing of a batch of
45 rifles, the burst laser stutters the supply
from the weapons power core to the beam
intensifier, releasing rapid bursts of laser bolts
to shower the target in a hail of destructive
energy. As the effect of dividing up the energy
supply, the weapons power core has to be that
much larger and heavier, but the result is a
long range suppressive weapon still mobile
enough to be carried by an Enforcer trooper.
Less often seen in the field but still an integral
part of the Enforcer armoury are the 50
APR-X Sniper Rifle, and its sister variant LSX.
Used by Pathfinder troopers the LSX Sniper
Rifle has the stopping power of the APR, but
with the additional ability to tag enemies,
allowing friendly squads to target that enemy
with laser-guided accuracy.
95
Name and Number
Each Enforcer is formally known through
their ID Designate, a unique alpha-
numeric code which is not assigned until
the completion of basic training due to the
fatality rates beforehand.
The Designate signifies the troopers home
battalion, Strike Force, and identification
number. Officially their Designates are
how the trooper is known, however within
a Strike Team an Enforcer may be known
by another title. This could be a preferred
nickname, a handle earned through battle,
or their original name from before their
recruitment.
Non-laser firearms are mostly supplied by
Recoil Industries. Focusing on solid body
and non-light energy weaponry, the SSW-T,
SSW-F and SSW-I close support weapons
- more commonly known as the Thermal
Rifle, Fusion Gun and Incinerator - are all
manufactured by Recoil and are a staple of
Strike Team loadouts.
For close quarter fighting, Enforcer officers
and members of assault teams are equipped
with wrist blades; vibrational, monomolecular
edged weapons that extend from a housing on
the Enforcers forearm armour. Wristblades
are closer in aspect to a sword than a knife,
and sharp enough to penetrate anything
from carbon lattice to the thick hides of
silicon-based lifeforms. Initially developed
by Dionetik Corp. for medical use, wristblade
technology quickly found its way into the
hands of corporation counter espionage
divisions and criminal syndicates, before
being adopted into the Enforcer battle suit.
 Genling 32 HLP-X Enforcer

The standard side arm of Enforcer

troopers. Compact, solid and as reliable as
the dawn.

Recoil Industries
SSW-T Thermal Rifle

The SSW-T barrel is made from a synthetic

titanium composite, allowing it to be
accurately aimed without the 1,300 degree
kelvin ammunition from melting the
weapon.

Genling 45 HLR-X
Heavy Laser Assault Rifle

This primary armament of the Enforcer

trooper includes an optional cooling
system - adding 5kg to the weight of an
already hefty 45kg, but allowing heavy
streams of bolts to be fired continuously.

Recoil Industries
SSW-F Fusion Gun

The ammunition container is layered with

Recoils carbon-bonded foam (patent
pending) giving it an R-value greater than
poured concrete and allowing it to be held
by an unprotected human hand.

Genling LSX - Tag Rifle

The LSXs onboard computer provides

constant feedback to the shooter about the
target it has tagged, providing real time
information on their position and state
(alive or neutralized).

96
Genling 58 LS-X Burst Laser

The weapons onboard intelligence systems shut off power to the weapons core
to the beam intensifier, stuttering the beams release and giving a theoretical rate
of fire of over 2,500 shots per minute.

Recoil Industries SSW-I I Incinerator

The SSW-I Incinerator carries a portable tank of pressurised

self-immolating propellant with a range of up to 25 metres.

Dionetik Corp. Wristblades

The power supply excites the molecules on the blades edge, allowing the blade
to cut through the bonds of anything on a molecular level.

Genling 50 APR-X Sniper Rifle

Utilising Genlings patented recoil mitigation system, the APR-X can fire one
round every second to an effect range of two kilometres.

97
 Beyond the personal weaponry of each
trooper, the Enforcers have a truly wide array
of support options to take to the field.
The Accutek-designed Deployable Offensive
Gun Platform, or D.O.G. Drone, provides
enforcers
heavy support for Pathfinder squads in
addition to acting as mobile resupply and
communications station.
The XSG-65 jet bike provides unparalleled
low-altitude manoeuvrability to infantry in
theatres where higher altitude air support
is unfeasible or tactically unsound. The
adaptable chassis can be equipped to deal
with armour or infantry, and the Xian Seng
gravitational engines can relocate the bike and
its weaponry across entire battlefields within
minutes.
After the efficacy of Strider formations was
demonstrated in corporation armies, the
Council ordered their uses tested within
the Enforcer battalions. The results were
immediate. In an engagement now known
widely as The Storming of Spire 60, the
Perseus South 10th had to retake a fortified
mining city surrounded by nothing but
blasted sand dunes. The doctrine at the time
would have been for shallow earth works,
created in a leapfrogged pattern while covered
by a creeping barrage of artillery. Even with
the enhanced organisation of the Enforcers
the operation would have taken days.
98
Instead, the 10th put their prototype GR75
Striders into the field. Plated in thick armour
and carrying the powerful Genling 88 burst
lasers, the 75s crossed the open land and took
the spires entrances within an afternoon. The
GR77 has since surpassed the old 75s, being
both smaller and more manoeuvrable, but
still sporting the Genling 88.
From the skies, Enforcer troops have a choice
of deadly air support. Based around the same
frame, the Xian Seng XSM-784 Accuser
interceptor and the XSM-786 Persecutor
bomber are both a common addition to a
strike team, but fulfil very different roles.
The Accuser makes the most of the 78s
lightweight chassis, maximising speed and
acceleration. It is perfectly equipped for air-
to-air combat and gaining air superiority
over a battlefield. However, the recent spate
of Plague outbreaks along the galactic north
have seen the Persecutor make more use
of its hovering capabilities to offer static,
low altitude support to ground troops. The
Persecutor is armed with high yield, low orbit
ordnance. It lacks the speed and precision
of the Accuser, but when its bombs can raze
entire city districts accuracy is an unnecessary
luxury. The Persecutor works especially well
alongside deployed Pathfinder squads, with
the Pathfinders LSX sniper rifles tagging
enemies, allowing the bomber to unleash its
payload sometimes from kilometres away to
home in on the unsuspecting target.
Less often seen on the battlefield, but even
more integral to the Enforcer war machine,
are the XMS-76 Drakon and the XMS-762
Stallion. The Drakon is the workhorse of
the Enforcer fleets and the primary delivery
vehicle of a Strike Team. The Drakon works
as a mobile HQ unit for a strike Captain,
with enough space to house several hundred
Enforcers along with support equipment.
Its hangars can hold a full wing of XSM-78
pattern chassis, able to be kitted out as either
Accuser or Persecutors variants, as well
Stallion dropships. The Stallions are essentially
only transport craft, able to drop entire patrols
into battle. In essence a fully-ladened Drakon
is like a mobile army, and more than capable
of waging war for years on end behind enemy
lines.
The next class above the Drakon is the first
of the super-heavy warships of the Enforcer
fleets; the XMS-85 Wyvern. The Wyvern is
a heavy cruiser, many times the mass of a
Drakon, and only called into direct conflict if
the need is indeed dire.
99
A Wyvern makes up the HQ of a Strike Force
regional command, and is responsible for
the protection of areas of GCPS space many
lightyears in size. It is from the Wyverns that
Strike Teams and their Drakons are armed
and dispatched to emerging conflicts, and
should it ever be necessary for the Wyvern to
be called into war it is usually to make use of
its continent-scarring payload.
At the extreme end of the Enforcer fleet is
the XSM-100 Horizon class battleship. The
Horizon makes up the command centre of
an Enforcer Battalion and is it from here the
battalion commander directs their armies.
Although armed and more than capable
of defending itself through a series of rail
guns, short ranged missiles and heavy laser
batteries, the Horizon is rarely used in direct
combat. Its sheer size makes it ungainly and
hard to manoeuvre even in the vastness of
space. Instead it relies upon a fleet of Wyvern
and Drakons for defence while it commands
the battle from a seat of utter safety.
Children of the Galaxy
The origins of the Forge Fathers lie in the
heart of the universe itself. Their legends tell
of a time before time, and of the events that
led to the creation of all things. Legends that,
if true, would make the Dwarfs the very first
children of the galaxy.
It is a fanciful claim, of that there is little
doubt, but it is certainly the case that the
Forge Fathers are, by any measure, an ancient
and formidable civilisation.
100
They are long-lived though few in number, at
least when compared to races like man. In war
they are ferocious and hardy fighters, but they
also possess an incredible attention to detail
and skillfulness that makes them peerless
craftsmen.
They have used their long time in the galaxy
to harness the power of suns, create planet-
sized machines, and perfect some of the most
powerful and intricately engineered weapons
of war in all creation. Their society is built
around a strong sense of honour, kinship,
 forge fathers
and devotion to duty, and they suffer no
fool gladly. There are few races in the galaxy
that have been able to resist the advances
of the GCPS - most alien armies are either
swept aside by better resourced and funded
corporate militaries, or their cultures are
swallowed up wholesale in the process known
as incorporation. But when the Forge Lords
of the Star Realm went to war with the armies
of mankind, they were neither beaten nor
pushed back. The Star Realm stands to this
day independent and proud.
101
Strength of arms was, to be sure, a part of this
achievement. But the Forge Fathers greatest
power, and perhaps what will see them as the
last civilisation still standing when the galaxys
great saga draws to a close, is what is in their
minds.
The Forge Fathers have a plan.
For every single star in creation there is a
destiny and for every iota of existence there is
a purpose. Even, for the time being, the GCPS
has a use.
 There is no rush to achieve this plan, no great
hurry to lay claim to every world they know
is theirs. But, when the Ward ship of a Forge
Father clan does arrive in orbit above a planet
forge fathers
they have decided to colonise or simply strip
to its barest resources, they will not stand any
opposition, no matter how well (or by whom)
the enemy is equipped.
The Forge Lords are under no illusion as
to how dangerous the universe is. For the
moment, many have allied themselves with
the Council of Seven but they are also in no
doubt the time is coming when the Forge
Fathers will once more stand alone against the
coming darkness. And when it comes they
will not be found wanting.
102
Lords of Metal
The dwarf race bears many similarities of
appearance to mankind. They are humanoid
and their internal biology is much the same.
They are, however, shorter than most men,
averaging a height of slightly under 1.5m
when unarmoured. Their features are often
craggier than a mans too, wider set and with
heavier brows, and tend to combine in what
can appear to be a permanent scowl. Their
communications with humans are often
perceived as being anything from basically
belligerent to downright hostile. However, it
would be a mistake though to think of them
as rough or humourless brutes.
As well as being formidable warriors with a
strong martial tradition, the Forge Fathers are
consummate craftsmen - artisans with a keen
eye for detail and unparalleled patience. They
value wisdom and learning highly. The eldest
Dwarfs are venerated for their knowledge
and are expected to pass what they have
learned over their long lives to successive
generations. Skill at metal-working is highly
valued, but there are also numerous schools
of draftsmanship, engineering, construction,
and many other disciplines across the Realm,
all of them geared towards making the best
use of the resources at their races disposal.
The hallmark of dwarvish engineering
is intricate complexity - not ostentatious
ornamentation. The outward appearance
of things is of lesser importance to a dwarf
than its inner workings. Thus their ships may
appear to be mobile mountains and their
armour and weapons can seem heavy or
unsophisticated to the eyes of other races, but
they are easily the equal in maneuverability,
reliability and, most importantly, in firepower
to anything their enemies can bring to the
field of battle.
This motif of a surface simplicity that covers
intricate inner-workings carries over to Forge
Father society too.
The Forge Fathers are divided amongst many
clans, most of which are based within the
Star Realm. Exact numbers are impossible
to ascertain as the borders of the Realm
are generally closed to outsiders - even the
corporations with which the Dwarfs trade
are forbidden to travel far, if at all, within the
Realm. But analysis of long range scanning
data reveals that there are most likely
hundreds of inhabited worlds within the
territory over which the Forge Fathers claim
absolute dominion, and several dozen clans
are believed to have been identified by ETCU
researchers.
Each clan is largely autonomous, made up
of varying numbers of inter-related families,
and ruled by a single Forge Lord who is also
the head of his own family. The Lords most
trusted warriors and advisers are known as
Huscarls, and these are also often the heads
of families within the clan. A small clan
may hold sway over a few planets, while
the largest may claim multiple star systems,
dividing this territory amongst its families.
No matter the size or reputation of a clan, a
claim is regarded as something close to sacred
and infringement on another clans territory
is taboo. Theoretically the Star Realm is a
kingdom and there are certainly tales of
past Great Kings. Though there is currently
no one Forge Lord who can claim absolute
103
power there are certainly several who would
like to. But gaining enough popular support
from other Forge Lords to be proclaimed as
their king is an unlikely condition for any of
them to achieve. So, for the time being, the
government of the Realm is largely decided by
local consensus between Forge Lords. While
this system may appear somewhat anarchic,
archaic even, to outsiders, it is one that has
worked for the Realm for longer than many
other races have existed.
Where disputes arise, a Hearth-Gathering or
Kret may be formed. This meeting of families
or clans will consist of the Lords who are
party to the issue or their representatives
and, usually, a mutually respected and
neutral Lord who will act as adjudicator and
mediator. There are protocols for the airing
and resolution of grievances, many of which
involve the recitation of dwarvish legends
and the giving of long speeches, and there are
further protocols for rebuttals and the giving
of supplemental evidence. Although a Kret
may take a considerable time to fully decide a
case, once it is resolved, as thorny as an issue
may have been, it is typical for all parties to
abide by whatever ruling is made. But these
are private and secret matters, things to which
only Forge Fathers themselves are party.
The Forge Fathers most GCPS citizens
encounter are those who travel through its
space aboard the massive Ward ships. Within
corporate space they are labelled as trade
caravans, though in truth they are far more.
 Each Ward is a colossal starship, large
enough to support hundreds of thousands
of inhabitants, potentially for the entirety
of their lives, and is orbited, supported, and
forge fathers
Born of Fire
Legend and myth are a strong part of Forge
Father culture and heritage. The retelling

defended by dozens of smaller vessels. It of tales of dragons and monsters is a well-

will be filled with forges and machine shops,
storerooms and vaults, including those that
are the personal domain of its lord.
A Ward ship can serve as a mobile factory or
as a base, processor, and storage facility for
mining operations wherever the fleet goes.
They are also fully operational warships.
The lord of each Ward ship may be the Lord
of a clan or the Huscarl of a family, and he will
take with him a contingent of warriors and
war machines wherever he goes.
Most of the ships in each attendant fleet,
like the Ward itself, are heavily armed and
armoured, literally bristling with heavy
weapon emplacements and defensive devices
and whether they serve as supply stores,
mobile manufacturers, or mining craft, all are
capable of holding their own in a fight.
loved tradition and a feature of most social
gatherings. To the few outsiders who have
had any exposure to this side of Forge Father
life this can seem an oddly quaint pastime for
such a technologically advanced species. But
to the Forge Fathers storytelling is related in
no small way to their perception of time and
the nature of the universe. For as much as
the Dwarfs have plans for the future of the
entire galaxy, remembering the past, how
their race and indeed that same galaxy came
to be where it is, is equally important. The
legend of Farangir and how he was tricked
by his brother into destroying his birthright
is a favourite throughout the holdings of the
Forge Fathers. In it, the universe is created by
the destruction of an ingot of what is known
as the Primordial Metal by the fiery breath of
a mighty dragon. Every element in creation
is held to have derived from the scattering of
this metal and thus every living thing as well.

The Broken Ones

ETCU biologists have spent a great deal of time and money on study of the dwarvish race. This
should not be a surprise, considering that the Forge Fathers were one of the first alien civilisations
the GCPS encountered and certainly the most resilient. And yet, for all this effort, there is still a
great deal of misunderstanding within the GCPS as to the nature of dwarvish society.
A case in point are the brokkrs. The official corporate entry within the ETCUs datastacks records
them as being;
The lowest caste of Forge Father society, Brokkrs are a working class made up of miners and
scrappers. Brash and uncouth, they are looked down upon by the more civilised elements of their
race.
As is often the case with the ETCUs records, there is an element of truth to the analysis but also a
hefty dose of incorrect information which may or may not be intentionally misleading.
In fact the Brokkrs are all that is left of one of the few clans of Forge Fathers to not only leave the Star
Realm but to seek to divorce themselves completely from its somewhat feudal structure.
The lords of Clan Brokkvalheim believed there was more to be gained from entering what appeared
to be the much freer society of the GCPS. They willingly volunteered themselves for incorporation,
believing that as much as they would give up by leaving the Star Realm they would gain more from
freely integrating with the energetic and innovative culture of the GCPS.
They were wrong, however, and soon found themselves stripped of their wealth and relegated to
menial engineering and manufacturing jobs. Instead of the forges and focus on excellence they had
enjoyed on their home planets, they found themselves working assembly lines in corporate factories
or being sent into sewer lines too small for normal people to clean.

104
As far as the Forge Fathers are concerned,
they were also created in this great dispersal.
The turning of the galaxy is the continued
effect of the dragons wingbeats, the suns the
still burning fragments of this metal.
The core of this story is something that
resonates deeply in the heart of every Forge
Father. It tells them they are the rightful
custodians of the entire galaxy, the heirs to
its riches. It gives them their sense of purpose
and place in existence. Whether they believe
it as a literal truth or a mere allegory, the
Forge Fathers know they are sons of fire and
metal, hence the derivation of their name.
This tends to make them an insular people,
uninterested in the culture or doings of other
races, at least as long as those doings do not
affect their own. Most are far more concerned
with making the best of their current works
or projects than what goes on in the wider
galaxy. As an ancient race, they have seen
many civilisations come and go over the aeons
and many Forge Lords see aliens as little more
than a distraction from their grand plans. Or
at least they did until the coming of the GCPS.

Legend of Farangir and Murakin

Before the universe existed, there was the Great King Frakkir - a dragon mightier than fire itself,
who ruled over all. His fiery wings stretched across the heavens and there was nowhere he could
not go.
His two sons were Farangir and Murakin. Where Farangir was bold and courageous, his brother
was a devious thinker. So loved was Farangir that his father gifted him an ingot of Primordial
Metal source of all power and the key to immortality. Farangir treasured this gift and guarded it
closely, refusing to let his younger sibling touch it. He claimed it was proof that one day he would
succeed their father as Great King.
A great envy grew in Murakins heart, and soon he devised a plot to take revenge on his brother.
Murakin tricked Farangir into believing that their father planned to rule forever that Farangir
would never be Great King unless he seized power directly. He persuaded Farangir to turn his fiery
breath on the ingot, that this would enlarge and amplify its mysterious inner power until he became
more powerful that Frakkir himself.
Farangir was fooled. He turned his breath on the ingot, but instead of growing it began to melt and
fall apart. Flapping his wings furiously to try and undo the damage he had done, Farangir scattered
the disintegrating ingot deep into space. Murakin was nowhere to be seen.
It is these fragments of Primordial Metal that created everything we see today. It is said that yet
more were retrieved by Murakin, that he concealed them deep within his darkest hiding places. It is
from these black holes that the Sons of the Dark Star emerge.
- Abridged version of The Legend of Farangir and Murakin,
translated by Gert Ameenajad III, for the Exo Counter-Threat Unit

105
 War of the Short Front
Current relations between the GCPS and
the Star Realm are perhaps best described as
forge fathers
tense. Several large and influential clans do
great business with corporate entities, trading
raw resources for manufactured goods and
generally doing their best to get along with
one another. But both sides of the border
between the two states are heavily militarised
and not every Forge Lord considers mankind
their friend. There is peace, of a kind, but
the Star Realms borders are largely closed to
corporate ships. This was not always the case.
Although massive Ward ships had been
recorded in earlier ships logs, first contact
between man and dwarf occurred on a world
labelled in GCPS cartography as GV-229/03.
229/03 was entered in mission logs as just
one more world visited briefly by probe ships
during the second expansion, one that would
eventually be more thoroughly categorised
and marked out for leasing and development
during the third. There was no sign of sentient
alien life on the planet and no reason for
anyone at the recently formed Corporation
Central to suspect that there even was another
civilisation to their galactic north, let alone
one as powerful as the Star Realm.
This, however, belies not only the difference
106
between man and dwarf s perception of the
universe, but of time itself. A Forge Father
may live several hundreds of G-standard
years and, as they tend to extract every last
molecule of useful material from the worlds
they lay claim to, they see no need to rush to
occupy the entire galaxy all at once. So, the
Star Realm expands very slowly.
But expand it does and it was only a matter of
time before its borders and those of corporate
space overlapped.
When a Ward ship of the Strikkhamr clan
eventually pulled into orbit above 229/03 with
the intent of beginning preliminary assay
operations, the Dwarfs aboard it were none
too pleased to find several large colonies of
humans already in place. 229/03 had been
christened Spitzenner by its inhabitants,
in honour of a particularly heroic colony
ship pilot who had managed to get his
passengers safely to their new home, out-
maneuvering a blockade of pirate ships of
unknown provenance. The alien privateers
had already claimed two previous expeditions
to the system yet somehow Spitzenner had got
around them. The new arrivals were, perhaps
unsurprisingly, in no mood to be told they
now had to leave again by another group of
aliens.
Armed conflict soon followed. The details of
exactly how it began are muddied by time with
both sides purporting to have tried to avoid
bloodshed. The Strikkhamrs claimed to have
politely invited the settlers to leave their world
but accounts of the few humans who survived
Spitzenner indicate the Dwarfs fired the first
shots. Whoever had the right of it, the Battle
of Spitzenner was brief but very bloody: of the
roughly ten thousand human settlers on GV-
229/03, only three thousand survived long
enough to be evacuated from the surface by
ships from Almars Rapid Resource Relocation
(Triple-R) division twenty-five days later.
A string of similar disputes followed the
events at Spitzenner as other Forge Lords
realised several more border worlds had also
been settled in systems due to be claimed by
those same lords. As Ward ships moved in to
protect their territory, outraged corporations
sent heavily armed soldiers to protect their
investments against the rampaging dwarven
hordes. Soon, these local arguments had
escalated through a string of raids and
counter-raids until a dozen Forge Father clans
were engaged in multiple wars with, at times,
perhaps a third of the total military strength
of the GCPS. One of the most notorious of
all those early wars is the one that came to
be known as the War of the Short Front -
so named because of the close proximity of
five human-habitable worlds to one another,
107
all clustered around the star Phineas, and
with no small amount of sarcasm amongst
the human combatants. But the conflict was
no laughing matter. It lasted close to a decade
in galactic standard terms and was costly for
both sides.
The armies of the GCPS were very well-funded
and there was no shortage of man-power. The
GCPS was well into its third expansion and
combat veterans were promised preferential
rights to settle on claimed worlds. Land had
long been at a premium in the Second Sphere
- these events occurred some time before the
most significant advances in bio-forming and
genomic re-sequencing allowed the habitation
of the more extreme environments currently
found within the now much larger GCPS -
and the promise of a place to live as reward for
serving in the warzone was an attractive one.
Extended warfare, it must be said, also
benefitted many corporations, particularly
those with Research and Development arms
specialising in weaponry. For their part, the
Forge Fathers had fought many long wars in
their past too but they brought a particularly
dwarvish determination to this latest conflict.
They would not be put off by the seemingly
endless supply of humans being shuttled into
warzones across the front - the Forge Fathers
were well suited to fight a war of attrition.
 Their advanced armour and superior
firepower meant the loss of life to the clans
was light in comparison to that suffered by
the GCPS. Forge Father mining outposts
forge fathers
have always been constructed with a dual
purpose - they often resemble fortresses as
much as industrial sites - and many resisted
the efforts of besieging corporate troops for
years at a time. In contrast, GCPS forces were
not quite so skilled when it came to fortifying
their own positions. Many thousands of
men and women lost their lives to orbital
bombardments from Ward ships and assaults
by Hammerfist-armoured Forge Fathers who
literally dropped out of the sky above them.
Barrages of fire from Sturnhammer tanks and
Brandr urban assault vehicles had also taken
a heavy toll. Several prominent Forge Father
clans allied together to fight what was viewed
as an upstart race that needed to be shown its
place in the galaxy, including the Magmakkrs,
the Harkkolmen, and the Kresturssons.
Despite continued and vicious fighting, and
the continual movement of troops and ships
as each side tried to pin down or eliminate the
other before they could receive reinforcements,
an effective stalemate was reached after nine
years of war. Resolution came shortly after
the appointment of General H.Torten as
Commander in Chief of all corporate forces
along the Short Front.
In another age, Torten might have been a
controversial figure. He arrived at the front
with a reputation for unrelenting violence
earned through several successful campaigns
against other recalcitrant alien species on the
southern edge of the GCPS. His view of warfare
was that all concerns were to be subsumed
under the push for victory. Morality, he once
said, is a luxury, and there is no place for any
luxury in war. War is about suffering. You win
if you make them suffer more than they make
you.
108
The Forge Father clans engaged with Tortens
forces found themselves suddenly and
unexpectedly on the back foot. Torten brought
an officer cadre with him that employed
recklessly aggressive tactics to unseat several
previously comfortable dwarf strongholds
and even damage two Ward ships so much
that they were forced to withdraw deeper
into the Star Realm. Advances in anti-gravity
technology and laser weaponry allowed him
to supply his troops with tanks capable of far
greater maneuverability and firepower than
anything they had previously employed too.
Rumours of the deployment of genetically
enhanced super-soldiers remain just that -
unproven stories. But given Tortens later role
in the Enforcer program there may be a grain
of truth within them.
An emergency Kret of no fewer than fifteen
clan lords was convened on the world of
Kurkuk to discuss this turn in the war. The
circumstances the Star Realm faced were
unprecedented. The Forge Lords were not
afraid of hardship. But the enemy they were
fighting on the Short Front were proving
potentially equally resilient and, although
a long war was not a frightening prospect,
unending war was something no one at the
Kret found particularly attractive. The war was
becoming an unacceptable drain on resources
and several large-scale construction projects
in neighbouring systems had been postponed
or cancelled.

Spy Law
Spying within the Star Realm by the most
inquisitive minds at the ETCU is also
banned by order of the Council of Seven,
a provision deemed necessary in order to
protect the supply of armour for the Enforcer
corps.
It is fair to say though that dwarf ships
travelling outside the Star Realm and
without the express written protection of the
Council are generally considered fair game
to GCPS agents.
Several Forge Father ships that have
been lost, presumed victims of pirates
or interstellar mishap, have in fact been
captured by the GCPS and analysis of their
crew has provided most of what the ETCU
currently knows about dwarf anatomy and
physical tolerances.
Surrender was equally unappealing. Lord
Steen Strikkhamr argued for more resources to
be poured into repelling the human invaders
and even suggested a counter-invasion into
the GCPS itself. Humanity, he argued, had
to be crushed to the point where they could
no longer pose a threat to dwarf holds. One
of Steens senior advisors, a dwarf named
Terq ul-Ihaq, presented to the Kret a radical
proposal: turning the power of the Forge Stars
themselves on the human invaders in a wave
of fire that would reduce them all to ashes.
This would have been an unprecedented use
of the technology had it been approved and
Strikkhammr and ul-Ihaqs proposal was
given serious consideration by the Lords.
However, cooler heads carried the day. Chief
among those arguing against the unleashing
of the Forge Stars was Lord Stik Krestursson,
head of the then powerful and influential
Krestursson clan. Turning the fires of creation
into forces of destruction, he said, would be an
irreversible step and possibly a blasphemous
one. It was time to consider the possibility,
he went on to say, that the Forge Fathers had
found another race as strong-minded as the
Dwarfs, one that would be better considered
an ally than an adversary.
A peace conference was arranged on the world
of Stjarnseer and terms to end the War of the
Short Front were agreed. Lord Krestursson led
the Forge Father delegation and several long
and complicated peace treaties were signed
by both the Forge Lords and members of the
Council of Seven. These agreements would
lay the groundwork for trade between the
two states - something that would eventually
become increasingly important for the
Council as it began its Enforcer program.
However, they would not form any kind of
long-lasting or universally binding peace
between the Star Realm and the GCPS. The
border worlds between the Star Realm and the
GCPS today are wild and dangerous places.
Many have been occupied by corporations
with a need for land or resources as time has
passed and others are garrisoned by Forge
Father clans who feel they are neither bound
by nor do they benefit from treaties signed
centuries earlier. Other clans have moved even
further afield, striking out into the expansion
spheres of the GCPS, taking by force what
they believe is theirs.
Even the world of Stjarnseer, once a place where
two great enemies shook hands and agreed an
end to war, has become a battleground. After
several decades of war that have seen the once
vibrant landscape blasted with every kind of
weapon known to man it now has a new name
- Hellview.
As Stik Krestursson once said, in an infinite
universe, peace is the rarest commodity.
109
 The Power of Forge Father engineering is practically
the Forge Stars unmatched within the known galaxy, making
goods manufactured within the Star Realm or
Despite being older than both by a considerable aboard a Ward ship highly regarded and desired
forge fathers

margin, the Star Realm currently occupies a
geographical space slightly smaller than that
of either the GCPS or the Asterian Empire. Its
borders run along the northern edge of the
GCPS and the eastern edge of Asterian space
and its centre is at the centre of the galaxy
itself. The difference in size is due solely to the
Forge Fathers tendency to make the absolute
most out of the worlds at their command.
When a Forge Lord lays claim to a new star
system or planetoid, their first order of
business is often the commissioning and
building of a Forge Star.
by other races. Many Ward ships do a brisk
trade within the GCPS, trading manufactured
goods for services and resources. Some Forge
Lords view this as essentially outsourcing
their harvesting operations, others as a
necessary part of keeping good relations with
those races with whom they must, for the
time-being, cohabit the galaxy. Others view it
as a means of gathering useful intelligence on
the movements of those races.

A Forge Star will be constructed either

around a natural or artificial sun, depending
on the nature of the planetary bodies being
claimed, and uses an advanced network of
energy-absorbent materials and statite rings
to harness its power. This energy is then used
to power the rest of the fleet and its operations
in the system.
While this is a very pragmatic, albeit
advanced concept, there is also a somewhat
spiritual component to the construction and
maintenance of a Forge Star. The energy
harvested is, of course, the fire of Farangir
himself and the Forge Lords regard it as not
only an incredible feat of engineering but part
of their birthright. The destruction or loss of a
Forge Star is anathema to any dwarf and their
fate is closely guarded.
Once this practically unlimited power source
is established, massive mineral harvesting and
processing ships can be either constructed
in-system or brought in from other sites and
the work of stripping the mineral assets of the
system can begin in earnest. A large part of
these resources will be stored, either aboard
Ward ships or in the vaults of a clans home
planet. But most will be used to build new
ships, armour, weapons, and engineered parts.

110
Perhaps the most most notable of all trade
activities between the Forge Lords and
outsiders is the sale of the suits of armour that
are worn by the Enforcers of the Council of
Seven.
Although the Enforcers themselves and the
rest of their weapons and equipment are
manufactured within the GCPS, without
regular shipments of Forge Father armour the
Enforcer corps would be far less effective than
it currently is. Each piece of armour is hand-
forged by one of only three clans known to be
licensed to trade it and is designed to enhance
and complement the biological modifications
implicit in each Enforcer.
The trade is a sign of how much trust and faith
has grown between the GCPS and the Star
Realm since the War of the Short Front. That
is to say, it is not without its caveats.
The numbers of suits supplied are strictly
limited and accompanied by treaties designed
to prevent the outbreak of any major conflict
between the GCPS and the Star Realm. Each
piece of armour also has failsafes built into
it that ensure that, should anyone attempt
to unlock its inner workings or attempt to
reverse engineer its systems, those inner
workings, as well as anyone inside the armour,
will be rapidly destroyed by highly exothermic
compounds.
This does not mean there are no conflicts
between the Forge Lords and the GCPS.
Such battles do however tend to be localised
squabbles and are not allowed to interrupt the
trade or pacts of mutual protection. And, as
good as Enforcer armour is, it is not nearly as
well made or engineered as the armour worn
by Forge Father warriors themselves.

Terms of Trade

The Harkkolmen are one of the Forge Father clans known to build and supply suits of armour to the
Enforcer Corps. The terms of the trade - the cost and length of the contracts involved and the names
of the other clans taking part in it - are understandably not well known. Their very existence is a
somewhat divisive issue within the Star Realm.

The Realm can in fact be divided just about equally between those clans who support the trade,
as a lucrative means of ensuring the peace between man and dwarf, and those who view it as a
dangerous risk. Conflict between Forge Father and Enforcer is already not unheard of and there are
those who believe outright hostilities and a general state of war between the two races is inevitable.

For the time being, cooler heads prevail. The galaxy is a dangerous place, they argue, and filled with
an increasing number of threats. Far better, they say, for the Council to send its own soldiers to deal
with them than for the Realm to have to.

111
Ancestor Forge Hammer Twin Hailstorm Autocannon

The Thor Pattern Iron Acncestor

is a close combat variant equipped
with two Forge Hammers

The Iron Ancestor is an heirloom

of a Forge Father clan. An ancient
suit of immense battle armour,
the Ancestor is a walking tank,
ideal for the complex urban
environments of modern conflict
zones.

112
iron ancestor
Veteran Dwarf Operator

Connectors seamlessly translate every impulse

of the operator into the workings of the
machine, returning equally detailed feedback
almost simultaneously. The ancient warrior
will once again feel the battlefield around him,
able to move and fight as he did in his prime.
113
 Warriors All
Military service is required of all Forge Fathers
for at least part of their long lives. But, while
forge fathers
other races might experience difficulty in
adjusting to the differences between martial
and civilian life, for the Forge Fathers there is
no such disconnect. Discipline, control, and
the correct application of force are as much a
part of their lives in the forges and workshops
of the Ward ships as they are on the battlefield.
Most adult males will serve their lord in
a platoon of Steel Warriors. Armed with
Hailstorm rifles or the flame-dispensing
Dragons Breath, the Steel Warriors form The most loyal and deadly Dwarfs in a lords
a strong core onto which other units can be
bolted. They are, technically speaking, the
rank and file of a Forge Father army. However,
it should be remembered that thanks to the
long lifespan of Dwarfs, a Steel Warrior
platoon may have fought together for longer
than their equivalent human counterparts
have been alive. Even Forge Father militias
- the citizens of dwarf clans who have taken
up arms in support of their lords cause - are
all likely to have served as Steel Warriors and
possess ample combat experience.
114
Age is no barrier to combat service either. As
in most areas, the Forge Fathers value and
venerate age and experience in combat. The
oldest and most proven warriors, including
a Lords most trusted Huscarl, may find
themselves gifted a suit of Iron Ancestor
armour - an all-encompassing and gigantic
battlesuit that can be equipped with weapons
capable of destroying tanks and reducing
fortifications to scrap and rubble. Many of
these suits are relics themselves, and to be
given one by ones lord is an understandably
great honour for any dwarf.
There are some for whom the martial arts
are not simply an occupation but a vocation.
clan may find themselves chosen for the
Forge Guard. They are equipped with the best
armour and weaponry available, including
heat hammers - weapons fitted with a pyrrhic
core designed to melt through whatever the
hammerhead strikes. The Forge Guard are
expected to be ready to fight at any time and
anywhere. In peacetime they may serve as
guards, onboard the Forge Stars and Ward
ships or protecting their lords most prized
or strategically valuable assets. In war they
may become his bodyguards, joining him in
combat at the front - the favoured position for
any great lord.
They may be supported in this by a variety of
armoured vehicles and mobile gun platforms.
Some of these, the Hultr half-track for
example, are modified versions of mining
vehicles. That is to say, these vehicles are
designed with a dual-purpose in mind and
easily switched from one to the other. Others,
such as the Sturnhammer tank, are built for
one thing only - utter destruction.
Many of a Forge Lords most valuable
battlefield assets will be protected by a strong
Force Dome. Similar to the fields used to
protect the open hangars of starships from the
vacuum, these energy matrices are practically
invisible to the naked eye until they are struck.
The technology to maintain the particle arrays
involved is naturally a highly valuable one and
something GCPS military buyers would pay
highly for. It is, as yet, not one any Forge Lord
has been persuaded to sell.
115
While the Forge Fathers have at their disposal
some of the hardest armour and hardest-
hitting weapons in the galaxy, making them
both powerful and extremely resilient, they
have neither the numbers nor any particular
desire to give their lives away quickly or
cheaply on the battlefield. They excel in
warfare around fortifications - both building
and destroying armoured strongpoints with
great speed and violence of action.
With the exception of gangs of Brokkrs on
armoured Valkyr warbikes or sub-orbital
assaults by Hammerfists, Forge Fathers are not
known for a particularly fast style of fighting.
But what other races might characterise as slow
or even static warfare, the Forge Fathers see as
a prudent and sensible way of doing things.
Essentially, there is no target on a battlefield
that cannot be annihilated if enough guns are
brought to bear upon it and when their units
do move it is usually for this purpose.
 Clans The Brotherhood does not have the extensive
planetary holdings of some clans, but their
The Magmakkrs is one of the Star Realms Ward ships are colossal enough to rival even
most influential clans and it includes many some planets in size and power. They are a
forge fathers

huge families. The worlds sworn to the
Magmakkrs are numerous and widespread
and their Ward ships capable of supplying
quite possibly the greatest fighting force of
Forge Fathers in the galaxy. Their hordes
of primordial metal are of course similarly
colossal. The lord of all this is currently Lord
Akfrit Magmakkr, a dwarf said to be as old as
some planets and perhaps as big around the
waist. Akfrits father and fathers father are
largely credited with establishing much of the
Magmakkr wealth and power, but Akfrit has
also proven a capable and fearsome leader.
It was Akfrit who led his army in the War
of the Two Kings, displacing three other
clans from the Merrik cluster, and Akfrit
who subsequently led those same clans in
repelling the invasion by Goran troops at the
south-eastern edge of the Realm following
Mandrake.
But, while Akfrit may have designs on one
day becoming Great King, there are still many
clans who would oppose him.
Chief among his rivals are the Forge Fathers
of the Brotherhood of Frost.
more or less nomadic clan, comprised of three
major families; the Hrufssons, the Frosturs,
and the Ogruts. Their nominal Lord is one
Neels Hrufsson, a young lord at barely one
hundred and ten G-standard years of age,
but possessed of a vitality many within the
Brotherhood believe will be essential for the
settlement of their feud with the Magmakkrs
and the re-establishment of home worlds for
all three families.
None of this is of any matter to the Harkkolmen
clan. Their leading lord, Suven Born
Harkkolmen, has made the most of the time
following the peace established with the
GCPS to build his clans wealth by trading
with the corporations. Harkkolmen may yet
prove to be the most foresighted of all the
Forge Lords. While some may frown upon the
deep ties Suven has made with humans, there
is no doubt the supply of arms and armour to
the GCPS has made the Harkkolmens rich in
currency, both fiscal and diplomatic. As more
wars break out along the borders of the Star
Realm and around Forge Father holdings in
the galaxy beyond, it may well be the case that
the last Forge Father standing will be the one
with the most friends.

Sons of the Dark Star

The Forge Fathers are certainly the dominant culture within the Star Realm. However, they are not
the only one. At the very heart of the galaxy, beyond the range of even the most powerful telescopes
and most inquisitive minds without the Star Realm, lies a region of space dominated by dozens of
colossal black holes. The emptiness at the centre of creation is a secret the rest of the galaxy is perhaps
better off not knowing. The gravitic fields and strangely warped space time in this region would make
travel there dangerous and difficult even for the advanced star drives of Forge Father ships. There are
Dwarfs living there nonetheless.
These Sons of the Dark Star, or Murakkir as they are known in their own language, are even less
numerous than the Forge Fathers. But while their numbers are fewer and their perception of the
galaxy subtly different, their belief and sense of purpose is no less powerful.
The relationship between Murakkir and Forge Father is a complicated one. Currently, the Dark
Star Dwarfs live almost entirely in isolation, their worlds protected by the ranges of black holes that
give them their name. Only a few travel through the Star Realm, and even fewer go beyond it. The
Murakkir are typically less avaricious than Forge Fathers and tend to seek influence and political
power rather than pure wealth. Many are skilled traders, diplomats, and negotiators - as yet, few are
known as warriors.
To the human eye though there is no difference between a dark star dwarf and a Forge Father,
something that is both annoying and extremely useful to the Murakkir. As it is, very few humans are
even aware they exist as a separate faction and they choose not to illuminate anyone as to their true
purpose. Some live quietly within the GCPS, slowly acquiring power and influence, often through
manipulation of markets and currency, or by trading intelligence and subterfuge.

116
117
Engines of Commerce
The Galactic Co-Prosperity Sphere is vast,
the mightiest power in the galaxy and
a technologically advanced empire that
encompasses a huge tract of space. It contains
hundreds of thousands of planetary systems
and well over half a million inhabited worlds,
dwarfing the other political entities which share
the stars.
118
To its citizens and enemies alike, the Co-
Prosperity Sphere is commonly known as the
Corporation, for corporations are its principal
units of political power.
Some are small, constrained to a single planet or
system; others are far larger, with interests and
holdings so numerous they punctuate entire
arms of the galaxy.

The corporations are engines of commerce,
government and society, and it is through them
that the Co-Prosperity Sphere wields its military
might. Thousands of corporations, boasting
tens of thousands of private soldiers, each
indefatigably bringing more and more planets
under corporate hegemony. But the galaxy is
a big place, and this incorporation is far from
seamless.
119
the gcps
The GCPS is not the single entity many think
it to be, and suffers tensions between the great
mercantile houses and companies that comprise
it. And while the boards and executives wage wars
of ownership, and pursue personal vendettas and
battles of selfinterest, they are blissfully unaware
that in the halls of the its governing body, The
Council of Seven, there is a deep-seated fear that,
sooner or later, they will meet their
 Each an Investment
The Marines of the Galactic Co-Prosperity
Sphere are ubiquitous throughout human-
settled worlds, from dusty frontier barracks
staffed by a single squad, to massive stellar
THE GCPS

fortresses where system-conquering armies

are marshalled. The stony faced soldiers are
seen both as liberators and as the foot-soldiers
of oppression, either of which could be true
dependant on their mother corporations aims
at the time. But the troops most often seen
on the streets of GCPS mega cities are just a
sliver of the largest armed force in the galaxy,
a military as complex and opaque as the laws
which surrounds its use.
It should be understood that the GCPS armed
forces are not a single fighting entity. Almost
every corporation within the Co-Prosperity
Sphere maintains its own military; numbered,
armed and organised in accordance with its
needs. Where a subsidiary may only require
a small security force to protect its Fourth
Sphere agricultural holdings from criminal
syndicates, Mars Corp will think nothing
of enlisting tens of thousands of Marines to
enforce a planetary lease. And, while each
individual trooper may be no faster, stronger
or more mentally adept than the average
human, they are armed with the most up to
date war-tech on the market, instructed with
skills tested and refined over centuries. A fully
trained GCPS Marine is an investment, and a
corporation looks after its investments.

120
Future Biology
In its steady colonisation of the galaxy,
humanity has proved almost supernaturally
adaptive to its environments. From scorched,
waterless deserts and frigid ice shelves, to the
enormous pressures orbiting super-Jupiter gas
giants; humans not only survive, but thrive.
Despite this versatility, or perhaps because
of it, the human body remains as outwardly
recognisable today as it has been for thousands
of years. Of course, local environments can
effect superficial appearance; bulkier where
protein is a staple diet, taller from generations
living in low gravity or more tanned where a
suns radiation has toughened skin. But for all
that, a human is still identifiably a human.
But as could be expected of any affluent
society, there are fads which make use of the
advanced technology available to the average
GCPS citizen, and these are not limited to
cosmetics and clothing.
121
Pigmentation of the skin to wild colours has
been in and out of fashion on a multitude
of worlds. Additional limbs have also been
the must-have fashion accessory to a
lesser extent - for the select groups who can
afford the surgery, although in such cases
most often these are just decorative rather
than functional. However, where certain
environments demand it, more practical and
permanent operations can make a colonists
life that much easier, and augmentations such
as the the gill-like appendages for settlers on
water-based worlds are far from uncommon.
However, most drastic surgery, especially the
visibly obvious, is seen to too-closely resemble
the mutations from the toxic worlds which are
a breeding ground for Rebel dissent. Because
of this, openings in the upper echelons of
corporate boards and militaries are only
available to genetically pure humans, and
most children of the wealthy and influential
have their fashion accessories removed when
they outgrow their delinquency.
 Beyond humans, diversity enters the GCPS is
in the form of alien secondary citizens. In its
relentless advance the Co-Prosperity Sphere
has incorporated many alien civilisations into
its hegemony, with many more individuals
from other species flocking to within its
THE GCPS
borders to partake of what the GCPS has to
offer. Today the sight of aliens mixing with
humans in sphere cities is too common as
to raise a mention, and most corporations
make use of them as recruits within their own
armed forces. Indeed, military service is one
of the few routes for incorporated races to
gain citizenship.
The most common alien within Corporation
armies is the collective group of species known
as the Marauders, but there are far, far more.
So many in fact that to describe each one
would take years, and academic careers have
122
been made and exhausted on cataloguing and
detailing the multitudinous member species
of the GCPS. But whatever their provenance,
once an alien resides within the GCPS they
are expected to adhere to the law and social
mores of the local society. Individual culture
has no place among the mid-to-upper tiers
of corporation society, and the aliens quickly
adapt or fall through the cracks to live in
slums and pick through the garbage of the
affluent. Given the alternatives, most aliens
leave behind their traditions and customs and
try their best to fit into GCPS society, and a
corporation general taking on an existing
command will usually assume some alien
regiments will be present in the army, at least
able to understand pan-sphere basic and
follow orders.
Origins and History
When humanity took its first steps away
from Sol, it did so in a confusion of faltering
armadas. The last of the remaining nation
states made the first footfalls on Old Earths
closest planetary neighbours and glowed
briefly in the prestige of outdoing their
national rivals. But as the journeys further out
became longer and longer, the states were left
behind, Earth-bound and rotting, while the
fledgling corporations carried on, expanding
at an exponential rate. Free from the shackles
of regulation and the need to look after a static
populace, the corporations flourished. The
law in the systems around Sol became that
which the corporations made themselves, and
for a brief time pure capitalism ruled.
Until the first contact with alien civilisation.
It was the erstwhile Alliance Europenne
Occidentale which first reached the Pollux
system and met with the alien race calling
themselves the Mojat. In an effort to extend
the hand of peace for all humanity, an AEO
delegation met with the Mojat. To a human,
they were either killed or abducted - never
to be heard of again. What caused that first
meeting to collapse so catastrophically was
never discovered, but however the encounter
went wrong, the Pollux Betrayal, as it came
123
to be called, was a wakeup call to all humans
that they were not the only sentients in the
galaxy, and would need to protect themselves.
The result was a call to arms never before
seen in human history. Unaware of how
dangerous the Mojat may be, the seven largest
corporations of the time convened on Earth
and drew up plans to jointly create a military
force to execute a first strike. Up until then,
standing armies were thought to be part of
the past. They were intensive to maintain
and more expensive than precision corporate
espionage, but such was the perceived
threat, it was agreed that in this case chances
could not be taken. What followed was a
militarisation surpassing those of the world
wars of the 21st century. Entire districts of
Earths slum cities were flattened and replaced
by vast munition factories, ore-rich meteors
were reined in and bored whole to bolster
what remained in Earths mines. Shipyards
were constructed in the orbits of Sols major
planets and the first interstellar warships
were designed and evaluated in running tests.
Millions of Earths citizens were recruited and
trained in space-borne warfare, zero-gravity
tactical manoeuvres and outer-atmosphere
beachheads. The entire human race was on
a war footing, and within a handful of years
the largest military force to ever put out from
Earth executed its strike on the Mojat.
 In their ignorance and paranoia, the humans
did not know that the Mojat were nothing
more than an emergent stellar race, as new and
insignificant on the galactic stage as humanity.
It is probable that the Mojats murder of the
AEO delegation was the result of the same
THE GCPS

fear which drove humanitys subsequent

militarisation - the fear of meeting a new race
for the first time. That is something which
shall never be known, for in a single week their
entire civilisation was destroyed in a savage,
fear-birthed retaliation. The image recordings
of the time show the orbits in the Pollux
system so choked with human warships that
accidental collision was a greater danger than
the defenders fire, and such was the excess
of weaponry deployed that the mantle of the
Mojat home planet cracked. It was overkill, in
the most literal sense.

The Mojat war opened up the corporations

eyes not only to their power in the galaxy, but
also to the sheer waste of violent extinction
of an entire species. While human scientists
could now comb through the wreckage of the
alien civilisation, there was no other benefit
to be gained. The war had been excessively
expensive, and greater minds suggested that
while there were lessons to be taken from
the war, next time greater advantage could
be gained from trade, manipulation, and
eventual ownership of the other races sure to
exist out among the stars - rather than simply
sifting through their ashes.
From then on, when corporations encountered
a new civilisation, they walked with the
swagger of military authority, confident they
were the equal, if not the better of the aliens.
They would trade, cajole, and assimilate the
new race, taking from them everything they
had to give, and if that failed; they had the
military strength to take it by force. That
assurance not only shaped future galactic
policy and gave an aggressive edge to inter-
species encounters; it also set the template
for the raising and organisation of militaries
throughout the emergent corporate space.

124
Geography, Culture With a civilisation so large and diverse, direct
& Society central control is impossible. Therefore, the
many worlds of the Co-Prosperity Sphere
At the spiritual if not the geographical heart are administered by the corporations that
of the GCPS sits Sol, the home star of the own them. Planets are property that can be,
human race. By the time the first human and frequently are, sold or traded. Local law
foot touched another planet, the earth was is passed and implemented by the corporate
already racked by violent climate change entity responsible, and can vary wildly from
and has long been abandoned by the ruling one system to another. It is not uncommon for
classes for more hospitable planets. Now Sol is a trading vessel to cross the border into new
inhabited only by temples of the larger sphere corporate space, immediately become illegal
religions, reaching back to their holy land, and simply by having too few crew, and have their
archaeological and scientific research stations ship and cargo seized to become property of
making use of the safest and least populated the local authorities. Petty criminals fleeing
system in the Co-Prosperity Sphere. Beyond justice have been known to try and evade
Sol, the GCPS encompasses most of the Orion arrest by crossing into a different corporations
Spur, the Sagittarius and the Perseus Arms of space, creating a brisk business in bounty
the galaxy. Turnward, past where the Orion hunters - plying the trade lanes under special
Spur and the Sagittarius Arm gather, GCPS authority to execute warrants GCPS-wide.
space abuts the tightly controlled borders of
the Forge Fathers Star Realm. More Recently,
turnward progress along the Perseus and
Orion arms has been halted by the discovery
of the Death Arc; a broad band of long-
extinct systems and the source of the Plague
which threatens every bordering system. New
expansion is taking place in the main in the
Norma Arm and the Galactic core Sol-wards
from the Forge Father systems, and out across
the inter-arm gulf separating the Orion Spur
from the Perseus Arm. Beyond lies the final
arm of the Milky Way, and into that few
Corporation vessels have as yet ventured.
The systems of the GCPS contain a multitude
of different worlds, from lush paradise planets
to grim, over-populated industrial centres
and airless rocks. There are mining outposts,
research stations, off-world factories, gambling
resorts, asteroid mansions, game preserves,
tax havens, and other installations without
number or classification scattered the length
and breadth of the heavens. Humans can be
found in every imaginable place. Naturally,
there has been some genetic divergence
both natural and forced in response to
these environments and what might call itself
human on one world could be regarded
as almost alien elsewhere. Genetically pure
humans with no modification excepting
those required for medical reasons are
discriminated positively for, and hold the
majority of the GCPSs wealth and power.
Nevertheless, there are a growing number of
groups, inspired by the open military defiance
of the Rebs, agitating for real political change.

125
 In theory there is no limit to the planetary
real estate that a corporation can hold. In
reality, the sheer distances between systems
tends to act as a natural limiter on the size
of each corporation, ensuring they do not
grow too large, although the richest are truly
THE GCPS
pan-galactic in scope, with holdings right the
way across the GCPS. These distances and
the costs involved in inter-stellar travel mean
that the average citizen will almost certainly
die on the planet they were born on. The only
way for the vast majority of ordinary people
to travel and see new worlds is limited to a
life of indentured service on a Fifth Sphere
colony, or to join their corporations military.
Another consequence of the relative isolation
some worlds finds themselves in is that each
system tends towards a unique cultural
identity, at least in the lower levels of society,
126
where access to the mass consumerist market
and the money to spend on it is limited. Down
the social strata the poor and struggling are by-
products of the mother corporations initial
colonisation of that world, and often retain the
cultural influences and characteristics of that
corporation, especially if its history reaches all
the way back to Old Earth. It is not uncommon
to travel down the spires of sphere megacities
and hear languages other than pan-sphere
basic, languages heard spoken on Old Earth,
as those of the less fortunate social classes
slowly revert to their cultural heritage in a
tacit revolt against the corporatocracy which
has left them behind. Some corporations even
foster such diversion from the galactic norms,
seeing it as opportunity to promote an identity
among their recruited troopers for when they
may have to face another GCPS force.
With an Iron Fist
The Council of Seven is the ruling power
within the GCPS. Elected from among the
heads of the oldest and most powerful,
corporations and families, the Council are as
to the corporations as the corporations are to
the citizens who live within their space. But
while the Councillors may be the ultimate
power behind humanity, there is one post
perhaps even more pervasive and consistently
influential than any other. It is a post with
a limited term, reconfirmed every election
cycle - the head of the Council Protection
Agency (CPA).
The Council Protection Agency, more
commonly known as simply the Agency, is the
covert branch of the Councils military arm.
The Enforcers may be the blunt hammer of
the Councils authority, but their deployment
often depends upon if the Agency can get
an asset in place, or that assets actions have
already failed.
The Agencys remit is counter-insurgency,
propaganda and subversion. Its goals are
achieved through a plethora of assets, from
lone tech savants neurally wired directly
into the G-net, to turncoat Rebel soldiers, to
infotainment news anchors trained through
the Agencys misinformation schools, to the
almost mythical Agents themselves. Agents
are the unseen hand of the Council, and are
said to have been forced into the next level
of human evolution; superior musculature,
hyper-active synapse responses, and even
sub-dermal layers which give the Agent
some protection against bullets and electrical
discharge all advances taken from the
Enforcer program and adapted to a standard-
sized human body.
127
It is even rumoured the Agency has access
to a technology from an as of yet publicly
unknown alien race which allows an Agent
to take on visage of any other person. But
the key word is said, because so restricted is
any information about the Agents that even
the Council is unsure of how many there are
or how and where they are deployed. One
rumour goes so far as to say that Agents do
not exist, and the word of their abilities and
exploits are merely a fiction of the Agencys
disinformation division. If this is the case then
it is one which works. Rebel cells have been
known to collapse when rumour begins that
one of their number is an Agent.
The current head of the Protection Agency
is a Dr Chaved, and in continuance of the
secretive nature of the Agency the Drs gender
is unknown. Even those who have met Dr
Chaved could not see beyond the androgynous
exterior and say with any confidence if the Dr
is male or female. What can be said, however,
is that the Dr holds more than a little influence
in the decision making of the Council, and
may even have a hand in which corporations
will hold a seat after the next election.
128
129
 Technology
Just as in humanitys past, war has been the
touchpaper for leaps forward in science and
thinking. The Mojat War, as befits the largest
militarisation the race has ever seen, saw
THE GCPS
the birth of technologies so fundamental to
the new era of expansion that their knock-
on effects are still part of everyday life in the
GCPS.
It was during the war that the first laser
weaponry was developed, after it became
evident solid body ammunition not only
proved unreliable in zero gravity, but that the
large amount of recoil actively worked against
any operator who was not secured before firing.
Teams across several corporations worked
on recoil-light personal firearms projects,
until the breakthrough was discovered - that
forcing a localised power source though a
series of prisms could generate an energy bolt
with a similar power to solid shot rifles.
Beyond the immediate changes to a soldiers
loadout, the unforeseen advantages were far-
reaching; adapting the technology through
a more powerful but longer wavelength
could carry a surprisingly large amount of
information. Suddenly communication across
lightyears was viable. While it may not be the
instantaneous interaction promised in fiction,
now where once replies between systems took
weeks it was days, weeks where it had been
months, and months where once it may have
been decades. Central governance over the
immense gulfs of space became a possibility,
allowing an orchestrated and more rapid
expansion into the galaxy.
130
Now not only were the corporations truly
pan-system, but the infotainment channels -
that indispensable tool in their propaganda
machine - could reach every pair of eyes
with a properly tuned receiver, pushing the
idealistic GCPS utopia to all who had yet to
fall for the disinformation.
When the limited intel of the Mojat home
world told of jagged terrain, fields of broken
rocks and vast extensive tracts of marshland
it was thought the then-current tracked
military vehicles would prove a hindrance to
the expected ground invasion. One option
considered to overcome the issue was to
explore the possibility of the long-theorised
anti-gravity engine. Many prototype engines
were tested, often to disastrous, but thankfully
localised, results. But through the sheer
number of attempts a reliable anti-gravity
engine was developed by the Xian Seng
Corporation, and this one invention alone
was enough to guarantee the emerging tech-
corps future and fortune. The technology
drove powerful electric and magnetic fields
and high voltage pulses to work against each
other, creating a directional gravitic force.
Vehicles fitted with these engines were capable
of floating several metres above the ground,
traversing even the roughest terrain.
While in the end the combat vehicles had little
impact in the Mojat War the technology has
continued to be refined and improved. Now
even heavy battle tanks of several thousand
kilos can be equipped with anti-grav engines,
and specially fitted with feedback sensors
from their main guns to adjust the intensity of
the field when firing, reducing recoil.

Beyond the battlefield, antigravity motors have
become ubiquitous almost throughout GCPS
space. Their use in sub-McKinley speed space
travel and low orbit flight has cut journey
time and the need for costly fossil-derived
fuel. With some modification, fields can be
extended to encompass entire space stations
and ships, allowing a comfortable gravity for
the crew to function within. The drives have
even allowed for what was once thought an
unachievable utopian dream roadless cities
with highways between majestic and clean
habitat spires to become a reality.
Like many advanced technologies, gravitic
motors are much more predominant in
the core systems. While the worlds of the
First through Third Spheres boast anti-grav
personal vehicles as standard, the Fourth and
Fifth Spheres, the very pre-urbanised worlds
which would benefit most from them, have to
make do with wheels and tracks.
But the most important leap forward from
that time was undoubtedly the McKinley
Drive. It had taken humanity decades of space
travel before it stumbled across its nearest
neighbour. At the time it was believed the
war against the Mojat went so well largely due
to their unpreparedness for contact with an
alien race. But next time, if another race was
prepared or knew that humans were blindly
feeling their way across space towards them,
the result could be very different. The ability
to scout without the need for massed military
support and share long ranged intelligence
from the depths of space was seen as a
necessity, but to that point faster than light
travel was thought to be unachievable, and
moreover that research should be directed
at better technology in cryogenic freezing to
cope with years-long stellar journeys.
131
It was perhaps fate that a young physicist
by the name of Isla McKinley had already
been working on a practical mode of hyper
rapid space travel. After the physics of lights
speed became a tangible barrier, McKinley
proposed her own theory of avoiding that
limit by creating what was essentially a
mobile black hole. Her hypothesis revolved
around generating a localised but massively
powerful gravity well, suspended in front of
a space ship, forcing the craft in essence to
fall continuously over the event horizon. But
while the craft using the drive would easily
break the light barrier, even a ship travelling at
twice the speed of light would take over 1,500
years to cross the Orion arm alone. McKinley
circumvented this with the relativistic effect of
gravity on time, essentially compressing the
period a craft spends falling until the drive is
turned off, returning the ship to normal time
and space, kiloparsecs away from where it
began. The actual science behind the effect is
of course much more complex, enough so that
university educations can be spent studying
just parts of it, but the benefits were clear a
faster than light drive, the possession of which
immediately placed humanity among the
most advanced species in the galaxy.
Lost to the Void
Much has been written of Isla McKinley, her
unquestioned genius, ego, and, of course,
the faster than light engine which still
bears her name. Less well known however
are the initial test runs of her prototype
drive. Due to the urgency in developing
McKinleys engine actual test runs were
used rather than mathematical simulations.
In total, three ships two cruisers and one
frigate class along with over 2,000 crew
and soldiers were lost during the initial
runs. And lost they were, for no wreckage
or sign of them was ever found. Even Dr
McKinley did not know where they went,
and if anyone in the galaxy knew it would
have been her. One theory was the drive
brakes were not correctly calibrated and
the ships slid completely into the black hole.
What became of them shall possibly never
be known.
 Weapons and Armour
Advanced science and machinery are by no
means limited to civilian life, and corporation
militaries also enjoy a technological superiority
of arms over most other species in the galaxy,
THE GCPS
with only the self-proclaimed elder races of
the Asterians and the Forge Fathers able to field
more advanced weaponry. But even then the
gap is not too great that a GCPS expeditionary
force could not reliably win an engagement -
especially so given the inventiveness humans
have become known for.
Laser technology has come a long way since
humanity achieved space flight, and where
once laser weaponry required power supplies
so large they needed to be transported on
vehicle chassis, now a trooper can carry
enough energy cells in their battle webbing to
last for a protracted firefight. Laser rifles work
through coherent addition; the transference
of energy in a replaceable ammunition
cartridge through a mass of prisms, scaling
the individual beams energy into a single,
powerful bolt of light energy. The lack of
reliance on solid ammunition is one reason
laser rifles have become the preferred
ranged weapons for corporation troops, for
the tactical efficiency offered to battlefield
commanders, and for chief financial officers
for not having to build costly manufacturing
facilities.
The body armour worn by most GCPS troops
is an overlapping lattice of high tensile silicon
carbide, known through its ubiquitous usage
as armourweave. The plates contract when
impacted, diffusing kinetic energy across
the armour, and are capable of reliably
withstanding a solid body impact of 500MPa,
yet are flexible enough not to limit movement
and can be woven into any locally available
textiles, providing warmth and camouflage
to the trooper. The base level of the armour is
designed with solid ammunition in mind - the
most economical way of protecting the Marine
against civilian or low-tech alien uprising. But
variants with increased protection are also
available, interlacing laminated discs into the
standard armour to help disperse laser energy
and also baffle enemy targeting software.
But such armour is expensive, and usually
reserved for the Rangers of the GCPS forces;
those most often in need of additional defence
to protect the corporations larger investment.
132
Overtime
The muted thump of an explosion announced
the flak cloud, and was followed by staccato
pings of shrapnel against the hull. The
Hornet dropped again, slamming McCabes
head against the unpadded seat.
Sergeant Delga ignored the roll like he was
part of the ship. Instead the old veteran ran
his eyes over the row of Marines. Behind
Delga, the 30 second warning light flashed
a lurid orange.
This is it, the Sergeant said in a voice that
was calm against the roar outside. Were
going in hot. Remember; find cover before
you start shooting, and if you have a god,
pray to them now while they can hear. What
are you smiling at, McCabe?
McCabe had to shout to be heard,
Just ready for some overtime, sir! His
squad mates grinned. And, worryingly, so
did Sergeant Delga. The Sergeants smile was
unnerving, and McCabe felt his own slip
from his face.
The dropships radio buzzed to life with the
pilots voice,
Hold on, ladies and gents, were going in
rough. In three, two
The thunderous descent ended in a jarring
crash. Behind Delga the doors dropped
open, revealing a vision of hell, painted in
fire and laser bolts. The restraints holding
the Marines in place slammed open, and the
soldiers piled out for the dubious safety of
the ruined city.
Before he could disembark, a hand fell on
McCabes shoulder. He turned into the face
of Sergeant Delga, the smile still fixed in
place. When he spoke the words could only
reach McCabe through his helmet radio
over the roar of battle,
Time to earn that overtime, son.
133

The Atuas
Mac Rees Mining, a small subsidiary of Mi-
Gan, are almost solely concerned with dust
mining; the gathering of airborne ore and
THE GCPS
loose particles in the upper atmosphere of
gas giants and other low-g environments.
Their business model does not require a
large military, but the skill of their Hornet
and Horntail pilots are second to none.
The dexterity necessary to navigate mobile
asteroid fields translates perfectly to
battlefield operations, and Mac Rees has
made a niche business in hiring out its
Striking Atuas Hornet squadron. The Atuas,
headed by Flight Lieutenant Manu Tuuta,
have made a name for themselves in air
support and combat deployment. If a squad
is being combat dropped by Lt Tuuta, they
know he will get them there safely. After
that, theyre on their own.
Striders
Striders are a relatively recent addition
to the GCPS, only developed after the
combat effectiveness of the Forge Fathers
Iron Ancestor was witnessed. The original
template for the Strider comes from a labour
saving device an exo-suit that would allow
workers to carry heavy loads. The military
grade GR77 was a derivation of the GR75
a workhorse platform used in the re-arming
and maintenance of orbital and sub-orbital
fighter craft in their hangars. The GR77
incorporates significant armour upgrades,
combat software and sensors, but otherwise
remains substantially the same in form and
operation. This means that Striders literally
carry their weaponry in massive three digit
armoured hands, allowing them to holster
the weapon when required in order to
manipulate their environment. Thus, an
experienced Strider operator can actually
pick up enemy armoured vehicles, or assist
stranded friendlies where required. Unlike
other similar constructs, this means that they
are able to offer assistance in both a battlefield
and logistical capacity, and even offer some
distraction to off-duty soldiers; Strider pilots
are proud of their skills, and arguments over
who is the best operator can easily come down
to wrestling matches no holds barred, no
weapons, just two four-tonne war machines
in a ring.
Transport
Trontek have cornered the market in mass-
produced transport for Corporation armed
forces, as demonstrated by their pervasive
Mule multipurpose transport vehicle and
the TAD series of support aircraft. Tronteks
designs provide what CFOs across the GCPS
demand cheap, easily produced military
vehicles with above-average reliability. Part of
the reason the designs have been so successful
is the modular nature of their chassis and
electronics. With the Mule in particular, it
is possible to salvage parts from one vehicle
and fix another even with limited training and
under battlefield conditions.
When air deployment is needed Trontek
supplies the TAD-65 Hornet dropship. The
Hornet is the cornerstone of a corporation
army, ferrying supplies or soldiers as needed.
It even shares many components with the
Mule, keeping costs down and appealing to
financial officers and mechanism alike.
An increasingly popular variant of the Hornet
is the TAD-67. More commonly known
as the Horntail, the 67 is the result of the
need for more punch on the battlefield -
dropping the troop compartment and the
more manoeuvrable engine correctors of the
Hornet in favour of weapon pods and better
targeting systems. The Horntail keeps the
TAD series signature modular build however,
and weapon pods can be modified for either
air-to-air or air-to-surface operations with no
adjustment to the superstructure. However,
Horntail pilots have voiced a preference for
additional ablative armour to be bolted on
to the forward nose section of the craft, to
better withstand the ground fire they have to
fly directly into. Some pilots have adapted this
further, working them into protective plate
pipes which, when air is forced through them
at speed, create a distinctive and jarring siren
sound which can be clearly heard above the
battlefield din.
134
Heavy Support
Behind the main body of a GCPS army
comes the heavy support, mostly in the form
of light and heavy battle tanks. The most
common variant is the Lancer class heavy
battle tank which can be fitted out with either
anti-personnel or anti-armour weaponry.
The Lancer is representative of many GCPS
tanks; running on gravitic lifters, allowing the
main body to hover over the ground. While
requiring a vast amount of power to lift a sixty
tonne tank and stabilise it while the main gun
fires, the unparalleled mobility is considered
more than worth the risk of a rare breach
to the Zaturnis VC-60 drive core and the
resulting thermoelectric detonation.
Military Structure
Corporation Centrals zeal for rules and
regulations mean the corporations have to The only real freedom a Corporation has is
operate within an enormously complex and how it recruits its troops. The most common
intricate network of laws in everything they means is voluntary enlistment, with incentives
do, and few other areas of their operation are as ranging from steady wages and four square
tightly controlled as their private armies. There meals a day, to performance bonuses or
are rules on how large a Corps under a single GCPS citizenship upon discharge. But some,
general can be, how many unit commanders especially smaller corporations, favour
can come under a single Division, and the conscription, and there have been occurrences
number and even class of transports and of entire planets or colonies having their
support vehicles. Even more comprehensive leases compulsorily purchased - forcing the
are the laws governing how these armies can population into military service, creating in
be utilised; in what circumstances they can essence slave brigades.
be deployed, the manner of that deployment,
and in what numbers. This is not to say these But such events are rare, and along with the
laws are always obeyed the galaxy after all mass of restrictive parameters all lead to one
is a big place, and combat records are written Corporations armed forces looking very
by the victor - there are some considerations much like another, and for the most part
allowed for special circumstances. following the same command structure.

135
 Each army is headed by a Command, and
depending upon the size of the army this could
be a council of senior officers each supported
by their own staffs and headed by a general, or
a single officer. The larger corporations could
have more than one army, indeed Mars Corp.
THE GCPS
one of, if not the, single largest corporate entity
in the GCPS has dozens, but in each case they
all follow the same structure.
Below the Command come the Corps; Marine,
Special Operations, Air Support and Ground
Support. The Corps house the Divisions which
make up the fighting blocks of an army. These
Divisions can comprise of hundreds of soldiers,
along with their own support and transport,
making them self-sufficient war machines.
The core of the infantry Divisions are the
Marines. Skilled, disciplined and tough as a
human comes. A corporation Marine is a highly
trained, professional soldier, skilled in air and
ground assault. In order to make the best
return on their investment, a corporation will
make as much use of their armies as possible,
and it can be relied upon that a GCPS Marine
will have seen more than a few engagements
within their first year. Upon the completion of
their contract some Marines find life among
the GCPS military suits their disposition, and
choose to carry on their service. From these
come the Veteran troops of the GCPS; troopers
who have taken all the battlefield has to throw
at them and lived to tell of it.
136
This infantry makes up the majority of most
corporation armies. Weight of firepower is
often enough to win battles alone, but the
prowess of an individual trooper should never
be underestimated.
The Special Operations Corps, while being
much smaller than the Marine, is just as
dangerous. Here are the Rangers of the
army; soldiers who show exceptional skill
in battle and are trained for specialised roles
in combat. Rangers are the first in, last out
troops of an assault, and are equipped with
more powerful weaponry to suite their often
un-supported operations. The Rangers of the
Spec Ops Corps are often deployed alongside
other Corps to give them extra punch.
Each Division of a Corporation army is
complimented by its own support vehicles.
Tanks, transport, bombers everything it
needs to support its infantry. But for the
time when massed armour or orbital-war
is required there are Support Corps. Often
combined into a single entity, the Air and
Ground Support Divisions almost exclusively
contain heavy armour and air support vehicles
- boasting entire squadrons of Lancer battle
tanks, tens of Strider formations, and wings of
Hornet and Horntail dropships. The Support
Corps most often deploys only part of its
strength in support of one of its sister Corps
infantry assault, and only ever commits in
full force when an entire planet is in need of
subjugation.
Multi-Sector
Corporate Armies
Like all facets of GCPS regulation, there
are some loopholes within the laws around
corporation militaries. Centuries of
amendments and dispensations have given
the older corporations exemptions from
the rigid structure imposed on the newer
conglomerates. These older organisations
structure their militaries in unique ways,
reflecting their own corporate culture instead
of the bland, one-size-fits-all template of the
rest of the GCPS.
House Kajima and its subsidiaries
own one such military. The House sees its
armed forces as an extension to its executive
structure, testing loyalty and ability in the
furnace of battle. House Kajimas corporate
ladder is based around a complex web of
family ties, with each arm of the family
seeking out the most dangerous theatre to
place their favoured sons and daughters so
they can find glory and be placed further
up the Houses hierarchy. Centuries of
nepotistic advancement has seen Kajimas
family grow to exceptional size, and this
is reflected in the Houses armies with
many units boasting a commanding family
member.
Born of a conglomeration of private
militaries from Old Earth, the Shadow
Group are the largest mercenary contractors
in the GCPS. Asset wise, the Shadow Group
control only one planet, but from that
planet they buy out the contracts of the
most experienced Marine veterans from
other corporations and incorporate them
into their own armies, and from there hire
them out to the highest bidder. This may be
a smaller subsidiary which does not have its
own army, or a company that wants to strike
anonymously at a rival, the Shadow Group
do not care and do not ask. Because of their
business model they are perhaps the largest
and most experienced armed force in the
galaxy.
Accutek enjoy the reputation of
developing the most advanced weaponry
in the Co-Prosperity Sphere. An Accutek
army will boast more striders, Lancer battle
tanks and heavy weapons teams than most
other GCPS forces. After all, the easiest way
of selling new products is through simple
demonstration.

The Reiker Corporations mandate as

the GCPSs primary licensee of Fourth and
Fifth Sphere planets sees them have the
most contact with other races. As could
be expected, Reiker takes what advantages
this offers, and employs more non-human
soldiers than any other military. This
does not mean that human troopers do
not have a place in Reikers armies, but
its not uncommon to see Marine heavy
weapons battalions supporting a Munchu-
bentu Alpha Simian Guerrilla and Teraton
Commando pincer strike.

137
 Carver Inc. do not come to mind as a
corporation with a need for a large army,
and that would be true. As a manufacturer
of extreme-weather hab-blocks, what they
need is a specialised military. Carver
establishes colonies in the most extreme
THE GCPS

climes imaginable, from sub-arctic tundra

to humid jungle hells, and they need soldiers
who can operate at optimum levels in those
conditions. Such abilities are bred through
generations and cannot be imprinted on a
grown human, either by chemical or surgical
means. Because of this Carver scour the
harshest planets in the sphere, recruiting
soldiers until they have armies dedicated to
warfare in waterless deserts, endless steppes
and even zero-gravity.

FileCode//920.06.06 standar

Category//no existing classification

Title//Annexation of Gora by Carver Inc. (Attempted)

Carver Inc.s registered defence for its annexation of the Goran system in 920AE hinged around
the (then) lack of legislation barring such an act. The Carver board had identified the Marauder
practice of periodically return to Gora to draft new recruits, and recognised the potential profit in
controlling access to the system, both from the Marauders and the corporations who relied on them
as soldiers.

The initial stages of Carvers project went well; a cordon of Horizon class battleships circled the
system, stopping inbound traffic slaving onto Gora stars radiation signature, or any out-bound
ships from escaping its gravity. The projects secondary stage to begin charging access tolls never
eventuated.

All Marauder activity in the sector ceased without warning and every member of the orc race
with access to interstellar travel began making their way to Gora [see Appendix 4c for all incidents
related to this case of Marauders hijacking freighters and other spacecraft].

Without apparent coordination or even fully prepared the Marauders coming from out-system
destroyed or routed every ship in Carver Inc.s entire blockade. None of Carvers ground troops on
the Goran planets survived to report what happened there. Corporation Centrals Xeno-Relations
Division could not establish a cause for the sudden mobilisation of the disparate Marauder
companies, nor find any evidence of mass communication across the sector which would have been
detected by the Orcs. All Orcs interviewed involved with the event refused to answer to questions
as to why they knew of Carver Inc.s actions, nor why there was such a coordinated movement to
defend Gora.

The Councils verdict was that Carvers loss of its entire navy and a large part of its ground force was
enough of a punishment and no other sanctions were applied. The case was deemed closed after the
Gora Non-Interference Act was enacted in 923AE, prohibiting all non-Council sanctioned activity
in the sector.

No instances of Marauder cooperation on such a scale have occurred since.

138
139
Natural Violence
Even among a galaxy of aggressive races,
the conglomerate of species known as the
Marauders stand out in their ferocity and
natural violence. Raised from single-planet
barbarism by the Galactic Co-Prosperity
Sphere to be their perfect soldiers, the
140
Marauders turned on their masters in a
rebellion so stunning in its intensity that
the GCPS was almost destroyed. Only their
usefulness as shock troops stopped their
complete eradication, although it is now a
nave or desperate civilisation that hires too
many of them at once. The near destruction
of the GCPS sent shockwaves across the stars,
 marauders

and whenever Marauders gather in number
every sentient race holds its breath.Today the
Marauders are nomadic, plying the galaxy as
pirates and soldiers for hire.
They are the best mercenaries money can buy,
and they know it. Their services do not come
cheap, but they do not care who they work
for; all that matters is the fight and the payoff.
That is not to say they will not also fight for
themselves, and when every other species in
the galaxy will do everything it can to stop the
Marauders establishing their own civilisation,
that fighting can be brutal. And nobody does
brutal as thoroughly as the Marauders.

141
 What can be said about the Marauders
which isnt already known by every sphere
citizen? That they have been at one time
humanitys greatest assets and at another its
greatest threat? That it was the Marauders
marauders
who have so far come closest to destroying
human civilisation? That even now, with
their numbers decimated and their continued
existence due solely to the Council of Sevens
restraint, they continue to be held at arms
length and in distrust by every corporation?
Yet even after all that, GCPS generals galaxy-
wide are more afraid not to use them in battle.
Because if they do not, their enemies might.
The popular image of the Marauder is almost
comic in its excesses; the wide maw with over-
biting tusks, the leathery umber-green skin,
and the looming, muscled bulk, carrying as
142
much weaponry as a whole marine squad. It
would be humorous, if it were not so accurate.
Marauders have worked their way to being
the GCPSs zeitgeist as the quintessential
boogieman terrifying, but not without an
allure which sees them remain a fixture within
human armies as well as making up their own
piratical bands and mercenary companies.
They remain as dangerous now as they
ever were, and more so because of just how
unpredictable they are - how do you protect
yourself against the perfect enemy if even they
dont know what they will do next?
Not worth killing.
Orc insult
Natural Warriors Where Orcs are solid and brutish, Goblins are
scrawny with an emaciated, furtive look which
The name Marauder is the designation for is a reflection of their overall nature. Goblins
the species native to the planet Gora which, are not war-hungry natural fighters, they
through common usage, is now a collective would rather fight from the shadows, when
noun for the entire grouping. The most they would fight at all. Their small frames
common species within the Marauder genus are perfectly suited for stealth operations,
is the Orc, and it is hard to imagine a creature or finding the perfect hidden perch to snipe
more naturally adapted to warfare. from.
Orcs are, simply put, the perfect warriors. At the other end of the size spectrum are the
Humanoid, but averaging over two metres tall Hulks. These colossal cousins of the Orcs
with upwards of 160 kilos of raw muscle - next stand a literal head and shoulder above them
to a human they are are little short of monsters. in size and strength. Although clearly from
While their physiology works on vaguely the the same species sharing the top heavy
same basis, it outstrips human performance musculature and prominent under biting
in all physical ways. The average Orc is faster, tusks hulks have somehow grown to a size
stronger and, while their epidermis contains so immense that human exobiologists are at
over fifty percent more nerve endings, can a loss to explain why. It could be that once
shrug off wounds that would leave the toughest even larger, more dangerous creatures roamed
Marine in catatonic shock. Its postulated that Goras surface in its pre-history, and in an
these over-stimulated pain receptors is one evolutionary arms race the Hulks evolved
reason for the Orcs naked aggression. The enough mass and strength to be able to flip
skin is also naturally leathery and averages a tank. Whatever the reason, the rest of the
two centimetres of depth. Alone it can weigh galaxy is simply glad the Hulks do not breed
40 kilos, making it an almost natural armour at the same rate as Orcs.
to bladed weapons and can even rob the
kinetic energy from low calibre ammunition.
If this were not enough, the green shading is a
reaction to the intense ultraviolet from Goras
sun, and gives all Marauders some protection
against radiation.
The Orcs metabolism is almost preternaturally
fast, and they can burn through calories at a
startling rate. Among their organs is an acid
producing gland that actively suppresses
myostatin protein generation, causing a
muscle hypertrophic condition and giving all
Orcs a natural muscle mass that professional
Dreadball players spend years trying to build.
Before GCPS contact this condition was offset
by a vegetable-heavy diet, but access to cheap
synthetic protein saw this condition erupt
among the Orc population. Now any Orc
which spends even a short time off Gora will
quickly turn into the muscle-bound brutes
seen as stereotypical Marauders.
The second most common creature in the
Marauder ranks are Goblins, commonly
referred to as stunts by other Marauders,
it is not known if Goblins are a sub species
or another evolutionary offshoot from a
common ancestor. Goblins certainly share
many of the same physical characteristics
with Orcs internally, but externally the two
could barely be more different.

143
 And then there are the natives of Gora the
Auxiliaries. Although at first glance it may not Die, tin man
be obvious, Auxiliaries are Orcs, albeit natural,
unmodified specimens. Rangier, while still The Orcs knife glanced Dunns helmet hard
being more solid than a human, there is enough the armours diagnostics squealed.
marauders

little to give away that these creatures were
responsible for the destruction of an entire
GCPS expeditionary force with only weapons
equivalent to Old Earths middle ages. Once
integrated into a Marauder company, the
Auxiliaries quickly adapt to civilisation and
the benefits it provides, such as protein-rich
foods, steroids and weaponry. Within a few
years an Auxiliary will look no different to any
other Marauder.
The Marauder followed with a fist to his
chest, knocking the Enforcer backwards.
The Orc came on again, its Hrunka blade
whipping side to side through the air. It was
all Dunn could do to deflect one swipe and
dodge the rest.
Dunn was a melee artist. None of his squad
could best him combat. But the rest of his
squad was dead. And one-on-one against
this monster there was only one way this
could end.

He steeled himself and took a fighting

stance. The Orc regarded this move, cocking
its head in an oddly canine gesture as Dunn
raised his free hand and made a come here
motion.
As a whole the Marauder species make a The Orcs face twisted to show more tusk,
united culture. The violent, physical nature
of its internal interactions seem to outsiders then it moved terrifyingly fast for something
that a Marauder tribe is at constant war with of its size, closing the distance and bringing
itself, but that would be to miss that the its blade around and up. Dunn made to
violence within a tribe is part of its non-verbal block, but the power behind the Orcs thrust
communication. made it unstoppable.
Marauder society is extremely hierarchical. The Hrunka entered Dunns midriff, his
Unless a clear structure is present nothing
will be achieved, and orders will be ignored. nervous system registering the sheering pain
One individual needs to be in charge, and if before it shut down, and then his feet left
two Orcs are placed in a room the first thing the ground as the Orc raised him by the hilt
they will do is fight to see who the dominant of its blade. It leaned in, and with a voice
individual is. The purpose isnt to kill, just unsuited for pan-sphere basic grunted,
to establish who is going to give the orders.
Marauders respect strength, even Goblins Die, Tin man.
who sit at the bottom of such an order would
not dream of taking orders from an Orc who
couldnt kill them as easily as look at them.
This structure is a vestige from the tribal
times on Gora, when all that mattered
was a chieftains chopping arm. That was
a simpler time however, when aspects
such as orbital trajectories, ballistics, three
dimensional tactical awareness, munition
and air management was not required in a
potential leader. But while tactical nous is
now mandatory in a Marauder chief, it is still
secondary to pure physical might.

144
First Contact ships adrift and unresponsive. Mitrandesh,
unwilling to take risks with the unknown
Much of the Marauders known history can planet, positioned the fleet and landed his
be tracked alongside the GCPSs. However, entire force of 5,000 marines along with their
evidence of a long history is buried deep armour and support, while shuttles departed
within Goras earth as fossils and relics, and in to bring back the expeditionary ships.
the limited oral history of the Marauder clans.
There is archaeological evidence of various Had Gora been populated with any other
proto-civilisations throughout Goras history, primitive race, Commander Mitrandesh
but equally abundant at each stage are the would have performed this operation without
signs of a violent erasure just as the culture incident, and the Co-Prosperity Spheres
would have begun to gain a foothold; an history would have been very different. But
eradication of such totality that an external, Gorans are not like other races.
more advanced agent would be suspected,
but only if the nature and capabilities of the The first weapon of a corporation military
natives were not known. Because, as became landing on a primitive hostile world is
apparent, Gorans are aggressive to an extreme shock and awe seventy tonne landers
absent from any other race. To an extent, puncturing the clouds and slamming into
Goras past patterns of societal development the earth, massive landing ramps yawning
and extermination followed the same of open to disgorge hundreds of armoured
ancient human history, but the difference on soldiers, banks of dust clouds thrown up like
Gora was that the cycle did not end peace thunderheads as immense frigates displace
never reigned long enough for a stable society the air. The sheer noise and movement of a
to out-compete warring clan life. And so, mass military insertion is a weapon in itself.
when humans arrived, the Gorans were still But despite the military vessels being surely
fighting with a level of technology not much the largest artificial structures they had ever
different from Old Earths medieval period. seen, the Gorans met the corporation troops
as if they were equals, and despite being
What the first interactions between humanity armed with bows and blades managed to kill
and Marauders were like will never be known. hundreds of marines before being fought off.
In 644AE, a fully-crewed expeditionary force
was still cheaper than automated long-ranged
planetary reconnaissance drones. It was fully
expected that any alien civilisation could be
communicated with and a trade relationship
established, or, preferably, be brought under
corporate hegemony.
The likes of the Gorans, however, had never
been encountered.
A Klandax Corp. expedition landed on
Gora in 644AE, and immediately began
transmitting reports of a hostile, primitive
indigenous race. Then the reports stopped and
no further telemetry was received. The loss of
an expedition was not particularly unusual,
but the speed with which it occurred was.
Automated distress transmissions received
indicated that total loss of personal occurred
within seventy two hours of contact. Klandax
responded, dispatching a full military strike
force to recover the expeditions equipment
and establish a firm claim on Gora before
other corporations took advantage of their
inability to seal exploitation rights. This
force, under Commander Prakal Mitrandesh,
arrived insystem to find the expeditionary

145
 The initial attack repelled, the Klandax forces
prepared to call in orbital bombardment to
end the conflict, but the expeditionary shuttles
ferried back to the military fleet had not been
empty. While trajectories and ordnance was
marauders
being prepared on Mitrandeshs fleet, hundreds
of Orcs burst from hiding on the expeditionary
shuttles and poured into the military ships.
They tore through the service personal and
under-prepared security contingent with
ease, leaving the ground forces open and
unsupported. Mitrandesh had makeshift forts
constructed from prefabricated walls, but the
Gorans adapted, abandoning frontal assaults
in exchange for war on their terms guerrilla
fighting, and using their manoeuvrability
and local knowledge to lure the corporation
marines into unequal close quarter combat. In
little time the Gorans learnt to use the fallen
Marines weapons. Armed with arrows and
knives the Marauders killed hundreds, with
laser rifles and grenades Klandaxs initial force
of 5,000 was cut down until, less than five
standard days after insertion, the emergency
beacon was triggered as Commander
Mitrandeshs final fortification was overrun.
The initial response from Klandax HQ was
to firebomb Gora from outsystem, leave the
planet to smoulder for a decade, and land
again when it was sure everything was dead.
The mission was given to General Julius Klimt,
a soldier with a long and celebrated career,
who summarily disregarded his orders and
instead landed on Gora alone and unarmed.
146
General Klimt had a reputation for shrewd
and unexpected tactics, and had spent days
observing data recorded from miniscule spy
drones dispatched to the planets surface. He
saw in these dangerous creatures a far-reaching
potential. No other race so far encountered
demonstrated such an easy grasp of military
theory, or such obvious joy in its application.
The wiping out of a full corporation strike
force was rare, and never from a civilisation
lower on the tech tree. General Klimt knew
that if he could bring these creatures under
his command Klandax would have the single
most potent army in the galaxy.
General Klimt flew himself to Goras surface.
What happened there is not known because
the General travelled alone, but before
departing he remarked to his fleet commander
that in the creatures he recognised a cohesive
social hierarchy and a greed not so dissimilar
to some of humanitys baser elements that
they could not find common ground. What
is known is that the General spent three days
on Goras surface before returning to the fleet.
He had visibly aged in that time, he looked
exhausted, his dress jacket was gone and the
clothes he wore were stained, torn and bore a
smell none of the Klandax general staff could
identify.
But with him came the chieftains of three of
the largest clans of Gora, and the Global Co-
Prosperity Sphere would never be the same
again.
The Expansion
Under Klimts supervision, hundreds of Gorans
were moved off planet and began basic training
in line with corporation military doctrine.
As anticipated, the aliens demonstrated an
uncanny aptitude for warfare. They took to
the drills and manoeuvres as if born to them,
and sometimes had to be forcibly reminded
that these were simply exercises, and to not
use their rifles as clubs when their harmless
training ammunition ran out. Their first live
mission was to quell a minor rebellion on
New Lagos before it could turn into a major
one. When they were unleased on the rioting
population the subjugation was so swift, so
total, so bloody that the term Goran ceased to
be used among the human troops in Klandaxs
army - replaced with Marauder.
The scale of the massacre on New Lagos could
not be kept secret, and while General Klimt
may have intended for the Marauders to be
solely used in Klandaxs military, soon every
corporation wanted their own Marauder
regiments. Once the Marauders themselves
found this out they were quick to grasp the
concept of negotiation and of their worth in a
demand-based economy.
147
What followed was the swiftest expansion
in the Co-Prosperity Spheres history. The
Marauders were discovered at the very
beginning of the Fourth Sphere expansion;
vast tracts of the galaxy were open and ready
for exploitation. It was an opportunity for
a golden age, and these systems had to be
grasped before they could be claimed by other
civilisations. The Forge Fathers, Asterians,
Tsudoshans and more had woken up to the
threat to galactic stability humans posed with
their rapid expansion, and the corporations
had no interest in sharing the worlds with
anyone else.
Every week saw new systems brought under
corporate hegemony, many more than
could have been achieved by human arms
alone. It became much easier to incorporate
already-inhabited worlds through force
than negotiation. There were advanced
single-planet civilisations made extinct by
this phase of the GCPSs expansion, entirely
uncatalogued and forgotten thanks to the
frightening speed a planet could be conquered
by Marauders.
 Humanitys relationship with other
civilisations saw its own change. Emboldened
by their success at carving a path across the
Fourth Sphere, many corporations began
using the threat of their Marauder battalions
marauders
as bargaining chips in negotiations. This lead
to the Capture of Lagann in 687AE. Mars
Corp. had bought the exploitation rights
to Lagann, but arrived to find a Bitasverd
Forge Father clan Ward ship already in orbit
around its equator with formations of Brokkrs
onplanet. Mars Corps. expedition was led
by General Ellen Ekpo, and among General
Ekpos command was Apaugh, captain of
two divisions of Orc Commandos. Following
Mars Corp policy a negotiation meeting was
requested with the Dwarf Clan Lords, but the
meeting was abandoned almost immediately
by General Ekpo when the Forge Fathers
refused her demands. It is believed that
General Ekpo deliberately orchestrated this
148
outcome, issuing a list of demands she knew
the Dwarfs would not accept purely so she
could unleash her Marauders. The Capture of
Lagann, as the conflict became known, was
over within a 60 days. General Ekpos strategic
aim was not to capture the planet whole, but to
roll over the Dwarf forces with such ease as to
demonstrate what a battalion of unrestrained
Marauders were capable of. It was a task
Captain Apaugh relished, and within two
months his Commandos had slaughtered over
four thousand Brokkrs and Steel Warriors. It
was a price Clan Bitasverd was unwilling to
pay, and the Dwarfs left the system beaten.
Lagann was the first time a corporation used
Marauders as a tool of diplomacy, but it was
not the last. Other civilisations came to abhor
contact with humans, and to fear the use of
their armies. The Marauder-driven GCPS
expansion seemed inexorable, but that was
about to change.
The Mandrake Rebellion Mauhar deserves describing. In Marauder
society, devoid of religion or any proselytising
By the mid 850s Marauder muscle had figures to encapsulate how a Marauder
become the engine of the Co-Prosperity should act, Mauhar has been etched into
Sphere. In the preceding two centuries more lore. Mauhar was said to be immense -
planets had been settled by humans than the almost as large as a Hulk, although there are
six before. no individuals still alive who saw him in the
The corporations were richer than ever, and flesh. But more than this he was a tactical
their trade relationships with alien races genius. Mauhar took what he learnt under
were overwhelmingly in the humans favour. GCPS tutelage and improved upon it, took
For the Marauders part, they had what they advantage of his races unique abilities the
wanted a constant stream of enemies to fight way no human commander could sanction
and an un-ending supply of credits flowing their unrestrained joy of battle, the utter
their way to spend on everything the sphere indifference to loss of life on either side of
had to offer. It was truly a golden age, and like the fight. Even today What would Mauhar
all golden ages no one saw its end coming. do? is a question often asked by Orc chiefs
in a tactical predicament. Freed from having
The Mandrake Rebellion has been documented to slow down for human troops to keep up
in detail thousands of times over; its causes, with the Marauders under his command,
inception, key players, and the statistics of Mauhar took to the galactic skies and set
planets irrevocably lost to the scarrings of about shattering the GCPS.
war. But for the Marauders it began with the
ambitions of Romasko Holdings CEO Gavriel
Mandrake and an insignificant planet named
TCx87653c.
Marauders were to be used as pawns in the
plans of the individuals who would go on
to make the Council of Seven, and a set of
conditions where they would be certain to
rebel was artificially engineered.
They were to be put down, and then
replaced by the already-conceptualised
Enforcer Troopers. But the Council did not
accommodated for three pieces in their game.
The first was just how many Marauders would
be gathered together to act as the touchpaper
for rebellion. The second was Chief Mauhar.
The third was just how virulently eager for
war Marauders are.
It was just bad luck that the Councils plans
came to fruition just after TCx87653c
had been conquered, when 20,000 Orc
Commandos were still present onplanet, and
that Chief Mauhar - commander of the Red
Hand mercenaries - was among them.
The average Orc does not care for power
beyond their immediate clan and are happy
to fight and get paid. But there are some who
want more. Of those, few have the capability
or the talent to actually make use of that
aspiration. Chief Mauhar had that talent,
and he also had tens of thousands of Orcs
whose pay had suddenly stopped.

149
 Seen from afar, the planets falling to
the Marauders spiderwebbed out from
TCx87653c. Specs on the galactic map that
shone with the light of human habitation
flickered and died. The Mandrake sector fell,
marauders
releasing tens of thousands more Marauders
to Mauhar, and then came the Sacking
of Bovan. Hundreds of light years from
Mandrake, Bovan was one of the first Fourth
Sphere worlds colonised. Many of the core
worlds relied on its ore. It had cities, industrial
centres, and 500 million sphere citizens. The
Orcs there had no known connection with
Mauhar or Romasko, and the uprising was
as surprising as it was total. Bovan died, and
the inner spheres woke up to the danger on
their doorstep.
Its questionable whether Mauhar would have
changed his plans if hed known the Council
of Seven had fabricated the Rebellion and had
already made steps in creating what would be
the Enforcer troopers. But even despite the
Councils plans, Mauhar came perilously
close to destroying the GCPS. Having sacked
most of the Fourth and Third Spheres to the
galactic west, only the undefended inner
spheres were between Mauhar and the core
worlds. A last ditch defence was organised by
the Council; a trap to lure Mauhar and his
forces onto a single planet, then destroy it
with an artificially triggered supernova. This
last stand came to be known as the Battle for
Nihil Rex, and it saw the end of the rebellions
threat to the GCPS, the near extermination of
the Marauder species, and the death of Chief
Mauhar.
150
Though a century and a half gone, the
Mandrake Rebellion left two indelible lessons;
for the GCPS, that they were not indestructible,
and for the Marauders, that they did not need
to be paid by anyone else to fight.
Living legend?
Although Chief Mauhars presence at the
Battle of Nihil Rex was verified, it cannot be
officially confirmed he died there.
It would of course be impossible to identify
a body from a system turned to dust after
a supernova, but the fact is it cannot be
guaranteed that the tactical genius who
oversaw the Mandrake Rebellion was present
at the time the planet was vapourised.
This slim possibility of his survival has
led to an almost cult-like status for the
Chief, with his outlined face becoming a
symbol of rebellion for the downtrodden,
disenfranchised or just delinquent teenagers
sphere-wide.
Several Orc mercenary commanders have
even risen to lead large warbands claiming
to be Mauhars offspring, and on a few
occasions even the Chief himself.
So far all have met the same end at the
hands of the Black Company, but without
definitive proof the Chief s cult of infamy will
continue to draw admirers and imitators.

Dirty work
Despite the multiple secret programs set up
by the Council and other advanced races, the
Marauders resistance to the Plague remains
a mystery. This has led to a lucrative trade
in the systems and stations along the Death
Arc for Marauder companies selling their
Deadzone related services.
There is also a growing number of Marauder
captains venturing into Containment
Protocols for their own benefit; looting
abandoned planets and using the spoils
to build their own warbands. The Three
Fingered Thrau, Red Maws, and Will Kill
for Credits gangs have all built what amount
to their own armies this way, and are
more than capable of overcoming smaller
planetary defence forces.
The Enforcer Black Company can only
neutralise so many Marauder warbands,
and if the rate of the Orc forces continue
to grow its only a matter of time before
colonised planets become at risk.
The Mercenary Age
A question often asked is Why werent the
Marauders exterminated after the Mandrake
Rebellion? A logical enough question with
an equally logical answer; they were simply
too useful.
The Battle for Nihil Rex wiped out over eighty
percent of the then Marauder population.
Those that survived were either in bands too
small to be a threat or were hunted down by
the Enforcers. The remaining Marauders were
too scattered to be a danger to any significant
population. And, more importantly,
outwardly held no resentment to the GCPS
for the war which nearly exterminated them;
they had fought, been beaten, and that was
it. The practicality their race is known for
won out, and the corporations and Council
of Seven were more than willing to allow
them to remain in a small capacity. After
all, corporations still had dirty work which
needed doing, and the Council did not want
to send their new Enforcers into situations
where they could die unnecessarily.
151
There was, however, one safeguard put in
place. Despite the Orcs eventual defeat, the
Mandrake Rebellion remains the closest
brush with destruction the GCPS has faced,
and the Council has no desire to risk another
uprising. So it established the Black Company;
a covert Enforcer battalion with the sole
mission of keeping the Marauder population
at a manageable size. Their mission sees them
tagging and tracking Marauder bands, and
when a group approaches a size that could not
reliably be put down by local forces the Black
Company move in. Usually this action takes
on the nature of an accident a catastrophic
McKinley drive malfunction, or a contract
to raid a biotech lab that happens to contain
deadly airborne toxins in order to avoid
antagonising other Marauder commanders.
This policy is deemed so crucial to the GCPSs
continued peace that it is executed directly by
the Council of Seven to keep its existence on
a need to know basis. So far the clandestine
policy has remained secret, but there are
always individuals with a lust for power
who would not think twice of using such
knowledge for their own ends.
Outside of sphere-sanctioned engagements,
Marauders have slipped seamlessly into the
roles of pirates and guns for hire, and are
the mercenary of choice for anyone who
can afford them. The same qualities which
made them the crack troops of the GCPS
translate to the galactic common market,
and it is expected that on any waystation or
space port of reasonable size there will be at
least a few Marauder captains ready to take a
commission at a moments notice, so long as
theres some payment up front.
You want to talk? OK, lets talk. You talk
the where and the when, I talk the how and
the price. Agree and we have a contract.
Captain Orokk,
Cygni Crew mercenary company
 And then there are the galactic trade lanes and
the pirate fleets which prey on such places.
McKinley drive travel is still restricted to the
rich and important, and at any given moment
there are tens of thousands of vessels plying
marauders
the established routes between systems. Long
haul carriers, colony ships, dust miners,
science vessels, and more each carrying
something which can be sold for a nice profit
on the black market, and in the vast emptiness
of space the only law is who has the most guns.
Marauders have no base of operations as
such. They live a nomadic lifestyle, going
where there is work to do, wars to fight, bones
to break. Where they lay their gun is home
for the night. A band may have a favoured
space station where finding work is easier,
but if that particular well dries up they have
no issue finding another. However, they still
consider Gora their home. This may be for
more practical than sentimental reasons
however, as it is on Gora that they draft new
recruits. While all the Marauder species can
breed elsewhere, the unique harshness of
Gora with its scouring radiation, ferocious
weather, and the collective hostility of its
plant and animal life breeds a hardness into
the creatures that survive to adolescence. Such
is the importance of Goran Auxiliaries that
an attempted annexation of it by Carver Inc.
prompted the Council of Seven to pass an un-
amendable law prohibiting any corporation
activities within a 100,000au range of the
planet, under threat of Enforcer censure.
Structured Chaos
One of the most dangerous aspects of a
Marauder army is how deceptively organised
it is. While most species become less savage
as they develop, if anything Marauders
have reverted to a tribal barbarism. Their
recruitment into corporation armies and the
training they received allowed them to funnel
their aggression down specific paths, and the
corporation generals who adopted the first
Marauder battalions and thought instilling
martial discipline would bring the aliens
under control were proven very wrong.
152
However, while Marauders have for the most
part kept the structure imposed on them
since before the Mandrake Rebellion, no
two captains will organise their forces the
same way. Teams of similarly equipped Orcs
and Goblins will be grouped together for
specific battlefield purposes, but the nature
of a Marauder warband is fluid and ever-
changing. Casualties are high, employers
can change day to day, and loyalties shift and
schisms form within the bands themselves.
The Orcs pragmatism feeds into this
instability however; a fight is a fight, and
that is something an Orc never passes up. A
Marauder warband can adapt to any situation
in a way no rigid military can, which means
no enemy commander will know what kind
of army they will face.
However, they will know to at least a degree
how the Marauders will be armed. Marauders
are not an artificer race, their temperament is
not suited to the precise engineering necessary
to make reliable weaponry. But they know a
good gun when they see one, and the GCPS.
Arms dealers tend only to care about getting
paid, not about where the weapons go. Its
from this free market that more than a few
Marauder captains have commissioned arms
suited to their stature and specific needs. Most
of these new weapons have not been the most
practical, but a few have found their niche in
Marauder armies. The most common of these
unique concepts is the H.E.W. technology.
Inspired by the Genling 88 Burst Laser
carried by Enforcer Striders, H.E.W., or high
energy weapon, technology is based on laser
weaponry, but where Enforcer rifles direct
controlled beams of energy through artificially
refined crystals to produce high-intensity
laser bursts, H.E.W. technology relies on a
combustion chamber filled with a pressurised
hydrogen gas mixture to excite the lower
power emitters Marauders must rely on. This
is not to say H.E.W. weapons are not effective.
Per energy input they outperform a similarly
heavy Genling weapon every time, but at the
cost of reliability and safety. Backfires are
common, but in exchange you get a weapon
capable of puncturing a tank.
On a smaller scale, Orcs and Goblins
preference is for solid shot rifles, finding them
more durable than their laser counterparts
and easier to repair in the field, and the Orcs
at least dont care about the kilos of extra
ammunition the rifles require.
For when something heavier is required, and
a Hulk is not available, there is the Ripper
suit. Another product of the Marauders
tactical ingenuity, the Ripper is almost a
mini-Strider. A powered exoskeleton of a
tungsten-weaved alloy with a role as simple as
it is effective to allow an Orc to carry more
and heavier weapons. The powered servos
give the operator increased strength if such
a thing is imaginable in an Orc and makes
the trooper a mobile weapons platform. In
confined spaces the suits give the Marauders
and almost unbelievable tactical advantage.
Stereotypical of Orc technology is the Sky
Scraper jump pack. Essentially a misnomer,
although the pack does allow the wearer to
jump through the air up to fifteen metres, its
primary intention is to allow the Orc to leap
from an aircraft from up to 10km and freefall
directly into combat. The pack kicks in at 750
metres, arresting the fall at the last moment,
and giving the commando some time to pick
exactly where in the battle they want to land.
Despite the risks, the packs are accepted by
many Orc commanders as an alternative
delivery system to traditional dropships.

153
Here Be Monsters
The vast depths of space are sources of
infinite wonder and opportunity, something
the fledgling corporations, the first voyagers
from Old Earth, appreciated greatly. Taking
advantage of every resource and habitable
planet they could find led to the establishment
of the grandest civilisation man has ever
154
known - the Galactic Co-Prosperity Sphere.
But the corporations are often guided by
greed and avarice rather than wisdom or
altruism, and acting according to his nature is
not always in mans best interest. Nowhere is
this more apparent than in his misadventures
within the string of star systems to the galactic
north-west of the core, now known as the
Death Arc.
 the plague

The GCPS was warned to stay away from
these worlds. Representatives of the Asterian
Star Empire, Counsels of its ruling Tesseract
no less, met with members of the Council
of Seven, the corporations own rulers, and
an agreement was made: the corporations
would respect Asterian borders and Asteria
would refrain from military sanctions. But in
a kingdom built on greed, no wall is ever tall
enough, and the lure of alien riches believed
to be held on the worlds of the Death Arc was
more than some could resist.
It was clear the Asterians possessed technology
and wealth beyond the wildest dreams of
the GCPS and many corporations would be
damned before they left it hidden beyond
their borders. And damned they were.

155
 Instead of wealth and power, those that
trespassed within the Death Arc found
monsters and destruction. They found the
Plague, an enemy believed by many within
Corporation Central to be nothing less than
the plague
the single greatest threat to the galaxy to yet
present itself. It is a bio-agent of unparalleled
virulence with the capacity to mutate living
beings until they barely resemble their former
selves.
The GCPS responded in the only way it could
- a massive military blockade and the creation
of Containment Protocols, quarantine efforts
that would instantly seal off any planets or
systems the Plague reached behind a wall of
silence and gunships. But while the GCPS
enacted its protocols and the Asterian
Clades patrolled their own dead worlds,
the Plague was growing and working. More
worlds than anyone knows have already been
infiltrated, seeded by an unknown creator
with mysterious Artefacts that release the raw
mutagen into their discoverers. The Plague
has already captured and corrupted dozens
of GCPS outposts, worlds, and even whole
star systems and its armies are equal now to
almost anything the rest of the galaxy has to
offer.
The Plague has also commandeered fleets of
starships and repurposed the military might
sent against it to its own dark purpose. It
moves on, and it hungers, and it rages. Where
its silent fleets will appear next is unknowable,
but only death lies in their wake. Nowhere, it
seems, is safe.
156
Theyve got Tanks?
Just a bunch of dumb grunts. That was
what the major had said at the NCOs
meeting that morning. The men had
laughed dutifully and listened on, gripping
warm mugs of caff as the order of battle
had been given out. Five platoons would
be going into the city to secure its southern
edge while the rest, including Corporal Jac
Riegers 3rd platoon, would set up skirmish
positions on each side of the main advance.
They could expect to see the enemy, of that
there was no doubt. And 2nd Company had
suffered some losses the week before. But the
men should be reassured that all they would
be facing now were the dregs, cannon fodder
they would have no difficulty mopping up.
To hear the major tell it, the enemy would
be practically lining up to get shot through
their ugly skulls.
It had made sense back then, in the cosy
tent they used for briefings and such, some
five kilometres away from the front line. But
now, as another volley of mortar rounds
screamed through the air over Riegers
head, he wasnt so sure. He leaned hard
into the berm of dirt and debris his men
had built for cover and readied himself for
the impacts. Most of the rounds were fired
so wildly they did little more than make the
marines grab their helmets and duck down.
But there were so many being launched at
the marine positions, eventually one would
have to hit something.
Rieger heard an explosion from somewhere
behind him and felt a wave of heat wash
over his back. Men were shouting, someone
was even screaming - the platoons Mule had
taken a direct hit and was burning brightly
in the night air. Then more cries of alarm
sounded from up and down the berm and
Rieger felt a familiar and chilling vibration
in the ground beneath him.
Tanks! Theyve got tanks!
Rieger could see them now. A dozen bulky,
angular shapes emerging from the mist a
few hundred meters away. Bright lines of
energy ionised the air above him and began
to chew up the berm, throwing up clouds
of atomised dirt and debris as the Lancers
opened fire. Rieger turned around again
and, as he looked at the pile of flaming
wreckage that had been his only way off
the battlefield, he wondered who the dumb
grunts really were.
Confidence
The early days of mankinds life outside the
solar system of its birth were difficult to say
the least. Interstellar travel was unreliable,
slow, and wrought with danger. Many of
the hundreds of colony ships that left Old
Earth were lost in the space between stars.
Others found their ways to planets that had
appeared promising when viewed through
the best telescopic equipment available before
launch. But, when their cryogenically frozen
passengers awoke, they found themselves
stranded on hellish worlds without the simple
natural resources they needed to survive
more than a few weeks. Still more fell victim
to hostile aliens and disease and even those
that were able to establish themselves were
sometimes subsequently destroyed by in-
fighting with other struggling human colonies.
Some groups did survive, be it by luck or
sheer willpower, and, slowly, overcame the
massive hurdles set in their paths to make
new lives amongst the stars. Eventually these
fledgling colonies were able to make contact
with each other, forming what became the
First Sphere of the GCPS. Despite the strong
streak of self-reliance, a characteristic borne
of having survived so much alone already, it
was clear some form of central government
was necessary to manage the sharing of
resources and oversee the fairness of deals
between colonies. Or, as they became known,
corporations. Thus the Council of Seven was
born.
157
The growth of mankind might have continued
at such a slow pace interminably where it
not for the invention of the McKinley drive.
Before this paradigm-shifting creation, the
GCPSs ships could only travel at speeds barely
approaching that of light. With the capacity
now for travel faster than light - better than
light! - the riches of the galaxy were laid bare
to the corporations acquisitive hands. A
veritable gold rush followed as hundreds of
scout ships dispersed from the Core, followed
by innumerable startups - colony ships,
outfitters, survey crews, miners, and builders.
The possibilities were endless along a frontier
of infinite depth. But those vast distances
meant that even with McKinley drives it
was still many G-standard years before
scouts of Canco Ltd., a specialist in stellar
exploration and cartography, first approached
the northern border of what had become the
GCPSs fourth expansion.
They were not overly surprised to find several
clusters of worlds there, each showing very
clear signs of habitation by apparently extinct
alien races. Several alien species had already
been successfully incorporated into the GCPS
and several more wiped out. The existence of
others was accepted as fact. The discovery of
ruins on border worlds was also not a cause
for alarm, given how close humanity had itself
come to extinction in the recent past. It did
not really matter why or how the mystery race
had failed as the prevailing attitude at the time
was that the GCPS was clearly strong enough
and clever enough not to make the same
mistakes. And so, the exploration went on.
 Based on the scouts reports, several
preliminary claims to territory on the ghost
worlds were logged with Corporation Central,
and a few small-scale wildcat survey teams
were dispatched towards them. It would be
the plague
Secondly, there were the warnings of the
Asterians. Contact had been made between
the two great powers only recently and,
although Asteria Prime did not seem willing
to offer the corporations much in the way of

many decades before any colony ships would
find themselves in range of the mysterious
worlds at the edge of civilised space. In the
meantime, the ghost worlds developed a
reputation of their own.
Wild tales began to appear in the bars of
space stations in the outer spheres, tales of
spectral warriors and sinister abductions.
Even whole mining outfits were alleged to
have disappeared, but no more credence
was paid to these tall tales than to any of the
other thousands of scary stories that could be
heard. It is a sad fact that literally hundreds
of GCPS ships go missing every G-standard
year, victims to pirates, poor navigation, and
unforeseen stellar phenomena.
trade or access, it did have something to say
regarding the Death Arc.
Representations were made and a meeting
between the Council itself and diplomats
from the Asterian capital was arranged. The
mixture of Lu-Fans data and whatever the
Asterian Counsels showed the Council-
members was sufficient for the issuing of the
order that the Death Arc was strictly off limits
to all citizens of the GCPS.
To back its wishes up, the Council deployed
a sizeable army of its recently enlisted Orc
commandos in an extended blockade most
of the way along the Arcs southern edge.
This static deployment was an unusual one
for the Orcs their forces had typically been
employed as shock assault troops against
other alien races but they soon had an
opportunity to show their mettle in battle.

But, the mystique of the Canco worlds, or

the Death Arc as they became known, was
significantly enhanced when the Council of
Seven itself decreed them strictly off-limits.
The Council had previously served a more or
less administrative role, occasionally settling
disputes and setting tariffs for trade or serving
as a diplomatic core. Its profile and power had
no doubt been enhanced and cemented by
conflicts such as the War of the Short Front,
where the need for a central unified command
of GCPS military forces had become apparent.
But the demarcation of a no-go zone on
the edge of the GCPS was an entirely more
aggressive and authoritative move.
The reasons behind this line being drawn were
twofold. Firstly, unknown to most within the
GCPS, the Council of Seven had secretly
commissioned the Lu-Fan conglomerate
to investigate the abandoned worlds on the
north-western edge of the GCPS. What they
had found had been alarming in the extreme.
Signs of an advanced civilisation falling into
anarchy and collapse almost instantaneously.
Indications of large scale warfare using atomic
weaponry as well as energy signatures Lu-Fan
could not even fathom.

158
A nomad corporation registered as Selmer &
Frin attempted to break the blockade mere
months after its establishment, sending its
small fleet towards a gap in the line near the
Burges asteroid field. Several other companies
had also expressed resentment towards
Corporation Central and, by implication,
the Council that ran it, over its policy on the
Canco worlds. Many felt the compensation
they were offered in exchange for their leases
inadequate, others that it was not within the
Councils purview to dictate so aggressively
where corporations within the GCPS could
or could not go. The S&F representatives to
Corporation Central stated that the territories
they had sub-leased years earlier from
Corporation Central were still legally theirs
and that they intended to continue their
claims to them.
As has been noted, this was an unusual
show of force by the Council. This flexing of
muscles was publicly welcomed by many of
the corporations, who were willing to admit
even a free market needs a strong base upon
which to operate. Others were less enthusiastic
though, feeling that the spirit of endeavour
and self-determination, the very same as
that which had allowed them to escape Old
Earth in times past and make a new home
in the galaxy, was at risk of being stifled. No
legislative body, they said, had the right to tell
a man where he could or could not travel or
do business. That might have worked in the
old days, but out here was a whole new galaxy.

As many have done since, the captains of S&Fs

fleet underestimated the tactical ability of the
Orcs manning the blockade. Their small fleet
was quickly outmanoeuvred and summarily
destroyed. Their financial assets seized and
their licence to operate was torn up. S&F, to
all intents and purposes, ceased to exist.
A similar fate befell the scientists of Lu-Fan,
the few remaining humans to have ever set
foot within the Death Arc. All Lu-Fan research
outposts were quickly closed and all personnel
and materials from them were immediately
moved under Enforcer guard to the backwater
world of New Czechia - the GCPSs first Black
Site. Officially this was done for the protection
of those personnel. The chance of contagion,
of spreading whatever it was that had killed
the Death Arc, being too great to risk. While
this may indeed have been a genuine concern
it also had the effect of completely silencing
any voices who might report what had been
found in the Arc.

159
 A leading voice of dissent was that of House
Grace, a corporation with ties to some of
the first colony ships to ever leave the Sol
system, and not one to be bossed around by
an unelected body thousands of light years
the plague
distant.
The patriarch and prime officer of House
Grace, one Cadmeyer Grace, ordered his
ships to find a way into the Death Arc, one
that circumvented the blockade, and then set
up bases for further exploration.
Covert recordings, obtained by the ETCU,
show the patriarch saying; Neither ghost
stories nor the decree of skeletons hiding in
their polished offices far from the frontier will
stop House Grace, or mankind itself, from
seizing its destiny. We will not be bound nor
fettered by their fallacious rulings or their
anti-capitalist armies. Their pet aliens are not
going to stop us either.
160
Graces long-term goals are unclear. It may
be he planned to set up his own, new GCPS,
based on the worlds within the Death Arc.
This seemed to be at least part of the case
laid before him during his trial in the Core
some years later. Alternatively, perhaps he
simply wanted what most corporations want -
complete unrestricted access to whatever they
can find and claim as their own and the right
to shoot anyone that tries to stop them. The
technological sophistication and apparent
riches of Asterian space were only beginning
to be understood, so the potential role of pure
greed should also not be dismissed. Whatever
his real aims were, Grace was executed for
treason, but not before revealing his house
had sent not one, but three fleets of colonists
and explorers into the Death Arc. None had
yet returned. When they did, they were no
longer the same brave crews of entrepreneurial
human beings that had been sent to find their
destiny within the Death Arc. They were
monsters.
Death of a System
The GCPS underwent many changes in the
time after Graces trial, including of course the
Mandrake Rebellions and the inception of the
Enforcer Corps. The Orcs that had patrolled
and held the border were long gone, replaced
by the Enforcers of the Long Patrol by the
time a fleet of starships emerged from the
Death Arc.
Some broadcast transponder codes that
matched the missing Grace expeditions, others
were entirely silent. Together, they launched a
huge and sustained assault at several points
along the line of the Long Patrol. Despite
their advanced construction and firepower,
dozens of Enforcer ships were destroyed or
crippled in suicidal ramming assaults. Many
of those damaged vessels were then boarded
by creatures that resembled men, but grown
savage and huge. They were clad in human
skins and carried a mix of corporate laser
weaponry alongside home-made knives and
axes.

There was also the grisly job of sterilising the

The Long Patrol might have been lost entirely
were it not for the decisive action of an
Enforcer commander, designated Colonel
A.Q. Niro-Faysal.
stricken ships of the Patrol.
More than a dozen Enforcer vessels had been
overtaken by the Plague and their crews
infected or slain. Those that had been turned
joined with the invaders in overwhelming the
rest of each ships contingent of Enforcers.
Some of these brave men and women had
served the GCPS and the corps faithfully and
honourably for many years only to become
the seemingly braindead zombies that would
mark so many future outbreaks of the Plague.
They were put out of their misery without
malice or prejudice and their ships scuttled.

Niro-Faysal was responsible for quickly The Long Patrol, though theoretically still
reorganising the scattered remains of the in place, was crippled and had been unable
Enforcer fleet and ordering a complicated to destroy every ship that had broken out of
series of strikes, feints, and counter-attacks the Arc. A still potent, though much reduced,
that enabled it to mass its firepower against Plague fleet continued on into GCPS space.
the larger Plague ships. As the battle moved The first world they struck at was New Parris,
within range of the Patrols headquarters, a central world in the Soto sector.
this rallying action eventually resulted in the
Plague fleet being scattered. The Enforcers
could then initiate a series of missions to hunt
down and exterminate the remaining enemy
vessels.

161
 Parris had been a settled part of the Fourth
Sphere for many years before the Plague. Its
population, largely bonded workers for a
conglomerate of corporations specialising in
building worlds suitable for human habitation,
the plague
were a hardy stock. Frontier living was no easy
calling, but these were people who believed in
making a place for themselves on the edge of
space, somewhere their children and their
childrens children could call home for years
to come. When the Plague arrived, New Parris
became a charnel house.
Exact figures are hard to come by - the
population on Parris had a low opinion of their
lives being recorded by Corporation Central
and so tended to resist sending any data about
themselves to its offices. But shipping records
and what census data does still exist for that
sector of space indicate a population of no less
than two million souls and possibly as many
as ten. The Plague killed the whole world in
less than one G-standard month.
162
A few scraps of video footage leaked onto
private networks by the data-activist Karma
are purported to show the things that struck
at New Parris.
There are deformed soldiers, like those
that assaulted the Long Patrols ships, but
also bigger things. Monstrous quadrupeds,
creatures as big as a transport wagon and
twice as powerful, that were capable of ripping
apart a Shensig tile like it was paper. Hordes of
mutated animals, beasts that might once have
been dogs or other predators tore through the
streets of townships and starports. Horror
upon horror.
After Parris, more worlds fell and soon the
entire Soto sector was gripped by panic. Fully
one half of all Enforcer personnel in the galaxy
were shipped in to halt the Plagues progress,
with orders being given for all other operators
to be ready to join them at twenty-four hours
notice if required.
The Plague was eventually stopped and the The question remains as to how much of the
Soto sector cleared, but only by a protracted truth about the Plague - its origins, nature, the
campaign to terminate dozens of smaller incredible danger it presented - the Council
outbreaks and not before hysteria had done of the day really knew. Because, although the
its own share of damage. Freighters were war in Soto was won, this was not the end of
destroyed before they could make orbit and the matter. Instead of being a singular, isolated
convoys of refugee ships were atomised by outbreak eradicated at great cost, the Plague
terrified planetary authorities as soon as they would return again and again to haunt those
slid into range. Three whole planets were who thought, or perhaps just hoped, it had
rendered poisonous by bacterial and chemical been destroyed.
weapons and whole star systems were shut off
from any contact with the rest of the GCPS.
The Enforcer Corps and the Council took any
measure necessary to end what had begun
with House Grace.
This included hiding the true cause of the
conflict in the sector. Losses on worlds
within Soto were blamed on everything
from nuclear malfunctions to mishaps with
mislabelled diet supplements and surprise
dwarf star collapses. The Plague itself was
never mentioned, never given a name, a step
that might seem overly-controlling, until one
considers the nature of the GCPS. Above
almost all else, the Council of Seven knew the
corporations had to expand to survive. Word
of something as truly awful as the Plague out
on the fringe might halt this expansion and so
its existence was hidden.
As well as laying the foundations for what
would later become the Containment
Protocols, the aftermath of Soto saw an
increase in both the power of the Council and
their ruthlessness in its application.
The laxity it had shown House Grace, the
Council believed, was what had led to the
disaster of Soto. This would not be something
that would be allowed to happen again.
Individual corporations would, as before,
be free to conduct their business however
and wherever they saw fit. Their endeavours
would be more thoroughly overseen by the
Council and its appointed agents, however
with or without their knowledge. The
Enforcer Corps, properly blooded by its war
against the Plague, was now a sizeable army
in its own right and would not draw down
its size again. More resources were funnelled
into it, increasing its size and reach, allowing
it to react immediately to any threat to the
GCPS or any defiance of the Council. The
corps became the very visible presence of the
Council on streets and thoroughfares and in
shipping lanes throughout the GCPS.

163
stages of the plague

Stage 1

Plague Lord

Aberration
Classified: Sigma Level Clearance Only It has a form of plasma membrane and must be
more complex than a monocellular organism
Subject: Exo-threat recovered from then. It resists lysis, even using picolasers and
Subars World, Preliminary findings. cold morganite fracturing. A definitive cell
surface protein repertoire has thus far proven
Author: Professor Dennis Hide, ETCU extremely difficult to capture though, even using
Authorisation Number 471102-B
the high-def spectrometry techniques developed
Black Site The Rock, Stratford Sector by Etraki and Kain. Given the extreme virulence
observed through numerous bioforms it may be
The pathogen colloquially referred to as there is no one surfaceome in the pathogen.
The Plague, is, quite simply, unlike anything
previously encountered by the ETCU since Antigenic variation is a well-known phenomena
its inception. It defies even basic taxonomic amongst infectious micro-organisms. It enables
classification. It is not a bacteria. Normal staining them to evade a hosts immune response and
procedures are inconclusive, but it lacks, as far even reinfect that host at a later date. But real-
as we can tell, organelles and appears incapable time recording of intracellular penetrations by
of extracellular reproduction. But it is not a this pathogen suggest something altogether
virus either. Its in vivo and in vitro behaviour, more fascinating is happening. Somehow, the
displaying clear motility and target selection, Plague is able to pre-emptively alter its surface
through an as yet undefined means, suggest presentation, completely evading any immune
more sophistication than that. More purpose. 164response.
 Stage 3

Stage 2

Ghoul

Zombie

Leaper A
B
C
D

I
Burster

It is as if it is somehow pre-programmed to H
circumvent the biologies of every species-
specific cell-type we have so far exposed it to -
that number being one-hundred and thirty four,
so far. How this is done is clearly related to the G E
DNA packet contained within the pathogen and
establishing the mechanism must be a priority F
if the GCPS is to stand a chance of halting its
spread.
Developing protocols for this presents many A - Humerus
challenges. Its extreme virulence means that B - Main Blood Stream
so far only five sites, including this one, all
classified Black, have so far been granted licence C - Muscle Fibres
by the Council to hold samples. The speed at D - Overgrown Bone Struture
which an infection of the pathogen is able to E - Blood Cooling Vents
hijack a hosts own circulatory and intracellular F - ULNA
mechanisms make observation difficult and
repetition dangerous. But further research is G - Radius
quite essential. It appears we are dealing with H - Hardened Outer Skin
a new form of life, one designed to subvert, I - Outerframe nerve structure
convert, and eradicate all others. 165
the plague
Containment
The first known Plague Artefact to be
discovered was located on the world of
Adriana, a considerable distance from the Soto
sector and many years after the conclusion of
that war. The violence that quickly followed
its unearthing, by a survey team investigating
suspected alien architecture, sparked mass
civil disorder and rioting and an attempted
exodus that was only stopped by the
intervention of forces aboard the Enforcer
Wyvern Deucalion.
The lessons of Soto had been clear. Not only
was the Plague a pathogen of unprecedented
virulence and lethality, the panic it inspired
could also tear apart a sector just as quickly.
Once the presence of the Plague was visually
confirmed, the Council of Seven did the
only thing they could and ordered that it be
contained at all costs. As well as the eradication
of all lifeforms on Adriana, including the
destruction of any ship attempting to leave
the surface, the planets data was wiped from
NavComp databanks and all records of its
very existence removed from official GCPS
logs.
The disappearance of an entire planet from
recorded space was no easy task and involved
considerable expense and influence, both
political and physical. But as Council-member
Severin Roth remarked in his diary, one of
the few surviving documents known to make
reference to Adriana, History may judge us as
monsters, but what choice did we have?
166
Let those people out of that place and risk the
security of the entire GCPS? No. We left them
there and we let them die because we knew
that just one of those things could destroy
everything we had built if we let it get out.
Adriana was the first Artefact-related
outbreak of the Plague, but it was far from
the last and outbreaks of the Plague since
Soto are far more common than most citizens
of the GCPS know. This is largely due to the
effectiveness of the Containment Protocols
that were developed and codified in the wake
of Adriana. Any confirmed sighting of the
infection, typically by Enforcer Pathfinder
operators, results in the rapid isolation of
affected planets. Travel to and from these
worlds is immediately prohibited by blockade
and the digital scrubbing of NavComp data,
stranding any ships already in system as well
as personnel on the infected planets. Variant
protocols have since been developed for
other biohazards such as Veer-myn or Zzor
infestation, but the end result is always the
same - the complete isolation of the infected
until they are no longer a viable infectious
source. That is to say, dead.
The exact length of the Containment varies
depending on the nature of the hazard and the
planet upon which it is located. It is without
doubt a draconian measure but, by and large,
an effective one and many outbreaks have been
successfully contained, potentially saving
billions of lives at the cost of mere millions. A
lesser known sub-protocol exists to determine
how each outbreak began. Or, more precisely,
how the causal Artefacts arrived at their final
destinations.
Since Soto, more than a dozen Plague Artefacts
have been discovered throughout the GCPS.
The merest mention of the discovery of novel
alien architecture by prospectors or explorers
on comm-nets is enough to draw the attention
of Enforcer units. Usually these are Pathfinders,
operating alone or in small teams, tasked with
identifying any potential for an outbreak. If
such a threat is identified, a Containment
Protocol can be put into effect within hours
and the ETCU teams are quickly dispatched
to retrieve the Artefact. However, despite
the Councils best efforts, the consequences
of being caught in a Containment Protocol -
complete isolation from the rest of the galaxy
and likely either slow death or violent death -
are not completely unknown to outer-sphere
citizens. Consequently, several cases have
occurred where the discovery of alien relics
has not been reported, and several more are
suspected. Even in cases where GCPS agents
have acted as intended - swiftly and decisively
- their efforts are often not enough.
167
The exact number of Plague outbreaks across
the galaxy is unknown but it seems certain the
policy of containment has not been entirely
successful.
At least three distinct Plague fleets - groups
of vessels, often but not always military in
specification - have been seen and engaged, but
only one of these armadas is believed to have
originated in the Death Arc.
The origins of the others are likely tied to
outbreaks even the Council is unaware of, ships
and individuals that have escaped infected
worlds and spread the mutagen even further.
How the GCPS will react to this increased
threat remains to be seen. But, given how far
mankind has come since establishing its place
in the galaxy and the lengths to which it has
already gone to do so, there is unlikely to be
any sacrifice the Council of Seven will not
make to preserve the GCPS for the future.
 The Shape of Things
The Artefacts that release the initial dose of
mutagen into their unwitting discoverers are
often described as metallic in appearance,
although some archaeologists have recorded
the plague
them as seeming to be made from some
kind of stone. In actual fact the outer skin of
Artefacts are comprised of a mix of a graphene
compound and exotic and as yet unidentified
ores. They are highly resistant to energy
stresses and possess unique characteristics
of conductivity, making ascertaining their
age difficult, at least with any accuracy. To
further confuse the ETCU researchers, some
Artefacts are discovered at the bottom of deep
excavations or mine-works, and are therefore
apparently ancient, while others are located on
the surface of worlds, suggesting a much more
recent provenance. A theory that is rapidly
gaining strength within ETCU discussion
nets is that the Artefacts are ancient, but have
been moved into corporate space much more
recently.
The Artefacts vary in size as well. The largest
to have been recovered by the ETCU so far,
the source of the infection of Beta Zero Two,
was nearly a meter in length and covered
in etchings reminiscent of hieroglyphics or
cuneiform writing. In contrast, the Nexus Psi
Artefact was barely fifteen centimetres long
and weighed less than five kilograms. The
dimensions of each Artefact appear to have no
bearing on their effect - all contain enough of
the mutagen to immediately begin the process
of transforming living hosts.
Nearly all carbon-based races in the galaxy are
known to be susceptible to Plague infection,
including Teratons, Sphyr, and Asterians. One
of the few known to be immune to it is the
Orcs of Gora. Why this is the case is a mystery
unlikely to be solved any time soon as there
can be few species less amenable to study by
the GCPS than the Orcs. More than a few
minds within the GCPS have remarked on
the irony of the greatest threat the GCPS has
faced since the Mandrake Rebellions being
something that the Marauders might make
ideal troops to send against.
168
Simmonds
Countless citizens of the GCPS and aliens
living within its borders have been infected
with the Plague mutagen now. But while
most are either killed outright or converted
and added to its ranks, there are a few
individuals whose cases raise the intriguing
question of how much the Plague mutagen
controls them and how much they control it.
Victims such as Slobodan Chovyek,
otherwise known as The Survivor, Stelson
Wire, more commonly referred to as Subject
901, and the Sphyr warrior called Aqissiaq
have all exhibited varying degrees of lucidity
and apparent self-control. Indeed Chovyek,
if witness reports are to be believed, is
actively engaged in seeking out a cure for his
condition. But all three are also responsible
for the deaths of many uninfected and 901
itself has been directly linked to Plague
attacks across the galaxy.
Another case is that of Dr Gail Simmonds.
Trapped on Nexus Psi during an outbreak
of the Plague and subsequently infected,
Simmonds not only retained much of her
native intelligence but also seemed to gain
the ability to actually control other Plague
mutants. She went on to direct a veritable
army of Stage 3s into constructing for her
a private fiefdom of sorts in Rieker City,
complete with workshops and laboratory
complex.
The Containment Protocol Group currently
quarantining Nexus Psi believes that after
an extended period of experimentation on
both herself and some of her thralls, the
doctor began construction of some kind of
sub-space communications device. If true,
this would be an intriguing development.
For one thing, with whom would she wish
to communicate?
Officially, the Enforcers remain on high alert
for the approach of a Plague fleet and any
attempt to rescue Simmonds from Nexus
Psi. But one alarming rumour has it she has
already left.
Not all human hosts are equally vulnerable to
the mutagen either. Many of those receiving
the initial dose of mutagen when an Artefact
is triggered, presumably by the proximity of
viable hosts, are killed by it almost instantly,
choking on their own blood and spasming in
agony as the infection unsuccessfully attempts
to rewrite their DNA and reshape their organs
and musculature to its own purpose.
Those unfortunate souls in whom the infection
does take become what the ECTU refer to as
Stage 1 infected. Colloquially though, they
are most commonly known as Plague Lords.
Lords tower above most humanoids, their
muscle mass and skeletal structure stretched
and enhanced until they reach as much as four
metres in height. It is as if the victims innate
bone structure goes into overdrive, extruding
painfully through broken skin to form a
secondary and much harder exoskeleton.
Eventually the initial infectees become
covered with thick spiked plates that are
almost entirely resistant to small arms fire.
169
They are truly monstrous in appearance
and their internal biology is just as warped
as what can be seen on the surface. Post-
mortem analyses of ex-human Stage 1
brains in particular reveals a structure quite
different to that typical for their race. The
brain stem, or lizard brain, and the parts
most associated with muscle control and
aggression grow and become dominant while
the higher functioning areas, those that deal
with memory, emotion, and self-control, are
almost entirely withered away. The Plague
Lord then is, practically speaking, completely
animalistic, driven only to fight, kill, and
destroy almost every living thing in sight.
There are some novel structures present in
Stage 1 brains too though, and it is theorised
that these new lobes are related to the Plague
Lords otherwise unexplained dominance
over the rest of the horde. Some kind of
self-control also must be necessary, as some
of a Lords victims will not be killed but will
themselves become infected, usually through
a bite enhanced by the release of a dose of
mutagen from a gland located in the Lords
buccal cavity.

the plague
While there are undoubtedly more phenotypes
at large in the galaxy - the mutagen can infect
almost all known organic species after all -
the ETCU has identified three main forms
of Stage 2 infected humans as being of a
particularly high threat value - the standard
Stage 2 Leaper, the 2B Burster, and the other Plague mutant. Dr Yoshio Ikeda of the
gargantuan 2A Aberration.
Leapers are smaller than a Stage 1 but still
usually at least twice the size of an uninfected
human. They also appear to retain a modicum
more intelligence and self-awareness than
Plague Lords and are cunning pack-hunters.
While similarly armoured to Plague Lords,
Leapers are much faster and capable of literally
leaping across a battlefield before tearing apart
their enemies in a frenzy of bloodletting.
Stage 2Bs, are generally recorded at a similar
size to Leapers, but are less armoured and
slower moving. Many display skin covered
in pulsing blisters that are filled with
infectious material and it is the tendency of
these pustulent bulges to burst when shot
or struck that gives the 2Bs their name -
Bursters. The Bursters primary goal is to
close with an uninfected lifeform, grip it
with specially barbed, hand-like appendages,
and inject its struggling victim with the
mutagen. This process can take some time,
the longest recorded infection process taking
nearly five minutes to complete, and is no
doubt extremely unpleasant to experience.
While Bursters are capable of tearing apart
mechanical foes, having inherited almost
as much physical strength as Stage 2-proper
mutants, transmitting the infection is their
primary purpose.
170
Aberrations, on the other hand, are all about
destruction. During the early days of the
outbreak on Stampers Paradise, a Forge Father
prospecting team, forced to make planetfall
in order to effect repairs to their ship, found
themselves caught in the middle of fighting
around a GCPS research outpost. The station
had been infected by the Plague through an
unknown source, but of the ten prospectors
that rode their Hultrs into town, looking for
the raw materials and parts they needed, only
three returned. They did however eventually
manage to limp back into orbit and reported a
beast that seemed to have no end, in appetite
for destruction or size. Several more of these
colossal creatures have since been observed
and exterminated by Enforcer teams on
different planets.
Aberrations differ from other Stage 2s in
several key ways. Not only are they typically
much larger than even a Plague Lord, they
are apparently incapable of passing on their
infection. They are also quadrupedal but are
no less aggressive or destructive than any
Lu-Fan Conglomerate has advanced a theory
that this form may bring the victim closer in
shape to that of the Plague mutagens creators
but this is not currently an avenue of research
many within the GCPSs science division
believe worth following at this time.
More profit is believed to lie in instead
seeking to understand what happens in Stage
3 infected personnel. Most subjects infected
by either Burster-injection or the bite of a
Leaper devolve quite rapidly, losing almost
all higher brain function, and are reduced
to the shambling yet still deadly Stage 3Z or
zombie. For some though, the degradation
seems to follow a different pathway. Stage 3
proper mutants, known to GCPS troops as
Uglies or Ghouls, acquire some muscle mass
and tougher skeletons with extruded spikes
similar though smaller to those seen on Stage
2s and 1s. They retain at least some of their
higher brain functions, however, and many
remain capable of controlling vehicles and
operating weapons systems.
Commonly this is the same equipment used
by GCPS marines and fringe world security
forces around the galaxy - mass produced
Accutek Backworlder rifles and spread-
cannons, Gersher mortar units and so on.
This is to be expected given that many soldiers
in the Plagues armies were formerly marines
and defence contractors taken in battle
defending their homeworlds or corporate
installations. While they may not have the
same accuracy or discipline as they did before
infection, a Stage 3 with a Beastmaster rifle is
still a credible threat.
They are also the Plagues pilots and drivers,
operating its Hornet dropships and Lancer
tanks and, it is believed, its interstellar vessels.
The materiel looted as the Plague burns its
path across the galaxy can make its armies
sizeable threats to whatever they choose as
their next target.
What determines whether a victim becomes a
zombie or Stage 3 seems likely to be a genetic
variant in the host. The stability of whatever
particular strain of mutagen is introduced
cannot be ruled out either though - there are
believed to be several substrains at large in
the Plague population. But the potential of
a biological agent that produces soldiers as
ferocious and determined as the Uglies is clear
to many within the GCPS. The only drawback
some might see is their unpredictability. If the
key to controlling both the mutation and the
mutants could be cracked, it would certainly
make someone very powerful indeed.
171
Tracking
Tracking the movement of Plague fleets can
be a difficult task, at least for GCPS vessels.
Asterian ships may have cloaking technology
that enables them to stay in closer range to
the Plagues commandeered vessels, but
they are not a race known for sharing their
intelligence with other races. Likewise, the
Forge Fathers have scanning equipment
that is superior to that produced by the
corporations, but they have a tendency to
only pass on information when they believe
it is in their advantage to do so.
Nevertheless, analysts at Corporation
Central have identified what they believe
are several large fleets operating primarily in
the western part of the GCPS. No pattern in
their movements has as yet been identified
and, at first glance, their movements might
appear random and chaotic. But, if this
is the case and the Plague are operating
by savage instinct, they have an uncanny
knack of both seeming to avoid each other
and being able to find GCPS installations
and colonies with alarming frequency.
 Tooth and Claw
It is perhaps unsurprising that for most
Plague armies the primary attack strategy
is to get its large Stage 1 and 2 mutants into
combat range as quickly as possible. They are
the plague

uniquely deadly killers - heavily armoured,

vicious to the core, and extremely difficult
to stop. Plague Lords have at their disposal a
number of different strategies with which to
achieve this goal.

For many, the first line of attack is waves of

Stage 3Z infected. Hordes of zombies are
neither fast nor capable of using any weaponry.
But they are fearless and unshakable and
the mutations to their physiology can make
them far more resistant to damage than
their natural forms. If they are not stopped
with decisive firepower, but allowed to close
with an enemy, their abnormally long and
sharpened teeth and claws, coupled with a
Plague-given bloodlust, will enable them to
literally tear through their enemies. Reports
of cannibalism are common too, although
corporate commanders would do well to
squash such stories immediately. It is, after
all, bad enough to have to gun down things
that may once have been your comrades in
arms - the risk of being eaten by them if you
dont is often more than a standard marine
can stomach.
Infected humans are not the only life-form
Plague armies can include. Mutated packs of
canines, or Plague Hounds, and swarms of
Murderbirds, flying creatures that can range
in size from insect swarms to large birds,
can add an extra layer of harassment and
confusion to a battlefield. They are effective
screens and skirmishers, attacking enemy
lines from the flanks or in advance of other
mutants, because no matter how well-drilled
or equipped a marine may be, it is nigh-on
impossible to fire a rifle accurately when an
alien bird is attempting to eat your eyeballs or
a blood-covered canine is at your throat.

172
While closing with an enemy and tearing him
or her limb from limb seems to be an instinct
hard-wired into the Plague, they are not all
unrestrained beasts. Many armies can have
a strong mechanised component, including
Mules, Hornets, and even Lancers of corporate
origin. Their Stage 3 drivers and operators
retain enough knowledge of their equipments
workings to operate them on a battlefield,
although it has to be said they do not pay
much attention to general maintenance. They
do not have access to the same supply chain as
a corporate force does either and so it is not
uncommon to see a Plague-operated Lancer
with missing armour plates or a Hornet
lacking some of the precision flying ability one
might expect. While they may be less accurate
and reliable than their GCPS counterparts,
their guns are no less deadly and an enemy
commander would do well not to dismiss
their threat out of hand.
173
Dealing with a massed horde of the infected
can be a challenging task, particularly if they
are supported by mechanised weaponry.
Indeed, much of the Plagues success and the
extent of its penetration into the GCPS is due
to its relentless momentum, simply rolling
over its enemies and picking up numbers as
it goes. Maintaining morale and preventing
panic can be as big a threat to a marine
commandant or Forge Lord Huscarl as tooth
and claw. They must maintain firm discipline
over their troops to stop them being broken
before the first shot is even fired. Focused fire
is a priority, dealing with charging hordes as
quickly as possible and avoiding becoming
bogged down in protracted combats. Target
selection is also vital - a Lord or Leaper must
not be allowed to cover any neutral ground
unopposed and a combination of suppressive
fire and high power weaponry must be used.
The Darkest Corners
On its surface, the GCPS is a shining
monument a testament to market forces and
technological innovation working together to
create a new vision of the universe. The Core is
filled with numerous cities of gleaming metal
towers, shining in the light of a thousand suns
and stretching towards skies filled with state
174
of the art personal transports and massive,
luxurious starliners.
Every day, countless colonists ship out on a
journey of discovery, seeking new worlds to
bring into the fold. Wherever they land, they
build new colonies, outposts and settlements
with seemingly incessant motivation to ever-
expand the territory of the GCPS.
 the veer-myn
But scratch beneath the polished veneer of
this thriving utopia, look more closely and
you will find something lurking in the darkest
corners something from which most GCPS
citizens would run screaming in terror. And
rightly so. For beneath the cities, in the
sewers and transport networks, in the crawl
spaces and ducting of giant spacecraft, in the
175
shadowy, hard to reach places - here reside the
Veer-myn.
Most corporate installations and larger
starships support at least one nest of them,
sometimes unknowingly, and shipping
planners have included allowances for losses
to their pesky pilfering for almost as long as
man has travelled amongst the stars.
 At first, the Veer-myn rarely took enough to
cause any serious inconvenience to their hosts
and were generally not considered dangerous
enough to warrant anything more than the
occasional mustering of a hunting party to
the veer-myn

thin their numbers. They were classified by

most as benign parasites and easily overlooked
given how many other far more visible and
aggressive threats exist. Their seemingly
random and haphazard migrations across
the galaxy were allowed to continue almost
completely unchecked.
This oversight may prove to be more expensive
than anyone could have imagined.

The true strength and numbers of Veer-

myn at large in the galaxy has been carefully
hidden, along with the awful depths their
experimentation with biological and
radioactive weaponry have plumbed. And
while in the past, their activities may have
been limited to the occasional rumoured
scuttling of a ship, or a rare incursion onto the
streets of a corporate colony, there are signs
that now they want more.
Increasing numbers of corporate ships are
going dark after reporting increased or
suspicious Veer-myn activities below decks,
and whole worlds have found themselves
suddenly enveloped by war. Accounts of great
swarms emerging from sewer grates and
mines, destroying or consuming everything
in their path abound, and have forced the
deployment of Enforcer battlegroups, marine
defense formations, and even the mobilisation
of other alien armed forces.
The cause of this sudden spike in aggression is
just one of the many mysteries that surround
one of the most enigmatic and opaque races
in the galaxy. Their motives and means are
unclear, but something has spooked them and
they are on the move.

176
First Contact,
Origins & History
The exact origins of the Veer-myn race are
lost to history. They keep no written records
of their own and showed no interest in early
attempts at diplomacy by the GCPS beyond
eating the diplomats. But although the advent
of the Corporation and, in particular, the
McKinley drive, has certainly increased the
dispersal and numbers of the Veer-myn, they
were known as a menace to other civilisations
long before man took to the stars.
Neither Asterians nor Forge Fathers have
any tolerance for Veer-myn. The Dwarfs in
particular have a low opinion of the Veer-myn
race and most of their own space-going vessels
have elaborate detection systems to prevent
any infestation. Despite this, the widespread
nature of Forge Father interests across the
galaxy, their frequent interaction with GCPS
sites, and the prevalence of mining operations
amongst their concerns, means conflict
between the two is more frequent than either
side would like.
How many Veer-myn live within the territory
of the Asterians is unknown - Asterians are
even more closed to outside scrutiny than
the Veer-myn. But, as the armies of Asteria
make more frequent appearances in strength
in the galaxy outside their borders, reports of
war between Cyphers and Nightcrawlers are
increasingly common.
As for the GCPS, in its early days when even
intra-system journeys could take months or
years, old navvies tales of giant rat-men and
carnivorous saboteurs living in the darkest
corners of their ships were widely believed to
be the result of people having spent too long
alone in space. Attitudes changed significantly
when the crew of the Sitakund returned to
port with the frozen torso of an unidentified
stowaway in their deep-freezer.
It had been recovered, they said, from a
cargo hold that had unexpectedly ruptured
to vacuum during close passage with a
rogue comet. It was dubbed a Veer-myn, in
reference to its bestial resemblance of the
kind of creatures that had historically infested
ships back on Old Earth, and many sailors
professed their presence on a ship was a kind
of good luck charm. At least, they did until the
disappearance of the Jindal Manjula.
177
Forsberg
The Veer-myn were fast - faster than almost
anything Forsberg had seen before and
certainly more vicious than anything he
wanted to believe was possible. They rolled
down the walls at the edge of the square like
a tide of hissing flesh, breaking the marine
lines into small islands of desperate hand-
to-hand combat.
There were yet more Veer-myn still on
the rooftops, firing their weird chemical
weapons down onto the combatants. The
goo the weapons launched glowed a sickly
yellow and stank worse than the creatures
themselves. It was corrosive too. Forsberg saw
one man take a hit to the chest and scream
as his armour smoked and burned. He tried
to pull his chestplate off and screamed again
as the bubbling mix of ceramics and metallic
fibreweave seared into his hands.
Forsberg snapped off a shot at a charging
Veer-myn, but the thing, impossibly, dodged
the blast. It leaped to one side, then vaulted
one-legged off a low stone bench and seemed
to twist and change direction in mid-air
until it was coming straight at him again. It
wore no helmet, but a series of metal plates
had been bolted onto its skull above gleaming
eyes and a mouth full of dirty yellow teeth.
It carried long knives, one in each clenched
fist, and it raised them as it sprang towards
him. At the last second Forsberg reversed his
grip on his rifle and swung it like a club. The
stock impacted on the Veer-myns jaw with a
clang and the monster dropped like a stone.
He stamped down on its exposed neck,
snapping it like a dried twig, and felt the
body still twitching as he fired off more shots
at other forms darting around him. There
was no shortage of targets and Forsberg
knew he was doomed. This would be his
platoons last stand.
the veer-myn
At 950,000DWT, the Manjula was a big
ship and she tanked massive quantities of
chemicals under the banner of the Singh
Corporation. During one such voyage,
Corporation Central began receiving a series
of increasingly panicked-sounding messages
from the Manjula. The first came from her
captain, reporting unusual Veer-myn activity
near one of the forward storage tanks. A day
later the first mate reported that her captain
was dead and that she was now unlocking
the emergency weapons lockers. Hours after
that, a clearly terrified Second Mate Chaise
Jaustin sent the final communication from
the Manjula. Jaustin hurriedly explained
that several of the crew had disappeared and
several more were most certainly dead. As the
transmission broke up into a cloud of garbled
static, Jaustins last words spoke of sealing
himself into his quarters until a rescue party
arrived.
The Manjula was not seen or heard of again
for twelve standard months, despite a private
marine vessel being dispatched to her last
known position and a system-wide alert notice
being sent out by Central. Eventually she
drifted near enough to a manned monitoring
station to be recovered. Of her crew there
were no survivors - there was no life on the
ship at all, in fact.
178
There were signs of armed struggle aboard,
including chemical burn marks around the
barricaded entrances to the bridge and crew
quarters, and members of the salvage team
reported a smell like curdled milk pervaded
the corridors. But the second mate was
nowhere to be found. Neither were three of
the Manjulas massive chemical tanks.
Word of the ghost ship and speculation as
to what had happened to her spread faster
than Corporation Centrals rumour counter-
measures could. Eventually the GCPS had no
option but to confirm that rogue Veer-myn
could present a minor danger and announce
all ships should take whatever measures
they believed were necessary to prevent
such losses. Most large vessels immediately
upgraded their stored complement of firearms
and many private security firms experienced
a significant and very welcome uptick in
contracts for onboard protection forces. But
still, memories fade, and for the most part the
Veer-myn kept away from humans. Occasions
where they did not were quickly buried by
Central. So their presence was tolerated and
their nests, unseen and un-numbered, grew
alongside and within the GCPS. The saying
now goes, wherever you are in the galaxy, you
are never more than ten metres away from a
Veer-myn. In fact, in much of the GCPS, the
real distance is actually considerably smaller.
The Nature of the Beast The precise combination of hormones
expressed while the Brood Mother is pregnant
A Veer-myn foot soldier, or Nightcrawler, is determines the fate of each litter she delivers.
roughly equivalent in mass and dimensions A Brood Mother has never been captured
to a human, tail notwithstanding, and can
alive by the GCPS - most are simply destroyed
either stand upright, like a man, or rapidly
skitter on all fours, using its tail for balance on sight, such is the danger they pose - so how
in both cases. Their bones are far less brittle much control a Mother has over this is not
than a mans and experimentation by GCPS known. But most of her pups will form into
intelligence analysts has shown their joints gangs and live the entirety of their short lives
may be dislocated far more easily too. This together and in the service of their nest. These
is no doubt a useful quality when trying are its foot soldiers, the brethren, the gangs
to squeeze through the smaller gaps in of Nightcrawlers, Stalkers and Creepers
the architectures of other races. But, while that gather goods and supplies and form the
Nightcrawlers form the majority of Veer- nests first line of defence. They are all utterly
myn most humans ever see, their race is in devoted to the Brood Mother as she occupies
fact one of the most morphologically varied a position in their minds similar to that of the
species yet encountered by the GCPS. Form queens of other, less advanced societies.
often denotes function and, far from being
an ill-disciplined horde, Veer-myn society
is as well-defined and stratified as any other
advanced civilisation.
Veer-myn live in closed groups known as
colonies. A colony will usually have a fixed
base or area it calls home but may be made up
of several nests - distinct and smaller groups
of Veer-myn either sent out purposefully to
expand the colonys territory or occasionally
developing as a result of internal strife.

Order within each nest begins and ends with

its Brood Mothers. These are female Veer-
myn, grown prodigiously large in comparison
to their offspring from receiving the best
quality foodstuffs their nest can provide and
regularly giving birth to large litters of pups.
A small colony may only have one Brood
Mother but a larger population may have
several with a Mother in each nest. No matter
the number though, one female will always
identify as being dominant over all others.
Neither age nor size is the determinant factor
in this hierarchy. Instead, as in most aspects of
Veer-myn life, pure viciousness is the quality
most likely to push a Brood Mother to survival
and success. At least one civil war has been
recorded between rival Mothers within a nest
and such conflicts can be no less bloody than
any war with another species. There is even
the potential for such struggles to spill out
onto the streets of whatever GCPS settlement
the nest lies beneath.

179
 While most of her offspring are thus destined
for unremarkable and anonymous lives, a
rare few will instead become Maligni by a
differentiation process again believed to be
decided in the womb.
the veer-myn

If the Brood Mother is a nests beating heart,

the Maligni are its brains. They serve as the
colonys technicians and armourers, and some
will even be fortunate enough to be selected as
Progenitors - the fathers of the nest. Primarily
the Maligni live deep within a colony, in
workshops and laboratories protected by
the bulkiest and most grotesque Veer-myn
imaginable. These areas are constantly abuzz
with the sounds of rumbling machinery and
rattling equipment as the Maligni repurpose
the parts and materials their Nightcrawler
servants have appropriated from whatever
society to which the nest is attached. They
are capable machinists, creating tunnelling
devices to enlarge their territory, powerful
laser weapons, and serviceable if not
particularly advanced armour.
Many Maligni also show a talent for
microbiology and it is worth noting the Veer-
myn themselves are highly resistant to many
of the most virulent diseases known in the
galaxy. They are suspected of using some of
these agents as weapons against corporate
citizens in several instances. The weeping
sickness that swept through the colonists on
Sarens World and the infectious protozoa
that wiped out the marines aboard the CSS
Gray Tranquillo have both been attributed to
particular Maligni, although this has not been
proven. However useful they may find micro-
organisms, many Maligni have rather larger
ambitions.
Given time and resources, a Malignus in a
sizeable nest may build the vat-farms and
tissue synthesisers necessary to mutate the
weakest runts in a litter into the ferocious
monsters known as Nightmares. These huge
beasts are barely stable, genetically and
mentally, but serve the dual-purpose of being
able to carry very heavy weapons into combat
and literally terrify their enemies.
Perhaps even worse foes are the failures of
such procedures - the Night Terrors. First
encountered in the gas mining platforms of
the Rzeszow system, marine teams sent to put
down an uprising of Veer-myn were startled
to find an oncoming line of Nightcrawlers
suddenly part to reveal a massive quadrupedal
beast. It was covered in what looked like
repurposed fan blades from the cooling ducts,
sharpened enough to slice clean through un-
protected flesh, while its head and forelegs
were covered in layers of more traditional
Veer-myn plated armour. It immediately
charged the marines, killing several and
wounding others, thus forcing a hasty retreat
to the upper levels of the installation. The
beast, or the Terror as it was labelled, and the
uprising were eventually put down, but only
by an extended and expensive firebombing
campaign that saw large numbers of orbital
miners put out of action for several months,
as well as the loss of several more marines to
savage counter-attacks.

180
Whether the Maligni are truly inventive, or
merely highly skilled at adapting the devices
other races have created is a subject of some
debate amongst xeno-biologists in the core.
What is certain is that they are effective.
Nevertheless there is clearly a high bias of
power in Veer-myn society towards its females.
Exactly why this is the case is unclear. It may
simply be a matter of numbers - very few of
a Mothers offspring will ever be female while
males capable of donating genetic material
are comparatively common. Whatever the
reason, while all the Veer-myn in a nest might
die to protect a Brood Mother, not many will
put themselves at risk for a Progenitor.
Even less common than female pups is the
birth of the phenomenon known as a Tangle.
Believed for years to be nothing more than
a spacefarers legend and still dismissed by
many as an artefact of fear-mongers, several
partial remains have now been recovered
from confirmed operations around the galaxy.
Autopsies indicate that as few as three and as
many as ten individual juvenile Veer-myn,
small in size and all-white in colouration, may
form each Tangle. They are congenitally joined
together by the fusing of their tails and, to add
to the horror, each head in the group appears
to have had its eyes gouged out shortly after
birth. Researchers at the ETCU have posited
that this damage may have been carried out
by the nests Maligni, perhaps in attempts to
destroy the abnormal young.
They could barely be more wrong.
181
A Tangle is revered by the Maligni of any
nest to which it is born and held in awe by
the junior castes. The veneration and respect
accorded to it is the closest thing Veer-myn
have to a religion. It serves as both a totem
and an omen, a sign of great and possibly
terrible things to come, and the Maligni will
go to great lengths to preserve and protect it.
A Brood Mother determined to be carrying
one in her womb-cavity will usually be moved
into seclusion before giving birth, for her own
protection as much as her offsprings, as the
prestige associated with a Tangles birth might
inspire rival Brood Mothers to make moves to
kill her.
But the danger is not only external. The Tangle
possesses a kind of psychic power and its
birth is accompanied by screams felt as much
as heard, deep within the brethrens minds.
Entire nests can be driven to madness by these
psychic screeches and several corporate sites
have found themselves besieged by hordes of
insanely agitated Veer-myn as a result. A mad
mix of terror and anger drives them on to an
unstoppable fury of killing and consumption
and the blinding of the Tangle is believed,
at least by the Maligni that carry out the
procedure, to enhance their powers. Some see
the future or can read minds, and many can
and do use this skill to influence the growth of
a nest and the course of battles. Such power,
while not entirely understood, is naturally
of great interest to the Council of Seven and
there is a high bounty on a live and intact
specimen.
 Prominent Clans
Part of the problem with studying the Veer-
myn is that their movements and migrations
are unpredictable and often surprising.
the veer-myn
Outposts and installations believed secure and
safe can be taken off-guard when a nest erupts
into violence. Others find the populations
of Veer-myn that lived beneath their streets
disappearing overnight. However, there are
some nests that appear more stable or settled
than others.
The Vesperus sector in the galactic north-east
of the GCPS comprises more than a dozen
permanently inhabited worlds with hundreds
of mining, harvesting, and manufacturing
outposts on its smaller moons, asteroids,
and solar-orbit space stations. It is a thriving
industrial centre, full of large cities with
regular interplanetary and intergalactic
shipping; conditions that have led to an
equally prosperous Veer-myn population.
Leadership of the ruling nest in the sector is
unusual in that it consists of not one but three
Brood Mothers with none being identifiable
as the senior partner. This dtente is made
possible by the three being sisters from the
same litter and having grown to maturity
together. Their grip on the nest is unshakeably
strong and enhanced by a coterie of Maligni
who maintain an extensive spy network, using
their tunnellers, tunnel runners, and the best
Creepers to obtain intelligence and relay
orders. The trio have further extended their
reach by sending several female offspring
to start new colonies on outlying worlds in
the system - far enough away not to pose a
physical threat to their own rule, but still close
enough to be held under their sway.
182
The Veer-myn are also quite capable of survival
in harsher environments. Founded early in the
fourth expansion of the GCPS, the colony of
Cold Harbour was intended to become a relay
station for traffic both electronic and material,
as it was located close to slide points linking the
south-eastern edge of Asterian space with the
interior of the Core. Several orbital dockyards
and intelligence stations were constructed and
the lease-owners of the sector sat back and
waited for the credits to roll in.
From Sewer to Spotlight
Veer-myn nests and colonies are, by nature,
closed to outsiders and, as has been noted,
most of a Brood Mothers offspring will
spend their entire lives near her. There
are however several recorded examples of
individual Veer-myn being at least partially
integrated into different groups. The Piper
is one such case, as is the infamous saboteur
Hacker, commonly referred to as the Half-
Tail by corporate troops. Both have been
spotted involved in several conflicts, some of
which were thousands of light years apart,
observations which suggest two things.
Firstly, that the Veer-myn are capable of
much more purposeful interstellar travel
than anyone in the GCPS would like
to believe. Secondly, that nests may be
somehow communicating with each other
over vast distances - something even the
GCPS struggles to do at times.
There is also the question of what happened
to the original home nests of these
wandering Veer-myn. Were they wiped
out by GCPS purges? Or were they thrown
out of their colonies for some other reason?
And does their existence finally prove that
the teams of so-called Veer-myn seen in
DreadBall arenas are just that - genuine
Veer-myn that have decided their rightful
place in the GCPS is not within its shadows
but in its spotlights?
Trade between the two states never took off,
and when the relationship between man and
Asterian cooled even further in the wake of
events in the Death Arc the colony found itself
unwanted and unnecessary. Dozens of space
stations were abandoned or mothballed as
their crews moved on to other opportunities,
but they were not empty for long. Nomad
corporations and smuggling gangs quickly
moved in to take advantage of the ready-made
bases but soon found they were not alone. A
large nest of Veer-myn, led by a Brood Mother
guided by her Tangle offspring, had also made
Cold Harbour their home and co-exist now
with the new human residents. Quite why the
nest chose such an isolated spot to stop in is
unclear. Perhaps they feel safer being far from
the main shipping lanes and eyes of the GCPS
and are satisfied living off the illicit trade
running through the sector. Or perhaps they
have another as yet unrevealed but uniquely
Veer-myn motive for wanting to be in a
particular place in the galaxy at this time.
The Veer-myn are certainly highly
opportunistic, but they are also not above
more directly manipulating other races for
their own ends.
When war broke out between the two
corporations leasing the planet Terrus in
the Semarite system, both sides were quick
to place the blame on the other. ADP Power
claimed their hydro-electric plants had been
sabotaged in order to force them to relinquish
their rights. Their erstwhile partners,
Samarand Ventures Inc., accused ADP in
turn of stealing chemical stocks and parts
183
meant for its frontier workers. The arguments
quickly escalated into armed conflict, trade
agreements and contracts being ripped up
as the former collaborators, now bitter rivals,
each sought to take control of the entire planet
for themselves. In fact, neither side were truly
to blame for the losses they had suffered. A
Veer-myn colony, grown to an incredible size
had, for reasons known only to its own Brood
Mother and Maligni, decided to claim more
territory for itself and had been sending its
Creepers to the surface for some time. It was
they who were responsible for leeching power
from the hydro-electric plants while the
nests Stalkers had been quietly and carefully
stealing portions of shipments of goods to the
frontier and moving them into the workshops
of the Maligni.
As GCPS units went to war, hordes of Veer-
myn, notably scores of massive Nightmares
and Night Terrors, the results of a mutagenic
program of hitherto unimaginable scale, rose
up in the wake of each battle to finish off what
was left of the winners. For each victory the
corporate armies won, they the lost dozens
or hundreds of men to opportunist attacks
by the Veer-myn. ADP and Samarand were
eventually both driven off the planet and
broken by the losses they incurred. The
deployment of large quantities of high-
persistence bio-warfare agents, a failed and
joint last-ditch attempt to exterminate the
nest, also made most of Terrus a no-go area for
any but the most heavily armed and protected
humans. The planet now, in effect, belongs to
new masters.
Classified: Delta Lvl Clearance & Above Only The Veer-myn really did a number on that
place. I watched a bit of the security vid they
Subject: Transcript of vidcomm recording sent brought back and, it aint pretty. But they did
over secure net to ETCU Institute, Torstar IV bring me something good. An almost intact
by Senior Analyst James van der Steen, Reiss Veer-myn weapon. (Sound of metal clanking)
Advanced Materials Testing Facility. This thing, its designed to fire a kind of goop.
Subject: Analysis of alien tech recovered Yeah, thats the technical term. It still had
by marine team from destroyed corporate a full tank of this stuff attached to it as well.
outpost, Govin Mining 012, incident number It really stinks. I opened it up in the fume
67354/1223 cupboard and it still stank out the whole floor.
Now, most of this stuff, the firing mechanism,
Ok, so I finished looking over the stuff the the frame, the barrelling, its all clearly our
team brought back from the mining outpost. stuff. I mean, corporate. They just repurposed
Well, most of it was completely shekked. But it. I even found a part number engraved on
thats no surprise. 184the pressure chamber valve
Traced it back to a tractor assembly plant on But thats not all. And I need you to hear
Talamone. But the goop, well, thats something this. This is why I dont want anything more
they cooked up all by themselves again. We to do with these, these things. I watched the
ran it through a few of the machines on the recordings the marines made. They found
lab levels. Its mostly acids, industrial ones, Ive the missing miners. Most of them. There was
sent you the list. But theres a couple others we a chamber on the edge of the nests tunnels.
havent been able to id entify. Highly reactive Looks like one of the last places the miners
though, whatever they are. Thats whats had dug out. There were a bunch of bodies
letting them burn through the armourweave in there. What was left of them. But none of
weve been using. It would have had no them were armed and the marines dont think
they all died at the same time. They dont think
problem getting through the miners gear. In they all died quickly either. Sir, I think the
fact, I know it didnt. Weaves will slow it, and Veer-myn were using Govin as their materials
heavier stuff, plate ceramics and coated metals testing facility.
will probably neutralise it. But anything less
than that will burn. 185 >>>report ends<<<
the veer-myn
Signature Weapons
The corporate stereotype of the Veer-myn race
is one of creatures barely above the level of
beasts. Their appearance plays a part in this,
reinforcing the notion that Veer-myn are the
mutated descendants of the rats that mankinds
early starbound voyagers unintentionally
brought with them. However, Maligni are
talented technologists, making particularly
effective use of machinery stolen from other
races and employing biological agents those
same races would prefer to avoid to great effect.
An emphasis on spray, on marking both
territory and intent, can be seen in much of
Veer-myn weaponry, most obviously Spray
guns. The basic payload of these weapons is
a chemical soup cooked up according to the
design of the dominant Progenitor in a nest.
It is a mix of corrosive and noxious - to non-
Veer-myn - materials as well as pheromones
signifying the identity of the nest and its
Maligni. These are truly signature weapons
and Chem-thrower guns are similarly armed,
flinging packets of the mixture, again scented
to signify the Malignus or nest that made the
weapon.
186
Lasers also appear to fascinate the brightest
minds in a nest - this may be due to the Veer-
myns wider perception of the visible spectrum,
or it might just be they like seeing things burn.
The ray guns carried by Nightcrawlers use a mix
of radioactive materials and gases to produce
beams as dangerous, though somewhat less
focused or accurate, as many other laser
weapons in common use. An interesting side
note is that the effect of the radiation these
guns leak on their bearers has not yet been
thoroughly researched. It is plausible, given the
typical Veer-myn resistance to many diseases
and contagions, they are also entirely immune
to radiological damage. Alternately, the short
lifespan of the average Veer-myn foot soldier
could simply mean they are usually dead before
any ill effects can manifest.
While the Veer-myn are distrustful of
many other races, they are certainly not
above appropriating and repurposing their
equipment. Adaptability is a hallmark of their
race, after all. But what can initially appear to
be random losses or faults in machinery can
often turn out to be far more purposeful thefts
or sabotages.
The clearest example of this is in the huge
subterranean transports known as tunnellers.
These great machines can clear large amounts
of ground, using mechanically-driven grinders
to drill down and enlarge a nests territory or
to transport its warriors into battle.
Analysis of a tunneller recovered from the
battle at Wreaks Hill revealed that although
the armoured shell, drive shafts, and other
internal components were are all clearly stolen
from GCPS miners, its engine was custom-
built and powered by a dangerously unstable
and potentially toxic chemical motor. Similar
machinery has been recovered elsewhere,
including from several of the monowheel
tunnel runners used by the Veer-myn as both
messengers and attack vehicles. A breakdown
of the foul-smelling liquid fuel used by these
creations suggests a level of toxicity sufficient
to slowly degrade and destroy the brains of
their Veer-myn drivers.
If this supposition were to be true, it is perhaps
of little matter to the nest - there are, after all,
always more Night Crawlers willing to entrust
their bodies to the Malignis machines.
187
Two-Toes
Two-Toes knew he was going to like this world. It
was already better than the ship, the only home
he had known before this one. The Arcturus had
been cold and damp, and food was sometimes
hard to come by. This new world was warm and
inviting. It smelled better too.
He stopped crawling for a moment and tested
the air. Yes, they were near. His stomach growled
in anticipation and he moved on again, his body
held high, his remaining claws clicking on the
metal surface of the duct. Behind him he could
hear the sounds of fighting - gunfire, screaming,
the higher pitched squeals from the brethren
outside the building he had slipped into. But
Two-Toes was only interested in what he could
smell. It was strange the way the humans marked
their territory. This place, just like the ship, was
covered in painted markings and he understood
how they worked. But he thought the Veer-myn
way was better. A scent-marking told you so
much more than just looking at something. Like
who made it, how long ago, whether they were
above you in the nests hierarchy, whether you
needed to be afraid of them or could dominate.
Much better. But then a lot of what the humans
did was strange. Most of them had slept through
the whole journey to this new world. He had
watched them, creeping onto the decks where
they kept their ice-cold beds and peering
through the glass at their sleeping faces, his
breath misting and freezing over his reflection.
They slept while the nest grew. So strange.
But they had still, despite being so backwards,
managed to get the ship all the way here, to this
new home, this new colony.When they did, the
Brood Mother had ordered the brethren to rise
up and board the shuttles that were departing
for the planets surface. She had boarded one too
and she was safe now in her new chambers. But
the humans had realised they had brought extra
passengers down with them from the Arcturus
and had tried to stop them. That had been their
big mistake. The brethren would not let anyone
hurt the Mother and so they had fought back.
Two-Toes stopped again. Shafts of yellow light
from the room beneath him lit up his eyes as he
peered down. The smell was unbearably strong
now and he could see movement too. Three
humans. Unarmed. At least one wounded. He
had tracked their scent a long way across the
colony and his stomach now felt achingly empty.
He tested the slats that separated him from
his targets - they bent slightly with only a little
resistance and he smiled in the semi-darkness of
his hiding spot. He pulled his long curved knife
slowly from its sheath on his waist and prepared
to break into the room beneath him.
 Veer-myn at War
The most obvious asset available to the Veer-
myn is numbers. Large colonies may have
hundreds of Night Crawlers at their disposal
the veer-myn
Creepers, the specialist saboteurs of a nest, can
also wreak havoc on enemy equipment and
supply lines, causing vehicles to explode and
spreading disease amongst personnel, and the
psychic pressure of a Tangle can make a Veer-

and Stalkers will also quickly make dead men
of almost any unit with which they get into
combat. These low-caste soldiers may lack the
discipline and training of more professional
forces, but, having been part of a gang since
the moment of their birth, they are still highly
co-ordinated, especially if accompanied by a
Malignus. A well-led horde of Veer-myn is a
force to be reckoned with.
myn unit unstoppable or drive an enemy one
insane.
GCPS commanders attempting to defend the
colonies on Sprees Bounty were horrified to
see wings of Hornet dropships fall from the
sky thanks to cunning cuts to their control
wires made the night before battle.
Matters only got worse when several frontline
units began to gibber unintelligibly, many
men dropping to the ground shrieking
and moaning before turning their guns on
neighbouring platoons.

Waves of screeching Veer-myn rapidly spilling

forth from their lairs or lines of charging
Night Terrors scything platoons apart can be a
terrifying enemy for any soldier, and cunning
Veer-myn commanders will use this to their
advantage. These charging hordes are quite
capable of overwhelming any enemy if they
are not dealt with swiftly enough, but they
may also be used as a distracting element. It
is often what is not seen that is the greatest
threat from a Veer-myn nest.
The tunnellers the Maligni use to expand their
territory can also be used to deploy units well
behind enemy gun lines or within fortified
positions. There are unconfirmed accounts
of entire subterranean trains, tunnellers
with multiple troop compartments in tow,
delivering hundreds of Night Crawlers to a
fight. It has been suggested the exact point
at which they breach the surface is as much
a surprise to their passengers as it is to their
targets, but tunnellers can still be devastatingly
accurate. The Forge Fathers at Ekfritt Point
learned this to their cost when the laagers
of their Sturnhammer tanks were infiltrated
without warning by scores of Night Crawlers
and Tunnel Runner monowheels. The Dwarfs
tanks were quickly annihilated, most of their
Steel Warriors and Forge Guard units having
been drawn forward from their lines earlier
to engage several rampaging Nightmares, and
the Point was abandoned soon thereafter.

188
 CSS Zloveshy Vassily

The universe is full of as many horrors as wonders - something the men and women who run
the GCPS would prefer its citizens not be reminded of too often. At least, not unless someone is
marketing a newly developed weapon system.
Yet rumours persist, permeating through the bars and culture sinks of space stations and merc
outposts throughout the GCPS like smoke through narc pipes. Horror stories of monsters, of ships
being lost to the vacuum, things being found that ought to have been left alone. Most are simply
variations on well-trodden themes - ghost stories told around camp fires by brave men trying to
scare each other. But occasionally one will have a ring of truth those who hear it find too strong to
be simply laughed off. One such tale is that of the CSS Zloveshy Vassily.
The story goes the Vassily was a mid-sized freighter, too big for a McKinley Drive - the kind of
ship that would carry bulk materials such as pre-fab building components to and from outer
sphere worlds. Certainly not a military vessel and yet, for some reason, it did carry a contingent of
corporate marines.
Why the marines were there depends on who tells it and how many drinks they have been bought.
Some say the men were simply rotating home, others that they were guarding something - but what
that something was also varies. It was a stack of counterfeit credit chips, ten feet high. Or it was
some sort of radioactive cheese. The more serious tellers of the tale say it was genetic stock, the
DNA of some new kind of creature that had been cooked up by a shadow corporation out on the
fringe, being shipped back core-wards for further experiments. Whatever it was, everyone agrees
the ships colony of Veer-myn decided they wanted it too.
They tell of battles that followed, of Veer-myn throwing caustic goo at the marines, chewing through
wiring to sabotage the lights and life support, and pushing the marines further and further back
through the ship until - well, again, accounts vary of what happened next.
Some say the marines were all killed and eaten, or perhaps eaten and killed. Some say the last
marine alive blew up the ship and escaped aboard a life pod, only to find the biggest Veer-myn of
them all had climbed aboard with him. Still others say the ship remains adrift somewhere, its crew
all dead and the Veer-myn, hideously mutated by whatever was in the ships cargo hold, waiting in
silence for the first unfortunate salvage crew to board them and try to recover the vessel.
The story of the Vassily has been told thousands times with almost as many endings. Only one
man who tells it claims to have actually been there. He is an old man now, so, if he is telling the
truth, it must have all happened a long time ago. But he can most often be found in the Pans Jars
on Pleiades, tucked away in a corner booth. He says he wont let anyone get behind him again. He
wears an old marine uniform, its logo and service medals obscured by dirt and time. The only one
that can still be read at all is the first three letters on a name badge, fixed to his chest above his
heart, right next to what might be a sergeants insignia. It reads, Cru.

The Veer-myn are not entirely reliant on
feinting strikes and ambush tactics, however.
They can also bring to bear considerable
firepower in platform-mounted heavy lasers
and spray guns and raw muscle in the shape
of barely-controlled Nightmares. More heavy
weapons mounted on the backs of heavily
armoured Night Terrors can add to the
pressure, at least as long as their handlers can
maintain control over their beasts.
If a Veer-myn army has a weakness, it may be
its reliance on a single Brood Mother or her
Progenitor vassals for command and control.
A Mother will be heavily armoured, and
rarely at the forefront of her army. But still, if
she were to be killed it would spell disaster for
her nest.
The nature of her relationship with the troops
under her command is unlike that of any other
battlefield leader, and putting pressure on her
or, for similar reasons, a Tangle, will doubtless
force her to call her brood to her defence,
disrupting her plans. A wise commander,
if he can survive the onslaught of the rest of
the nests fighting strength, would do well
to execute her and the rest of her leadership
cadre as early as possible.

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192