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| "They Found Me…" by Pablo Dominguez |
Continued from Chapter 1.
I actually played out the first faction turn before we had our first proper session, but the first news of any of this didn't reach the crew until they were up in space after their exfiltration action. I had, with typical overzealousness, cooked up a whopping seven factions, but I had sense enough to realize, before we even started, that at least one of them was basically redundant; I cut it. (Four or five would probably work just as well, as it turns out, but I'm happy enough with six.)
Again, the map will probably be useful.
* * *
The faction roster includes three interstellar empires and three influential non-governmental organizations (albeit two of those three have enough influence on one planet each to function as a proxy for that planet's government). In approximate order from most to least powerful, these are the Commonwealth of Free Worlds, the Kyran Directory, the New Terran Empire, Seneschal Systems, the Aureus Meridian, and the Milieu. (I tried to give them all super distinct names but then changed the Milieu's name at the eleventh hour and ended up with two M-word abstract noun factions. Oops.)
The Commonwealth is our Sector superpower, with four heavily populated core worlds (the largest, Opis, homeworld of Mustang and Sarai, got the Regional Hegemon tag) and significant influence in another four neighboring systems. They control pre-Scream shipyards, vast resources, more than a billion citizens, and the Sector's biggest navy. Their political structure is somewhere in between Switzerland and socialist Yugoslavia; their general attitude is something like American exceptionalism crossed with East German paranoia. It's more or less a democracy, albeit a warlike one that thinks it has the right to police everybody else's space and is up to its eyeballs in panoptic surveillance. Their spy agency, IRIS, is omnipresent in the Sector and one of the crew's two main faction contacts, at least to start.
The Kyran Directory is the upstart challenger, a corporatist union between the nobility of the desert world Alzuhr (Rising Hegemon) and the floating zaibatsu city-states of the gas giant Magonia (Roman's homeworld). They've colonized the neighboring system, Koyash (including BQ's homeworld, Ayaz), and are pushing farther into the border worlds (aka the Spinward Bridge). They're phenomenally rich, and their companies' products are widely consumed beyond their borders, even by their economic rivals on Khabara (like Seneschal) and their political rivals in the Commonwealth.
The New Terran Empire is the result of a charismatic leader binding a bunch of squabbling pirate clans together, conquering the Earth-like planet, Munda, that neighbors the gas giant whose moons they (including Krissa) call home, and declaring it Terra Nova, the capital of a Mandate successor state. They're still struggling to establish a stable, functional planetary government, but that hasn't stopped them, too, from pushing toward the Spinward Bridge and claiming a colony of their own: Oriflamme, in the Arktos system. They may be a wobbly military dictatorship, but they have the Sector's second-biggest fleet and substantial resources.
Seneschal Systems is the biggest, most powerful megacorporation on cyberpunk dystopia world Khabara. They're principally known as the Sector's leading producer of expert systems, virtual intelligences, androids, and robotics in general, but they have subsidiaries in every product line imaginable. In the faction game, they function half as their own entity, half as a proxy for the entire Khabaran Corporate Council.
The Aureus Meridian, the least defined of the factions to start with, is a new religious movement founded in the former territory of the Sector's first would-be hegemon, a polity called the Fourfold League that was defeated by the Commonwealth a century ago. Central to their teaching is the notion that every being contains a spark of the divine and has an unrealized but (at least in humans) attainable potential for apotheosis. They too function as a proxy for their home planet—Tobal, in this case.
The Milieu, of course, is a loose criminal network based on Morrow (homeworld of Batias, starting location for the whole crew) but spread throughout the Spinward Bridge and beyond. They're responsible for smuggling, the production and procurement of widely banned commodities, protection rackets, illegal salvage from lost ships and ancient ruins, and so forth; they also control plenty of legitimate business ventures. They're the crew's other main introduction, alongside IRIS, to the factions.
* * *
I rolled some dice, and they decreed that the NTE would act first, followed, in order, by the Commonwealth, the Directory, Seneschal, the Milieu, and finally the Meridian.
The NTE have an Extended Theater and Postech Industry in Tovuz and Blockade Fleets and Saboteurs in Arktos. They kick things off by Using Asset Abilities: Their Postech Industry hits, gaining them an extra FacCred; their Blockade Fleets move to Penrose, and with a FacCred paid for the use of Extended Theater, their Saboteurs follow. There's a whole pile of other factions' assets in Penrose, which is home to two major populated worlds, Delphi and Temenos. The Empire might as well try to thin them out, and perhaps make a profit while they do.
I whipped up a news report:
PMG reports a massive uptick in ship traffic from Arktos, including approximately two dozen Imperial warships, among them the fleet cruisers Alkonost, Basilisk, and Gizo. Citing security concerns in Arktos and the need to identify and detain smugglers and terrorists operating from Temenos, the fleet has assumed blockade positions in orbit and is carrying out inspections of civilian traffic throughout the system; caution is advised for any ships traveling to Penrose. NTE security forces have also landed on Temenos itself. Representatives from the Kyran Directory have lodged a complaint with local Imperial representatives regarding this violation of an independent planet's sovereignty, and Kyran lobbyists have prevailed upon the Delphean regime to formally forbid the Imperial fleet from taking such actions in its space.
Next, the mighty Commonwealth. They've got assets all over the place: Capital Fleets and Space Marines in Volos; an Extended Theater, Party Machines, and Planetary Defenses in Usil; a Medical Center in Karyatis; Tripwire Cells in Marquez; and Popular Movements in Betharan. Right off the bat, they're using those Popular Movements—the coalition on Morrow covertly supported and guided by IRIS—to Seize Planet, formally declaring their intention to annex Morrow. The Milieu, the only other faction with assets in Betharan, can't afford to openly oppose the seizure. At the end of the third faction turn, the Commonwealth will become the official planetary government of Morrow (unless somebody rushes down and manages to bump off the Popular Movements—unlikely).
Momentous news from Opis: IPBC reports that, after years of lobbying by representatives of the Provisional Pan-Morrovian Government and months of debate, the Commonwealth Popular Assembly has voted in favor of, and the Executive Committee has ratified, a treaty of annexation. Morrow will, within a matter of months, join Opis, Marjan, Rustam, and Gombad as the fifth signatory of the Commonwealth Charter, and the fifth full member of the federation.
The Directory have Lobbyists in Penrose, Strike Fleets in Koyash, and Venture Capital and a Shipping Combine at home in Kyre. They Use Asset Abilities: the Strike Fleets move themselves to Istanu, the Venture Capital gains a FacCred, and the Shipping Combine, for two FacCreds, moves itself and the Venture Capital to Istanu. Seneschal has a Base of Influence in Istanu—they control a bunch of mines and other operations on Salafai—but have no other assets there to defend it. Makes sense for the Directory to try to push them out while they're defenseless.
AKN has broadcast a special report on Kyran investment in the Istanu system, which continues at a rapid pace. The success of Cloud Nine's Salafai-based subsidiary Ibis Brands has led to a flood of venture-capital activity in the system; meanwhile, Mariner Minerals has launched nearly a dozen new exploratory mining operations on Salafai's seafloor, and Kashgar Starlines has announced that the scope of their renovation and expansion project at Seven Miracles Station will be expanded yet again to accommodate projected increases in traffic. There was no mention of whether the substantial elements of the Allied Kyran Armada active in Istanu are part of a long-term increase in security for the system or merely staging for further moves.
Seneschal has Commodities Brokers in Penrose and Counterintel Units, Covert Shipping, and R&D Departments at home in Sanasar. They could move the Brokers to defend Istanu, but they'd risk losing them for no gain whatsoever if they act after the Directory again on the next faction turn. Instead, they elect to strike first, attacking the Directory's Lobbyists in Penrose. The attack fails. Whoops.
Commercial interests in the Penrose system linked to Khabaran megacorporation Seneschal Systems have joined the conversation regarding the recent Imperial police action around Temenos, weighing in on behalf of the Imperial fleet and accusing Kyran lobbyists of providing political cover for criminals and terrorists. Their efforts to expel Kyran representatives from Temenos and Delphi have thus far fallen on deaf ears, however; the Guild Council is divided, and the Delphean regime, in spite of its close ties to Seneschal, is firmly opposed to any Imperial presence in Penrose. Rumors swirl around the Imperial security forces recently established on Temenos, including unsubstantiated claims that Temenoans have been abducted to Imperial “black sites” and even that Imperial forces are planning a campaign of sabotage to prepare an invasion of the planet.
The Milieu, the smallest faction, start with only a Freighter Contract and Seditionists, although their weakness is substantially offset by the powerful faction tag Secretive, which gives all of their assets stealth. (As long as they don't antagonize the Commonwealth, locating all those stealthy assets probably just isn't worth the trouble.) They opt to start off by just buying a Harvester unit in Betharan.
It's business as usual in Freeport, even with reports that the Commonwealth's long-expected annexation of Morrow is imminent. PMG reporters spoke with confidential sources in several different syndicates, and there appears to be a near-total consensus that a symbiotic relationship with the new government will be possible and that, in fact, this development may offer the Milieu a back door into markets that have long been closed to it. At least two major Milieu-linked enterprises, Chauhan Farms and Radiant Services, have recently announced major new investments on Morrow, and observers have seen no obvious efforts by the syndicates to spirit personnel, assets, or infrastructure away from Betharan.
Finally, the Meridian acts. They have Demagogues and Lawyers at work in Penrose and a Covert Transit Net and Psychic Assassins in their home system, Mondrian. Demagogues are strong and Penrose is a target-rich environment; they opt to attack the NTE, whose expansion through Arktos seems to be the most immediate threat to their operations. Because the Demagogues will likely do enough damage to outright destroy either Imperial asset if they score a hit, the NTE opts to defend with the weaker, cheaper Saboteurs and preserve their Blockade Fleets. The attack is successful, and the massive damage is far more than enough to wipe out the poor Saboteurs. The Meridian's Lawyers attack next, with the Blockade Fleets defending; this time, only a max damage roll would be enough for a kill, and as it happens, the Lawyers' attack fails anyway.
PMG has received reports from Penrose that the ongoing crisis there has boiled over into violence, with a mob on Temenos overrunning a recently established Imperial security outpost in search of Temenoans allegedly kidnapped and tortured there; several dozen casualties are confirmed, and the toll is expected to rise. Imperial authorities have withdrawn their security forces from the surface of Temenos and issued a system-wide alert warning their citizens to avoid travel to or within Penrose; they have also stepped up their patrols of system space, blaming the violence on anti-Imperial demagogues and religious extremists backed by the Meridian and vowing to root out these “antisocial elements.” Lawyers representing the Meridian have accused Imperial forces of piracy and appealed to the Commonwealth for redress, but the CMN has not responded.
* * *
Fun stuff, but I did quickly recognize that I needed to make a few changes. For starters, the pace I'd set (with each faction's turn taking place on consecutive days, and the whole thing done in the course of a week) was ridiculous. Things were happening too fast to make sense in game terms (TL4 ships don't go fast enough to be jumping three hexes every seven days, at least not without giving their captains PC abilities) and too fast for the players to process the flood of news beyond picking up on the fact that Penrose was probably dangerous (still overzealous in all things, I had also introduced a bunch of non-faction news into the feed, including reports about the PCs' in-game actions and some pure scene-setting fluff). I resolved to slow it down and to randomize the intervals between actions in order to create a more interesting rhythm than "something happens every X days."
Next: Chapter 2.
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