Racing the Darkness - An Alpha Centauri Photologue

[Trenacker]

Views are still trending upwards, and I'm very grateful for that indeed. I hope folks are continuing to enjoy this unfolding saga.

If you're interested in contributing ideas of any kind, please consider joining our Discord community where we can continue the conversation informally. We hope to see you there!

Of course, questions and requests are always welcome here, as are contributions to the setting.

[Trenacker]

The argument for kings and government dies at the first moment of their weakness. Do not give your loyalty to someone who thinks they can forsake you without forsaking themselves. - Against All Others

Extrusive crystalline formations called njaa, from the Swahili word for hunger, colonized any site contaminated by nuclear radiation. Anyone willing to sweat--and probably fight--for the privilege could help themselves to a mineral, energy, and salvage bonanza. The foolhardiness of the venture could usually be ascertained by the number and contents of the many abandoned campsites that rose beneath the njaa pinnacles like hopeful weeds from the soil.

At almost 2,000m above sea level in a cleft of the Pholus Ridge, Chandler's Lookout, opposite the wreck of an old Unity cargo pod, stood silent and tempting testament to a long-dead Kellerite's severe miscalculations.

Danger on Chiron often correlated with desecration of habitat. Factions with no particular interest in Planetary Stewardship as a developmental choice turned to technologies and processes that provided temporary relief from harassment by native life. This Shaper Bastion, essentially a submersible strong room, accompanied divers searching for Planet pearls.

Mission recruits receive instruction on basic Landing Pod operations from the United States space agency. In the real event, successful flight operations turned out to depend not only upon competent pilots, but also dumb luck and sharp-eyed spotters, positioned at the view ports and communicating by radio, to help avoid obstructions. (The original plan called for a SORC-assisted departure.)

Sources:
First picture is "Mission to Minerva" by Jon White on ArtStation.

Second picture is "Deep Sea Sub" by Ben Harrison on ArtStation.

Third picture is "SR-7132N Deep Space Tow Tug Cockpit" by Ben Harrison on ArtStation.

[Trenacker]

We must first exclude to find the self. Then, we must include to perfect it. - Governor Oscar van de Graaf, Command Diary

Chironian waters were usually violent. Average wave height in the calmest seas was 12.8m, where lightning flash rates exceeded 500 instances over the 17.53 hour day. Unity Foils were self-righting for this reason and usually traveled in trios.

This Nauvoo Legion mountaineer is typical of her MOS in any faction military force. The articulated backpack contains 120m spools each of dynamic and static dry-core, dry-sheath rope with self-securing grapnels and glove-directed winch. The canister on the right hip contains Expansion Foam with which to make new holds. Her Morgan Military Mechanics SmartCarbine uses TV-guided ammunition monitored on the screen at her chest.[/img]

The motto of the British Special Air Service is "Who dares wins." Game Warden J.T. Marsh, a veteran of that unit, practiced the maxim, organizing a series of spectacular raids on Shaper bases in the Terryon Basin in M.Y. 23 and 24 that made use of diversionary attacks to facilitate hijacking of more than sixty precious 'Formers. It was a double victory in that most of the vehicles captured by the Hunter Probe Teams had once belonged to the American Reclamation Corporation.

Sources:
First image is "Sci-fi Boat" by Scott Robertson on ArtStation.

Second image is "Spacesuit" by Zongwei on ArtStation.

Third image if "Photobash Practice" by Zongwei on ArtStation.

[MysticWind]

Pirate Bombers

Nirvana... it ain't free. But sometimes it's yours for the taking. - wisdom from the Riders of the Red Tide

The Lord Brethren High Muckety-Muck and all the little kelp-eaters 'boxing Marley in their suits will tell you of the sea. They'll tell you its might, its majesty. And they'll tell you how real it feels to flit over its waves whether by foil or by foam. Now you listen to me carefully. When you're out there, what is really real is how little you are. And the sea knows it. It can't stop telling you. - Forty Years Aweigh

Not all of the piratical kingdoms and clans of the Nautilus nation are content to commune with the ocean through cold metal boxes and eternaglass bubbles. Some dare to ride the waves themselves. This practice was invented by George Mana Kaimana of the Royal Hawaiian Rifles, a private security firm contracted by the New Two Thousand to explore the coast north of the Mouth of Hercules. A warm tropical locale, the expedition’s scouts had an enviable time charting its lush forests and pink marbled beaches before sneaking some R&R far away from dour watchful Pilgrim eyes. So it was on that idyllic coast that Kaimana, a distant baron of the reinstated monarchy who had learned to surf with the crown princess herself, carved out a board from a koa tree planted by Pathfinder agro-probe, and took to the swells. Still clad in armor, he caught a reef break, crested, and rode it successfully to shore. Thus was born Chironian surfing.

The Riflemen were later captured further north by the Sea of Pholus, and gladly sought a new contract with Captain Ulrik Svensgaard himself. But not before Kaimana’s foray into the waves had been captured by the expedition’s documentarian and beamed to the closest network node. While this stunt upon the alien sea would seized the imagination of the planetary networks, it was the Nautilus Pirates themselves who were most captivated by the practice themself, and the Hawaiian royal became a sought-after teach amongst the buccaneer brethren.

While not as dominant a pastime as the sailing sports or holographic liar’s dice, surfing became popular among the Nautilus. Already attuned to the beautiful dangers of the ocean, Pirate thrill-seekers began crafting their own surfboards out of repurposed landing pod interior foam and illegally logged planted forests. Their tendency to seek the largest, most dramatic "bomb" waves won them the appellation of bombers among the surfing population of Planet.

The chief difficulty since Kaimana’s first swim is simply moving in the water while wearing a protective suit. As both Planet’s atmosphere and its nitrate-steeped seas yield gasping death or methemoglobinemia, respectively, upon exposure, none but the most daft wear exopack breathing masks at the very minimum. While the most ardent bombers chase the waves with only said masks, most medical advisories, including the U.N. Health Authority, recommend regulation environmental suits as protection from crashing upon the hard “reefs” of sea fungus masses, or from sea life.

Planet's warm tropical seas notoriously breed hurricanes from high gravity and rapid rotation. Surfing can attract gnarly mindworm activity- more than one competition has been crashed by an isle of the deep. "Getting brainwiped" is a nightmare scenario for many a bomber. And there are more predators still- the razorshark, the sealurk. Even reef rash from sea fungus can yield fatal injuries. Bombers and share survivor solidarity from their deadly sport. Live to get radical, die to get radical.

A conventional Pirate bomber in a breathing mask flanked by Oceanids suffering from “baby blue syndrome”

Though there is at least one Nautilus surf gang, the Oceanids, who are known to surf for brief stretches at a time without any protective equipment. These former Hunters of Chiron cast-offs, augmented by stolen Human Ascendancy technology, are infamous for their foolhardiness and by their chronic methemoglobinemia, to which they owe their nickname “the baby blues.” While generally lax on all rules, the Captain himself has issued condemnation of the dangerous practice as extravagant, as treatment of the syndrome wastes valuable stores of oxygen and methylene blue.

While many find swimming and surfing in bodysuits difficult, the standard Pirate lifestyle requires it as a basic survival skill. Colonists from youth are trained to do so, even by being cast overboard from foils moving at moderate speeds. So, the faction tends to dominate by default the surfing competitions that have sprung up with the sport’s popularity, such as the annual Mouth of Hercules Bombad Challenge hosted at New Waikiki Beach, where it was first invented. Because members from few factions dare to partake with the exception of Spartans, Gaians, Hunters, and the New State, it often becomes an intra-Nautilus competition, with surfers of rival bomber gangs vying for honor and prizes.

Bombers of the Hazmax Divers experience a moment of quiet contemplation near Hell's Bells Beach

Planetary anthropologists regard bomber gangs, sometimes referred to as tribes, as one of the smallest social units within the Nautilus thalassocracy. While most Pirate bombers hold primary sub-factional local allegiance to a pirate kingdom, republic, clan, fleet, or similarly large organization, some devotees to the surfer lifestyle have formed surf gangs of their own. Descended from surf clubs of likeminded enthusiasts sharing information on the best locations with the best waves, movement techniques, and board-building, some bombers have sworn adopted familial ties to one another.

While all Nautilus Pirates are known to be influenced by the Captain's reverence for the waters of Chiron, a large minority go further still. Some speak of themselves as children of the sea, venerating it as a primordial force. Folk cults to Poseidon, Proteus, Oceanus, Calypso, Davy Jones, and Matsu exist within the Nautilus fold. A few have even advocated for the faction to adopt Green economics, independently of any visible influence from the Gaia's Stepdaughters. Others go as far as to launch unrestricted warfare against those who engage in seaborne pollution or overfishing, with full blessing from the Captain.

Pirate bombers are a rare pastime-based sub-polity, but given the above, some argue they constitute a pseudo-religious sect. Communing directly with Planet's oceans, chasing the ultimate rush, willing to pay the ultimate price. University sociologists argue that bombers are, like the flagellants of old, a modern ascetic cult that manifests their irrational memeplex by engaging in harmful physical actions. Those who read the datalinks scoff at the notion. It is not so austere to enjoy the sun and sand of the beach bummy way of life. Between tropical drinks and illicitly farmed drugs, bombers can host lavish social events that no University researcher has been invited to.

Members of the SecGens bomber gang plot a heist against landlubbers

Of course, Pirate society is as marked by their titular crimes as it is by their love for the sea. So bombers likewise engage in criminality and simple material pursuit like their brethren at large. Mirroring the Longos and the Bra Boys of ancient Earth, pirate bombers stake out choice surfing locations with the best waves and worm-free waters, engaging in extreme territoriality. Outsiders are made to pay booty or must seek physical punishment for their trespassing. Rival bomber gangs routinely battle for the best beaches, for loot, for weapons, for narcotics, for waves.

And they do not solely attack fellow Pirates. Bombers have at times engaged in low-level vendetta against outside factions. Though given their small scale and pastime-oriented subculture, their force projection is very limited, more akin to probe operations. Indeed, the most notorious bomber gang, the SecGens, are known for their armed robbery campaigns against wealthy soft targets. Infiltrating bases as common drones or scavengers, they surprisingly evade corporate security with ease, assaulting Morganite banks while hiding their faces behind 3D printed rubber masks of past United Nations secretary-generals and other old Earth figures. Most infamous is their leader, "Lal", who is still at large from the nascent PlanetPol. Peacekeeper and Watcher investigators have been unable to determine his true identity, a continued source of embarrassment from the interfactional law enforcement alliance. But Commissioner Pravin Lal vows to find this criminal, and to bring him to justice.

SMACER surfers wearing basic breathers brave a break

Pirate bombers have influenced at least one non-factional population. Coastal SMACERS, watching Nautilus surfers, have begun experimenting with the practice. Buying broken secondhand boards or crafting them from hardened ExpansionFoam, they have taken to the waves. Remarkably, the bomber gangs often do not interfere with their presence, opting to tax them lightly or else engage in trade for artifacts and goods from the mainland. Some have suggested that Svensgaard is attempting to expand his sphere into the terra firma interior by way of these like-minded roguish itinerants. Others theorize he is seeking to replenish his ranks by coaxing them to join his faction, rather than shanghaiing them directly. But the Pirate bombers themselves see both cultures as modern savages, real searchers of the ultimate ride.

Notes:

The art piece is "Space Surfer" by GanjaNinja on DeviantArt

[Trenacker]

And Cain did again what displeased the LORD, and in his House all other manner of iniquity was also practiced. Now the Sons of Nod laid waste the Kingdom of Lut, and when all was smoke and ash, they returned to their homesteads, which they fired, and then slaughtered the kine, treading out even their own vineyards, for blood was their sweetest wine. - Datalinks

Unity passed out of the Sol system carrying 591,894 colonists aboard and another 20,000 estimated stowaways. By the time word was passed to abandon ship, more than half that total had been lost.

Survivors faced all the nightmare scenarios cooked up by the Red Teams at Morgan Emergency Services and more. The initial micrometeorite was bad enough. Aside from the loss of lives and ship’s stores, multiple vital systems were crippled or destroyed in a series of cascading impacts.

The power system was failing. Spall shattered the main reactor housing aft and destroyed primary feed pumps on two of the four secondary reactors. This was a radiological catastrophe of the highest order. To approach the reactor halls aft was to recieve potentially lethal doses of radiation. Meanwhile, the loss of so much electrical firm load threw the ship onto battery power even as life support systems were ramping up to counter both the widespread loss of atmospheric containment and the sudden introduction of hundreds—then thousands—of crew. It was too much. Fuses blew. Breakers tripped. Unity went dark.

Radiation doses to people and machines were so high, even datatape corroded. This grainy image was taken by a landing pod's exterior cameras at Planetfall.

In theory, this surge in demand could be offset even if the reactors were offline, for the ship trailed a solar sail—a potentially inexhaustible power source if fed by the Alpha Centauri system’s three stars. Yet this crucial back-up system had been ruined, holed in countless places by pieces of Unity herself, while the mechanism for deployment of its redundant auxiliary lay likewise smashed. There was now no hope of restoring electrical power except by recovering the fission plant.

Life support was in even worse shape. The errant space rock had severed Unity’s water mains--including the firemain and its three auxiliary lines. A complicated system of valves sprang shut to staunch the outpouring, but this only created small islands of reserve water useless for any practical purpose except local firefighting. (Six days into the crisis, Machinery Leading Chief Petty Officer LeFevre organized rust techs to pump the dregs down to the hangars using a daisy chain of fire hoses.) This residual supply was still on the order of several tens of millions of gallons, some of which continued to be lost from malfunctioning sprinkler heads or unattended hoses.

Orly LeFeuvre, a Rabat native, traded a decade's service in the Alang Bang for her SPAR marks before finishing a late apprenticeship in the sprawling junkyards of Manila City. Along with the cybernetic upgrades, her experience pulling older technology convinced U.N. canvassers to request her by name. French President Varil Gaultier's short-lived Socialist government was glad to name her to Project Unity as one of that country's few meritorious representatives. She spent time among J.T. Marsh's people after choice words with Academician Zakharov, who took her down to Planet, but found that SPAR placed her firmly outside the Hunter mainstream. Oscar van de Graaf gave her a stake that she worked off in just five more years to become, at last, master of her own fate.

Atmospheric loss had the same results: emergency bulkheads deployed shipwide. Approximately 70% of compartments were opened to vacuum. In many cases, electrical shorts delayed activation of the seals until after damage control parties had begun operations, including Hab Bay evacuations, so that hundreds were killed repeatedly in mass strandings. So many compartments suffered explosive decompression during the first hour of damage control operations that Executive Officer Francisco d'Almeida began routing responders to cargo bays rather than risk them to retrieve "worthless artisans" and "needless bankers."
Emergency lockers throughout the ship were inexplicably empty. Under such extreme conditions, most protective gear was donned improperly. In machinery spaces, crews repeatedly suffered line-of-fire injuries as equipment shook itself apart. Large sections of the ship became inaccessible due to internal structural collapse. Fires raged out of control wherever oxygen or chemicals would feed them. Whole cryobays became fatally entombed in fire suppression foam. Upon learning that the occupants were still alive and mostly unharmed, Damage Control Assistant Giat Keo famously broke out fire axes, ordering miners and foresters to take shifts chipping survivors out of the mess.

Rescuers below Deck 61 worked in ponchos to prevent their environmental suits becoming waterlogged. To enhance visibility (their only reliable light otherwise came from portable torches), stick leaders sprayed their teams in fluorescent marker wash.

Alas, the armed assailants calling themselves "Spartans" made it their business to gouge the expedition’s already-grievous wounds. The mutineers slaughtered every damage controlman they could find, apparently with the intent of dooming the ship to destruction. A small fraction may in fact have been Survivalists. Many were naught but sociopaths, human trash working overtime to conceal racism and misogyny behind pseudo-intellectual papier-mâché. To protest their exclusion from Project Unity, they did what came naturally: open fire.

Their killing was so indiscriminate it astonished even their erstwhile leader, ultimately revealed as the faithless Security Forces lieutenant Corazón Santiago. Between bouts of professing her manifesto the bridge crew—a popular hobby also taken up by another stowaway, the Morgan Industries CEO, and eventually, Prokhor Zakharov also--she was forced to execute more than a dozen “friendly” fighters for offenses ranging from unforgivable breaches of fire discipline to simple insubordination. Santiago was soon in crisis. She had not anticipated that so many of her own host were fully committed to self-destruction.

The essential problem of generalship is that soldiers expect you to make provisions for them to come back. - Institutes of Leadership

Given the loyal crew’s focus on systems restoration and the depth of Santiago’s treachery, few Security Forces survivors materialized to defend the former. For a time, d’Almeida attempted to make do with pressed mercenaries and veterans reassigned from other divisions, but with losses mounting and other key leaders diverting personnel for their own ends, those scratch efforts soon gave way to thoughts of self-preservation. The Spartans and Holnists were too fast and too many, the able and willing defenders too few and too disorganized.

Morganite contractors secreted a small armory with their CEO. Future Capitalists of Chiron made unhurried tours of critical storage areas while Morgan Armored Security provided flank security, posting heavy weapons teams. Fully prepared for extreme conditions, veterans like this auto-gunner taught too-bold Spartans the difference between amateurs and professionals.

When the lion hunts, the jackals shall feast. Another active threat, more fearsome but also more disciplined, stalked the ship in parallel with the Spartans, who they shot on sight. While they could and did sometimes negotiate temporary ceasefires with crew who held their fire, the Kellerites were not above cold-blooded murder. They had bones to pick with authority, circumstances be damned. At least these newcomers were intent on making it down to Chiron.

Whether Jean Baptiste-Keller himself ever made it aboard the object of his obsession is unknown. His followers got close enough to ask Garland for his autograph, storming as far as the damaged computer core (just minutes from the Bridge) before rallying Marines broke their momentum with help from sonic grenades and Cargo Corps flankers. Pete Landers, the Kellerite commander on the scene, had come of age on the Mississippi River not far from the riverboat casinos. He well knew: if the House starts to win, choose a different game. His people melted away, descending into the lower levels, relinquishing their chance at prime captive so that they might be free to plunder rations and fuel cells.
 
D'Almeida gave the official order to abandon ship, but the giving up on Unity's salvation had begun almost at once. The tone had been set by the Chief Engineer himself: in defying Garland and d’Almeida, even in service of the lofty goal of bringing the secondary reactors back online, Zakharov signaled the legitimacy of questioning orders. For every courageous soul who obeyed the muscle memory created by months of training and exercise to go and serve their fellows, three others scurried for the exits while the fifth availed themselves of an opportunity for target practice and the sixth fed psychotropic drugs to those just decanted.

Escape from the ruined ark was not an experience most would ever live down. On a world where cooperation was the best guarantee of survival, those who engaged in selfish acts might receive the ultimate sanction. The smart ones banded together and continued to do as they had done before, often taking a perverse pride in having been the cause of such momentous misery. This SMACER Rocket Raider comes close to looking well-appointed, though his hand weapons is missing a trigger mechanism. The shoulder patch lets folks know what he's about in case the sudden appearance of a cannon-wielding thief in their midst is too subtle.

The seasonal fever has come again. Mobs hunt Spoilers in the flex tunnels. A hopper pilot, his skill irreplaceable, is caught and dragged outside to be suffocated. Later, we will see that it was a case of mistaken identity, but the cathartic feeling won't be diminished. - A World Upside Down

Any run on the Landing Pods inevitably veered straight through the nearest cargo bays. No faction was to be denied a share of the starship's endless variety of cargo. From apple seeds to ammunition, anxious survivors and would-be monarchs claimed anything they could lay hands on, often by gunning down someone who had gotten there first. Mostly, the objects they secured had immediate value, such as food, medicine, and hand radios. Sometimes, they were a putative investment in the future, as when Tamineh Pahlavi's people emptied cold storage of more than fifty thousand genetic samples from family lines that had not got a descendant aboard Unity.

The spoils might even be living people. Elements of the ex-Canadian Vanadair Guard, taken on by Oscar van de Graaf, fought hard against poachers come to pick "his" cryobays clean of the colonists with the choicest service records. Sheng-ji Yang, Raoul André St. Germaine, and Sathieu Metrion consulted the ship’s databanks before so much as lifting a finger to help their fellows, intent on finding those who mattered to them.

Sources:
Grainy explorer image is "The Wreck," by Guillaume Menuel on ArtStation.

LeFeuvre is "Scfi cybergirl" by Bulygin on DeviantArt.

Neon astronaut is "Funky Astronaut" by Amanieu Rebu on ArtStation.

Auto-gunner is "Combat Engineer Demo" by Johnson Ting on ArtStation.

Rocket Raider is "Pleinpaper" from the tumblr page of ishouldsketchmore.

[Trenacker]

For centuries, kings have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Now we have built such a one of our own devising. We freely admit it is flawed. What king was not? But this, our king, we can make better. Who else could say that? - Salvation by Numbers

Name: Guadalupe Selinas Torada
Rank: Ensign (rising)
Position: Supervisory Scriptrunner
County of Origin: Imperio Mexicano
DOB: 01-2-2041

Service Record:
Born 2041, Mazatlán, Mexico. PhD in post-conflict econometrics from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Post-graduate fellowship with Toron-Garcia, a grant-bundler working Venezulean Reconstruction. Accepted for SPAR assessment by Morgan Pearl Standard after correctly predicting 2064 trends in oil market contraction.

Denied SPAR due to hazards arising from interaction with medications required for suppression of Bollon-Sprauge Radiation Syndrome. At own request, participated in development of AEGAEON software package used to design and organize construction of the Caribbean Plate Tri-cities.

Joined 2067 Mexican National Commitment to Project Unity. Total mission training reduced to seven months. Prior to hibernation, worked an additional three months as a compiler in the Data Services Division helping to transliterate the preliminary A-Code behind the Unity's stellar navigation system to the century-old Apep proprietary machine language used in the Unity Data Core.

Approached by Morgan SafeHaven operatives during the Planetfall Crisis with an invitation to join in the CEO's escape. Declined. A resulting standoff was broken only with armed intervention ordered by Data Services Lt. Commander Tạ Dọc Thân. After rescue, subject was organized into Dr. Johann Anhaldt's ground team.

Ensign Torada participates in perimeter patrols as a junior officer in the faction militia. With her fire team, she burns back advancing xenofungus.

Psych Profile: Skeptic
Expresses core attitudes common among her generation: skepticism toward market economics and corporate replacement of public services, aversion to personalist politics, and openness toward expanded presence of Artificial Intelligence in daily life.

A technocrat. Believes that machine-assisted government is more trustworthy than the "corruptible" rule of popularly-elected leaders and self-interested oligarchs.

Programmers of the Data Services Division under Dr. Johann Anhaldt's command were historians as much as they were computer scientists. To build the perfect Intelligence, they first had to determine the desired course of action for thousands of potential scenarios. Basic predictive algorithms then added millions more examples from which the machine mind could "learn." Human analysts pruned at the margins, but there was always too much code to debug thoroughly.

Sources:
Portrait sourced from Pinterest, which traces back to a website called wallpapermaiden. Artist unknown.

Second image is the work of Travis Charest on characterdesignreferences.com.

Third image is the artillery crew from Guns of Navaronne.

[MysticWind]

The stars above are not promises to be savored, but challenges we must rise to! We may have climbed out of Konstantin's cradle, tread lightly upon the floor of the cosmos - but the entire mansion of infinity lies before us. Two worlds are not enough. - New Year's speech at Roméo Dallaire Academy

While the majority of the Restoration of Earth follow the Returner Oath, the somber pledge to reunite with the lost planet regardless of its state, alternative sub-factions exist. A rising movement has been the Sojourner Axiom popularized by Colonel Vadim Kozlov, hero of the Salyut-78 rescue mission, overseer of the construction of the Trepak prototype LEO habitat, and veteran of untold CCCP spaceflights. The Soviet Slav had been swiftly appointed to the Unity mission as pilot cosmonaut, though not without rumors of the "honor" being Politburo-directed off-world exile for workerism. During Planetfall, sided with U.N. Marine General Marcel Salan out of military duty, bringing along his unit of cosmonauts and zero-G repair specialists. Labored as faction 'former team foreman and ground surveyor until the Restoration secured Hoppers. Managed the construction of the Highroad of Heroes between Reunité and Fort Crerar, completing work ahead of schedule.

Upon promotion to head of the Infrastructure Directorate, began lobbying for the reestablishment of a faction space program. Repeatedly rejected rebuffs on the grounds of insufficient resources for such an advanced project. Directed his directorate towards foundational work- securing of vital mineral sites, investment into propulsion technologies, and building of cosmonaut training pools for a program that lays perhaps mission centuries into the future. While investigated by the Control Directorate on multiple occasions, managed to retain position thanks to personal popularity, defeating accusations of Bonapartism or "going native" as a Kurtz.

Formalized the Axiom- a statement that neither human colonization of Chiron, nor a return to unknown Earth, is enough. Advances the belief that humanity must launch missions to settle Planet's orbit and satellites, as well as investigate the other regions of the system. Subscribes to the Pythia Hypothesis which states that the Unity diaspora is simply repeating the same experiences of Terran humanity, except at greater speed. Sojourners thus believe returning to the homeworld will not guarantee the species' survival. True loyalty to the mission is not simply reestablishing contact with the ones who gave the mission, but its fulfillment. Not only at Alpha Centauri, but beyond. More footholds must be gained. Our stay on Planet is temporary. We must go to outer space, every one of us.

Casting

Vadim Kozlov is portrayed by Walter Koenig as Pavel Chekov in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

[MysticWind]

A brother in the bush is worth three three tanks of flame.

Hunters of the Leafcutter Lodge prepare a promontory point for camp, Monsoon Jungle

The Hunters of Chiron are a desultory assemblage of project-based work crews, survey scout units, defense jaeger packs, and ad hoc teams of every type. But over time, specializations may form even in such hunter-gatherer societies, especially those empowered by post-information age high technology, and burdened by the needs of the same tech. Over time, these loose groupings have slowly solidified into heterogeneous fraternal orders known as Hunters' Lodges, whose prime identity comes from the roles the members of each share.

The Leafcutter Lodge are wilderness survivalists who have braved the forests of Chiron. For untold aeons, the biomass of Planet was primarily composed of small-scale green vegetation, no greater than Terran palm trees- savanna-like carpets of grass and moss, with the odd vine or bush. Aside from the immense Monsoon Jungle, few other regions possess actual woods or weald. That is, until the coming of man and his agro-probes and greater big 'formers. With the Evergreen Revolution, botanists and arborists planted Earth-born trees spliced with nitrogen fixation genes. These plants proceeded to take root across vast expanses of Planet, birthing entirely new ecosystems as native species struggled to adapt to their presence.

Leafcutters are the Hunters who first planted those same groves, then upon their explosive growth thanks to planet's fertile soil and abundant sun, became their rangers. Masters of the bush and experts of survival under the canopy, they are the faction's pathfinders through the wild forests that have sprouted across the land. A brother of this lodge is expected to know how to build a lean-to, upgrade to a treehouse, track a glow mite swarm, build a fire, fell and delimb a tree, fight SMACERs, hunt a fangweevil, fish for vittles, survive a boil incursion.

Leafcutter Grandmaster Achilles Kifaru rebukes a Gaian trespasser at the Actaeon Forest

Many in the Leafcutter ranks are special forces veterans, with founding members from the U.S. Green Berets and Army Rangers, the Indian COBRA, the Indonesian Kopassus, and various British Imperial SAS's like that the Warden himself served in. Unexpectedly, the current grandmaster is a civilian: Achilles Kifaru, former Nairobi-based big game hunter and tourist guide, posted to the Forward Landing Team as a wildlife tracker and sharpshooter. Known for his stolid professionalism, bluff honor, and his heirloom Nitro Express Double Barrel Rifle elephant gun, Kifaru has united the loyalties of his uniformed brothers, marking the Leafcutters as "the hunters within the Hunters."

If you insist on setting up a worksite upwind of a nitrosaur den the only energy you'll be saving is the cost of a formal burial, not your coveted joules for these Madagascar rosewoods. Nitrosaurs can sense atmospheric changes from the carbon dioxide exhale of a single man, never mind a log team, and yours is producing gallons of it. Get your moveable feast out of here, or prepare for dinner!  - comments from the Equatorial Foloe Expedition

Known for their steely reserve, hiding a bravado more muted but no less grandiose than the other lodges, the Leafcutters pride themselves for mastery over difficult and complex terrain. Other lodges, however, call them "O₂ addicts." Because many of the dense Earth-grown forests produce enough oxygen to serve as their own local atmosphere, visitors may go without breathing masks for hours at a time. This is considered by other Hunters as a distinct luxury.

Brushing off such base calumny from exopack wormlings, the Leafcutters themselves have agitated for greater focus on forest operations, as they view these newborn ecologies as the natural future of humanity's presence on Planet. They have called for a pact with the Shapers of Chiron to expedite the terraforming process. Leafcutters have also treated with the Emporium, providing training to the Brigadier's own forest squads for pay in rations and ammunition, acting as mercenaries for the mercenaries.

Casting

Achilles Kifaru is portrayed by Pete Postlethwaite as Roland Tembo from The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

Notes:

The name Hunters' Lodges comes from the titular secret societies in the pre-1837 Rebellion Canadas.

Actaeon was a great hunter trained by Chiron, who upon incurring the wrath of Artemis, was turned into a stag and hunted by his own hounds.

[Trenacker]

Tech: Industrial Economics

Our first challenge is to create an entire economic infrastructure, from top to bottom, out of whole cloth. No gradual evolution from previous economic systems is possible, becauise there is no previous economic system. Each interdependent piece must be materialized simultaneously and in perfect working order; otherwise the system will crash before it ever gets off the ground. - The Centauri Monopoly

For most colonies, "profit" was an afterthought; something to be considered long after everyone was sheltered, bandaged, and fed. In Morganite territory, within mere weeks, it was practically the only thought. Base services from air supply to medical care were furnished by contractors.

Service costs were deducted automatically from each workers' salary. Morganites became notorious for chasing deals by flitting between their own and other factions' bases, creating Planet's first reliable travel flows, and with them, consumer price signals.

Those who couldn't pay owed a periodic labor tax akin to the medieval corvée. Eventually, more than a quarter of the Morganite colony was reduced to this plight. Often, the CEO used them to advance projects that enhanced his personal wealth.

Unencumbered by breathing apparatus, Morgan Security trainees perform Battle Drill #7 on the edge of the Monsoon Jungle oxygen sink.

It did not take long for the Chief Executive to suspect that the contract killers of Morgan SafeHaven were losing their sharp edge. His answer was to bring new gladiators into the stable. In short order, he chartered Morgan Security, then the obliquely-titled Morgan Industrial Defense Service (MIDS).

On paper, each unit was to perform a unique function. The once-proud praetorians of SafeHaven were retasked from personal protection of the Board and CEO to objective raids against other factions. Morgan Security assumed responsibility for base defense under a "bunkers, barriers, burn-out" model that was supposed to keep their focus outside the perimeter walls. MIDS stood watch in the opposite direction after receiving authorization under Board policy to police the Company's employees and secure its property against theft and misuse.

As it happened, Morgan encouraged inter-jurisdictional rivalries and rewarded poaching. The three units therefore became almost indistinguishable from one another but for their uniforms. SafeHaven continued to post gate watches alongside Morgan Security. The infamous Saharan mercenaries also retained control of the small brigs in both Morgan Industries and Morgan Metagenics, indifferent to formal reprimands. The Board also repeatedly overlooked the fact that both MIDS and SafeHaven made a habit of joining Morgan Security militia during base defensive actions despite refusing to train together, resulting in multiple friendly fire incidents. This was hardly mere comradeship: neither of the two "attending" units slouched in claiming the bounties offered for adversaries killed or captured.

Here was the point: military service in the Morganite world was a money-making venture. Under faction bylaws, the officers of Morgan Industries were compelled to purchase commissions in Morgan Security--a reflection, Morgan said, of the company's public service ethos. Yet corporate policy also forbade officers from taking that very service on grounds that "sideline ventures" deprived the employer of the employee's full value. Ergo, substitutions had to be obtained. (This substitution was usually a middle manager, but, as time went on, increasingly an ex-Spartan or a SMACER.) Handicraft victuallers paid for annual monopolies on sales to different units, then squeezed them for every cartridge and canteen. SafeHaven, which at times made an art form of doing the outrageous, demanded and won the right to charge training fees to the very Morgan Security personnel that replaced them. All three outfits abused their arrest powers to build up chain gangs whose labor could be sold for profit.

The natural conclusion of Morgan's policy was to cripple faction military potential. Loyalties and doctrine split three ways. The system was also grossly top-heavy by design, with three sets of leaders performing the same work. (Left behind in the evacuated trenches below Xerxion, anti-disassociationalist soldiers found hand-drawn playing cards featuring more than four dozen individual Morganite officers, many in the ironic pose of the Suicide Jack.) Taken on the whole, any benefits from competition were entirely wiped out.

Unstructured time was sacrosanct among the Peacekeepers, who used it for lively debate and other forms of self-enrichment. Gaians hiked and meditated. Hunters raced. Spartans relished their bloodsport. Most factions firmly prohibited more than six hours of work for health and safety reasons. Morgan scoffed at this calculus. His governors collected a tax on leisure not spent at approved amusements (i.e., corporate gambling halls). Many "dodgers" figured they got ahead by engaging in individual entrepreneurial activity, including the sale of their own excess labor. Accident rates soared during these after-hours "gigs," when workers were already exhausted in both mind and body. Prosthetic limbs were disturbingly common in Morganite settlements. Companies would front injured workers the cost of limb replacement. The recipient rented their prosthetic under very disadvantageous terms. When their credit ran out, the limb seized up.


Sources:
First image is Disney concept art for Dok Ondar's Den of Antiquities.

Second image is from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Third image is "Celsius 13 - Worker revamp" by Jan Weßbecher on ArtStation.

[Trenacker]

This technology represents a promise to our children, and to our children's children, that they can sleep safely under a blanket of peace. - Address to the Federation of Atomic Scientists, 1962

Project Orion was the American effort to perfect nuclear pulse propulsion as a method of interplanetary, and especially interstellar, space travel. Rooted in theories propounded by Polish mathematician and physicist Stanislaw Ulam and American physicist Frederick Feines in the late the 1940s, Project Orion culminated in the successful construction and deployment of the world's first nuclear-powered space superiority platform, the space battleship of the same name, and touched off a century-long military space race that ended in disaster for the Soviet Union. Feasibility calculations were completed at Los Alamos National Laboratory and by General Atomics. Ground-side construction took place at Newport News Shipbuilding, the Philadelphia Navy Yard, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which Project Orion helped save from closure. Funding and direction came from the U.S. Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, with additional input provided by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Northrup-Grumman, and the United States Marine Corps. The prime contractor was General Atomics.

Elementally, the vision for Orion involved using a sequence of one megaton thermonuclear shaped charges to create extremely high exhaust velocity and thrust, far exceeding the speed factors available from chemical rocket engines. Acting on a pusher plate mounted at the rear of the payload, the explosions could propel 400,000 tons to a terminal speed of 0.03c during an acceleration run of 10 days. As many as 300,000 of the compact, 6" diameter, disc-shaped charges would need to be released at a rate of one charge every 1.1 seconds to achieve this result. The Coca-Cola Company consulted on the design of the mechanism used for that purpose.

U.S.S. Orion bore 80 launch tubes for its magazine of 480 nuclear missiles, each tipped with an MIRV. Additional offensive punch came from three Mk42 5" naval guns on limited-traverse turrets in the central hull. For protection, the ship was girdled by eight retractable Close-In Weapons Systems, while the naval guns could be loaded with the Casaba shell, a form of radiation bomb used to melt incoming projectiles--or Soviet missiles headed for American and allied targets. The battleship, under the command of the Air Force's Deep Space Bombardment Force, embarked 80 Marines of the Lunar Expeditionary Unit and spent most of its life in Near-Earth space. She received a significant upgrade in 1992, including a single prow-mounted 100 kW X-Ray laser and installation of additional barracks space for another 40 of the indispensable Marines.

The technological, political, environmental, economic, and cultural consequences of Project Orion were felt worldwide.

Along with the Apollo Program, which placed a permanent habitat on the Moon in 1980, Project Orion ushered in an era of technological flourishing. The first locus was in the United States and Great Britain, while the second was in the Soviet Union. Research on the shape and yield of atomic explosions and the need to demonstrate political confidence in the technologies underlying the Orion concept breathed new life into the Atoms for Peace program. Defying credible and growing concern about atomic fallout, industrial-grade nuclear devices became widely used in mining and terraformation. Dozens of nuclear power stations were built throughout the United States where the abundance of cheap energy led to a collapse in fossil fuel markets, promoted a general trend toward electrification of consumer products including automobiles, and tempted Army experiments with laser weaponry. The amount of intellectual potential devoted to Orion by both superpowers created the so-called Atomic Generation. Between 1956 and 1984, one in three adults in either country spent ten or more years working in a STEM field. Echoing the downstream effects of atomic research on the civilian energy industry, lessons-learned from the Orion Program and its Russian Counterpart, Project Zharptitsa (жар-пти́ца, or "Firebird"), also caused a flowering of aeronautical and commercial space ventures. Indeed, the Orion herself was constructed in two parts, and the pusher plate, which had been severely ablated during blast-off from the Nevada desert, was reworked in high orbit using uranium mined from Near Earth Asteroids by a growing fleet of independently-owned-and-operated spacecraft.

Perhaps the most important outcome of Orion was to demonstrate the viability of the propulsion concept for what would become the Chiron Pathfinder Probe, a pusher-plate design of the mid-twenty-first-century that made the journey to Alpha Centauri in just 40 years by taking advantage of compact fusion pellets to gain more thrust at less weight than with the original bombs.

Orion kicked the Cold War into overdrive. Soviet Premier Marat Barrikad, who had spent two years in San Francisco with the Soviet consulate there, rejected the traditional dictates of Escalation Theory. Knowing that the Americans would beat the Soviets to a nuclear missile shield, he guessed that the resulting surfeit of confidence would tend to soothe rather than aggravate American bellicosity, creating conditions in which voters and politicians in the United States would tolerate an expansion of Soviet power outside the Western Hemisphere. Accordingly, Barrikad's Politburo reduced funding for Zharptitsa while dialing conventional aggression sharply upwards to compensate, including on and beneath the lunar surface, where Soviet and American troops clashed seven times in the 1970s with deadly results. Barrikad also repaired his country's rift with the Chinese Communists, wooed India firmly into the Soviet sphere, subjected the Dutch to a twenty-year insurgency in the Netherlands East Indies that led to partial Indonesian independence, and nursed client regimes in Burma, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iraq, Italy, Nigeria, Libya, Somali, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.

Radiological pollution created by the nuclear Space Race led to a sharp increase in cancers worldwide. Several nuclear disasters have been linked to Project Orion-inspired reactor construction, both directly and indirectly. In the end, Congress and the Air Force managed to protect their investment from cancellation only at the cost of a massive erosion of public trust that helped fuel violent eco-terrorism beginning from the 1990s and laid the groundwork for the pervasive anti-government sentiments of the following century.

U.S.S. Orion was joined by U.S.S. Odysseus in 1994, then by the Soviet Admiral Gagarin in 1998. Gagarin, seen here docking a Buran orbiter, carried more than a dozen short-range rocket pods the purpose of which was to disperse smart debris in the path of oncoming Marine assault shuttles.

The complexity of pusher-plate shock absorption was very high. Pusher plates were highly prone to damage and misalignment, especially if, as in the case of the Soviets, nuclear, not conventional, explosives were used to break Earth's atmosphere during first take-off. Furthermore, the thermonuclear warheads used by the Gagarin were of unreliable design. Prokhor Zakharov warned his colleagues and superiors of these two risks in a position paper in 2023. Four years later, Gagarin's pusher plate malfunctioned with fatal results. During routine repositioning from geosynchronous orbit above the dark side of the Moon, a bomb pellet failed to pass through the port in the pusher plate and exploded prematurely, wrecking much of the mission module. The ship was stricken. While there was enough mass between the crew and the explosion's epicenter for crew to evacuate, the escape pod failed on Earth atmospheric reentry with the loss of all hands.

Disaster prompted the Politburo to take up again the shelved research on chemical rockets, leading Zakharov to the fusion stardrive he built for Unity in 2061.

Sources:

Space Battleship Orion picture by Andrei Stanavov. Found on ToughSF Twitter feed but originally from ArtStation.

X-Ray lasers appear as a warship-scale weapon in Babylon 5.

The science for this article was taken from the Wikipedia page for "Project Orion (nuclear propulsion)" and "Fusion rocket," as well as the YouTube video "The insane USAF space battleship that almost got built - Project Orion Battleship" by Found and Explained.

Space battleship Admiral Gagarin is an image of an O'Neill Cylinder from the webpage "Stories by Williams." For her systems, I was also inspired by some pictures found on Deep Space Forces on rhysy.net and commentary on space warfare on the Atomic Rockets website.

[Trenacker]

Tonight is a good night for musings, I think.

As I have pointed out before, Venn diagrams for the original, expansion, and RtD factions overlap in interesting ways. Looking for your commentary here, intrepid readers.

Factions that think about by whom we should be governed.
The Gaians believe we should be governed by women. Precisely which women is harder to say. I assume most are rabid enthusiasts of direct democracy. Potential for pathological consensus-seeking?

Chairman Yang of the Human Labyrinth asserts that we should be governed by an enlightened ruler. Exactly what that means, only he can say, which might be the point.

The Peacekeeping Forces place their trust in representative democracy.

The New State believes that we should be governed by an elite who are bred to that purpose. So does the Human Ascendancy, come to think of it. Interesting problem to chew on: I'd never considered that the two were so similar.

The Children of the Atom say we should let computers govern on our behalf. They don't even seem to worry too much about equipping a "master programmer" to do too much of the work behind the scenes.

Morganites would say we should be governed by the people who have been most successful at accumulating wealth, the only true measure of merit.

The Restoration opts for a complete stratocracy. Officer on deck!

I assume the Pilgrims would say we should be governed by people who have property, which isn't the same as people who have moveable wealth. The idea being that occupation and improvement of land is somehow a more meaningful endeavor in this world than the accumulation of commodities. There is a kind of community benefit implied there, since most commodities are intended to be consumed by an individual.

Factions that think about what we should value.
The University says that we should value knowledge itself.

The Gaians say that we must value the health of Planet.

The Spartans say we should value the capacity to do violence, which basically means faction war-making potential.

The Morganites value wealth itself.

The Peacekeeping Forces value ethical behavior as an end unto itself.

The Lord's Conclave values the practice of faith traditions, leading to personal fulfillment.

The Human Tribe simply wants people to value their neighbors. Cracking open a can of beer is practically a civic duty.

The Dreamers of Chiron, or some percentage of them, value perception. To them, an intangible experience is every bit the equal of a tangible one.

The Tomorrow Institute wants us to value the past in the form of information. If Lal's faction articulates the government's "Responsibility to Protect," then Metrion's puts forth the "Right to Know."

The Data Angels value Jazz--the demonstration of skill in the new digital medium.

[MysticWind]

You pave sixteen klicks, and what will you net?
A bad case of worms you can’t ever forget
Ole Garland won’t you help me ‘cause I don’t know
My brain’s been blown by a fungus’s spore
- "Sixteen Klicks, Or a Roadman’s Lament"

Roadrunner point men watch over Dai Seung Haetae road rollers on a new trail through the Uaelium Basin

The Roadrunners Lodge is known as the “father of all lodges,” both for its large membership, and the way in which many lesser lodges (and the careers of their initiates) descend through it. That is because it is the home for all who work in one of the most fundamental Hunters of Chiron activities: the art of road construction, and maintenance. From the beginning, the modus operandi of the Forward Landing Team has been to survey a region, determine its viability for utility, and then blaze a trail for future travelers to follow. Road scouts, fungal-fumigators, road builders, and the watchful flame-sentries who keep them alive, all may be members of the Roadrunners Lodge.

But despite the vital nature of the work, it is also a basic posting for most Hunters. Whether rookie inductees from other factions or youngsters born of the faction, most begin as Roadrunners on the vast 'former teams or the scout patrol units accompanying their duty. Like all necessary duties, it is difficult, often tedious work, without glory beyond the top-down official praise granted to it. Indeed, the Roadrunner grandmaster position is a revolving door, sparking the faction simile, "as dodgy as a roadrunner." To compensate, Warden Marsh has been recognized as the perpetual grandmaster of the lodge, and this is not simply de jure - because roadbuilding is essential work, more often than not the upper hierarchy of the faction unilaterally decides where these essential workers will go, and what they will build. Unlike other lodges, the Roadrunners do not find themselves having leeway in choosing what work to pursue. They are also the primary source for disaffected drones within Hunter society, though that is also because of the vast size of the lodge.

Roadrunner 180° "True South" squires during a typical day's toil

Hunters' lodges are neither labor unions nor social castes, but contain aspects of both. Thus, it is possible for a Hunter to become members of multiple lodges over a career, even if it is frowned upon and seen with suspicion by loyal brothers. One major exception are former Roadrunners. Many have aspirations beyond the road, and use their hard-earned experiences and the friendships they forge to gain admittance into other duties, and from thence on, into other lodges. Those who prefer the task of clearcutting xenofungus for its own sake might join the Goatmen who freely roam the land, exterminating crimson kudzu. Those with show strong mental constitutions and skill at fighting while on the road might join the Salamandra Lodge to become Grub-eaters, the faction's counter-mindworm specialists. Still others who enjoy building, but prefer more interesting constructs than simple concrete might join the Sunriders (founded by a Son of Centauri-Ra sun priest and seasoned solar energy engineer), or those who wish to dig deeper into the earth, Durin's Folk. Truly, while the lodge of the Roadrunners may be where many begin their journeys, few Hunters wish it to be the end of their road.

Contrary to what you may think, I do not hate the car. I hate the expressway and the overpass, the car park and congestion. Smog that soaks into a man's lungs until he is little better than his Cardiff ancestors who stole coal from the ground and died sleeping upright in bed, coughing. I detest what man has wrought in the name of transport. A car on its own is merely a tool. - Mistakes of Earth

Unity Heavy Rover and Cagiva Rift Canyon driven by Saluki scouts take off for adventure through the Nieuwe Veldt

After the titular responsibility as harvesters of game meat, and more often as protectors against dangerous predators and invasive species, each Hunter of Chiron is called to be a wilderness scout, capable of guiding both his brothers and "tourists" of other factions safely through the wilds. While no labor formation- and thus no lodge- lacks a scouting element any more than they would lack riflemen or flame-bearers, the Saluki Lodge are truly the scouts among scouts. Among the most prestigious of brotherhoods, the Salukis excel at every form of personal recon that the faction offers. Whether on foot (Treadwell), mounted (Centaurs), or on motorized vehicles (Superchargers), these scouts serve to be the Hunters' advance guard, mapping out the uncertain and hazardous spaces of Planet, spotting its threats, neutralizing those dangers if need be. Each Saluki pledges to be as swift as a locust, as secretive as a sealurk, and as strong as a demon boil.

A lone Saluki Supercharger in a Red Bull Motors RB3000X pursuit vehicle prepares to do battle with an assemblage of SMACER technicals

While the Warden is loathe to expand the use of rovers, particularly those that have not yet been retooled to use batteries or fuel cells, growing dangers on the frontier has necessitated the use of such instruments of ecological destruction. Motorized attacks from both non-factional SMACERs and organized adversaries have tested the mettle of the Hunters of Chiron, and so the Salukis must ride forth into battle as knights of the road. While Spartans are an ever-present enemy, the Darwin Raiders led by Robin Huxley, a former ex-Hunter herself, have emerged as a threat after their capture of an oversized ARC cargo pod containing scout rovers and megabikes originally intended for the New Two Thousand. The Raiders' newly-formed "Road Furies" are a menace of the roads, striking at trade caravans and supply convoys alike for their "empire of the next age" hidden deep in the wilds. The Warden has had enough of these errant road warriors. He bids his greyhounds to hunt them down.

Casting

The Roadrunner squires are portrayed by John C. Reilly, Fred Armisen, and Tim Heidecker as the astronauts of Moonbase 8.

Notes:

Giant land vehicle art is from "Colour Sketches Compilation 9" by Kunrong Yap

[MysticWind]

Every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind

It doesn't do to be overly proud when taming an animal. Firstly, what is domestication but the primal step towards mechanization? Long before our ancestors could fashion a pulley, they had already taught beasts of burden to till their fields. Separating nature itself from nature, never mind man. Conversely, do not presume to truly know who is domesticating whom in such a relationship. Nature has had an eternity's head start. - Mistakes of Earth

Saluki scouts including a 15° Centaur knight explore the Nessus Canyon

For many, many mission years after Planetfall, the zoologists, veterinarians, and animal husbandry experts brought aboard the UNS Unity had their skills relegated to "living archival" status. They were retrained in the sciences relevant to the healing and study of human biology, or to the farming of plants, as well as exobiological disciplines. But they devoted hours each week to recording their expertise, creating vast stretches of datatape documenting long-gone practices that the U.N. on Chiron or the Tomorrow Institute - as well as Oscar van de Graaf, in one of his more sentimental moments- could not bear to be forgotten into the mists of Earth.

That is not to say that the mission was a complete failure as an interstellar Noah's ark. The Unity carried a vast amount of frozen ovum and spermatozoa, tissue samples, and genetic information on the species of Earth. Of course, much of this priceless data was damaged, even lost during Planetfall, or at least buried in the inaccessible data stashes of still-unreclaimed Landing Pods. But a good amount of it was preserved, and elaborate efforts were made to attempt to retrieve further legacies: the Schreiber Project, that University of Planet/Togra Labs spin-off, conducted a massive buy-up of taxidermist items, fur coats, even animal skin rugs that were brought along by megacorporate executives. These items were carefully examined, genetic material extracted, and added to the burgeoning Earth BioGenome Project on the datalinks.

Quite some time later, after not only the completion of the EBP but the invention of Decanting Chambers, most of Planet celebrated the Thawing of the Frozen Zoo. Long-gone mammals could not be easily and accurately cloned without need of surrogates. And so, the brothers of the Wrangler Lodge gained new purpose.

An Irwin-class heavily-modified Unity Heavy Rover carries Wrangler animal acquisition specialists on a Subrid Hunt

Until the mass availability of such clones, the animal handling experts of the Hunters of Chiron had mainly assisted the faction's ecologists, providing insight on the migration of Planet's species as well as live specimens for the Grey Parrots to study. As Hunters were not much for large-scale sedentary agriculture, former livestock farmers did not do much in the way of subrid ranching, other than when contracted to by other factions. Some found work as guides to Morganites on safari, toting their signature Lindstradt Air Gun tranquilizer rifles and pistols as rich medicos and administrators readily missed at Golden Scale Hawks and Lindley's Lesser Crawl Bugs.

So when scientifically resurrected old Earth species appeared, the clinically life-extended old stable hands, or their descendants, now had bigger fish to fry. They could now tend to the steeds of the faction: equines, camelids, and ratites, ridden by Saluki Centaurs of the Epona, Creosote bush, and Robinson rites. These were not simply directly cloned creatures, but entirely new gengineered varieties able to survive within the nitrogen atmosphere of Planet, with enhanced musculature and robust vascular systems to withstand the stronger gravity. As many misgivings as the Warden might have had against the creation of such synthetic fauna, even he could not resist the chance to once again ride a Selale stallion through the pink and purple plains of Planet, shooting at Razorbeaks from horseback. Polo was subsequently revived, becoming a hotly pay-per-viewed spectacle across the datalinks, and the Hunters of Chiron boasted some of the professional sport's premier teams.

Where does the frontier end? What is the true border between the unsettled and civilization? And must human endeavor inevitably diminish the wild? These questions are worth asking in terms of both space and time. - Peregrinations of Planet

Wrangler pastoralists on a near-anaerobic clone cattle farm outside Strong Meadow

Ultimately, the arrival of revived Terran species marked a new era for the Hunters of Chiron. Nearly-anaerobic clone species modified to survive in hypoxic environments now allowed the faction to engage in livestock production previously constrained to agricultural dome interiors. It also represented a cultural shift away from the Warden's past doctrine on accommodation with nature, taking minimal concessions. The possibility of hunting big game lost to old Earth, of becoming cowpokes once more, of the prospect of free range steak were hard temptations to overcome. Once marginal, the Wrangler and the Grey Parrots gradually increased the scope of their work. With the coming of Centauri Empathy, these lodges would be the keepers of the Hunters' forays into mind worm brood training.

Notes:

Explorers of the magenta vista artwork is "A Strange Land" by Kunrong Yap

The Earth BioGenome Project, like the Human Genome Project, is a real project. Its due date is 2028.

Farm scene is from "Colour Sketches Compilation 8" by Kunrong Yap

[Trenacker]

The first step to knowing God is knowing his greatest creation: the self. - A Prayer for Peace

Journeymen of the Timekeeper's Lodge contemplate the Desecration of Faith.

Sixty years after Planetfall, at the place called Shurath, where once a wide river curled, the Lord's Conclave finished the man that was a mountain. He was, said Sister Miriam Godwinson, "our fitting penance," built to acknowledge the great hurt done to their fellow survivors during the hungry days when the Nauvoo Legion had swarmed undefended camps like the frogs and locusts of Exodus.

Godwinson's neighbors were unimpressed. "I cannot fill empty bellies with the self-righteousness of the blind!" Governor Oscar van de Graaf thundered to his stakeholders. At his behest, the propertied families among the New Two Thousand voted a special allowance for military operations that put two thousand militia in the field. Miriam's people defended their great monument to the last. The kasan stone from which Man was built dispersed directed-energy weapons fire with better than 99.2% efficiency. The Nauvoo Legion built fighting positions inside the feet and ankles of the statue, resisting the Pilgrim assault for decades with only a minimum of effort. Then, in Mission Year 94, a separate upcountry campaign severed supply lines to the Shurath Valley. No quarter was asked, and none was given. The Governor celebrated his victory by inviting the Shapers of Chiron to dump their spoils at the foot of "this bold-faced monstrosity." In ten years, the tallest structure on Planet was buried to its ears in tailings from Coordinator Nagao's borehole mines. The valley became a wasteland.

A Pilgrim Rocketeer is ambushed by Chiron Guards during training at the Cloudbase Academy. Note the soldier "crouched" in cloud cover, a defensive technique peculiar to his faction. (Maintaining position in the air required constant consumption of fuel and could fully deplete a typical soldier's fuel supply in less than a minute. The Guard favored additional thigh-mounted drop tanks for this reason.

Rocket-assisted infantry were considered useless on Old Earth because of the ubiquity of cheap, ground-based air defenses. On Chiron, where "legging it" was substantially less viable and armaments of all kinds were less common, this modality of combat enjoyed a total renaissance after its MY11 debut by the Honored Dead.

Salvage, especially self-aware salvage, was valuable--or emotionally alluring--enough for enterprise souls to risk life and limb in the trackless places of Chiron. Here, a SMACER approaches the outskirts of Volokhovo Center, hoping no doubt to reawaken the intelligence that once animated the shell he drags behind. Ironically, his attached to a robot has not precluded forming close bonds with a more traditional companion.

This SMACER has undoubtedly stumbled across rich pickings, perhaps from a crashed Supply Pod, though his loot has not included firearms if the primitive spear is any indication. The blade is probably bathed in xenofungal oils to induce delirium in his opponents. A long-band radio helps him track the movements of potential quarry or communicate with whatever comrades he might have to hand. He wears a rust tech's hardhat in lieu of a combat helmet. The tunic is too short; he has found it expedient to add sleeves of another fabric.

Sources:
First picture is "Expedition V2" by otomozok on DeviantArt.

Second and third picture are from theamazingdigitalart on Tumblr. The former is from Fara Shanyar, while the latter is credited to Friendly Robot, François Leroy. Both are on ArtStation.

"Volokhovo" is from Fantasy Name Generators.

Final picture is "Darkest Odyssey Portrait" by Friendly Robot, François Leroy, on ArtStation.

[MysticWind]

But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee (pt. 1)

The guiding purpose of life is to stay alive. Watch any animal in its natural state - all it simply wants to do is to keep breathing. It doesn't care about beliefs or philosophy. Whenever a creature's behavior is severed from the realities of its existence, it risks extinction. These Progenitors missed that their worldview had become archaic. They went extinct.  - Journal of the Jungle

Babel fish bwana Montclair Carlo and expeditionary team at the entrance of the Alien Sanctum

After all the time they spent away from the population centers of civilization and on the unexplored frontier, it is perhaps natural that the Hunters of Chiron were behind one of the greatest xenoarcheological discoveries in Planet's prehuman history. But with regards to the Babel fish affair, they were simply navigators for interests with far greater ambitions than their own.

It all began during one of the many Corporate Vendettas that afflicted Planetary society from time to time. The Sixth one, to be exact. This one's arrival was written in the suns- as Hercules (Alpha Centauri B) drifted closer towards Chiron on an imminent perihelion event, the powers of Planet were wracked with anxious activity at the prospect of the disruption it would take. The previous event had been particularly devastating with no fewer than eighteen demon boil-led hordes attacking major bases, leading to the unofficial suspension of multiple vendettas by frontline commanders who turned their arms against the very wildlife of Planet. The Great Planetary War saw unlikely alliances between Believer and University, Hive and Peacekeeper, Pilgrim and Tribal, Gaian and Spartan, Dreamer and Phoenix. Retreating Dynamic Enterprise forces set the entire Asbolus MorganOxy complex ablaze as a giant thermobaric bomb to stem the blood-red tide that swarmed towards the nearby settlement of Morgan Chemistry. The CEO would later personally decorate the rank and file responsible for the evacuation, while the officer behind the desperate gambit was decapitated, a grim warning against considering such a financially costly tactic for future engagements.

In the course of commerce it is inevitable for conflict to arise. When faced with aggression it is important to remain rational and never stray from your core business values. But let those corporate raiders who seek to interfere with legitimate business be warned: the market will not tolerate your attacks on prosperity.  - call for peace during the Sixth Corporate Vendetta

Nathan Weismuller, director of the Chiron Cartel, gave his blessing to the Babel fish endeavor

So as this new perihelion approached, established interests conspired to escape its consequences. Just as the last event ended with the factions of man laying down their weapons and uniting, this one was heralded by humanity squabbling among itself. The Sixth Corporate Vendetta was kicked off when a vacuum balloon satellite owned by HarriSat Inc. of the Chiron Cartel detected anomalous energy signatures deep in the dense southeast corner of the Monsoon Jungle. This was followed by the disappearance of a mature boil, nicknamed "King Kong", that the company had been tracking in the exact same region. While some personnel were distraught at the apparent loss of the local field team, corporate leadership was amazed by a possible phenomenon that could be used against mind worms.

Morgan Industries industrial probe teams, having infiltrated the free enterprise zone for mission decades, quickly notified the head office about this spectacular prospect to forestall the incoming perihelion disaster. The recently re-founded NoxCo, who had bought word of the discovery from a disgruntled Morganite probe, agreed heartily. Struan's of Planet extractors, after recovering this news from one of Eric Preston's lackeys in a post-celebratory state of inebriated unconsciousness, informed middle managers who next called up the company's deniable assets to investigate this potential lifeline while Cobb was distracted by the latest MindMaze. Meanwhile, the Global Energy Exchange watched the fluctuations in usage that arose as these corporate factions mobilized.

What ensued was a series of further espionage, industrial sabotage, executive assassinations, double-crosses, and widespread litigation as half the free market of Planet attempted to prevent the other half from mounting an effective expedition into the Monsoon Jungle to exploit the discovery. No one wanted to be deprived of a secret weapon against the coming swarm; therefore, everyone else must be prevented from getting it first.

While HarrisSat was the first victim of the data theft, and the pacifistic Cartel was ill-equipped to deal with the mercenaries and sōkaiya saboteurs harassing their companies' shareholders, they did benefit from the faction's decentralized structure and lack of rigid brand loyalty. Spurring the distraction of the fray, CEO H.R. Harris tasked Dr. Laura Sattler, an ex-probe team operative, to launch an expedition into the Monsoon Jungle while the Director ran interference for the company. By threatening to disrupt Preston's precious supply chains, NoxCo's attention was momentarily dispersed while Sattler assembled a team using non-HarrisSat resources. Thus entered the Hunters of Chiron.

Casting

Montclair Carlo is portrayed by Ernie Hudson as Captain Monroe Kelly from Congo.

Nathan Weismuller is portrayed by Lee Pace as Brother Day from Foundation.

Laura Sattler is portrayed by Laura Linney as Dr. Karen Ross from Congo.

Notes:

The opening quote by Montclair Carlo is a paraphrasing of the dialogue of Charles Munro from Congo by Michael Crichton, pg. 175.

Vacuum airships or vacuum balloons are a real concept that date to the 17th century.

Sōkaiya are Japanese corporate extortionists and they are an incredibly wild, cyberpunk concept.