Chapter 3: Preview

Calendar Dates: February 11 - March 10

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The Nine
The Company
Leithians
True Leithians
Westies
Resistance
RAC

Since each faction will have an impact on each other, it's highly recommended that you stay privy to the movements of all factions--even those your character isn't involved with!

The Nine: Promises Unmade

The Nine have funded the development of new technology - universal PDDs (personal digital devices) and the Meshwork to which they’re all connected. Boasting seamless connectivity and an improved interface, these devices will be distributed throughout the Quad in the name of stronger communications and lessening the economic divide between the moons. Although much of the media's focus will initially center around this new technology, its feats and availability will quickly become overshadowed by the mid-week announcement regarding the repeal of the Seventh Generation Accords. The failure of the Accords is laid at the feet of the Resistance, the attacks of the previous weeks all offloaded into the hands of the nebulous organization.

The demise of the Accords may not be a surprise to all, however. Initially, the repeal will begin as a rumor among info brokers before becoming public knowledge, allowing agents to sow dissent in the already tumultuous populations. Once the official announcement is made, the reactions in the Quad vary from violent riots to hopeful activism. Either way, a vacuum is created within the power structure and what will fill that space--rebellion, war, or new litigation--is yet to be determined.

The company: Balancing Act

With visa restrictions tightening, those under the employ of the Company will find yet another task falling to them. Border patrol and tighter security on incoming and outgoing ships will be assigned to any available enforcer. This is not to be misinterpreted as a breath of fresh air, as clean up on both Westerley and Leith from the P43X attack continues, and the Resistance churns more actively than ever in response to the repeal of the Seventh Generation Accords.

Riots of angry citizens, responding to the attacks or the repeal or their own agenda, will erupt with increasing frequency, requiring teams of enforcers to quell and comb for arrests en masse. With several squads still suffering from the loss or illness of their own, Company enforcers will be spread thin to make up the difference and maintain some semblance of order in the shaken Quad.

Westies: Tidal Force

As is often the case for Westies, their halcyon days—what passes for halcyon on this moon, anyway—only serve to make the future bleaker by comparison. Being both the last location to weather the effects of P43X and housing populations with the least resources, recovery is slow and painful on Westerley. Charity drives organize to address the orphaned children and widowed spouses, but with so many mouths to feed and so little food with which to provide, starvation and dehydration become a mounting problem for families. Add to this mix of desperation the rumors and then subsequent announcement of the Accord’s demise and you create a perfect recipe for a violent surge.

Protests begin peacefully, albeit bitterly, and quickly swell into full-scale riots, organized and enflamed over the newly installed Meshwork system. The Company answers these riots as they always have: with like force and interest collected, deploying militarized counter-measures to quell the growing insurrection. Travel visas for Westies are temporarily revoked and the moon’s docks close to outsiders, furthering their resource depletion. The end result of the rioting is more death, more families broken, and little ground gained. In the ashes of the smothered flames, Westies must reassemble their lives, and many—but not all—turn their ears to Leith’s call for peace, hopeful, if not exhausted, into passivity.

Leithians: Olive Branch

Leith has suffered a terrible blow in recent weeks and though many within the moon’s pastures praise the abolishment of the Accords, most lament the circumstances that led to it. Recovery efforts following the P43X are still under way, for although this peaceful moon has seen little suffering compared to the plight of Westerley, they were and still are ill-prepared for the dire effects of conflict. In the midst of the political chaos of lands once seized for the Accords and now slated for reassignment, several moderate groups step forward, hopeful to guide the Quad into stability with a combination of grassroots activism organized over the new Meshwork and careful litigation.

Once resources are available, Leithian officials extend an olive branch to Westerley, donating manpower, joy, and technology to aid in their sister-moon’s recovery efforts. Of course, no act of altruism or charity is without its price or ulterior motive in Quad, but at least for now, their aim—peace—is one that most can abide.

True Leithians: Rested Laurels

Their wicked work complete, the True Leithians recede from the spotlight, satisfied and smug. Their end goal was simple, and though it cost the lives of many within the Quad and even more within their ranks, it was ultimately achieved. The Accords are no more, and for a spell, Leith’s rightful owners can rest their laurels on the knowledge that they will remain as much. Their members, always within the shadows of Leithian society, disperse against the wind, tying up their loose ends and reintegrating into their civilian lives.

What they don’t anticipate—what they never seem to anticipate—is that in their brutality they’ve awoken a new breed of enemy, an enemy who has everything to gain and nothing to lose by retaliation. The True Leithians may have achieved their ends, but their means are going to cost them—and their families—dearly.

Resistance: Sacred Grove

From the ether comes a voice – several, actually—though all identify themselves by the moniker Hyperion. Operating off the new Meshwork, Hyperion articulates as several different avatars to galvanize the Resistance into an organized cell structure. While no one knows who the true Hyperion is, what they do know is they have information and resources, too much, in fact, to be trifled with. Hyperion contacts the select few among the Resistance to provide instruction and dossiers for future cell members, and although many of the constituents will be willing participants, a fair few will be coerced, blackmailed, and otherwise incentivized into cooperation.

Each cell will be provided with a safehouse and a mission, though the greater aims of Hyperion are unknown, and the cells themselves are kept compartmentalized so that no one individual—even the leaders—can become a liability to the organization.

Reclamation apprehension COALITION: New Grade

As system stability deteriorates, RAC agents are needed more than ever to serve as neutral parties and deliver goods into hostile territories. While this means the influx of joy is without end for killjoys, it also means that manpower is swiftly becoming a problem. As such, evaluations are scheduled for the advancement of all Level 1-3 agents. Evaluations will be conducted by Level 4 agents, with their own senior assessments slated for the following month, and although team leaders can file recommendations, the actual evaluations must be conducted by an unaffiliated agent.

The assessments will include psychological evaluation, combat proficiency exams, and tactical/strategic thinking trials. The need for higher-ranked agents is greater than ever, but the RAC won’t place vital warrants in the hands of the unprepared—so study up, clean your weapons, and be ready.

Chapter 3 Preview