Ascendancy Pact/secret

The UOSA Secret

The Corsairs who are registered and posing as privateers to the Ascendancy Pact’s Representatives, Magistrates and patrolling Navy are holding a dark, back pocket secret. Headquartered at UOSA’s (Knoellighz 2237) hidden Corsair Base, the “UOSA Syndicate Privateers” (USP hereafter) were the first Corsair band to be absorbed into the Ascendancy Pact as privateers under the Hunters’ Bawn back when the polity was in near-infancy and expanding Coreward. This band of Corsair pretenders towed their Letter of Marque all the way through history until the Hard Times era. This is because they had hidden the presence of nearby worlds, Tasoloe and Dzagok (Knoellighz 2435 and 2436). By defeating the Corsairs at Uknonueng (Knoellighz 2240) and laying waste to the Starport there, the USP claimed the Base there and further congealed Hunters’ territory by politely working with the Ascendancy Admiralty in aiding patrols or taking on patrol duties on the Rimward edge of the growing polity. With bribes, polite encouragement Core-Spinward and deceptive re-routing, the early Ascendancy Pact (long before it was formally named) was misdirected from discovery of Tasoloe and Dzagok worlds that they had found a decade before the emergence of the infant polity’s colony vessels.

At the time mere Corsairs, the band had learned early on the presences of a Vargr clone society of deep space, frontier explorer-scientists on Dzagok. On the edge of civilization of the times, the doomed world’s population catastrophically failed and only 34 learned Vargr remained. With only a small handful, the gene pool would not suffice to rebuild the world until explorers would discover Knoellighz Sector in time. The Original 34, as they came to be hailed by their clone children, were the brightest of thirty-four aspects of theoretical science, hard science and applied sciences. Their clones, generations later continued on until discovered by the Corsairs much later. Today, the ‘privateers’ enjoy top-of-the-line vessels, systems and weapons as a result of the Secret.

Clones of Dzagok are little more than slaves to the Corsairs, but also very valuable as to be treated very carefully and under close watch. The clone-scientists in turn believe that their service is needed to solve problems with the local cluster and are all too happy to help in exchange for needs of their ‘cloneworld’.

The USP ‘privateers’ willingly limit their Bawn distance to the cluster of the worlds detailed below and the immediate surroundings. This also makes the Navy happy. However, the Corsairs will stop at nothing to keep the UOSA Secret safe. Conspirators of the UOSA Secret involve:

UOSA / Raelas 2237 – UOSA is an overpopulated Industrial mecca of high-tech pleasures and gently-prodded worker Vargr. Here, all sort of high-tech pleasures can be manufactured, packaged, marketed to the Ascendancy Pact, distributed and even enjoyed. Night scene is the main theme on UOSA and the planetary city never sleeps. With a population of 1,000,000,000, the people here can afford to work in easy shifts. Factories and assembly lines are aided by robotics and powerful computers. Exports include laid-off workers, criminals, Corsair crews, and products of the UOSA Secret: TL 15 items. The planet’s Technology Level is kept at 8 to fool the visiting Navy and Ascendancy Pact dignitaries stopping in for a fix of every degenerate kind. UOSA is the capital of every vice including but not limited to: gambling, prostitution (Vargr and cloned ‘toys’), pleasure drugs, brutal sports, machine sports (e.g. robotic sailball), vehicle racing, black market tech, smuggling off-world and technology espionage (USP versus AP trade and the legitimate corporate sectors of other nearby polities). The rated-D downport and highport is kept purposefully low by the Corsairs in make-excuses, passive-aggressive attempt to discourage naval visits. The true starport is through the hidden Corsair Base in the solar system’s outer planetoid belt. The balkanized governments vie for consumers’ money and the sprawl has led to the allowance of shotguns. Crime is present like an ambient, neon glow from street level. Most assaults come from bladed weapons in contrast. The thin and polluted atmosphere requires air densifiers and purifiers. Thanks to the scientists from Dzagok, personal versions are sold from outlet malls locally. Architecture planning, designs, blueprints and prototypes arrive here from Dzagok for distribution by local, bidding manufacturing companies to produce. This too fills the coffers of the Corsairs.

Garrillon /Raelas 2338 - With a lowly population of 3,000 Vargr, plus or minus a few visiting clone physicians from Dzagok, this planet is a neutral conspirator of the UOSA Secret. Though they know nothing of Dzagok, the locals are warned not to ask questions concerning the visiting Vargr who look like twins, triplets, quadruplets and so on. This small, low-Population world is held in gentle thrall by USP and is patrolled in lieu of the Ascendancy Pact Navy. The Vargr here are located near the ‘starport’, a mere landing field with barely a control tower, a beacon and an array of landing lights. Garrillon serves as a “simple pleasures” downport and watering hole for the Corsairs. The rare naval visit is met with compliant smiles from the local Hunters’ Bawn ‘privateers’. There is a healthy but small slave trade route that funnels incoming slaves from outside the Pact and after processing by the UOSA Syndicate Privateers, stock are re-distributed to the member worlds of the UOSA Secret.

Uknonueng / Raelas 2240 – This world features a water world of Bronze Age fishing and whaling ships crewed by its population of 800,000. Uknonueng exports netted schools of fish, sea flora, air (returned from Dzagok for recycling) and whaling. In exchange, the primitives are gifted with seafaring ship hulls, parts, tech-appropriate fuels, air-thinning plants and fishing gear. Without a starport, this planet is kept as boring as possible by the patrolling Corsairs by graciously taking up the duty for the Ascendancy Pact Navy. The local government is left balkanized and that is to the Corsairs’ desire. Naval inspections of the planet are cheerfully greeted by the USP by appointment under fine-printing of their Hunter’s Bawn, their Letter of Marque. In-system facilities are only above the innermost of eight Gas Giants. It is secretly through Uknonueng that the USP conducts black market trade stopovers with the Pact of Gaer immediately Rimward of this solar system.

Dzagok / Raelas 2436 - Home to a Vacuum environment dotted with arbor domes above a subterranean tunnel complex that opens in deep crevice canyons crossed by bridges, six million Vargr clones and guarded closely by Corsairs, Dzagok is UOSA’s best back pocket secret. The Desert-rated planet is on the warm edge of the Green Habitable Zone in this solar system and is well lit. Solar panels across the surface of the planet provide a large low-signature energy source to the underground environs, arboretum, laboratories and the downport. Dzagok is entirely composed of gene-engineered, Vargr clones of the “34 original” (17 males and 17 females) phenotypes, or ‘casts’, from the survivors of a long-past calamity on the planet. A cast is the baseline phenotype, cloned for its attributes when necessary rather than natural reproduction. Reclaimed (dead) clones are evaluated for inclusion of new developments of the phenotype into the home cast if an evolution evidences. Casts are not cross-bred as a legacy wish of the Original 34. The planet is advised by a TL 15 set of six supercomputers that house recorded personality engram, pseudo-presences of the Original 34 and are maintained at the rated-A downport, in the deepest canyon on the planet. Each of the 34 casts represents various sciences, theoretical, hard and applied. The only sciences not touched upon are psionics, (which the Corsairs try to keep from the clones by vying for bans in the Representatives of the Ascendancy Pact). The world’s Technology Level 15 is the source of UOSA’s prosperity in designs and blueprints of various developments before and since the world’s re-discovery by the “UOSA Syndicate Privateers” Corsair band. The Corsairs provide raw and refined materials, water, air, food, chemicals, radioactives and anything the clones request from neighboring planets in-system and nearby worlds, (e.g. Tasoloe 2435). The names of each clone are often derivatives of their Original plus an iteration number or a nickname. Pet names, given to the clones from the visiting Corsairs, are highly valued by the clones. A Corsair might ‘pay’ a clone by gifting that clone with a pet name to individualize that clone in return for good work, a favor paid or if the Corsair makes a friendship with them. Differentiation is valuable to each clone and especially if given, noted or otherwise acknowledged by a non-clone. Each of the casts has a crystalized Charisma rating equal to its Original, modified individually by the presence of a given name or special service merit. Other than those, a Dzagok clone’s Charisma is a set rating, (see Referee Notes below). Clones are loaned and transported solely by the Corsair band as analysts, advisors, specialists and project managers, then returned after the task is complete. Each clone is iterated with a solid, thin, irridium and lanthanum choker-collar under a clone’s neck ruff that features the Original Cast, iteration number and a small amount short-lived technetium so as to be detectable from orbit above a planet. Dzagok clones are extremely valuable to the USP and are guarded jealously and kept secret from outside the syndicate. Designs, blueprints and other prototypes are funneled through UOSA’s massive manufacturing complexes for production, packaging, marketing and distribution by the USP vessels or hired traders. This has enriched UOSA’s economy to near degenerate levels of prosperity. Dzagok clones have a gene-engineered lifespan of about 100 years, modifiable by wear and tear or the illegal use of anagathics.

Tasoloe / Raelas 2435 – Tasoloe is being strip-mined for its resources on as-needed basis by the USP and the Dzagok clone scientists. Even though the learned clones care to preserve the planet as much as possible, such sentiment is not shared by the Corsairs transporting and guarding them. A small outpost station is home to about 60 Vargr Corsairs and no more than ten clones at a time. This number increases after 1105 to raise the Population of Tasoloe to a rating of 2 during Rebellion and 3 during Hard Times as more resources are ravaged from the planet, (much to the dismay of the clones when they learn the truth). Tasoloe features seaweed harvested for various biochemicals and as a supplementary diet. The shelf tree of the continental shelf just offshore of land connects a surface pad, down a long and flexible trunk to root in the shelf bed. Discarded seed pods are both edible and produce seeds post-digestion. The forests of shelf trees are found among huge coral reefs and are a critical part of the photic zone ecosystem. Lastly, the kraken-whale is a huge whale-like fish with eight long, ropy tentacles surrounding a cyclostomata mouth full of long sharp teeth. Sought for food, oils, fats, bone and its waterproof hide, even the tentacles are a Vargr delicacy at UOSA.

Referee Notes: All player-characters from Dzagok are assumed to be clones of the Original 34. With Referee permission, a template of Scholar career can be selected and approved. Charisma score is pre-set at 7 unless the character gains a nick- or pet name or has a positive Life Event of some merit. Charisma never rises or falls due to behaviors, successes or failures.

<Plot hook: Hard Time Era ships are disappearing from 2334 and 2433 more than usual, having been destroyed by the Corsairs for coming too close for comfort. Inquiries to Corsairs of 2233 yield nothing. 2431, an independent, non-aligned world with its own navy denies attacking the missing vessels. 2638 is too far to be involved and fields only Jump-1 and -2 ships. 2440 is also a neutral system-state too far away. Can the characters look for clues in the wreckage to uncover UOSA’s Secret?>