Indentured servitude has always been a part of The Core. Since the Bounty Hunter's Guild first intervened in the Omega conflicts a steady underclass of skilled laborers was held in "rehabilitative custody", forced to use their hard-wrought skills in the service of the Guild's eastward expansion. The settlement of Nauru saw this conglomeration natives form a craft-based culture, and the establishment of the Omicron Free Trade Zone granted them freedom on the condition that they pay their debts to their captors. Unable or unwilling to return to their former homes, a new generation of Omicron-born natives provided The Core with an underclass to pursue their profit-driven goals with.
The year of 835 A.S. placed The Core in a precarious situation. Cut off from Colonial Space a year prior, and with supply lines in Theta reduced to a warzone, Core forces were already stretched thin attempting to safeguard their position in Kappa. The Battle of Zeta was ruinous for the Core's military strength, as reserves from Delta were pushed into a full-scale Nomad incursion. Capetown's resulting loss, along with Battleship Mars, forced desperate Guildmasters to look for any military assets they could lay their hands on. Battleship Arkanaut was constructed based upon a salvaged superstructure from Alabama Shipyards and completed with off-the-shelf commercial systems. Outfitted as a picket ship and crewed with less-than-professional elements, ships like the Arkanaut are becoming increasingly common in The Core's domestic operations as faster, more seasoned ships are deployed to keep corporate interests safe.
SPECIFICATIONS
ARMOR
Iridium Plating [CAU-IV Universal Armor Standard]
ARMAMENT
2x Brawler-pattern Forward Batteries
1x Gauntlet-pattern Pulse Cannon
2x Arclight-pattern Primary Batteries
6x Lastlight II-pattern Secondary Batteries
POWER
Renzu ISF-3 Power Distributor
Ageira A-VIc Twin Reactor Core [Primary Power]
Samura A-GIII Single Reactor Core [Auxiliary Power]
Deep Space Engineering GE-2000 Industrial Batteries
ENGINES
AP Manufacturing EB199 Heavy Thrust Engine
AP Manufacturing E207 Maneuvering Thrusters
SCANNER
Kishiro Kashikoi Type VII Autoscanner
COMMAND
AP Manufacturing ACS12c Control Suite
Renzu R3400 Executive-series Command Throne
AP Manufacturing 1.2.1.0 [Beta] Autonomous Comlink
AP Manufacturing AT443 Sector Control Transponder
HANGAR
Deep Space Engineering Constitution-class Service Bay
NAME: Harkyl Bergmann
POSITION: Shipmaster
AGE: 47
ORIGIN: Omicron Rho [Alabama Shipyard]
NOTES: Former exo-industrial foreman at Alabama's superstructure yard. Transferred to Durban Station after Sigma-15 [INCIDENT]. Furloughed after Mako-class production halted. Chosen for command based on experience acting as a liaison between Interspace executives and work crews.
DEBT: 16,867,384.123 S.C.
NAME: Niko Kragg
POSITION: Master of Ordnance
AGE: 51
ORIGIN: Omega-49
NOTES: Former Battery Overseer aboard Battleship Luna. Transferred to Nauru due to mission-specific restaffing. Promoted to Master of Ordnance and assigned to WV-Arkanaut following Zeta losses.
DEBT: 17,324,987.019 S.C.
NAME: Kyla "Marbles" Steadman
POSITION: Augury Chief
AGE: 38
ORIGIN: Libertonian Emigree
NOTES: Originally a geological surveyor on an Interspace contract for Nauru excavations. Contract extended and reassigned to WV-Arkanaut after scanner specialists deemed critical to operations; protests on the non-transferability of skills disregarded.
DEBT: 3,789,109.234 S.C.
Unlike the myriad of corporate contractors and "temps" that usually staff Core interests, Enforcers are mainline employees who owe their loyalty (and their pay) to the Guildmasters and their Interspace investors. The presence of an Enforcer detachment usually signals a lack of organizational trust in their charges, and it is not uncommon that a conflict of command occurs where the executive decisions of a shipmaster are countermanded by corporate interests seeking to gamble on their investments.
Core Enforcers are usually accomplished and semi-retired Bounty Hunters or mercenaries seeking a steady paycheck and the luxuries of a corporate position. In addition to keeping their wards in line, Enforcers are used as a militant element in the occasion of a boarding action.
An anachronism from the days when mining was the main mode of employment in the Edge Worlds, "The Ore" are young and unproven individuals who perform the majority of menial tasks in the Omicron Free Corporate Zone. While many inevitably die young, those who survive will eventually graduate to a trade and improve their standing. If not their debt.
The fall of Omicron Zeta and the loss of the Omicron Rho jump gate project saw a drastic change in position for most of the Core's underlings. Many of The Core's most experienced ships were lost at Capetown and Freeport 9, with the rest scrambling to secure new routes to Colonial Space. Furthermore, the shuttering of Alabama Shipyards saw many workers furloughed from their positions. This presented a situation where Guildmasters attempting to cover their losses resorted to pressganging any able bodies they could find which were not critical to the operations of their assets, leading to ships crewed and operated by "The Ore" for the first time since the Battle of Minor.
The majority of menials aboard the Arkanaut are Nauru natives.
Given that The Core was at some point divested of it's "Imperium Omicronis" flavor, I thought it would be fun to give it a go as a ship full of heavily debted miners trying to balance their own interests against their Interspace/House overlords. With Discovery's push towards exploration and an impending Omega rework, I thought The Core's ID was perfect to get into the spirit of things.
Unfortunately (or fortunately for me) since the faction has had an eternal identity crisis (Corporation? Imperialized Bounty Hunters? Both?), I've had to write up a rough timeline regarding how my Omicron natives came to be. If anyone has any issues with this, or know that it contradicts anything, please let me know. Everything is, as always, a work in progress.
Timeline
Early 800’s A.S.
o Conglomerate Guild forces intervene in the Hessian-Corsair conflicts in the Omegas. Survivors are captured and placed in ‘rehabilitative custody’ as indentured workers.
Guild work-stations make no effort to segregate populations. Laborers begin to cohabitate after spats of violence.
Mid 810’s A.S.
o The settlement of Nauru and withdraw from operations in the Omegas see indentured workers transferred to installations in the Omicrons.
o Riots on Nauru hamper settlement efforts and see the destruction of several important Alien excavations. The declaration of the Omicron Corporate Trade Zone saw workers ‘freed’ from servitude on the condition that they repay their debts to the corporate state. Workers are surveyed and issued an ID number along with an approximate debt.
The Nauru Riots are eventually quelled after the eldest workers are granted amnesty and considered full citizens of Nauru. Citizenship does not, however, grant equality, and the earliest freemen find themselves the head of the Core’s lower class.
820’s
o The first generation of Omicron-born freemen is born as their progenitors are accused of aiding the enemy and refused the ability to return home.
o A craft-based culture is raised within the Core as the miners of Nauru become increasingly separated from their industrialized cousins in Rho. Divisions are deepened by the enforcers of the corporate state who seek to prevent further revolts.
830’s
o A draining campaign in Omicron Kappa sees the martial forces of the Core stretched thin. The wholesale loss of assets in Zeta see the Core take drastic measures in the face of Corsair expansion and Nomad incursions.
o Freemen are press-ganged into naval service for the first time since the Battle of Minor. New crews are posted aboard slower and less-heavily armed vessels as faster cruisers and battlecruisers are reserved for the safeguarding of assets and trade routes. Pilots are given surplus ships intended for the Coreward Bounty Hunter’s Guild.
o Omicron Rho is divested of assets as jump connections rapidly deteriorate. The Core’s main supply route is cut, and assets from Alabama Shipyard are attached to Durban Station. The failure of the Rho Gate Project strains relations with EFL.
o WV-Arkanaut is completed at Durban Station. The vessel was hastily constructed using a salvaged Alabama-era superstructure and off-the-shelf modules from colonial manufacturers. WV-Arkanaut is equipped as a forward picket ship.
o WV-Arkanaut is launched from Durban Station with a mandate to monitor the deterioration of Omicron Zeta and retrieve remaining assets to reinforce Nauru. The Arkanaut is crewed by a mixture of furloughed shipwrights from Alabama and press-ganged miners from Nauru.
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ID: H.BERGMANN