The Pathfinder movement was born from the Starlight Research Consortium. While the Pathfinders have their origin story rooted in the Consortium, the rest of their story exists outside of the organization that birthed them. With the SLRC coffers dwindling and operations beginning to crawl to a near standstill, the Pathfinder Initiative moved from under the umbrella of the Consortium to a fully fledged operation outside of their purview.
The Pathfinder Initiative, now just called the Pathfinders, follows a linear leadership pattern; with Dante Flintlocke as "Pathfinder-1", all ranks beneath him move upwards in number. This makes the rank structure exceedingly simple. The lower the number, the higher the rank leaving no question who is in charge of a group.
The organization has three tenants:
1. Explore.
2. Discover.
3. Collect.
The first tenant, explore, means exactly what it sounds like. Exploring Sirius and beyond is a core operational purpose for the Pathfinders. Discover, as before, is exactly as it sounds but with a slightly deeper meaning. Discover things by exploring but also discover intelligence, technology, or data on anomalies that can be collected...leading into the last tenant: Collect. The Pathfinders have a unique kinship with organizations similar to the Technocracy and Core wherein the archival of information and technology is paramount.
Their appearance can be disconcerting for one first meeting a Pathfinder. Often equipped with advanced powered armor of varying colors, shapes, and sizes; each powered armor is unique to the individual wearing it. They have various miniaturized sensor arrays, cameras, and other tools of exploration at their fingertips. No one Pathfinder is the same from the other with exception of their logo which reflects each of the three tenants as three orbs across it's shape.
Pathfinder ships over a certain tonnage tend to forgo armaments, instead choosing to use that power for various powerful sensor arrays and scientific equipment dedicated to the purpose of exploration while smaller craft--such as Fighters, Bombers, and Gunboats--sport weaponry meant to protect their larger craft. The larger Pathfinder vessels equip various probes and automated mechs which can be dropped to the surface of planets or thrown into anomalies to collect data or items. These larger ships are often not seen in populated star systems except for when undergoing maintenance, overhauls, or drydock visits; their larger ships are meant for exploration and not a show of force.
Lastly, while the Pathfinders do collect information, they do not research or ponder the mysteries of the universe. They simply explore, discover, collect and move on. Should any important data be discovered that warrants research, they forward that information to others who can send out researchers at their leisure to investigate. This has lead to them being seen more as would be informational "Bounty Hunters" than researchers. Often paid by other researchers to seek out various phenomena, paths, or shortcuts through various systems and deliver the data under a contract. While this data recovery is often utilized for scientific research, it has been suggested that they also collect and provide intel for a price.
Tag/IFF
TAG: <^> ID: Zoner IFF: Zoner
Alignment
Neutral to all human vessels. Cautious to alien craft.
I have sat on this post since before I stopped playing back in December. Not knowing if I wanted to post it. Not knowing if I wanted to come back full time to play again. I've been here and there on the forums doing various things but I haven't really fully "dipped my toes back into the pool" so to speak. Mostly because what little I have done has been...mundane to say the least. Now that I'm actually able to play again (even if not at the same pace as before), I've been looking at this document on and off for a few weeks debating on whether or not to post it at all.
I know that I have a problem with creating factions and then never following through on them. I attribute that to my ADHD. From ZDF, to SLRC, to LGN, and many others, I can never really stop creating things just because my imagination runs wild. As I said, I sat on this document for months and considered not posting it at all because I worry that this will be yet another faction that I don't follow through on. However a few close friends told me to do so just because any RP is good for the server right now...even if it's just me being apart of the group by myself. So...here it is. The Pathfinders document.
At their core, the Pathfinders are an evolution of SLRC. While Starlight became a faction which spouted Star Trek-esk scientific jargon in to local and system chats, the Pathfinders are tech nerds with a penchant for exploration. They leave research projects, theories, and degrees to the wayside while hurling themselves into spatial anomalies, blind jumping through undiscovered jump holes, and flying into low planetary orbits to get detailed scans of ruins and anomalies on planet surfaces. The scientific jargon part of SLRC sort of got away from me and I found myself postulating various theories about game mechanics for during hours long RP sessions with various individuals. This cuts that component out and gets down to the nitty gritty parts of exploration.
Think of the Pathfinders as a cross between a series of different factions such as Starfliers, SLRC, Core, and the Technocracy. SLRC and Starfliers for exploration and a lack of weapons (on their larger ships, anyway) and the Core and Auxo for their love of tech and collecting data. I'm planning on ramping up activity on this faction once the patch goes live and the Deep Omegas are added to the game. Right now, I'm doing some simple prep work and forumlancing for various purposes and to get the name out there a bit before the patch actually drops.
Lastly, my idea for the capital ships under the umbrella of the Pathfinders is they operate without weapons while having smaller craft protecting them from enemy combatants and/or supporting them during their trips into the black. This will give combat pilots something to do. While doing SLRC RP, I found that a lot of us would just sit around and spout jargon while flying through space. The security teams never really having much to do other than tag along and just...be there. This gives them something to do because despite their size, the capital ships are essentially sitting ducks without their weapons and a security team will actually have something to do.
I truly hope that this is something that I can actually follow through on. I'm sorry for all of the erroneous graveyard factions I've tried to put together and for all those people who've been apart of them. Maybe this time, I'll be able to make this work. Please give me some feedback on this post and let me know what everyone thinks.
~Leo
Seems I have to break a promise. This faction is in the process of being rolled into the Starfliers. I no longer have any interest or time in maintaining a faction.
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Old Document![[Image: zUqsS8d.png]](https://imgur.com/zUqsS8d.png)