Groups

The Vanguard

Formed in the late 20^th century the Vanguard was originally a purely civilian movement focusing on common interests of its members, primarily gaming and beer drinking. It was during the wars of the late 21^st and early 22^nd century that the Vanguard was forged into the elite fighting corps that they were when they emerged from the latter half of the 22^nd century.

Most members of the Vanguard joined the United Kingdom military at or shortly after the outbreak of hostilities during the late 21^st century. By the beginning of the 22^nd century all of its active members were either members of the military or working in civilian jobs closely associated with it. It was early in the 22^nd century when the members of the Vanguard, previously spread across many operational units and external companies, grouped together into a single recognisable unit. Like many other groups of the time, most notably Bullman’s Dragoons, the Vanguard incorporated as a private business and set about selling their services to those who could pay. Unlike certain of their peers the Vanguard had a strong sense of internal ethics and were choosy about who they worked for.

By the end of the wars of the 22^nd Century the Vanguard was a multi-trillion pound business comprising of over fifty thousand fighting men, support staff and families. When the decision was taken to re-locate the Vanguards operations to the asteroid belt the entire group moved over the space of a decade. By 2160 there was not a single member of the Vanguard stationed on Earth on a full time basis, a office was kept open in what was the United Kingdom (now a member state of the Federal European republic).

The rough story of the time the Vanguard spent in the Asteroid belt, their subsequent return to Earth and eventual exile has been laid out elsewhere. After the exile the Vanguard retreated to some of the more wild and inhospitable places on the Earth. There they constructed a underground base and many of the remaining members chose to place their physical bodies into suspended animation and enter into a giant computer simulation called Valhalla. It is here, within Valhalla, that the bulk of the Vanguard resides, passing the centuries by reliving past glories and inventing new and ever more challenging war games, as well as consuming large amounts of virtual beer and food.

Not all members of the Vanguard chose to enter the solace of Valhalla, a few dozen of them remained awake and involved in the world at large. As time has passed many of them have died, either through unfortunate accidents or by choice, or simply faded away. There are now only a handful of Vanguard members to be found awake on Earth and they have become increasingly eccentric as the years have passed.

Bullman’s Dragoons

The Vanguard was not alone during the struggles of the late 21^st and early 22^nd centuries. Many other groups came to prominence in the military of the time and many underwent similar transformations to as the members of the Vanguard did. Most of these groups were wiped out during the initial events of the Breaking however, either by the initial EMP or by the nuclear blasts that followed.

Of the few that remained after the Breaking some were adsorbed into the Vanguard upon their return from the asteroid belt and some stood against the Vanguard and were wiped out during the wars that followed the Breaking.

There is however one group who have survived largely intact post breaking, mostly through the process of not being in the Solar System when the Breaking occurred. This group were known as Bullman’s Dragoons after their charismatic commanding officer, General Homer C. Bullman.

The Dragoons were initially part of the regular armed forces of the United States Military, a group specialising in armoured scouting and raiding. The brigade came under the command of General Bullman in the late 21^st century and by this time had already begun to incorporate advanced cybernetic technologies to enhance its soldier’s intelligence gathering abilities.

By the time Gen. Bullman took command of the brigade it was already becoming obvious that nation state based military units were becoming obsolete. More and more often battles were being fought by privately funded and equipped armies paid for by large corporations. In response to this Bullman’s Dragoons became the first unit in the US armed forces to be privatised and put their services for sale on the open market. Within twenty years all major military forces, including the Vanguard, were organised in this manner and if national governments wanted to enlist the services of the military they found themselves bidding along side large corporate interests.

By the conclusion of the global wars in the mid 22^nd century the Dragoons were a large and influential group who also happened to be immensely rich. Like the Vanguard they faced the issue of how to direct their energies now that their role on Earth was over, and like the Vanguard they turned their eyes to space.

Unlike the Vanguard the Dragoons were not content to remain inside the solar system and perfect the technology required for interstellar travel. Instead they took the best available technology of the time and constructed a large self sufficient star ship. The entire company, including families and other interested parties, loaded up into the craft; some 50,000 people in all. The Dragoon’s vessel ignited her fusion drives on the 22^nd of March 2155 and headed for the edge of the Solar System. By 2255 regular communications with the vessel had ceased and no one has heard from the Dragoons since.

The Grid

The Grid is a human offshoot group, the product of intense genetic and mechanical manipulation.

The Grid was formed by a group of research scientists who believed that humans were fundamentally ill suited to managing their own future. In their belief humans were genetically and culturally pre-disposed to short term view points and were unable to make reliable judgments about even their long term future. Their solution was to create an Artificial Intelligence to control their government and make long term decisions. They quickly realised that the processing power and storage requirements of such an AI would quickly outstrip what their small group was capable of providing. It also became apparent that keeping group members involved would be a difficult task.

Their solution was, to say the least, unique. Instead of using a large centralised computing resource for the AI they distributed the processing load among many smaller nodes, each housed within a member of the group as a cybernetic graft into the host’s central nervous system. The AI first achieved sentience on December 23^rd 2180.

Their solution worked just as they had designed it. Each member of the group was a fully independent being yet they also lent a part of themselves to a greater whole. The AI was the representation of the group’s communal personality and wishes tempered with the long term view point and analytic capacity of a machine mind. Over time the modification to the Grid members became more extensive until eventually a particularly creative bio-engineer developed a fully biological organ that encompassed all of the machinery required to participate in the Grid.

Although biological in origin this organ was essentially a highly developed set of machines whose blueprints were laid down in DNA. The organ contained the transmitter and receiver components that enabled a Grid member to participate in the high speed wireless network mesh that linked them all together along side the processing and storage resources required to host the member’s slice of the AI. It also provided direct links into the CNS of the group member.

This development was sized upon by the Grid and it was early in 2232 that the first generation of children who were Grid members from birth, with the modified organ embedded in their DNA, were born. When news of this development broke to a wider world in 2233 there was an uproar which resulted in the Grid movement, which had previously been seen as a strange but harmless political persuasion, being demonised and generally ostracised from regular human society. Outcast but still in possession of considerable resources the Grid gathered together and relocated to a small corner of the world where the lived as a self contained group for many years.

The events of the Breaking proved to be nothing more than an inconvenience for the Grid. While their mechanical components were damaged by the initial EMP blast being biological in nature they soon repaired themselves. Due to the out of the way nature of their location the nuclear devastation that engulfed much of the world’s major population centres passed them by.

Since that time the Grid have been slowly growing and expanding their territory, always peacefully. As a group they have some minor trade relations with the Empire but generally keep themselves to themselves. They are one of the few groups remaining on Earth amongst whom a high level of technology is still generally prevalent.

The Empire

The origins of the Empire have been related elsewhere, so look at that for more details.

The Empire currently comprises the single largest coherent group of humans on the planet. There are several major cities and many towns across the lands controlled by the Emperor.

The political structure of the Empire is essentially feudal in nature. At the top you have the Emperor and below him everyone else. As the Emperor is essentially immortal the structure is amazingly stable.

There is a state religion within the Empire that focuses on the Emperor as a saviour figure however it is fairly low key. The Church does not wield much power and functions more as a convenient social mechanism for providing support for those in need. For example what medical facilities exist come under the province of the church.

The one creed of the Empire is a distrust of advanced technology. Children are taught from a young age how the evils of technology and the pride of man caused the Breaking and the suffering that followed. The Breaking is generally viewed as a natural consequence of the use of high technology, kind of a slap from god if you will.

That is not to say that technology is totally shunned. Pre industrial age technology is prevalent throughout the Empire with water and wind powered machinery, an extensive aqueduct system good transport links (by horse).

There are still elements of high technology around of course but these are tightly controlled by the Emperor and those close to him and are mostly used for their benefit. The larger body of the population regard these artefacts as a kind of magic, beyond their understanding.

Occasionally a piece of Grid technology will come into the possession of a group, usually along the border the Empire shares with the Grid. This however is rare, the Grid does not like to part with their trinkets, and the objects themselves are often of limited functional use. Never the less these Grid artefacts command a high price within the Empire and are highly sought after by the more powerful families.