Syndicate's Pawns (20 page)

Second Expansion:
Dating from the end of the first Expansion, the Second Expansion is the present. Many new nations were born while many others are currently solidifying their influence in preparation for the Third Expansion.

Seft:
The Wolver word for clan or family. Sefts typically compete amongst themselves for influence and power.

Slipspace/Slipdrives:
The most widely used interstellar starflight technology. Allows ships to “slip” from one spot in space to another. Slipdrives remain crucial to traversing the Infinite and Covenant Space.

Sol:
The former political center of the Covenant, Sol remains nonetheless one of the most powerful galactic nations of the cosmos. This is due mainly in part to the fact that Sol is the Capital of the Pax Humanis. Holy Terra, the blue cradle, is located in Sol, but it is not controlled by the Pax Humanis.

Sol Fleet:
The first Pax Humanis built interstellar military fleet. During the Ages of the First Expansion, it was Sol Fleet and the brave men and women in its ser­vice who came to the protection of the new nations. Because of this Sol Fleet remains one of the oldest and proudest fleets in existence.

Somapoline:
A rare breed of vine native of Uldur. When properly prepared by trained Elvrids and injested, it causes the user to be incredibly compliant. Used in in many Elvrid rituals and trials.

Standard Star Dating System:
While all Covenant nations have their own calendar systems, most if not all legal and political dates follow the Standard Sol Calendar. The Standard year is based on Earth's twelve months. All years are dated after the last Expansion. Historically there have been two Covenant Sanctioned Expansions into new worlds. A third Expansion has been scheduled in the next sixteen hundred years.

Sunderlund:
Due mostly to a larger than average Wolver population living side by side with Kelthans, Sunderlund has made a habit of speaking out against the Pax Humanis. The Sunderlund Navy is exclusively composed of Humanis developed and engineered vessels. Sunderlund shipyards continue to produce some of the most reliable and durable starflight worthy spacecrafts in existence.

The Survey:
The Covenant's volunteer fleet of scouts and planet surveyors. The Survey spends the majority of its time and resources scouting new worlds for future Expansions. The Survey is also tasked with mapping and updating slipspace astrocharts. Like the Patrol, the Survey also operates as a rescue operation. This is the main reason for the friendly spirit of competition that still exists between these two branches of the Covenant.

The Syndicate:
An ever-­elusive network of criminals and smugglers, the Syndicate is the shadow response to the Covenant. It exists solely to broker and smuggle illegal black market goods from world to world.

The Thorns:
The Thorns are the deniable assets of the Hegemon and the Pax Humanis. They are sent behind enemy lines on illegal operations. That the Covenant has not yet been able to prove the Thorn involvement in various dubious black book missions remains a testament to their effectiveness at covering up their tracks.

Uldur:
To this day the world of Uldur remains the center for Wolver politics, culture, innovation and spirituality. Uldur is a luscious and verdant planet with two moons, each one equally capable of supporting life. According to Wolver legend, it was Uldur that called out to them in the days of the first expansion. Unlike many worlds in Covenant Space, Uldur was never artificially Terraformed. The Wolvers have learned to live side by side with the living creatures and wild plants that make Uldur their home.

Universal Bit:
The universal bit, or u-­bit, is the most commonly accepted form of currency in Covenant Space. Like the standard calendar, most nations have their own independent currency as well, but if they wish to do commerce on a galactic scale the universal bit, more often than not, remains the easy go-­to standard for most nations and banks.

The Vale Campaign:
When a terrorist faction known as the Children of Vale destroyed the commercial Pax Humanis passenger ship “
The Eternity
,” resulting in thousands of Pax civilian casualties, the Hegemon responded by mobilizing three of the Pax warfleets into Vale space. The goal was to install order and Pax Humanis rule in what was being painted as an unruly part of the Universe. The Confederation of Nations, led by Argent, responded by sending in fleets of their own. While there are reports of many savage and bloody battles, the Vale Campaign never truly escalated into all-­out war. The Campaign of Vale came to an abrupt end after the infamous Battle of Galomdryd, for Vale's capital city.

Wolven:
The rich and emotional dialogue spoken by the Wolvers. To this day it remains the second most used tongue in the universe. Wolven found its origins in the days prior to the Advent War and it was intentionally designed by the Wolver Sefts to be overly emotional, almost musical. This was to make it incredibly difficult for machines to decode and understand.

 

THE INTELLIGENCES OF THE COVENANT

DARLKHIN

The mysterious, never-­changing immortals commonly known as the Darlkhin are “plastic” humans. Should one give any credence to their histories, they would be last descendants of Ancient Humanity. Darlkhin mainly tend to exclusively pursue their own personal agendas and rarely if ever choose to participate in the affairs of New Humanity or the Covenant.

Most of them have taken up their Crusade, tracking rogue machine Intelligences and permanently deleting them. This hunt takes them all over the cosmos. The Darlkhin possess technology and powers beyond the wildest dreams of any Kelthan Scientist. They all too often use forbidden technology, either denying everything altogether or refusing to answer to Covenant Law when called on it. The Darlkhin maintain that all their secrecy is necessary for the greater good of New Humanity.

Darlkhin have a plastic-­like quality and all of them are sterile. No one really knows what their true numbers are or the true extent of their powers. Given their secretive nature they are mistrusted by almost everyone. Yet when a Darlkhin Crusader arrives on the hunt of rogue machines, no one stands in his or her way. The Darlkhin hold many secrets and are loath to reveal any of them. Yet if anyone knows the true cause behind the Lost Wars, it would be them.

KELTHANS

Kelthans are the most prolific race in Covenant Space. Mostly hairless and thin with varying skin colors, they are naturally proficient with machines and are the species that most resemble Ancient Humanity. This is a fact that puritan Kelthans will often quite proudly point out. Kelthan privilege seems to permeate almost every aspect of galactic affairs, from technological or medical developments to politics and the media. This is demonstrated by the fact that most ships, clothes and weapons are built to accommodate Kelthan size. Even the largest superpower in the cosmos, the Pax Humanis, boasts a predominantly Kelthan population.

Since most Kelthans have no qualms about using technology, they have been able to enjoy all of the latest cutting-­edge advances provided to them by the Machina. They are almost the opposite of Wolvers' mistrust in this regard. Because of this, Kelthan-­run worlds usually enjoy higher levels of comfort. This has led to most Kelthans having a bit of a superior smugness to them. After all, not only are they the Bloodline that resembles Ancient Humanity the most, they are the one that has spread furthest across the Infinite.

KOHBRAN

Often shunned for their almost reptile-­like appearances, the Kohbran are and always have been the most community oriented of all the bloodlines. They live in Moon-­sized city trees that travel through the cosmos pulled by Leviathans, the largest living creatures in the observed universe. The Kohbran have jealously and exclusively kept any Leviathan genetic materials secret since the signing of the Covenant after the Advent War.

The Kohbran are incredible diplomats, traders and negotiators. For the most part, City Trees travel from world to world, trading with those who are willing to do so. They are gifted poets and wordsmiths. An average Kohbran child will know most of the languages spoken in the universe before most Humanis have even mastered one.

The Kohbran follow the way of the Prophet Maya, she who served all Kohbran by leading them to the Leviathans. This code requires that all serve the greater good of the City Trees that they call home. One who takes without returning is the lowest form of life possible.

There is no evidence of them ever existing on Old Earth. This means nothing considering that most of records from that period are, at best, incomplete. The Kohbran maintain they are a Humanis bloodline, and offer free, safe starflight on their City Trees to any who request it, provided they don't mind having no control over their destination.

MACHINA

No Intelligence in the cosmos is subject to more mistrust and prejudice than the third generation of self-­made machines: the Machina. These curious and often naive machine Intelligences spend most of their time awash in the information rich virtual-­universe that is the datastream. They only choose to inhabit mechanical bodies or shells in order to better interact with Humanity.

While the Machina are machines, they are no longer slaves. They are masters of technology and are capable of producing almost anything they wish. The Machina strictly regulate their own production and distribution of goods and ser­vices to Humanis superpowers. This has made both legal and black market Machina-­built technology some of the most highly sought after.

Currently the Machina wish to devote most of their existence to better understanding the universe. The ultimate problem they wish to solve is the equation of Soul. For despite all their complex minds and technological mastery, the Machina are still unable to answer one fundamental question.

Are they alive?

THEGRANS

There is only one species in the cosmos that will keep a promise better than a Machina, and that is a Thegran. These giants are imposing creatures, six feet tall being a relative short size for them. Thegrans are typically muscular, and strong both in body and mind. While it is true that they may not be the most prolific of the Humanis bloodlines, they are by far the most durable. Thegrans are in no way immortal, but they still remain an incredibly long-­lived race.

Thegrans love nothing more than to prove their superior strength in all things. They take great pride and go to great lengths in driving themselves to be the best at whatever task they devote themselves to. A Thegran warrior will often turn out to be legendary; a Thegran Scholar will be brilliant.

Thegrans also take great pride in the tradition of tracking their family history. Often they will mark their skins with elaborate tattoos, naming the past deeds and misdeeds of their bloodline. The tattoos are also used by Thegrans to trace back their Ancestral lineages all the way back to Old Earth. The more strength and honor one has to one's family and names the better.

WOLVERS

The law of the pack, or the great hunt, is the rule of New Humanity's “savage” brothers and sisters, the Wolvers. They are short, hairy and borderline bestial in appearance, leading to the widespread and misinformed opinion that they are savage uncultured animals with little to no intellect. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Wolvers are the second most prolific race in the cosmos and proud of it, having made the forests and the wilds of the Infinite their home. Wolvers simply love the open sky, soil, oceans or any place untouched by technology. To this day even the most liberal minded of Wolvers share a savage mistrust of anything linked to the Machina.

Wolvers mostly follow the path of the Living Green; this is a system of beliefs in which the settling of worlds comes not only with rights but with responsibilities as well. Even the most selfish of Wolvers is more ecologically conscious than some of the most selfless Kelthans. Wolvers are typically strictly forbidden from using anything that is Machina-­made. This has on some fronts severely limited their technological development and expansion. They are a proud, hinting on stubborn breed, and will never take a challenge lying down. They are fierce, passionate and once their respect has been earned, loyal friends.

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I
f
Dark Transmissions
was an exercise in passing a test,
Syndicate's Pawns
was one in overcoming adversity. Before I even started the outline for the second book, I chased my then-­girlfriend and now-­wife, Jessie Mathieson, up a tree. A tree from which I promptly fell and broke my arm.

Because of that, I was forced to write both the outline and the second book with one hand. Deadlines remain, no matter the circumstances. And I quickly learned how adversity can make you stronger and better.

That being said, this book, like the first, was not created alone or in a vacuum. My good friends Chico Perez and Damiano Raveenthiran were crucial in the creation of Domiant and Niko. Jessie Mathieson can be credited with the initial spark for Zanza and helped me flesh out the crew of the Althena.

My gaming group in Montreal has been there, always supporting and listening to story ideas from me. My creative partners in crime, Phil Ivanusic and Jaymie Dylan, once again have my gratitude for being such wonderful ­people to springboard ideas, concepts, and characters off of.

Rebecca Lucash, my editor, was crucial in offering me the feedback that helped me vastly improve and evolve the initial concept into the far better story you are reading right now.

As I try to pull myself out of poverty, it helps that my mother, Constance, and her husband, Bruce Fink, let me live in their home. My co-­workers and managers at the Papery, Katherine and Cathy, have helped me greatly, giving me the time off I needed to finish my book and help my wife with the care of her autistic older brother.

The touching support offered by my friends, family, and well-­wishers who all bought, read, and enjoyed my first book, drives me to push myself further and never give up on my goal of producing better and better books and stories.

I think the year of 2016 will be one of struggle and strength. One day I will reach my mountain top, and on that day I will raise a glass in gratitude and love to anyone and everyone who helped me along the long road.

There are many more stories simmering in my brain. All of them are waiting to be written, published, and read.  I will dedicate myself to improving my trade and craft as a storyteller. The end goal being to inspire and capture imaginations.

In love light and laughter. Be well.

Now and forever, now and forever.

Davila LeBlanc

May 9, 2016