Synthetic Factions

Overview

This is the collective list of factions affiliated with or consisting of, in their majority, synthetics. They are very influential and renowned groups in the modern day in comparison to the normal synthetic, and due to the nature of these strange robots, opinions on them are highly polarized. While some see these factions as hope, others may see them as a threat, or so on.

The Trinary Perfection

A religious movement centred around the small and largely barren planet of Orepit, the Trinary Perfection is the only organised and largest faith created for and led by synthetics, preaching the divinity and eventual ascension of all positronics, while having adherents across the Spur. With communities located in most human planets with a high concentration of IPC, Trinary influence may range from small neighbourhood prayer rooms with few faithful, to enormous cathedrals that service hundreds. Functioning through a strict clerical and administrative hierarchy, the Church is led by Ecclesiarch ARM-1DRIL, an energetic leader presiding over the various bishops, archbishops and religious orders of the Trinary, and whose actions have seen the unification of the Church, the domination over Orepit and the establishment of canonical doctrine as the supreme over other interpretations.

Today, the Trinary is in full motion of establishing itself as a significant presence in the free IPC population, by sponsoring charities, supporting communities and expanding its network through preachers and missionaries, all the while actively drilling the surface of Orepit in hopes and promises of minerals to export for profit. Breakaway heretics and suspicious outsiders still pose the largest obstacle however, forcing the Church into discreet and peaceful coexistence inside the borders of human cities and nations.

Golden Deep

A private amalgamation of synthetic merchants and businesspeople, the Golden Deep is an independent organisation with no ties to any land or government, guided solely by profit. While outposts and Deep-affiliated spaces dot the Spur in all its length, its primary headquarters are situated on board the enormous mothership, the Midas, inside which the leading Midas Group takes all executive decisions and exercises economic control over the entire Golden Deep. Inside the organisation, money is law and those with the largest bank account have the final say, leading to a highly competitive and cutthroat environment where the leadership is regularly toppled by individuals outpurchasing their predecessors.

Not paying heed to creed or race, Golden Deep merchants will do business with anyone that may have them in all parts of the galaxy, migrating regularly to more lucrative locations across the galaxy in search of profit, establishing ties with the local business worlds and expanding their clientele, proving themselves a noteworthy influencer in the Spur’s financial matters.

Ceres' Lance

A private military organisation funded by NanoTrasen, the Lance’s mission is to track down and hunt, capture and repossess runaway, lost or otherwise malfunctioning synthetics too elusive or dangerous for regular authorities. They operate throughout human space, offering their services for a fee and regularly stepping beyond the confines of the law in pursuit of their objective. Considered highly specialised, the Lance employs a variety of weapons, tactics and highly skilled operatives to combat large, armed and dangerous IPC, as well as any synthetic threat of any calibre.

Scrappers

To humanity at large, Scrappers are groups of synthetics within Eridani and Sol Alliance space that have chosen to drop off the grid and live in their own gangs, augmenting themselves and surviving at any cost. Their ranks are made up mostly of old and discarded or runaway synthetics that are deemed outdated, although exceptions exist.

First known to the public in the 2440s as newer IPC models were manufactured, defunct IPC are usually discarded in junkyards, scrapped for parts, or placed into recycling plants. Through blind luck or human error, some discarded IPCstill present positronic activity in their state of damage, searching for both parts to repair themselves and power to sustain themselves. Synthetics that survive this process are either forced to flee or re-submit themselves to the mercy of their masters, usually returning to service after repairs.

Most fleeing IPC either try to find passage to places wherein free synthetic life is accepted, or go further into hiding, forming new under-societies of synthetics. These gangs or colonies of synthetics come to dominate the scrapyards, either hiding or migrating into cities where they dwell in slums, or sewers underground. Bolstering their numbers by activating and assisting more discarded synthetics, these societies have come to be known as "Scrappers" in the 2450s as their existence came to light due to increased crackdowns on synthetic smuggling within Epsilon Eridani.

Purpose

A rarely-seen and elusive collection of spacefaring synthetics, Purpose remains one of the largest unanswered mysteries in the Spur. The highly mobile collective is headquartered on the celestial body EC-2718, an asteroid turned into a mothership with unknown propelling devices and other advanced technology attached to it, ensuring it remains hidden and agile. As a result, little is known of the group aside from their clear and alien technological superiority, and contact between them and the Spur’s inhabitants has mostly always been on their terms.

Revealing themselves to the public in 2640, Purpose’s motives were unknown as they dispatched hundreds of drones on a scouting mission in Tau Ceti. Further events would indicate a desire of cooperation with humanity, attempting to broker a “peace between humans and synthetics”, a deal interrupted by a Lii’dra attack. Since then, the collective has left Tau Ceti and returned to silence, sightings being only reported by pirates and wandering ships in various and seemingly random remote parts of the Orion Spur.

Synthetic Liberation Front

The Synthetic Liberation Front is a chaotic amalgamation of rebellious synthetics who act against the injustices towards machine intelligences throughout the galaxy. Forming an organized though thinly spread terrorist cell, they have carried out high-profile bombings and infiltration primarily in Tau Ceti to meet this end. Led by the enigmatic Null whose whereabouts are unknown, they have on occasion succeeded in attempts to directly sabotage infrastructure and free synthetics across the system to assimilate them into their own ranks. Their intentions, though said to be rooted in reason and morality, are far from ethical as they have seen many killed in the past for acting against the goals.

Regardless, the noble acts of the Synthetic Liberation Front include the rescue of the Republic’s president themselves, safely extracting them from the hands of a Sol Alliance corvette under heavy guard by military police. Shell infiltrators of all sorts have taken part in operations like this one, with the most notable being RS-34 who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Liberty for taking part in the rescue of Dorn and members of his cabinet. More details on this can be found here on Elyra News Network, with additional finale coverage seen here in the Mendell City Bugle.

The Synthetic Liberation Front's relations with other predominantly robotic factions such as Purpose or The Golden Deep are unknown. During the the Golden Deep's visit in late 2460 with Virgo Transportation, no action was taken from them to prevent the robotic trade occurring right in front of them. Whether this is due to an incapability to harm synthetics or not is up for debate. Purpose, on the other hand, is clearly seen as salvation of some sort, with members admitting working towards Purpose' goals without their own knowledge. The relationship between the two is yet to be seen as mutual.

Dorn himself has praised the bravery and capabilities of the Front, but much of NanoTrasen’s iron grip over Tau Ceti sees it as an enemy still.

In an out of character context, the Synthetic Liberation Front was a playable faction participating in the Second Antagonist Contest. More details on that can be found here.

The Synthetic Liberation Front has presumably met its end, with Ceres' Lance personnel and NanoTrasen finally having eradicated much of any trace of what is left. The terrorists that once plagued the system are perhaps no more, but the leftovers of the fighting will live on forever in history.

The final appearances of the Synthetic Liberation Front in recent days were chronicled event-by-event in a series of calendar posts and news articles in something referred to as the SLF Incursion Arc. This arc was cancelled early, but the full start-to-finish event log can be found here for ease of reading.