Gazetteer/Encyclopedia

[Murmur the Fallen]

THE METROPOLIS PROJECT
The Metropolis Project is a long-term plan to create an essentially AI homeland. Built around the large industrial complex on 74 Galatea, currently named Alphaville, which is being used as home base of a waved car-factory, communications satellite and oil tanker. Funded by and the brainchild of three Fen industrial concerns, it is hoped that with the building of Metropolis, the AIs of Fenspace will be integrated into greater fendom and walk hand in hand with to a finer future.
The Metropolis Project is currently projected as being completed in the next fifteen years, with additional material being added by nearby asteroids. The plan is for Metropolis to cater to all types of AIs, from those existing wholly in the real world as robots, to purely virtual intelligences, and everything in between. From vast computing arrays to idyllic parklands and beautiful architecture. There are also plans for docking bays of all types to accomodate AI ships. Alphaville is currently being converted into a human community that will be interacting with the larger Metropolis community.
The three concerns spearheading Metropolis are: Helius Rocketworks and Olaf Paperclip; Universal Robots and Maria Rossum; and the Modern State Planning Commission and John Raven, who, as one of the premiere architectural firms of fenspace as well as a political think-tank, are in control of the design elements of Metropolis.
[sources: Metropolis, of course, from Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Jean-Luc Godard's film Alphaville. 74 Galatea a real asteroid. Helius is the hero of Fritz Lang/Thea von Harbou's Der Frau im Mond. Olaf Paperclip from Olaf Stapledon and Operation Paperclip. Universal Robots from Carel Kapek's RUR, as is Rossum. Maria from Metropolis. Modern State and John Raven from HG Wells' The Shape of Things to Come.]

[Murmur the Fallen]

SECTOR GENERAL
Sector General is the name of the large space station that serves as one of the, if not the, finest hospitals in the solar system. It is certainly the largest, set in an orbit around Saturn between Titan and Hyperion.
Sector General is a large, growing space station which has dedicated itself to the treatment of the myriad health problems that can occur, focusing most especially on the problems of living off-Earth.
A teaching general hospital, it currently has a staff of over two thousand medical personnel, and a further four thousand support personnel, all of whom live in the facility. The number of beds that are available to patients is at 1,500 for long-term care, with a further thousand for emergency care.
As a hospital in space, its oncology department is one of the largest in the solar system. Yet this is just one of the many areas in which Sector General excels.
As a center for medical research, Sector General is pioneering new areas in medical science in many fields, such as oncology, microbiology, psychiatry, and more. Recently, the incredible work of Doctor Lillian Truong and Doctor June Muller in cryonics has lead to perhaps the most important medical discovery since antibiotics: the Truong-Muller Cryonic Preservation and Revival Procedure and the Truong-Muller Cryonics Capsule. With these capsules, it is now possible to preserve patients cryonically until such time as their conditions have a treatment or, in the case of medical emergencies wherein no facility is close at hand, keep a patient stable until they are able to get help.
Since the advent of biomodifications due to handwavium, Sector General has been working with its patients to help mitigate the more extreme 'quirks' that are an inevitabilty of handwavium exposure.
Sector General's thionite treatment center has begun to see success in curing patients of this terrible medical affliction.

[robkelk]

Humourists
The jesters of Fenspace, Humourists delight in taking nothing seriously. Some of them are the spiritual descendants of Mel Brooks, Jerry Seinfeld, or David Letterman; others prefer to act with less or more subtlety. Recognizable subgroups include Bozos (Humourists who overdress for the role, including greasepaint), Flashmen (military Humourists), Kobalites (Humourist roleplayers), Lingerie Fighters (Humourist Senshi), and Pythoners (recognizable by their silly walks). They're organized about as loosely as the Dandelions are. Humourists are usually members of other factions, if only to get material for new jokes.
Military fen
The type who subscribe to the various Jane's magazines, military fen can tell you the difference between a catapult and a ballista, or whether the uniforms of any given CSA unit were grey or butternut, or just how big a machine gun the Avro Arrow could have been retrofitted to carry. Some of them would love to put their knowledge into practice; others know too well what the phrase "the horrors of war" really means. Good military otaku understand tactics and logistics - these military fen can be found throughout Fenspace (on both sides) during Operation GREAT JUSTICE. They're more a social circle than a true faction.

-Rob Kelk
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[robkelk]

Welcome to Stellvia, the Gateway to the Solar System!

- from the Stellvia Corporation television advertising campaigns in North America, Great Britian, and Australia

Stellvia isn't the first Fen space station (that honour goes to
Starbase 1), or the largest (that's the Island), or the friendliest (this depends on your
definition of friendly, but Candy Apple Red's usually qualifies). However, it
is the closest open Fen space station to Earth; this makes it a natural transfer point for Mundane
tourists venturing into Fenspace, or Fen with business on Earth.

The station takes pains to maintain a family-friendly reputation on Earth, much like the Disney corporation does for its theme parks (with the same relative
level of effectiveness). Some Danes never get farther away from Earth than a stay in Stellvia's
small hotel complex - six floors of rooms, plus a three-star restaurant, a gift shop, and a zero-g weightless swimming pool. Because many Danes expect to see
biomodded Fen in space, the hotels desk clerks include attractive anthropomorphs (two catpeople and an albino bunnygirl, all on different shifts).

Very few Fen consider Stellvia to be a tourist destination; the vast majority of them are used to
living in artificial habitats, so they see this as just another space station. But it's the closest station to Earth, so there's a steady stream of
freight shipments between Earth and space through their docks. If a Fan absolutely must have an Xbox720 or a PS4 the day it's released, he's more
likely to find it for sale at Stellvia than at the Island or the
Gnarlycurl.

But people who look behind the public facade discover Stellvia isn't as pleasant as it pretends
to be. The station's owner, Noah Scott, is known in certain Fen circles as the richest SOB in space; the reputation isn't unwarranted. One of the
senior engineers (who may be a biomod, considering her name) caused millions of dollars of damages at Worldcon Floating Island by testing a single prototype
weapon, and got a promotion for her trouble. They hire Fen with distinctive biomods so that the Dane tourists have someone to gawk at. And
Stellvia doesn't allow Ninjaburger to deliver on-site (not that that stops the delivery-genin).

Also, Mr. Scott has surrounded himself with attractive young women - young women who know how to do their jobs, to be sure, but some Fen wonder whether they
were hired for reasons that have nothing to do with their day jobs. Some people say that one or two of them are actually robots, and a few claim that
Stellvia's entire senior staff is made up of robots. Some of those Fen remember the word fembot,
and worry about what Noah might be planning... When asked, Mr. Scott blames such theories on the jealousy of other Fen.

Stellvia boasts of being able to host anything from a large wedding to a military task force
headquarters; as of April 2012, this has yet to be put to the test.

-Rob Kelk

Edit: Replaced the punctuation that the Yuku migration removed.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Cobalt Greywalker]

As no-one had anymore comments...

---

Holding your Colours A guide to identifying Handwavium strains and contamination levels
There are several methods to determine the strain of Handwavium in a sample, and how much is included. Most of these require specialist equipment, and at least a couple of hours.
The most widely used method is based off a device created by The Professor (nicknamed the Taster), and subsequently copied by most factions. While each has their own quirks, they all basically work the same way. A sample is placed in a small compartment in the device, and in about a minute (during which time the device beeps a quiz show theme tune) it lights up an indicator on the device along with a short maniacal laugh. These indicators are seemingly based on the RGB colour model used by televisions for so long (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RGB for details). This grants seven basic types of Handwavium and seven levels of contamination.
The scale goes something like this:
Colour | Type | Level
White | None | Clean
Yellow | Power/Engines | Becalmed
Red | Material Enhancement | Fair
Fuchsia/Electric Magenta | Computer Enhancement | Choppy
Blue | Life Support/Gravity | Heavy
Cyan | Mechanical Enhancement | Stormy
Green | Biomodification | Tidal
Black is reserved for unknown or inconclusive readings (the more one knows about Handwavium, the less this happens)
The Level scale comes from the fact that, since we are measuring the amount of Handwavium in a sample, it would make sense to measure how high the waves are.
Since the end of 2010, devices which can give a percentage for the contamination level have become available, but the widespread use of the older and easier to make version keeps the colour code in use.
Sidebar: Master Tasters.
Those who work with Handwavium extensively usually have more advanced versions of the Tasters available to them. These are usually personalised, and dont hit the market. They have, however, led to a more advanced scale. Seemingly based around the Web hexadecimal convention, it actually gives one hexadecimal digit to each full colour with the convention of 0 being black, 1 being white, and F being Underwater.
For example, F72AD0 translates roughly as:
Yellow-Underwater
Red-Choppy
Fuchsia-Clean/Becalmed
Blue-Heavy/Stormy
Cyan-Tidal
Green-Unknown and/or Inconclusive

[Cobalt Greywalker]

As this seems stable...

---

The Cyber Confederation.
The Cyber Confederation is not just a faction, but in many ways an Inter-Factional organisation. Much like the Senshi, there is a central core of groups that form the Cyber faction. However if you fulfil one of the following conditions you can be considered a Cyber:
* Possess a non-critical artificial enhancement that provides a meaningful benefit over the non-enhanced functionality.
* Consist of between 40 to 95% artificial construction while still having a biological Ghost value.
* Spend 70% of your time dealing with cybernetics (construction or application)
The above is meant to rule out those with medical implants (those which replace damaged organs), AI's with bodies (who they sponsor to the Metropolis Project), transferred consciousness beings (likewise), and general surgeons.
In essence, most Cybers are members of other factions or groups who have or work near exclusively with cybernetic enhancement. As such, it is fairly rare to find a Cyber who is not heavily into the politics of another faction. One notable function of this is that Cybers are frequently found in information services occupations (couriers, intelligence analysts, librarians, etc...), meaning that a dedicated Cyber can gather a great deal of information on a given subject. The network works the other way, allowing messages to pass more quickly than expected between points. Cybers are also found regularly in the Medical profession.
The Cybers are a notable contributor to the Metropolis Project, and unofficially work to the betterment of artificially based sentients.
As they are quick to point out, the Cybers are a TOTALLY different faction than the "Cyb0rz." The Cybers work with hardware as much as software, while the "Cyb0rz." are, to quote one Cyber:
"...Mostly a bunch of Script Kiddies playing around with 'waved computers thinking they're Bad Asses, but just making trouble for everyone. I pity the poor 'L33ts' who try to ride herd on them. They at least know what they're doing."
Despite this animosity, the Cybers get along with all recognised factions.
The two notable organisations within the Cybers are:
The Force Works Committee.
The Committee works much like the W3C committee back on Earth. The 20-ish strong panel represents the twenty or so groups that make up the Cybers faction (this includes civilian, non-governing representatives of all the major factions), and set the standards for the cybernetic community to adhere to with respect to construction and application of cybernetic technology.
They meet three times a year (one of which is about a month before a scheduled Con), with an appointed representative from the various groups in attendance.
The most notable thing about the Committee is that they have a representative from the Borg Collective as a Special Liaison. The Liaison's main job is to give the Committee the latest super-user access codes to the Collective's network. This, along with the similar access granted to the Federation Council, is meant to safeguard against the Collective going rogue, or the other groups coming to a deal and using the power of the Collective to a non-beneficial purpose.
The Sabre Corps
The Sabre Corps consist of two main groups; the Spartan Armoured Forces and the Panzer Kunst Gruppe. The Spartans are cybernetically enhanced and use powered armour of various types. The Spartans are best known for their Search and Rescue actions, mainly because they place themselves on all open stations, Space Vessels and large Space Ships they can get on. They are reluctant to field Space Marines due to the use of similar forces by Bosconians, but those they do field, the Grey Knights, are always accompanied by two general Spartans and a Senshi commander. Grey Knights are almost universally respected for their near-fanatical dedication to the protection of Humanity. (The evacuation of Crystal Osaka only succeeded due to the sacrifice of three Grey Knights, who tied themselves into the control systems of the orbital habitat to keep things stable enough for the evacuation to complete.)
The Panzer Gruppe is generally associated with the Supers, as they are those Cybers capable of full combat operations without powered suits. As a result, the Kunstler of the Panzer Kunst Gruppe are well known as near-BNF warriors of other factions. Officially, there is no Kunstler of above Krieger rank. However, the Sabre Corps maintains several watch orders on individuals that may go beyond Krieger rank, notably including the two most drastically biomodded humans known, Wave Convoy and A.C. Peters, even though Wave Convoy isn't a Cyber.
Sidebar: The Big Nine List
The Big Nine List is a quietly put together unofficial list of the nine most powerful, most influential, or most gifted beings in Fenspace with respect to the Cybers faction. But none of those on the list would claim membership as none of them know about being on it.
In fact, the Big Nine list is nothing but a product of a broken expert system, which its creator keeps meaning to get around to fixing. The small group of friends who get the list tend to ignore it and delete the message. Some of the names on the list make sense (Winry Rockbell is a noted Cybernetic engineer and surgeon, for example), some don't (Noah Scott has been on the list for the past two years for no explained reason), and some are just plain weird (The Dobbses are on the list, despite being fully organic).
Also notable are the absences from the list (A.C. Peters has never been on the list, neither has The Professor).
However, the existence of the list has escaped the group and now exists as a rumour in Fenspace. As such most factions (including the Cybers) keep their ears open for the identities of the Big Nine, and there is healthy speculation on that subject even though the leadership of the Cybers faction denies the existence of the list.

[Norgarth]

Edit: realized this should have gone into the Glossary thread__________________
666-HELL The phone number of the Beast
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin

[Bob Schroeck]

Timelords: The fervent Doctor Who fen. While they do not have a "home base" as such, the Timelords can be found throughout Fenspace, most with a "sonic screwdriver" of one sort or another in hand. By and large, this is a frustrated fandom, given 'wavium's unwillingness to do anything even remotely resembling time travel. 'Waved police boxes and telephone booths also make for cramped travel conditions, further increasing their frustration, as does their frequent but unwilling association with Bill and Ted fans. The Timelords spend a lot of effort researching the theory of Gallifreyan-style regeneration, but so far, few have been willing to risk themselves to test those theories. This faction gets along quite well with the BB-fen as they share the desire to make things better whenever they can.

-- Bob
---------
The Internet Is For Norns.

[robkelk]

Pulled out of the Plotbunny thread as posted by Comrade Fnord back on December 15, 2006, and amplified by me with a bit of material posted since:
Jerry's Kids: Mocking and highly unofficial name given to fans of Jerry Pournelle's works. Some of the few fen with patriotic feelings toward the 'danelaw, and big supporters of the USAF/DARPA/NASA operations at L4, a noticeable fraction of them are Fendane.

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[robkelk]

Stellvia Corporation
Stellvia Corporation is a holding company founded on 1 July 2009, with Noah Scott being the sole stockholder.
It owns or has controlling interest in three companies, and has minor holdings in many other 'Dane and Fen businesses.
Stellvia Trading
Founded 1 July 2009 to administer the Stellvia space station, Stellvia Trading is 100% owned by Stellvia Corp. This is the company that most people think of when they hear the name Stellvia.
Stellvia Trading originally specialized in selling finished materials from Earth to Fen for the first few months of its existance, continuing how Noah Scott was earning a living before incorporating. However, Stellvia Trading's reaction to the Kaboomite Incident at Worldcon Floating Island that summer drove most of the Fen trading business away from Stellvia and into Fenspace proper, especially to The Island.
Faced with bankrupcy, Stellvia Trading began an ambitious project of offering space tourism to the people of Earth. Purchasing one of the two Concorde aircraft owned by the Airbus Factory, the company rebuilt and handwaved it into a luxury passenger spacecraft, christened it Ad Astra, and began offering weekly luxury transportation between Sydney's Kingsford Smith International Airport, Kandor City, and Stellvia, which had been renovated to include a small hotel facility. This worked so well that Stellvia Trading began an expansion project to increase the station's available hotel space, which was scaled up to meet vastly increased demand after the company's directors acted to prevent the destruction of Aukland in July 2011.
The expanded hotel was opened for business in April 2012, mere weeks before the SOS-Con. Stellvia Corporation rented out an entire level of the new hotel facility to Operation GREAT JUSTICE, which brought some of the previously-lost Fen business back to Stellvia and paid for the station's first dry-dock facility. The dry-dock was rented to the SEBureau's Above and Beyond Development as soon as it was completed in February 2013, and was used to support Operation GREAT JUSTICE until the end of the Boskone Incident in early 2014.
In order to help stave off a post-war economic depression, Stellvia Trading began an ambitious station expansion project in April 2014. Many groups that wanted a presence near but not on Earth have queued to rent space in the new section of the station, but as of July 2014 the only ones yet able to move in are the Banzai Institute, the SEBureau, the Artemis Corporation, and Stellvia Trading itself. Despite all the construction, the original Stellvia station ring still exists; it is now Noah Scott's private residence, and access to it is restricted to Mr. Scott, his angels, and a very short list of trusted allies.
Stellvia Trading owns both the Stellvia station and the Ad Astra outright. It also maintains and provides home port facilities for Noah Scott's private yacht Epsilon Blade.
The company is run directly by Noah Scott, with the assistance of his angels and specialists in various fields.
(name to be announced later) Foundation
(Please do not suggest a name; I already have one picked out, but it's a spoiler. -RK)
This philanthropic organization was founded on 15 June 2013, after (spoiler).
It acts to funnel contributions of all sorts - financial gifts, expertise, and anything in between - from factions, businesses, and individuals to where they will do the most good, especially but not exclusively to the Space Patrol.
The Foundation is owned 51% by Stellvia Corp., 15% by the Soviet Air Force, 10% by Operation GREAT JUSTICE, and 8% by Rockhounds. The remaining 16% is owned by other companies and individuals. (For many reasons, most of which are political, the Banzai Institute does not have a financial interest in the organization.)
Thanks to extensive automation, including AI assistance, the foundation's staff is very small. Day-to-day operations are handled by (sorry, another spoiler), the foundation's AI system, while personal meetings are attended by any of the organization's five field representatives. Oliver Towne manages the foundation on behalf of the shareholders.
The organization's physical offices are in the Watchtower, in Kandor City. They have three 'waved 1985 Lincoln Town Cars at their disposal for day-to-day operations.
Artemis Corporation
Artemis Corporation logo The Artemis Corporation was founded 1 April 2014 to support the April Fool's Purchase. Nobody was more surprised than Noah when the Purchase was approved, and he quickly expanded the Artemis Corporation from a shell company to an actual corporation.
Their primary business is administration of Project Artemis, the space science body formed after NASA's operations were absorbed by the TSAB. In support of Project Artemis, they also operate the shipyard Ley in the Main Belt, where they build unmaned probes for themselves and Shuttles for themselves and anyone else who can afford to buy them (under licence from the Soviet Air Force, which irks them no end). In order to break even, they also deliver 'Danelaw satellites to Earth orbit and maintain the International Space Station.
They are owned 85% by Stellvia Corp., 5% by 'Dane interests supposedly not connected with NASA, and 10% by other Fen organizations and individuals.
The Artemis Corporation employs many of the civilian scientists and researchers previously employed by NASA.
Their physical assets include the Shuttles Challenger and Phoenix, Main Belt Research Stations McAuliffe and Chawla, shipyard Ley, many varieties of unmanned exploration drones in orbit around all four of Sol's gas giants and throughout the Alpha Centauri system, and administrative offices in Crystal Kyoto, Starbase 1, Starbase 2, and Stellvia. They also rent small offices in Canberra, Australia, Tyuratam, Kazakhstan, and Washington, DC, USA, but their main administrative offices are in Port Phobos.
For obvious reasons, the Artemis Corporation does not get along well with the TSAB.

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[robkelk]

Organized Crime in Fenspace
Not everybody who's made it Up is nice.
History
Organized criminals got into Fenspace the same way everyone else did: they handwaved some vehicles (or had someone else 'wave some vehicles for them) and headed up. Then, for the most part, they settled down in quiet locations away from the major traffic lanes and built up their resources.
However, it's difficult to actually commit crimes when you're hidden like that, so they started preying on honest folk (some more quickly than others). Their depradations slowly grew until May 2012, when the SOS-Con began Operation Great Justice, Fenspace's "war on crime." This initiative lasted until the destruction of the Dark Tower (a.k.a. Boskone Prime) in January 2014, when Operation Great Justice and the Patrol inflicted a major blow against the organized criminals of the time.
Military initiatives, no matter how strong, have never been able to wipe out civil problems. Organized crime still exists in space, and probably always will.

Organized Criminal Groups
Most Fen lump all organized criminals under the heading "Boskonians". This is a gross over-simplification.
Many of Earth's major organized crime groups are active in space, not always in co-operation with each other. (The rivalry between at least one Columbian drug cartel and at least one Yakuza group was the direct cause of the destruction of Crystal Osaka in 2013, for instance.) If they are known to exist on Earth, they probably have at least a representative somewhere in space to keep an eye on their interests. There are also many "home-grown" criminal groups in space.
After Operation Great Justice, these groups made the Patrol's "Most Wanted" list:
* The El Capone Gang, an amalgamation of various movie-gangster Fen, is the top criminal threat in Fenspace today. They have close contacts with (or been infiltrated by) many organized criminal groups back on Earth, which makes them the official heirs to the Boskonian legacy. They have their hands in every criminal enterprise known to Fen.
* The Tanglewood Boys, gangsta-rap Fen who use the U.S. East coast as their inspiration, are mostly small-time extortionists. However, their number is nearly as large as the El Capone Gang, which makes them a major threat to law and order.
* The last known large group of organized criminals in space are the Star Bloods, gangsta-rap Fen who prefer the U.S. West coast as their inspiration. Preferring to control the gambling trade, they are often at odds with the El Capone Gang and their backers. Combined with their natural rivalry with the U.S. East coast Tanglewood Boys, this makes them a more vicious group than their low numbers would suggest.
* The newly emergent Criminal Guild appears to has picked up the Boskonians' government contacts that weren't ferreted out by Operation Great Justice. Madam Marciano, a refined beauty with Gothic tastes, is one of their leaders. She is believed to be a cyborg, and is known to control The Twelve Sisters, utterly-loyal female android assassins with a Gothic-Lolita fashion bent who dont mind collateral damage.
* Dr. Asmodeus Grey, the former Super who created the Catgirling Machine, is the only individual listed on the Patrol's "Most Wanted" list. He was believed dead until the records from Boskone Prime were cracked; his current whereabouts are unknown. He is wanted alive, despite calls for his immediate execution, on the off chance that he knows a way to reverse the effects of the Catgirling Machines.
* The Bugrom are extremely-biomodded insects created by "Queen Diva" and commanded in battle by "Dark General Katsuhito Jinnai." Diva is obviously an extremely good bio-geneticist. Given the increasing numbers of Bugrom encountered, either she has a mass-production line or has managed to breed her troops. The Bugrom started showing up in early 2014.
* Rather than focus on the business of crime, Big Fire is an ideological organisation bent on World Domination by any means. While their numbers are still small, the organisation's existence has forced Fenspace to acknowledge the existence of "supervillains." There are rumors (aren't there always) that Big Fire is a front organization for an older syndicate. Some say this organization began forming as early as 2008, and some say it has been around for much longer. Believed to be Asian in origin, it is said to have drawn the survivors of the Tongs and the triads into its core, and is ruled by a man that is so powerful, so evil, as to rival the Devil. But, of course, these are just rumors.
* The Concordat is probably the most insidious threat to Fenspace and Danelaw interests, in that they feel they own Handwavium, and thus have the right to control it and do with it as they please. While little else is known about them, their mere existence has led to various Danelaw governments tightening regulation of Handwavium while paradoxically allowing more people access to it.
As far as anyone in the Patrol knows, no serious organized criminal group calls itself "Boskonians" - that name is applied to criminals by Fen, not by themselves.

Types of Organized Crime
Organized crime on Earth breaks down into some clearly-identifable activities, some of which do not translate well to Fenspace.

Extortion
In Fenspace, extortion is widely considered to be a form of robbery, which is illegal.
Small groups of Boskonians make a profit extorting protection money out of isolated fen. ("That sure is a nice oxygen reclamation system you have there. Would be a shame if something were to happen to it.") Fenspace being primarily a cashless society, most of the protection "money" is actually goods that would otherwise be used for barter.
Extortionists have the advantage of being able to move fast, and their threats are often very effective.
In regions where the Patrol is nearby (such as the Supers enclave in Kandor City) or where citizens routinely take the law into their own hands (such as the Browncoat settlements on Ganymede), extortion is risky. In other areas, it can be quite lucrative - most people will pony up the money because of the chance that the Boskonians could sabotage their food, water and air supplies before the Star Patrol could do anything to save them.

Gambling and Prostitution
As of 2014, gambling and prostitution are not illegal in Fenspace.
But that doesn't mean they're safe activities. Organized crime is accustomed to being in charge of these businesses on Earth even where they're legal, and they don't take infringement on their "turf" lying down. A new establishment in either of these fields should expect extortion and terror tactics to be used against it until it capitulates, unless it becomes more expensive for the criminals to continue the harassment than they'd gain after the takeover.
Successful casinos and brothels in Fenspace either have arrangements with the local organized criminals, are owned by the criminal element outright, or are very good at protecting themselves.

Slavery
Slavery is illegal in Fenspace, and has been since the Articles of Confederation were signed at KandorCon.
The scarcity of usable living room in space makes owning slaves problematic, so slaving operations in Fenspace focus on obtaining "stock" for the Earth market. There is enough demand among unscrupulous mundanes for biomodded pleasure-slaves that capturing, forcibly biomodding, and brainwashing Fen is a sufficiently profitable activity for organized crime to handle.

Illegal Drugs
As of 2014, there are no illegal drugs in Fenspace.
This is less because of the libertarian nature of Fenspace, and more from the fact that addiction to incapacitating or mind-altering drugs is self-correcting in space. (People who drug themselves into a state where they can't tend to their own needs quickly end up dead from oxygen deprivation, either because the air in their suits or cars ran out, or because they walked out an airlock without a pressure suit.)
Since avoidance of "hard" drugs is a survival trait in Fenspace, there is little market for organized criminals to fill. Generally, they don't bother.
Organized crime does take advantage of conditions in space to harvest or otherwise create drugs that can be sold on Earth. The most nortorious of these is thionite, a powerful hallucinogen derived from certain strains of Venusian terraforming bacteria.

Illegal Weaponry
As of 2014, there are no illegal weapons in Fenspace. (The use of weapons of mass destruction, such as "kaboomite," was outlawed in the treaty of KandorCon, but ownership of them is not illegal per se.)
However, many Fen don't bother to go armed. One can only cram so much into a vehicle, and there's no hostile wildlife in space. More importantly, there's no pre-existing source of food Out There. Given a choice between a chaingun that he'll probably never use or an extra day's worth of groceries that he'll definitely eat, most Fen choose to pack the food. Weapon caches exist mainly on larger ships and stations that have room for luxuries (such as Grover's Corners and Stellvia), and in areas where the local culture is heavily influenced by Fen from areas of the United States where personal weapon ownership is encouraged, but most of these people brought their weapons with them when they left Earth.
Also, weapons larger than sidearms and rifles are too expensive for most Fen to purchase. (As of 2013, only Boskone and the Great Justice team had military-spec hardware in any great numbers, and most of that was homebuilt.)
Since most of the people in Fenspace who want weapons already have the weapons they can afford, there is little market for organized criminals to fill. Generally, they don't bother.
Weapon Control
Just because handguns are legal in Fenspace doesn't mean they aren't controlled. The vast majority of large ships and stations regulate who is allowed to carry weaponry while on-board, in order to reduce the chance of accidental death and structural damage. (While most handwaved hulls are impervious to firearm bullets, there are plenty of tubes and conduits that handle electronics, oxygen, and temperature control to be ruptured in a gunfight.)

Corporate Malfesance
Because of the unique nature of Fenspace economics, it quickly becomes obvious which companies are being looted from within (the amount of biomass coming from the companies increases without obvious cause), and the companies' owners can take appropriate steps before major harm is done.

Data Piracy
As of 2014, it is not illegal to share data of any sort in Fenspace. Most factions have rules against divulging secrets, and many respect the concept of copyright to greater or lesser degrees, but the highly libertarian nature of Fenspace as a whole makes it impossible to place an outright ban on data transmission.
This gives certain people ideas. Download servers that are illegal on Earth, ranging from the political to the mercenary, flourish in many areas of space. Some of these servers are operated by the criminal element.
Because of these servers, many Earth-based governments do not allow their citizens to access the Interwave, and some of the governments that do allow such access monitor it closely.

Terrorism
Terrorism in Fenspace is kind of an odd duck. Fen are beautiful examples of targets for all kinds of terrorists, from al-Quaeda to Operation Rescue, but terrorism tends not to happen in Fenspace. This is based partly in the diffuse nature of fen government; it's harder to strike fear in a nation when that "nation" is made up of less people than the population of Luxembourg and spread out all over a volume millions of times larger than Earth.
A few terrorist (or "terrorist") groups, like the Sons of Turner (a white-power movement affiliated with like groups in North America and Europe) or the Red Brigades (the classic communist terror group from Italy, revived for a new century) have found homes in Fenspace. However, these groups seem mostly content to isolate themselves within small habitats as they try to create their utopias. If or when these attempts fail, the situation may change.
The biggest terrorism-related threat plaguing Fenspace, and the one Great Justice (and after them, the Patrol) spend most of their energy combating, is the threat of groups using fen technology to strike at Earth. The idea that a group could throw "small" asteroids and comets at juicy targets on Earth is very tempting. It's bad enough that this almost happened to Aukland by accident in 2011; most people in Great Justice and the Patrol have spent some sleepless nights dreading that someone might try doing it on purpose. Thankfully, most terrorist groups don't have the contacts necessary to pull this kind of stunt off. One (thankfully rare) exception to this are the Sons of Rome, a negative-growth deep green movement that attempted to drop a dinosaur killer on Earth in early 2014. The attempt failed, but a large number of the Sons escaped the Patrol.

---

Courts in Fenspace
Civil court in Fenspace is a lot simpler than Earth/U.S.A. You get two parties who are in conflict, they agree on a judge (often an Erisian), and the judge takes care of the rest. This system of binding arbitration is slowly creating a "body of law," which happens to be nowhere near internally coherent, nor does it precisely follow the Articles of Convention. Both litigants pay for the judge's time.
Criminal court is similar, except that the accused doesn't always get a say in who the judge is. (Or judges - since it's often impossible to find a jury of the accused's peers, let alone compel them to hear a case, some Fen prefer to have a tribunal of at least three judges rule on serious crimes such as murder.) Judges for criminal cases are paid by philanthropic organizations.

---

Popular Trade Items
or, How can I make some credits in Fenspace?

Entertainment Media
As most of the Fen are strongly into anime, science fiction, or both, shipments of new DVDs generally sell at a decent profit. Video games, music CDs, comic books and manga, electronics to play the aforementioned media, and computers are also good sellers.
However, the "information wants to be free" attitude of many Fen (called "data piracy" by many 'Danes) makes entertainment media difficult to sell after their initial releases. Without the option of suing their customers, some Earthside companies have written off Fenspace altogether, while others release Fen-Edition sets with physical extras specifically for the space market (such as the Utena series set complete with replica Rose Sword). A few companies have even made the data media into collectors' items; thus, branded USB computer-memory dongles are more common in space than are unbranded memory.

Foodstuffs
Red Meat is something that's almost completely unavailable in Fenspace. Meat requires either large amounts of grazing land or some form of industrial lab culture to be cost-effective, and so far nobody's managed to create an effective industrial carniculture plant.
Prices for a decent steak, pork chop, lamb chop, or any other form of meat that isn't chicken, fish or rabbit range from expensive-but-still-reasonable on Stellvia and in the lunar cities to arm-leg-and-firstborn on Venus, Mars and Ganymede.
Experiments in vat-grown meat are ongoing - both the Senshi and TSAB are making attempts. Their difficulty is not just in getting the cells to multiply, but in keeping the results totally free of handwavium contamination. There are at least two known cases of independent experiments that resulted in inadvertent biomods. The results have tended to discourage any further attempts, although rumors continue that Boskone has at least one facility up and running.
Stellvia has been experimenting with vat-grown meat since they added a genetic engineer to their staff in 2013. However, their process does not use handwavium and they do not have access to trade secrets in this field, so they are only at the state of the art for mid-2006. They can produce thin sheets of muscle fibre - not good enough for steaks, but acceptable as substitutes for ground beef and ground pork.
The restrictions of grazing land are obvious: the only places that have sufficient land to spare for agriculture are Earth, Mars, and Grover's Corners, and Mars is using all of its arable land for plants.
Grover's Corners is unique in space in that not only do they have about a hundred acres of pasture and farmland immediately usable, they are using it already, but not for beef cattle. They are the top supplier of fresh eggs (and the occasional chicken) in Fenspace. And they also have game - at least a dozen deer, among many other wild animals, are known to have been trapped within the hull of the Corners the night the dome was raised and the ship launched. The crew allows limited hunting - gudgingly permitted by their environmental AI Gaia after much negotiation - to keep their numbers manageable.
What about Ninjaburger?
Some people look at the lack of ground beef in space, and wonder where Ninjaburger gets the raw materials it needs for its eponymous sandwich. The lack of reported cases of biomodification rules out the Senshi and the TASB as their sources, and only those new to space would think they buy ground beef from Stellvia (the Ninja/Stellvia animosity is well-documented).
It's possible that they're getting their supplies from Earth. (They may be getting their lettuce and tomatoes from Earth as well.) The expense of bringing supplies up the gravity well makes this problematic at best.
Another theory is that the Ninjaburger is a flavored soy-burger rather than a beef-burger. Soybeans require more space to grow than most people believe the Ninja have available to them, but the theory cannot be ruled out.
The truly paranoid worry that Ninjaburgers might be "long pork," and stick to the Samurai Chicken Sandwiches. Many Nester Heinleinians have unreservedly stated that this theory is incorrect.
As for the real answer ... as usual, the Ninja aren't talking.

"Legal" Drugs
Technically speaking, all drugs are legal in Fenspace (barring local regulations to the contrary), but some drugs are just too dangerous to use in the unforgiving environment of space. Use of alcohol, tobacco, or marijuana in moderation does not incapacitate the user to life-threatening extremes, so there are markets for these drugs in Fenspace.
Alcohol is trivally easy to make from any starch-based foodstuff, and many Fen do so:
* The stereotypical Belter is known for making back-of-the-car "white lightning."
* The White Stallion does a nice side business selling small batches of whiskey that aren't up to their very high standards.
* The settlement in the Grover's Corners is top-heavy with home-brewers; their beers, meads and ciders are considered among some of the better "local" product available in Fenspace. (They are also hard to come by - the crew came into Fenspace expecting to brew mainly for themselves, and at the moment they are limited to approximately ten five-gallon "brew buckets" at a time.)
* Crystal Sapporo (in Venus orbit) is home to one of the most noted breweries in Fenspace.
The Corners' crew are typical in selling their brews for a quarter their weight in biomass (or the equivalent in other valid currency) plus an amount of water equal the brew sold.
Marijuana is almost trivially easy to grow, as long as the necessary hydroponic greenhouse space is available. Hephaestus grows a strain guaranteed to be handwavium-free. The Martian Terraforming Project grows acres of hemp mainly intended for cloth and paper fiber, but some of that crop ends up in pipes and cigarettes as well.
Tobacco is somewhat more difficult to grow in Fenspace, and remains a major Earth export. (As with all botanical matters in Fenspace, there are persistent rumors that The Jason is working on this problem, but as of 2014 he hasn't announced anything.)

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[robkelk]

[size=larger]Space Patrol[/size]

History

It started with a back-room discussion in a bar.

The people having the discussion included three of Fenspace's most important unaffiliated Fen: Mal Fnord, Katz Schrödinger, and Noah Scott. Mal's chief engineer Kali was also in attendance. Kali and Katz were there to talk about the progress of Operation Great Justice; Noah had other ideas, and had convinced Mal to let him present his proposal ahead of time.

Once the OGJ discussion was completed, Noah proposed forming a Space Patrol to handle the everyday, run-of-the-mill criminal activities; this would let OGJ's heavy hitters go after the major Boskonians of the day. This was greeted with enthusiasm by the heavy hitters in attendance, who were tired of mopping up the everyday, run-of-the-mill criminal activities. The only matter of contention was the proposed group's name, but it didn't take very long for the four people in attendance to agree on “Space Patrol”.

Then came the Interdimensional Incursion Incident. During the fallout from that event, less than a week after *WHITENOISEWHITENOISEWHITENOISE*, Noah leveraged public opinion to his own advantage, hiring Oliver Towne to chair the *WHITENOISE* Foundation. Towne's first order was to set up the Patrol.

Towne staffed the Patrol with as many professionals as he could find. He supplemented this skeleton organization with whichever battle-blooded amateurs he could find, as long as they were very good at the job.

---

Facilities

The White Tower started out as the asteroid rendezvous point for forces participating in the last operation against Boskone Prime. At that point it was just another carbonaceous asteroid about the size of the Superdome with a transponder beacon attached. After Boskone the Patrol found itself in need of an operating base with room, and the Tower's location made it useful.

The Patrol Academy is located in the White Tower.

Eventually, the Patrol plans to have station houses throughout Fenspace, and faction liaison offices in all major Fen settlements. As of the end of OGJ, however, they only have minimal "point of presence" offices, at Crystal Tokyo, Port Luna, Helium, Hogwarts, and Serenity Valley. All major operations and most day-to-day activities are still based out of the White Tower.

---

Organization

Section leaders get code names to protect their identities, in sections where it makes the job easier.

Section 1: Administration

The necessary-but-often-despised paper-pushers.

Section 1a: Office of the Chief Officer

The smallest group in the Space Patrol, but in some ways the most important, this is where the orders and policies come from. The office is located in a secure facility under the White Tower.

Section 1b: Inter-Force Liaison

These people deal with inter-jurisdictional matters. They work with the ICPO, the CIA, the RCMP, the OGJ's MPs, the Sammies, the Ministry of Magical Law Enforcement, and other such groups.

Inter-Force has more Blue Blazers per capita than any other group in the Patrol.

Section 1c: Logistics

These are the people who make sure each station and office have what they need to do the job. Logistics is also responsible for supplying the White Tower and the Academy.

Section 1d: Training

This group runs the Academy, and also ensures current officers' skills don't becomy rusty.

Section 2: Uniformed Units

Somebody has to direct traffic around the White Tower, the ISS, and other busy non-factional locations... Section 2 is the uniformed police, who handle all the jobs that uniformed police in "free" societies usually handle.

Section 3: Major Crimes Units

These people are the patrol's detectives, assigned to the "glamorous" cases. Murder, grand theft, abduction; if it's high-profile, Section 3 investigates it.

Section 4: Organized Crime Unit

The anti-Boskone unit, OCU is lead by an agent code-named “Kinnison.” Section 4's operational details are classified.

Section 5: Hate Crimes Unit

These people aren't just the anti-Turnerite (story link: FTL Newsfeed #235) squad. "Hate crimes" cuts both ways - Fen who libel 'Danes are as much Section 5's problem as 'Danes who libel Fen are, although they spend most of their time investigating Fen who libel other factions.

The HCU is a separate Section because they're important to the smooth running of Fenspace. If they do their work properly, they can shut down an interfactional feud before it becomes a shooting match.

Section 6: Fen Extra-vehicular, Special Weapons, and Tactics Unit

Lead by an agent code-named “Nanoha” (whoever that person may be; have pity on any males who get the job), FESWAT handles the really difficult jobs. Section 6 is proud of being the group that gets the dirty end of the stick - they're tough enough, and good enough, and stubborn enough to get in there and get the job done. Bulletproof biomods and androids who join the Patrol often get assigned to FESWAT.

Section 6's biggest job during the Boskone War was their participation in the cleaning-out of the Hell-Hole in Space.

Section 7: Support Units

The folks who aren't police or paper-pushers, but are still needed by a modern police force.

Section 7a: Forensics Unit

This is where one can find the Patrol's "lab techs". They've been nicknamed "CSI:Fenspace" by more than a few entertainment writers.

Section 7b: Technical Unit

These folks are responsible for maintaining the Patrol's physical assets. Scottish accents (real or affected) are optional, but widespread among Section 7b's Trekkies.

This is also the home of the Patrol's computer specialists, including the codemakers and codebreakers. For some reason that nobody talks about, the codebreaker group is called "SETEC Astronomy" even in official documents.

Section 8: Internal Affairs

“Who watches the watchers? We do.”

IA is authorized and required to investigate all reports of wrongdoing in Sections 1-7. (Section 3 investigates reports of wrongdoing within Section 8.)

Section 9: Deniable Operations Unit

Section 9 does not exist. It is not lead by someone code-named “Kusanagi.” You should ignore any rumours you may have heard to the contrary. You should also ignore the Tachikoma removing the drive unit from your ship, because the Tachikoma doesn't exist either. (And those half-dozen Tachikomas that don't exist weren't built in the same limited-order AI production run that Noah Scott didn't convince A.C. Peters to fill for the Patrol, because that production run also doesn't exist.) Move along, nothing to see here.

Section 9 definitely does not appear in the Space Patrol table of operations or budget in any form. (A line for “miscellaneous expenses” appears in the MARS section of the VVS budget, but the VVS is not the Patrol.)

---

Some Important Patrol Members

* The Commissioner of the Space Patrol is in charge of all day-to-day operations of the Patrol. He answers to the *WHITENOISE* Foundation and the Factions, and is usually just called “the Commissioner”. (The current Commissioner, a battle-weary but still capable Trekkie named Kirk Russell, discourages "Commissioner Gordon" jokes; he isn't a Batman fan.)

* The Chief Officer of the Space Patrol is in charge of Section 2. Usually just called “Chief,” the Chief Officer answers to, and advises, the Commissioner.

* The Chief Detective of the Space Patrol is in charge of Section 3. The Chief Detective answers to, and advises, the Commissioner.

* “Kinnison” is the code-name of the person in charge of Section 4. “Kinnison” answers to the Chief Detective.

* “Nanoha” is the code-name of the person in charge of Section 6. “Nanoha” answers to the Chief Officer, and must be sufficiently skilled and fit to take part in FESWAT operations.

* The Chief Internal Investigator The person in charge of Section 8. The Chief Internal Investigator answers to, and advises, the Commissioner.

* “Kusanagi” is the code-name of the person in charge of Section 9. “Kusanagi” answers to and advises the Commissioner, and advises the *WHITENOISE* Foundation directly. (The current “Kusanagi” is known as “Okkane-chan” - another pseudonym - by her friends.)

---

Sidebar: Things the Patrol Doesn't Do

The patrol is a civilian police force. There are some jobs that the police traditionally does not do, and those traditions have carried over into Fenspace.

Military policing is handled by Operation Great Justice.

The judiciary is handled by the Erisians.

Disaster relief, aside from maintaining order, is what the Blue Blazers do best.

Incarceration and other punishment is a complex matter. Due to the nature of major crimes, nearly all those convicted have committed crimes both in Fenspace and in the 'Danelaw. Once the Fen have meted out their punishment (usually complete stripping of assets to pay reperations), the criminal is extradited to Earth for the 'Dane authorities to do their thing. For those rare times where the criminal hasn't upset the 'Danes, community service to the terraforming groups isn't enough, and the death penalty is either too extreme or not practiced by the affected Faction, there's Azkaban Prison, somewhere in the Kuiper Belt.

---

Sidebar: Section 9

It's unusual but not unknown for a police force to have a “secret agent” section - real-world examples are rumoured to include the RCMP-SS, the CIA, and (historically) the Kempei Tai. Section 9 is Fenspace's equivalent to these organizations.

The Section was originally, and officially still is, a MARS squad working for the VVS. Okkane-chan (not a cyborg, despite the name) and her squadmates handle deep-cover operations for the Patrol… and for its ultimate major backers: Stellvia Corporation, the Soviet Air Force, and Operation Great Justice. This can cause problems when Stellvia and OGJ each want Section 9 to spy on the other at the same time, although the close ties between the VVS and Stellvia Corp. tend to resolve those problems in a consistent manner.

By necessity, Section 9 lives by the concept of “compartmentalization of information.” Okkane-chan is the only member of the section whose name or appearance is known to the Foundation, and every member of the Section uses false-appearance software when working by telepresence. Okkane-chan uses Vulpine Fury's award-winning Motoko Kusanagi “bunraku” telepresence mask when she needs to be known as the head of Section 9; other masks that the Section uses are unknown.

 
 
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012