The Rimward Territories

[Joe Manning 0]

Congratulations, Sheriff Tibbett. You've been assigned to Rim patrol ... which probably means you've fallen out of favor with Guardian Command. I won't ask. Rimward, we know not to ask.

 

Your experience thus far has only entailed patrolling the Coreward Worlds, the planets we've settled between the Hyades Cluster and Aldebaran. Not the greatest places to live. So far from the bustling economy of the Hyades, they're generally run down, isolated from strong swift law, sometimes even oppressed by a corrupt Guardian (maybe you were one of those; again, I won't ask). A lot of folks have compared the Coreward Worlds to the old western American frontier of Earth's pre-WW3 history -- men struggling to get by and living by their own laws, aided I'm sure by plenty of alcohol. And, oh ... of course, the Coreward worlds are closer to Federation space, which is always a cause for tension.

 

But the Coreward Worlds at least boast something bordering on 'civilized.' It's a lawless and antiquated form of civilization, but it generally only contributes to the deaths of the rash or the stupid.

 

The Rimward Worlds, you'll soon learn, are a whole different animal. Sure, on the Coreward Worlds the people can be hostile -- a traveller who's not careful can find himself beaten and left for dead, his possessions stripped by a local scoundrel. But Rimward, the worlds themselves are hostile. They swallow up explorers, scavengers, and settlers like they've got wills and hungers of their own.

 

Take Margosis, for instance. It's a hotspot for phaser marksmen who think they can make a quick buck shooting down some falcons to take back to the restaurants on Vega, New Risa, and Tranq City. But every month we get a request from some young buck's brother, mother, or best friend who wants us to go looking for the poor sod in the jungles. They can never offer enough credits for more than a cursory sensor sweep of the planet -- and the sensor sweeps never turn anything up. Some older hunters say that there are beasts on Margosis who savor the flesh of us humanoids.

 

Zoalus? Take my advice ... don't even listen to any crackpot scientists or anthropologists or whatever the hell else that want you to escort them to that accursed world. No price is worth tangling with defense drones, ground to space turrets, buildings that fall on top of you as if the city itself wants you dead, and lord knows what else.

 

Then there are the raiders. You've probably heard a thing or two about them. They generally hang out along the Hydran Expanse -- that's the gap between our neck of the galaxy and the next. On the other side of the gap is where the Gorn Hegemony reins. Every now and then the Hegemony sends a few ships across the Expanse to give Federation folks a hard time (and they don't make distinctions between Feddies and 'rebel' Feddies). Guardian Command doesn't want to commit resources to a drawn-out conflict with the Gorn, so we're under orders to keep a distance from the Expanse. That's why the area's so popular with raiders.

 

The raiders are mostly a threat only to themselves. There are lot of bands of varying sizes that all have different ideas about which thug should be running things and how the business of pillaging should best be conducted. Hell, some of the raiders are settled Gorns who relish the opportunity to prey on the locals. It's the times when the infighting simmers down that small fleets are sent outward to raid shipping lines and capture explorer ships. The bolder (and the better equipped) even raid as far up as Lakota, skirmishing with our patrol ships and preying along our Klingon trade route.

 

The Raiders are a nuisance to us and to the Klingons, and we can't make a concerted effort to clean the Expanse up without the risk of provoking the Gorn. We might not have the numbers to take on all the raiders anyway. We don't know too much about what's going on around the stars alongside the Expanse ... but in the last few years, we've been hearing more and more rumors of an altogether disturbing nature. The name 'Horde' keeps cropping up again and again, and it's a name that even some of the raiders fear. Rumors are that the Horde has emerged as the top dogs in the kennel. They've become more efficient than the other bands at destroying or conquering their competitors. And with every band conquered, the Horde grows some more. Even the Gorns are said to keep their distance. The rumor you keep hearing in these parts is that the Hordesmen aren't quite Human or Vulcan or anything else that we'd consider 'native.' They're something else entirely.

 

We haven't been given leave to gather intel on the Horde; again the Guardians don't want us poking our noses around there, and they think the rumors are trumped up anyway. Maybe it's for the best. The Hordefolk don't sound like the types of people I want to be skulking around. But sometimes I wonder if there's a beast taking form along the Expanse, a beast biding its time for something big. I wonder if there might be a danger to Bull's Head being allowed to grow in a region we've decided it's best to ignore.

 

Ah, hell. You ain't even gotten settled in, and here I am trying to put a scare in you. It's not something you'll have to worry about -- a stray group of raider privateers might drift close enough to your patrol route for you to have to take action, but you won't have to worry about any missions into the lion's den. We leave suicide forays into the Expanse to the crazy folk -- the mercenaries.