The Decahedron Compact and the Exile Colonies
Sphere of Influence: central Hyades Cluster
Government Type:
Republic; each planet has its own way of electing its leaders. These leaders
make up the head members of the Compact, who decide on Compact-wide actions via
a majority rule.
Homeworld: Lasthaven, Greenstar
System.
The city of
Grudtvik has a population of 26 million, with perhaps 200 million others
spread across the planet in small rural holdings and farms. It should be noted
that an extremely large portion of both the ATPDS and Exile Colonies’
populations are made up of the offspring of micronized
Zentraedi, of which there were millions. While genetically indistinguishable
from humans in most ways, Zentraedi heritage can usually be recognized by odd
hair color and skin complexion.
Most of the particulars of the Decahedron Compact are the same as
they are detailed in the Rifts Manhunter Sourcebook.
They are an underworld power as well as overt government. One of the ironies of
Human Space is that the Decahedron, in sheer number of planets, holds more
territory than any of the more powerful, more advanced empires. However, many,
many of those worlds are marginally habitable if at all. Some
consisting of an outpost of as little as two dozen people living on a bunker on
the surface of a planetoid. However, the Compact, except for its FTL
communications system, is far behind the rest of the quadrant in technology. It
trades heavily with the Southern Cross for protoculture,
which is a highly-sought commodity. It has resorted to smuggling in some cases,
having found only a couple worlds where the Flower of Life is habitable. Invid
raids are common on in the Compact, as it is where they are focusing the
majority of their attention at the moment, which the Compact only instigates by
actively seeking Invid colonies to raid, usually with old Zentraedi cruisers
which make up the bulk of their space forces (adding insult to injury to the
already testy Invid).
Notes on ships and mecha.
The New Texas Armada, the backbone of the Compact’s space fleet is
made up of scaled down Zentraedi cruisers nearly 100 years old, constructed at
the time of the Megaroad Project to act as escorts. When
the Robotech Factory was first recovered, it could
only create predesigned Zentraedi cruisers. Since
most of the Zentraedi were micronized, and the ships
massive and overly costly, Robotech bioengineers were
able to reprogram the factory to create scaled-down versions of the cruisers.
The Flagship class (Breetai) and command ship class
were not emulated, however; only the landing ship, destroyer, and scout
classes. These vessels are 1/10th the size of the originals, have 1/10th the
The only full-sized Zentraedi vessel the Decahedron Compact has is
the Command Ship class vessel in orbit over Lasthaven,
which is immobile. In addition, the Compact has bought numerous Glitterboys and ships from CAN and old battloids
from the EBSIS. They are trying to close a deal with the Southern Cross that
would give them access to their retired original Logan Veritech
fleet. It is rumored that the Compact has a full-sized Zentraedi Destroyer with
total crew compliment, battlepods and the works, who
folded in one day after locking in on the command ship’s transponder. It is
said the Zentraedi in the compact convinced them to join and stay full sized,
and that the Compact is keeping this massive warship as an Ace in the Hole.
This rumor, however, is unconfirmed, but it is commonly known that there are
likely as many as 200,000 Zentraedi ships roaming the galaxy, unaccounted for,
many of which have become powerful pirates who raid the fringes of Human Space
for protoculture. The Minmei
Attack is still effective on these rogue units. In fact, U.N. Spacy originally mistook the Marduk
for such a rogue fleet.
The Justice Rangers work to maintain law and order in this region
of space and are the (surprisingly honest and just) police force of the
Compact.
The History of the Decahedron Compact is not much different in the
amalgaverse than it is in the Manhunter
Book.
When the first of the Megaroad Projects
reached the Hyades Cluster with the New Texas Armada,
and Terra was settled in the Lux system, political
infighting caused the fracturing of the fleet. Also, it was discovered that the
cluster was rich in earth-like, habitable worlds. Further, the protoculture supplies were starting to fail, germinating
and turning into the Flower of Life. After the assassination of the expedition
commander, the fleet disintegrated, scattering across the Cluster and in some
cases nearly fighting one another. It was also discovered that there were alien
civilizations in the region, some of whom had left behind artifacts. In what
could only be called an interstellar gold rush, and in as short a time period
as a decade, a couple dozen planets were settled. The rule was: If you can hold
it, you own it. A lot of people held as tight as they could. A lot failed. For
the Zentraedi among the expedition it was a sort of freedom that they did not
really know how to handle.
When Terra tried to reestablish order, ten colonies defied them,
staying rogue and forming the Decahedron Compact. Terra cut them off from all
assistance, but the Compact either invented or discovered (no one is sure
which) FTL communication, which it used to coordinate raids on Terra colonies
and other alien governments.
Then came the war between Terra and the Aglians, instigated heavily by the Compact, who stole Aglian technology left and right. Then the Manhunters and the Unity War. In the aftermath, the Compact
has risen to be stronger than ever. While still a wild, barely controlled
sector of dangerous space, it’s political and economic might are far more than
many suspect.
Most noteworthy are the more recent years. Since the Southern
Cross re-emerged on the scene, it and the Compact have become close allies,
reinstalling fresh protoculture into the Compact’s
economy. Meaning they have been able to unmothball
numerous veritechs, destroids
and zentraedi ships that had become unusable.
But the Compact’s greed knows few bounds, and it is currently
interested in the whereabouts of any Invid protoculture
farms, and also has tracked the ragged remains of the Marduk
back to their home systems. Once they have enough protoculture
and a large enough fleet, the Compact intends to finish the job the U.N. Spacy did not (in their opinion) have the stomach to finish.
If successful, they will swoop down on the decimated survivors of
the Marduk Empire like birds of prey, and will steal
every bit of technology, every resource, every ship and every drop of protoculture that isn’t nailed down or on fire. They will
also enslave the remaining emulators and round up as many remaining rogue
Zentraedi as they can find. This is likely to occur in the next five years, and
may change the face of Human Space forever, unless someone can stop them.
Relations with other governments.
The Sentinels and the
The U.N. Spacy: While upset about the embargo, the Compact still maintains brisk
trade with U.N. Spacy. This is easier since, with no protoculture, U.N. Spacy doesn’t
have much the Compact wants. They see efforts by U.N. Spacy
to unify Human Space as a power grab by the old homeworld,
and it smells of the same deal that lead to the
creation of the Compact.
ATPDS: The
Compact is fairly antagonistic to the ATPDS. How could humans forgive what the Aglians did? And how could they go around sucking up to
them after the carnage of the Manhunters? The systems
near Terra didn’t suffer nearly as much as the Compact did, and the motto of
the most Exile Colonists is “Never Forget, Never Forgive.” The Compact will be
a lot happier when the last Aglian in the galaxy has
been turned to vapor, along with their horrific robotic creations. After the
Compact is done raping the Marduk Empire, it probably
will not be safe to be an Aglian.
The Southern Cross: The
Compact sees the UEG and Southern Cross as true kindred brothers. They
understand each other on multiple levels. Both felt abandoned and betrayed by
the other enclaves of humanity. Both see the older races, like the Invid and
the Robotech Masters, as a resource to be exploited.
Their mistakes will pave the way for the rise of the human race to become the
dominant species in the galaxy. The Compact and the UEG both envision a galaxy
where humanity controls the farthest stars.
The Invid: The
Decahedron Compact does not see the Invid as an enemy, and understands their
attacks. But hey, that’s the way the cookie crumbles. They had the moxie and
they blew it. Someone else’s turn now. But the Compact
sees the value in letting the Invid survive, breed, and grow more protoculture, and then farming it all for themselves in
raids, if not outright enslaving the Invid race. That, the Compact thinks, was
the mistake of the Robotech Masters. They should not
have defoliated Optera and destroyed the Invid.
Turning the Invid into a domesticated species who make protoculture
for their human masters like bees make honey would be a far more resource
effective plan, wouldn’t it?
Robotech Masters: They
had their chance at Empire and failed as well. Human control of the galaxy is
more than willing to be built on the bones of their failures however. Since the
Masters are grubbing around for protoculture and do
not have the secrets of the protoculture matrix there
isn’t much from them that the Compact wants.
The Gorushan Empire: This is a love/hate relationship. Gorushan
Marauders raid both the ATPDS and the Decahedron Compact with regularity.
However, they generally end up spending a significant portion of their wealth
here as well. In some cases, it is rumored that the Compact has given the Gorushan vital information on the ATPDS or Chiropti, sharing in the profits from a raid. Marauders
that are not specifically wanted are free to visit most Compact space ports (of
course with Marauders, it’s nearly impossible to tell which ship is which).
The Manhunters: What really needs to be said here. If
the Compact sees a Manhunter, that bot gets scrapped.
The CCW: The
Compact, much to their chagrin, was not a part of the Center Conference, so
only knows about the CCW what its intelligence has been able to obtain. Sounds
like a jumped up version of the
Transgalactic Empire: It
sounds like these fellows may be a future source of competition for humanity.
As for now they are not a concern…but the Compact is willing to take advantage
of any opportunity to get a hold of their technology and weaponry.
UWW: The
Compact really doesn’t know what to make of this group of aliens. They don’t
sound particularly powerful, however, on the galactic scale, so they are of no
immediate concern.
