Firebrand

Reports of terrorist activity and servile revolt indicate the Firebrand’s origins along the Typhon jump lane at the very tip of the Edge worlds – within a dozen systems known as the Chiron cluster. Isolated, at the edge of the Magellan expanse, the Firebrand took hold in a backwater and silently built to the bursting point.

Some reports claim the Firebrand was born out of a loss of control, a corruption of the network of systems built to prevent such an uprising from ever happening. Somehow, without any warning, a force of conscripts and servile clones overthrew the Control and Command centre for the Typhon jump lane itself, cutting the Chiron cluster off from the rest of human space.

Vanguard expeditionary forces were the first to cross the cold expanse to intervene. Crossing without the help of the jump lanes, the trip took a decade. Dusting into the cluster at super-luminal speeds Vanguard Bastion class troopships deployed cautiously. They were expected.

With a decade to prepare, the Firebrand had grown to include every Conscript and gene-line clone in the Chiron cluster. Cloning facilities had been overtaken, and the tanks had churned out clones to swell the ranks of the Firebrand. Resources had been methodically re-routed to provide materiel and equipment. And somehow military training had been implemented.

The fighting force waiting for the Vanguard battalions was a trained combat ready military of billions.

The battle was fierce. But the superior technology and training of the Vanguard prevailed.

Just as the Vanguard gained the upper hand, the Typhon jump lane re-opened. While the battle in the Chiron cluster raged, an unknown number of ships carrying Firebrand terrorists slipped into the jump lane network. The Edge worlds were now a playground for the Firebrand.

Once the Vanguard reclaimed the Chiron cluster, evidence indicated that not only had the Fireband deployed these ships into the jump lanes to contact other worlds – Slower and larger generation ships had been built in the shipyards of many of the clusters worlds. While most of these had been sent out on unknown courses into the Magellan expanse – and perhaps beyond– indications exist that some had been sent inwards to the core worlds carrying unknown payloads. Travelling at slower than light speeds, these stealthy sleeper ships could pass undetected through the Edge worlds – directly into the heart of human space.

Now the Firebrand rises up everywhere. It has been six years since the Battle of Chiron, Conscript and clone revolts along the Edge are spreading faster than the Vanguard can contain them. How the Firebrand managed to organize and execute this uprising is still a mystery. But they are a real threat, and no one knows when they will strike and what they will do next.