Syndicate

The **Syndicate** are a group of races who have banded together in the areas left behind by the shrinking Scryve Empire. This organisation specialises in organised crime and slavery of other sentient species.

**Culture**

The Syndicate are a massive criminal organisation that has recently appeared in the Outer Spur. The Syndicate have a sense of pride about what they perceive as their mission to help other races ravaged by the Scryve.

However, their methods leave something to be desired, as they willingly attack refugee ships, take bribes, engage in slavery and drug trafficking and just generally make life difficult for more upstanding species and their alliances.

The Syndicate is known to make use of heavily modified technology, having stolen them from an assortment of different races and managed to make polydrives, which are capable of crossing the gaps between the spirals of a galaxy. Hyperdrives don’t typically allow this, so the Syndicate are seemingly quite advanced for a pirating faction.

**History**

Very little is known about the Syndicate’s history, other than that they originated in the Mid-spur, the furthest area of the Scryve Empire. Over the millennia, the Empire had begun to shrink, largely from fighting the W51 phenomenon, but also from a variety of external and internal factors.

In the wake of this shrinking, the Syndicate began to form and move in along after the Scryve, taking advantage of the different species they encountered on their way. They began to scavenge all technology they could and even attacked refugee ships for fuel and supplies.

In response to this, the Liberators were formed, a pan-species alliance focused around creating resistance to both the Scryve and the Syndicate to protect the local races from their exploitation. The Liberators however were massively understaffed and forced to rely on a series of increasily desperate and underhanded methods to achieve their goals.

In time, the Syndicate reached the Outer Spur, home of humanity and began to work in the background as the Scryve Empire struggled to maintain its grip on the area. To solidify their power, the Kzanti moved ahead of the main Syndicate fleet and began to harass the various species struggling under the Scryve. This was met with harsh resistance from the newly founded Federation of Allied Species, who proved to be a nuisance for the Kzanti.

In time, the Empire fell to the combined arms of the Xraki, Phamysht and Federation. In this newly created power vacuum, the Syndicate moved quickly, working to undermine humanity wherever they could and create colonies for their various client species. They even had dealings with and hired a number of Menkmack to work for them, as well as a Xraki assassin who had existed beyond the Origin for a number of decades and regained her sanity somewhat.

Eventually, the Liberators caught up to them and began to attack Syndicate interests in the area. It is largely dependent on the Captain of the Vindicator on what happens next as either the Liberators succeed in establishing a presence and damaging the Syndicate to unfathomable degrees or the Liberators are effectively crippled in the area as humanity joins the Syndicate.

**Members**

The Syndicate has a number of species flying under their flag, including many that are simply not named, like Krig’s species. Several are known however, including:

* Kzanti
* Foon
* Qwara
* Venzer
* Kri
* Menkmack (Few)
* Humanity (Dependant)
* Xraki (One mercenary)