Hu Syndicates

The biggest trading organisation in the Known Universe and quite likely the wealthiest group as well, the Hu Syndicates is generally only heard of, never truly seen. Thousands of ships filled with various forms of biomass, their main export, go toward the Protectorate, Empire and Union daily, but nobody can truly say that they would have met one of the mysterious Hu, only their intermediaries. Nobody even really knows what the Hu do with all the credits and goods they accumulate, but biomass is now a necessity for all the major nations outside of the Terran Confederacy and the Baal'Ken Horde.

The most common intermediary that people meet are the humanoid bioroid which live in their trade centers and man their almost completely automated trade ships. After this come the group called the Grey, a semi-sentient race of short humanoid which make up the military arm of the Syndicates, flying giant saucer like warships which hunt any pirate or privateer who would dare to attack the trade ships. There is apparently another servant race which works for the Hu Syndicate, a bioweapon of awesome power, but nobody has really lived to tell about it, apparently.

For the very few who ever saw one of the Hu, they are humongous octopus-like creature who live in the middle of gigantic ships, deep into their territory of space, managing their trade empires. No two Hu have ever been seen close to one another, there are rumors saying that each of the Hu is actually so afraid of other creatures that they don't trust one another.

### **Biomass:**

The core of the trade made by the Hu Syndicates is based on biomass, a stem-cell based product that can be used to reproduce just about every form of biological matter. Nobody truly knows how this product is created but it became the very standard on which most societies are built, being used for food, medical purposes, energy or even weapons. It is so omnipresent that the general price of goods is based off biomass's value, with 1 Imperial Crown and 1 Royal ducat being worth about the same as it is worth 1 day or so worth of food made from biomass.

There are people, however, who refuse biomass either on principle or because it does not fit their needs. The Terran Confederate Military Forces wanted to introduce biomass rations for their troops to save money and make it simpler to provide while on long missions, but the majority of the soldiers who tried it said “It tastes like wet cardboard mixed with watered-down mashed potatoes, and looks like vomit that was eaten by a bird then regurgitated to their young.” The experiment was stopped at this time, with Terran combat rations, which only look like vomit and tasted like wet cardboard, being reintroduced. The Baal'Ken would never accept any food that they do not know was alive and herded or grown by fellow Baal'Ken (they have been more accepting when they know the food was grown by humans or gnomes, however). The Korrenian want nothing to do with the Hu due to their longstanding grievances with them and the sentiment is shared by the So'Dar. The Apex Consortium, offshoot of the Terran Confederacy, refuses to use biomass as long as they do not know the process used to manufacture it.

### **Races:**

Starfinder Core Androids can be used to represent Hu Bioroids. Bioroids becoming adventurers is almost unheard of, but as they are technically sentient, one could leave the programming placed by the Hu and join other characters. Greys are only semi-sentient and cannot really be truly adventurers as their whole lives are derivated from serving the Hu.