The Conglomerate (RPG)

The RPG titled The Conglomerate is the original HILT game and currently comprises four installments. Despite chronologically being the latest in the story, it established many of the customs, places, characters, and themes which reoccur throughout HILT. Six years after the original game, the saga was finally completed.

## Background

In the distant future of mankind, after the nuclear apocalypse planet Earth is devastated and ruined. The only way to salvage the planet was through terraforming technology, which hastily became the #1 focus of the human race. Progress was slow until old records left behind by Doctor Raleigh Ochoa were found, the master of genetic engineering who was scorned in his time.

Utilizing his records, progress was quick and soon the entire Earth was rejuvenated. As the population grew, people's eyes inevitably turned to the stars, and soon the solar system and in turn entire Snickers galaxy had been terraformed and populated.

Just as people reached to the most distant planet in the galaxy, a new race appeared, faintly humanoid-esque creatures called the Conglomerate. They hastily conquered the Snickers galaxy and colonized the center of it, making use of the richest, most well developed worlds.

A Resistance made up of noble Shanduchan, Tsukonian, and Brewtanian warriors continued to fight valiantly against them, but after nearly a generation of oppression and defeat, it became clear their struggle was hopeless. Finally, leaders of the Resistance made a bold gamble for the future. Leave behind all their weapons, strategies, and plans in a secluded place, and leave a map to it that only a human would find. Maybe a future generation, with the benefit of superior technology and numbers, could accomplish what the Resistance hoped to.

## The Conglomerate: Part I

Many years after the Conglomerate took over, a new generation was born that knew nothing but life under oppression. One of these men was Anton Zerp, a descendent of a long line of noble Shanduchan commanders, who had come to a black market space station in hopes of acquiring a new spaceship for himself, and finding some out of work slobs he could hire who had been seeking a new career. After purchasing an outdated (by Conglomerate standards) alien vessel, he hired Briggs Dexmond , a notable boomerang harmonica player; Grant Sud; and PG Copper, a mechanic cyborg who had been wounded in an unexplained series of events.

After boarding the ship they located the first part of the map left behind by Resistance forces (its value having been apparently overlooked by the former alien inhabitants). Seeking the remainder of the map, they travelled to the French planet to purchase a huge quantity of wine first, where Anton also found a lovely French girl for himself.

Their next stop was Azúcar, Anton's homeworld, and the center of Sugar Worship in the galaxy. They learned of a recent outbreak of the Veasles which was endangering his mother's life. Anton also learned his grandparents had actually been the leaders of the Resistance, and motivated by this discovery, he was reinvigorated to accomplish his quest.

Briggs Dexmond took the opportunity to try to fleece the local people by attempting a special concert in honor of sugar, which unsurprisingly ended in a riot and the police being called out to arrest/execute/disembowel Briggs. Happily for the crew of Zerp's ship, they all made it out alive. Barely.

## The Conglomerate: Part II

Continuing the follow the evidence, the ship landed in Montaxa, a flat lifeless desert world. Before disembarking they discovered a stowaway of sorts, a morbidly obese man by the name of Fatty McBurger, former heir (now disowned) of the McBurger corporate empire. He had been asleep for four days.

The ship had taken considerable damage during their escape from Azúcar and were seeking repairs. While PG Copper wandered off in search of parts, the rest of the crew sought more wine, as they had finished theirs off already. Anton took the opportunity to evangelize to some locals about sugar, eventually convincing one man to give in to his sugar curiosity and give it a try.

As PG attempted to negotiate for parts, he managed to anger the shopkeeper and everyone else inside, eventually leading to yet another riot. It overtook him and tragically led to his death. The rest of the crew hightailed it out, once again escaping thanks only to the rocket launchers they had found in the cargo bay.

In between all the riots, they somehow managed to find and translate the entirety of the map, and at last discovered the lost cache of Resistance equipment. Tucked away safely on an utterly hidden planet made of pure rubies, they found Resistance weapons and a fully developed plan for how to conquer the Conglomerate, including previously unknown weaknesses. On top of everything, the long lost Shanduchan Code was found. Equipped with all this, Anton and his crew were ready to reorganize the Resistance and challenge the Conglomerate once more!

## Rogues: A Conglomerate Story

Stuff apparently happened but I guess the GM is too lazy to tell us what it was.

## The Conglomerate: Part III

Anton Zerp and his crew, having discovered the cache of old Resistance weapons and information, learn that for some reason the Conglomerate's tech and weapons are all connected to a killswitch that will immediately power down what they have. Despite this seeming highly suspicious, the crew decides they have no other option, and fly to the center of the galaxy to activate this killswitch.

Unfortunately at their first stop, the police swarmed them and arrested them, despite the fact that the crew repeatedly identified PG Copper as being among them (whom the crew now knew is the one who orchestrated the Conglomerate's galactic takeover). As it turns out, the Conglomerate upper brass had spent generations claiming PG was a myth, so the presence of the real PG in a security checkpoint caused considerable alarm and caused them to be arrested, loaded onto a maximum security prison ship, and sent off to a desolate rock where they would be forgotten for all eternity.

Until. that is ...

Silvers Tiger, legendary raider against Conglomerate ships, attacked the convoy. In the midst of the fray, PG Copper escaped and for the first time was able to bring down a Conglomerate soldier. A rendezvous with Silvers Tiger allowed them to break the rest of the crew out of their holding cell, destroy the ship, and escape with Silvers Tiger.

Having stolen much Conglomerate tech and uniforms from the prison convoy, they were able to sneak through the Conglomerate security easily, where they befriended a high ranking Conglomerate guard Zahrgahbarg. The crew convinced Zahrgahbarg that they had uncovered a resistance cell and were bringing important intel to the Conglomerate capital. Fully believing them, Zahrgahbarg escorted them to within three blocks of the killswitch, where they fled and launched an attack on the heavily secured perimeter blocking the killswitch.

In a shocking twist never seen outside of the worst of Star Wars movies, a fleet of mercenaries arrived and began an aerial assault, opening the way for the crew to reach the killswitch (how did the mercenary fleet get through all that security and attack the Conglomerate? Shut up!). Unbeknownst to the crew, the Resistance was not actually human, but rather disgruntled Conglomerate who felt occupation was cruel and sought to cohabit with humans (ah-ha! That's how the mercenaries got in! Yeah! I - I definitely planned that!)

Arriving at the killswitch, Anton Zerp and the crew froze. Looking down, they saw it was merely a screen reading "PG Copper's little surprise" followed by buttons saying "Yes" and "No."

Taking a deep breath, they all pressed "Yes" in unison. And then .... silence.

The chaotic fray of battling outside fell silent as throughout the galaxy, Conglomerate armies powered down. Humans and rebellious Conglomerate soldiers rose up in place after place, leading a galactic revolution. Humans, living for centuries without Conglomerate tech, were now having the upper hand, demolishing the crippled Conglomerate forces everywhere they fought.

Within mere months, the balance of power was restored, with humans and allied Conglomerates living side by side. In the new Galactic power, Zahrgahbarg was selected to serve as Prime Minister of the Galaxy, ushering in a new era (for now) of peace.

## Killswitch

So what happened?

PG Copper, in his centuries of jumping around the galaxy, was initially the one who found the stranded Los Lobos refugees, heavily mutated from deep space, and helped them gain power. But being the cagy cyborg he is, he installed the killswitch as a failsafe, and constructed their tech in a way that they could never disable it. It took them decades to even notice it, hence (in a panic) moving it to the center of the galaxy and putting it under heavy guard.

To avoid the masses discovering this fatal weakness, the Conglomerate high command had begun a propaganda campaign of claiming PG Copper was a myth, the Conglomerate were self made, and no weaknesses could possibly exist.

But look who got the last laugh.