Dolos Observers

The **Dolos Observers** are an old organization of the Republic formed in 7141 after the destruction of a major Republic war fleet at Pluto during the Venkath Onslaught. Believing news of the defeat would fracture the territories, the Dolos Observers were created to not only hide this defeat, but to fabricate claims the fleet was still very alive, and very active. The fleet was nicknamed the *apocalypse fleet*.

Their name is borrowed by Dolos, the spirit of trickery, deception and treachery.

The first order of business was to order nuclear strikes against the remnants of the fleet in orbit around Pluto to destroy immediate evidence. Ship remains that crashed planet-side were considered safely out of sight. It would require a physical investigation to discover a whiff of its origins. Attempting to near Pluto with a human crew given the danger of Sol would prove impossible.

With confidence in the military at an all time low, the Dolos Observers would cooperate with media moguls to release reports on the success of the fleet taking the fight to the venkaths. The Observers went as far to create entire battlefields of carefully placed venkath remains collected from other systems and fake reports. A war fleet had effectively turned into a ghost fleet.

In 7149, the Aurelian Dominion detonated the Markus-Lindholm Entropy Detonation Device, destroying nearly twenty-five percent of the acting Republic fleet. With the suggestions of the Observers, the Republic would claim that this incursion had done little to effect its real number fleets. The Republic attack on Monolith would be created to his supposed apocalypse fleet.

Today, the existence of the fleet has not been dispelled. Given access to the freedom to maneuver fleets, to confuse ship identifier codes and with a strong relationship with a small group of media giants, the apocalypse fleet is widely believed to exist, having since been retrofitted to remain competitive in today's world. This is used to discourage a Dominion invasion against the Republic.

This has not been without consequence. Given near limitless control over the movements and identifiers of the fleet, it is not uncommon for fleet admirals to open fire on each other in the confusion. These fleet movements are used to create a single large mass of ships that converge onto one system is used for media spectacles. More often than not, it requires many fleets abandoning their home systems, creating opportunities for piracy to take advantage in the sudden silence. Well aware the Dominion or Legacy Federation may attempt to dispel this myth, fleets often converge through a lengthy series of jumps, placing them through several checkpoints to stop any pursuing cloaked ships.

## Practices

### Naming Scheme

The leader is named by his or her first name, and then "of the Masquerade". Example: If John Smith becomes the leader, his stated name would be John of the Masquerade.

### Dress & Communications

Living in a world of confusion and misinformation and handling sensitive matters, members of the Observers adapted themselves to masks when dealing among each other. They never refer to each other by name.

## Credits

Organization artwork is hosted on Deviantart, and produced by Flemmens You can find the original source here.