Galactic Liberation of Wonder

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The Galactic Liberation of Wonder (GLoW) is a political movement almost exclusively opposing the work of the ARK Mandate, which it perceives as the monopolisation of cultural preservation and a form of colonialism. It has a fearsome reputation among the ARK crews, who fear for their lives when confronted by GLoW.

GLoW’s founding principles are enumerated in its Manifesto, which it disseminated to citizens of the Coreworlds on the AlTime News Network following its hijacking campaign. Within the text, GLoW made clear its belief that the wonders of the galaxy should be freely available for all citizens to experience, and not - as they perceive - locked away by private collectors or the ARK Mandate, or commercialised by interstellar tour companies such as Intrepid.

As GLoW member Emret explained to Alther, GLoW only attacks ARK Mandate targets to disable them, for long enough to steal back the artefacts they carry. The organisation ultimately aims to return these treasures to the people from whom they were stolen, or to the nearest neighbouring civilisation that will treat them with respect. This argument proved to be a convincing one for Alther.

The movement makes extensive use of limpet devices. One such device was successfully launched at the ARK starship *Venture* as it was travelling from its mission in the Derth Cluster at faster-than-light speed, through the Nore Xi system. The limpet successfully commandeered the systems of the *Venture*, and after an agent of GLoW threatened to detonate the limpet, the crew surrendered and changed course to the new coordinates provided.

Reports from the Aglostarros University Museum later indicated that GLoW had destroyed the *Venture* and at least six other ARK vessels like it, despite not having issued any demands at the time. The Museum’s Curator, Endelle Stroth, labelled GLoW as dishonourable anarchists resorting to scare tactics in an emergency meeting with ARK’s investors, reassuring them that GLoW did not present a meaningful impediment to the Mandate’s work.

Among GLoW’s actions against the ARK Mandate, they reportedly attacked a station where the Sceptre of Viriath was stored, leading AUM archivists to fear the artefact had been destroyed. In reality, the Sceptre had been brought by GLoW to its headquarters, a series of caverns under the Halls of Aneth on Kollian, which are notoriously difficult to reach without completing the Pilgrimage of Aneth.

Press reports suggested that GLoW and their attacks on the ARK Mandate were among the many threats to galactic stability to be addressed at a meeting between representatives of the Trifold Union’s member states and Curator Stroth, at the Threshold of the Ninth Plane on Andar Prime.

Curator Stroth visited GLoW after her meeting with the ambassadors, and was welcomed by Challe. In an effort to appease the movement and alleviate its threat to the ARK Mandate, Stroth provided GLoW with backdoor access to Project Centennial, its data and its Centurion probes. She insisted that this was only so that the movement could observe the Project’s findings and not interfere, or else risk raising suspicion. However, Challe’s response suggested that GLoW had other plans. A source cultivated by the AlTime News Channel within Coreworlds Intelligence would later confirm that GLoW had compromised the Project, opening backdoors into its software faster than the intelligence organisation could close them.

Those plans were soon revealed, as GLoW broadened its attacks to target archives, colonies and research facilities along the frontier of the Conglomerate Exploration Zone, apparently resorting to methods such as sabotage, kidnapping and murder. They were opposed in this escalation, somewhat unsuccessfully, by the newly-created Union Defence Alliance. The UDA observed that GLoW appeared to be preempting the movements of ARK teams and waiting for them on terminal worlds. This was likely a consequence of having full access to Project Centennial. General Stele of the Queil Empire made clear that the UDA intended to go to war against GLoW until it no longer posed a threat.

When the Trifold Union issued an open warrant for the arrest of Endelle Stroth, press sources indicated that it had held back a further charge of sedition, after evidence was found that Stroth had given control of the Centurions to GLoW. The nature and provenance of this evidence was not made clear to the public. However, when Centurions 56 and 72 were apprehended by the Queil military in the Gordian Veldt, digital autopsies revealed that the drones' software had been extensively patched by GLoW using the command codes of the AUM Curator. When the two Centurions later broke out of containment by apparently rebuilding their entire bodily structures from components of the research station in which they were being held, a source from GLoW publicly confessed to AlTime that they had hacked Centurions 56 and 72, but reported that the two units were now both out of their control.

Following the Gordian Veldt incident, the Trifold Union invited GLoW to discuss solutions to the Centurion problem, with Coreworlds Conglomerate ambassador Rayan Tiller suggesting that recriminations against GLoW would be temporarily put aside. Meanwhile, GLoW struggled to respond to a rising demand for alien antiquities throughout the galaxy. This was driven by the Family Oramande's purchase of a majority share in the University of Aglostarros and the appointment of Baroness Dorn Oramande as the AUM's new Curator, which speculators believed would lead to the imminent closure of the Project Centennial exhibition. When the closure was later confirmed and the Project's artefacts were sent to "secure storage", in the words of a Museum spokesperson, GLoW launched a rumour-mongering campaign suggesting that these exhibits had instead ended up in the Oramandes' private collection.

Some citizens of the Coreworlds favour installing after-market weapons systems in their Veldt Star Industries *Estir*-class starships, such as plasma strobes and thermal flack launchers, to act as a deterrent against agents of GLoW, as well as pirates. However, most pilots when polled admitted that they were reluctant to use the weapons. At Veldt's 2270 keynote event on Ourinia, in which it unveiled the new Eidolon Collection of more heavily armed and armoured starships, CEO Ardus Lyn cited GLoW as a potential threat from which customers wanted to feel protected, along with the Queil Empire and the Ele Dominion.