CETI

Though House Crux maintains outposts and constabularies throughout the Empire, it was deemed necessary during the War Against the Artificials to employ Deathless Conflict Solutions as support for Crux’s continued efforts to uphold their mandate and maintain the prison and legal systems of Acheron Rho. House Crux was stretched thin, waging a war on one side and doing everything in their power to hold onto assets such as Gleipnir, despite the Cygnus Emperox’s wishes. The Deathless proved vital in Crux’s efforts to uphold their duties of law, and since the end of the War and the death of the Cygnus Emperox the initiative has only been expanded. That said, while new contracts and initiatives have emerged, some have waned in their frequency of activation following the conflict with the STO, such as those pertaining to escorting prisoner transports and high-risk witnesses. House Crux has begun to rebuild and regain its former strength, independent again throughout most of the Core Worlds, but outer systems still have work to be done, and it is there that C.E.T.I. (Contractual Enforcement and Transport Initiative) truly shines.

## The CETI Contracts

The fundamental aspects of the CETI Contracts as negotiated during the early years of the War Against the Artificials are as follows:

1. Deathless Conflict Solutions shall provide escort vessels and personnel alongside House Crux assets and prison transports as detailed in the terms of “Transport Initiative Contracts.”
2. Deathless Conflict Solutions shall be granted, and appropriately compensated for the fulfillment of, “Third Party Criminal Acquisition Contracts,” locating specified criminals and turning them over to House Crux.
3. Deathless Conflict Solutions shall provide escort vessels and personnel alongside House Crux assets for witness protection programs and transport as detailed in the terms of “High-Risk Asset Management Contracts.”
4. House Crux shall carefully consider the transfer of selected prisoners to Deathless Conflict Solutions for rehabilitation, should they possess skills useful to Deathless Conflict Solutions. If the prisoner is deemed to be within acceptable risk parameters and not otherwise too important to Crux to turn over, House Crux and Deathless Conflict Solutions shall enter into “Koscheian Community Service Contracts.” Assets turned over to Deathless Conflict Solutions through “Koscheian Community Service Contracts,” shall not be employable by House Crux nor employable against House Crux, as they possess too great a potential risk of bias.
5. Off the books, House Crux may request Deathless Conflict Solutions find and capture certain criminals or persons of interest who are legally difficult for House Crux to approach and “interview,” them with a series of questions provided by House Crux. Such arrangements shall be termed, “Dvodka Token Purchases.”

### Transport Initiative Contracts

Gleipnir and some of the Empire’s other further prison complexes are often reached only by long journeys through dangerous or less defensible systems. In an effort to bolster the protection of their prison transports, House Crux employed Deathless Conflict Solutions to provide escort ships and personnel. Ships work either with only a transport or alongside additional Crucian escorts, depending on the nature of the prisoners being transported. Personnel are stationed on both Deathless and Crucian vessels in the event they are boarded by hostile forces. Having Deathless personnel alongside Crux officers on prisoner transports also affords Deathless the opportunity to examine potential candidates for “Koscheian Community Service Contracts.”

### Third Party Criminal Acquisition Contracts

While House Crux does not post public bounties for the acquisition of criminals they are trying to locate, the Deathless do occasionally receive exclusive “Third Party Criminal Acquisition Contracts.” These contracts provide a target and information on that target to Deathless for capture and transportation to the nearest Crux facility or vessel. In rare instances of pursuit of excommunicated subjects, the target may be marked for termination instead of capture. Terms of the contract often define how much the target is worth alive, injured, or dead, as Crux understands that resisting criminals may sometimes leave no option to their pursuers except to take them out.

### High-Risk Asset Management Contracts

Effectively witness protection, House Crux will at times contract the assistance of Deathless personnel and vessels for the safe travel and defense of high risk assets. Nobles and Non-Nobles alike may at times bring vital information to House Crux for taking down criminal rings or powerful but corrupt Nobility, but providing this information may put an individual at risk, if they are not already, for assassination attempts, violent attacks, or other methods intended to silence them. House Crux has personnel trained for witness protection, but calls upon the Deathless in situations where their numbers are inadequate or where additional protection is deemed necessary.

Witnesses and other individuals may also personally reach out to Deathless or House Reticulum for protection as individual contracts separate from Crux’s contracts. This more often occurs in situations where House Crux deemed an individual to not be “high-risk,” and thus affords less or no protection to a witness or individual who has worked with them.

### Koscheian Community Service Contracts

During the course of providing escort to Crucian prison transports or Crucian prisoners, Deathless Conflict Solutions has on occasion discovered talents, skills, and untapped potential amongst those fated for judgement. Rather than let this potential go to waste, DCS negotiated with House Crux to develop a new contract option. If a member of the Deathless discovers uniquely desirable skills in an individual imprisoned by House Crux, they are authorized to begin negotiations for a Koscheian Community Service Contract to acquire the individual. DCS will offer to pay House Crux a variably hefty sum, depending on the skills and severity of the charges against the criminal in question. House Crux will determine if the criminal in question is too dangerous or important to them to let out of their sight, and if not, the payment will be accepted and the criminal turned over to DCS for “community service,” and “rehabilitation.” Such individuals are strictly forbidden by initial negotiations to work either for or against House Crux directly in contracts, as the level of bias they may possess against the House of Law is believed to be too great a risk to their ability to stay on task.

The only location where Deathless may not negotiate Koscheian Community Service Contracts is Gleipnir, as prisoners that have reached Gleipnir are often considered to be there forever. DCS has no personnel ships permanently stationed at Gleipnir, but can often be found in the vicinity escorting ships to the planet or prisoners to their cell block.

### Dvodka Token Purchases

It is well-known that Crucian Nobles and even serfs enjoy the various hard liquors of the Empire, including Dvodka. If one were to check the finances of House Crux, they would find a notably large, but not necessarily suspiciously so, number of purchases over the years for “Dvodka Tokens,” tokens redeemable for the purchase of Dvodka. While many are listed under things like “patrol morale,” or “crew annual bonus,” these token purchases are in fact made to obfuscate under-the-table negotiations between House Crux and the DCS.

At times, House Crux finds possible witnesses or subjects for questioning out of reach, either behind walls of lawyers, political red tape, or closely guarded by powerful legal-adjacent or criminal organizations. While House Crux has several methods of its own to attempt to reach such individuals, it will also sometimes contract the Deathless to pay an individual “a visit.” DCS is tasked with either reaching or abducting a target. Once in their possession, the target is to be questioned with a number of questions passed down from House Crux to the Deathless, purposefully disguised as either a Deathless interest or that of a private criminal entity. The target is very much expected to be kept alive, their death often resulting in a reduced payout, and set free or returned to their place of residence once questioning has been completed.

These questionings are off official Crucian books, and it would be very difficult to figure out exactly who or what department might have negotiated for them existing at all. Notably, no requirements are made of DCS as far as how a target is acquired or questioned, just so long as they remain alive.

## Project: Prodigal Knight

With so many contracts possible for interaction between Deathless Mercenaries and Crucian Officers, it was deemed necessary to provide DCS with a number of training courses in the proper procedures of prisoner apprehension, prisoner containment, and evidence handling. Codenamed Project: Prodigal Knight, House Crux sends JES and DoJ personnel to Koschei and Thorg to work with DCS personnel who will be assisting House Crux. Courses include disabling and restraining a prisoner non-lethally, containment protocols when proper facilities are unavailable, and the handling of evidence and crime scene areas to avoid contamination with fingerprints and DNA.