Condemned

## General Overview

The Ek'kon Empire were a small Empire which dominated the whole of the Ek'kon System. Possessing only short-range warp drive created by large Graviton Catapults, the Ek'kon were limited in the distance they could travel.

During the late 2300's, the Ek'kon Empire entered a spiral of decline, with a shortage of resources within their system and overpopulation being massive contributing factors.

As a result of this, criminal elements began to consume their homeworld, forcing the Ek'kon to build massive correctional facilities known as "*Maws*" on small asteroids orbiting their world.

These gigantic prison facilities contained thousands of inmates, however due to lack of resources and the brutality of the Ek'kon forces, the prisons became a hotbed of corruption and private business ventures.

When the "*Public Entertainment Act*" was passed in 2371, which provided the Maws with the ability to stage mass combat deathmatches of prisoners for the enjoyment of the paying public, more and more people were sentenced to the Maw for increasingly minor crimes.

This resulted in the *Great Rising of 2392*, where prisoners from Maw 1 rose up and slaughtered the guards forcing the Ek'kon Fleet to bomb the planet from orbit, killing over a million prisoners and staff.

However this only proved to delay the inevitable and the following year, Maw III rose up successfully, uniting the prisoners and securing the Ek'kon's primary Fleet yards (which were constructed by Prison Labour), in orbit around Maw 3.

The following massacre lasted only a few months as the prisoners sought revenge for their treatment, using plasma weaponry to completely destroy the surface of Ek'kon Prime.

Calling themselves "The Condemned", the Ek'kon society was wiped out and replaced by seven different Condemned factions, each with their own leader, surviving former prison staff distributed through the factions as slaves.

The seven factions of "The Condemned" are;

* The Hammer (Hal'tre) - Warrior Clan devoted to combat

* The Knife (Baddis) - Intrigue Clan devoted to deception

* The Sickle (Argris) - Resource Clan devoted to hording resources

* The Axe (Blud) - Former maximum security prisoners with severe mental instability (Anarchists and Nihilists)

* The Cannon (Exoris) - Technology based Clan, inventors and shipbuilders

* The Spear (Pentis) - Former celebrity Clan who had extreme privilege and wealth under the old system

* The Dart (Ar'ias) - Clan of former political prisoners, idealists and diplomats.

All the Clans currently both trade and raid each other with the current number of clans being only the most powerful.

Under the old Ek'kon Empire system, the prisoners were all fitted with a genetic modification when they entered the prison system.

This genetic defect causes severe cardiac arrest unless the prisoners ingest a specific enzyme known ironically as "Purgatorio" every seven days.

As the Ek'kon were the only people with knowledge of this genetic defect and introduced it to the correctional system in order to control and regulate the prison economy, all current members of the Condemned have this defect despite having control of the former Ek'kon manufacturing plants for the Enzyme.

## Established History

In April 2420, the U.S.S. Hiryu encountered a biological weapons research facility belonging to the Rothian Corporation within the Ek'kon system. The Roth had made contact with the condemned and were trading some technology for usage of their territory due to the closer location of the Ek'kon system to United Commonwealth of Planets space.

The Hiryu attempted first contact with the "Hal'tre Clan" however this ended in disaster when the Condemned attempted to steal warp technology from the Hiryu, resulting in the abandonment of Commonwealth contact.

In June 2420, the U.S.S. Generation was attacked by the "Blud Clan" of the condemned while delivering much needed agricultural equipment to Arkhosian Legion who were suffering severe food shortages on their colony of New Arkhosia.

The Blud Clan had acquired some warp technology from the Roth as part of a technological exchange but were still unable to build ships of their own with this technology due to a lack of understanding.

Despite the efforts of the Generation crew, the Blud Clan were able to steal schematics of the Generation, crippling the Generation in the process. As a result, the U.S.S. Nemesis, with the assistance of the Generation crew, tracked down the Blud pirates to a Particle Fountain in the Erestis System, near the Ek'kon System.

The Generation successfully convinced the other clans of the Condemned to assist the Commonwealth in destroying the Cronus Facility located inside the Particle Fountain in exchange for Warp Five Engine Schematics. The Generation was successful in destroying the Cronos Facility which the Blud Queen Lu'na was attempting to use to manufacture a fleet of vessels based on stolen Commonwealth designs and captured the Blud Queen, taking her back to Harmony's Crossing for trial.

## Known Vessels

* *Mal'tar-Class Battleship/Prison Transport*
* *Missiani-Class Escort/Scoutship*

## Notes

* The Condemned were first encountered in the U.S.S. Hiryu episode, "*Convicted*" on the *4th April 2020*