Raiders

"*Raiders are ruthless, barbaric and bloodthirsty. If you come across them don't go surrendering as they'll probably either kill you, torture you or send you off to one of their gulags. Probably all three.*"
—Fred Bansel on Outlaw Space

**Raiders** are outlaws who seek only their own power and wealth. Bloodthirsty and power hungry in their own right, they are hostile to everyone who isn't their own - and sometimes even their own. Raiders are known to be the the strongest and most advanced in Outlaw Space. Unlike bandits and pirates, raiders tend to use advanced ships, modernized weapons and armor and even control space stations, planetary holdings and even develop their own settlements.

Raiders do not possess any one capital but them and their leaders can often be found on two primary neutral space stations in Outlaw Space: Castle Station and Black Station.

## Culture

Raiders are cruel, violent and obsessive. Mostly seek out technology as they believe it is the key to power in the galaxy. Most raiders augment themselves with tech that will help improve them ranging from a simple chip under the skin to eyes being replaced by cybernetics.

Raiders are often divided into their own factions and are led by a boss. Factions are often fairly large and capable of assaulting fleets or colonial planets though every move made by the factions are decided solely by their boss.

Life as a raider often begins from colonial takeover, refugees or scavengers. Raiders see brain and brawn as their idea of power and the more one knows and the more one can fight will often lead to promotes within their ranks. When conquering a foe be it planet or ship, raiders tend to pit their prisoners against one another those that prove their will are usually granted membership while those not so lucky are sent to their gulags in isolated places deep within Outlaw Space. Raiders tend to venture from Outlaw Space to the Colonial Frontier looking to snag anyone willing for a more adventurous life away from the difficult living of the Frontier.

Raiders not only seek technology but also chems and drugs. More often than not raiders will invade colonial planets that develop and distribute these products as a means to make them stronger, but with over-usage of these products leads to psychotic frenzies and rage. This often results in their bloodthirsty behavior and usually results in internal conflict between the raiders of a faction. Chems and drugs tend to be the blood of raider society and both their success in selling and obtaining them and their downfall.

Raiders are required to be smart or be physically strong, lacking either quality within their cultural will quickly result in death or being thrown in a gulag for wasting space in their faction.

### Gulags

Raider Factions all control at least one or more gulag in an isolated place whether it be on a planet or an asteroid. These locations are were raiders tend to keep their slaves in which they sell to other factions, indoctrinate or experiment on with their new technology such as implants and augments. However all unlucky individuals to land a place in one are used as a labor force.

Gulags are usually massive prison-like structures found around deposits of minerals, ores and other precious values. The rare occasion would find slave laborers constructing their slavers' vehicles, weapons and armor - watched closely by their captors.

## Technology

### Ships

Being of Outlaw Space, one would think that raiders would lack sophisticated tech, however this is not the case. Most of their ships range from typical outlaw design to early-late Federation ships including junker variants due to the low cost in a quantity over quality, some of their ships - often their primary command ship - tends to be of late Colonial Wars Era. While favoritism differs between factions the majority of raiders prefer Imperial designed ships while utilizing Federation and Theron weaponry. In some cases raiders deploy top of the line ships though this is rare but they often are of UGR design as most UGR ships struggle to counter their own ships.

### Vehicles

Raiders deploy frontier mechs, light and medium tanks to their front line assaults. While being reinforced by light artillery and tank destroyers. Raiders all favor UCF designs in regards to vehicles but with their own modifications, though very rarely raiders deploy Theron heavy tanks often equipped with Ghaufor weaponry to counter harder foes such as Eclipse Guard and Imperial Knights. Due to the low cost and mass production of mechs on the frontier that were redesigned into fighting walkers - raiders deploy them in masses often aiming to overwhelm infantry held positions and used during urban warfare for their mobility.

### Soldiers

Raider infantry differs vastly from bandits and pirates, their soldiers are usually adorned in medium armor and use medium caliber weapons ranging from assault rifles to marksman rifles. Raiders do not resemble something that would come from Outlaw Space as their appearance looks more of an actual soldier, though they possess no uniform they will wear similar attire with their faction's patch somewhere on their outfit.

## Known Raider Factions

* Iron Tusk
* Dynasty's Watch
* Outlaw's Watch
* The Lost
* The Honorless

## Notable Raiders

* Barrick Tusker - Leader of the Iron Tusk.
* Naito Yuji - Leader of Dynasty's Watch.
* Bashir Al-Khalid - Leader of Outlaw's Watch.
* Lost One - Leader of The Lost.
* The Centurion - Leader of The Honorless.

## Relations

### Superpowers

Raiders hate and despise all superpowers, including the Ra'dam Federation, Orisa Empire, Unified Governments of the Republic and the Theron Protectorate. Raiders do not like that they believe their words are law and interfere with raider affairs even if they are internal.

Raiders dislike the Theron Protectorate but see them as easy picking on trade routes as they lack the power to stop their attacks. Raiders severely hate the Orisa Empire for the Daval Empire's "Cleansing" of Outlaw Space which was brief but killed and dismantled more raider factions than the Federation before it. The UGR falls in line with Empire as they believe they are the so-called-law, the UGR Campaigns to secure their borders have often resulted in conflicts with raiders including invasions of planets and full on space battles.

### Outlaws

Raiders see themselves as superior to bandits and pirates as they possess the most powerful technology, weapons and soldiers. Though they all fall under the category of Outlaw as such most raiders are not opposed to working side-by-side with other outlaws.

### Xenos

Much like any other human, raiders still bare the scars of the Cerberus Galactic Conflict. The Cybros of both Dominion and Sovereignty reigned terror throughout Outlaw Space killing many in their wake. Reterans are hated equally for their 'good moral' attitude with the exception of the Espilon Alliance in which they sell many of their prisoners to.

## Author Notes & Trivia

### Trivia

* Raiders are influenced by mercenaries of STALKER and Raiders of Fallout.
* Raiders are the top of the food chain in Outlaw Space while originally it was to be pirates followed by bandits.
* Development of the Raider factions was that they were to take all the pros of each faction and utilize them, though the downside is they lack proper structure and struggle with control.

* Raiders control the most space stations in Human Space entirely, though they act independently.

### Author's Notes

Raiders will first be seen in the Imperial March Campaign, as they were introduced solely for the campaign but will now see extensive expansion as time goes on.