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| Breaker with Pneumatic Drill. Concept art by Oliver Zavala |
“…Around
2218AD Mankind spread to the stars. They called it “A New Age of Exploration”. The Global Conglomerate of Earth had begun the scientific exploration of
space in earnest. Resources on Earth were facing complete depletion and massive
polluted zones had forced overcrowding. Food shortages, deplorable living
conditions, and the violent suppression of worker’s rights had been sparking
riots for decades. Earth was in its twilight and the corporate heads could no
longer maintain their wealth and supremacy. Humanity needed room to expand and
new resources to consume, and the corporations needed new markets to exploit.
The first concerted colonization of space was set to begin.
Skip
ahead to 2277AD. That’s when we
saw “The Great Colonization”. The colonization of space over the
next fifty years created genuine excitement planet-wide. It was common for fit
and hopeful youths to volunteer for the colony ships and be trained as miners,
farmers, builders, and security troopers as needed. Many saw these dangerous,
but better paid, opportunities as a way to save their people back home from crushing
poverty. Hired under contract, they traveled to far off worlds and built the
earliest colony domes to sustain resource harvesting until initial terra-forming
had begun.
2277AD is also around when we
saw “The Rise of the Star Cults”. People
had lost faith in the old religions and felt the answers missing in their lives
could be found out amongst the stars. These new religions were not readily
accepted, prejudice was commonplace, and religious persecution was on the rise.
Adherents of the star cults signed up for the colony ships in droves. Those
pilgrims in good standing who could accumulate enough wealth from their flock
could even purchase steading rights outside the domes as long as they could pay
a quarterly tithe to the Conglomerate. Life outside the domes was hard and
unforgiving. Many died. But it afforded a level of freedom to those who sought
it.
“The New Corporate Supremacy” as it was
dubbed was around 2303AD. This is when the Interplanetary Conglomerate made a
trade agreement that brought most of the colonies under one banner, the
Incorporated Worlds. That’s when they made our lives of Contracted Service
mandatory unless we could buy our way out of our contracts. That’s when folks
really fostered dreams of life on the run. You know it’s bad when people feel
like anywhere is better than where they are right now, and they’d rather be
hunted down than stay. You’d think there’d be plenty of places to hide on these
newly colonized worlds, but most of them are only partially terra-formed.
Without a breather and a source of food, you might last a week or two on your
own if you’re lucky. But I digress…
The
initial waves of expansion had bolstered the power of the corporations and
their wealth had reached new levels of luxurious extravagance. Wherever Steader
society thrived due to abundant resources, the corporations stepped in quickly
and took control. Many of the Incorporated Worlds had developed verdant
agridomes, massive mining colonies and other resource harvesting facilities.
Building industry was the next logical step. Most of the commodities produced
were made available to the settlers who produced them for outrageously inflated
prices. The corporations did this, they said, because they had to offset the
costs of shipping products off world to their other holdings. From time to time
they’d switch it up and blame it on increased labor costs, but we all knew that
was a farce. Every credit of our wages pays for the food, barracks assignments,
healthcare, and transportation costs, all rudimentarily provided by the
corporations we work for. We are all indentured servants held in place by a
system where working our way to freedom is a deliberately impossible goal.
As
far as I can see, throughout the Incorporated Worlds nothing comes easy for the
Contracted Workers or the Pilgrim Steaders, but Security Forces, Contract
Enforcers, and of course the Executives and Magistrates live quite well. It’s
very rare to see someone rise up out of the bottom rungs of Contracted Service
to higher positions. Class, upbringing, and wealth are the limiters that
determine our position and we are all more likely to descend over time than to
climb.
For
everyone outside of the roles of corporate governance across the Incorporated
Worlds you can live a meager existence from day to day in the frontier towns
with some hope of getting ahead if you are wealthy enough to have bought land
or live amongst the flock of someone who has, or you can work as an indentured
servant under contract in the domes and live relatively assured of having your
basic needs met. Moderate freedom or assured subsistence - that is the choice
each person makes.
There
is a third choice, one fraught with peril as it is a life on the run. Those who
throw off the shackles of servitude, break their contracts, and make a break
for freedom are known as Breakers. Contract Breakers are dangerous to Corporate
power and are dealt with harshly. The Executives are not keen to waste a strong
back, so they will typically double the length of a contract and can assess
penalties to a Breaker or their extended family. Reclaimed Contract Breakers
are required to pay off the expenses incurred in their hunt. In the end, first
time Contract Breakers who are apprehended are forced into the longest, most
dangerous, poorest paid contracts imaginable. They become little more than
slaves for the duration of their new contracts. Flee a second time and get
caught, and a Contract Breaker can be reasonably assured of a violent death at
the hands of Enforcers. Those are just some of the risks of the 3rd
choice. Exposure, Steaders, and other Breakers can all be threats to your
existence. Life on the run is often dangerous and tragically short. Some manage
to sustain their flight for years, but most don’t. Instead they go back to
living the life of a slave or lying in a pool of their own blood.”
-Goran Anderson. Contracted Miner and Ex-Breaker under lifetime contract to FeSky.
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