Setting

The Six Systems

Humanity has settled six star systems, connected by Interstellar Transit Gates (ITGs). Four remain in regular contact; Odysseus and Lethe do not.

The Gates

Two kinds of gates move ships and people through space:

• System Transit Gates (STGs) move ships rapidly between two points within the same star system. Any ordinary ship can use one — no special drive is required. Odysseus's internal STG network is comparatively sparse compared to the Galactic Core, but it's how most in-system freight and travel gets around.
• Interstellar Transit Gates (ITGs) connect one star system to another, but only for ships already equipped with an FTL drive — the gate stabilizes and amplifies a ship's own FTL field. For fledgling colonies, ITGs are built and operated in matched pairs, because operating an ITG requires an immense amount of power. As a colony develops critical infrastructure, its ITGs can be separated or constructed separately.

Both types of gates can be destroyed. Losing an STG just means a route reverts to normal travel time — inconvenient, sometimes costly, never catastrophic. Losing an ITG is different: it can sever a system's only link to another system entirely.

The Khepri Incident (2394)

Eighteen years ago, Odysseus had a working ITG connection to Daedalus and, through it, the rest of the Galactic Core — a 30–35 minute trip. That changed the day the gate was destroyed, in an event which would become known as the Khepri Incident.

Two years earlier, in 2392, the frontier colony of Lethe — Odysseus's own planned next link in the gate network — had gone silent without warning. Multiple expeditions were sent to investigate. None returned, and nobody could say what happened to them.

In 2394, a Helix Industrial Consortium employee named David Khepri, radicalized and reportedly tied to the Free Labor Movement, led an attack against Odysseus's gate infrastructure. Khepri and his followers destroyed the completed, fully operational Daedalus-facing gate. Thousands at the gate facility died. Odysseus's link to the Core was severed in an instant, and it has never been restored, as building a gate can take 30 years or more. Repairs on the surviving gate continues to this day.

The Free Labor Movement has always denied any connection to Khepri — "David Khepri wasn't one of us" is something you'll hear from movement organizers to this day — but the association has stuck for nearly two decades regardless.

Current Gate Status

• The Odysseus–Daedalus Gate (Core-facing) is destroyed. There is no way to rebuild the connection from Odysseus's side quickly.
• The Odysseus–Lethe Gate survived the Khepri Incident, badly damaged, and was never completed. It sits in a minimal-powered state, heavily guarded by OCA Strategic Command. Officially, it is inert. Bringing it to full power is considered extraordinarily dangerous — the details are classified, but every Hound learns fast that this gate is not something you go near without orders.

Independent FTL is now Odysseus's only link to the Galactic Core — roughly four months by conventional drive, six weeks on the rare Gen-III vessels. These voyages, called Core Runs, carry critical feedstock for construction, rare medicine, mail, and vital cargo. Core Runs are the single most attractive target in the system for the Black Flags.

Rumors Worth Knowing

Some things never made it into any official record. Still, they circulate anyway — among dockworkers, in bars, and quietly among younger Aegis personnel who've heard more than they were supposed to:

• Whispers that the Khepri incident wasn't really due to Free Labor radicals at all, and that Helix Industrial Consortium knows more about what happened that day than it's ever admitted.
• Persistent rumors about what Vantage Dynamics actually found when it recovered remains from the destroyed gate — Vantage's recovery of bodies is public record, but what its scientists concluded from them has never been released.
• Speculation persists about the status of Serena "Freya" Whitlock, one of Aegis's three founders. She retired a year after the Khepri Incident and vanished from public life entirely. Theories range from a falling-out with Odin to illness to darker rumors that refuse to die — none have ever been confirmed.

Timeline

• 2055 — The Great Expansion. Fusion technology transforms Sol into a mature interplanetary civilization within their star system.
• 2112 — The Interstellar Breakthrough. Practical FTL and gate technology open extrasolar settlement.
• 2122 — Asteria settled — humanity's first extrasolar colony.
• 2142 — Phaethon settled.
• 2162 — Daedalus settled — becomes the Core's three-gate logistics hub.
• 2272 — Odysseus settled. Arcadia becomes its principal world.
• 2304 — Odysseus joins the gate network. Travel to Daedalus drops from months to about 30 minutes.
• 2337 — The Five-Day War. A five-day rebellion on Asteria. Its aftermath is why gate security and weapon authentication are so strict today.
• 2352 — Three Colonial Service veterans — Vasilenko, Calloway, and Whitlock — form the system's first Hound crew.
• 2352–2394 — The original crew grows into Aegis Contract Group.
• 2382 — Lethe settled — humanity's newest colony.
• 2391 — The unfinished Odysseus–Lethe Gate synchronizes — celebrated as progress toward full commissioning.
• 2392 — Lethe goes silent.
• 2392–2394 — Multiple expeditions are sent to investigate. None return.
• 2394 — The Khepri Incident. A radicalized Helix employee, David Khepri, leads an attack on Odysseus's gate infrastructure. The Core-facing gate is destroyed. Thousands die. Odysseus is cut off from Daedalus and the Core. Augustus "Tyr" Calloway, one of Aegis's founders, is presumed killed in the response.
• 2395 — Whitlock ("Freya") retires from Aegis and public life.
• 2395–2412 — Odysseus survives on independent FTL and Core Runs. Vasilenko ("Odin") carries Aegis forward alone.
• 2410 — The experimental Gen-III vessel Odysseus disappears in transit. No wreckage is ever found.
• 2412 — Present day. Odin, now 103, remains Director-General of Aegis. Hound team H-09, the Huskies, are overdue from the Black on the edges of the Odysseus system.

Human Variation Across the Six Systems

1. The Setting — outlines the Six Systems and notable historical events.
2. Factions — details the major players in the Odysseus System and what they want.
3. The Odysseus System — a breakdown of the Odysseus system, where the players will find themselves.
4. Technology & Equipment — details technology, items, and equipment found in the setting.
5. Life as a Hound — a breakdown of Jaeger Division, the threats you'll face, and your team.

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