[RFC] Material Defenders Faction Profile

[robkelk]

My point was, so far all that's needed to claim an asteroid as your own is sticking down a beacon. While Yayoi's is respected because she is, and because it's only the one....

Sora's, actually. Yayoi is developing her claim.

I agree with the rest of what you posted...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Gideon020]

Thanks for all the feedback guys, I'll make the edits now. But I did put down that Material Defenders would only fire warning shots if the client ordered it.

[Gideon020]

-QUOTE NO LONGER RELEVANT-

[Gideon020]

In any case, I tried my best but its clear that these people aren't going to work for Fenspace in this current form. Too many inconsistencies and flaws and too much missing information. So I'm just going to strip what I've placed so I can rewrite the whole damn thing.

EDIT: There, info's been stripped.

[HRogge]

In any case, I tried my best but its clear that these people aren't going to work for Fenspace in this current form. Too many inconsistencies and flaws and too much missing information. So I'm just going to strip what I've placed so I can rewrite the whole damn thing.

Keep the core idea but tone them down a bit in your rewrite. I think the idea itself will make a good contribution to Fenspace.

Just compare them to the rest of the small groups/factions, you don't need to be "more" than everyone to start a successful story.

I think the other advantage beginning smaller is that you have space to grow into, more options to continue their story. When you start with large operations on half a dozen planetary systems, multiple (hidden) factory complexes that turn out weapons like being at war, hidden caches throughout the edge of the solar system and similar things there is not that much you go next.

(edit)
oh, and think about hopping into the Fenspace IRC from time to time.

[Gideon020]

...There's an IRC?

[HRogge]

...There's an IRC?

* HRogge sees Gideon020 joining and leaving the IRC...

yes, there is!

[Gideon020]

To: [REDACTED]
From: [REDACTED]
Subject: Material Defenders Profile

Hey there [REDACTED],

Just got the info together for the Material Defenders after that latest incident in the Jovian Greeks with one of them firing a warning shot on one of our ships. I read the incident report as well and I know Haruhi or someone else further up the food chain is probably not very happy about them, but this time they're in the right. The mine supervisor illegally modified the contract without the client or Material Defender knowledge or consent to have the pilots fire on any approaching ship in order to hide abuses of the workers by him and the other management staff. At which point you know well enough from the incident report: the Material Defenders lock them in the surface facility, release the workers and arrange for compensation by the client corporation, then they kick the workers and investigator off the mine and proceed to level the surface facilities with missile fire.

I managed to get transcripts of both interviews taken after the 2016 Trojan Incident where they suddenly appeared from nowhere and wiped out those Boskonian claim jumpers, an interview with a Material Defender pilot done by an independant journalist, and some information gathered through their own clients, and that last one...the last one may have cost me a good friend and driven her back to the Material Defenders.

Anyway, I hope this info proves useful to you, and I've added my own notes where I could.

[REDACTED]

Material Defenders Overview:
Material Defenders is the name given to a small faction of mercenaries located in the Jovian Hildas who operate as mercenaries for an alliance of Daneside mining and energy corporations as site protection, shipping escorts, and proxy military services such as raiding and destroying claim jumpers who refuse to leave asteroids that the clients intend to mine. Their origins and history are largely muddled by deliberate obscurantism by both Material Defenders and their clients, combined with their largely isolationist nature, and the distinctly anti-social behaviour to anyone who isn't another Material Defender, a client, or a member of the equally unknown 'GTV'[1] group mean that not many people know about them outside of law enforcement and military groups, and even then the faction's willingness to engage in 'outlaw' tactics like overwhelming lethal force against a target, deliberate ignorance of distress calls from vessels they have been ordered to raid, and their suspicious activities in regards to weapon stockpiles as related to the PEPPER and PEPPER II treaties means that they are often viewed with suspicion and some hostility when they show up in the Inner System.

[1:] The GTV group are a group of mercenaries who are close allies to the Material Defenders but are an unknown as the Material Defenders, if not more so. I'll try to get more info on them soon.

Perversely, they enjoy such negative attention, and it is mainly because of their membership. Many Material Defenders have criminal pasts, and while they are tight-lipped about the subject, some Material Defenders have let slip that they were anything from Boskonians who defected to the group during the Boskone War, Daneside criminals trying to go straight but couldn't make it in Fenspace, rogue Mads, zwilnick smugglers, catgirl machine victims that either couldn't handle life after their transformation or were programmed as disposable terror agents, and disgraced military personnel from Danelaw governments were all accepted into the group, stripped of their name and thusly their past, and then given the MD-number designation that their pilots are known to only specifically use in conversation.

All Material Defenders are known for two things by the average Fen, their usage of overwhelming and often excessive deadly force when dealing with trespassers and intruders, and their largely anti-social behaviour to anyone who isn't another Material Defender or an employee of their Daneside clients[2].

[2:] It's often considered true that Material Defenders are anti-social because their criminal pasts have made them highly exclusive to anyone except those who 'understand them' like other Material Defenders. I managed to get a look at footage where a Material Defender was being thanked by a woman who was part of a group that was saved from an accident by a passing Material Defender mothership on their way to a mining site for a protection contract. The Material Defender ignored the woman and made no attempts to acknowledge her beyond curt pleasantries. This same behaviour was also done by the rest of the squadron and the ship crew, and you can distinctly tell that they viewed the civilians as an unwanted burden, treating them only as nicely as manners allowed.

Their strict adherence to the letter of the law and their contracts is also a point of conflict with many people, as while Material Defenders will acknowledge the authority of Star Patrol and Great Justice, they are universally aggressive in protecting client mining sites but always follow a set procedure of demanding identification, issuing a warning and demand to use a different vector that places them at a greater distance from the protected site, and if either of the first two are ignored, they will fire a warning shot to get the attention of the vessel. If that doesn't work, the Material Defenders will intercept and engage with intent to kill and the assumption that the vessel is a pirate vessel.

This always makes Material Defender-protected sites extremely dangerous to approach and further cements their outlaw reputation.

Material Defenders History:
The Material Defenders first came into existence in 2009 when an unknown Fen built a rough copy of a Pyro-GX in an unknown location[3] and left to Fenspace to make their fortune. This Fen, who was a fan of the Descent and Descent Freespace games, imitated as much as possible from the games as possible and constantly worked to make her Pyro-GX as faithful to the original game craft as possible. However, her personal philosophy of overwhelming lethal force to ensure survival in combat rapidly dried up legitimate contracts and earned her a fair amount of ire from other mercenaries for her usage of other 'outlaw' tactics like refusing surrenders from targets, and ignoring distress calls from ships to unless expressly ordered to by the client.

[3:] None of the Material Defenders will speak about MD-0000's past, and MD-0000 herself never communicates with anyone except for clients and other Material Defenders, who never ask about her past in the first place.

Eventually it came to a head and she was blacklisted, forced to drift until she joined the Boskonians as a raider. Attaching herself to a squadron of pirate fighters, she became the first Material Defender in a cynical mockery of the game and became MD-0000. What happened after that is unknown to all save for the Material Defenders themselves and they never speak about it, but what they do reveal is that the group was betrayed and forced to flee, but instead of scattering, they remained loyal to each other and the other pilots took up the Material Defender designation as well before beginning to recruit other Boskonians who had been abandoned by their comrades, forming the core of the Material Defenders faction.

But rather than return to Fenspace, the Material Defenders rejected Fenspace society at the time, viewing them as unable to survive the upcoming horrors of the Boskone War, and instead created an isolationist group and worked to increase their firepower and effectiveness, recruiting other betrayed Boskonians, rogue Mads, smuggler ships to act as carriers for their fighters, and forming contacts with arms dealers back on Earth to remain supplied with weaponry and ammunition and as the Boskone War began to actually heat up, they took their revenge, striking out to raid Boskonian rear-echelon supply caches and facilities disguised as Great Justice-affiliated ships, taking what they could and destroying the rest, refining their already brutal raiding tactics, paying blood for mistakes and drawing more with their successes. While their impact on the actual war is unknown, they stole and destroyed thousands of tonnes in cargo while losing at least 200 of their number, including three of the original Material Defenders and badly wounding MD-0000.

Retreating back to their hidden base, the Boskone War ended with the Material Defenders rebuilding from their decimated state, covertly hiring surviving Boskonians and other criminals, focusing on those who were abandoned by the faction as a whole, knowing that these people would be discriminated against for their criminal pasts. However, they were forced to attempt to reconnect with the society they had rejected as weak as supplies and funds ran low and so began covertly attempting to gain employment as mercenaries, managing to gain some contracts before once again being blacklisted for their excessive force tactics in society already skittish after the Boskone War.

Seemingly resigned to being forced to disband in 2015, the faction was then contacted by a representative of an alliance of Daneside mining and energy corporations looking to enter into the lucrative asteroid mining and comet harvesting field and were looking for a relatively low cost but professional group who could enforce mining claims and other contracts without what the representative called 'wasteful heroics' and the Material Defenders snapped the offer up, using initial start-up investment funds to rapidly rebuild themselves into the mercenary group registered as Material Defender Security, and began working immediately as their clients announced their intention on gaining access to the lucrative resource fields.

In 2016, the group was fully brought into the spotlight when they were called in to evict anarchist claim jumpers on an asteroid that was claimed by the Rio Tinto mining corporation who had refused to leave and had started a wildcat mining operation. After the assigned pilots gave a single warning and demand to leave which the claim jumpers ignored, a passing ship caught the pair in the act of levelling the wildcat operation with missile and laser fire and leaving the bodies to drift as they began patrolling the mining site, going as far as to lock onto a Great Justice ship until it broadcast its identification, until a Rio Tinto mining ship arrived to begin mining the asteroid. Under normal circumstances the clients would have been held liable, but the Material Defenders had created specialised contracts[4] that absolved their clients of all blame while assuming it for themselves, forcing Great Justice to charge what were clearly just a pair of mercs doing their job, albeit highly aggressively.

[4:] These contracts are practically air-tight from the copies I've gotten looked over by law experts. If the Material Defenders go too far, they take all the blame and the client is clean, but if the client is revealed to have done something illegal, it gives the Material Defenders full rights to 'dispense appropriate punishment measures' as they see fit.

By 2022, the Material Defenders had rebuilt themselves into the highly professional and anti-social faction that they are today.

Material Defender Recruiting Practices:
Material Defenders are well aware of their reputation and how it works against them in recruiting. Thusly they recruit from the sources that will always accept their offers; former Boskonians, Zwilnicks and Turnerites who cannot make a new life or have been discriminated against when their pasts are revealed, smugglers failing to make a profit with the strengthening of Great Justice and Star Patrol, social outcasts who couldn't find their niche in Fenspace's largely open society, catgirl machine victims who cannot adjust to their new life and implanted compulsions, and disgraced military personnel seconded by their clients. These individuals are accepted readily and with the stripping of their names and thusly their pasts, they are brought into a tight-knit brother and sisterhood that will not judge them but will also hold them to the faction's high professional standards.

Fen outside of these sources wanting to join are not typical and often Material Defenders are confused and suspicious by a request to join them by a Fen who isn't from one of their usual sources of recruits, believing them to be infiltrators sent by law enforcement groups or spies from other Fen factions looking to find damaging information on them. The solution is typical of the Material Defenders; order the prospective recruit to destroy their past[5]. If the recruit manages to successfully erase themselves from Fen society through whatever methods they can accomplish, often by faking their death and selling everything they own, they are taken to the faction's secret base in the Jovian Hildas and trained to become a Material Defender.

[5:] Destroying their past is considered an important part of being a Material Defender alongside the MD-number designation. If you have no past, you have no enemies and if you have only a number to identify you, no-one can track you down and hurt you. This enforced anonymity also ensures that Material Defenders can easily stonewall attempts to contact particular pilots by simply stating that no such person exists since those attempting contact will typically not know the MD-number designation that is their new name. Those that do can be further lead astray by simply having another pilot temporarily swap the designation with another pilot, creating an easy means for the Material Defenders to give people the run-around chasing a number.

Material Defender Hiring Method:
Material Defenders can only be hired through a specific method involving a secured BBS where client contracts with reward are posted with an identity code unique to the client. A squadron will then conditionally accept the contract and contact the client who then provides a briefing, after which the squadron either accepts or refuses in favour of another contract. Getting access to this BBS is an involved and complicated process and often requires existing clients to vouch for the potential new client and an interview with a Material Defender at their Clearinghouse habitat.

Material Defender Tactics and Procedure:
Material Defender tactics are divided into two sections: Protection and Escort for mining sites, private client facilities and client shipping, and Direct Action for targets that the client wants raided or simply destroyed.

Protection and Escort tactics revolve around first establishing a patrol zone for the site, then patrolling. Upon detecting or spotting a ship approaching the facility or site, the Material Defender will broadcast a demand for identification and initiate a lock-on to make it clear to the target that they have been found out. If the target is authorised to approach and is expected, the Material Defender will escort the vessel in and scan them as a precaution before resuming the patrol pattern. If the target is not authorised or expected, the Material Defender will demand that they leave the area, maintaining weapons lock until they are clearly moving away from the facility or site. If the ship does not comply, a warning will be issued and if that is ignored, a warning shot is fired. If the warning shot is ignored, the Material Defender will attack with intent to kill and will not accept any surrenders. If there are survivors after the attack, they are left to drift, ignoring any distress calls[6].

[6:] Behaviour like that cements their outlaw reputation, because it usually requires a direct order from the site manager to rescue any survivors.

Direct Action tactics are far more brutal, based on the piracy and raiding tactics used by Boskonians and Reavers that were further refined by using those tactics against their creators during the Boskone War. These tactics revolve around sudden, brutal strikes that are designed to overwhelm defences so that Material Defender ships can rip into the target ship and either loot the ship or destroy the cargo before leaving the target to drift dead in space. If the target fights back hard enough, the Material Defenders will instead viciously harass the target to wear down the crews and defenses until they become vulnerable. Perhaps the most vicious form of Direct Action tactic is leeching, where a Material Defender latches onto a target ship while it's distracted and begins damaging power supplies in order to degrade performance and engines to slow down the target while the rest shadow the target vessel with their mothership waiting to strike[7].

[7:] Many of the direct action tactics are distinctively Boskonian or Reaver in nature, and the Material Defenders never identify themselves, operating using laser-linked communications rather than radios that might be intercepted. A lot of reports of 'pirate' attacks could in fact be Material Defenders ordered to target a vessel by their clients.

Many of the methods used to coordinate the complicated attack patterns are actually highly prized by a number of mercenary pilots, as the Material Defenders always manage to remain out of their lines of fire even during the most furious attacks and ships passing within meters of each other at high speed. Some believe that while mostly skill, specialist software is used to aid in the coordination.

Material Defender Uniform:
Material Defenders are easily recognised by the blue and white vacuum-sealed flight suits and silver flight helmets that are used as their official uniform, decorated only with the MD-number designation and logo for their squadron. They possess a formal uniform when present for face to face meetings with client liasions, which is the same blue and white as their flight suits. Many carry needle pistols as sidearms, the compressed gas charge of their weapon more suited to space combat than bullets.

Material Defender Behaviour:
Material Defenders are easily spotted for their stoic, anti-social attitude when not on duty. Many will ignore attempts to interact with them, some will simply give curt pleasantries and very few will actually engage in conversation, giving terse, clipped answers and generally doing utmost to make it clear that they are not interested into talking to a person. If they have to interact with someone they will be polite and respectful but never friendly, and will quickly move away as early as politeness allows to interact with other Material Defenders or simply find somewhere to wait things out.

Material Defender Technology:
Material Defenders and their isolationist ways means that they prefer to rely as little as possible on locally available Fenspace technology for their own in-house systems, particularly in terms of weapons. Due to the PEPPER and PEPPER II treaties, the Material Defenders are regularly inspected for excess weaponry and rigidly maintain the stocks allowed by the treaties but there are suspicions that the Material Defenders have hidden caches that they stock with excess weaponry and supplies for unknown purposes.

The Material Defenders do have some unique systems that some Fen want to take a better look at.

-Material Defender Shield System: Material Defenders rely more on their shields than any other vessel in Fenspace as the need for agility in tight quarters prevents them from having significantly heavy armour. The Material Defender Shield System is designed to be highly resistant to both projectile and energy fire as some situations require Material Defenders to go into high-energy environments that may also be exploding, and while it matches and exceeds the protective qualities of the shield in the Descent games, it takes a lot of power to maintain. Therefore, the shield is simply worn down like in the games, and then shuts down until recharged either through the ship's own energy to shield conversion system or it is recharged at the carrier vessel. To help provide a guide to how much durability the shield has left, the HUD in the ship simply lists a number from 1000 to 0 for ease of reference.

-Energy To Shield Converter: While the generator in a Material Defender's ship is mostly used to power the ship's systems, it can be temporarily redirected to recharge depleted shields in the field using this device. It can recharge at least 400 units of shield energy in ten seconds or fully recharge the shields over an hour.

-Bouncing Betties: Perhaps the most dangerous defensive smart weapon used by Material Defenders, Bouncing Betties do just that, bounce around an area gaining more and more momentum until something arrives, at which point they launch themselves at the target. The Material Defenders like to launch these into hull breaches where they bounce around and punch through systems, bulkheads, and people.

-Quad Lasers: Functionally identical to other Fenspace ship laser designs, Quad-Lasers are the starting weapon for many Material Defenders and rookies are often told to build their own, which means they often vary in beam colour when they fire their pulses.

-Super Lasers: Rookies who survive their first contract are traditionally rewarded with the parts to enhance the power of their lasers, transforming them into Super Lasers, becoming the standard weapon for the Material Defender from that point on[8].

[8:] You can spot a Super Laser by the thick barrel which houses the cooling unit and enhanced pulse focusing system. Super Lasers are pretty damn powerful, and all MD's are trained to use them effectively at all ranges.

-Gauss Cannon: This weapon varies but the most common form used by Material Defenders is a multi-barrelled rotary cannon firing 30mm high-explosive shells modified from GAU-8 Avenger and GP-30 Rotary Cannons purchased from the United States and Russia through their clients with their rate of fire able to be modified between a slow sequence of shots to full rpm. Many pilots are proficient in using the Gauss Cannon as a sniping system to pummel targets from range as well as using it to shred soft targets at close range and recently they have been using gyrojet-assisted Smart Shells manufactured by the Triax Corporation that use laser-guidance to home in on a target.

-Concussion Missile: Standard issue to all material Defenders, the Concussion Missile is a dumb-fire weapon that is powered by a miniature reactionless drive and is used by Material Defenders to pummel targets to destruction. Exceptionally small for their power, Concussion Missiles also form the backbone of the defences for Material Defender carriers, laying down a high-explosive barrage that covers missiles and fighters in a cloud of explosions.

-Homing Missiles: Modified and cut down Sidewinders are fitted with a 'waved detection and guidance package and simply fired in the direction of a target, and then forgotten about. Homing missiles are fired as much as Concussion Missiles, and are agile enough to guide themselves through tight tunnels.

-Guided Missiles: Functionally identical to Homing Missiles, Guided Missiles use an FTL link back to the Material Defender, who then pilots the missile into a target, often as a form of aggressive recon, or distraction. Since the Defender has to stop moving in order to properly guide the weapon, it is fired only when they know the area is safe and it is common for Material Defenders to harass direct action targets with these missiles before engaging directly.

-Flash Missiles: Flash Missiles are the most dangerous weapon that can be fired by a Material Defender, because of how easily they can overwhelm an unaware ship or person. Flash Missile don't have a lethal warhead but instead pack a powerful flash bomb and a bomb-pumped jamming device that sends a massive pulse of junk signals from the impact sight at the point of detonation. The flash overwhelms most protective visors and the jamming signal can confuse a ship's systems for several seconds, enough time for a Material Defender to get around a target and fire into a vulnerable area. Many pilots tend to barrage fire their Flash Missiles, creating constant blasts of light that can permanent damage an unprotected person's eyes.

-Mega Missile: The Mega Missile is a large fire and forget missile that is packed with high-explosive and is typically used as an anti-ship missile. Slower than other missiles, the Mega Missile will relentlessly seek out a locked target until it is either destroyed or it hits the target thanks to its Ion Drives, and it doesn't care if the target has docked at a civilian station or that another ship might block it's terminal guidance path.

Material Defender Vessels:
Material Defenders use small fighter-sized vessels that typically operate from a larger carrier vessel that acts as headquarters, supply ship and home for the pilots in the squadron. Designed for long-haul operations in the emptiness of space, Material Defender ships are designed to be comfortable and ergonomic, fitted with a basic suite of systems to allow a pilot to eat, sleep and bath inside the vessel. When its time for work however, these systems easily pack up into ultra-compact forms so that the pilot can operate the craft at full combat efficiency and effectiveness. Apart from an extensive array of weaponry, every ship also has a series of tools and other systems that allow them to operate in any capacity during their duties.

Universal Systems: All Material Defender Vessels carry these as standard along with the standard Quad Lasers.
-Manipulation Tool Arms: These compact folding arms are used by Material Defenders to enact repair work, remove debris, operate computers and switched, and cut open doors to allow the vessel to pass through or reach in and take objects. Highly responsive, the MTA's disable weaponry except for the lasers as standard safety protocol, allowing the vessel to have a means to defend itself if attacked while working.

-Rescue Pod: All Material Defender vessels carry collapsible armoured rescue pods to transport injured client workers safely from a danger zone. Rated against the most toxic and hazardous environments in the Solar System, Rescue Pods contain emergency medical systems and enough oxygen, food and water to allow a person to survive for several weeks, if in somewhat cramped conditions.

-Guide Bot: All Material Defenders carry a small robot that appears to be nothing more than a three pyramidal diamonds connected at the tips held aloft by a gravity engine. Fast and equipped with a Flare Launcher, the Guide Bot is intelligent enough to follow any orders it is given and is quite loyal. The Flare Launcher it is armed with is typically a means to illuminate the way for a ship, but in a pinch a Guide Bot will defend its master by firing Flares at the attacker, but is typically ordered to find something and then lead the Material Defender to it.

-Flare Launcher: When it is unsafe or infeasible to deploy a Guide Bot for light, or to engage the ship's own lamps, a Material Defender can always rely on their Flare Launcher to provide illumination and trigger any traps or ambushes that may be lurking in wait. The fact that it burns quite hot and without oxygen is also useful for setting things alight.

Ship Classes: Material Defenders have four personal ship classes to choose from, but their secretive nature means that very little is known about the capabilities of these vessels.

-Pyro GX: The first and some say greatest ship used by the Material Defenders, operated by rookies and veterans alike, the Pyro-GX is the iconic ship of the Material Defenders, agile and fast and able to carry a large load of weaponry, the Pyro-GX is never manufactured but must be hand-made by any who join the Material Defenders, and each is considered unique to the pilot who made it, even when they acquire another ship.
Weapon Capacity:
-Quad Lasers
-1x Other Weapon
-20 missiles
-5 Bouncing Betties

-Pyro GL: An upgraded version of the venerable Pyro-GX, the GL is a mass-production design and often given to new recruits even if they've built their Pyro-GX. Designed to carry more weaponry and provide some basic armour alongside the shields, the Pyro-GL is a solid all-rounder machine. While the GX is slightly faster, it is indistinguishable to all but the most experienced pilots, and the GL is less cranky than the GX about flying in the open.
Weapon Capacity:
-Quad Lasers
-1x Other Weapon
-20 Missiles
-10 Bouncing Betties

-Phoenix: If the GX and GL are the basic starter machines, then the Phoenix is the machine for elites. Exceptionally fast the Phoenix is given to the best pilots in the Material Defenders, and these pilots are recognised as some of the best in the faction.
Weapon Capacity:
-Quad Lasers
-2x Other Weapons
-10 Missiles
-15 Bouncing Betties

-Magnum: The Magnum is the heavy and slow ship in the Material Defender hangers, but what's slow to them is still quite fast to the rest of Fenspace. Unlike the other ships, the Magnum carries the largest payload of missiles of the four and the smallest amount of primary weaponry to allow for the increased missile magazines. Often used in a support role, the Magnum is still a vessel to be respected as the sheer volume of missile fire it can unleash can easily overwhelm most ship defences.
Weapon Capacity:
-Quad Lasers
-Centerline Gauss Cannon
-200 Missiles

-Material Defender Mothership: These vessels are typically built to Material Defender specifications and are commonly known as 'Bricks' to those that see them. Designed to be a mobile base and supply point for Material Defender Ships, these motherships are heavily armoured, shielded and studded with heavy weaponry. Some rumours persist that because of the Bosko-Mads that work for the Faction, there are Motherships carrying Particle Cannons even though the most advanced weapon are rail-autocannons firing a mix of Armour Piercing and High-Explosive Incendiary Smart Ammo and Heavy Super Lasers. These ships also carry the MD-Warp Engine, an FTL engine that is supposed to be highly accurate when used for FTL travel beyond Cochrane's Limit.
Weapon Capacity:
-Forward 75mm Rotary Gauss Cannons in swivel mounts
-Dorsal and Ventral Heavy Super Laser Turrets
-Missile Launchers
-30mm Rail Autocannons
-12.7mm Rotary Gauss Cannons
-40mm Flak Cannons

Material Defender Operations as of 2022:
-Mercury Experimental Power Plant 'Project Sunrise': The most expensive project guarded by the Material Defenders, this experimental power facility is engaged in creating a means of feasible wireless energy transmission and has earned a place in conspiracy theory thanks to the presence of Material Defenders as a place where secret projects are conducted ranging from experimental anti-matter generation, weaponisation of the transmission satellites, to the facility being a hiding place for a secret Material Defender weapons stockpile.
-Main Belt and Jovian Mining Operations: The main cash flow and employment source for many Material Defenders, particularly rookie pilots, is protecting the Daneside mining claims in the Main Belt and the Jovian Trojans. The large, heavily armed carriers used by Material Defender squadrons as they move between claims to resupply their squadrons are also a clear indicator of the kind of money that the Material Defenders are being paid by their clients.
-Titan Carbonwerk: The Titan Carbonwerk is a joint European Union-Chinese-South American hydrocarbon and carbon harvesting operation designed to bring in hydrocarbons for refinement into fuel and carbon for usage in industrial applications and experimental carbon nanotube production and while it has drawn the ire of fen environmentalists, they are not willing to picket a place that has Material Defenders patrolling.
-Gas Mining: The applications of the gasses found in Saturn, Neptune and Uranus for mundane technology such as starship engines and advanced power generators means that several gas mining projects are the farthest mundane resource projects in Fenspace and the Material Defenders are actually a constant and welcome source of company and protection for the often lonely gas miners and engineers working to develop proper extraction, refinement and containment protocols for the potential massive profits that could be gained. The Material Defenders for their part treat anything that approaches the mining operations without proper identification as a threat. More than a few unlucky ships have strayed too close and received a laser bolt into their hull as a warning shot.

Material Defender Facilities as of 2022:
-Hildas Central Command: The only known habitat controlled by the Material Defenders, Hildas Central Command is the main facility for the entire faction, containing manufacturing facilities, labs and supply facilities defended by a massive array of weapons, supposedly including Boskonian Particle Cannons taken during the Boskone War though that has never been verified, hidden in the constantly moving swarm of asteroids, and only able to be located by a network of concealed guidance beacons because of the Material Defenders constantly moving the asteroid to new positions.
-44 Nysa: Known as the Clearinghouse, 44 Nysa is the corporate headquarters of the Material Defender's client corporations and used to coordinate client operations and interview potential new clients. A place of business, visitors who do not have an appointment are actively discouraged from entering and are often refused entry unless they are law enforcement.

Material Defender Faction Relationships:
-Great Justice: Frosty - The Material Defenders follow the law rigidly, but they're relationship with Great Justice is never friendly because of their unwillingness to tone down their outlaw tactics.
-Star Patrol: Frosty - As with Great Justice, Material Defenders and Star Patrol only have polite but unfriendly interactions.
-Bailey Security Service: Neutral Respect - Respect doesn't mean Material Defenders will hold back if they catch a B-Man trespassing on sites under their protection. It just means that they consider them the higher threat.
-Knight Sabers: Blood Vendetta - Knight Sabers don't like Material Defenders, and the feeling is mutual. If Knight Sabers approach a site protected by Material Defenders and are identified as such, the Material Defenders will open fire. Ships targeted for Direct Action that have the Knight Sabers aboard will be relentlessly harasssed and the contracted Material Defenders will often call in reinforcements.
-Dorsai: Ignored - The Material Defenders will ignore Dorsai members regardless of any attempts to interact with them by the Dorsai, only interacting if they are hired on alongside Dorsai, and even then are curt and professional.
-Roughriders: Ignored - Like the Dorsai, Roughriders are ignored by Material Defenders.
-Major Factions: Frosty - Material Defenders move in different circles than the major factions, and most interactions come when Material Defenders are conducting a contract, and these are often icily professional and unfriendly.
-Minor Factions: Frosty - Material Defender interactions with minor factions are just as chilly as they are with major ones.
-Danelaw Corporations: Trusted - Danelaw corporations, particularly the corporate alliance of mining and energy concerns, maintain warm and trusted relations with the Material Defenders.
-GTV: Blood Kin - The GTV splinter group who create Freespace technology and are responsible for the Subspace Jump Drive remain closely allied with the Material Defenders and will come to each others mutual aid.
-Triax Corporation: Favoured Customer - Triax provides the Material Defenders with new weaponry at affordable prices and will always keep the faction supplied with their new Gyrojet Smart Ammo for their gauss cannons and rail-autocannons
-Black Talon Group: Allies - The vicious Black Talon Group are often employed by Material Defenders as ground troops to support their protection contracts and are part of the same contract network as the Material Defenders.

[robkelk]

Hmmmmm...

Better - this is much more tied into Fenspace as a whole and much less likely to get somebody to propose a Convention resolution naming the group as Boskonian.

I assume that MD-0000 is not First Fen. (Nobody who's First Fen, even the outlaws, ignores distress calls or other factions.)

I also assume the occasional bit of industrial espionage that Titan Carbonwerk might perform at Crystal Titusville would go as unreported as the occasional bit of industrial espionage that StelOil might perform at Titan.

The bit about MDs establishing a target-lock at the same time as they request identification is ... well, "rude" is the term a lot of Fen will use. A few Fen will take it as a provocation - especially the ones who learned their habits during the Boskone War.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Dartz]

. A few Fen will take it as a provocation - especially the ones who learned their habits during the Boskone War.

Eventually they're going to learn which ships and settlements will... take exception to being harassed as they go about their business. And will respond in kind.

The Knight Sabers, meanwhile try to respond to any reports of MD harrassment, especially ones nearby.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

[HRogge]

Yes, the new version looks much more fun and Fenspace compatible than the old one...

[Gideon020]

Thank you. If any of you wish to use these people as antagonists for your stories, then please feel free. I won't be writing any until the next three factions are written up.

[Rajvik]

a quick liason contact for them could be James "Wolfboy" Bostwick and his F-SOG because of all the people out there he see's both sides of their equation and how he could have ended up one of them as well. I like these guys