AXE

AXE, the Alliance for eXploration and Elevation

Politics, regimes, wars, and battles between warring factions mar their long history. It’s a surprise they haven’t managed to all kill each other. Though many grudges are still harbored between factions, they managed to, at least publicly, put aside their differences in an effort to tackle the challenges of suddenly awaiting worlds.
This quickly spiraled into a mess of bureaucracy with almost every different faction within the Federacy needing to approve of an operation. To skirt this issue, many factions hire mercenaries and adventurers to take care of their specific needs.
But perhaps the greatest boon is the freedom for explorers to go out (relatively) unsupervised, allowing critical details to be brought back into the Federacy without a worry. These explorers often didn’t emulate the perfect ideal of their faction, but were more often than not trained from hodgepodge of different styles, masters, and some intuitive thinking.
--From Poisoned World, The Master Document

AXE emerged as a workaround to the governments of New Home’s stifling bureaucracy and infighting. Though similar, run-of-the-mill mercenary organizations already existed, AXE appeared and rose to power with astonishing rapidity. Given that, the general perception of the public is that AXE had either been in the works for a long time just waiting for the barrier to fall one day, or that it was backed by private interests with deep pockets, extensive political influence, and a lack of patience for the speed at which the existing governments operated.
Despite their mission statement being fairly self-evident, it’s worth stating that AXE is a mercenary organization and they are not fond of bureaucratic entanglements. The bulk of their resources and effort are focused on exploration; also they’ve already begun gearing up to assist strata governments with colonization efforts, and are likely to direct those efforts with an eye toward profitability.

Structure

AXE has dedicated significant resources to house and train candidates and recruit judiciously with an eye for capability and loyalty. Members of AXE occupy one of the following ranks.

• Informant - Someone that AXE pays for info, typically concerning a mission - but there are other things that interest AXE.
• Freelancer - Someone who respects both a healthy paycheck and values silence. (Unless a PC has done something to get on AXE’s bad side, it’s assumed that they’ve already passed the necessary background checks.)
• Agent - Freelancers who have proven themselves and are willing to take on contract status with AXE. Would require at least 3 to 5 ventures depending on how much the prospect put themselves out there on behalf of AXE.
• Specialist - A very trusted Agent with “select” skills and/or abilities.
• Coordinator - An Extremely Trusted individual who knows how to recruit and direct a team of assets (agents).
• Administrator - The folks who run AXE.

Public Agenda

AXE’s public modus operandi is the design, oversight, and dispatch of exploratory adventure parties, with an emphasis on missions that take them outside of the area of The Federacy, and they are especially eyeing The Fringes.

Assets

AXE is very well funded; the amount of resources at their disposal fuels the theory that they were a pre-existing organization simply waiting for the right moment to spring to light. They are known to have three major Guild Houses as well as a dozen or more minor ones (a necessity given the size of New Home).

The Library, on Majestic 2

Not to be confused with The Majestic Great Library, this is their administrative seat and is rarely accessible by anyone with less than full “Agent” status. The Library on Majestic 2 was the bequeath of a very wealthy and well traveled Psion/Sage who was known to employ an extremely efficient administrative-minded Lunarian.

Upstairs, on Sandrica

Upstairs on Sandrica is home to the personnel services hub and secondary AXE library (very well appointed, but not nearly so well as The Library). The “daily chores” of AXE are performed here; most new recruits of high potential are screened and directed for assignment from here.
Recently The Garden Parlor - a popular AXE employee lounge and restaurant - was opened in the High Port. It has quickly become the hangout of AXE affiliates with space to rest and offices for meetings. Though in Sandrica's High-port, The Garden Parlor is officially part of Upstairs.

Downstairs, on R'ley

Downstairs is the Logistics division of AXE. It’s housed upon R'ley which has become something of a mass logistics point for exploration and colonization heading to the "west". They have repair and storage facilities on this world.

Other Guild Houses

AXE has minor guild houses on perhaps a dozen worlds for the purpose of housing, recruitment, and social networking (aka monitoring). A few houses serve specialized purposes however, such as training, and there is one house that is rumored to have an exceptionally talented surgeon/healer.

Let's cut to the heart of the matter...

Type

Expedition, Colonization

Alternative Names

The Alliance, X, Federates (for legalized Pirates of the Federation)

Demonym

Axeheads

Meta Notes

AXE is a very useful employer for a team of Player Characters or even just one or more of them. Somehow involved in everything that's anything which is going on in this area of space, they have deep pockets, incredible loyalty, and seem to be reasonably moral [though no one knows the full extent of what AXE does... or what they're capable of... or who they're hooked up with; I digress]. However, they are also a diversified and secret organization and occasionally trip upon their own feet. Far from perfect, they are definitely a useful go to - whether the players simply keep them on speed dial or whether AXE has them on a very lucrative leash.