ExTerm
ExTerm is a criminal organization formed in 994 by the career thief Grandi Bastalante. Its headquarters is Terminalia, a fortified compound on the moon of Ergo in the Nilara heliosphere. Characterized as “the vanity project of its egotistical, self-proclaimed criminal mastermind founder,” ExTerm is known to engage in piracy, smuggling, and arms trafficking, and has a bitter rivalry with Hydroska and Burning Torch pirate groups.
The founding of ExTerm took place after Bastalante’s heist of a large shipment of surplus small and heavy arms, ammunition, and combat zeoforms , originally bound to reinforce an unnamed faction in the Kish heliosphere. With this massive windfall of military hardware, Bastalante began establishing her own hub for illicit trade and activities on Ergo. This hub would become Terminalia, the foundation of Bastalante’s planned criminal empire, and quickly attracted smugglers, traders, and unaffiliated criminals looking to get in on the ground floor of the organization.
ExTerm’s creation was unusual in a number of ways: first, it was built from the ground up, rather than growing out of a previously extant criminal organization or a small group of experienced criminals. Second, ExTerm focuses a large amount of resources on training new and inexperienced recruits, rather than luring veterans away from other organizations. Lastly, ExTerm established itself in the far frontier, away from major shipping or economic activity.
Despite being a “pirate” organization, ExTerm’s philosophy stresses negotiation and striking enemy weak points (like supply lines or infrastructure) rather than face-to-face confrontation. This caused ExTerm to be initially dismissed by older pirate groups as an ill-conceived venture that was unwilling or unable to compete for territory or prey. However, as surveying and colonization of Nilara began in earnest after the discovery of platinum on multiple planets, ExTerm quickly became reassessed as a viable competitor.
In 998, Hydroska attempted to intimidate ExTerm into abandoning Terminalia with a show of force. The attempt backfired and resulted in the destruction of the Hydroska team, along with the capture of its surviving members. This event galvanized ExTerm and definitively established it as a legitimate pirate organization in the eyes of many criminals.
