Humanity
They need our guidance.
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They're who we're fighting for.
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Technocratic Union
My peeps! If only the Black Asshats and Moneygrubbers would take the stick out.
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Most I've met have been so anal retentive, I think their brown eye became a black hole. If they'd loosen up a bit (and cut down on the obsessive paperwork), it would make things so much easier.
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Good allies, but a bit too obsessed with the machine. Technology is great and I wouldn't want to live without it, but its fundamentally a tool and not an end unto itself.
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Another great ally to have, though they do seem to be more homebodies tucked away in labs. Still, the greatest steak I've ever had was cloned beef on Mars. Perfect marbling off an assembly line and without having to slaughter a cow! If that doesn't speak to the value of the Proggies, I don't know what does.
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Without them, humanity would starve to death within a week and we'd never be able to get the resources for our toys. Which is not to say they don't make (horrible, horrible) mistakes; I remember one Colony where they shipped one of the old Syndicate Communists after the Cold War experiment came down on the side of the free market. I consider Orwell an optimist after the shit I saw there.
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Fellow asskickers of the close encounter kind. We keep humanity safe from the slavering monsters just outside the gates.
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Traditions
These guys run the gamut between pathetic throwbacks and well-meaning-but-misguided comrades in arms. Mostly harmless.
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Don't know too much about them, but I like me a good kung-fu flick on occasion.
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One look at the raw Universe will tell you that there's no God. Humanity is on its own. Still, I won't begrudge someone who finds comfort in the delusion. Just don't try and get me to convert.
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Surprisingly good allies out in the Universe against the Things That Shall Not Be. Here on the mudball? Uhm... I guess they'd be fun to party with?
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Throwbacks of the dangerous kind. The victim mentality gets old fast. They'd be just plain sad if they didn't have a penchant for bringing really dangerous RDs down to the mudball and doing their bidding.
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Creepy fuckers that are still pretty good at taking down Horrors From Beyond. Wouldn't want to get too close for too long, though.
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I give them this: they know how to systematize things. If only they'd give up the bippity-boppity-boo nonsense. I've rolled a few multisided dice in my time, but geez, Gandalf, put down the DM screen and start seeing reality for what it is. Still, if they're able to get over their butthurt at being schooled for the last five centuries, they can be decent folks.
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You can take the Convention out of the Union, but not the Union out of the Convention. Etherites are stalwart allies out in the Universe. Fuck those stuffed shirt pencil pushers in safe, plush offices who say otherwise. Down on the mudball... well, they're less reliable (why all the superfluous blinking lights, guys?). Still, I'd take an Etherite backing me up over any other RD... and even some Unionists.
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Take the crybully victim mentality of the Dreamspeakers and add in a pinch of New Age pap with a sprinkling of teen girl angst that everyone else outgrew. That there is the Verbena.
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Catch 'em on a good day and they're great pals (and have the best videogames!). On a bad day and they're huge pains in the ass with a chip on their shoulder the size of Gibraltar. If only these nerdy little curmudgeons cared a little more about the Universe we have rather than inventing an entirely new one.
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Apathy is better than malevolence, but not by much. If you aren't going to help make the world a better place, then just get the hell out of the way. Go read the future in the froth art from your frappuccino while writing bad poetry or self insert fanfiction or whatever you poseur hipsters do; just don't get in our way.
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Mad Mages
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Terminate with extreme prejudice. No surrender, no retreat. Nuke them from orbit; it's the only way to be sure.
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I honestly kinda feel bad for them. They're insane and don't even know it. They're too dangerous to let live, however; put them down like Old Yeller.
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Other Reality Deviants
Not all RDs need to be exterminated, despite what Union policy says. Some of them are helpful and I'll be damned if I let some fucking absent-tee bureaucrat tell me otherwise.
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I knew a guy on Darkside who swore up and down that these things are the scariest motherfuckers out there. Like, glare at your kit and make it explode scary. Frankly, I think he was full of it and just desperate to get off the moon on a Section Eight. Even if there are any of these things left, I don't think they can do that.
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RDs pretend to be all kinds of things. I once encountered an alien who claimed it was Tupac Shakur. Doesn't make it so.
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The leeches are more dangerous than most realize or the Higher Ups want to admit. Fortunately, there's Project Sunburst for those that get a little too uppity. There might be okay ones out there. As long as they continue skulk in the shadows and don't make nuisances of themselves, we can leave them alone. We have bigger fish to fry.
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Never met one, though I've seen telemetry on 'em. Really, really good at eliminating even more dangerous RDs. Exercise good fire control: lock 'em, load 'em, point 'em at a target, but never point them at something you don't want destroyed or dead.
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