ORGANIZATION

“Some honch in a cushy office on Earth says go look at a grid reference in the middle of nowhere, we look. They don’t say why, and I don’t ask. I don’t ask because it takes two weeks to get an answer out here and the answer’s always ‘don’t ask.’ ”

— GENERAL MANAGER AL SIMPSON, HADLEY’S HOPE

Whether answering to corporate, governmental, or spiritual masters, humankind is in the business of expansion. Colonial missions may be ordered by many different organizations. In all cases, however, it will be you and your team who find yourselves on the razor’s edge of the frontier, cataloging some new deadly organism or poking your head into a dark mine shaft for the first time.
Exploration of a new planetary system usually starts with a corporate probe flyby. Sometimes that probe will supply promising data that determines a planetoid is ripe for terraforming and colonization. More often than not, however, a followup exploration team is sent in to make that final decision.
Whenever there are native fauna and flora, or possible xeno-archaeological ruins, or strange spatial anomalies involved, governments, institutes, and corporations send Scientific Exploration Vehicular expeditions to investigate.

SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATION VEHICULAR (SEV) EXPEDITIONS

EXTRASOLAR EXPLORATION, ASTRONOMICAL AND TERRESTRIAL RESOURCE ASSESSMENT, AND XENOBIOLOGICAL CATALOGING

No one single entity sends out exploration teams—corporations, institutions, and governments are all looking to stake claims out in the cosmos. And science can be expensive. Unless you’re in the UPP, there’s very few new worlds being explored without sponsorship. Many of these sponsors are covered later in this chapter. Most exploration teams are assigned to SEVs—FTL Scientific Exploration Vessels—and dispatched to unexplored sectors on the Frontier and beyond.
Many SEV teams are authorized to stake discovery mining and colonial territorial claims. In addition to their official duties, Weyland-Yutani SEV expeditions have series 900 special orders to retrieve any uncovered xeno-archaeological artifacts.

EXPLORATION TEAM

A typical SEV crew complement is twelve—one officer (the captain), one company rep, two pilot/technicians, four xenoscientists, one research synthetic, two security officers and a scout. No medical officer is necessary as an AutoDoc or MedPod can readily fill that role. Each role is vital to the success of the mission, but any SEV expedition can operate with a team of only six.
CAPTAIN: While the exploration team dictates the expedition’s mission, anything ship related is the captain’s purview. Many captains chose not to accompany any surface-side expeditions, opting to stay on the ship. It’s the captain’s job to make sure he can get his science teams out of whatever trouble they make for themselves, and often that means coordinating a rescue from the Holotab on the bridge.
PILOTS: All SEV missions have at least one dedicated pilot if not two. As pilots on SEV missions seldom leave the ship, they are picked for a combination of flying experience and high level mechanical and technical skills (HEAVY MACHINERY and/or COMTECH).
EXO-SCIENTISTS: The core of the team will, of course, be scientists. A geologist and xenobiologist are mandatory—often a xenoarchaeologist and astrophysicist will round out the team.
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE: Usually an android, a research associate can also be a grad student working on their thesis. Their mission is to make sure the scientists have everything they need to complete theirs.
COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE: The company who sponsored the expedition usually sends a suit to assess the exploitable assets discovered by the team.
SECURITY OFFICERS: Exploring new worlds is like looking for trouble—planetoids thought to be unclaimed could already be inhabited by either unregistered settlers or native fauna. As such, security forces are often assigned to protect a SEV team. While it’s a security officer’s job to ensure the safety of the mission, that only applies to the company rep’s interpretation of those parameters. In other words—the company rep can order the security team to turn on the scientists in order to protect the company’s interests before the safety of the crew.
SCOUT: Scouts explore ahead of the rest of the team, mapping out terrain and looking for unseen dangers. Though the role of a scout can be accomplished by a wildcatter, it is more often than not filled by an LRRV, a pair of Pups (chapter 6 of the core rulebook), or a well-trained dog. To avoid the risk of contamination on new worlds, many dogs have recently begun to be replaced by synthetic canines.

EXTRASOLAR COLONIZATION ADMINISTRATION (ECA)

SAFETY PROTOCOLS, FAIR LABOR STANDARDS, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, COLONY TRANSPORT, ESTABLISHMENT, AND SUPPORT

Often simply called colonial administration, the Extrasolar Colonization Administration’s mission is to protect colonial claims and advocate for the rights of all off-world colonists. The ECA was formed by the UA in the wake of the United Nations Interplanetary Corps’ collapse nearly seven decades ago. They support and monitor all extrasolar colonies and stations belonging to both the UA and their allies like the 3WE. The ECA maintains toxic exposure safety standards and keeps medicines and supplies flowing. Since its inception, the ECA has fought for colonists’ rights to fair wages, better health care, benefits, stock options, and more down time by proposing numerous amendments to the Contract of Colonial Rights and Liberties. Unfortunately, they have been directly opposed by corporate lobbyists. The ECA has been overtaxed by the Oil and Frontier Wars, causing several sector-wide disruptions in supply chains.

COLONIAL “FIRST FAMILY” SETTLERS

Sometimes when a new world is settled, a small number of colonists are sent to survey the terrain and tame the wilderness before the full colony is established. Consisting of about a dozen colonists, these initial colonial groups are often referred to as first family settlements.
First families need managers, a deputy marshal or security officer, three wildcatters, four roughnecks, and a science technician. As the wildcatters and roughnecks often include married couples, it’s inevitable that one or more children will be present as well. First Family colonial missions usually last three months to a year before corporate makes the decision to expand the settlement to full colony status.
GENERAL MANAGER: Essentially a glorified administrator, the general manager is a figurehead position in a colony to keep colonists’ complaints from reaching corporate ears. A general manager’s job is to balance the community’s needs with the company’s quotas—always leaning in the company’s favor, of course. General managers are chosen for their apparent lack of initiative and are intended to act as puppets for their corporate rulers.
ASSISTANT MANAGER: Sometimes a potential colony rates high enough to warrant an assistant manager as well. Either a yes man or an android, the assistant manager’s job is to further compartmentalize “unnecessary” complaints to keep them from reaching the manager. Assistant managers work both sides of the fence—if they can prove themselves more adept than their managers, they can often be advanced to replace them.
SECURITY OFFICER OR DEPUTY COLONIAL MARSHAL: Someone has to protect the colony’s assets—mechanical and flesh and blood alike. Usually, the company sends a security officer with the rank of sergeant—either an ex-marine or retiring corporate mercenary. Their job is to not only watch over the new settlement but to teach the colonists how to fend for themselves. If a new settlement is located in a contested area of space, a sector deputy marshal will take up this role. A deputy can stay on for up to a year before moving to the next settlement.
WILDCATTERS: The lifeblood of any mining colony, wildcatters seek out new resources in the unmapped terrain of a new world. In addition to their standard salaries, wildcatters are awarded company shares in their finds. For information on wildcatters, see chapter 4.
ROUGHNECKS: Tractors, mineral extractors, and atmospheric processors all have one thing in common—they’re all heavy machinery. As such, they all break down, and are in need of good maintenance teams and technicians to keep them running. When your prefab housing crate’s heater fails in a methane blizzard, you’ll be damn happy you have a roughneck or two to swap out a heating coil or tighten a boilerplate.
SCIENCE TECHNICIAN: A mining colony is going to need a resident science expert. While different fields apply to different worlds, this usually means a geologist/meteorologist—a terraforming colony is going to need to know about soil, atmosphere, and weather factors. In the absence of a biologist, an AutoDoc can take care of most health issues, but some medical training is advised. A science technician is a low-level scientist, usually without a degree. They are, however, an integral part of a fledgling colonial community, even if they are made to feel like an outsider amongst more rough and tumble hands-on colonists.
THE KID OR PET: While cats make good companions on space stations and freighters, dogs have long accompanied humankind into the wilderness, offering aid and protection in exchange for food and love. As colonies are a family business, kids are a big part of taming the Frontier. At least one member of an initial colonial team will likely bring their offspring along for the ride—for better or worse.

FULL COLONY EFFORT

After a potential colony’s First Family has filed its reports, true colonization begins. If an atmospheric processor is needed to transform the air, a colony transports some 30 to 50 families along with whatever equipment and tools they’ll need to terraform the world. Colonial administrators, wildcatters, roughnecks, and doctors are all needed. For the first few decades, exploring the planetoid’s geology and maintaining the atmospheric processor are paramount. As the air purifies and more resources are discovered, more families join the colony and migrant miners are brought in to help with the work.
It’s important to note that while all explorations start with an expedition team or probe flyover, not every settlement begins with a first family. Sometimes the exploration team’s report is enough for the company to set up a full colonial operation immediately.