Excelsior

Organization

Government Form: De Jure, Union of Workers Communes / Soviets - De Facto, Dictatorship of the Proletariat; Warlord States

Ideology: ‘United Collective’ / Excelsior Marxism

Leader(s): Unknown; See Regional Status

Anthem: The Internationale (Various Languages)

Excelsior is a loosely based organization, typically relying off of a hierarchy of seniority. This seniority typically based around one's indoctrination date alongside their skill and talents. "Liberatees", simply referred to as slaves by non-Excelsior forces, are upon the lowest-rung. Followed by the "Liberators", being those who have given to the cause. Though how these Communes or 'Excelsior cells' operate depend on the local branch. While Excelsior appears on the outside as a cohesive, united organization - many of its holdings act autonomously of one another. Cooperating often and rarely fighting, but varying in their organization of leadership, tactics and how they approach diplomacy.

While their means may be different, their end goal is always the same. To liberate and free the galaxy of its oppressors, even with extreme violence if needed. To Excelsior, the ends justify the means. Whatever they be.

“One may ask why so few join our cause willingly. It’s because they are like horses being led to the glue factory with binders. We aim to remove that blinder, think freely, and escape what they think is their fate. To roam freely. That is what every man wants. To be free - to be equal.” - The 'Commissar'

History

The origins of Excelsior are relatively unknown, though their existence is known to have started around 2560 as negotiations of the Sol United Federation began. The Excelsior movement started due to dissent with Sol’s expansionist policies, giving rise to multiple movements mostly composed of workers and students opposing Sol expansionism. It was at this time their motto ‘Ever Upwards!’ came about, capitalizing on anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist sentiments among academics by invoking a classical Latin phrase.

The first recorded use of Excelsior infiltrations came in 2569 as the loose Excelsior movement began to unite into councils, centralizing itself to act as a resistance organization. Infiltrators became the backbone of the organization, carrying out terror bombings, hijackings and sabotage of Sol ships heading towards the still unclaimed frontier. The organization was heavily reliant on captured weapons, leading to many collectives developing their own cheaper and lower cost weapons to mass produce rather than scavenging for weapons.

Despite never being an official government some planets at the frontier were unofficially run by Excelsior, having favorable leaders of distant human colonies for alliances with the movement and either directly house armed wings of the movement or allow for Excelsior communes to exist in their sector for protection. Somewhere around this time was the first use of implants being used on less than ‘enthusiastic’ fighters as practices of conscription within communes began to take place. The constant growth of the Sol Federation required a constant flow of bodies to stop it. As Sol began to crack down on the Excelsior movement harshly though, and with the risk of double agents in the movement, these implants slowly became a mandatory proof of loyalty.

The movement's heyday was in the early 2600’s, effectively popping up out of nowhere with sleeper cells and small, isolated communes at the edges of Sol controlled space. As Sol moved in these cells would spring into action, sometimes to the dismay of frontier governments that had tolerated the ‘wacky communist cult’s existence. In cases such as Volkovia, Trasmus, Sierra-1 and other planets the Excelsior movement attempted to help warring factions on the planets fight off Sol influence. Their goal was double sided, however. First was fighting off Solarian expansion, second was attempting to use their newly secured position to infiltrate and seize colonial holdings as a new commune; spreading their idea of ‘revolution’ to the masses.

Excelsior fell apart shortly after these cells sprung into action, having received defeat after defeat at the hands of Sol forces and harsh repercussions on its communes by local governments. Many once sympathetic Sol-separatists finally had enough of the ‘cult communists’ disturbing their way of living and bringing in extra Sol attention. By 2630 the organization appeared to have faded from galactic news besides occasional terror attacks and armed militias fighting to establish new communes in the frontiers of space.

Right before the Bluespace crash however there appeared to have been a resurgence of activity. Excelsior activity within Sol began to kick off again, some believing as if they had prepared for something. Excelsior propaganda referred to it as ‘Liberation Day’ only for Bluespace to crash about a year or so after their activity had again commenced. Some blame Excelsior as the cause of the Bluespace crash while others believe they had simply seen it coming as Excelsior had made use of long range teleporters to link communes for decades.

After the crashing of the Soteria fleet and establishment of Nadezhda a few Excelsior cells began to rear their head as time passed. Local to Amereth and Amethyn Ros there appears to be an Excelsior cell operating from a nearby system. It’s whereabouts are unclear as well as it’s size; having stashes of gear within the colony already which implies infiltration efforts. Short range teleporters have been sighted in use in the sector, possibly being responsible for the increase in bluespace entropy in the region.

Ideology & “The Struggle”

The Struggle, otherwise known as The Great Struggle, is a philosophy of a struggle of the working class. It is best described as a philosophy of double-think, some arguing the great struggle commenced on Liberation Day around the time of Bluespace failure. Others argue that it has yet to start and only will once the working class has been liberated.

While these two beliefs appear to be at odds, Excelsior operatives and communes commonly flip between the two philosophies, usually when it benefits their doctrine at the time. This ideology is methodical, bordering on the edge of being near religious. That if one dies in the struggle he will become immortalized in the revolution. While not inherently spiritual this belief has commonly been misinterpreted as a spiritual belief rather than an ideological or idealist one.

Regional Status

Since the Bluespace crash the Excelsior movement appears to have devolved into warlord states according to ex-agents. Local ‘commanders’, elected by the armed wing of the local commune or communes that have effectively taken control of the movement. Some communes are stated to still operate via worker councils and direct voting, akin to anarchic communes, with a separate militia that holds no voting powers. Other groups appear to have a military-like government made up of only soldiers, infiltrators and officers akin to a military structure. Many of these militarized wings proclaim themselves ‘provisional’ governments for the sector and the ‘vanguards of the revolution’.

The latter appears to be the case of the Excelsior group operating around Amereth, calling its center commune simply the ‘Union’. A currently unknown military commander acts as its executive body, unwilling to negotiate. What is known is limited, though tales from ex-operatives talk of a leader of the local group simply known as “the Commissar”; though he appears to go by many names. As Sol is not a threat to the region for the time it appears their goal is to subjugate the local people’s before the Sol Federation returns.

Raids by Excelsior on various colonies, settlements and even government bodies occur; though in rare instances. While some believe this is likely how they continue to increase their numbers it is more likely that these raids are done for the sake of retrieving guns, resources and technology to fuel local warlord-states within the Excelsior organization. While Excelsior is united in name and image many raids in the local star systems appear to be done by various Excelsior groups. Some lurk in space as nomadic ‘pirates’ looking to raid company shipping vessels and even void-wolf ships while others, such as most communes, launch periodic campaigns against local settlements as a means of survival and to fund their local war-machine.

Technology

Excelsior technology is an odd subject to experts. Their technology appears to be remarkably advanced but, due to a shortage of materials in isolated communes, their tech appears to be.. ‘shoddy’ at best. Excelsior teleporters appear to be able to operate in spite of the Bluespace crash, albeit with safety issues, but are unable to process long distance teleportations. Strategies for their expansion seem to be launching probes as beacons to crash into planet surfaces to then act as a node to teleport to. Both of these factors packed together explains the high amount of Bluespace activity local to Armarth in spite of most Bluespace technology failing.

Excelsior weaponry is much the same as their parts and teleporters. Shoddy yet somehow advanced, showing intelligent ingenuity to make stripped down weapons operate as their better processed counterparts - but requiring skilled maintenance knowledge to avoid the rifle from blowing up in their hands. Without proper care, Excelsior guns misfire, break or detonate in the user's hands without warning. It seems that either their societies instill good gun cleaning habits or their implants they use do.

A common ‘boogeyman’ belief however is that of ‘spiked guns’. This is proven to be true as some weapons of Excelsior are known to implant people who use them, being ‘decoy’ guns or equipment that realistically cannot operate but bait the person into attempting to use it. These decoys either implant the user or, in some cases such as energy cells, blow up to attempt to maim or kill the user. Due to this Excelsior weapons are considered by many to be unsafe and illegal as, commonly, the only way to spot an Excelsior infiltrator short of an implant check is their usage of said weapons.

Spiked Weapons

The following ‘spiked’ items are known to have been found around Amereth:

• Spiked Weapons - Contain either spiked ammunition to detonate the gun or are decoys planted to implant users into becoming operatives through their grip or trigger mechanism.
• Spiked Implants - ‘Broken’ implants can be found with Excelsior stashes. These unmarked implants explode upon being inserted into the user's head. It’s unknown why this tactic is used but rare instances of people attempting self-subversion have occurred.
• Spiked Cells - Excelsior cells are known for having large amounts of energy stored in them despite their compact size. However many cells are purposefully faulty, set to explode upon usage within a piece of machinery or gun.
• Spiked Parts / Disks - Excelsior machine parts such as manipulators, lasers or bins are known to be of poor quality and purposefully destroy machines they are used in. Similar occurs with weapon or ammo disks as they tend to brick machines of all sorts.
• Spiked Armor / Mechs - In the rare case of finding armor of mechs made by Excelsior users should avoid all usage. Both armored suits and mechs have horror stories attached of either injecting the user, failing when life support is needed or, in the case of mechs, violent self-destruct explosions upon unwarranted users attempting to override their controls.

Note: While these may lack mechanics if you are seen using Excelsior tech variations of these exact instances may occur. If you want to be an operative, you can ask. If you want to use the ‘cool commie gear’, expect admemeary.

Diplomatic Relations

Realistically few groups of people are even remotely friendly to Excelsior, even before the Bluespace crash. Most relations with frontier colonies were that of a ‘annoyance’ at best. Prior to the crash some colonies reported Excelsior communes attempting trades of weapons for materials or goods but after ‘Liberation Day’ any dealings with non-commune members appeared to halt entirely.

Excelsior since the crash has shown only hostilities to all non-commune members, typically attacking them on sight or attempting to sabotage or undermine their colonies, cities and communities. Contact with Excelsior is near impossible besides the occasional mixing of long-range radio frequencies, either intercepting propaganda stations or the rare hailing from Excelsior members attempting to convert people to their cause.

There have been rare exemptions to this however, including various hostile forces operating as contracted agents by Excelsior. There appears to be a variety of reasons, most boiling down to a simple pragmatic stance of "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."