The Dusk Runners (World Building Notes)

The World Building Community, released a prompt today, asking about factions of our world we're writing.

Recent infighting within a group has come to a tense standoff with multiple internal factions. What caused this tension? What happens next?

I don't have any examples of this, but see it as a great way to get thinking and work on one, as you can never have too many factions or groups in your setting.

This will be a completely free-form session, so we'll see how it goes. Wish me luck.

Source

The Dusk Runners
An organisation formed on the planet called Scoosha; which is a mostly baron world, after all of the bombardment it received during the Invasion.

The Dusk Runners were formed during the downtime in between attacks; they would run small shipments of all sorts; mainly items needed for resistance fighters - but they would run things like messages too. It was because of them that there was any hope of fighting The Confederation troops stationed in the world, but it came at a cost. Many of the Runners were caught and publicly executed for their transgressions. Their silence during interrogations also caused more damage and harm to the planet as a whole, as random civilians would be taken in and questioned for information on this group, and by extension the military organisations who they were affiliated with. Most who were brought in were never seen again, any who were, were never right again.

Also, anyone who did manage to be released, was assassinated as punishment for cooperating. Some may not have, but it didn't matter.

The Runners ranks had an emphasis on stealth, and some even broke away after the war ended and formed their own small shadow groups. One small group for example headed for Jex, and it was around this time The Guro Sprinters were formed - a highly effective group of assassins who specialise in high-value targets, I.E, politicians, corporate bosses, and even some gang leaders. But, they will "slab" anyone who's got the money to pay. They're secretive though because of their own Death Marks; so contacting them is pretty tough.

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After The War
The dust was settling on Schoosha, and finally, the world knew peace and was able to start rebuilding. The need for Runners didn't exist anymore, and with that, the group started to disband. Seeing this, some in the group wanted to change up their style to carry on earning.

Chems were a big thing on Scoosha After Confederation Invasion (A.C.I) - all of Free Space saw an influx of chems hitting the streets, and many people started to get hooked on stuff, all throughout the galaxy - the only thing standing in the way of dealers and their customers, were some of the para-military groups who were still active and acting like law enforcers now.

That's where Nichua Rankev was inspired for his idea of how to keep The Dusk Runners thriving and moving with the times; running chems under the nose of the groups in charge now.

Many in the organisation opposed this, especially, Sonand Thite, who was the group's leader essentially. Sonand had his own idea for the direction of the Runners, he was going to join up with one of the splinter groups of the resistance fighters, who didn't intend to remain on Scoosha policing the planet.

They were going to travel to other worlds, stamping out The Confederation wherever they could be found. Plenty of rumours were circulating about enclaves of them hidden throughout Free Space.

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The Runner Split
After plenty of debating, the talks ended and the group had an almost even split. The Dusk Runners were no more from this point; now they were The Drug Runners, and the Free Space Roamers (F.S.R)

The F.S.R's ranks swelled after the war, and as of late they have occupied the smallest moon of Besk, and some say many more. Most governments of Free Space see them as nothing more than a band of Scooshan criminals and don't recognise them as an army.

The Drug Runners had a semi-successful run on Scoosha, only a few years after the name change, Nichua Rankev was publicly executed for not disbanding his group, but it was then taken over by a Trisken from Jex called Ch'Vardi Ondot. Some rumours circulated that Ch'Vardi was the one who had him killed, so he could seize power, but no one knows if that's true.

Shortly after the takeover the group upped and left for Kah-Vita, where they still operate to this day and with great success, but not as drug runners. They changed their practice from chems to protection and changed their name too, they're now called The Vanguard.

End Notes
I had a lot of fun with this post here, I like having this kind of free-form session where I can focus on populating the world, and I think factions are one of my favourite things to create. So many stories to tell from just one group, and I think I'll be revisiting some of these ideas pretty soon.

Thanks for reading.