The Glowing Roses

[Thrace]

Official Name: The Glowing Roses, known as die Glühenden Rosen in Colonial Standard.
Demonym: Roses/Rosen.


Group Type: Mercenary Organisation.


Leader(s): The Council of the Roses/Der Rat der Rosen, a group led by the First Rose/Die Erste Rose


Allegiance:Only to themselves and to the most important thing of them all. Money.


Galaxy: Their base of operations is in the Milky Way, but they operate wherever they are needed.


Territory: The Glowing Roses have a base on the lawless planet of Xalion, and multiple hidden bases, mainly centered in the Milky Way, but maintained throughout most of the known galaxies.They also have a number of systems under their "protection", which help them with the necessary supplies when needed.


Influence Rank: Difficult to say, since they aren't a nation, and don't have an exact influence. They are however well known throughout the known universe, and have the reputation of one of the best known mercenary groups out there,


Headquarters: Their HQ is hidden under the bar "the Glowing Rose" in the Flooded District of Xalion, formerly District 278.


Members: Roughly around 300 billion registered and official members.


Technology Rank: 8.3. The Roses use a lot of Colonial technology and they have managed to also develop technology, either on their own or in cooperation with other mercenary or criminal groups.


FTL Travel:  Colonial Faster-than-Light Jump Drives. Also commonly known as Shockjump Drives.

Spoiler

The technology behind Colonial FTL systems is such that, providing the relevant data is known, ships can jump with a high degree of accuracy, allowing ships to rendezvous in space and even "park" in a synchronous orbit directly above a given point on a planet's surface. Advanced  FTL drives  even enable ships to arrive in crowded areas, such as the middle of an asteroid field or other ships, without the risk of collision and damage.The drives are based on the use of Superstring Theory and M-Theory that essentially enable the "jump drive" systems to "fold" space, reducing the distance between any two points by creating a "corridor" through space that links them together. The ability to process that data is dependent from the computing capacity of the ship using it. At least in theory, the Colonial FTL drives should not have any range limits, but the capacity of the computers limits it considerably. Even the most advanced Acruani AI's would stop at a certain point, where the calculation involving the data contains too many errors. Practically speaking the further one attempts to Jump, the calculations involved become more complicated, and the variables that have to be taken into equation increase. All computer systems known will stop at a certain time, where the number of errors is too high for the jump to be considered safe, that is the so called Red Line, an an imaginary sphere enclosing a vessel which denotes the maximum safe limit for an FTL jump.


The other limit of Colonial FTL Drives is the energy. Colonial FTL Drives are powered by Nuclear Fusion Reactors, fueled by Highly Refined Opilium. Opilium is a material found in many worlds, but useless in its brute form. The Colonies have developed a highly secret refinement process. Its result, the Refined Opilium, is highly volatile, but used in reactors, it can provide an enormous amount of energy, the energy necessary to support the drives and the entirety of a space vessel. The output of the reactors also limits the range of a FTL jump. The use of Refined Opilium also makes the reactors and the drives highly prone to explosions if damaged.


"Spooling up" a Colonial FTL drive takes some time when the drive has been offline, although the advancements of the recent years have considerably reduced that time. Even so, because of this, when ships enter dangerous situations, they keep their FTL drives "spun up". Drives cannot be kept spun up indefinitely, as system crashes or serious damage to the drive will occur. A "cooldown" time is required after a jump for new jump calculations, so a ship that has jumped into a new location cannot jump to another location for a brief period of time.

Exceptional Technologies: The Strelitzia Battle Suit. Developed from the Colonial Battle Suit, the Strelitzia is a developed version that uses organic nanomaterial in combination with the artificial veranium-based nanomaterial used by the Colonials. Such an adaptation makes the Strelitzia cheaper and lighter than the Colonial suit, while maintaining its adaptability and advantages. Due to the organic material, the Strelitzia is also highly malleable, the most used application is when the user uses the material of the suit to create thorns over his armor, which can be used for both defensive and offensive purposes.


The Chrysoberyl Plasma System. Used especially in personal weapons, the Chrysoberyl creates bolts, streams, or pulses of plasma, which is mainly used because of its thermal transfer. Plasma weaponry, although slow, replaces the laser part in the dual laser/kinetic weapons used by the Colonials, and can cause severe burning and death of living creatures, and will lead to the melting or evaporation of other materials.


The Coronaria Sword System. Is a system than can be attached to swords and other large melee weapons. With a small energy generator or energy storage mechanism, the Coronaria is a personal anti-gravity device that creates an anti-gravity field around a sword, that can be then used to fight against enemies through the anti-gravitational force of the blade.


The Wolffia Light Fighter is an adaptation of the Colonial Kolibri Light Fighter, with a stronger cloaking module, less weapons and a better engine, that is usually used for smuggling and other similar illegal actions.


Culture:


Despite being a mercenary group, the Roses have a strict code of honor governed by the Tenets/die Lehren. Due to that, even if money is supposed to be above anything, there are some limitations. There is a strict hierarchy. Soiling the honor of the Roses through actions like supporting slave trade or prostitution is strictly forbidden, and officially, the Roses disagree with the drug trade and the idea of drugs in general, even if unofficially and secretly even from the group itself, some members of the Roses are involved in drug trafficking. The Roses must be the best mercenaries, and only the best are accepted. Upon entering the Glowing Roses, one must pledge his allegiance only to himself and the group as a whole. He must be willing to do any missions as long as they don't break the Tenets. He must not work for free, and always receive a fair pay for his work. Upon the death of a Rose, the other Roses will reward its family for the service. As such, the Roses have quickly managed to become a large, close, and disciplined group which is nothing like the usual mercenary groups filled with half-bandits, and is a group that has built a reputation of an elite mercenary group for itself, being hired by anyone from nations to factions, to do nearly anything that can't be handled by normal forces.


Structure:


At the top of the hierarchy stands the Council of Roses, formed by the most important eleven officers and the leader, the First Rose. The group in itself is then separated into multiple subgroups, each with a different area of operations, known as the Petals/ die Blütenblätter. Each of this subgroups is organized in a near military way with ranks and different forms of organization, enjoying a decent autonomy as long as they respect the tenets and the Council. Due to their origins, the Glowing Roses are highly multiracial and highly adaptable, so the structure in itself can always change and evolve if needed.


Military:


Of course. As a mercenary group, military operations is what the Glowing Roses do for a living. Although not quite to the standard of a national military forces, the Roses are a paramilitary organization, and the majority of its forces are actively involved with it, with even the forces that take care of logistics, as an example, being more than able to fight when necessary. Organized like a military force, the biggest force of the Roses is their elite infantry, trained, and with the experience to fight in almost every kind of situation imaginable, from space ships to the seas of a planet. Always preferring quality over quantity, the Roses might be smaller than other huge mercenary groups, but each of their members is absolutely worth its price. The Roses even have armored vehicles, fighters, and space ships to fight for them, being as such incredibly versatile. From their contracts, the Roses get the money that they need to sustain and upgrade such a military force, and as such, most of their members have only the best equipment available. However, they are pretty much unable to conduct combined arms operations.


History: The Glowing Roses as a group were created back after the Second Intergalactic War, but their existence was illegal until the Fall of Xalion, when due to the void of power, Xalion and many other systems became effectively lawless. That's when the group was taken over by the members who are presently known as the First, the Second, and the Third Rose. They took over a normal mercenary group, and turned it into an elite organization. With an initial very good funding, that came from unknown sources, the Glowing Roses managed to get the best equipment available, which allowed them both to take over missions that other weaker mercenary groups couldn't, but also to be paid better. Once the Tenets and the hierarchy were set into place, the Roses soon attracted a lot of people. Aliens, former SPEKO officers, former Colonial soldiers, foreigners, anyone willing to fight and die for money. And of course, anyone able to do so. With such an elite group, the Roses soon made a name for themselves on Xalion, after a few clashes with the criminal world, which established a rule known by everyone on Xalion. No one touches a Rose. For the Roses have thorns, and the criminal world of Xalion soon learned that. By contacts with that world, the Roses soon came to be hired by anyone having the money to do it, and they failed no mission ever since. Now, years after, the Roses remain the best of the elite. If you need something done, the Roses are the ones to hire.


Goals and Hooks:

• Expand, become a larger group.
  
• Continue receiving and accomplishing contracts with rich rewards
  
• Strengthen their presence in other galaxies.
  
• Root corruption and drug trade from their ranks, for some, or continue the dishonorable practices for others.
  
• Become the best mercenary group in the known universe.
  

Misc. Notes: None for now.


Edited Monday at 04:44 PM by Archene