The Step Syndicate / THESTEPS

Ancient History – Pre-2742:

As Terra began to mature, a sect of the Transitionalist Party emerged which opposed the authority of faraway UEE claims over systems such as Terra, Magnus, Stanton, or Pyro outright would form. As this sect would grow, discontent would be sowed within the Transitionalist Party leading to a fracture in which many of the Transitionalist party would form the short lived and now defunct Solstice Party.

During this time, the party would campaign on decentralizing and limiting the influence of the UEE while expanding the sovereignty of individual star systems. Many commercial and even criminal organizations would take note and begin funneling UEC into the endeavor, largely funding exploratory groups of nav jumpers to comb through UEE controlled systems searching for overlooked anomalies. In 2742 these efforts would pay off.

New ground – 2742-2851:

The ambitions of the party would prove to be to extreme for many within the UEE and the Solstice Party would be subject to frequent cyber-attacks and harassment by authorities. Solstice would move their operations to a previously unknown system and end all political activities within the UEE governance. At this time, all that remained was “The Solstice Discovery Corporation.” This was the company in which funds were funneled to fund navjumping expeditions. After Solstice left UEE territories, large amounts of funding would continue to be poured in with little to no activity apparent to the UEE.

It was during this time that Solstice had begun to establish a small colony on the third planet of what would eventually come to be known as the Stanton System. Solstice would discover the Magnus and Pyro jump-points providing limited Spectrum and comm-link access, and a route for trade negating the need to utilize the Terra jump-point.

Over time the Solstice colony would grow as it’s neighboring systems fell into further ruin at the hands of the UEE. As criminal and separatist organizations would begin to grow and fight for territory, the need to arbitrate disputes would arise to keep the ire of the UEE at bay. At the suggestion and design of the Solstice colony, a treaty organization would be formed, brokering limited peace between the criminal, and peaceful separatist settlers dotted by this point across the three systems.

With Pyro and Magnus proving to be notably dangerous, likely due to conditions caused by the UEE, Stanton would prove to be a relatively safe haven for settlers from both the UEE, and violent outlaws. Owing to these conditions, the newly formed “Separatist Treaty for Expansionist Powers Syndicate” would chose to headquarter their operations on the future ArcCorp planet, near the Solstice colony.

The Secret War – 2851-2953:

In 2851, the UEE funded navjumper Toshi Aaron would discover the Magnus <> Stanton jumppoint, immediately betraying it’s location to the UEE Navy. STEP listening posts would detect a UEE expeditionary force which set out to survey the system. This immediately panicked and prompted the STEP allied factions to pool resources to assemble a small fleet to gather intelligence on the expeditionary force’s progress in the survey. In 2853 the Terra <> Stanton jumppoint would be discovered and reported to the UEE who would immediately claim rights to the system. Upon discovering this news, all of STEPs resources would be redirected to a blockade of both the Terra and Magnus jumppoints.

Owing to reports of the settlements within Stanton, a wetworks fleet was dispatched to clear the system of it’s inhabitants. Arriving via the Terra jumppoint, the fleet would make little work of the STEP forces and proceed with a systematic combined arms campaign of destruction against the various settlements on Stanton III and Stanton IV. Many of leadership and affluence were able to escape the system and STEPs operations would be moved to Pyro.

The Present – 2954 – Today:

In late 2953, with the power and territory of STEP member organizations growing, a new fleet was put together and sent into Stanton with the aim to unify the separatist factions present, whether criminal or lawful, to wrestle control back from the UEE and it’s puppet corporations.