The Intergalactic Exploration Division / TIED

The organization was founded 27 years ago, in 2922, by Captain Titus Locke, navigator Ingman Berg, and mechanic Elson Gibbs.

Prehistory

A year before its founding in 2921, a group of influentials led by media magnate Sirius Hale organized an expedition to study anomalies and search for artifacts in the Kallis system, just discovered by Gabby Ripon.

The captain of the reconnaissance ship, UEESS Marigalante, was Titus Locke. Locke had graduated with honors from the academy just 2 years prior notwithstanding some reservations among his professors. “Locke quickly masters anything that flies. He is intrepid and decisive, but damn stubborn and quick to anger” said Professor Cor.

The mission was a great success. With newly detailed maps and a collection of extraordinary artifacts, the team was journeying home. As the Marigalante approached a black hole jump point every system of the ship anomalously failed. The expedition’s chief engineer concluded that the fleet had been affected by a heretofore unknown type of radiation. The crew was stranded without communication in the inoperative ship. Locke did his best to rally the spirit of the expedition, but the crew were tiring and losing hope of ever returning home.

The fleet drifted in this way for twenty-five days until the expedition’s lead geologist, Salary Hale, made a discovery about one of the recovered artifacts. She discovered that the artifact had a unique property, which she called “a fuel zirconite.” It was capable of producing an energy wave that could move spaceships without fuel. They began experimentation to harness the energy of the zirconite to propel the expedition back to civilization. During experimentation, Hale and five other crew members lost their lives in an explosion, but ultimately the team was able to manipulate the zirconite into an effective fuel source.

Thanks to the ingenuity of Salary Hale, Captain Locke, and the mechanic Elson Gibbs, the surviving crew members were able to return home. Artifacts and maps from the Kallis system were delivered to Sirius Hale along with the diary of his late daughter. Locke was enshrined as a hero, but after Sirius Hale discovered an upsetting entry in his late daughter’s diary he swiftly raised an inquisition against Locke, accusing him of “immoderate adventurism” for mishandling one of the artifacts during the flight, which, according to the prosecutors, had triggered the surge of radiation that incapacitated the ship.
In his testimony, Locke argued that:

> “We must ever venture into the unknown. Not shy away from it. Such was the spirit of our investigation, and Salary Hale embodied that spirit with as much vigor as any member of our crew. If not for this spirit what was the purpose of our mission?”

According to records Locke was grounded for six months and dismissed from the Hale organization. Much of the crew of that expedition soon left Hale and joined Locke. With navigator Ingman Berg and mechanic Elson Gibbs, Captain Locke founded his own organization: T.I.E.D – The Intergalactic Exploration Division

About T.I.E.D.

T.I.E.D has since participated in a number of significant operations in various regions of the galaxy, including the 2935 Orion rescue operation and the 2943 archaeological dig on Tamsa I.

In 2947 T.I.E.D relocated its headquarters to the Stanton system from where they now conduct exploration expeditions. They continue to fund these expeditions with the rewards of their discoveries and with the profits made by their subsidiary mining and bounty hunting outfits.