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Generic faction illustration for Syndicate
faction

Syndicate

The Syndicate

The galactic government that runs the crawl and now faces open, universe-wide insurrection from its former contestants.

Story so far

The Syndicate presides over the crawl and everything around it, insisting that even the exit negotiations after Faction Wars be conducted by the books - which is why Quasar is a volunteered lawyer sitting in a Zero Zone cubicle offering Carl deals that are, by his own account, all shit. Roughly twenty thousand crawlers survived to the tenth floor, and the sheer supply of survivors is what makes the offers worthless. Syndicate courts, the Syndicate Intergalactic Bar Association and the The AI still hold the paperwork together.

It is also the enemy that killed York's hive, and by the epilogue it is under attack from several directions at once. Porthus broadcasts a declaration that a new militant group will move against all Syndicate governmental properties and systems across the known universe unless the crawl is stopped. Syndicate security corvettes in Earth orbit are outgunned by a single behemoth carrying weapons they never bothered to mount. A new Prime Minister, a crashed The Dream cruiser, a mass suicide in the Nebular colonies and the destruction of a mantis system fill the news feeds simultaneously, and an embargo has strangled traffic through the Earth system's tunnel gate.

Role

The ruling power of the crawl, now the declared target of a galaxy-wide resistance campaign.

Relationships

Porthus — Publicly declares war on its properties and systems
Quasar — Serves as a volunteered attorney under its rules
York — Destroyed his hive, giving him a private reason to serve the resistance
Open Intellect Pacifist Network — The movement now turned militant against it

Earlier in this series

Also appears in books you've already read — spoiler-safe to their endings:

Sources — 13 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 2
  • The galaxy's governing bureaucracy, whose standard language Paulie switches to and whose spies the enhancement rejects.
Chapter 15
  • Galactic organization running the dungeon, whose contracts leave crawlers like Tipid broke and broken.
Chapter 16
  • Galactic power whose crawler-protection laws were won by activists, and which Mistress Tiatha does not trust.
Chapter 26
  • Galactic power behind the Crawl, whose legions Carl weighs killing en masse before choosing a subtler blow.
Chapter 35
  • Galactic authority whose probate courts must now untangle the bankrupted estate of the last Prism heir.
Chapter 36
  • Galactic authority behind the crawl, now escalating to prime-ministerial orders about a single residual.
Chapter 43
  • The bureaucracy whose designation codes decide whether returned mercenaries are refugees or former crawlers marked for death.
Chapter 45
  • The Syndicate's prime minister and full council listen in while their own liaison goes rogue.
Chapter 68
  • The galactic order whose law names Carl Earth's leader — and which the Great Consensus movement calls a mistake.
Chapter 93
  • The galactic authority whose Prime Minister tries to kill Carl through a hidden override, provoking the AI's fury.
Chapter 95
  • The galactic order whose government, member corporations, and security forces all fracture during this hour.
Chapter 98
  • The governing power now led, on an acting basis, by Baroness Victory from inside the dungeon.
Chapter 100
  • The galactic government that runs the crawl and now faces open, universe-wide insurrection from its former contestants.
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