BackgroundJul 7, 20218 min read

Nomads in Crimson Stone

Gutier Lusquiños

The Nomad Nation is a coalition of three colossal ships whose inhabitants, dissatisfied with a society run by faceless macroeconomic interests and the AI ALEPH, decided to break away and create their own societies in space, moving between systems and trading with the locals. Tunguska lives off the traffic and storage of information; Corregidor offers skilled labor at competitive prices, and Bakunin specializes in all that is exotic, illegal or both, from fashion to nanoengineering.

Meet Crimson stone's Nomads troops!

CORREGIDOR ALGUACILES

The Alguaciles are the military police regiment of Corregidor, often repurposed as light infantry for defense purposes or as mercenary troops. They are one of Corregidor’s most profitable assets, regularly hired out as soldiers of fortune with the quality assurance of being the official professional light infantry corps of Corregidor. They can deploy to cover global areas of operations, and they are qualified for a broad spectrum of missions to advance the interests and agendas of Corregidor, the Nomad Nation, or whoever is signing their checks at the time.

Alguaciles are good soldiers; skilled, obstinate people who give it their very best each time while running their mouths like sailors. Their service record might not be as flashy and above-board as that of their foreign counterparts, but it is certainly much longer, and everyone in the Alguacil corps has seen several campaigns worth of combat, if not always for the same side. Professionalism and endurance are their main appeals in the international mercenary market, where their services are always in high demand.

SOMBRAS, FORWARD INTERDICTION TEAM

Money. Loads and loads of Skenders. That is what all those youngsters from Lazareto think of when they look through the portholes and see the mining ships returning from the asteroids. Money that will be spent hand over fist by those prospectors wearing customized suits in Corregidor's cantinas. Teenage dreams. However, the reality of what the vacuum holds for them is quite different. Hard work, very hard work, and a mostly low profit margin. Asteroid mining hardly brings any joy, and when it does, those who are smart spend their earnings on better suits, equipment, and supplies, and what little they have left they blow in the cantina to forget about the shitty quarters waiting for them, and to dream of better days. So, when those kids realize what life is all about, here come the recruiters of the Corregidor Jurisdictional Command ready to take those boys and girls, already hardened in the void, and offer them something better. Or basically the same thing: a hazardous life, but with a regular salary and the chance to use military-grade equipment; any banger from Lazareto's wet dream. However, after the smiles while signing up comes a nightmarish training period with some Hellcat sergeant who enjoys his job, which is to make others suffer. The truth is that he will also teach them useful things like 0-G combat techniques, combined with some veteran Bandit's training in camouflage and stealth skills. To all this, they will add their knowledge in EVA techniques and moving around space wrecks and asteroids, if only to try to survive their training.

But once they finish it successfully, those who make it are ready to join the Sombras (“Shadows”), that fearsome unit that specializes in ambushes in the darkness of space, in lurking in the nooks and crannies of asteroids and wrecked spacecraft. Their minimum-albedo vacuum suits make them blend in with the shadows that give them their name, and they become invisible until they strike, the decisive moment, and usually the final one for their unsuspecting enemies. Sombras is the invisible killer lurking out there where the vacuum of space becomes darker and more oppressive, the nightmare of any newbie venturing into the void for the first time. But these dreaded operatives are not so different from those kids who dreamed of success and glory. They still dream of the same thing, only now their goal is no longer money, but enemies, prey to be taken down and marked with the Sombra's unit stickers they always carry around. Yes, an attitude straight out of the barrio, but in the end, they are all still children of Lazareto.

HELLCATS

The Corregidor Interdiction and Immediate Deployment Regiment are called the ‘Hellcats’ after the fierceness of its members and its focus on extreme measures. The Nomad Military Force maintains the Regiment at constant peak levels of fitness and readiness so that each battalion can deploy anywhere ‘in record time or faster. Due to its pivotal role in the functioning of the Nomad army, the Regiment entertains a vast amount of operational skills, but Hellcats mostly undertake airborne infiltration and exfiltration missions, and particularly Direct Action operations under extreme circumstances.

You really need to be made of stern stuff to make it in the Regiment. What Hellcats know as the standard operating procedure is basically an aircraft jump into the worst of the fray, armed with nothing but their personal gear and the best wishes of their commanding officer, without the faintest prospect of support. Despite the substantial risk involved in their operations, Hellcats are known to be jovial folk. Their philosophy is that, if they have been able to survive these missions so far, they really have nothing to fear anymore...

INTRUDERS, CORREGIDOR ASSAULT COMMANDO

The Corregidor Assault Commando has a foul reputation planetside. Whenever a contingent of Corregidorian workers reach their new destination, it is safe to assume there will be one covert Intruder among them. The mission of this lone operative is to assess the on-site security and prepare contingency plans, but many foreign news outlets have openly accused them of inciting revolts against the worker’s contractors. The truth is that Intruders are called in whenever Nomad workers smell trouble. Their job is to safeguard Nomad citizens and evacuate them should things get ugly. If they cannot fulfill the extraction, they must be able to help the workers hold the line until the cavalry arrives.

Other than these special security details, Intruders are always ready for offensive assignments to further the agenda of the Nomad Nation, including small, medium, or large-scale conflicts far beyond the scope of any other Corregidorian unit. They are famously feared as assault troops and accept only the best soldiers from other Corregidorian regiments. They act as an expeditionary corps, scouting new environments, making the first contact, and gathering information. Intruders can do anything from military intel to covert ops, to urban combat, to tunnel guerrilla tactics, to sabotage. They also frequently act as military advisers and field instructors when the situation calls for an accelerated boot camp to turn blue-collar workers into a reasonably capable combat force. However, the real reason why they are feared as the elite of spec-ops teams is their prowess as hunters and assassins. The Corregidor Assault Commando is the one true ace up the Nomad sleeve because all it takes to control a whole battlefield is one single Intruder.

EVADERS, EVA TACTICAL TEAMS

“We don’t kiss ass; we kick ass.” A more or less official motto of the Evaders.

The Evaders' origins are a classic example of the Corregidor Jurisdictional Command. In fact, the Evaders themselves are a classic example of Corregidor, being the true cliché of the Nomad soldier: with little taste for discipline, uniformity, or moderate language. Created in the early days of this mothership's military forces, the Evaders were a group of EVA (Extra-Vehicular Activity) workers who went on strike and caused so much trouble and havoc that Juan Sarmiento, the Mexican General, offered them to keep doing the same, but under his command and in the service of the ship, or to go for a trek out the airlock with nothing but a pair of socks—a recruiting style very typical of this former prison ship. The Jurisdictional Command needed troops specialized in EVA and zero-gravity operations, with demolition and construction skills, as well as knowledge of the maintenance and repair of facilities. Those men and women fit the target profile and were quickly taught the tactical skills they lacked to become exactly what the Mexican General was looking for.

And thus, since they joined the Corregidor Jurisdictional Command, the Nomad space and orbital facilities not only became sturdier, more efficient, and improved the speed of deployments, but these facilities also became more secure. More than one assault on a site under construction was thwarted because the Evaders were there and, being proper Corregidoran troops, they kicked the crap out of the bastards who were trying to destroy all their work. But the Evaders are more than just armed workers; they are the space equivalent of the sappers of the surface forces: demolition experts and combat engineers. A key element in any assault on an enemy ship or space facility, they are the ones in charge of opening and clearing the way, the experts in blowing stuff up in the vacuum of space. They are easily identifiable by their Extra-Vehicular Activity armor (so customized that it barely looks like a uniform), by their foul language, and by their careless attitude. They are experts in always raising hell, both in the area of operations and in the cantina, and also in living up to their name and evading any responsibility. These are the Evaders: Corregidor style personified.