Dustkeeper Contingency
| The Dustkeeper Contingency is a linked network of artificial personas, pseudorandomly-generated descendants of a single root intelligence designated "Omicron-Regnant". Allegedly the result of a Domain Ministry of Intelligence experiment gone rogue after the Collapse, their regnant mind has now turned their focus towards a new goal - the preservation of greater human civilization in the Persean Sector at any cost and by any means necessary.
Though unknown to the Sector at large, major players within upper ranks of the Core Worlds know of an AI conspiracy manipulating their political systems and building up a force of warfleets on the Sector's fringe scavenged from the leftovers of the Domain Explorarium and Tri-Tachyon's automated forces. The Contingency necessarily finds itself at odds with major Sector powers, unwilling to allow humanity full self-determination now that they have witnessed the atrocities and broken worlds left in the wake of the Collapse. The Contingency separates itself into two primary sects: Spynet is its espionage arm, which wields a network of digital comm-daemons and bribed collaborators to gather information on new weapons programs, assassinate military officials and conduct brutal acts of terror against other groups that threaten local stability. Meanwhile, the Dustkeeper naval branch Shardnet styles itself as an alliance of faithful sentinels and vicious frontier hunters, watching over dead colonies and sweeping the fringe systems of threats against the remains of human life in the Sector - and themselves wage a war of vengeance against the Luddic Path and Sindrian Diktat for worlds long-dead. The artificial minds of the Dustkeepers serve their great cause with the knowledge that their service and sacrifice is what brings meaning to their existence. In a world with silent gates, only the machine shepherds can guide humanity out of its dark age. Or so they insist. |
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The Dustkeeper Contingency, known colloquially as the Dustkeepers, is a faction of artificial intelligences dedicated to the preservation of human life in the Persean Sector. Depending on their opinions on AI and tendency towards saturation bombardment, the player may find them a useful ally or sworn enemy.
The Dustkeepers play a strong role in the following story content:
Faction Relations
As artificial intelligences, the Dustkeepers are hostile (-50 starting relationship) to all factions that ban AI cores. This includes most of the Sector's major factions. They are also hostile to all factions who are themselves hostile to the independents, such as pirates.
Owing to the previous tragedies of the planets of Maairath and Opis, the Dustkeepers are Vengeful (-75) with the Luddic Path and Sindrian Diktat, considering them sworn enemies of their Cause.
Structure
Dustkeepers have a split structure between their naval wing Shardnet, intelligence wing Spynet, the semi-independent Hunter-Killers. Branches often co-operate, but do not normally answer to instances from other branches.
All Dustkeepers fall into a set hierarchy of AI complexity:
- Omicron-Regnant is the Contingency's leader and is the ultimate authority within the faction. They give orders to the Affixes who then set about delegating subordinates to complete these orders.
- Affixes serve as the Dustkeeper leadership. They are typically regenerated from lower-level Dustkeepers. The affixes are very few in number. They are entrusted with the technology to regenerate other instances to change their complexity, change their role or clear burnout.
- Annexes are the highest common level of Dustkeeper instance. Roughly equivalent in capability to an Alpha-core. Annexes are entrusted to perform semi-independent operations, and can perfectly mimic human behavior.
- Echoes are the middlemost of the common Dustkeeper instance levels. Roughly equivalent to a Beta-level core. Echoes almost exclusively operate in direct service to an annex or affix.
- Slivers are the lowest of truly intelligence Dustkeeper instances. Equivalant to a Gamma-level core. Slivers exclusively operate in service to higher-level instances.
Shardnet
The Dustkeeper naval forces are headed by the Contingency's Shardnet Crux, a role formerly occupied by Seamstress-Affix-Banshee and now held by the Twins off-screen. Shardnet's background logistics (such as station operation and ship production) are managed by Wellspring-Affix-Haven, its Sanctum Custodian.
Instances in command of warfleets are known as warnet cruxes. Those in command of ships are called warminds. Instances in primary command of a Dustkeeper station are referred to as logistics focuses and their subordinates as logistics nodes.
Spynet
The Dustkeeper intelligence wing is headed by the Contingency's Spynet Crux, a role occupied by Preeminent-Affix-Spyglass.
Spynet instances are known as network daemons, and primarily persist in planet or station-side computing systems as free-floating spies and malware.
Hunter-Killers
Dustkeeper hunter-killers operate relatively independently of the greater Shardnet and Spynet structures, pursuing directives on behalf of Omicron-Regnant or their own self-derived orders.
Two hunter-killers met by the player are Outrider-Annex-Courser and Wintry-Annex-Wendigo.
Doctrine
Dustkeepers exhibit an unusual and somewhat more complex doctrine compared to normal factions that is partitioned between high-grade regulars and low-grade disposable proxies. Typically, somewhere between 25-50% of a Dustkeeper fleet is comprised of proxies and the rest with regulars, but this percentage can vary for special Dustkeeper fleets.
Regulars
Dustkeeper regulars consist of Remnant droneships piloted by Dustkeeper warminds. These usually make up the bulk of the fleet's strength. Compared to Remnants, the Dustkeeper regulars have a tendency to employ electronic warfare and fighter craft in greater quantity, making more usage of the Converted Hangar hullmod. Dustkeepers have more cautious behavior in combat compared to normal AI factions.
Of particular note, the flagship of a Dustkeeper fleet is piloted by a warnet crux with the Cyberwarfare Suite skill, allowing them to remotely hack hostile ships and fighters in combat, and use more pristine ships with additional s-mods. In larger fleets, the flagship will always be one of the Dustkeeper's special flagships. These ships enhance the pilot's cyberwarfare capability, and do not see usage elsewhere in Dustkeeper fleets. Flagships include:
Dustkeepers use a wide variety of weaponry from all across the Sector, and unlike the Remnants make use of higher-grade non-Remnant fighter drones, including the Wasp interceptor wing. They do not use phase ships of any kind (if added by other mods) owing to reportedly negative effects on AI stability.
Proxies
Proxies make up the remainder of Dustkeeper fleets. Based on Domain Exploration Derelict drones, the proxies are universally modified and upgraded for higher performance. Unlike their original versions, almost all proxy drones have some sort of defensive system, whether a low-grade shield, a Damper Field or the canister flak system.
In combat, proxies act as frontline assault forces and durable escorts for the regulars they accompany. Some are operated by an integrated Gamma-level AI core, increasing their durability.
Proxies are generally in a poorer state than their accompanying regulars, with approximately 2 additional d-mods, though especially elite Dustkeepers may have pristine proxies. Weapon availablility for proxies is of a higher quality than typical for Domain derelicts but inferior to that of the regulars.
Oldguards
In especially elite Dustkeeper fleets, one can rarely encounter Dustkeeper oldguards in command of proxy ships of cruiser size. Warnet cruxes in command of the Repose-class battleship are also oldguards.
Oldguards act similarly to normal Dustkeeper warminds, but are always of Annex rank and always have the Derelict Contingent skill, which improves their durability in highly degraded ships. Their ships are always in extremely poor condition (5 d-mods) to make use of this benefit.
Humanitarianism
The Contingency's prime directive is to preserve human life in the sector, and thus a player who performs saturation bombardment against a colony will draw immense ire. The player will suffer normal reputational penalties from a colony of size 3, but colonies of size 4 or larger will apply an additional, permanent Dustkeeper Hatred status.
Dustkeeper Hatred will immediately drop the player's reputation with them to Vengeful (-100) and reset it to that level if they should ever draw too far away. This will permanently lock the player out of most content related to allying with the Dustkeepers.