5. Factions of the Backwaters

Antispinward Workers' Federation

Extraplanetary Security Forces

The Red Hand

Volsch-Astra Corporation

Previously a small and floundering interplanetary logistics corp, in the late 24th century the company's CEO Aneman Volsch took a last-ditch gamble on trade with the Backwaters. The auctioning of Trinity space a few decades earlier had shown that there was little corporate interest in the underdeveloped region, but Aneman, shrewd businessman that he was, sensed an opportunity.

What began with secured bulk transports out from Central Sectors to new corporate trading posts quickly grew to become the dominant economic power in the entire region. Seeing their success, a few other corporations attempted the same manoeuvre but found the market for mass-manufactured goods already saturated by Volsch-Astra. Most colonies were semi-self-sufficient by design and had basic levels of manufacturing and materials processing, but the economies of scale for complex and high-value goods available to most Central or Garden manufacturers simply didn't exist in the Backwaters.

Today, Volsch-Astra operates dozens of highly-automated manufactory colonies, taking in raw materials from their customers and their own mining operations and shipping out rare and sought-after goods across the region. Unfortunately for the denizens of the Backwaters, Volsch-Astra holds a de-facto monopoly on such wares and sets the prices accordingly, ensuring the corporation's profitability but depriving many smaller worlds of access. The Volsch-Astra transport fleets between their manufactory worlds and their depot stations are among the most heavily-guarded in the entire region, but are extremely lucrative targets for those foolhardy or desperate enough to try.