Quäz / QUAZ

Quäz has maintained the only unbroken line of Crystal Bearers since the original advent of the miasma. Centuries have passed but our Crystal Chalice still light the way between jump points.

Organized in 2006 AC after the outbreak of the Miasma, Quäz was founded by a transient group of college drop outs and expert weapon-smiths who were interested in turning recent world-wide catastrophes to their benefit. Despite effectively being little more then a small, unseemly band of backwater no-name misfits, Quäz has made an unpredictable rise as one of the galaxy’s most notorious band of outlaws. Quäz is known best for it’s ability to cart a Chrystal Chalice through some of the most dangerous stretches of space in under 20 parsecs.

Quäz is led by a three-pirate triumvirate of officers, who’s reputations are non-existent in the public eye, but who are well known among pirate, scavenger, drug-cartel and fringe world circles.

Their chief-most chalice bearer and commander made his name by earning the undesirable title of “greatest and deadliest zero-gravity EVA Gunfighter.” Some intra-stellar law enforcement communities suspect he may be “Scotticus Maximus III”, son of a pair of outspoken, often anti-Imperial college professors from (X). At GrimHex he’s known as “Scottopotamus”, and at Spider he often uses the ID tag “Scottpockets”.

Their second strongman is a well known and wildly disliked hacker and communications thief known for learning obscure languages and accruing blackmail and other damaging information by hacking into secure communication channels whilst keeping his ship hovering out of sight, recording and decoding transmissions for financial gain. The third man is Quäz’s money-bags; a roque member and prodigal son of an esteemed, old-money Terran family who took a large portion of his trust fund and used it to recruit Quäz’s unlikable, but perfectionist Chalice – Bearing crew by buying prospective mercenaries ships preloaded with the coordinates to Quäz’s dank, secret, fringe-wold hideout. He is known in crime and chalice bearing circles simply as “The Treasure Cat.”

Together, this amalgamated trio of cantankerous ne’er-do-wells built Quäz — an adventuring, Chalice-Bearing exploratory band unlike any the galaxy had seen — or wanted to see. Since it’s ignominious origins Quäz has grown into a highly notorious, if uninspired band of freelancers. Best known for stealing the Polymatrical Harddrive of Infinite Memory during a battle between the UEE and Hargavand Bangledongers where one of Quäz’s Constellations slipped into the UEE facility on Hargavand and, after confusing the station staff by hacking into their common net and turning all the lights on and off really fast, stole the PHIM, managing to escape quickly and run the UEE blockade ships back to their home port, somewhere deep in pirate-ridden territory.

The PHIM of course turned out to be an incomplete dud, and ultimately a failed experiment, but not after Quäz had already collected their finders fee and escaped from their soon-to-be-unhappy customer’s clutches. This daring raid has cemented Quäz’s reputation ever since.

Quäz is said to operate a small fleet of mid to light weight ships, often in conjunction with larger, more resourced enterprises they sign on with. Most notable is their current principle command ship, the “Crystal Chalice”, which is hard to pinpoint since it uses false ID Tags at most ports, is rumored to be no larger then a Constellation. There may be as many as 2 or 3 Constellations in Quäz’s group, but they’re also rumored to make extensive use of Drake products and larger, more cumbersome utility vehicles for Chalice Hauling. Up close, Quäz’s ships are identifiable by their blue, skull-and-chalice marked logo, usually emblazoned discretely on the underside of a hull.

Most of Quäz’s members are either ex military or ex para military members who turned to a life of crime, Chalice-Bearing and the occasional space exploration run, however some of it’s members are simply civilians from the UEE fringe who’ve grown up on, near or around pirate worlds and have only ever known Chalice Bearing as the most directly bloodless, but enjoyable method of making money in this sad, crazy universe.