The Brotherhood / THEBHOOD

The Brotherhood was formed in the year 2479 by a group of individuals, all with close ties in Law Enforcement & Military, whose bonds ran deep after being entrenched in many difficult situations together.

They formed The Brotherhood in response to the loss of a close friend who had died when the freighter he was commanding was attacked. Colonel Mark “Wookie” Ashwood (Ret.) knew the risks of operating outside the fringes of UEE controlled space, for as the Commander of the 10th UEE Imperial Guard he had led numerous raiding missions into the lawless areas in an attempt to widen the buffer zone and push back all those that sought to interfere with citizens going about their daily business.

Col. Ashwood was well respected by his troops for his tenacity, bravery and leadership, which is why his men fought so ferociously in order to live up to his high expectations. They would die for him and he would die for them. This in turn made Col. Ashwood a target of criminal organisations and individuals alike who resented the Colonel for interfering in matters outside of UEE territory. It was during a battle with a group of Vanduul Pirates that the Colonel was critically injured and saw him medically retired from service with full military honours.

From his highs as Commander of the 10th UEE Imperial Guard to the lows of constant crippling pain from his injuries, the Colonel never gave up and was always set to be a leader, which is how he ended up commanding the Borgas, a freighter tanker with a crew of 15 men. It was during the return leg of a fuel collection run that his vessel was attacked by a group of no less than 12 Vanduul Fighters. The Borgas was no match for such a large force and as such the Colonel decided to surrender the vessel and its contents in order to protect the lives of his crew. However, it became blatantly obvious that the pirates were not interested in the vessel its cargo for they was destroyed shortly after the death of Col. Ashwood.

As there were no surviving witnesses it can only be assumed that the Colonel’s past had finally caught up with him. Many individuals that had been captured over the years as a result of the Colonel’s raids had sworn that retribution would be sought against the Colonel. It is based on this that investigators from the UEE determined the attack was targeted in order to make good the threat to payback Col. Ashwood for the losses he had inflicted on the criminal element.

The founders of The Brotherhood had lost a great friend, a “brother” that day and accordingly they decided not to let the death of their friend be without meaning. They knew that the Colonel (“Wookie” to them) would never settle for criminals getting the upper hand, as such they wanted to make a stand and continue the Colonel’s work. For you see, not only did the Colonel have his own family to look after, but secretly he had been smuggling supplies into pirate controlled areas of space to feed, clothe and arm the citizens under the brutal control of the pirates.

Up until 2484 The Brotherhood relied solely on contracts for security escorts to pay the bills, but they soon found that the margins involved were so tight that they were barely able to keep their vessels in top working order, let alone invest in new, more advanced equipment. So it was at this point that they decided to branch into the freighting business themselves, after all they had the knowledge, the routes and the tenacity to pull such a goal off. They purchased a number of freighter vessels and started to take some highly dangerous contracts, contracts that no one else wanted, in order to get the reputation they needed to penetrate an already saturated market.

The gamble paid off and now The Brotherhood is proud to boast that they are one of only a handful of companies that offer fast, reliable and affordable freighting services with their own security escort detail as part of the service. So successful have they been, traders and manufactures approach The Brotherhood direct to undertake cargo runs for them, rather then relying on a competitive tender process. It’s a long way from the days that they took anything and everything just to make a living and a name for themselves.

It appears coincidence that upon The Brotherhood’s successful transition from small company contracting for security escort runs into a corporate freight and trading business, that about the same time the Colonel’s family disappeared leaving no trace or signs of their existence. Those close to The Brotherhood have speculated that The Brotherhood, using their many contacts in the corporate world and the underground, learnt of a plot to kill the Colonel’s family as a final act of retribution. It is believed that only the top members of The Brotherhood know the real story, but that they have secretly moved the Colonel’s family to an undisclosed location with new identities and continue to financially support them, as the Colonel would have done for their families.