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Delta V was once a beacon for prosperity in the uncharted galaxies of space. During this brief and bright "golden age", space-faring peoples flocked from the stars to work for a man who promised a future of wealth and well-being. It was an interstellar gold-rush and travelers with dollar signs glistening in their eyes arrived in the thousands, daily, to work in Baelius' mines.

The labor force on Delta V grew at an alarming rate, and maintaining order was a difficult task. As strikes and riots occurred more and more frequently due to the poor treatment of the Varium miners and freighter crews, Baelius closed his fist tighter to regain control. Instead of shepherding his flock, he scattered them.

When the War finally exploded across the surface of Delta V, the laborers chose their sides and became an unlikely army of organized colonists. Utilizing the magnificent array of re-appropriated equipment at their disposal, these workers found themselves in control of trillions of dollars worth of machinery that served just as well in the role of war as it had in the role of excavation.

The War was disastrous for Baelius. His armada of invaluable mining machinery was pitted against itself on the field of battle, each machine facing off against another. The destruction was catastrophic. Thus, the banishment put a stop to the melee and an end to the bright and prosperous future of the laborers of Delta V's Varium mining industry.

When they finally returned from exile, the War had not ended for the slighted ex-miners. These people had families, friends, goals... no more. The world had changed in their absence and they had lost everything but their will to fight and the keys to the machines they had refitted for the battlefield.

Mercenaries all, they do the jobs that come their way. Sure, they still use the skills for which they were most valued before the war, but now it would seem, in a post-War Delta V, fighting is what pays the bills. Is that a mining laser, or an anatomy rearranger? Just ask a Mercenary.

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Some of the finest and most adept soldiers on Delta V found themselves under the employment of Baelius' military during the years when the collection of Varium was in full swing. After all, order must be kept and indigenous life must be held in check when a company's labor force is off mining in the wilds of an alien planet.

The Special Police, who eventually became the Shadow Guard and Baelius' Shock Battalion during the War, consisted of some very skilled and disciplined men and women who clearly had an aptitude for combat and field command. As time marched onward through the bloody fields of war, these soldiers and police saw a change in their role and a fork in their road.

The War was demanding in so many ways, and the Shadow Guard and Shock Battalion found themselves having to make a fateful decision for whom they stood and fought. It was nearly a clear-cut slash down the center of the two organization, though there were some outliers who found themselves switching horses mid-stream. The Shadow Guard, for the most part, chose to fight for The Legion and Baelius. The Shock Battalion, on the other hand, tended almost entirely toward The Uprising.

When these two factions pitted themselves against each other they found themselves locked in bitter warfare, hatred coloring their every meeting in battle.

Of course, like every combatant who rose to the occasion on Delta V, these soldiers were banished. When they returned, some took up their charge once again as Shadow Guardsmen and women. Most others selected a lifestyle more appropriate to the dystopia to which they had returned. Their new chosen profession: bounty hunting. Their affiliation: whoever is footing the bill.

Some Bounty Hunters have become skilled assassins. Others pirates. Even more have simply opened their minds to the idea that they will have to fight for the right to live freely on Delta V. Whether Exile or Legion, the Bounty Hunters are worthy adversaries with shattered pasts who either look to a brighter future or revel in the dark and violent present.

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Wreathed in mystery, Tech Mages are an anomaly found only on the post-apocalyptic world of Delta V.

It was discovered early in the initial stages of colonization that some humans were affected in curious ways by direct contact with Varium under certain circumstances. They began to take on bizarre characteristics and accumulate the unusual faculties necessary to work with and even "communicate" with machines in a seemingly fraternal way. Before long, the men and women susceptible to the bizarre genetic mutations brought on by their exposure to Varium developed the means to absorb electricity and maintain a substantial store of energy in their bodies. This energy, charged and ready, could be unleashed in a torrent that could power a failing generator back to life or send a crew of mining androids into overdrive.

Tech Mages are, essentially, living batteries.

Before The War, these powerful men and women were neutrally aligned, for the most part. They created organizations like churches, the hierarchy that of a religious group, and elected to remove themselves from the politics of Delta V. Of course, as War drew near, their valued neutrality found itself falling by the wayside. These Tech Mages were human before they were anything else (though some considered themselves to be gods, like Caden) and chose to use their powers to benefit the factions whom they associated the most.

At one point, you must remember, these Tech Mages were a godsend amongst labor crews. They walked among fields of machinery performing an unusual kind of maintenance that only they could muster. Attuned to the voices of the machines, Tech Mages kept them running and kept the miners working smoothly, day in and day out. Their friendships were ironclad with the miners and freighter pilots of Delta V. When these people turned their machines on one another, the Tech Mages were there to protect their friends, and, some say, even more-so to protect the machines that they had helped to maintain for so long.

In either case, the Tech Mages were not protected during the banishment. They too found themselves floundering in chaos worlds, exiled to the spaces between time. When they returned, it was to a world full of broken machines and failing computers. Work needed to be done, so to work they would attend. Now, Tech Mages across the pitted surface of Delta V work to bring the lifeless machines of a broken planet back from the dead. For what end? Creation? Destruction? Only time will tell.