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# The Gorlex Marauders

**Note to the shiptesters: This page is very incomplete and probably needs to be revised.**

To put it simply, Gorlex VII was a worthless rock. It wasn't habitable, and any hope of it containing valuable mineral deposits was lost within the first few months of the colony's existence. The founding of the Gorlex VII colony was such a waste of materiel that, after a few years, Nanotrasen decided to ignore the entire planet and its starving, impoverished population. A starving, impoverished population equipped with high grade mining charges, literal tons of gibtonite and plasma, and a few decent mining vessels. Frankly, I'm surprised Nanotrasen or anyone else couldn't figure out exactly who was robbing all those food convoys by the Gorlex system for at least a few months. But they did, and a Nanotrasen task force(like two frigates) was sent to investigate. They found what looked to be the pirates' headquarters, leveled it, and left. When the pirates got back home, they were surprised to find that their families were dead, and that their homes were destroyed.

One could say that they took offense to this.

Now, say what you want about the Nanotrasen "navy," but you have to admit its personnel are very promotion hungry, and also very lazy. Thus, the Gorlex pirates were marked as eliminated without confirming the destruction of a single ship. The funny thing is, freighters were still getting looted. And it wasn't just food or medicine anymore, arms shipments near the Gorlex system were being systematically intercepted. And unlike before, where the pirates would just take supplies and leave crews unharmed, ships didn't really come back from the Gorlex route after the pirates were "eliminated." Those that did come back would look more in-place in a NewComm slasher flick than actual real life. Or they were just filled with gibtonite. The original guys who "eliminated" the pirate base tried to cover it up to save their own skins, so it took an entire year of decreased profits for Nanotrasen to even start doing anything about the Marauders. When they did send a task force, it didn't exactly go well. Nanotrasen private security was geared more towards looking pretty and advertising their hardware to potential buyers instead of actually doing their jobs well. The Gorlex Marauders, on the other hand, had been fighting military vessels successfully with mining craft and conducting boarding operations for months. The results were surprising. One would've expected the pirates to win, but no one thought they would've been able to successfully board and capture almost every ship in the Nanotrasen task force with only a 10% casualty rate. To clarify, boarding operations usually have a 33% casualty rate. At some point, Cybersun noticed them, set them up with better logistics, and got their psyops division belting out stories of their heroism. Next thing you know, you had every downtrodden indie, angry wageslave and former-businessman trying to sign up with the group. I’m pretty sure we all know that it all goes downhill from here.

With that history lesson out of the way, we can get to the present. It shouldn't be any surprise that a group founded on hatred turned against itself once the object of its hatred ceased to be relevant. Of course, Nanotrasen IS still around, but they're on the backfoot now.

When the ICW ended, the GMs did some soul searching, and everyone decided that they hated each other. The guys in the 2nd Battlegroup (correctly) thought everyone else was a psycho and ran off to start some totally worker friendly dictatorship based in some indie colony no one's ever heard of. I hear the dictator, Jan Speidel is pretty benevolent, but that doesn't change the fact that it's still a legion of seasoned veterans that are fully dedicated to a single figurehead. I'm just saying that could go downhill pretty fast. They've also maintained ties with the ACLF, and are technically the largest part of the group.

Next up, you've got a whole clique of officers under a Mohammed Ramzi. These guys realized that, when the ICW ended, the Gorlex Marauders were stuck in hostile territory with no supplies, no food and nothing to maintain their gear. They also had a monopoly on force in the region. Now you know why freighters tend to avoid the tail end of the Anarchy Road. All these guys are posers, pretty much. They don't have enough dedication to the cause of defeating Nanotrasen forever, or some shit.

The hardliners were still around, but they had the same issue as every other GM: No supplies and no logistics. They kinda moped around, starving or something until Cybersun decided to lend them a hand. In exchange for their aid in securing Cybersun's new holdings, they'd be supplied and armed, so they can get ready to deal the killing blow to NT. Of course, this was pretty much just a move by Cybersun to get a larger army. The hardliners aren't stupid, though. They don't like the fact that they're living off the good graces of a big, oppressive megacorp, and want to slip their leash as soon as possible. But they also want to be able to finish off NT first.

Overall, the Gorlex Marauders aren't the biggest deal in the galaxy anymore. They burned bright for a bit, but now they're trying to change for the long term, abandoning their beliefs or trying their best to stick true to what they were trying to achieve.
*- William DeChavalier*
###### tags: `Lore`