Close Encounters Corps

Close Encounters Corps (CEC) is a paramilitary special research structure, one of the largest organizations of independent pilots, the main independent news resource of the Russian-speaking segment with a weekly periodical, engaged in support of the Russian-language Wiki, INARA and the main group in VKontakte, organizers of the Coalition of Russian-speaking allied factions cluster.

The exact date of the founding of the Supreme Council and the true reasons for launching Close Encounters Corps is unknown, but it seems that it was launched long before the first contact with the Targoids, as a result of an earlier research group, whose members were leading scientists and officers of several superpowers.

The organization is interested in researching alien technology, developing methods of deterrence and analyzing alien activity. It actively implements and controls projects to improve humanity, actively assimilates proven alien technology into its systems, and carries out a whole galaxy of classified projects.

Project Close Encounters Corps adheres to the principles of zero primary aggression, complete independence from outside forces, mutual assistance to allied structures and respect for neighbors.

Into our faction are accepted pilots who are not members of other alliances as pilots of these alliances and not connected with them in any way, categorically not being duplicates of other accounts, preferably having a total flight time not less than 250 hours, understanding the basic principles of the game and communication, ready to be active participants of the community and agree with all requirements to the participants (see #rules_and_regulations in our discord).

The main communication takes place in chat, voice less often, due to the extremely diverse geography of participants and varying degrees of employment. Faction is not interested in PowerPlay and PvP-components, we are not going to contact with griefers, gankers and other criminals, we prefer to ignore their existence and develop along the path, which chose themselves.

The factions Free Space Rangers (Cantina Pub) and Royal Phoenix Security Group are our unconditional allies, all contacts with them are based on the unwavering principle of mutual respect and willingness to help whenever necessary. The bond of our three factions is the solid foundation of the entire Coalition of Allied Factions.

- AUT INVENIAM VIAM AUT FACIAM

Synopsis

Humans long ago entered the era of interstellar travel, thus marking an era of amazing discoveries and large-scale expansion into the depths of the unknown.

Between 2810 and 2849 in the 29th century, humanity encountered a previously unknown and incredibly powerful alien enemy, the Thargoids. Our differences and human fear of the unknown caused a bloody war, resulting in millions of casualties and the loss of many human worlds.

However, in 3151, by resorting to the weapon of genocide - a mycoid created by the hands of the scientists of the Intergalactic Naval Reserve Arm (INRA), humanity was able to postpone the coming of the dark times and enter a new era of discovery and accomplishment.

But even such radical and inhumane measures to contain the Thargoid threat were not enough. From the outskirts of the Pleiades Sector and from the closed sectors of the Witch Head Nebula, the Horsehead Dark Region, came the more advanced alien race ships, immune to our conventional weapons. Through much hardship and sacrifice, humans managed to find a sure-fire way to confront the upgraded Thargoids and stood still, waiting for the coming of a monstrous storm.

A little later, unknown artifacts were discovered in the abandoned ruins of the ancient Guardians civilization and information was received about the interceptions of pilot ships in the Pleiades Sector.

Continuing its development and implementation of a plan to improve the human race, as well as to protect against potential alien and Club threats, the Close Encounters Corps project in the Kagutsuchi system was accelerated.

History of the organization

The faction was founded by five members of the High Council, odious elite pilots and scientists whose goal was to improve the human race. Thanks to the help of an anonymous sponsor from whom the Supreme Council received basic funding and the ability to operate covertly from any galactic superpowers, the faction fleet and its elements, became largely ahead of the standard equipment of the military forces of the powers and factions.

Later, seeing the potential and appreciating the high rate of development, the Corps became interested in the legendary Pilots Federation, the staff of the shadow organization gradually began to grow, but also began to accumulate tension in the management structure of the Supreme Council.

After months of strife and differences of opinion on the further development of the organization, the elders began to leave the Council one by one. Some could not bear the weight of the responsibility they had been given, while others were destroyed by arrogance and an irrepressible thirst for power. At this critical moment, activists dissatisfied with the stagnation of the organization staged a coup that brought new faces to power.

Having hacked into the home station's main terminals and seized control of all systems, they decapitated the weakened structure almost instantly. But the anonymous sponsor who had created the organization, who until these events had been watching from the sidelines, could not allow the destruction of all that had been achieved with his impressive investment and administrative resources.

In case of unforeseen events, even as the basic structures of the home station were being erected, he had written a hybrid computer program based on breakthrough technology, partially borrowing circuits previously stolen from the Club. This program was to promptly restore the viability of Crown Prospect and recreate the structure of the Corps from scratch should its existence be threatened.

In addition to software tweaks, the sponsor equipped the station with bulk tanks of nanomachines and a powerful garage of construction drones, which he had purchased at a bargain on one shady market and decided to add to his major acquisition, the station.

As soon as the insurgents let their guard down by stepping away from the Crown Prospect, hoping to safely spend all the assets they had captured earlier, the program blocked all external gateways and initiated a systematic recycling of the station's structures.

After squandering the Corps' stolen assets and forgetting about the station they had abandoned, the mutineers formed the Argus Corporation and no longer showed any interest in the Corps or its affairs, doing business on distant planets and stations, and then vanished without a trace.

After many months of deep rebuilding of the station by a swarm of nanomachines and construction drones, the station was fully restored to operation. Hybrid algorithms based on the Galaxy's forbidden advanced artificial intelligence were integrated into the main systems, and a powerful radio beacon was activated to attract the population and recruit new pilots. From this stage begins the story of the renewed Close Encounters Corps faction...

Weeks later, ominous rumors swirl across GalNET, the once abandoned station has awakened on its own and is calling for pilots for some reason. One of the former Supreme members, CMDR Antoshader, arrived at the station, stupefied by his own curiosity.

To his surprise, his old airlock key card didn't fit, but the airlocks opened on their own as soon as his Remlok was scanned by the drone swarm. And the pilot was able to get inside the upgraded Crown Prospect.

After walking through the empty and unfamiliarly clean halls, he made his way to the Control Desk, where the program's core servers were housed and where the rest of the swarm of machines had rushed to save energy.

CMDR Antoshader surveyed the unfamiliar structure in the center of the room, which pulsed and aired out incomprehensible scraps of data. He decided to touch the strangely pulsating, blue-black surface of the server rack and [DATA DELETED].

The result of this process, a symbiotic life form, the commander's consciousness and body were disassembled and recreated by the Automatic system.

As a result of the long and steady work of the Automatic system, the necessary personnel were found and recruited to assist in the formation of new links, the distribution of funds, information, and forces. Close Encounters Corps has undoubtedly become a powerful paramilitary closed structure, led by the Automatic system and a close circle of elite pilots engaged in exploring the mysteries of the galaxy, finding ways to combat alien threats and systematically expanding the corps' sphere of influence.

Later there was an attempt on the part of these factions to unite with CEC and create a utopian state, NOVA. The project was practically realized, but during the final discussions on the responsibility for the management of this structure, there were attempts to sabotage the project by third forces, which led to the winding down of the initiative on the part of CEC.

Thereafter, diplomatic relations were frozen, hostilities were avoided, and Close Encounters Corps returned to full autonomous support and operation.

On February 1, 3304, the faction's automatic system was finalized, with alien technology and a number of developments from the [DELETED DATA] project implemented, and the Gehirn system was born. New directives were added, and AntonyVern became the leader of the faction, now officially.

In order to expand its sphere of influence and create a dense network of contacts with major Galactic factions, Project Expansion was initiated. In the course of this project many factions were addressed with the idea of creating a strong multilateral alliance, ensuring collective security and conducting joint research, military and social activities.

At the moment the organization continues the selection of personnel, explores remote and closed sectors, eliminates the consequences of Thargoids attacks on humanity's stations, systematically continues to implement and control a number of secret projects to improve humanity, counteracts the so-called Club.

Accepted designations and public structure

The faction is a paramilitary special scientific structure with a rigid vertical of power with a well-organized internal structure. The ships of the faction members have a strictly defined format of names and identifiers.

Captains who have carrier ships in their possession are obliged to indicate the abbreviation of faction membership - CEC - before the name of a particular carrier ship.

An example of a correct carrier ship name:

CEC LEVITHAN.
CEC ORLANGUR
CEC TSIOLKOVSKY

Ordinary faction pilot ships should not have any additional names or symbols in their names.

Here's an example of how normal ships should be named:

JORMUNGAND
ARAN EINIOR
ADMIRAL M. P. LAZAREV

The IDs of regular staff ships must strictly correspond to the list of approved options and reflect the specific purpose of the ship. Identifiers are put in the game, in the Design menu and in the ID (ship identifier) submenu.

Any IDs not included in the registry are NOT allowed. The first two letters of the ID indicate a ship's assignment to a specific department (departmental assignment is formal and personnel are rotated), the letters written after the hyphen indicate the ship's specification.

Public Departments:

SS - Department of Security
EX - Exploration and Scientific Department
AX - Anti-xeno Defense Division
MT - Department of Mining and Trading

Council Departments:

ASD - Advanced Scientific Division
DCI - Department of Countermeasures and Intelligence
SCI - Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility - [REDACTED]

SS:

SS-CSH - Combat Ship
SS-DSH - DropShip
SS-SSH - Support Ship
SS-DSN Diversion Ship
SS-BSH - Bomber Ship
SS-APS - Anti-Personnel Ship
SS-AVS - Anti-Vehicle Ship
SS-WIS - Warfare Intelligence Ship

EX:

EX-CPS Cartography and Prospect Ship
EX-LDR: Long-Distance Research Ship
EX-XSH: Xenobiology Ship

AX:

AX-CSH - Combat Ship - Standardized Anti-Xeno Combat Ship
AX-CBS - Cold Build Ship
AX-AIS - Anti-Interceptor Ship
AX-WFS - Wing Fight Ship
AX-DSH - DropShip
AX-SSH - Support Ship
AX-WIS - Warfare Intelligence Ship

MT:

MT-EPS Extraction and Processing Ship
MT-DTS: Delivery and Trade Ship
UC (outside the general classification):
UC-MFS - Multifunctional Ship outside the general classification
UC-RCH - Rescue Ship
UC-PSH - Passenger ship
UC-HSH is a Hacking Ship
UC-RSH - Racing Ship
UC-WIP - Work in Progress Ship - temporarily unspecified

The organization is currently run by the Supreme Council. The head of the project AntonyVern/Automatic system (Anton Vernitsky).

AntonyVern, naukogriz and Arekas are responsible for news and bulletins. Victorians and DrofaVV are responsible for the order and execution of operational tasks. Gehirn system databases: KAZAK0V, Osmium. Design of groups and community channels: AntonyVern, Baradetsky and Pontus Frykter.

As a way to maintain the right atmosphere, our staff pilot VektoRVS (Vadim Sitpanov) has written a short story about the life of the organization's commanders and the expedition to the Rift of Terror.

The organization's basic charter

Zero Primary Aggression Policy. It is forbidden to attack non-aggressive human or other races' ships first. In the event of obvious aggressive behavior on the part of a pilot or alien individual, the staff pilot must stand up for the interests of the faction and humanity;
Tolerance, respect for others, insistence on maintaining neutrality and integrity of the faction, fight against separatism. Allowed to nominally belong to a galactic Force, but the interests of the faction must be above the goals of other factions and Forces;
Comprehensive assistance to structures whose goals are consistent with ours, as long as this does not directly contradict current faction interests or Council orders. Comprehensive information and resource support to our allies, conducting joint treaty activities. Adherence to covenants, treaties, and allied obligations;
Adherence to generally accepted moral and ethical standards of behavior. Intolerance to griefers, logoffers (under the concept of logoff we does not include leaving the game after the exit timer, because this is not technically and officially a violation of any rules, respectively, can not be judged and considered), gankers, spies, saboteurs and other criminals. A warning and a ban if repeated. Faction, as an organization, is not responsible in the case of a specific person violation of the game rules, all such problems should be resolved only in private (forewarned - forearmed). Report any blatant crimes against you and other pilots, ban criminals in your own game, help clear the space from the trash;
Observe discipline and subordination. If a higher authority has issued a task, it should be carried out immediately. Opinions expressed by individual faction pilots are their private business, the official position of the faction is broadcast exclusively by the faction head and/or Council (in consultation with the faction head);
Work in systems with faction presence must be conducted strictly for our faction, missions should be taken from Close Encounters Corps and for Close Encounters Corps (mission description, recipient), taking and performing any missions for opponents within our systems is strictly prohibited, unless otherwise indicated in the specialized channels;
Careful and attentive attitude to any internal information and to communication in open networks, defending the honor and interests of СEC. Remember the principles of non-disclosure of internal company information and negotiating in the context of information wars;
Responding to any incoming calls for help inside and outside the population bubble. It is necessary, to pick up and deliver to the nearest stations rescue capsules from the wreckage of ships, refuel and fix drones of pilots' ships at their request. Remember, everyone can get in trouble;
Galaxy Exploration. Reconnaissance on the edge of the sphere of influence and the far reaches. Exploring anomalies encountered and any alien technology;
Constant monitoring and analysis of any incoming information on alien artifacts, ruins of ancient civilizations, unknown signals and occurrences. Monitoring and documenting all contact with alien forms;
Being active on the pages, INARA Wing, and Discord of our organization. Healthy communication and support of fellow members. An interest in promoting the ideas of the CEС, the development of the faction, and a willingness to help allies;
Maintaining a framework of adequacy and responsibility. Our groups, like the faction itself, are created and based on the principles of friendly communication, mutual understanding and personal responsibility to comrades for the sake of work for the development of the faction (often selfless and monotonous). The concept of "friendly communication" does not include "chuckles," " tattles," all kinds of "rofles," etc.;
Categorical rejection of bot accounts, unfair methods of gaining a game advantage by interfering with the game process. Any of our software and other developments are coordinated with the developers, meet the standards of license agreements, have been repeatedly tested and are unambiguously safe.

Additional regulatory protocols

Any overt or veiled attempts at sabotage, working for any faction other than our own, disobeying the rules, undermining factional relations, as well as disrupting the expansion of our faction's sphere of influence through the BGS and interfering with our pilots' activities in the CEC zone of influence, will be punished with a warning and then a permanent ban and placed on the list of faction enemies;
Identified spying on other factions, alliances, communities or individual pilots and broadcasting/transmitting inside information of any nature, separatism and any attempts to split the community, will be punished with a ban without warning and placed on the list of enemies of the faction;
Dirty language, spam, any form of insulting the dignity of people, deliberate and repeated offtops, posting of shocking and offensive content, incitement and attempts to insult the moderators or faction leadership, direct and/or veiled disrespect to pilots and the faction, backstage negative discussions of faction representatives and the faction itself, as well as the so called 'toxicity' and 'nagging' in the broadest sense - a warning and beatings, followed by a permanent ban and possible inclusion in the community's enemies list. Apart from that, the faction administration reserves the sovereign right to remove and ban any faction or discord participant at their own discretion and without explanation;
Attempts to poach the staff pilots of the faction to other structures/unions/factions/groups etc., will lead to a significant deterioration of relations with the party that is trying to pull such actions and to the bans of those who are trying to poach the staff;
User accounts on our Discord server and site that contain shocking, offensive, inciting religious, political, factional or any other kind of hostility (in text or any other form) will receive a warning, forced change of nickname. A permanent ban will be issued for persistent abuse;
All kinds of materials (text, audio, video, graphic, etc.) created by pilots as part of their work for the faction belong to the faction, the rights to move, delete, edit, change belong to the faction, even if the pilot leaves the faction.

Rules of interaction between staff members and strangers (in faction systems)

If you notice a stranger in our faction systems who seems suspicious, remember his nickname and additionally address him by a personal message or an alert in the system chat with the following text (choose, depending on the language of the pilot), to fit, break it into several messages:

"Welcome to the Close Encounters Corps system. What is the purpose of your visit? We must outline, that in systems with Close Encounters Corps presence, any actions to interfere with our work on the BGS is illegal and amounts to aggression against our faction. Any violations will lead to immediate response"

OR

"Dear Guest! Welcome to the Close Encounters Corps faction system. What is the purpose of your visit? We must emphasize that in the systems where our faction is present, any action to interfere with our BGS work and any attempt to interfere with the work of staff members is illegal and amounts to direct aggression against our faction. Any disruption or disregard of appeals will result in a legitimate response."

If an assurance is received from the pilot that his actions are within the stipulated rules and if the pilot is not verbally or otherwise aggressive, wish him a safe flight or offer to assist in his concerns.

If the pilot fails to respond to several requests, ignores your legitimate questions, behaves aggressively or is abusive, you have the right to intercept his aircraft for inspection, after which you have two options:

1) If the pilot after the interception (without an attack on him from your side) does not immediately fire at you, peacefully scan his cargo, once again ask about the purpose of the visit to the system, after receiving an intelligible and correct answer politely apologize for the inconvenience and wish the pilot a happy journey.

2) If the pilot, after the interception (without an attack on him from your side) has opened fire or is aggressive in any other way, you have the right to knock out his engines or destroy him on the spot. Such actions are left to the discretion of the individual ally.

Separately, we emphasize that video or photo documentation of such situations must be kept.

EXTORTION, DELIBERATE COLLISION BY BOARDS, PIRACY, AS WELL AS ANY OTHER TYPES AND FORMS OF DESTRUCTIVE ACTIVITY AGAINST THE PEACEFUL GUESTS OF THE FACTION SYSTEMS BY THE FACTION STAFF IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.

The specified rules come into force from the moment of their publication, their effect is inevitable, the punishment in case of non-compliance with the specified rules is not amenable to amnesty. On matters of appeal for specific minor offenses please contact the moderators. Questions about bans are not brought up for discussion, in the case of attempts to - mute, then a permanent ban. The practice of harsh penalties and the inevitability of permanent bans, due to the desire to bring order and discipline in the ranks of the faction. Separately, we emphasize that ignorance of the local rules does not exempt from liability in case of violations.

The design we use in our publications was created by our talented pilots Baradetsky (baradetsky@gmail.com), Pontus Frykter, Hatrage, хамолог, AntonyVern.

*All Contents Copyright © 2016—2021 Close Encounters Corps. All Rights Reserved. Created using assets and imagery from Elite Dangerous, with the permission of Frontier Developments plc, for non-commercial purposes. It is not endorsed by nor reflects the views or opinions of Frontier Developments and no employee of Frontier Developments was involved in the making of it.*