Birb United Syndicate of Tevarin Interest &Nations / BUSTIN

The Beginning

Those were the final words of Tevarin Warlord Corath’thal, picked up by Human comms at the end of the second Tevarin war. As he said this, Corath’thal and his fleet burned up in Kaleeth’s atmosphere, as hundreds of Tevarin ships crashed towards Kaleeth’s surface, including the late Warlord’s. This event was depicted by the early Messer Era landscape and military artist Aaron Fring, in the piece ‘Tears of Fire’.

This historical event was the catalyst that formed the Birb United Syndicate of tevarin Interest & Nations. On February 11th, 2953, the human pilot known as Birbology started their journey to the tevarin settlement on Branaugh II, using a ship stolen from a UEE research station. Upon reaching their destination, the pilot reached out to the members of the tevarin settlement, and together they formed the syndicate with the intent to liberate the remaining tevarin population that lingered on in the galaxy and the oppressed civilians that reside in UEE space, by any means necessary.

The BUSTIN immediately started making deals and secret alliances with as many underground elements within UEE space as possible, primarily for information gathering. The first significant discovery made by BUSTIN’s allies was on March 25th, 2953, where the syndicate ally Min-Min stole a copy of the schedule, route and manifest of a UEE prison convoy, the manifest of which showed hundreds of mostly tevarin convicts being transported to the dreaded prison-world Quarterdeck in the Kellog system. This knowledge sparked the first official operation by the BUSTIN, but the syndicate only had weeks to plan in advance, as the timing for the op was short. The BUSTIN knew that the convoy was going to be lightly guarded, as there weren’t any high-profile fugitives onboard the prison ship, an anvil carrack. Birbology and Min-Min worked with the rest of BUSTIN’s leadership to formulate a plan.

“Operation: BUSTOUT”

On the day of April 17th, 2953, phase 1 of “Operation: BUSTOUT” began with the activation of an RSI mantis piloted by porkandbeans09 that was positioned ahead of the prison convoy’s route, pulling the entire convoy out of the quantum tunnel and jamming their QT drives, as the convoy’s escort fighters were scrambled to intercept the mantis. Phase 2 of the operation began with the syndicate’s attack force jumping into the QED zone, immediately opening fire while most of the convoy’s escort fighters were occupied. The larger escort ships were quickly overwhelmed and disabled by Min-Min and the syndicate fighter pilots, who were trained by Min-Min, making them efficient and deadly pilots. As the remaining escorts of the convoy were disabled, phase 3 began with two esperia prowlers arriving out of a quantum tunnel. Led by Birbology, the prowlers pulled up to the prison carrack, boarding it without the crew inside knowing. Birbology and their two squads of tevarin and human operators infiltrated the prison ship and began eliminating all UEE targets one by one while the rest of the syndicate forces kept overwatch outside. Once all hostile forces were eliminated or incapacitated, Birbology ordered their troops to secure the rest of the carrack for capture, as well as any remaining ships from the escort fleet that had a functioning QT drive.

As the syndicate forces prepared to leave, Birbology took their place as ‘warlord’ of BUSTIN, while appointing the hero of the operation porkandbeans09 to be their ‘hand of the warlord’. The freed prisoners were given a choice, join BUSTIN or to live out their days in relative peace on Branaugh II. Most of the tevarin ex-prisoners decided to join the syndicate, further strengthening its ranks. With the successful operation complete, the syndicate turned its eyes towards the rest of the known galaxy. However, with the UEE slowly becoming more aware of BUSTIN’s existence, syndicate leadership had mothballed some of the larger ships they had liberated during the operation, as their presence could attract unwanted attention. Regardless, “Operation: BUSTOUT” was a resounding success, and goes down in history as BUSTIN’s greatest accomplishment.