The Keepers

The Keepers have their origins in the earliest days of the Second Cycle, when Malcolm Orion and Sinfed Reyu welcomed new sentient species to the Hub. As the population on the space station grew, and new communities built additions to the Creator Tech core and First Cycle structures, inevitably there was interspecies conflict, along with corruption and crime. So the Recon-7 – the political predecessor to the Merge – established the Keepers to help support the collective goal of reconvergence.

Over the past 500 years, the role of the Keepers has expanded from simple law enforcement to include intelligence gathering, fugitive apprehension, and covert operations. As a result, those who join the Keepers must possess a wide array of skills, and need to be knowledgeable about and comfortable with the criminal elements that exist within every species and on all Hub worlds. They must also understand the political and social issues that exist between and within species while being able to navigate the complex world of the wealthy and powerful.

While Keeper headquarters are in Nex City on the Hub, their jurisdiction extends to all worlds connected to the Mass-O network. They have permanent bureaus on all Merge worlds, field offices on highly-trafficked Hub worlds, and outposts of varying sizes on Outworlds (the citizens of which may not want them there). While all sentient species have their own systems of law and order, Keepers – with the leverage of the Merge at their back – axlg/9CXxMHvO+WLZf9hd2fgxzNXpBzJtLduxNLWURDSq/rUcoYZGNOcBQbXFjAqrWOpz FGwv3wKbyKaGU0ge6Y/Dh6DswQQU/yiHux3MPXkXztrEM2ErYT0RHSTwnZnMNyAuqFcV0RMMU3qRswQEWkcStfUbb6hbtVqzOYMklmC7mLl3Ve+5ids7Jafo+DXCUEvxZtWjVE=

Given the dangers inherent in their wide-ranging roles, Keepers are highly trained in a vast array of weapons as well as hand-to-hand combat. Many would argue that Keepers are too quick to resort to violence, particularly when dealing with threats, real or perceived, on Hub worlds and Outworlds (as opposed to the Hub or Merge worlds, where Keeper conduct is considerably constrained), but given the complexity of their assigned tasks, as well as the deadly nature of the threats they deal with, Keepers are given significant leeway whenever force is involved.

Despite their reputation among the criminals they pursue, Keepers are seen by most citizens of the Merge and Hub worlds as honorable and an essential part of the system that allows species from across the universe to peacefully coexist.