The tentacle is back for another article. This time we need to talk about who taught you to fly? What academy did you part-take in? Well let’s make an organization/faction that with built-in plot device.

I give you ACE, or Accelerated Certifications of Explorers…

Accelerated Certification of Explorers (ACE)

Pilots for Hire

Leader: CEO and board Chairmen Sheyenne Alexxandra
Headquarters: Alpha Zeta, mobile space station

Two score ago, Accelerated Certification of Explorers, also known as ACE, started as a top gun pilot training academy boasting of the best and brightest from the civilized races around the Quad and beyond the Void. The academy offered a variety of classes ranging from weekend seminars teaching kids to pilot simple single man watercrafts to month-long training simulations on tactical heavy freighter combat. It was in a pilots favor and respected if a pilot held an ACE-approved certification pilot license.

As technology advanced and potential pilots sought cheaper training elsewhere, the ACE program expanded beyond the academy portion of the businesses and branched out to planetary expeditions. They serve as aerial surveillance and security for industrial corporations performing planet side surveys for future developments. The Alpha One (A1) Department services its clients with manned craft and aerial drones protecting the ground crew and providing surveillance shielding for clients that wish to keep operations secret. Providing services of radar jamming and scan deflectors are optional for an additional service fee.

Department Alpha Two (A2) handles requests for security of over long distance travel through hyperspace. Elite A2 starfighter pilots take on escort missions for freighter caravans that need defending from space pirates and organic threats traveling in deep space. This department gives guidance astral navigation through safe routes and pilots assigned to the contract will respond defensively to aggressive actions against employers. However, ACE policy dictates a responsive reaction versus initial confrontation. The pilots that join this department must be skilled in negotiation.  

Department Alpha Three (A3) is the salvage and rescue fleet of the ACE company. A3 operates under contracts consisting of simple missions of planet-side equipment retrieval for corporations who left items behind, to answering distress beacons that the Union Worlds do not have time or resources in the area to inspect. The makeup of the A3 hosts a number of large freighters, tow ships, and starfighters equipped with the most advanced scanners and towing technology available.

Rumors persist of a division of the company that offers select services to only the most high profile of clients. ACE Public Relations (PRD) will never confirm the existence of the whispered department within the organization that performs these hush services. However, conspiracy theorists say the Delta Nova Zeta (DNZ) is a corporate mercenary division taking contracts of black ops rescue and withdraws, acting as crack pilot dog fighters bombarding slave ships, emergency medical extractions for undercover corporate or government agents, and performs ethical espionage and sabotage. The DNZ operatives fly in on unmarked ships and disappear before targets can register their movement.    

Lead by CEO and Board Chairman Sheyenne Alexxandra, ACE Headquarters is located on a mobile space station that wonders the quadrant known as Alpha Zeta. This station houses a large percentage of ACE internal fleet of ships and offers a wide variety of services to ACE Certified Pilots. These services include medical services and resupply, dormitories for rent, refueling capabilities, including ship repairs and upgrades, an array of equipment (personal and otherwise) for rental and purchase, a job board access with access to freelance contracts and a number of essential services provided to members only.

ACE still operates a number of pilot training facilities among several Union planets, offering local licenses and higher quality ACE certifications. Local licenses focus on the society regulations of the planet, local government and Union qualifications for registered operation of the required craft. Then they offer a more intensive course designed with higher standards and lower graduation rate that qualify the individual as an ACE Certified Pilot. They use these higher courses to scout for potential recruits.

There you go. Small article today. But you have a faction of pilots that do cool stuff.

~Tentacle out!