The Free Drones

I'll try not to call them the Data Angels.

Foreman Domai
As usual, he should get Status 6 (leader of a major faction), and Administrative Rank 6.
Disadvantage-wise, probably change Sense of Duty (drones and other laborers) to Sense of Duty (Free Drone faction members).
Skill-wise, he seems fine. Very broad range already.

The Free Drones were founded very early in Planet's history, only 60 years after Planetfall. During this early time, the Human Hive was even more restrictive than it is currently, as Chairman Yang had much more direct control over his subjects. Nevertheless, there were rebellions. Domai was a young man, born to drone parents. He grew up in the Hive, indoctrinated into Yang's beliefs. In fact, the teachings in many cases took. Domai deeply believed in the Hive ideal of each person contributing to the glory of humanity as a whole. Domai's defense of Hive ideology and his natural intelligence and strength drew attention to him. He soon became part of the Hive leadership cadre, and slowly began to rise through the ranks. However, as Domai matured, he found himself drifting away from some of the Hive's basic concepts. In particular, he began to reject Yang's contention that humans were valueless except when they contributed to the whole. Domai asked himself "If humans are valueless except when they contribute to society, why then does society have value?" He came to the conclusion that all humans have value, but they only fulfill that value when they help others achieve their potential, through their contributions to human society. Domai also began to question the nihilism of Yang's philosophy. As he experienced more and more of life outside the education creche, he saw many things that suggested that it was not only will that gave humans purpose and meaning. Indeed, Domai was struck by the simple power of those who resisted attempts to break them down. They gained meaning through resistance, not through imposing their will on others. In his private thoughts, Domai questioned Yang's leadership more and more.
Domai kept these reflections private, but some hint of them began to be noticed by his superiors. His rise in the hiearchy slowed, and he began to get more unpleasant tasks assigned to him. He was often involved in supressing drone dissent, activities that only added fuel to the fire of his doubt. Domai had been noticed by Chairman Yang himself, who recognized the young man's idealism. Yang appreciated Domai's belief in the importance of cooperation, but he felt that Domai's faith in human nature had to be broken. As part of this program, he sent Domai to one of the main Hive bases, where major drone riots had broken out, with instuctions to subdue the rioters at any cost. Yang hoped that seeing humanity at its most violent and irrational would crush Domai's idealism, leaving him an ideal Hive administrator. The effect on Domai, however, was quite the opposite.
When Domai arrived at the base, he instituted some stopgap measures to contain the rioting drones. However, instead of then attempting to crush the dissent, as his superiors expected him to do, he began to investigate the source of the riots. What he found disgusted him: widespread exploitation of the drones, including what was essentially private slaves for high ranking Hive members, arbitrary and unjust punishments, and extremely inferior living conditions. Domai attempted to remedy these issues, but he was blocked at every turn by the base's command, who resisted all attempts to remove their priviledges. However, as Domai worked, he gained a major rapport with the drones and middle class of the base, who respected him for his fairness and unwillingness to give up. Finally, the last straw arrived: Yang sent orders for mass nerve staplings to quell the rioters, and instructed that no change in conditions, aside from removal of corruption, be instituted. Domai rebelled.
Working quickly, he organized the drones and sympathetic talents in the base. Using his high level security clearances, he was able to allow drone forces into the administrative and military sections of the base, where the high officials were captured before any warning could be sent. The drones were in control of the base. Unfortunately, they realized, they would be no match for the full military might of the Hive, who would surely descend on the base as soon as the revolt was discovered. The drones grimly prepared for a heroic last stand, declaring that they would rather die free than return to slavery. However, Domai proposed a daring alternative: an exodus. The base's production facilities were quickly retooled to vehicle production, and the population willing to leave began to gather all the equipment they could easily transport. Meanwhile, captive administrators were forced to send messages saying all was well.
Finally, after 3 months of backbreaking effort, everything was ready. The population of the base, almost 10,000 people, were loaded into massive transports, defended by mobile rover squadrons, and the journey began.
The Drone Exodus, as it was later called, was an epic tale. Domai led the drones for over two years. At first, they were forced to travel as stealthily as possible, to avoid Hive patrols. Once out of Hive territory, they still had to contend with hostile native life and unexplored terrain. Domai pushed the people south as far as possible, to escape the Hive's reach. The worst section of the trek was when they passed through Planet's major desert, the Great Dunes. Finally, the drones reached the isthmus known as Planetneck, and they encountered their future great benefactors, the Spartans.
The Spartans were surprised to see the drones, but not totally unaware of their existence. Sparta had been skirmishing with the Hive for several years, and word of the great escape had caused much amusment in Spartan headquarters. However, the Spartans had expected that the drones would quickly perish in such a mad attempt. But now, the drones were here, on the Spartan doorstep. The first thought was to simply integrate the drones into the Spartan's own society. However, this idea was quickly rejected: the drones were too independent and egalitarian-minded to fit easily into the Spartan ideal of military dominance. Instead, Sparta Command decided that the drones should be given aid and assistance to establish bases of their own. Arrogantly, Sparta assumed that drones such as these would never make a serious military threat, and would provide valuable industrial services to Sparta.
However, the drones quickly proved more resourceful than anyone expected. Their successful revolt, and still more their epic journey, had given them a boundless confidence. Also, the exodus in particular had bound the drone community into a tightly knit whole. Every drone felt that they could rely on their fellow drones to aid and support them, and each recognized the individual excellence of the others. The drones declared themselves the Free Drones, and set to work, soon setting up several new bases and building their forces.


The Free Drones are deep believers in democracy. Almost every position in their society with any sort of political power is elected, or at least given popular input. Managers of companies, for example, are often selected from a pool of applicants that the workers have nominated. Judges, police chiefs, even medical officials, are all elected by the Drones. Even Domai himself could theoretically be voted out if the populace so wished. Of course, in practice, Domai has far too much public respect and politcal acumen to ever be removed from office unless he wanted to go. Drone society is also extremely egalitarian. Status is hard to come by in Drone society. Even Domai is only considered Status 3 within Drone society. Further, Rank never grants additional levels of Status with Drones; they believe that a political position is a duty, not something to give anyone special priviledges for.
Economically, the Drones are highly organized. They understand that a state-run economy is the best way to promote a strong and tight-knit society, and most Drones willingly accept that their labor is best spent bettering the lot of everyone.
The Free Drones value knowledge very highly. Every Drone knows that the more an individual knows, the more likely they are to be useful to society. The ideal Drone is a true Rennaisance Man, capable of doing almost any job in Drone society, from leading a terraforming crew, to building parts in a factory, to performing research in a cutting-edge lab, to leading troops in the field. Most Drones make a point of becoming at least decent in two different fields.
The Drones believe that every human has their own excellence, but they also believe that there is always room for improvement. To this end, the Drones have begun experimenting with bionics, genetics, and psionics to make their population healthier, stronger, smarter, happier, and above all, better. This program has not yet seen many results, but eventually it may have a strong effect on Drone society.

The Drones have only average wealth compared to the rest of Planet. Drones usually don't starve to death, thanks to social welfare programs, but equally, few rise to the heights of wealth some other factions can achieve, as taxes and social obligations tend to increase with income. As their policy of improving their faction members continues, the Drones look set to significantly increase their average income.
Free Drone bases are slightly more efficient than average. Their economy tends to lead to beauraucracy, but most public servants are encouraged to restrict red tape by the threat of being voted out of office by irate consitituents.
The Free Drones have one of the highest growth rates on Planet, with 5% per year, with their social safety net and open lifestyle encouraging large families. The Drones offer incentives to families with more children, and the whole community tries to take care of kids, which leads to bases brimming over with the young. As the human improvement program is phased in, the growth rate will no doubt increase even further.
In industry, the Free Drones are one of Planet's leaders. Their industrial workers are well trained and highly motivated, usually with experience in several different techniques. Drone goods are cheap and well made, and the faction is often enriched by other factions asking to buy from them. The improvments promised by the ideal of improved humanity seems set to make the Drones the biggest industrial power on Planet.
Free Drone military forces are about average in training and quality. Few faction members outside the military make a particular point to get training in arms and tactics. Unfortunately, as the goal of human improvement approaches, this seems likely to grow worse, with faction members gaining an aversion to violence to solve problems.
With respect to the ecosystem, the Free Drones are about average for Planet. Although the Drones have several large industrial systems, they are reasonably careful about preventing ecological damage from them. Thus, fungus and mindworms are only rarely problems for Free Drone bases.
The Drones are a fairly restricted society, with a wide selection of laws governing faction member behavior. However, they are hardly a dictatorship, and the average Drone is reasonably content with their elected officials.
Free Drone society is relatively open, with the result that other factions find it reasonably easy to infiltrate Drone bases and networks. Few Drones are fanatically devoted to the faction ideology, which can sometimes lead to trouble. Also, the Drones lack experience in covert missions, and few of their probe teams are equiped with particularly good equipment or training.
While the Drones are interested in knowledge, their research is only average. The Drones' ideal of the multitalented individual means that few researchers have the dedication to one field of study that really good research often requires. Also, the Drones often chafe at the idea of granting valuable faction wealth to blue-sky research, when it could be supporting other faction members right now.
Few Free Drones serve in the military, with the faction having a standing force of only about 2% of its population. The democractic ideals of the Drones make them nervous of large military forces, fearing coups and adventurism.