Coral (The Homeworld)

This is the planet from which the people of Pioneer 1 and Pioneer 2 emigrated.

The entire planet had been caught under the chaos and turmoil of war, and as a result, the environment and ecosystem began to collapse. Due to the high degree of infighting, the power held by the military grew, and as of present, the government and the military have an unusually close relationship.

The Pioneer Project was the brainchild of the most powerful national group on Coral, the Alliance of Nations.

The office of Principal Colin Tyrell oversees all government functions aboard Pioneer 2.

While nominally having a cooperative relationship with the government, organizations with strong homeworld backing like the military and the Lab have their own plans and agendas about which Tyrell knows nothing.

Due to the rapidly-changing situation on the planet Ragol, as well as the strange activities of other organizations, the Principal and his office have formed their own security team and research team.

The bulk of the military forces for the Pioneer Project were sent aboard Pioneer 1 due to initial colonization duties. Pioneer 2 is populated mostly by ordinary citizens, and therefore their forces are quite limited in terms of both manpower and weaponry. As a result, they have fallen behind the hunters in terms of strength and clout.

However, there are rumors that WORKS, a secret military faction headed by Leo Grahart, is currently conducting maneuvers behind the scenes...

WORKS (Military Special Ops Task Force)

This is the colloquial name for the 32 nd Space Mechanized Mobile Infantry.

Because they grew to such power within Coral's military forces, the government assigned the division's captain, Leo Grahart, to a non-military rank government office. Furthermore, Grahart's own inner circle of elite troops were all assigned to special duty aboard Pioneer 1, in order to further weaken the core of their might and influence.

As for the WORKS force aboard Pioneer 2, Grahart does have a number of followers, and he has some type of operation in motion, but his supporter on the technical side, Professor Montague, has disappeared. Any details of the operation itself are shrouded in secrecy. There are also rumors that the Lab has some hand in strange dealings.

The government's directly-controlled special ops force, Black Paper, while officially a cooperating entity with WORKS, is actually working against them.

Pioneer 1 Research Group (P1 Lab)

Pioneer 1's research team was headed by Dr. Osto Hyle, and was charged with study and experimentation of Ragol's native wildlife, including genetic engineering.

Whereas Pioneer 2's research group operates in the public eye, the P1 Lab carried out the combined intentions of the government and military behind the scenes.

During the initial colonization, they set up an underground facility in order to study previously-unknown energy dynamics. Also, Dr. Hyle set up another facility on Gal Da Val Island, away from the Central Dome, for the purposes of carrying out bioengineering experiments.

It is believed that the energy experiments were part of the homeworld's plan all along, but that Dr. Hyle conducted the large-scale biological experiments on his own accord, outside of any project guidelines approved by Coral.

Pioneer 2 Research Group (P2 Lab)

The Pioneer 2 Research Group was set up to be the primary establishment for analyzing Ragol research data, performing additional genetic and mechanical engineering tasks, as well as Photon energy research and experimentation. They report to both the Principal and to Coral.

There was strong support from the military side for Dr. Montague, but the current government-appointed Lab Chief is Natasha Millarose. The organization, despite existing aboard Pioneer 2, has strong backing from the homeworld, and has achieved a strong degree of independence. Nominally, they work under the orders of the Principal, but they have been known to operate with military and government backing without reporting these functions.

Black Paper (Government Special Ops Task Force)

Known to most as an underworld syndicate that operates in the shadows.

On the surface, they appear to be a small organization, but they are actually the secret ops task force under direct control of the Alliance of Nations on Coral. On Ragol, they carry out their activities in secret, working to recover data and information regarding the research performed by Pioneer 1 on behalf of the Alliance of Nations.

Recently, there have been rumors that they have been operating in concert with the Pioneer 2 Lab.

Leo Grahart's WORKS team is ostensibly cooperating with them, but in reality, the two organizations are at odds in their goals.

This is under the direct jurisdiction of Principal Tyrell himself.

Nowadays, hunters perform a wide variety of tasks, such as providing bodyguard service, reclaiming lost valuables, and other beneficial services. Until recently, they had been seen as little more than a gang of uncultured rogues, looked down upon by the public and especially so by upper-class citizens. In order to create a more useful organization, they were put under governmental management.

Back on Coral, when this move was first made, a number of hunters decided to remain unaffiliated, and worked as mercenaries in the multitude of internal planetary conflicts. Because of this, hunters established quite a name and reputation for themselves and there is a great deal of enmity between hunters and the military.

Even aboard Pioneer 2, with the Principal's specially sanctioned status for hunters, there exists a gap between the lifestyle of average and high-class citizen and hunters. However, as the reputation of hunters performing good deeds for the people has grown, the general outlook toward them has improved greatly, and their numbers are growing rapidly as more and more aspiring folk (as well as people with a need to duck out of the public eye) join their ranks.