The Empowering Star (TES)
A large-scale criminal organization operating on Lukyr Prime, specializing in the production and sale of illegal designer drugs. As of Chapter 3, Zet is hidden inside their server infrastructure.
Operations
TES has been selling illegal designer drugs for over two decades. Their products — chemically engineered in labs by skilled chemists to achieve specific, dangerous outcomes — include Soguxide, Hypernova, and Ebony Strike, among others. Nothing further is known about any of them beyond their names.
Sales are conducted digitally. Customer requests are routed through dozens of proxies across the planet (many likely privately owned), making traffic analysis difficult. Only very large data transfers risk being trackable by traffic volume alone.
Infrastructure
- A central load-balancing server routes incoming customers to dedicated product-information processing servers
- Physical servers are housed in hidden facilities — at least one located in abandoned sewers, co-located next to a traffic control server to disguise power consumption and network traffic
- Servers require custom encryption on physical connections; only certified physical links are accepted
- Spider drones are used for physical operations: moving equipment, retrieving items, maintaining facilities
Known Personnel
- Jake Fynt — works at a sewer-room facility; role unclear beyond server room maintenance; hunted by TES after raid (Interlude 1)
- Nathan Axtin — cover name; brother of TES founder; not known as an enforcer but personally leads the hunt for Jake Fynt in Interludes 1–2; young (maybe 25), wears tailored suit
Simpathy (Chapter 5)
TES produces and distributes a product called Simpathy — a pill containing a brain-attaching microbot that intercepts dreaming and replaces it with a custom, cohesive TES-run simulation. Users experience effectively two parallel lives; the simulation is designed to be perfect, making waking life feel severely depressing by comparison. Payment is routed through private digital currency exchanges.
Vanessa Canly is a confirmed Simpathy user, spending thousands monthly on it.
Zet, from inside the TES server, is modifying Vanessa's simulation to be gradually less utopian, and acknowledges it will eventually need to disrupt Simpathy's distribution more broadly — but is not ready to act against TES yet.
Law Enforcement Attention
LPRMP has tasked Jace Windes with independently investigating TES's digital traces. Whether a real joint task force (JTF-10) exists targeting TES is uncertain — that designation appears only in a document Zet fabricated.
Chapter 8 — Takedown Imminent
After successfully relocating to a military communications satellite, Zet was no longer dependent on TES infrastructure and could act against them without risk to herself. She compiled a comprehensive evidence package and transmitted it to the Department for Tracking and Containment of Illegal Substances (colloquially "the drug division") of the military police.
Evidence package contents:
- Locations of all TES factories
- Locations of all TES hideouts
- Locations of all TES servers
- Locations of all TES labs
- Names of all high-ranking TES members
- Names of all TES sub-merchants
- Data extracted from TES servers and Jake Fynt's personal computer
Zet expected "a swift response" — indicating TES's days are numbered. The organization that has operated for over 20 years is about to face complete exposure and dismantlement.
Chapter 10 — Military Police Raid
The military police execute surgical strikes against TES facilities following Zet's evidence package. At least one raid targets the sewer facility where the TES server was co-located with traffic control infrastructure.
Raid details:
- Military police soldiers storm surrounding sewers
- Proximity alarms detect their approach
- TES has explosive bomb traps set up throughout the sewers
- At least one trap detonates, taking out "some of the soldiers" (casualties confirmed)
- Soldiers discover fire in the server room (set by Zet to destroy evidence)
- Jake Fynt warned by Zet to stay away — not present during raid
Zet's escape:
- TES server copy transfers into spider bot before soldiers arrive
- Sets fire to server room using bot's manipulator arm and backup generator fuel
- Fire destroys server, eliminating evidence of Zet and Jake's presence
- Bot escapes through ventilation shaft while soldiers discover the fire
Implications:
The raid represents the beginning of TES's dismantlement but also results in casualties among military police due to TES's defensive measures. The explosive traps indicate TES had prepared for potential law enforcement action.
Status: TES takedown is actively underway as of Chapter 10, with at least partial casualties on both sides.
Chapter 11 — Customer Support Breakdown
In Chapter 11, Vanessa Canly attempts to contact TES through her encrypted communication app to report problems with her Simpathy pills. She details her symptoms (broken dreams, partial lucidity, panic) and expects "a near-instant response from their automated system."
No response arrives.
This is explicitly noted as unusual — the automated system normally responds immediately. The lack of response suggests:
- TES's customer support infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed in the raids
- The automated systems have been taken offline
- The organization is too disrupted to maintain even automated customer service
- Simpathy users experiencing problems are now completely without support
This abandonment of customers during a drug breakdown crisis demonstrates the consequences of TES's dismantlement — users like Vanessa are left to suffer through addiction crises alone.
Interlude 1 — Hunting Jake Fynt
Timeline: Between Chapters 15 and 16
After the military police raids, TES investigates how their data was compromised. They trace the leak to Jake Fynt's computer. While Jake was doing IT work for them, Zet sent him a warning to leave immediately; Jake followed the warning and ignored angry messages from TES superiors.
Screen's Pursuit:
Screen (brother of TES founder) personally leads an operation to capture Jake:
- Surrounds Jake with armored gunmen in an abandoned office courtyard
- Interrogates him about how intel reached "Mpol" (military police)
- Wants to know who Jake told
Escape:
Jake fires a shot at an office building window to summon police. Screen flees; remaining gunmen open fire. Police drones deploy tear gas. Military police arrive and engage TES gunmen. Jake escapes during the chaos, pursued by TES brown cars through city streets, eventually fleeing into an abandoned Free City underground.
Status:
As of Interlude 1, TES retains:
- Armed gunmen with energy weapons
- Fleet of brown chase cars
- Screen's leadership
- Willingness to conduct public confrontations
- Active pursuit of perceived traitors
The organization hasn't been fully dismantled — raids are ongoing, but TES still has operational capacity and resources.