TECHNICAL DETAILS
Field Reported // Submission by: Veteran Officer, SCS Jupiter’s Ghost
Motto: “Aid Where Able.”
Founding: 301 Standard (Under Solar Federation Charter, Article XII)
Headquarters: Port Independence, Lunar Orbit (De Jure) // Deep Space (De Facto)
Organization Type: Civilian Volunteer Fleet
Primary Vessel: SCS Jupiter’s Ghost
Founding Principles: The Better Angels
The Space Corps is the last bastion of the Solar Federation’s original, founding ideal: that sentient life has a responsibility to aid other sentient life. Established as a civilian, non-military organization, its mandate was one of pure compassion: disaster relief, scientific aid, ecological stabilization, and the relocation of communities threatened by stellar events.
While other Federation agencies grew bloated with bureaucracy and obsessed with territorial control, the Corps focused on action. Its volunteers—scientists, engineers, doctors, and pilots—were motivated not by pension plans or political advancement, but by a simple, unwavering directive: go where you are needed, and help.
This purity of purpose is the Corps’s greatest strength and the core of its identity. It operates on a principle of radical autonomy; a Corps captain’s authority to render aid is absolute and not subject to the approval of distant committees on Mars. This efficiency of action has saved countless lives that would otherwise be lost to red tape.
Operational Reality: The Tools at Hand
To fulfill its mission across the vast and often dangerous frontier, the Corps utilizes a fleet largely composed of decommissioned vessels from other agencies. The flagship, SCS Jupiter's Ghost, is a prime example: a former Space Patrol battlecruiser stripped of its offensive weaponry and refitted for exploration and aid.
This practice leads to a certain… operational duality. Corps vessels are unarmed, in keeping with their peaceful mission. Yet, they retain heavy shielding, advanced sensors, and structural integrity designed for combat. They are peaceful ships built for war, now serving peace. This contradiction is a daily reality for Corps engineers, who perform minor miracles to keep these aging, complex vessels operational far beyond their intended service lives, often with limited logistical support from the Core Systems.
Furthermore, while the Corps is explicitly non-military, all crew members undergo basic defensive training. An unarmed ship in contested space is a vulnerable ship. The presence of a secured armory on vessels like the Jupiter’s Ghost is a reluctantly accepted necessity, a quiet concession to a universe that does not always adhere to the Federation’s faded ideals. We believe in peace, but we are not naive.
The Present Divide: Action vs. Administration
The original Solar Federation that created the Space Corps exists now in name only. What remains is a bureaucratic apparatus increasingly concerned with control and security, embodied by the Solar Guard (which polices the Sol system) and the Space Patrol (its “peacekeeping” arm for the frontier).
The relationship between the Corps and these organizations is… complex. Officially, there is coordination. In practice, the Patrol views the Corps’s independence as a threat to their authority, while the Corps often finds the Patrol’s “peacekeeping” to be the cause of the very crises we are then sent to mitigate.
The Corps finds itself in a perpetual state of opposition: to the apathy of the Federation, to the aggression of the Patrol, and to the dangerous realities of the frontier. We operate in the gaps they create. When the Guard enforces a quarantine that leads to food shortages, it is the Corps that runs the blockade to deliver supplies. When the Patrol’s heavy-handed diplomacy sparks a conflict, it is the Corps that evacuates the civilians.
We are the ones who stay behind to help rebuild what others are so eager to tear down.
See Also: Jupiter's Ghost, Solar Federation
