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Hiders
Hider habitats during one of the rare instances of contact with inner
sphere powers. In 9694 a delegation from the Greylag Arts Court met
with representatives of the Aswadu clan of backgrounders at Ross 128 for
negotiations in handling art smuggling. This unique meeting allowed the
delegation a rare glimpse of hider habitats, although it is not
unlikely they were decoys.
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There are many who do not trust the ruling superbrights and hyperturings. Those who have resources flee outwards to the periphery, seeking to start a new world. Others conceal themselves in great worldships plying the vast distances between the stars, or in small resource poor systems not connected to the main stargate nexus. Many establish habitats in the icy bodies of the oort clouds. Some hide out even in the midst of great cities, using high level encryption to ensure they are not monitored. A few even seek to overthrow the established order. But most hiders prefer to keep to themselves, nursing their paranoias in private, developing their own unique cultures, trade links, technologies and geno- and cybermods. Prospecting for relics and artifacts, networking with other clades and phyles that share their stance. Their numbers cannot be estimated, for there are no census forms upon which they register themselves, and even their quantum encrypted messages are full of disinformation and false leads. Even the high singularity powers do not know how many there are, or where they are. Or if they do, they're not telling. To be a hider is to be outside the reach of the civilized galaxy. To be an individual, not a pawn in memetic battles among hyperturings, or a prospective recruit for the megacorps, their subliminals and their madverts. To be free, to be truly free to be themselves and develop their own culture and traditions, their own memetics, their own mods, their own laws and standards and principles and ontologies. And to obsess over conspiracies, and dream for a day where one day the megacorps and the interstellar empires and the hyperturings will no longer enforce their hegemony over mindkind.
Hiders are defined not by their motives but by what they do - they are hiders because they are just simply hiding. The reasons for their hiding are secondary. And there are myriad reason why hiders might want to hide.
For some it is from a desire to stay out of sight of the main part of sephirotic civilization so as to avoid being ruled by the archai; this may apply to transapients and higher grade ai as well as to lesser sophonts, since they are as much at the mercy of the gods as baselines are for all intents and purposes. Others hide because they've annoyed someone, a powerful individual or group or polity or clade of sapients or transapients. Others hide because they fear they may have annoyed someone or some faction. Others are fleeing the authorities or the law. Others are subversives or wannabe subversives and want to stage a revolution. Others are just looking for a different lifestyle. Others are just loners or isolationists and simply want to be by themselves. Others hide because of the Things in Bulk Space. And so on and so on.
Hiders cut back as much as possible on any noticeable signature. They want to hide, not be detectable. This puts lots of limits on their technology. Heat is a problem, because the surroundings are at ~3° K. Not much room to bleed heat there. . .
Hiders don't want trails pointing to them. They might set up a ship in a loop which never quite gets to any of the hider habs, that sends off 'stealthed' projectiles in precise orbits to cover some of the remaining distance. Think of the spy classic "Dead drop" procedures. Miss the schedule, you miss your commo for the cycle. Whoops. One of the prices of laying low.
Hiders will be somewhat paranoid. That is, they'll probably be quite xenophobic and resistant to outside info, etc. This is a variable one, however - depends on how badly burned they've been via memetics and the like, as well as the local polities' take on Hiders, etc.
Hiders may try to hide in the middle of nowhere - or they may try hiding inside the system. Some areas may be more resistant to such 'parasitic societies', especially the more robust angelnetted zones, but many may be leaving themselves somewhat open. Real-world examples of this include the cypherpunks, hobos, etc.
Note that the above is an overgeneralization; hiders being hiders, one really cannot make definite statements about the whole of this sociophylum
Backgrounders - secretive cryocyborg clade
Drifts - Type of Backgrounder habitat or worldship designed to slowly travel across interstellar space
The Greensong Accord - an agreement between many of the transapient powers to limit their interaction with Hider clades
Haloers - inhabitants of icy halo objects
Hider Symbiotes - A technique by certain Hider clades to allow them to remain on life-bearing worlds, sometimes even in the very heart of their sophont community, and yet also to remain undetected
Hotpoint - Illumination source used by some types of Backgrounder and Haloist habitats
Refugium Federation - isolationist empire in deep interstellar space
Shadow Federation - mysterious hider/subversive polity
Related Pages:
Chillers - a family of technologies used to reduce ship temperature (and, hence, IR radiation) to the background level. They have limits, usually as to duration of use, and are most commonly used in combinations, but within those limits are extremely useful.
