The following is an entry in Meilo Thench’s ongoing fiction series Silver Spiral Archives – an in-universe series of writings by researcher Meilo Thench. The original version of this article on alien fashion was published on Wattpad but has since been republished here and features corrections, enhancements, and internal links when relevant.
Comments are open for inquiries, questions, and corrections.
The Falling Star Syndicate is the most expansive and successful criminal syndicate in the Silver Spiral. What little data exists on them is alarming at best and terrifying at most. This criminal enterprise is said to control the largest black markets across hundreds of systems and may operate huge credit laundering services for the more illicit and unregulated businesses in the Cyclopasian Neutrality. More alarming, this syndicate may have ties to other large criminal operations, perhaps even serving as the currency regulator of these sinister organizations.
But to understand how this organization works and the potential influence they have on billions if not trillions of lives, one must seek out the scraps of information in the shadowy world of information brokers, mercenaries, hitmen, space pirates, and the imprisoned.
I am Meilo Thench, a researcher for Galactipedia. I also moonlight as an investigative journalist. This series was commissioned by Silver Beacon Press in collaboration with the Foundation for Disclosure.
The Falling Star Syndicate: An Oral History
Part One: “Small-time Crooks”
The origins of what would become the Falling Star Syndicate are shrouded in legend, obfuscation, and many outright lies. To piece together an accurate record of the early days of the syndicate, or even an accurate picture of the modern incarnation, is a task that seems monumentally difficult.
Golu Hyen was a mid-level operative in the syndicate around GSY 2970 when he was arrested for smuggling narcotic stimulants onto a Federation military base. He pleaded guilty to the smuggling charge, but for reasons that are unclear to this day, turned on the syndicate, revealing a great deal of information on their activities. He moved into a maximum security compound shortly after but has had at least four attempts on his life since he was imprisoned in GSY 2973. I spoke to him at his private prison, a rather charming villa in a garden, surrounded by massive walls, a transparent plasteel roof, and guarded by three dedicated security personnel on assignment from Hypermax.
Golu Hyen: “There was nothing romantic or grand in the founding of what would become the Syndicate. Many of us were fed ideas like that when we got involved. I guess the idea was that by giving the organization a loftier ideal we’d be more loyal or something? Too bad I didn’t buy into it, heh? Too bad for them.”
Hyen joined the syndicate around GSY 2954. A hardscrabble youth, as Hyen was particularly prone to petty robberies and minor assaults on the Gomben colony of Sygyus 3. He was recruited after he was busted robbing a vehicle. His bail was handled by a recruiter for the syndicate.
Golu Hyen: “From what I could tell, the whole damn thing was put together by a bunch of punks, kind of like me. I think they favored a certain type and favored that type for a couple of centuries. From what I pieced together from the old-timers, the guys mostly taken out of field ops and put on counting or logistics jobs, they gave me that impression. Just a bunch of small-time crooks who came together and roped in a bunch of other idiots and started doing larger and larger crimes.”
Organized crime historian Krenaj Dofyt spoke to me from his office at Golt University between his lectures.
Krenaj Dofyt: “As far as we can tell, and that is those of us in the study of organized crime, the Falling Star Syndicate arose from a street gang, the Orusal Reapers, in a colonial city on Orusal, around GSY 2789. Though the details are fuzzy, the gang seemed to be comprised of mostly Grey and Mantoid members. At least two names stand out: Den’len Fal and Tk’zouk Tlitil, widely considered to be the founding duo.”
Golu Hyen: “I don’t doubt Fal and Tlitil were real. I am sure they were even the guys who started the whole syndicate, but I don’t buy the stories about them. Too ridiculous. I think they just told us those stories as a kind of dare… something to push us to do more and more. Well, it worked. Something about Fal and Tlitil just kind of makes you want to do continuously more brazen crap. Right?”
Krenaj Dofyt: “The Reapers were a small-time gang that was the first to really embrace hacking as part of their criminal operations. There are hundreds of stories about how they took advantage of computer systems centuries ago. A favorite that is most likely apocryphal is that they were able to take remote control of a shipping liner from planetside and force it to land. This is probably a heightened explanation for a common operation at the time to have armed ships ‘escort’ transports planetside from a waiting gang.”
Dofyt presented a printed book featuring thin plastic pages of centuries-old records of hijackings around the Orusal system. He suggests that these are records of the early operations of the Reapers. “One of note,” his emphasis, comes from the third quinary of GSY 2801.
Krenaj Dofyt: “This is the big one. ‘The Orusal Orbital Crisis’ turned them into a galactic-level threat.”
Golu Hyen: “They held a whole planet hostage, as the story goes…”
Next time, Part Two: “Fire from the Sky.”
[…] Syndicate, who were also mentioned in the last comic page of the update for the month. You can read “SSA: The Falling Star Syndicate: An Oral History – Part One: “Small-time Crooks.” right […]