RRE and the Portal System

Back to the Commonwealth Index

Richard Roman Enterprises (RRE)

RRE is headquartered on the world of Karreshi, in Veil Seven, adjacent to the Sable-held lands in the South-East quadrant of Shadow. It is also in close proximity are the Reich controlled Broken Pattern world of Sachsen.

The company was established in SY 147, and is a technology and medical services conglomerate, as well as producing high-end consumer goods, including a pet for the rich and famous, which looks a like tiny dragon (6” long, 1’ wingspan, in lots of pretty colours).

The current RRE Board is made up of:

RRE has a major financial backer named Max Hathaway, who seems to be putting enough money into RRE R&D to have some control of the direction which Harley Masters’s research takes. RRE salesmen have been visiting a variety of Shadows in Veils Three to Ten, generating business for some of their technologies, the most prominent being the RRE Portal System, which it claims offers a better, cheaper cross-Shadow transportation service than Piloting. The intention appears to be to open up more worlds to cross-Shadow commerce than are currently included in either the Commonwealth or the Aussenhandel de Reichsverband.

RRE has undertaken a strong sales campaign among the non-Commonwealth worlds in Veil Three, and the unaligned Shadows in Veils Four to Ten. There are also Portal stations on some of the Aussenhandel worlds, as well as one or two Commonwealth ones. The sales campaign has been most successful in the worlds extending out from the Lowell Quadrant, with some progress also seen in those extending out from the Caulder Quadrant, around RRE’s home base.

The RRE business model

This appears to have two threads.

  • Badged product, sold openly under the RRE name. Most of the badged products appears to be of a decent tech level, or on the medical side, are of good, safe efficacity. These do not appear to contain any elements that may pose a threat to the stability of the region. For the most part, these products are based on sorcery and high-level magi-tech akin to that seen in the Weimar Republik, with occasional elements that seem more akin to New Oceania. Investigations have not, as yet, found anything particularly insidious within them.
    • The exception to this is the Portal System, which appears to incorporate additional exotic elements akin to the unbadged product.
    • These include traces of the Weimar Power (pre February SY158), and elements of both New Oceania Channelling magics and modified New Oceania tech with Technocracy elements.
  • Unbadged product, sold covertly to worlds that are not necessarily in agreement with Sable’s aims and interests. These are not identified as having been produced by RRE itself, but commonalities of the structure and arcane elements have led Sable to believe that they are from either the same, or a closely linked source. Items of unbadged RRE technology have been encountered and studied, and appear to be a blend of various exotic technologies, including:
    • Sorcery with a distinct Reich cast.
    • Weimar Republik-style magi-tech.
    • Traces of the Weimar Power (pre February SY158).
    • Machine and Technocracy tech, modified to work in tandem.
    • Elements of New Oceania Channelling magics.
    • Elements reminiscent of the method which the Sable Guard dragons move cross-Shadow.
    • Elements reminiscent of some of the exotic power sources research undertaken by Ahnenerbe R&D and the Advanced Weapons and Energy Research Institute.
    • Thankfully, it does not appear to include any elements of the Darkstream.
    • Several examples of these unbadged products were encountered during investigations into the recent trouble on Anghelt, including:
      • Printing presses which could automatically update printed documents after distribution.
      • Technology added to the water “purification” facilities, to introduce harmful additives into the public water system.
      • Certain drugs used to control President York.

Concerns about the Portal System

The Portal System transfers people by stepping into a booth and coming out at another booth at their destination, rather like a Star Trek transporter. The technological specs suggest that a person’s pattern is put into a buffer, which is then pulled back out the other end.

Given previous encounters with Machine and Weimar technology , the primary concern about the Portal System is whether it is just as it appears, or whether the Machine/Weimar elements within it allow for any of the following:

  • Reading and/or influencing the minds of travellers
  • Duplicating travellers.
  • Replacing travellers.
  • Redirecting travellers.
  • Killing travellers outright.
  • What happens to the buffer copy at point of origin.

In addition, the incorporation of a method of cross-Shadow travel similar to that of the Sable Guard dragons is of significant concern. How did they get hold of a sample of a dragon, and how did they then manage to incorporate that innate ability into a technological device.

Questions for further study

  • Is Richard Roman in charge, or is someone else pulling the strings from the background?
  • Who or what is his second in command, James Gaines, given his physical similarity to the late Captain James Dorcas?
  • What, if anything, is RRE trying to do with the Portal System? Is it what it seems, or is there something more sinister going on?