Hellfire Legion

Description
The Hellfire Legion is an unusually large and well-organized group of Libertonian criminals dedicated to the total eradication of the Liberty Navy. While the Legion is primarily made up of recruited civilians of various space-based occupations (from dock workers to transport captains to even one or two antimatter physicists) and former Navy pilots, there are Legionnaires - as they are called - from almost every walk of life. The Hellfire Legion operates primarily in opposition to the Liberty Navy, and their running claims of political murder and framing within the Navy are well-known. While most people write them off as crazies, there are those among the Libertonian citizenry who support them. This minority of support is the Hellfire Legion's lifeblood, providing a steady stream of donation income that covers much of the Legion's basic needs and even some very limited portions of its military expenses. The Hellfire Legion is also known for keeping a tight leash on its pilots, and there are no known incidences of Legionnaires attacking civilians save when under direct fire from the same civilians.

The Beginning
Liberty. One of the four great Houses. A place of peace; of prosperity; of liberty.

A House divided.

The year: 800 A.S. Drake Thastus, newly promoted to Commodore, had been serving the Liberty Navy for years untold. Dedicated to a fault, Thastus believed in the original ideals of Liberty. Unlike most, it was his loyalty, not his political savvy, that got him his position and the command of a now-legendary prototype Navy warship: the LNS Ragnarok.

The new Spyglass-class battleship was considered an inferior vessel to its sister ship, the battleship Osiris. A scouting vessel, the Ragnarok would see little enough action under the Navy so much as reconnaissance and targeting duty for the Osiris. While Thastus was disappointed and believed it to be a direct snub from the high command, he made the best of the situation, and got to know his new crew as they went about orientation exercises for their new duties.

No one knows exactly what happened. According to official military reports, Thastus and his crew went rogue, killing anyone who would not come with them. The Legion, on the other hand, claims that they were attacked, and that Thastus and his entire crew were ordered to surrender to a farce of a trial and face death. Regardless, Commodore Thastus, the Ragnarok and its escort - consisting of the cruiser Antares, the gunboats Silverfire and Mentu, and numerous fighters - fled Liberty for the Independent Worlds.

The Ragnarok made it as far as Magellan before it was ambushed by a large battlegroup of Navy ships. For a time, the situation seemed hopeless. However, just in the metaphorical nick of time, several wings of Lane Hackers appeared, drawn to the large Navy presence so close to their home. With the help of these Lane Hackers, the exiles finally managed to make good their escape, and fled into the barren and inhospitable Vespucci system.

Transition
It took years for the Hellfire Legion - as the exiles now called themselves - to rebuild. However, driven by a sense of righteous anger, justice, and - whether or not they'd admit it - a lust for revenge, these tattered remnants eventually managed to build themselves up into a military force. The Legion soon began scrapping the Ragnarok, plotting its exact details on a blueprint and selling or trading the technology to other organizations in exchange for the ships or allegiance. For instance, in one case, the Legion their scanning technology to The Order - who later integrated it into their Resheph-class cruisers - in exchange for one of their Osiris-class battleships that Drake Thastus - now the self-styled "Supreme Commander" of the Hellfire Legion - had so long desired. Through other deals, the Legion eventually acquired the Dreadnought Ravager - a powerful piece of Outcast technology that guards Vespucci to this day.