Trailers

The original Trailers were a group of spacemen who made their living ferrying travelers, junk, and supplies around the Earth Sphere during the Colonial boom era. As the colonies became better-established and formed more formalized methods of operating such services, drifters like the Trailers became unnecessary.

In NCA 111, the World Trade Organization sought to redeem the Trailer name by creating a new, modernized Trailer organization. Formed of corporations, independent contractors, and spacemen of all creeds, the new Trailers exist to support anyone with the gumption to try to make a living for themselves in the harshness of this new, war-torn era.

The Trailers are an organization, formally incorporated and legally recognized. However, their membership practices accept essentially anyone - only the truly, irredeemably mad are likely to be turned down. Because of this, many view the Trailers as a whole as little more than institutionalized brigands, a modern-day Thieves' Guild. They aren't entirely wrong; although many Trailers are upright, well-meaning men and women, there are just as many cutthroat criminals among their number.

Indeed, a group like the Trailers is a veritable beacon for crime. Many powerful leaders in global organized crime are members, and most others have at least a few aides within the organization. The Trailers make a sublime network for the operation of black markets and other shady dealings, and that network is used to its fullest extent. While more righteous Trailers bemoan this taint on their name and occupation, the power of the criminal syndicates assures that no organized retribution can be arranged.

Being a Trailer is in many cases a lifestyle as much as anything else. The classic public image of a Trailer group is a troupe of rogues - whether they're honorable or bloodthirsty varies mostly on who's doing the imagining - traveling the Earth Sphere and occasionally the whole Solar System, looking for adventure, gold, and glory. Still, while many Trailers live that life, others choose to simply quietly accept Trailer network support in the form of cheap mecha parts, coordination for jobs, loans and legal services, and sometimes even temporary or permanent bases of operation. What's more, even the most insular Trailer can reliably call for help from their allies, and expect to receive it.

Not every Trailer is a member of the traveling groups. After all, the Trailer organization is at its heart a commercial venture, with beginning Trailers frequently sponsored by or receiving loans from a founding corporation. Some members are employed by these corporations - as corporate liaisons, as dedicated venders specializing in dealing directly with Trailer society, or even as part of a small militia owned directly by the corporation itself. Not every employee of every corporation can be counted among the Trailers' number, however: Employees of major corporations are often only Trailer members if they work extensively and directly with the Trailer network.

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