Welcome to LIO

In the Constitution of the Unified Colonies of Humankind, the UCH is given the power to entrust the authority to commandeer loyal ships possessing a smartfold computer to personnel "working for the purpose of Logistics, Intelligence or Operations in the name of Unified Colonies of Humankind".   LIO Officers arose as a general purpose position not long after, with very little actual explanation of what their specific job was beyond use of their authority. This role has gotten slightly clearer as time went on, but honestly not by much. LIO Officers get used by the UCH for damn near everything. Investigation, passing along messages, carrying valuable items, serving legal documents... the list goes on.   Given their acronym, these officers are often referred to as LIOns. For most people in the UCH, it is not a term of endearment. While Lions are accommodated where they must be, no captain enjoys having their travel plans hijacked by a government official showing up in the traditional Black and White vacsuit to read them Article 37, section 4 and direct them in a complete different direction, losing up to a month of their time in the process.     The Lion's Authority   If you are a LIOn, you have one specific power: you can inform any captain with a smartfold computer that they have been tapped for UCH business, and require them to take you to a destination of your choice, as well as a return trip to the start of your partnered journey if you need it. Once a ship have escorted a Lion, they are granted a one year refusal waiver where they can deny their service to a Lion under normal circumstances. This waiver is nearly useless, however, as a Lion can declare use of emergency powers to ignore the waiver and requisition the ship anyway, but doing so opens up the Lion to abuse of authority and punishment.