Our Turn
"I must have upset someone in assignments, because I’ve been stuck on monkey duty for three weeks. No riddles to solve, no webs to untangle—just straight-line thinking and straight-line smashing. Their motives are simple, their methods are simpler, and yet somehow they’re still a headache."
Origins of Our Turn
Our Turn emerged from the ambitions of Borleone Bolger, a rare “Trog genius” whose intellect was well above the norm for his Uplifted chimpanzee kin and even competitive with average human intelligence. Trogs—bipedal, militarized chimpanzees—were originally Uplifted by the Central African Coalition Forces in the final years before the First Terran Empire’s unification wars. Designed as soldiers resistant to viral warfare and quicker to field than human Clone armies, Trogs outlived their intended role. Many escaped postwar purges, integrated into wild chimpanzee populations, and successfully passed on their Uplifted traits.
By the time Borleone Bolger came to prominence, Trogs were recognized as full citizens under the Great Timocracy, scattered across Human Space but concentrated in enclaves. Bolger sought to break Trogs from dependency on human structures by forming citizen militias trained in discipline independent of human command. From this base, he forged a cult-like cadre of elite fighters, which after his death evolved into a more secular, politically focused movement—Our Turn—dedicated to replacing humanity as the dominant species of the Pan-Solar Consortium.
Ideology and Motivations
Our Turn’s worldview is rooted in the conviction that humanity has irreversibly failed at governance, morality, and stewardship of civilization. They see themselves as the rightful inheritors of Human Space, unburdened by humanity’s mistakes and destined to reforge society along what they consider “cleaner” and more disciplined lines. While they promote Trog supremacy, they remain pragmatic in dealings with outsiders, including illicit groups, pirates, and mercenaries.
They are highly opportunistic, often allying with other Criminal or extremist factions in exchange for resources, Equipment, or safe harbor. Suspicion of other uplift species runs deep—particularly toward tankbrains (uplifted octopuses), whose own superiority complexes make relations tense—yet Our Turn makes selective use of their Skills, especially for finance and logistics.
A hallmark tactic in their political strategy is the deliberate provocation of anti-Trog sentiment. By staging violent raids or thefts without claiming responsibility and without wearing uniforms, they allow human bigotry to fill in the blanks. This fosters fear and resentment toward Trogs in general, which in turn pushes marginalized enclaves into Our Turn’s orbit for Protection. They have even funneled funds to anti-uplift hate groups to intensify pressure on Trog populations, manufacturing the very grievances they claim to answer.
Methods and Activities
In combat, Our Turn Trogs prefer shock over subtlety. When fighting openly, they wear chromed combat armor polished to a mirror finish and distinctive green longcoats, with gauntlets tipped in claws and faceplates lit by erratic blinking red-and-green LEDs. Their preferred weapons are momentum-amplifying hammers or electron-sheathe batons—close-combat tools suited to their tremendous physical strength and meant to offset their notoriously poor marksmanship.
Outside of uniform, they operate with calculated deniability, using outdated or scavenged gear to disguise affiliation. This dual mode allows them to act both as a feared martial force and as an invisible hand shaping interspecies relations toward their benefit. They also hire themselves out as mercenaries, conduct piracy, and work as enforcers for other Criminal groups, always funneling profits back into Trog enclaves aligned with their cause.
Law Enforcement and Countermeasures
To law enforcement and investigative agencies, Our Turn presents less of an investigative puzzle and more of a resource drain. Their directness means their operations are often easy to predict, but their combination of brute force, political manipulation, and willingness to exploit bigotry makes them difficult to dismantle entirely.
For investigators like those of House Helicon, the challenge is rarely in understanding what they want—it’s in preventing them from creating the conditions that drive more Trogs into their arms. While they lack the strategic subtlety of some interstellar threats, their disciplined squad-based structure and unapologetic aggression ensure that, in the field, they remain a dangerous and disruptive force.
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