The Sublime Organization
"Every time I think I’ve got ‘em cornered, they’re already three steps ahead, selling to my suppliers, bribing my people, and sleeping in my bed. You can’t kill ghosts—and you can’t kill these bastards either."
Origins of The Sublime Organization
The Sublime Organization (TSO) began not as a cartel, but as a research project in the Academie de Venus’ prestigious pharmaceutical department. On Venus, recreational chems are as common as coffee, and the initial aim of the student-led project was almost utopian: to create a non-addictive pleasure drug so intense it could overwrite existing addictions.
That vision was short-lived. Starlight Pharmaceuticals, one of the Solar System’s largest chem conglomerates, took an interest and quietly funded the research—on the condition that “non-addictive” be dropped from the design brief. The ability to erase other addictions still appealed, but so did the possibility of creating an entirely new dependency.
Before the work could be completed, word of the project reached the Hyperion Crime Ring, whose existing drug networks saw the research as an existential threat. An “accidental” explosion destroyed the lab and killed nearly everyone involved. Only three survived: two original students and a corporate liaison. Severely injured physically and mentally, they vanished from their hospital beds, reappearing years later with a new identity, new allies, and a single mission—finish Sublime, and in doing so, destroy the HCR.
Hydroxycholemine: The War Chest
To fund their work, TSO turned to a very different kind of product: Hydroxycholemine, better known as The Stuff. Unlike conventional Combat Stims, The Stuff is taken in small, regular doses and has no immediate physical effects beyond heightened overconfidence. The true weapon lies in its withdrawal symptoms—within hours of missing a dose, users enter a berserk, obsession-driven state, losing empathy, self-control, and all memory not connected to obtaining more.
This makes The Stuff the ideal tool for warlords, crimelords, and terrorists: their troops become ruthless shock weapons, incapable of desertion, mutiny, or hesitation in the field. The memory-wiping effect upon re-dosing ensures no long-term witnesses to the worst of their behavior.
TSO sells The Stuff at a relatively low unit cost, saturating dangerous markets, and making themselves indispensable to armed factions. The drug’s sales funded their own army of mercenaries, smugglers, and assassins, all loyal enough—or addicted enough—to keep the organization’s core safe.
The Pursuit of “True Sublime”
Despite their profitable side trade, the founding trio’s obsession remains the creation of Sublime—the perfect drug. In their minds, Sublime will not merely dominate the black market; it will replace it, rendering every other recreational or social chem obsolete. The pursuit has taken on the qualities of an addiction in itself: endless refinement, iteration, and field testing of new formulations.
In their rhetoric, the destruction of the Hyperion Crime Ring is more than revenge—it’s the removal of a rival ecosystem. Sublime’s final form will be distributed exclusively by TSO, ensuring their monopoly over pleasure itself. Whether it ever achieves its mythical “perfect” state or not is irrelevant; the research serves as both their central passion and the justification for their ruthlessness.
Funding and Patronage
Even without The Stuff, TSO operates with an unsettling abundance of resources. Their intelligence on law enforcement movements, corporate competitors, and rival cartels suggests deep connections in places that matter. Rumors swirl of backers within Terran Homestar Intelligence, lingering ties to Starlight Pharmaceuticals, or shadow investors from other major players with vested interests in weakening the HCR.
No matter the truth, these connections make them difficult to infiltrate and nearly impossible to trap. They’ve survived assassination attempts, market sabotage, and repeated HCR offensives with a combination of superior intel, violent reprisal, and relentless counter-infiltration.
Methods and Violence
TSO’s methods are as brutal as any in cartel history. Rivals vanish without explanation, labs are destroyed in carefully staged “accidents,” and distribution hubs change location like clockwork. The corpses they leave behind aren’t limited to competitors; defectors, compromised allies, and even family members of targets have found themselves “removed” to make a point.
Yet, unlike many cartels, they maintain a polished image among their direct customers. For those who buy The Stuff or trial versions of Sublime, TSO presents themselves as innovators, providers, even partners in an exclusive club. Behind the smile, however, is a machine designed for one purpose: to outlast, outmaneuver, and ultimately replace everyone else in the market.
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