Verid Consortium
The secluded Verid observe Ancient signals with knowledge and power accumulated over centuries.
The Verid are scholars. Not the academic kind — the kind that took their entire civilisation offshore of the galaxy’s noise, into a closed cluster of systems linked by private gates, and let the rest of known space grow up without them.
They emerged only when the fold signature appeared. The Verid had been tracking Ancient emissions for longer than any other species existed. They knew what the signature meant before Vann did: humanity had built a successor.
Behaviour
Verid vessels are rare in the core systems and unmistakable when they appear: smooth, pale hulls, no visible weapons, no transponder signal that resolves to a known faction. They observe. They record. They do not engage unless engaged, and when they do engage, they are devastating in ways that suggest centuries of preparation.
They trade exclusively in information. A Verid data packet is the most valuable commodity in known space — and the most dangerous, because the Verid never reveal what they know without extracting something of equal weight. They are the only faction that can tell Vann what happened to humanity. Whether he can afford the answer is another question.
Relationship to the Ancients
The Verid were the first successor species to recognise the Ancients as human. They kept the knowledge secret because the truth would have destabilised every successor government. They have been waiting — patiently, quietly, generation after generation — for a human to wake up. Vann is that human. The Verid have been preparing for his arrival longer than the Korrathi have existed.
In the field
Verid ships will not engage first. If they are present in a system, they are watching something, and whatever it is matters enough to justify the energy cost of the transit. Do not assume neutrality equals safety. The Verid’s definition of “acceptable outcome” has never been shared with anyone else.
Scanners return nothing useful on a Verid hull — no cargo read, no battle profile, sometimes not even a name. That is not a scanner limitation. It is a choice they made about you, renewed every time you look. Provoke one and the silence ends all at once.
Trading with the Verid
Hail one and it might answer — the only way in is asking. They do not sell anything, and they will not take credits. What they want is something that cost you: a location you found the hard way, an artifact you’re still carrying, a crystal you could have burned on a jump instead. Offer something real and they may open a channel and give you something back — a name, a place, a piece of what happened to Vann’s people. Offer nothing they value and they simply close the channel. Try to shortchange them and don’t expect a second chance.