The criminal organisation known as CIRCUS roams at large through Alliance space, bringing the deranged artistic “visions” of its founder to life – at any cost.

CIRCUS is more than a collection of reprobates and renegades: it is a commitment to high art, without restraint. It is also a cult of personality centred on its founder. CIRCUS has spent decades evading Alliance law enforcement between “Expressions”: that is to say, the unveiling of their phantasmagoria to a delighted (read: captive, horrified, ungrateful) public. Notions of the public consenting to, or surviving, such events is irrelevant compared to the opportunity to be a part of CIRCUS’ performances.

This must be brought to an end – if the Alliance could only catch up to them.

The LEADER and their assistants share an almost unbelievable criminal record: theft, kidnap, illegal substance distribution; acts amounting to torture, manslaughter, and murder on a massive scale; participation in black markets and general racketeering all over the galaxy. There’s little chance of being attacked by CIRCUS in a direct ground assault or naval skirmish, however. If you do run afoul of CIRCUS, you’re much more likely to wake up kidnapped, pumped full of narcotics, and pushed into a series of violent challenges broadcast to the whole galaxy, all to the strains of a string quartet. As to how these hit-and-run contests fit the LEADER’s vision; who’s to say but they? Their visions shift like the solar winds – but no matter how convoluted or sadistic the scheme, the emphasis is on them, them, them and whatever they’re currently obsessed with.

CIRCUS isn’t in the Ardent’s remit, but there’s every chance that CIRCUS will take an interest in it. After all, exploiting the Alliance’s flagship exploration programme is a sure-fire way to claim the spotlight, and using the rare resources and brilliant minds onboard to devious ends wouldn’t hurt either. The Ardent will need to keep its eyes and ears open for interference from CIRCUS’s (absurd, but very real and very dangerous) antics.

Diplomacy will see you attempting to parlay with the dazzling, the deranged and the desperate, who may yet prove amenable if you can get on their level. Combat will see you battling freaks and atrocities tailor-made for the limelight; if you’re lucky, you won’t be doing it in a gladiator ring. Bio-med will be dealing with known science but applied in strange and terrifying ways; they did WHAT with the antimatter? Engineering will see you under unique pressure, managing Alliance tech with the safety off and often deployed directly against you as deliberate, fiendish puzzles. 

Despite the name and the surreal motif, CIRCUS is no laughing matter. Dare you face down the LEADER (artist, visionary, maniac) and their entourage of lunatics?