Part 2: Trouble at the Temple (Part 1)

Chapter 2 - Trouble at the Temple

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBH_GbWOKKg
After being released from space prison, Mace now starts his new career as a bounty hunter. If he wants to get his revenge, he'll need some money and firepower. And the Guild always has a job for people like him. His first job takes him to a temple ship, whose inhabitants have gone berserk after somebody hacked the mainframe that they're all linked to.

Races of the Vagner system

Since this game doesn't have a lot of lore inside or outside, I'll pretty much copy the short descriptions from the manual and add a few lines from me. It isn't much, but it should give you a better picture.

Human Settlers - Nearly all humans who come to the Vagner System do so with the same goal: make a new start, forge a new life, and find wealth. Most have little fortune but their skills and grit, and find a place mining or farming for one of the large corporations. Dress in the Vagner System is mostly plain and functional - there is little room for luxury in their lives. With their technical know-how and willingness to tackle the toughest challenge, human settlers tend to work in the engineering side of the colonization effort.

Most of the humans that we'll meet, are either hard workers in this new space frontier, or vile mercenaries/bandits that shoot at us. We'll also meet a few powerful and rich individuals, but the majority honestly fits in one of the former two categories. Humanity as a whole, is also pretty much at the top of the galactic chain. The High Senate is based on Earth, and that's where the decisions are made. The Senate does employ members of all races, but humans still seem to call most of the shots. Another part to this is that they invented the warp drive, and kinda educated the other races. So it's a bit like Mass Effect in reverse.

Jaldari Settlers - Significant numbers of Jaldari have made their way to Vagner from their home planet of Datrakan, in the Hasali system. Physically they are much stronger and hardier than either humans or Valleakans, and accordingly they are usually employed as manual laborers. Despite their natural size and strength the Jaldari are not naturally aggressive or warlike, although when roused they are fearsome. On their own world, the Jaldari live in sparse rural settlements, and even in the mines and grubby spaceports they walk with the quiet dignity of a proud, independent people. Their culture is a spiritual and mostly peaceful one; in the Vagner system they have grown fond of human beer and classical music.

The manual tries to paint the Jaldari as gentle giants, that are a bit primitive and in tune with nature. So they're basically Native American monkey-bears in space. But that doesn't come across that well in the game, because you mainly interact with hostile Jaldari. And those guys are quite brutal and like to fuck shit up. There is one particular mission, where you can see them do things that go against everything that the manual said about them. To be fair, there is at least one example of a friendly Jaldari, but the description in the manual is kinda bullshit.

Valleakan Settlers - Travellers in the Vagner system may frequently see a Valleakan handling scientific or financial affairs. This small, agile species originates on the planet Y'trage in the Dela system, where they dwell in small communities in the wetlands. Among spacefarers there is admiration for Valleakan technology and intelligence, but little respect for their ethics - trickery and shrewd trading are valued among the Valleakans in ways that other species (particularly the Jaldari) find difficult to understand. Despite their size, no one should underestimate Valleakean ferocity - these are natural carnivores, and are capable of aggression in both word and deed. In the chaotic, every-humanoid-for-itself Frontier, the Valleakans are thriving.

This description is more or less spot on. Valleakans are pretty much cunning space lizards, that like to make money. Moscone is a good representative of his species, in the sense that he values business but probably shouldn't be trusted beyond that. Valleakans are almost as common as humans, and they also frequently accompany mercs or bandit groups. It's all about the cash, remember?