Factions

The various organizations the player can interact with in the Wayback System. Managing your relationships with these factions can lead to either victory or defeat, as friendly factions can provide many supplies, unique Squad Leader recruits, and other benefits. However, you will most likely not be able to please everyone. Relationships with a faction can be improved by successfully completing Operations for them, while failing Operations, or ignoring requests for help (which disappear after a number of turns on the Starmap, will hurt the relationship.

Rogue Army

“Rogue Army” is a collective term for all kinds of human forces in the Wayback that follow their own agenda or oppose the rule of the established factions.

Similar to the pirates, they don’t follow a grand scheme and are not part of an overarching organization. In other words, each encounter against a “Rogue Army” can happen on different planets and for different reasons.

Alien Wildlife

Alien Wildlife is a faction. This is a catch-all term denoting the native fauna of the various planets of the Wayback System, particularly those large and aggressive enough to pose a threat to humans. It is not an actual organized group the player can negotiate with, nor is it a sentient and strategically-thinking threat aiming to take over the entire system, like the MENACE. Even so, the player will often be tasked with destroying hives, culling large amounts of the creatures, etc. at the behest of other factions, civilians, or planetary governments.

Pirates

This encompasses many different groups of outlaws, criminals and looters roaming the Wayback, trying to prey on the weak. Their roster focuses on high mobility and reckless assaults. Weapons are improvised and repurposed—rarely accurate but packing a lot of raw firepower, especially when firing on the move. They also use a variety of transport vehicles to quickly move across the combat map and close in on their enemies.

With very few exceptions, all pirate vehicles and weapons can also be employed by the player. [1]