Heimdall Station Planet: Bifrost System: Thrudvang Sector: Rimward Expansion Zone (a.k.a. The Free Colonies) Heimdall Station is a hybrid anchorage and shipyard, and serves as the headquarters for the Guardsmen Interstellar Security Service (G.I.S.S.). It is in low orbit over the planet Bifrost, which is considered the de facto capital of the Free Colonies. When the Free Colonies decided to discard their Protectorate charters, there quickly arose a problem dealing with interplanetary crime and security. Each major colony was fiercely independent, and all of them wanted their own, unique, sets of laws. There were disputes on extradition, smuggling, intellectual property rights, piracy, and a host of others. That is when the G.I.S.S. stepped in. The G.IS.S., or Guardsmen as they are commonly known, was founded by a group of Protectorate Magistrates whose jurisdiction had once consisted of the territory now known as the Free Colonies. With backing from Protectorate financial sources, who were worried about stability in the newly independent worlds, the GISS made an offer to the Free Colonies. They would be an independent, interplanetary law enforcement agency, whose job it was to tackle interplanetary crime. The GISS achieved this by having all colonies that would benefit from their services sign a charter of generally accepted interplanetary laws, which gave GISS operatives fairly expansive powers. They were successful in pushing this charter by getting key politicians to tie it to trade treaties between the colonies and the largest colony, Bifrost. No Guardsmen charter; no trade charter. The Guardsmen convinced Bifrost officials, and officials on several other colonies, that you couldnt have trade without security. Many people see this as reasonable, but some believe the GISS bullied themselves into power and resent their operatives meddling in Free Colony affairs. As a trade-off, the Guardsmen power was limited to space and space only. They have no dirtside authority unless a colony chooses to give it to them. This became known as the "air or no air" rule, which basically means if there's atmosphere, the Guardsmen have no jurisdiction. The Guardsmen have been successful at controlling interplanetary crime since their inception. They have hunted down fugitives, stopped interplanetary smuggling rings, and even quelled a multi-planet uprising by a religious fanatic. The only major problem they have not been able to quash is interplanetary piracy. The star pirates have a lot of assets and a lot of power, striking from secret bases in unpopulated systems at the outer edges of the trade routes. The Free Colonies need to settle new worlds and find new resources to grow, and putting an end to these rogue pirates, who sometimes have entire fleets at their command, is a top GISS priority.