NCA Directives

Although the six great institutions sprawl across the Home Cluster, your Ship is independent, at least in principle. It’s a certainty that your Captain holds the favour of some institutions and the ire of others. 

If there’s one that a Captain must manage especially carefully, it’s the NCA.

The New Compliance Authority replaced the Compliance Authority, which replaced the Compliance Agency which replaced the Security and Compliance Agency, which was essentially a wing of the Free Exchange Trust. 

None of this matters as much as knowing that what started as an earnest attempt to ensure safe space travel and combat piracy has become a sprawling organisation equal parts pencil-pushing bureaucrats and barely-legitimised pirates, sharing the common goals of spreading NCA influence while building their own pension pots. Critics will tell you they’re just making up the rules as they go, an excuse to deal out fines, but there’s definitely a rulebook.

Or, at least, rulebooks. They can’t be expected to carry every volume at all times. The most commonly seen incomplete collection is the Selected NCA Directives - Core Edition which contains nine-hundred and ninety-nine (technically more if you count the sub-directives) of the most important rules any starfaring vessel and its crew must follow if they wish to avoid NCA reprimands. 

Here are a few: 

Directive 009 - All goods must have their NCA Standard Goods Type and Point of Origin marked on at least five faces of their container. 

Penalty - Fine of 1 Frag for each container of goods found in breach of the directive.

Directive 200 - No Independent Ship’s Captain shall attend a meeting with a member of any great institution, NCA excluded, without at least one other member of their crew present. 

Penalty - Captain must immediately step down and appoint a successor. 

Directive 200d - No crew member of head or hand rank may refuse or resist questioning by an NCA agent in matters relating to their Captain. 

Penalty - Crew found to be in breach of the directive must be left at the nearest inhabited world and cannot serve as crew for a full year. 

Directive 290 - No vessel may undertake enterprise bordering on piracy, plunder, buccaneering, bootlegging, or freebooting. Crew witness to these acts must report their vessel to the NCA. 

Penalty - Vessel must operate under supervision of an NCA Agent and advisory team until parole review to be set at their convenience. 

Directive 338f - Goods designated as Illicit may only be traded by vessels in possession of an NCA Illicit Goods Warrant, each warrant being good for a single transit of such goods. 

Penalty - Seizure of goods found to be in breach of the directive. 

Directive 464 - A Vessel’s registered name must successfully evoke its purpose and character without unnecessary aggrandisement. 

Penalty - Vessel must set bearing for nearest NCA Full Inspection Depot and report to their assigned Agent for rebranding. 

Someone once told me the second half isn’t worth reading, so I took that as gospel.

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