The Crew | Factions (Corporations: The Board, Auntie Cleo's, Spacer's Choice, C&P Boarst Factory, MSI), SubLight Salvaging & Shipping, Iconoclasts, Other Groups: Groundbreaker, Deserters, Gorgon, Eridanos, Marauders, Outlaws | Other Characters
A group of disgruntled former Spacer's Choice employees who have broken with Edgewater and started their own colony in the abandoned Botanical Area nearby.
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Deserters
Emerald Vale
In General
Deserter Camp
"Start anew. Edgewater will become the town it was always meant to be. A place where we can live in harmony with the world. Where none of us writhe under the whips of corporate masters. A place where all are welcome. Except for Reed's supporters, of course."
A community of Deserters composed of workers from Edgewater, who have settled into a small unwalled town around the old Botanical Lab.
- Commune: More or less one of them. They all live together in the Botanical Gardens under Adelaide.
- Cult: Adelaide calls the Deserters her "flock" and preaches them a nature-worshipping religion. While hiding her use of corpses as fertilizer.
- Doomed Hometown: If you side with Edgewater, the Deserter community will be forced to return as their sustainable lifestyle is only possible with electricity provided by the geothermal plant.
- In Harmony with Nature: Subverted as the reason they can survive in the wild is because of their extensive access to biological sciences and use of human corpses for fertilizer.
- Magic Versus Science: More specifically Biology vs. Industrial sciences.
- Not Quite the Right Thing:
- Siding with the Deserters results in them turning away all but a handful of Edgewater's citizens and leaving the rest to starve to death. This is due to Adelaide's extreme hatred of anyone with company loyalty. They also will refuse to help in the rebuilding of Halcyon.
- Installing Adelaide as leader of Edgewater and then siding with the Board means she will kill them all with you as the person to pull the switch.
- Strike Episode: The whole plot dealing with them and Edgewater is one of these exaggerated as Spacer's Choice is not just their employer, but also their landlord, law enforcement, healthcare, etc.
- Utopia: Compared to Edgewater where the populace is starving to death, has The Plague except not really, and more. The population here is a bunch of farmers free from disease and possessed of a self-sustaining colony.
- Science Is Good: Knowledge of biology, nutrition, use of electricity, and technology is why the back to nature colony is thriving.
Adelaide McDevitt
"Green Thumb, Grandmother. The Strange old lady who keeps flowers."
"So, like the spores of the puffball, cast on the wind and alighting on fresh soil, we put down new roots."
Voiced by: Christine Dunsford
The leader of the Deserter community and head of the Botanical Gardens community.
- Bait the Dog:
- She attempts to browbeat the player for trying to turn off her community's power, but will pivot and claim that a "hero" would do the same to Edgewater.
- While Reed is genuinely willing to reintegrate Adelaide and her followers back into Edgewater, if Adelaide takes over Edgewater, it's indicated she has anyone loyal to Reed quietly removed from society.
- Black-and-White Insanity: Regarding her "war" against Edgewater. Reed did indirectly kill her son — but medical supplies were so tight that he was literally forced to choose between one life and another. She's kindly and treats her fellow deserters well — but if you direct the power to the Botanical Labs, she's so stringent when it comes to entry requirements that most of the townsfolk are turned away and left to starve or be picked off by marauders.
- Big Good: Fancies herself as this against Reed's Big Bad. It's more complicated.
- Caring Gardener: When you first arrive at the Botanical Lab, you see it's a building full of plant life, being cared for by Adelaide, who when talked to, offers you food, tea, or rest if you need it.
- Cool Old Lady: Getting on in years but smart as a whip, and despite her flowery speeches, she's one of the better scientific minds in the colony, and practically the only person in the whole Vale with any scientific know-how whatsoever.
- Face Death with Dignity: If the player diverts power to Edgewater and does not put Adelaide in charge, Adelaide will calmly let you take the power regulator from her ruined home, only asking why. This is in contrast to Reed and diverting power away from Edgewater, who will have guards try and kill you when you try to collect the power regulator from his town.
- Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: If the player diverts power to Edgewater, then takes Adelaide's advice to remove Reed from power so she can take over(either by violence or convincing him he's at fault for Edgewater's decline), she will say that, while she is pleased that Edgewater is free of Reed's influence, the two of you are far from even. She will ease up a little, however, if you claim that you forced Reed's departure as an apology for cutting off her power, though she will remain baffled and unsure of the player's motives.
- Human Resources: The source of her miracle fertilizer is human corpses.
- I Have Many Names: So she says, but you never actually hear anyone call her anything but Adelaide. Emerald Vale is too small for anyone not to know who she is.Adelaide: Greenthumb. Grandmother. The strange old lady who keeps flowers. But yes, Adelaide will do just fine.
- It's Personal:
- Feels this way about her war with Reed. The fact he doesn't feel the same way makes it worse in her eyes.Adelaide: Reed will never understand. He has been too long inebriated on the wine of corporate culture. All he sees is productivity. Output. Profits.
- She's also offended if you side with Edgewater and then claim it's not personal.
- Feels this way about her war with Reed. The fact he doesn't feel the same way makes it worse in her eyes.
- Kick the Dog: What she is doing to Edgewater; she knows exactly why the "plague" is affecting the town and even knows how to cure it, and her absence, along with the other Deserters, is one of the biggest reasons why the town is struggling, but she is content to sit back and watch the town suffer for her own gratification. Parvati is frightened of her plan to shut down the power to Edgewater, which pretty much tells you that there's something wrong with her.
- Not Quite the Right Thing: Adelaide is correct that her settlement has far more sustainability than the city of Edgewater where they're dying of eating nothing but saltuna, which isn't even real saltuna anymore in the first place, and has a great deal more intelligence about how to build a self-sufficient colony. However, her personal beef with Reed means she's willing to turn an entire city into homeless refugees.
- Pragmatic Hero: Has no qualms about robbing graves and grinding up bodies into fertilizer if it means turning the barren earth of the imperfectly terraformed valley into arable soil.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Is this for the most part, except when it comes to Edgewater. She is decidedly not reasonable there. She wants the whole town to fail because Reed didn't give her son medicine for the town's limited supply of medicine — a choice that would have seen someone else die in his place. Somewhat justified by Adelaide due to Reed Tobson's policy is that sick people aren't hard workers, and undeserving of medicine.
- The Remnant: If the player diverts power away from her settlement and keeps Reed in charge, she will stubbornly stay there while the rest of her group returns to Edgewater, making her the last of the Deserters and keeping the faction technically active.
- Revenge by Proxy: She essentially wants to destroy Edgewater because she holds Reed responsible for the death of her son. She says she hates Edgewater for what it does to people, but that takes a backseat to her personal motive.
- Mother Nature, Father Science: Adelaide is the Mother Nature in this. Subverted in that she is a biological scientist and the community depends on science to thrive.
- Smug Snake: What Parvati thinks of her and she likes everybody.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Calls the player character a snake if they diverts the power of the geothermal plant to Edgewater. Accuses them of having Chronic Backstabbing Disorder if they then offer to take care of Reed for her, and will outright call them insane if they infer that making her the new leader of Edgewater was their plan all along.
- You're Insane!: Her reaction if you state you planned to make her leader of Edgewater all along by killing Reed then destroying her community's power supply.
Grace Romero
some caption text
"Whatever you're looking for, it ain't here. Move along."
Grace serves as the sheriff of the small Deserter community living on the outskirts of Emerald Vale away from Edgewater.
- Action Girl: She's the only one in the entire Deserter settlement with any gun skills and is charged with protecting the town from Marauders and dangerous wildlife. When the UV first arrives at the Botanical Labs they can find a few dangerous animal carcasses that she presumably killed. If you send the deserters back to Edgewater under Reed, you can persuade him to let her join the guards instead of putting her back in the cannery.
- Dark Is Not Evil: She wears black leather, a black cowboy hat and has a large scar on her cheek, giving her the appearance of a lawless desperado. She's actually a Reasonable Authority Figure and acts as The Sheriff of the town.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: She's worried about a missing resident named Zoe and sends the UV out to find her and bring her back to the settlement even though the two don't get along very well. She would have even headed out herself if she didn't have a duty to protect the town.
- The Sheriff: Serves this role due to being the only resident of the Botanical Labs with any sort of firearms skill.
Thomas Kemp
Oh, uh, didn't see you there
"Fact is I been — well — lying. To everybody here. Camp thinks I'm a mechanical genius, but I couldn't fix a busted chair."
Thomas serves as the engineer for the Deserter Community living in the outskirts of Emerald Vale. Different from most of the other deserters in that instead of leaving Edgewater voluntarily, he was fired due to lack of skill.
- But I Read a Book About It: If you complete his quest, he becomes a much more proficient engineer by getting engineering manuals to study.
- Incompatible Orientation: Has a romantic crush on Parvati, and used to follow her around like a puppy when they were kids. Being asexual but biromantic, she just didn't feel that way about him.
- The Engineer: If you complete his sidequest, he becomes this for the Botanical Lab.
Stefan Garcia
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The Botanical lab's resident vendor and cook. Has a thing for Zoe. Fan of serials.
- Daytime Drama Queen: Is obsessed with the serials broadcast from Byzantium.
- Real Men Cook: Is the noted cook at the Botanical Garden.
Zoe Chandler
some caption text
A wannabe Marauder who left Edgewater because she didn't want to work, and instead wanted to be an outlaw. Fan of serials.
- A Child Shall Lead Them: Works to become this over the Marauders.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Is practically this for Grace, even though they're not related.
- Daytime Drama Queen: Can be convinced to return to the Botanical Lab because she's missing her favorite serials.
- Emo Teen: First she left the town of Edgewater to join the Deserters at the Botanical Garden, then found them too peaceful and joined the Marauders.
- Teens Are Monsters: Has no remorse about abandoning Stefan, or to being in the company of the Marauders. Works to sell the Marauders drugs as well.
