David Mamet: Every scene should be able to answer three questions:

1. Who wants what from whom
2. What happens if they don't get it
3. Why is this happening now?

Authoritarian controllers of La Oruga, convinced that the only way for humanity to survive is to land on Mariposa, their original destination, no matter the cost. Any resistance to this directive threatens the very existence of humanity, and will be crushed with impunity.

The head of the Directorate is the Director themself, with several Committee Leaders underneath them.

Discovered that the Directorate was taking La Oruga to a planet already inhabited by intelligent life. Convinced that the only way for humanity to continue and succeed is to not repeat the mistakes of our past, and go to an unpopulated planet.

Rift is a nebulous organization, with no definitive leader. Divided into Cells, which are compartmentalized for the safety of the operatives. Most operatives are only familiar with their own Cell, their Handler, and maybe one or two others.

Handlers are themselves part of Cells, forming a distributed network to prevent any sort of instability if someone is incapacitated or captured by the Directorate - which has come in handy on multiple occasions. Handlers make sure that operations carried out by their cells don't interfere with those of other handlers.

Space jockeys who fly out from La Oruga to harvest rare resources from asteroids.

Engineers and maintenance crew have an almost revered status, as they are responsible for keeping La Oruga running and supporting life. There are no “small, unimportant jobs” if you are Maintenance.

Directorate forces that crack down on any disruption to the status quo.