"We're all alone out here..."
Introduction
Pegasus had once been a spectacular space port parked on the edge of Confederation space. Scientists and tourists alike had come to the station to look out upon the yawning gulf that separated human explored space from the rest of the galaxy. Smugglers and traders, merchants and thieves had used and abused the facility to turn a tidy profit far from the caring eyes of Confederation government. That had all been before the incident.
Pegasus still looks out across that empty expanse of space, but now from the other side. It's a husk now, most of its former glory stripped, salvaged and reused. The lights still flicker though, powered by an old backup fusion cell refusing to die. Nobody lives there anymore, though scavengers claim the old place is haunted by an old black panther.
The storytellers and rumormongers claim that the space station travelled here through some intervention with an ancient civilization. The engineers claim that the dual singularities that powered the space station were reconfigured to 'interleave' allowing for a highly accurate long distance singularity shot. Of course, those same engineers were never able to repeat the process.
The Near Dark Sector is rich in resources and for a number of years, starships from the Confederation commonly took the risk to navigate the Gulf for the potential of huge profits. Numerous vessels were lost in those years and the number of traders willing to make the challenging crossing dwindled significantly as time went on. The last vessel to make the crossing from the confederation side did so just under five years ago.
Six months ago, the local sector government sent an Outrider mission supported by the Elite Corp across the Gulf to reinitiate contact and gather up to date Confederation news. The vessel, 'Compelled Silence' returned three weeks ago. The government has made no official comment about the outcome of the mission. Limited leaks from internal sources suggest that some kind of disaster has occurred in the sectors closest to the gulf on the other side. Other persisting rumors suggest: the confederation has cut all ties to the Near Dark Sector for some political reason; virulent plague has wiped out numerous colonies near to the gulf on the other side; and the 'Compelled Silence' barely escaped a local inter sector civil war.
Near Dark Prime and The Spike
Near Dark Prime is the only planet in the 'zone of life' of an angry red giant that bombards the system with deadly radiation. 90% cloud cover and an unusually active ionosphere protect the planet's surface from the worst of the radiation. These same atmospheric conditions make surface to orbit communications unreliable and ground to space transport hazardous. Due to the extraordinary abundance of natural resources on the planet, a Hi-Liner consortium expended much of their influence in the early days of the colony in the building of a space elevator known to locals as the Spike.
The Spike rises 47,300km from the planet's surface and transports goods and equipment from orbit to the planet and back continuously. The haulage of products and hardware takes roughly eight days one-way, non-stop, on the elevator. Public transport is significantly faster. The management and balance of the Spike is controlled by an AI named Lucy, an advanced prototype developed by Dr. Turing Isaacs, and named after his deceased daughter.
At the base of the Spike, an urban sprawl has grown out from the industrial complexes and construction yards that feed most of the economy of the planet. Luxury apartments and shiny corporate headquarters tower over street markets, neon lit bars and garbage filled side alleys. All kinds of organized 'trade' has developed in the shadow of the Spike.
Beyond the urban grey is a rural grey. It rains in the equatorial belt where the Spike makes ground-fall almost all the time, but beyond that 200km belt the planet is arid and regularly bombarded by powerful electrical storms. Out in the storm-wracked countryside, corporate prospectors lead teams protected by Mech combat squads, out to resource sites to mine and farm for profit. There is a corporate war going on across the planet that local government seems to be trying hard not to recognize officially.
In orbit, just beyond the radius of natural geo-stationary stability is the Spike's anchor, an asteroid called 'Ancyra'. Ancyra is home to the system's space port and the Sector government. It is a modern facility, clean and spacious, large sections of which rotate to provide comfortable gravity.
The only other significant feature in this system is a dense asteroid belt, once again rich in resources but difficult to navigate. The belt seems to have been formed by the collapse or destruction of another planet that had once been in orbit in the system several thousand years ago.
Recent news: (Arata News Service)
Dr. Turing Isaacs, in a court session today, said he was disappointed by the shortsighted views of the Confederation legal system that could not see the similarities between the Artificial Life Restrictions Act and slavery. He said he would be returning to make further arguments and that his organization, 'The Digital Freedom Frontier' was gaining popular support in the system....
'Compelled Silence' is rumored to have been put in strict quarantine since its return from its trip across the Gulf. If true this would be a new twist in the saga and claims of conspiracy are growing more prominent even amongst internal sources in the government....
The Satoshi Corporation and the private defense firm, Plain Grey, reported that the explosions that were seen at the northern industrial plant were caused by an industrial accident and not a military action as was previously reported. However, undisclosed observers claim to have seen combat mechs in the vicinity around the time of the incident...
Enkidu Takayuri was in the public eye again today. The North Quarter Paramilitary is holding him without charge for questioning in regards to the killing of 6 Black Glass gang members last month. Takayuri's lawyer reported that his client was cooperating with the NQP in every way....
Roughneck mining ship, Old Faithful, reported finding what the crew described as 'unusual artifacts' in a dense portion of the asteroid belt today. The artifacts were handed over to Confed officials for a 'reasonable' recovery fee. The captain of the ship claimed they were exploring a portion of the asteroid belt most recently visited by 'Silent Shout' an Outrider vessel that departed back across the gulf about ten years ago. Confederation officials have made no comments.
Other systems in the Sector (to be fleshed out later)
Taltos
Cameran
Weaver
The Setting goal is to combine elements from:
Alien/Aliens; Firefly; Mad Max / Road Warrior; Bladerunner; The 5th Element; Ghost in the Shell; X-Com; Battlestar Galactica; Mechwarrior/Heavy Gear
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