Do It For The Star

May 31, 2019

Sci-Fi, Space, Frontier, Intrigue
The colony rocks of the DeHelia System have drawn the profit margins of the Orange Interstellar Interests company, a holding enterprise looking to profit off the system’s asteroid cloud. They’ve come with what they say is a claim they’ve bought fair and square. But the claim tries to reach into the homes of long held micro-colonies and things are looking to get ugly as frontier settlers fight back against the Big Orange Star.
The DeHila Cloud
Location, Setting
The Dehila system isn’t what most would consider an interesting system to come to. A young star system, the system is composed of two rocky worlds, a massive asteroid cloud, and two large gas giants that mark the edges of the system. The cloud was the result of a massive inner rocky world being struck by a rogue planet. This rogue body knocked the remains of most of the planet out of orbit of the DeHelia star, and both entities exited the system as rocky debris. What remains have become the DeHila Cloud.
The Cloud will settle eventually in distant eons. But for now, the cloud is a mass of countless asteroids teeming with resources. Navigating the cloud takes care and constant course correction, and for this reason despite its resources few companies have looked at it as a viable star worth investing in. This has left the star open to frontier colonists. No corporate claim meant others could settle legal homestead and start to develop the cloud.
Besides the cloud, the four other worlds in system are worth mentioning. DeHila A and B are rocky words, one too close to the sun and the other too far away to develop sustainable life without outside measures. DeHila C and D are gas giants out beyond the cloud. DeHila C is considered highly dangerous as many of its moons are pulled out of the DeHila Cloud and have unstable orbits. Collisions still occur and new moons are tracked monthly by the residents of the colonies.
Fitting the Dehila Cloud In
A dangerous place for the wayward, the Dehila Cloud is a place where a frontier settler could make a solid claim and get rich. The system is extremely unstable, making its original observations not attractive to early interstellar corporations. But as the frontier and the border of civilization gets pushed further and further from earth, Dehila has drawn the eye of several companies looking to build on top of the frontier settler’s hard work.
DeHelia 2291-KF081, “Long Ball”
Place
Located in the inner ring of the DeHelia system, Long Ball was colonized two centuries after it’s discovery by Frontier explorers. The asteroid was rich in desirable construction materials, and its neighbors served as developmental foundations to get the colony hub started. For nine generations, the colonist of Long Ball dug, cracked, hauled, and built their home in the rock.
The Long Ball is a place of hard work and labor. They’ll take kindly to visitors looking to trade fairly while they’re spit in the view finder of anyone coming into their space trying to cheat them. Long Ball’s the biggest of the colonies, but they’ve branched off to various manufacturing hubs throughout the belt. Some are even looking to try and see about landing on one of the few rocky worlds in the inner system within the next few decades.
But now all that hard work is being threatened. About a hundred years back one of the founding families of Long Ball left the colony with network information entitling them to represent the colony’s interests. The idea was to start looking for a place to sell their raw materials in bulk to out of system interests. But tragedy struck and most of the negotiating families died. Only a few orphans remained on a timid escape pod. They grew up without the tethers to the rock that was home, and when corporate interests took a look at the DeHelia system, they bought up the claims from these descendants.
Fitting DeHelia 2291-KF081, “Long Ball” In
The colony of Long Ball is a working-class colony. They deal with heavy haulers looking to pick up some cleaned up raw materials on the regular, but the typical adventuring party is likely to draw an interest from the crowd. Players can find minor ship parts here, nothing military grade, but the colonist are very industrious in terms of finding ways to repair shipboard tech and components. And who knows? Maybe someone wants off the rock, and the players’ ship might just be the means of egress they desire. Keep in mind that the residents of the colony won’t just let anyone into their airlock. They know how dangerous others can be and mostly work by sending package through short range drones rather than inviting people onboard.
The Big Orange Star
Entity, Antagonist
Founded in the early 26th century, BOS, or it’s official name of Orange Interstellar Interests Company, is a corporation built around expanding humanity’s rise into the interstellar community. Their galaxy spanning view includes planetary purchases, star system purchases, resource claims in deep space sites, monitoring and managing stellar distance hauling, and helping colonists find their way amongst the complexity of interstellar law.
Make no mistake, the Big Orange Star isn’t the type to get intimidated by a couple of bad apples. They know many want to live apart of society’s influences, society’s rules, and society’s money. But that’s just not right in the corporate’s view, and they’ll do their best to educate those who aren’t willing to play ball, even if that means cracking a full hull plates to depressurize the situation.
Big Orange Star’s got a lot of work to do to help this human race, and they’re always hiring. Transporters, haulers, movers, shakers, thugs, muscles, spies, they’re all welcome so long as they accept the corporate motto, “Do it for the star, do it for humanity.” Just don’t read too much in between the lines.
Fitting The Big Orange Star In
The Orange Interstellar Interests Company is a growing entity in this leg of the galaxy. Founded long after humanity reached into the stars, BOS has little to no interests in actually connecting to the complex web of corporate existence in the inner worlds. They’ve set their eyes outward and the myriad of mineral rich star systems just waiting to be claimed. For those seeking to explore the unknown, BOS pays well for frontier jockeys and adventurous types. They also prefer to hire local (in a stellar sense) haulers rather than dealing with the complexities of owning their own ships. What they don’t like is competition, and uncooperative individuals interfering with their work. BOS isn’t scared to get their hands dirty in the deep dark, but will try and look spotless in the eyes of the sanction star bases.
Using Do It For the Star
The Whole Block
The players in this setting stand between two powers looking to control the star system Dehila and the asteroid colonies. Long Ball is hardly the only colony in the system, but they’ve got the biggest claim thus far. That means the Big Orange Star will focus on them primarily to gain ownership of the cloud. The DeHial Cloud should be played up for the danger of traversing its field. Depending on how realistic of a game you’re playing, the asteroid cloud should feel extremely dense and erratic compared to most the players would contact. Probes and automated systems should have a hard time navigating between the colonies, and getting lost should be relatively easy. But what can hinder the players, can hinder the antagonists too.

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