Description
Wars are terrible things especially when you reach the upper echelons of technology. When weapons can blot out suns, shatter planets or rewrite entire environments then the costs of war increase exponentially and, while the universe is a big place, there are only so many inhabitable planets and terraforming is a very expensive prospect.
In an attempt to deal with this and to make uncivilised conflicts civilised there have sprung up war worlds, places where, when negotiation fails, two civilisations can have things out militarily without having to resort to destroying each other’s worlds. This is one last step, one last safety valve before such total war with stakes agreed on by both parties. Deklos is one such war world, already ravaged by several battles in the history of the empires that border the planet it was the perfect dumping ground for conflict, a place where two sides could battle each other to the death without anything important being lost. Deklos is already a toxic and radioactive hellhole so nothing worse can truly happen to it.
Government
Deklos is governed by a series of treaties and conventions between the various imperial stellar powers with each contributing elements to the enforcement of those rules.
They are not particularly stringent, simply no star or planet destroying weaponry may be used and otherwise the battles may continue by whatever means until one side admits defeat, or they escalate matters to a true war. In the field the rules applied depend on the group fighting and the one claiming territory. It isn’t unusual for members of several different powers all fighting for different reasons to engage and deserters, with no way off world, must grub a living from looting the dead and avoiding contact with the fighting groups – a hard thing to accomplish but deserters, having more in common with each other than anyone else, are becoming a genuine power bloc on the world, and a cause for concern.
Geography
Deklos’ true geography is lost to the ages; it has been bombed, nuked, fought over and subjected to the most terrible forces that the galaxy can muster. It is a blasted landscape of toxic puddles, acid rain, dried up oceans and half-melted rock and craters. Every inch of the planet is coated in radioactive fall out and its biosphere is long since gone, its weather is chaotic, driven as much by the weapon usage on the surface as it is by more natural forces within the atmosphere. Nuclear winter plunges much of the planet into freezing conditions while at the same time disruption to its magnetic field and its atmosphere mean that a great deal of stellar radiation and ultraviolet do permeate down to the surface. Everything is subject to change; nothing is permanent save the two sacrosanct spaceports, one at each pole, a guaranteed
‘safe’ landing spot for combatants.
Stories
1. The deserters have managed to scavenge a great deal of high powered war-world weaponry together and it’s worth a great deal on the open market. Engineers amongst them have also managed to piece together an FTL transmitter and are making a few cautious enquiries as to hard-bitten free traders and mercenaries who might be entrusted to break them out of the planet.
The navy does patrol the world, but not too strongly, combat is limited to the surface and atmosphere. A ship could make a landing there and load up with goods and deserters but such an audacious move is bound to attract attention from combatant groups both old and new, not to mention the problems of being on the planet itself.
2. All sides engaged in conflict hire mercenaries and assassins to boost the chances of their side against their enemies and with pay commensurate to the risk involved it’s an attractive prospect to many young turks seeking to make a name for themselves as warriors and soldiers. Casualties are always unpopular ‘back home’ so using dispensable and forgettable hirelings as foot soldiers is an attractive – if expensive – prospect for many powers. Some field nothing but mercenary armies and the common cause between guns-for-hire across the sides can sometimes mean objectives aren’t met – or even
pursued with what their sponsors believe to be sufficient vigour.
3. Deklos has moons and these also play host to warfare, private duels between individuals and smaller scale ‘corporate wars’ between business interests or noble houses, providing a place where these disagreements can be formalised and fought out with a modicum of remaining civilisation and decorum. These conflicts are much smaller in scale, typically unit based, the perfect opportunities for small teams of individuals to earn good money and favour.
100 - Consume
Description
Delta is an enormously populated world, marked by its mega cities and its starscraper high rises Delta has the advantage of being both a data and a transport hub for four sectors of space. It plays host to the major financial players in this part of the galaxy, shipping companies, data companies and all manner of support businesses as well as the employees of each and every one. It is so densely populated that the body heat alone of all the people living on the world has been enough to trigger a global warming event which, in the end, just meant even more people moving into the cities, the cities becoming arcologies and what remained of the ecosphere becoming a highly managed, genetically engineered support
system for those arcologies. Delta is a classless society of immense opportunity, a place where you sink or swim according to your own talents and a place where most people get the opportunity to swim.
Government
Delta is governed by the mayors of each of its megacity arcologies, five enormous cities spanning the globe and each individually run according to its own laws by its elected mayor and council. For planetary decision making the mayors enter into conference, with a rotating chairman carrying the tiebreaker in case of deadlocks.
The influence of money is all-pervading on Delta and any company can buy itself favours from any of the mayors, this is acknowledged and even incorporated into Delta’s law making it all above board and making it a good source of income to supply mayoral projects and social programs.
Delta is so awash with wealth that it can afford to be both ruthlessly capitalistic and to supply its citizens with a basic stipend, public transportation and medical care, amongst other social benefits, all creamed off the top of the corporate profits and donations.
Geography
Delta is a planet of large land masses, many lakes and a few very deep, very narrow seas where its crust is separated into five massive plates. Most of the planet’s power comes from deep geothermal power stations and high technology is used to keep the plates relatively stable as well as to support and protect the enormous city-arcologies from being toppled or overly damaged. The seas themselves are a thick soup of algae, acting as an immense carbon trap to keep the planet’s greenhouse effect from becoming a complete runaway, on land – outside the cities – the planet is overgrown with carbind weed, a thick, mossy, bush like growth that also sucks carbon dioxide out of the air and binds it into itself. The algae, the carbind weed and bacteria are the only forms of life outside the cities, which have their own vermin alongside humanity.
Stories
1. Delta is currently a land of global opportunity, anyone can become just about anything they want on Delta but the intergalactic economy is a fickle thing that isn’t entirely in any one, particular persons hands. The characters are present on Delta when the bottom falls out of the galactic economy and the value of the credit tumbles. Many businesses are bankrupted overnight, massive waves of suicides sweep through the population followed by rioting as people try to grab or secure whatever they can. The planet is blockaded by its own security forces to stop anyone leaving, wanting to ensure that any remaining deals go through and this once civilised world begins a descent into anarchy, unable to pay to keep its complex systems going.
2. Delta is immensely wealthy and it likes to keep it that way, this is part of the reason it is such a common target for galactic criminals.
If you can pull off a theft on Delta, with all the security systems and safeguards that they have in place, then you’re set for life, your business will be courted by criminal masterminds across the known worlds.
Legend also has it that if you fess up and return the stolen goods the corporation of Delta will not only grant you immunity from prosecution, but will offer you well paying work on their own security teams, plugging the holes you exposed.
3. Delta isn’t the wonder it has been built up to be. There is an underclass but the mayors have been keeping them concealed in the deepest levels and have been culling their numbers using death squads. A media technologist has uncovered this conspiracy of silence and wants to break the news to the galaxy beyond, first though they have to get past the people who want to keep this where it belongs – under wraps – and for that they’re going to need assistance.