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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 23, 2018 9:18:30 GMT -5
HETZER QUARRY BLOCKADE
ALTITUDE: High Orbit / Scuttler Slice
CONDITIONS: Open Space, Debris Fields, Trade Lanes
POPULATION:
- Unaffiliated: Low
- Loonies: None
- Space Loonies: Moderate
- Cult of Meat: None
- Wildlife: Negligible
POINTS OF INTEREST:
- Stations: Ingham Furnace Industrial Platform, Fatsnake Docks, Zachary Cedrickson Recycling Center, Fuel & Repair Station 01F, Fuel & Repair Station 02F, Fuel Processing Center 03F
- Wreckage: Hetzer Quarry, Repair, Recovery, & Retirement Zone 01D, Wreck of the Watażka, Wreck of the Southern Savage
- Trade Routes: Hetzer Quarry Outbound, Hetzer Quarry Inbound
- Other: Castor's Fountain, Phase-Grinder Machine, Wrath of Chronos 46-50
SUMMARY
Just shy of the Scuttler Slice is Hetzer Quarry, a debris field of mixed scrap and asteroid fragments. Just shy of the Quarry is the like-named Hetzer Quarry Blockade, a Space Looney fleet made up of semi-mobile stations and salvage platforms. The Blockade doesn't exactly live up to its name; traffic in and out is on a tight leash, but never exactly restricted. Only salvage operations are kept under a close watch. In a way, the Blockade is the archetypical Space Looney fleet. It's modestly sized, modestly staffed, and a little overequipped for the job.
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 23, 2018 9:18:42 GMT -5
THE QUARRY
Hetzer Quarry was once the Hetzer Joint Orbital Habitation & Transportation Center, owned privately and operated locally. It wasn't much to think of. It came together during an uptick of traffic in the area, around 1276 OSC. A few junker ships were cut apart and fused together to build something like a space motel. It was a quick, cheap, and honest rest stop, made just to exploit the movement in the area. Opportunists or not, word got around about the owners' hospitality. The station grew up fast. By 1302, it'd been rebuilt several times and finally looked like an actual station.
Unfortunately, 1302 was the end of the rainbow. Traffic had died down. Pirates were getting aggressive. To top it all off, the station had been nudged into a collision course with a Space Looney platform right when the owners went bankrupt. Engines were due for repairs, but no one had the money or salvage to get it done. When the Space Loonies came knocking, the owners finally gave up. They sold salvage rights on the station and bummed a ride to Lebedrovez. The Space Loonies sent them off with just enough cash to find a new living.
Salvaging Hetzer wasn't easy. It'd been made to survive the edge of the Slice. Heavy armor, asteroid defense guns, even bootleg gravity shielding for the bigger debris. Cutting it open took a lot of time and labor. On top of that, it was still headed for the Space Loonies' station, so they couldn't waste time burning through hull panels. The fleet settled on the logical option. They'd just move it out of the way. How they were going to move it out of the way - that was a little more inventive.
Cutting apart armor plates was difficult, but not if they were in a million, bite-sized pieces. Hetzer was built to stand up to small asteroid hits, not the space mountains flying around deeper into the Slice. So, the Space Loonies did what came natural. They hijacked a few garbage haulers, had them grab onto an asteroid lovingly-titled "Gibsplitter-56", and hurled the thing at Hetzer. There was a bit more finesse involved, especially if they wanted to keep their platform, but that was the gist of it.
Everything went to plan. Hetzer took the hit, tore open, and scattered just off-course enough to dodge the station. The end result was a debris field of split rocks and mangled metal, ripe for salvage operations. A few pirates and nippy junkers moved in to try to stake a claim, but they didn't last long. Soon enough, the fleet moved its operations to the field and went to work. It picked up the title of Hetzer Quarry just a year later, in 1303, and nearby ne'er-do-wells started calling the Space Loonies the Hetzer Quarry Blockade. The Space Loonies didn't mind the title much. By 1305, they officially adopted it.
Today, Hetzer Quarry still has plenty of remnants of the old Hetzer platform. Most are tiny, usually not much more than single rooms or maintenance halls drifting in a cloud of nuts, bolts, and circuit boards. The asteroid pieces are the biggest parts of the field; giant chunks of rock with drifts of pebbles and scrap orbiting around them. Blockade salvage operations are easy-going, profitable, and usually left in peace. A few private contractors buzz around with the train of Space Looney salvagers, but not much goes on in the field.
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 23, 2018 9:18:55 GMT -5
THE BLOCKADE
Originally, the Hetzer Quarry Blockade was just the Fervent Blade Fleet. It was named for a ship that'd been junked for parts just a year into the fleet's lifetime. The fleet was the usual Space Looney story. It started out in 1253, as just three frigates with mostly-human crews. Their only real means of expansion were through hand-me-downs from other fleets and refurbished derelicts. Most of the time, they were stuck trading with wandering spacers and others of their own kind.
There was a big, nasty stir around 1261 when a redworlder ship joined in. Space poverty meant they weren't getting much help with their food shortage. The Ingham Furnace went to the drawing board in response. It spent about two years waiting for the right time, while the fleet scavenged and bartered for construction supplies. It was their shot at self-sufficiency, somewhere they could specialize towards hardware while their ships focused on food and other supplies. Construction went awfully slow. Six years until the station could turn the lights on, a full decade before it could stand on its own. Nobody was happy with it, but it all worked in the end.
In 1302, the fleet was doing just fine. No food shortages, a surplus of spare parts, and a decent level of salvaging operations. They weren't getting much bigger, but they'd secured a kind of comfortable stagnance. Ingham Furnace was their sole source of industrial power. Most other ships were frigates or smaller, usually tethered to the station. When they found out that Hetzer was set to collide with Ingham in about four months, they took it straight to the owners. Hetzer's fate followed soon after. All in all, it was a surprise windfall for the soon-to-be Blockade.
The big problem the Blockade has is that it's been too successful for its own good. They took in so much salvage in just the first year alone that they were able to double their fleet's size. Another year went by and they were still growing. By 1309, they were one of the largest Space Looney fleets in the local area. Ingham grew out and up with every day that went by. By the dawn of 1311, it was the slightest bit bigger than Hetzer was. The tables had turned; other Space Loonies were passing by the Furnace for services instead.
There was just one problem; they had ships, but not a whole lot of people. About two thirds of the fleet's total population were whiteworlders filling in for ship staff. Drones and half-sentient robots were everywhere. The problem only made itself worse as the fleet grew. With people spread out so far, birth rates and recruitment were difficult. It was hard to raise a child with the closest available partner a few hundred kilometers away. Other Space Loonies weren't keen on signing on - empty ships full of bug men weren't appealing immigration options.
In the time since, problems around staffing have smoothed out. They haven't vanished completely, either. Outside contractors are still frequent choices and whiteworlders are still the majority in the fleet. On the other hand, ships aren't quite as vacant anymore. Families are sprouting larger every year. Space Loonies from elsewhere are getting softer to the idea of moving in. It's estimated that, once the Blockade manages to get its crew count in check, it'll be the fastest-growing fleet in the Scuttler Slice.
For the most part, people in the Hetzer Quarry Blockade are run-of-the-mill Space Loonies. Insular, but not xenophobic. Conservative, but not shut-ins. The population - apart from the huge bulk of whiteworlders - is roughly two-thirds human. Redworlders come in at a distant second, boglanders far, far off in third. A few unionites help administrate the Ingham Furnace, but they're not of much significance elsewhere. The fleet is made up of roughly six semi-mobile platforms and around sixty ships. Platforms are primarily industrial facilities and fuel depots. Ships are mostly habitation vessels or patrol craft.
Commerce is a point of significance for the Blockade. Spacers and Space Loonies pass through it on a weekly basis to trade or find small-time jobs combing the Quarry. Every so often, the Blockade hires out a smaller Space Looney flotilla to help scout out strange happenings. With its disproportionately-small population, personnel transfers are common. Families are split up whenever possible and palatable. As a result, diversity is one of the fleet's high marks. About half of its population is from another fleet somewhere, with their own customs and traditions. Even with all that culture clash, things are quiet. The classic small-town feeling of Loonies on and off the planet is all over.
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