Locations

[InsanEleven]

"The Bathtub"
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It Kinda Works? Sometimes..
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I bet you hoped to see some specs here. Well, there aren't. It flies... and just barely at that. We don't know exactly how fast it goes because that depends on whether or not the engine is particularly prissy that day. The facilities are okay for cattle, for now. There is room on board for max 10 people, depending on how much you care for personal space and privacy. The only shower on board runs out of hot water in about as much time as you need to get your hair shampooed. The stove stays too cold, and the engine gets red hot. But it gets you from A to B, and with a little luck the bounty from missions will buy some fixes and even a new ship with time. For now it is of crucial importance to have some patience and hog all the working facilities the moment you get on-planet.

Housing
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The rooms are small, and not exactly luxurious, but you won't have to share. The beds are stored in the wall to save space, but they aren't very comfortable. It's made of stretcher material spanned over a metal frame, with a thin mattress on top and some blankets or pillows. Other things you can find in the room are a small, simple desk with a pretty outdated but functioning computer system, and other standard office equipment used for work. There is a wardrobe to store clothes, but it doesn't have much room and you can't fit more than a week worth of clothing in there.

Facilities
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There is a pantry that allows for storing enough dry food to sustain 10 people for about a month, but as far as fresh food goes one has to look at maybe 5-6 days at most. The food storage isn't cooled, and definitely in need of a rescue cleaning operation. In the secondary storage the washing facilities are located, allowing for about 2 people's worth of clothes to be washed per time. If you are with 10 people it'll take a whole day to get every wash through, and it isn't sure where the washer and dryer have been, but no amount of perfumed detergent has gotten that very... peculiar smell out. The medical facility is similar to the earlier mentioned rooms; except it has a few extra machines built in for monitoring the patient. Yes, there is only one bed, so if you get hurt badly do it one at a time. It also isn't exactly sure how accurate the systems are precisely, and how much of what it measures is the patient dying and the ship itself dying. The medicine cabinet luckily isn't dependent on what came with the ship, and can be stored with the basic medicines available. However, most will be off-brand, and some medicines can't be obtained without the right permits.

 

[InsanEleven]

"Earth"
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The Heart of The Sun
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A capital planet to be proud of; strong and powerful, the symbol of success. And corporate indulgence. This is the heart of the trade, where all the money magics happen. Everyone who has made it in business, has a place here. Many of the surface is covered in steel and glass, held together by bustling city lights and the fires of food, games and entertainment. It is not a decadent place, or a bad place to be. Poverty is non-existant, with free healthcare, housing, food and transportation for those who need it. It is however a place of work and ambition, with nearly everyone living there going through rigorous authorization or being born on the planet. It isn't right for everyone, especially those who prefer a slower, more forgiving kind of life, but in a way it is represent of the core of what would make a human successful in the solar empire. Ambition, a great work ethic, efficiency and intelligence. Because yes, this planet is smart too, it's energy needs being completely fulfilled internally through several cold fusion cores and a single matter to energy conveyor. Throw in a rock, light up a city for years. Though a lot of the more fresher, sun-grown produce is brought in from Mars, Earth can sustain itself based on gigantic automatic farms cleverly hidden as skyscrapers. Earth itself does not trade much, it does however relay all the trade in the galaxy. You want to set up a potato trade line to Centauri-C? A man on earth will be the one to authorise it.

 

[InsanEleven]

"The Moon"
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The Party Satellite
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Now the moon is where all the decadence and luxury has gone, and where Earth holds a virtue in hard work, the Moon has one in money. This is the place where those who have gotten rich and powerful go, giving them a great oversight of their work on Earth while still living the high-life. The server boy on a moon party usually has shoes that can buy you a planet on one of the outer solar systems. The three C's on this planet are: casinos, cuisine and cocktails. Anyone who wants to show they have money will have a house or apartment on the moon. Nothing is ever done cheap or small, with even the broom closet having a build in jacuzzi and mini bar. No average man ever set foot on the moon, as it is unreachable just through sheer price and convention. The only economy class you will find on the moon is the one that owns half the stock market.

 

[InsanEleven]

"Mars"
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And Red Turned Green
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Mars would be the rural country cousin of Earth and the Moon, and this is where all the lovely high end produce comes from. Life here is easier, most of the farms being automated and since crops can't grow faster than they do, it's a lot less time driven. You won't have to make split second trading decisions here, or hurry to a meeting with the ambassador of a backwater planet. Instead you can sit back, relax and go for a stroll through nature once every now and then. It's no miracle the planet has a large population of elderly, retired people, but don't worry those are mostly contained within designated retirement homes. Though by now they generally have the size of small cities. If you don't like to watch the elderly, there is always the option to go on a hike in one of the many wildlife reserves. Since the whole of Earth is a city now, most of it's indigenous animals were moved to Mars, where they flourish and thrive in climates designed just to their needs. Walk into a Savannah and watch lions eat zebras in the morning, then watch giant pandas in a bamboo forest in the afternoon. This planet loves its residents, be it young, old or not even human at all.

 

[InsanEleven]

"Betelgeuse 8A-9"
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The Warmest Cold Planet
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Betelgeuse is perhaps a bit of a strange planet to those used to the lush colours of earth. First of all the crusts main components are andesite and tektite, respectively from volcanic activity and meteors, making the surface of the planet largely black and dark grey. On top of that this planet is on average twenty degrees colder than earth, making it so that most of this large planet is covered in snow. This planet has an abundance of water, and a lack of salt, which make the oceans mostly fresh water which cover about 80% of the planet. Clouds and rains are therefore abundant, making the weather on this planet mostly grey and overcast. There are however also large parts of the planet covered in foliage, especially around the equator: ranging from a wide strip of broad leaved trees to pines to ultimately the tundras.


Yet this flora has had to live on a planet with very little colour, and thus adapted to it. Due to having less sunlight most plants here do not use direct sunlight through chloroplast but instead work by using the sun's heat to turn the abundant minerals and nutrients in the soil into sugars. Meaning nearly all plants fare by being black. From leaves to bark to even the core, most plants here instead compete to absorb heat, even going as far as turning photons into heat instead. The dark grounds of these forests therefore can feel surprisingly warm, with some temperature differences listed as 10 degrees centigrade hotter on the forest floor than above the roof.
These dark colours change once it becomes summer, and the slight raise in temperature does wonders for the plantlife who now have too much energy. This energy is given off into the night to attract various creatures, mostly as brightly coloured glowing flowers. Not many living things are able to resist display, and it is no different for the humans that colonised the planet: The Glowing Blooms are a well known tourist attraction even in neighbouring star systems, day passes to visit the protected forests being applied for months in advance.


(Note: every season on this planet takes exactly 156 days, or slightly over 5 months, and a year lasts 624 days. The next start of summer is 3489/10/08)


The animals here live well by having thick fur coats, or if they live in the cold seas to have a nice layer of blubber. Most have both. Including the only sapient race on this planet, whom are very peaceful and loving of anything new: the Annans. Also known as the woolly teddy bears because of their small stature and gentleness. They don't look like teddybears though, some of their characteristics being:


- Six fingers finetuned for sifting through plants to eat


- Six toes for grabbing branches to traverse the forests


- A height ranging from 3' 6" to 4'


- A coat of fur that is coloured in shimmering greys, ranging from light to near black.


- Big, round eyes with pupils that can change size on command. They can not see colours well, but their contrast sight and fine sight is amazing, even over distances. The eyes are coloured red, grey or grey blue.


The Annans had a fairly progressive community, possessing over things such as metalworking, libraries and decent knowledge especially of biology. Yet due to them being so peaceful and in touch with their forest ancestry they have had no reasons to war with one another, instead practically hugging it out and conforming to their neighbours. When the humans came it was no wonder they immediately trusted these large creatures in strange suits and flying metal. Despite what one might think the Annans were treated very nicely, as archeologists immediately took a notice of their culture and quite frankly they were too damn nice to mistreat.


Yet there is one problem for the Annans: they all abandoned their former culture to assimilate to humans too. Not the majority, but truly all of them. Now, four to five generations later their eagerness to fit in somehow managed to wipe out their native culture. Archeologists are desperately trying to find old Annans to learn their stories from, as to preserve at least a database of information for simulations as to how they lived.


To some they might seem a bit too human, and though they will never get mad or angry, they did learn how to set some boundaries. Don't run up to hug them out of the blue, or you might have an army of tiny fluffy aliens making your life slightly unpleasant. Things like permits suddenly taking quite long, or repair prices seeming a bit too high.


Lastly are cities and the FFA presence. The largest city on the planet, Verglas, is home to a high ranking FFA leader, hence why the presence is so big. On top of this most people on Betelgeuse have lived with the Annans as their close neighbours and coworkers, even lovers, for a few generations. It is hard to find someone on this planet that has anything more than maybe a slight dislike for aliens, let alone someone that actively wants to destroy or hate them. The Annans themselves however tend not to actively take a stance in this dispute, so you will find very few of them that aren't anything but neutral towards FFA. Yet they will do your repairs, maybe appreciate that you don't want them dead. It is this neutrality however that FFA favours, meaning that city life won't entirely revolve around them. And though this place might be called an 'FFA base' you'll find that despite their large presence most of the daily life continues on entirely normally.


The locations of the cities are placed very strategically on the outskirts of the tundra and the permanent frost, meaning as to have as little impact on the planet as possible. For this same reason they are also built to be high, and not wide, with skyscrapers raising up to half a mile easily. The insides of these skyscrapers are not cramped or uniform though; being designed to make life as pleasant as possible. You might find things such as ceilings meant to resemble open sky above, different types of house design (ranging from modern to classic), and even mall/park floors. When you do have to go outside most transport is done through shuttle busses and trains that lead to other skyscrapers: owning your own aircraft in the city is costly (public transport is free) and takes a lot of permits to get done. To further restrict individual movement all space-worthy crafts are kept in a floating dock that is located just outside and above the city. A large flying parking garage of sorts, as one point from where to regulate ingoing and outgoing persons. To get to the city one can simply take the shuttle that goes every fifteen minutes.


While in the city our crew will stay in FFA issued housing for now, which are simple one person rooms (bedroom, tiny kitchen and a tiny bathroom). This can change however if the crew decides to rent their own apartments.

 

[InsanEleven]

"Carst"
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The Mad Moon
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A dry moon, with little to no water anywhere. Before IR arrived a month ago on the lush and fertile motherplanet Sere, Carst wasn't inhabited by anyone. Considered perhaps a novelty to see by the population living on the planet itself for it's odd geological structures, but never a place to stay. Metal outcrops run along the limestone surface; the harsh winds these natural funnels create eroding the stone in oddly shaped caverns and winding paths and hollows. The looks of the planet have been likened to swiss cheese with metal razors sticking out of it. Due to the thick sulphuric atmosphere heat from the sun is magnified and kept, resulting in blistering temperatures that evaporate any existing water.


Now the situation has become dire this moon became the only refuge for the aliens and humans alike that saw their home planet going up in flames from carpet bombings. With forest fires and machine guns raging, even a moon as bewildering and searing as Carst becomes the better option. With military aid several refugee camps were hidden in the odd caverns. The sealed glassfiber tents hold out the heat and atmosphere well enough, but it is a cramped existence in a place where no one want to exist. The FFA forces not in combat or aiding the government on the ground have been ordered to take as many refugees out as possible. But it seems IR is getting notice of the camps as well, and ruthless as they are even refugees are the enemy, as even existing is a crime altogether. No matter where.