6. Corporate outpost
You’re hailed as you approach by the automated flight control system, requesting registration numbers and licence data. You gain a docking time slot, AR guiding you to a clearly numbered, neat, rectangular airlock in about 20 minutes. The turrets dotting the surface of this large and heavily modified asteroid make it clear that non-compliance is a very bad idea. Vessels come and go, most looking rather respectable even if not fancy. Welcome to a typical expression of large scale capitalism in the belt!
Type: Port
Function: Trading and prospecting hub
Power source: Several fusion reactors
Gravity: 1 SG
Size: 1,5 km length, 700 m diameter
Affiliation: Corporate
Population: 3761
Sells: Refined raw metals (bulk only), consumer electronics, ship subsystems
Buys: Nothing, but might offer subcontracts
This port acts as a corporate administrative office, shipping port, trade centre and home base for prospecting expeditions. It is also home to staff, pilots, workers and indentured miners, effectively slaves to the company.
A large open space with holographic sky, the plaza, forms the heart of the habitat section. It is surrounded by office, habitat and entertainment complexes. The largest section of the asteroid however consists of gargantuan warehouse-caverns, processing plants and dry-docks for mining and prospecting vessels.
Independent crews are welcome to stay, refuel and repair. Any illegal or disruptive activities, especially those affecting profits, will be dealt with harshly under corporate law however.
There are frequently job listings and offers for potential sub-contractors displayed on the intranet and on billboards on the plaza. When the PCs arrive, they find that the company is offering a one-off contract for “Retrieval of company assets”. Upon contacting the responsible clerk, they find that the mission concerns finding and recovering a prospecting vessel, lost about a weeks journey out along the belt. What they aren’t being told is that five ships have been lost in that region, and that the local administration is no longer authorised to dispatch company assets to deal with the problem.
Find out what to expect here…
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