Lancer: In Golden Flame

Lancer: In Golden Flame

Links

OOC

The Setting

The Outer Rim is a section of space on the border of Union, primarily notable for a complete lack of inhabitable planets. It's a blank spot on the map. But... on the other side of the Long Rim is the Dawnline Shore, a region of space with an intense quantity of Earthlike planets which is of heavy interest to the various major players in galactic politics, especially the Karakin Trade Baronies and Harrison Armory.

The Dawnline shore does not have a functional blinkgate at this time. As a result, the only way there is via sub-light travel, turning the Long Rim into a transit corridor, scattered with space junk, mined out rocks and the remnants of old battles. The primary thoroughfare for ships travelling between Rào Cỏ Station, the furthest blink gate from the Galactic Core, and the Dawnline Shore; filled with habitats and space stations established by early colonists and prospectors centuries ago. The Long Rim is beyond the Union's borders, a place of hardship and loose regulations.

In Golden Flame takes place in one of these systems, Calliope.

Calliope was colonized by mistake. During the initial exploration of the region, a nameless junior astronomer accidentally gave Calliope a designation of C4L-P313/GW2, indicating that two Gaia or near Gaia class worlds had been detected in orbit. Calliope’s historians often say this set the tone for everything that followed: a careless mistake leading to bad decisions.

Calliope had, of course, no inhabitable planets, with the system ranging from ice balls, to gas giants to furnace worlds. For the initial colonization wave looking to take advantage othe two Gaia worlds, it was a disaster. Those who had the fuel, turned around and left. The rest had to set up stations and habitats the best they could. They lied to their sponsors to get more equipment, they jury rigged gear and they did whatever it took; establishing the Calliopean knack for building something out of spare parts and duct tape.

And they survived! And even, for a time, thrived; when it seemed like Calliope would become a significant player in the Long Rim and on the route to the Dawnline shore. Money and resources flowed into the system.

But, like all good things, it came to an end. The grandiose plans of the Calliope Project backers came to nothing. The big deals never materialized. The economy collapsed. Quality of life began to drop. Those who could left, leaving behind tens of millions of less fortunate people. The Pyrite Age ended and the Void Age began.

Life's been hard in the two centuries since. Pirates prowl the spacelanes, conditions get a tiny bit worse every year, Impact Dynamics jacks up the price of food and water each year. A few times every decade, Trade Barony and Harrison Armory warships use the system as a battleground as they try to stop each others convoys from getting to t he Dawnline Shore.

Everything in Calliope is falling apart, or close to it. These stations were built centuries ago, mostly by companies that no longer exist, using components that are no longer sold. Techs have to spend weeks or months reinventing the proverbial wheel just to print replacement parts. Half the system’s computers are reliant on a legacy codebase GMS stopped supporting twelve decades ago. There are no “permanent solutions” to technical issues out here, just patches on patches on patches.

You are all members of one of the major stations in Calliope. Stygia Mining Platform is the official name, but it didn't stick. Hell's Gate did. The second largest of the Big Four settlements in Calliope, a centuries old station that's been built, rebuilt and modified countless times over the years, in order to maintain a viable platform. Built when it was thought Calliope could sell its mineral wealth to the galaxy, the heady days of optimism that accompanied its founding are long gone in the face of the reality of galactic economics. Nobody's going to travel ten light years to buy metal. The only market is the other habitats in the system.

Still, there’s a sense of communal responsibility to the Gate: if nobody works the mines, if nobody runs the smelters, the whole system will grind to a halt. There are two million people living on the station, and they all need somewhere to live. People don’t have much, but they share it freely, and they pull together. There's one guarantee on Hell's Gate: That no matter what, everybody who lives there will get food, water, and a place to sleep. And even in the leanest of times, the station's been able to keep that promise.

Characters

The current cast and their currently printed mechs:

Brooks "Gremlin" Yao Mei (Mech: GMS Everest Reunion Tour)
Dr. Janvier "Scalpel" Trossaldi-Metruda (Mech: GMS Everest Lateral Incision)
Patch (Mech: GMS Everest Burner)
Lost "Student" (Mech: GMS Everest Bigger) played by Timon
Telemachus "Lifer" Van Helsing (Mech: GMS Chomolungma M.U.L.E) played by Bira
Sir "Paladin" Galachad-sama (Mech: GMS Everest Steedicus) played by EnigmaticOne

Clocks

Current clocks in play:
Station Stability

Militia Readiness

Lifer's Salvage

Scalpel's Salvage

Reserves

The team's current reserves

Downtime Actions

Downtime Actions

Exotic Gear

Unique pieces of equipment that have been acquired

Notable NPCs

Key figures in Calliope

Hell's Gate

Jerry Masters, Acting Station Director (he/him)
Formally the head of the militia, Jerry Masters stepped into the role of station director when the previous director vanished three years ago. Though it's more accurate to say everyone else stepped away. A Venn Diagram of everyone capable of doing the job and everyone who wants to do the job on Hell's Gate would essentially be two separate circles.

A pale, short, thin man with an untidy mop of brown hair and a twitchy disposition; Jerry is continually plagued by anxiety, insomnia and his collection of atrocious novelty ties. He's about thirty seconds away from a nervous breakdown, and that's on a good day.

Despite all this, he's one of the better managers the station has had in living memory; constantly throwing everything he has into the job, despite what it costs him on a personal level. He's got a good head for logistics, and under the three years of his tenure, Hell's Gate has held true to its founding principle: Everybone gets the basic requirements for life.

Jerry is also a top shelf mech pilot, though he hasn't driven his old Sherman Mk 1 in years. He never talks about his past, but when drinks start flowing, militia members started talking about an old callsign; Daybreak. And when the empty mugs really start to stack up, rumors fly about a team of DoJ/HR liberators and a doomed mission, once upon a time...

Shelly (she/her)
An ASURA-class NHP, Shelly is Jerry's former copilot and now works as his assistant in the gargantuan task of keeping Hell's Gate from falling apart.

She's efficient and pragmatic, but tends to be detached from all but a few resident of the Gate. People shew views as causing stress in Jerry's life earn her ire. Of course, there's a lot of stress these days...

She typically only converses via text or audio. On the occasion she does present a visual avatar, she favors an image of a smart young woman with multiple sets of arms and a pair of glasses.

Chief McArthur (she/her)
The chief engineer of Hell's Gate, Chief McArthur is responsible for the day to day business of keeping the machines that keep everyone alive working. She was considered a candidate for station director after Director Bai disappeared, but the simple fact is that the Gate can't afford to lose her hands on expertise at maintaining the station.

Zinfandel DeJean (they/them)
The head of the militia, Zinfandel cuts an imposing figure, but breaks the ice with her sense of humor and whimsical outlook on life. They took over the militia after Jerry became the Acting Director.

Technically, they're your boss; but in practice, missions important enough for the SRT to handle are handed out by Jerry.

Siren (she/her)
An ALKONOST class NHP, Siren used to be a SecComm pilot, but through in with ThirdComm during the revolution. When her ship was scrapped, she spent four centuries drifting in space before being found and rescued.

She eventually made her way out to Calliope, and found a job working on Hell's Gate as a pilot of the Dragon's Tooth, the clipper ship assigned to the SRT.

There's eleven tally marks on her casket, but she doesn't know what they mind. She's currently halfway through the process of being cycled, after which she should be good for another six years.

Ipswich DeLacy (they/them)
Ipswich 'Switch' DeLacey is a relatively new arrival on Hell's Gate, and is a lifestyle Omninet streamer. Switch and their fleet of camera drones are a common site around the Gate, and their constantly filming for their show, Live from the Long Rim.

Technically, this is a minor security issue; but Switch donates half the profits from their stream to the station, providing a much needed external cash flow; so Jerry gives them a pass.

Switch is a member and a contact point for the Horizon Collective.

Striga Von Aldenberg (she/her)
Striga Von Aldenberg is the eccentric and paranoid leader of "The Truth", a group of equally eccentric sigdivers, who are mildly aligned with Horizon.

She's tall, thin and notable for her tendecny to appear without warning from place she shouldn't have been able to get into.

Despite various quirks, she's a top deck hacker, and a reliable source for esoteric software and unusual data. But only if she trusts you.

Calamity Havok (she/her)
Havok is one of two Hell Hound pirates ever given the benefit of the doubt and allowed back on the station.

She's got a natural talent at modifying mechs, and an even more natural talent at violence; which helped her rise through the ranks of the Hell Hounds. Right up until she became a threat to Andros Capella's position, at which point she suffered a 'tragic accident'. However, she survived long enough to get picked up by a Gate Salvage crew.

Jerry eventually allowed her to stay, given that exiling her again would be a death sentence. She currently provides her expertise in mech modification for the militia's armory.

Hell Hounds

Andros Capella (he/him)
Andros Capella is one of the most hated and feared man in Calliope.

The leader of the Hell Hounds for twenty-four years, Andros has sworn bloody vengeance on Hell's Gate for the exile of his group. He's personally killed more members of the militia than anyone else in the system.

He's mean, sadistic and short tempered, and takes every emotion he has out on other people.

His preferred mech is a Genghis, he finds the HA flamethrower mech speaks to his brutality and lets him express it in horrifying ways.

Locations

Important places in Calliope

Hell's Gate

A seven kilometer long hybrid barbell station, The Sygia Mining Platform is home to two million souls on any given day.

Directions are typically referred to fore and aft, in reference to the forward and rear docking bays and hab drums. The station was suppoed to be adjusted to face whatever it was mining, but nobody's sure if the station would survive a readjustment like that these days

Mag-trains run the lenght of the station, allowing for quick transport from fore to aft. It takes about twenty minutes for a regular train to make the trip, but militia can override that in emergencies, being able to get from either side of the station to the other in under five minutes. Per Jerry's last memo, hunger for noodles does not constitute an emergency

The hab drums are 1400 meters in diameter and rotate at 1.1 rotations per minute, providing almost a perfect 1G of artificial gravity. Direction in a drum are spin and antipsin; with down pointing outwards from and up pointing inwards to the axis of spin. The drums are divided into three tiers. The upper tier is the smallest, being dedicated mostly to housing, leisure and habitation. The middle tier is dedicated mostly to life support, maintenance and operations, as well as each drum’s internal mass transit network. The lower tier, the largest, is for agriculture

Forward Docking Bay
Once meant to be facing whatever particular astral body the station was mining at the time, the days of Hell's Gate travelling to places to mine them has long since passed. Connected to the industrial sector, mining vessels arrive, drop off ore, refuel and then leave for another run while the ore is processed and refined.

Forward Hab Ring
The least well maintained of the two hab rings, this area is where most of the miner's live, to the displeasure of the Miner's Union. There's a number of mateiral shortages and leaks that are hitting the sector. Jerry's not blind to the problems, though, he lives here too.

Industrial Sector
A long tangle of refineries, smelters, foundries and chemical plants. In the glory days, they could process twnty thousand tons of hour every hour. Now, it's operating at eight percent of capacity, due to staff shortages and lack of maintenance. If Jerry hadn't given himself a stomach ulcer negotiating with IPS-N for replacement parts, it'd be four percent.

Ops
The station's bridge, omninode, mainframes and priamry reactor control array are located here; in the aft midstation.

Central Fabrication
Hell's gate's Schedule Two printer (last certified 126 years ago) is located here. There's a backlog of over a week on medium priority print requests, and a month for low priority ones. High priority requests (such as the SRT's mechs), get put to the top of the queue; generally irritating whoever gets bumped.

Jerry's old Sherman Mk.1, the Severance Pay, is located in this area, with its coldcore being used as an auxiliary power source for the printer.

Mech bay
Just off the aft docking bay, and directly connected to Central Fabrication, is a large hanger dedicated to the storage and maintenance of the militia's mechanized chassis, including the SRT's. Except in emergencies, combat rated mechs aren't permitted anywhere else on the station.
Aft Hab Ring
Nicer than the forward hab ring, the aft hab ring plays most to most of the station's operational staff and acts as the guest room when there's visitors and tourists. All militia pilots, including the SRT, live here (unless they desire otherwise). Janvier's clinic is located in the aft as well.

Aft Docking Bay
The aft docking bay (there's a nickname for it, not said in polite company), handles the bulk of the traffic and was designed as such. But like everything else on the station, the current usage of the aft docking bay is a pale shadow of what was envisioned. The team's personal ship, the Dargon's Tooth, is stationed here; alongside an ancient interstellar vessel called the Voidrunner; which is owned by Zinfandel DeJean.

Icebreaker Borealis

Even the impoverished workers of Calliope need a little rest and relaxation sometimes, and the Icebreaker Borealis prides itself as the foremost purveyor of luxury in all the Long Rim, let alone Calliope.

Built around the CPS Borealis, an old ice mining frigate, the Icebreaker is a chaotic tangle of districts and modules lashed together into a loose cylinder and haphazardly secured to the ship’s outer hull.

The station provides all manner of pleasure and vice, from its casinos, dive bars, holodromes and drug dens to subaltern fighting pits, massage parlors, and an establishment that confidently advertises itself as “the only five-star resort and spa in the Long Rim.”

The Icebreaker Borealis boasts that it’s the only reason anyone from the rest of the galaxy comes to Calliope at all. That’s not entirely unfounded, either; a lot of IPS-N freighters making a trek through the Long Rim pass through Calliope specifically to provide their crews with shore leave on the Icebreaker. Harrison Armory crews travelling to or from the Dawnline Shore are known to stop over for month-long breaks between nearlight travel. SSC even has an office which seems to far exceed the size necessary for handling the tiny amount of business they do in the system.

Union’s civilian offices are also here, with its small corps of administrative staff constantly fielding aid requests on the one hand and insults on the other

The Starstrip
“Try your luck in the Long Rim’s most luxurious gambling halls! Take a load off in unrivalled comfort at our galaxy-class resorts! Bask in the talent of our exclusive shows and acts! The Starstrip: walk the road to the stars.”

The only thoroughfare that runs the entire sprawl, in a looping paht of twists and winds. It links all the major casinos, hotels, shopping malls and theatres. It bustles at every hour of day and night, a constant chuyrn of people seeking excitement, distraction and oblivion.

The number one rating casino on the Starstrip is the Gift-Bronze Casino and Resort, owned by board member Evelina Bondarchuk, with a neo-deco architecture, attentive staff and unrivalled wine selection. Accusations of bribery to the Cultural Review magazine who gave it this rating who gone unanswered.<br?
Hisotric Borealis
“Marvel at the inner workings of Calliope’s largest industrial spaceship, and relive its proud history with one of our affordable guided tours! Proof of zero-g training and signed safety waiver required.”

Sections of the parts of the old ship are open to the public, having been converted into exhibitions on the history of the ship and Calliope at large. Engineering and reactor sections are off limits, of course, as those sections are still in use to power the ship. The ship's mining laser was broken down for parts about a century ago. The primary engines haven't been activated in about that long either, and have long since been disabled; since no one believes the station could take sustained acceleration anymore

Gladiator's Draw and Quarter
“Your thirst for mech-on-mech destruction might never be sated, but we gave it our best shot at the Draw and Quarter!”

By far the most popular sport in Calliope is live mech combat, outpacing Jovain windsurfing by a wide margin. In fact, it's one of Calliope's most successful breakout industries: a vast subculture of Union citizens thirst for mech violence that isn't legal to conduct anywhere in Union space. Calliope's export of gladiatorial mech combat is second only to Suldan, and the lack of any safety measures and the tacit encouragement of fights to the death (until the Emir's recent deposal and restructuring of the government) have long since kept Calliope on top in Union media presence

There's three primary leagues in Calliope. Moon Glacier, Thunderstorm and Hellfire. While only Moon Glacier is 'native' to Icebreaker, all three hold most of their matches in the Draw and Quarter, since it has, by far, the best facilities and arenas in the entire system. It does somewhat annoy Hellifre fans that their league doesn't hold any matches on Hell's Gate station itself, and have long since petitioned Jerry to construct a mech fighting league. He's promised that he'll have a look once he's cleared out his current list of priority tasks. He made that promise on the second day after he became Acting Station Manager, and has never had to even consider fulfilling it in the years since.

By popular vote, the top ten arenas in the Quarter are The Mechropolis, Laserhäus, Deadmetal, Ring of Fate, All Tomorrow’s Junkers, The Despair Shop, One Weird Trick Shot, House of Godhead, Don’t Tell Management and a nameless HORUS-operated arena marked only by a memetic glyph that is inherently understood to mean “mech fighting ring” by those who read it.

Raphael Baza's Bizarre Bazaar
The Bizarre Bazaar is the most prestigious and flamboyant marketplace on the entire station, occupying an entire district by itself; holding court to thousands of merchants peddling their wares. You can buy items from all across the Long Rim and beyond here. Some are even being legally sold.

Serendipity Resort Hotel
“If you want Armory Executive treatment without Armory Executive prices, look no further than the Serendipity Resort Hotel. Serendipity Resort Hotel: ain’t chance a funny thing?”

Rita hasn't paid for a top luxury hotel, but the Serendipity Resort Hotel isn't half bad, and certainly singificantly more comfortable than your sleeping quarters back on the Gate. It has six bars, tow restaurants, a gym, a sauna and a swimming pool.

Deepest Fairyland
“Doesn’t your visit deserve a little wonder? Step off the forest path and enter Deepest Fairyland! But be warned – you may not realize how much time you’ll spend there! Kids’ admission half-price.”

Evelina Bondarchuk's other crown jewel, Deepest Fairyland is the largest theme park in the Long Rim. Originally built with a fairytale theme, it's long since been expanded to incorporate multiple other aesthetics.

Grand Aurora Ampitheater
“Does your soul thirst for music? Come to the Grand Aurora Amphitheater and dance until the dawn! Witness the greatest son et lumière in the galaxy, courtesy of our roster of local DJs! Please note the Board of Icebreaker bears no responsibility for any medical complications caused by use of club drugs.”

The largest live music venture in Icebreaker. It usually plays host to electronic dance usic, but there's often liver performances by hand picked local talent

Uncrowned King Bar and Grill
“If you’re looking for the authentic down-home Long Rim tavern experience, you can find it down any number of alleyways and access corridors! Please remember that station security forces can’t always guarantee a response time of less than five minutes!”

A crummy dive bar in the Draw and Quarter, with a glass wall that overlooks the House of Godhead arena. The only thing worse than the ambience is the food.

In other words, the perfect spot for a covert meeting with the station director.

Union Liason Offices

Calliope does not qualify for a Union Administrator, and technically falls under the Bureau of Orbital and Non-Terrestrial Management, who have sent a series of civilian liasons to the system to handle Union affairs and relations. They have an office on Icebreaker, and are currently represented by Kileyna Morton, who has the most difficult job in the system (except for Jerry): Represent Union and its Utopian goals in a place defined by the absence of both. Their main accomplishment was the establishment of a neutral omninode in the system, as well as getting a Union Navy Carrier assigned to the system for security and aid purposes.

Kileya splits their time between the offices on Icebreaker and the current carrier assigned to Calliope, which is the UNS-CV Thames.

Jane's Guide, Calliope Edition

Combat Mechs

• GMS Muscle Tracer: A cheap, widely dispersed combat mech for militaries that need to bulk up their melee hitters for close quarters battle. The Muscle Tracer uses numerous automated systems to basically predict what the wearer wants, and act on it. It makes it very easy for unskilled users, but the conditioning often results in
• ID Zone Denier: One of Impact Dynamics local designs, before they shifted to food production back during initial colonization, the Zone Denier is equipped with camouflage mine system and a grenade launcher; built to hold and defend a specific point.
• Retrograde-9 Smasher: A brute of a mech, the Retrograde series are classic designs, all big and bulky. The Smasher is slow as hell, but not much can actually stop it when it wants to go somewhere, and its demolition hammer ensures that anything at its destination will crushed flatter than a pancake. Should mounted concussion missiles give it an emergency defensive system.
• Butterflyght Arthas-9: Butterflyght is a small Long Rim weapons designer, whose developments have been slowly showing up elsewhere for a number of years now. The Arthas-9 is a sentry mech, equipped with a half dozen semi-autonomous remote controlled miniguns. It's primarily meant for anti-personnel work, but volume of fire will still results in effective results when put against mech scale targets
• ID Fury Rocket System: Another Impact Dynamics design, the Fury Rocket can be found in countless weapon caches across Calliope. The Atlas missile launcher it holds is slow firing, but can hit almost any point on the battlefield, and carries an overcharged plasma core; resulting in massive damage when it impacts. As the old saying went: 'If it impacts, it's a dynamics.' It never really caught on before ID switched business focuses.

Civilian Mechs

• Shelton TC-9: A extremely common civilian chassis in Calliope, the TC-9's design is over four hundred years old and still going strong. Easy to print, easy to maintain, it excels in engineering and salvaging projects; making it very popular for work in Calliope. Accordingly, this also means there's plenty for amateur soldiers to uparmor and equip with printed mech weapons.
• Engi Delta: A spider class repair mech, a fairly common vista when looking at the hull of one of the stations in Calliope, as they mend the various problems caused be centuries of low budget maintenance. They need no particular reconfiguration to serve as repair mechs in combat.

Spacecraft

• ID Retro-55: An interceptor from Impact Dynamics old production lines, back when they were a weapons developer. Armed with multiple missile racks and close range machine guns; the Retro-55 is a reliable model for supporting mechs in zero-g combat.

Maps