The Cluster Falk: Notes

Notes page for The Cluster Falk

Kathammie, Kathammie - of all the ports to end up in all the buttends of the sector, you had to land up in Kathammie. Not that there's much more than a port here anyway. It could be a fine enough world, except that the thick atmosphere prevents photosynthesis and anything more than the most basic crops, the native ecosystem is at the slime-mold level, and it has no natural or human resources to speak of. It owes its port to a convenient location on the Viceroyalty's trade routes, but it's not the place that anyone wants to end up at come the end of a voyage. There's only the most occasional cargoes to pick up for onward shipment, and nothing to ship locally. If you run out of dough here, you might just get stuck for ever.

The few locals look like the ones who fell into that trap. Either that or a few malcontent hermits who retreat here because it's somewhere they can guarantee never to be disturbed. No law, no government, no institutions to speak of - just a few stores and dive bars around the spaceport, and that's all.

Altharetta system industrialized early and aggressively, in an attempt to catch up with the more developed systems around. Unfortunately, it was always a poor world, and extensive hydrocarbon deposits were all the wealth it really had. With the hydrocarbon oceans of Vannia so close by, they were the last thing anyone offworld needed. And in a feedback loop that no one had anticipated, the already dryish ecosystem of Altharetta started to dry up even more. The population started to panic and riot, and the factory owners turned to the military to defend them. General Ganash seized power, and now tries to repress all dissent and upheaval with an iron fist, but his clumsy policies are useless against the coming ecological disaster. All the neighbouring systems expect Altharetta to descend into anarchy and catastrophe shortly, and aside from a few do-gooders, no one wants to get involved.

• Ancients site
• Minor, confined site
• Monument
• Practical dome
• Fleshlike
• Perfectly preserved
• Reactive lighting responds to your presence
• Generation or transformation of energy
• Inscrutable object lies dark and silent
• Dire warning left by other explorers
• Insight into the nature or history of this site
• Simulated or illusionary environment
• Scene of hideous violence or death
• Deeper insight into the history or nature of this site