Sifu Blackirish
SOC-14 1K
1727 HASTORR C989599-8 [CONFEDERATION], B989653-9 [DOMINION]
There is not a lot on this world that would attract casual visitors. With 87 percent water, it has a varied, active and hostile ecosystem which has evolved in an acidic environment. Land and sea based whipsaws, spit birds and poisonous rockhoppers pose great risks to safety and bodily integrity of anyone who wants to wander out of a safe zone.
Many of the miners, scientists and colonists who came to this world were sent as part of the ConFederation’s Border Stabilization Program. It was believed that sending people from similar wet worlds would ease colonial transition difficulties. Unfortunately, pressures from the Bureau of Colonization resulted in mostly urbanites being transported. One wonders if they were forced to emigrate or simply made an offer they couldn’t refuse. Transfers began in 2256.
[Closer to the truth, one might more properly assign the cause, or blame, to Loyalty Office policies for screening out ‘political undesirables’ rather than ensuring a balance of useful skills. Ed.]
Besides hostile life forms, there were unexpected environmental hazards. Severe storms of acid rain, sometimes increased to hurricane force by conjunction of the world’s four moons, could wreck structures and rapidly corrode unprotected metal. This same rain, falling in some areas with metallic ores, created pockets of static electricity. Lasting for weeks in some cases, these charges could easily destroy unprotected electronics and disrupt neural activity to the point of total intelligence erasure.
It was a difficult time for those first wave colonists, who were more or less dropped off and ignored by their sponsors. Even their total combined resources could not get more of a response than an occasional surplus cargo pod, filled with mealpaks and a few basic colony prefab kits. Left on their own, they were forced to invent their own procedures to ensure survival, and forms of entertainment. So it was not long after these colonists began to arrive that a second exodus began.
There was an urge present that could not be stilled or silenced. Using precious imported materials for their first watercraft, they began to explore outside of the limited confines of their colony site. Many of these primitive outback domes and watercraft were lost during the extremely destructive Passover storms of 2261. This setback did not stop the miniature exodus from continuing, even though Nature here was proving to be a hard taskmaster.
In 2262, there was a large delivery or cargo pods. Many thought it was finally a relief effort of sorts. Instead it was a second wave of colonists, this time involuntarily transported. Through a massive effort, many of those pods were converted into watercraft and used for distributing a population that was now ten times its original size throughout the world.
By 2271 there were numerous small outposts scattered among the archipelagoes and volcanic islands. Population on these outposts remained small due to the need for supporting labor intensive agricultural domes. Also, besides being boring, survival mealpaks were little more than a subsistence diet, lacking some trace minerals. These domes required intensive soil preparation before being able to support Terran crops. Terran seeds and food producing plants were so valuable that for many years in the past, and in many remote regions of Hastorr today, they are still used as a form of currency.
Despite being out of contact with the interstellar community in general, local scientists continued their own lines of research. Native plants and animals, once thought to be not only inedible but poisonous, were able to be consumed by humans after chemical processing to neutralize their high acid content. One of the more daring of these experimental food processors was a scientist who became bored with the life of a field researcher.
She was the first to perfect a distilling process for alcohol production using native plants. She built a small distillery, a hostel and a dice pit on a small sub-arctic island near the South Pole. In a stroke of genius, she accepted construction materials and labor as payment for gambling debts. Such is the story behind Stormhaven, the Vegas known throughout this world and beyond.
Until 2274, there was nothing on Hastorr anyone would want. However, someone in the Core had noticed something in an obscure science journal and performed some independent research. It seemed that the static zone ore had certain special properties. Now there would be greatly increased mining activity. Unfortunately, there would be a Dominion presence as well. Not satisfied with an iron grip on Terra and her core sectors, military officers had performed a classic junta. Now their militaristic and expansionist policies would have a new hunting ground.
It was Dominion policy to establish colonies with a cadre of ‘reliable’ military veterans. Given land grants on the frontier, they would be the stable center of a growing network of tightly controlled planets. Some friendly person in a planning department leaked information about Hastorr’s probable fate. Without a minimum of a unified planetary government, or an interstellar level organization available for negotiations, Dominion policy was to simply annex the system and use it for their own purposes. Whatever natives or humans were present on the world would have no voice in governance whatsoever.
Colonists had not been there long, but they valued their newly acquired freedom of movement and action. As news spread around the world, miners, scientists and some of the few remaining independent Scouts collaborated in formulating a plan. Hastily conceived, sloppily applied, it might not work, or it just might prevent a Dominion takeover and conversion to a pure research facility.
With negotiations from the various miner’s guilds and help from a ‘borrowed’ orbiting survey scout, three additional rich sites for norcite ore were charted and reserved. Intense political negotiations took place, resulting in a planetary level united Guild presence. Dominion policy makers were forced to accept Hastorr on an associate basis. It was one of only a few Guild victories in this era.
In 2276, It was a group of sailors [Wet Naval types. Ed.] who were given land grants on Hastorr that came up with the idea of a grand tour of the islands. Now with these new colony sites available, the first official Grand Tour was conducted in 2278. It took almost a year for the first boat to return to Knorr and claim the prize. Yet, proving that is was possible, there were easily four times as many volunteers for the next tour. Rapidly increasing norcite production made Knorr a ‘boom town’ and brought more space traffic, so it was natural that someone would extend the grand tour concept to space.
Hastorr’s Space Grand Tour has been held every year since its inception in late 2283. Using locally produced small craft, a successful tour requires close passage, landing and takeoff from the following locations:
- Vistuhhl microwave power relay station (orbit 1)
- Kikkalvin mass driver (asteroid belt, orbit 5)
- Selamiin interstellar customs/relay post (orbit 10)
Low power ultra wave transmitters at all locations present a timestamp. This is impressed on an old style data card, also recorded and logged by the craft’s navigational computer. The last leg is an all-out sprint for Hastorr. Whoever presents his set of timestamped data cards and memory core at the Knorr spaceport is declared the winner. Notable winners include:
Enli Haakonn, winner of the first space rally.
James Smith, first non-Hastorr citizen to win
Sarna Vilkon VII, who won four straight Tours, then came back from retirement last year to win again, setting a new record.
There is not a lot on this world that would attract casual visitors. With 87 percent water, it has a varied, active and hostile ecosystem which has evolved in an acidic environment. Land and sea based whipsaws, spit birds and poisonous rockhoppers pose great risks to safety and bodily integrity of anyone who wants to wander out of a safe zone.
Many of the miners, scientists and colonists who came to this world were sent as part of the ConFederation’s Border Stabilization Program. It was believed that sending people from similar wet worlds would ease colonial transition difficulties. Unfortunately, pressures from the Bureau of Colonization resulted in mostly urbanites being transported. One wonders if they were forced to emigrate or simply made an offer they couldn’t refuse. Transfers began in 2256.
[Closer to the truth, one might more properly assign the cause, or blame, to Loyalty Office policies for screening out ‘political undesirables’ rather than ensuring a balance of useful skills. Ed.]
Besides hostile life forms, there were unexpected environmental hazards. Severe storms of acid rain, sometimes increased to hurricane force by conjunction of the world’s four moons, could wreck structures and rapidly corrode unprotected metal. This same rain, falling in some areas with metallic ores, created pockets of static electricity. Lasting for weeks in some cases, these charges could easily destroy unprotected electronics and disrupt neural activity to the point of total intelligence erasure.
It was a difficult time for those first wave colonists, who were more or less dropped off and ignored by their sponsors. Even their total combined resources could not get more of a response than an occasional surplus cargo pod, filled with mealpaks and a few basic colony prefab kits. Left on their own, they were forced to invent their own procedures to ensure survival, and forms of entertainment. So it was not long after these colonists began to arrive that a second exodus began.
There was an urge present that could not be stilled or silenced. Using precious imported materials for their first watercraft, they began to explore outside of the limited confines of their colony site. Many of these primitive outback domes and watercraft were lost during the extremely destructive Passover storms of 2261. This setback did not stop the miniature exodus from continuing, even though Nature here was proving to be a hard taskmaster.
In 2262, there was a large delivery or cargo pods. Many thought it was finally a relief effort of sorts. Instead it was a second wave of colonists, this time involuntarily transported. Through a massive effort, many of those pods were converted into watercraft and used for distributing a population that was now ten times its original size throughout the world.
By 2271 there were numerous small outposts scattered among the archipelagoes and volcanic islands. Population on these outposts remained small due to the need for supporting labor intensive agricultural domes. Also, besides being boring, survival mealpaks were little more than a subsistence diet, lacking some trace minerals. These domes required intensive soil preparation before being able to support Terran crops. Terran seeds and food producing plants were so valuable that for many years in the past, and in many remote regions of Hastorr today, they are still used as a form of currency.
Despite being out of contact with the interstellar community in general, local scientists continued their own lines of research. Native plants and animals, once thought to be not only inedible but poisonous, were able to be consumed by humans after chemical processing to neutralize their high acid content. One of the more daring of these experimental food processors was a scientist who became bored with the life of a field researcher.
She was the first to perfect a distilling process for alcohol production using native plants. She built a small distillery, a hostel and a dice pit on a small sub-arctic island near the South Pole. In a stroke of genius, she accepted construction materials and labor as payment for gambling debts. Such is the story behind Stormhaven, the Vegas known throughout this world and beyond.
Until 2274, there was nothing on Hastorr anyone would want. However, someone in the Core had noticed something in an obscure science journal and performed some independent research. It seemed that the static zone ore had certain special properties. Now there would be greatly increased mining activity. Unfortunately, there would be a Dominion presence as well. Not satisfied with an iron grip on Terra and her core sectors, military officers had performed a classic junta. Now their militaristic and expansionist policies would have a new hunting ground.
It was Dominion policy to establish colonies with a cadre of ‘reliable’ military veterans. Given land grants on the frontier, they would be the stable center of a growing network of tightly controlled planets. Some friendly person in a planning department leaked information about Hastorr’s probable fate. Without a minimum of a unified planetary government, or an interstellar level organization available for negotiations, Dominion policy was to simply annex the system and use it for their own purposes. Whatever natives or humans were present on the world would have no voice in governance whatsoever.
Colonists had not been there long, but they valued their newly acquired freedom of movement and action. As news spread around the world, miners, scientists and some of the few remaining independent Scouts collaborated in formulating a plan. Hastily conceived, sloppily applied, it might not work, or it just might prevent a Dominion takeover and conversion to a pure research facility.
With negotiations from the various miner’s guilds and help from a ‘borrowed’ orbiting survey scout, three additional rich sites for norcite ore were charted and reserved. Intense political negotiations took place, resulting in a planetary level united Guild presence. Dominion policy makers were forced to accept Hastorr on an associate basis. It was one of only a few Guild victories in this era.
In 2276, It was a group of sailors [Wet Naval types. Ed.] who were given land grants on Hastorr that came up with the idea of a grand tour of the islands. Now with these new colony sites available, the first official Grand Tour was conducted in 2278. It took almost a year for the first boat to return to Knorr and claim the prize. Yet, proving that is was possible, there were easily four times as many volunteers for the next tour. Rapidly increasing norcite production made Knorr a ‘boom town’ and brought more space traffic, so it was natural that someone would extend the grand tour concept to space.
Hastorr’s Space Grand Tour has been held every year since its inception in late 2283. Using locally produced small craft, a successful tour requires close passage, landing and takeoff from the following locations:
- Vistuhhl microwave power relay station (orbit 1)
- Kikkalvin mass driver (asteroid belt, orbit 5)
- Selamiin interstellar customs/relay post (orbit 10)
Low power ultra wave transmitters at all locations present a timestamp. This is impressed on an old style data card, also recorded and logged by the craft’s navigational computer. The last leg is an all-out sprint for Hastorr. Whoever presents his set of timestamped data cards and memory core at the Knorr spaceport is declared the winner. Notable winners include:
Enli Haakonn, winner of the first space rally.
James Smith, first non-Hastorr citizen to win
Sarna Vilkon VII, who won four straight Tours, then came back from retirement last year to win again, setting a new record.
