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Tenalphi is a wilderness planet on the Jump-1 Main towards the Sword Worlds. That about sums it up for the casual passenger.

On a closer look, the system reveals some remarkable features. The curious traveller usually first ventures to the orbital spaceport over Tenalphi Prime. This spaceport, built to TL-14 specs, is a marvel of technology in a sea of lo-tec crudeness.

HiTec Outpost

Being a showcase for Imperial advances was the driving goal behind the construction of Tenalphi High. The port is part of a project to promote trade and the reputation of the Imperium in one go. Since its construction in 1112 it succeeded in both endeavors to the satisfaction of Duchess Delphine of Lunion as well as the Imperial Border Office. In the few years since the final habitat module was added, thousands of travellers have enjoyed the station’s amenities, met sophonts from the strange space beyond the border and generally used it as a neutral ground to conduct business.
Trade Hub

It’s location on an X-Boat route enhanced this role as an interstellar marketplace considerably. Investors from Spirelle and elsewhere use the quicker access to information to their advantage. Likewise the Imperial Border Office uses the station to conduct meetings with Sword Worlders on home ground. But aside from being an informational and diplomatic hub, it is also a transport hub for the region. Many Jump-3 and Jump-4-Passenger Vessels dock at the port to pick up transients from the surrounding systems on their way to far-off planets.
Tenalphi Hospital

With ownership comes responsibility. This gained the TL-14 port certain other duties. For one, it contains the best hospital in three parsecs distance. Naturally, this ensures many visitors coming for aid, most of them endowed with the strangest diseases. As diseases are the natural enemy of enclosed environments, the SpA installed a special quarantined habitat section for the use of Tenalphi Hospital. In addition, only those who are referred by licensed doctors may hope for aid – the security risks posed by biological hazards is too high to simply ignore. Nonetheless, every year some hundred patients without proper papers come to the station to seek help. This is one of the major problems the Port Director faces onstation.
Dagelli & Co., Construction and Maintenance

Another role played by the port is that of an interstellar garage. The station contains the highest rated commercial dockyard in 10 parsecs distance. That means a lot of ships from the Lunion subsector as well as the Borderworlds simply come to get their inspections. The dock is usually too booked on maintenance to accept building contracts, but small craft construction does occur. The skyport’s fleet of TL-14 fighters is entirely self manufactured, for example. This is reflected in their increasingly flamboyant designs. As a matter of fact, the dockyard is operated by Lazarus Dagelli, an engineering help who had originally come from Spirelle. When Ling Standard refused to take the contract for the docks – they were booked but not overbooked in their construction sites at Strouden and Lunion – the SpA sweetened the deal by offering a discount on freight costs for parts. Before the regional director of L/S could react, Dagelli had stormed the Port Director’s office, babbled something about local production, and subsector development and managed to get a deal off the SpA. Within the next two weeks he got several dozen of his wealthiest family members to invest in this scheme. As additional crew he elected to employ Vargr engineers – a sometimes tricky but arguably cheap practice.

Niccolo’s Casino

The fifth and last role of Tenalphi High is pleasure. All the visitors from other worlds need some entertainment during their stay. The skyport has some excellent and some less excellent places to shop, play and sleep. Notably among them is the Tenalphi Casino. Occupying half a habitat module, it features lounges, conference rooms, observation decks and of course several ongoing backroom games.
Of special interest is the BlackBoard on the main promenade. It used to be a provisory wall on which the construction workers happened to write the chances of meeting required deadlines. Today it is an electronic betting display where everyone may place bets of any kind. People offer bets on surgical procedures, merchant runs through pirate infested areas or the chances for another Frontier War. As such it is a pretty good indicator for subsector politics and economics. The ‘Board draws gamblers from all over the subsector and beyond, further bolstering the stations transients.

All in all, there are some 2000 permanent residents and some 4000 transient ones at any moment onstation.

Tenalphi – The Planet

The planet itself is a hot wilderness with a large variety of plant and animal life. It is largely unexplored since preliminary studies found no signs of indegenious sophonts. This does not mean there are no signs of civilization at all. Tenalphi has been sitting on the forefront of interstellar warfare for several hundred years. This accounts for all kinds of remains of starships, bases and more on the surface. Rumour has it there even is an Octagon-shelter somewhere in the wilderness.

Doing wilderness refueling, while being prohibited, is also dangerous. The atmosphere is hardly breathable, containing severe irritants that produce allergic reactions in most sophonts. In addition, the local fauna poses considerable risks to the unprepard visitor. Large predators, predatory bugs and poisonous plants make wilderness travelling a dangerous proposition.

Spirelle government is closely tied to its city structure. This is due to the fact that 90% of the populace lives in one of three great cities. These cities are sectioned up into locs, quarters with the flair of the barrio. The locs are administered by gangs with a political message. Of course, the gangs fight among themselves, something the Spirelle take for granted. The general non-fighting gang members will switch loyalities with the fall of a good argument, so stability has never been a trait in Spirelli politics.

The gangs use streetvehicles of all kinds and weaponry depending on the circumstance. That in turn depends on the type of duel being played. Everything from ‚Get the Flag’ with paint-balls to a One-on-one death duel is permitted. The games have been attributed elaborate meanings and are used for specific instances, like turf claims, votes, or the gladiatorial law system.

Spirelle is also the most vibrant planet in the subsector. With the influx of new technology in the last three hundred years, Spirelle has been transformed from an ancient colony fallen back to medieval times to a thriving, colourful place with an entertainment industry that rivals that of core worlds.

Needless to say, Spirelle enjoys a large number of Vargr tourists and traders that seem to fit right in.

This is a place travellers usually avoid. Smoug is small, densely populated and miserable. The inhabitants live in tunnels and some tarnished domes. Severe mismanagement in the government has led to widespread poverty. The results are easy to see: The poor have created their warren of tunnels, ruled by gangs. Occasionally, a new leader arises among them, inevitably leading them against the priviledged in violent uprisings. But so far, the state has proven to be stronger. This is quite easy as only the police is allowed to wear weapons and possession of weapons of any sort is prohibited by law. The police go down very hard on display of weapons of any sort. The steak knife is not the most common murder weapon by chance either.

The government lets out only a small amount of people each local year, and these must face severe harassment – to the point of public humiliation by running the gauntlets to the starport. This leaves most emmigrants traumatized and seldom able to start a new life on other planets. The government sends agents after them to cover their story, leading to additional stress. All this serves as an additional deterrent for the citizens of the Citizen’s Republic of Smoug, the CRS.

The priviledged employees of the state-owned corporations live in sealed domes and clean corridors. The actual digging work gets done by the worker class who get priviledge vouchers based on work load. With a good amount of sweat, workers can send their kids to the right schools and prepare them for recruitment. That is, barring emmigration, the only way to get out of the squalor.

There is a thriving black market with raw minerals taken from the Rat-Tunnels. Traders do this usually only on a last resort basis since the colonial navy comes quite hard down on those it gets. Nonetheless, a shipment of radioactives at the right time can pay an overhaul.

Smoug exports radioactives as well as heavy and anti-social elements.

Olympia, Palace of the Star-Born. Such is the official title of the starport. It is placed on a snall moon of the main-world. The main world itself is a Red-Zone and may not be entered. The reason is one part dislike of foreign intrusion and one part protection of a culture that holds starflight in religious reverence.

So the traveller only ever sees the moon palace, but that is quite enough. Built of marble and quartz-glass, it is cold white beauty rising out of the moon’s thin atmosphere. While the main thoroughfares are undecorated, the monk’s dormitorium and religious area are decorated with elaborate carvings in marble.

Speaking of monks: The religious high-priestess and shadow-emperor of Olympia Primus is the so-called Star-Born, a female of indeterminate age, rumored to be cloned of former high-priestesses. The actual procedure is not known as the Olympians don’t like letting others see into their cards.

The palace also houses the Olympian Archive – a massive structure rumoured to be armored as tough as any Imperial depot. In there the whole history of Olympia is recorded – and probably some more as the Archive has deals with several foreign universities and research institutes. For a price, the archivers may answer your question.

The spaceport section is very clean and nice, with monks working everywhere to keep the place spotless. Since they do not allow foreign businesses to lay a foothold insystem, the monks are also the chefs, barkeeps and consierges of Olympia Starport. Since they are recruited from the planet it does lead to certain funny moments when new acolytes take up their first jobs.

All in all, the system is so beautiful, passenger ships frequent it just for entertainment value. Especially when the time of the great pilgrimage comes, the look is quite magnificent. Serveral hundred miniature space-ships, flying by the power of the solar wind make the voyage through the abyss to the Palace of the Star-Born.

The populace of Adabicci is a very devout one. This is reflected in the great temples they built – and tore down – in obedience to their faiths. Likewise, their governments are always theocracies. Over many centuries, new sects have sprung up, gained root and revigorated the old beliefs. Over time, there were religious dictatorships, councils of world religions, oligarchies of church elders and more.

True Faith

According to official statistics, about 94% of the planet’s population are adherents of the One Faith. Of these, another 86% belong to the True Church, while the rest put their faith in splinter sects of various types. This high number of believers in Hegemon Takovley and his True Church is a result of the Hegemon’s suppression of by means of missionaries, bureaucratic hurdles and sometimes even force.

Free Faith

Recently, a group comprised of all ‘free religions’ have started to wage a terrorist war against the Unified World Council and its leader, Hegemon Takovley. The Imperial Navy, which has a base insystem, is none to happy about this. Commodore Aarunkeliish, commander of Adabicci Base, has urged all parties to join into peace talks. He was successful but didn’t count in the fervor of local beliefs. After the peace summit Takovley ‘excommunicated’ the delegates of the Free Faiths, making them free targets for any believer in the True Church. A mob stoned the delegates on their way home. Widespread street fighting between the followers of different religions followed. In retaliation, Templars of the True Faith clamped down on all resistance in Church-held provinces. Additionally, Takovley pressured many other provinces to do the same.

Path of High Resistance

The situation is continually deteriorating as demonstrators clash daily with government forces. The system’s Imperial representative, Marquis Ninslev, was repeatedly called to the Duchess’ Palace, to no avail. Ninslev, himself a high-ranking member of the True Church, seems unable and unmotivated to put an end to this burgeoning civil war. Instead, his coffers swell with confiscated goods.

Furenet – The Planet

The main world of the Adabicci System, Furenet, is a dry stone ball with a tainted atmosphere. The taint is a remant of a religious ritual during which large amounts of a local wood variety were burnt. Although the ritual was only praticed for ten years, the result was a permanent taint in the atmosphere. The problem comes less from the ash and dust still floating in the air, but more from biological pollutants bound in the tree’s resin. Otherwise, the place is quite green and healthy. Imperial geneering took care of pollution related problems concerning fauna and flora.

Con-Struction

When it became apparent in th 1960´s that Her Exaltedness’ State Ignored would need to be maintained at whatever cost, a small but effective plan was devised. Her Exaltedness, Monique D´Aubainne, chose one of her middle ranks and commanded him to build a town in the United States of America. Her Plan was to do without a postal address by forwarding all mail through the American Office.

Several years later, a small firm backed by unknown resources had attracted enough investors to build a small urban utopia in the middle of (insert here). The Town was built, but noone would come. Either the customers would never call again after seeing the site or they would get cold feet the day of the signing of the contract. It was as if the whole project was bewitched.

Eventually the whole thing was dropped. The small developer´s firm went down, the Town wasted away. But not for long. Scarcely one year later, am unknown group bought up the now worthless land. Another half year later, the town of Al Amarja, (insert here), applied for a post office.

Al Amarja, (insert here), today

Al Amarja today is just another part of Small Town, America. The citizens are kinda singleminded and boring, the town memorials the same you saw one hundred miles ago,. and the biggest building in town is the post office. That should tell you something about this town.

It is important to note that there is only one motel in town. This motel (“Motel California”) is intentionally made dirty and icky. Visitors are not encouraged to stay.

But depending if you share the ´common reality´or are Al Amarjan, there are two different messages. The Al Amarjan Version says it´s home to a mixture between imported Zeroes to provide for a populace and about a hundred of her Exaltedness´ toadies. The more (useless) toadies anyway. In that way, Al Amarja, (insert here), has become a kind of a Home for the Elderly for her Exaltedness’ ex-employees. Do not underestimate them. They may not be fit enough for the Al Amarjan scene anymore but they are still (wily) enough for anything their new surroundings might throw at them.

The Post Office

The Post Office is, as stated above, the largest building in town. That is not entirely strange considering the fact that the mail of half a million (?)post boxes get through this office. At least a hundred Zeros work here every day to sort and examine the mail. Actually, the examining gets done by the more (adventurous) of Ex-Toadies. These than either report their Info to one of the many conspiracies on the Island or, be it willingly or unwillingly, to Her Exaltedness´ Controllers. This way everyone can be happy. Once the sorters are through with the mail, it is put into a container and sent to the Island by air. This is of course quite costly to Her Exaltedness’ coffers. To regain some of the money, all mail going out of the country was made very expensive, resulting also in a reduction of mail going out. That way the number of postcards sent to inquisitive relatives at home is drastically reduced, ultimately meaning another plus to anonymity. In addition to this, all former employees must declare their non-taxable income, of course.

Der Friedhof

Der Friedhof von The Edge ist uralt. Er wird ständig ausgebaut, selbst wenn nur ca. 40% aller Toten in The Edge dorthin gelangen. Der Friedhof ist schon deshalb sehr interessant, weil dort alle architektonischen Spilarten der letzten 500 Jahre zu bewundern sind. Es stehen Moscheen-gleiche Grüfte wohlhabender Türken direkt neben dem Heck eines rosa Cadillac. Der Friedhof wurde in seiner Geschichte des öfteren umgeweiht. Heute hat man sich darauf geeinigt, jeder religiösen Gemeinschaft einen gleichgroßen Raum zu lassen, wobei man Atheisten ausdrücklich miteinschloß.

Koum Kapi

Koum Kapi ist ein Viertel in The Edge, die von ägyptischen Auswanderern erbaut wurde. Der Stadtteil des Stadtteil steht seit etwa 150 Jahren dort. Er ist vor allem durch seine ungewöhnlich Architektur bemerkenswert, eine Mischung zwischen Beduinendorf und Lehm/Holz-Kuppeln. Warum diese Bevölkerungsgruppe ihr Land verließ, weiß niemand. Die Leute nennen sich übrigens Barbariner.

Das Kloster

Mitten in der Stadt steht das festungsartige Kloster eines Katholischen Ordens. Keine Fenster zeigen nach außen, nur ein Doppeltor gilt als Verbindung nach außen. Das Kloster wurde kurz nachdem D´Aubainne die Insel gekauft hatte, wieder vom Vatikan beansprucht. Das Kloster wurde gegen eine ungewisse Summe an den Orden verkauft. Die Klosterbrüder und Schwestern werden des öfteren in Al Amarja gesehen. Sie unterhalten Kontakte zu den Neutralizern, Monique D´Aubainne und Cheryl D´Aubainne. Lydia Goodman unterhält auch gewisse Beziehungen mit ihnen, findet aber den Abt Gabriel X etwas unheimlich. Nicht ganz zu unrecht, denn dieser ist ein Mitglied von V.

Die Bauruinen

Am Strand von Al Amarja stehen einige Bauruinen von Hotels und Ferienhäusern. Sie werden heutzutage von streunenden Jugendlichen, Gangs und Pennern als Unterschlupf bzw. Versammlungsort genutzt. Bisweilen schauen unter abbröckelndem Beton die Glieder von Leuten hervor, die dort eingesargt wurden.

Die Hunderennbahn

Im Landesinneren von The Edge befindet sich eine Hunderennbahn, die sich großer Beliebtheit erfreut. Tausende von Einheimischen und Touristen strömen jedes Wochenende zur Rennbahn, um ihr Glück zu versuchen. Dabei kann es natürlich zu spontanen Selbstmorden und Freudenbekundungen kommen, denn schließlich ist der gewöhnliche Al Amarji sehr offen mit seinem Geld. Da die Anlage von Monique D´Aubainne betrieben wird, ist Betrug beim Wettgeschäft nie vorgekommen. Zumindest würde es niemand bezeugen. Betrug und Trickserei in den Ställen kommt natürlich bisweilen vor.

Die Strandcafès

Am Strand nahe The Edge, auf der anderen Seite von Skylla befindet sich eine Ansammlung von Beach Cafés. Diese bieten angenehmen Kneipenservice direkt am Strand an, d.h. man kann sich direkt an den Strand legen und bekommt vom Ober Getränke gebracht. Es herrscht ein regelrechter Konzessionskrieg zwischen den einzelnen Bars um Marktanteile. Wenn sich ein Kunde in den strittigen Grenzbereich zwischen zwei Bars legt, kann es schnell zu Handgreiflichkeiten zwischen Obern kommen. Bisweilem brennen die Buden auch ab, oder eine Gasflsche platzt. Die Eigner der Buden schlafen zumeist in ihren Buden oder stellen Leute an, die sie bewachen.

Der Leuchtturm

Im Hafen von Skylla steht ein Leuchtturm, der seine geschichtlichen Fundamente bis zu einem ägyptischen Leuchtfeuer zurückverfolgen kann. Was in diesem Fundament alles drin ist, wissen aber nur wenige.

Der Persian Club

The Persian Club, ein Herrenclub eines Engländers befindet sich im Golden Barrio. Eine Beschreibung des Etablissements befindet sich in RPI 7.

Eine Diskothek

Die Disco mit angeschlossenem Studio. Ein Typ hat herausgefunden, wie man Videoclips so weit “aufwertet”, daß sie auf Großen Leinwänden hypnotisch auf Massen wirken. Das ganze funktioniert auch auf kleinerer Ebene, aber nur , wenn der Bildschirm einen gewissen Seehorizont ausfüllt. Die Bilder schimmern dann leicht. In der Disco steht eine solche Leinwand, die einem mit gewisser Länge das Gehirn umkrempelt.

Die Arena

Die Konzerthalle namens “The Arena”. Die ganze Bühne ist an allen Seiten von einem 7m hohen Metallgitter umgeben, das die Zuschauer als Steh-und Sitzplätze benutzen.

Die Stadt

Usprünglich war der Grundriss von The Edge regelmäßig geometrisch in der Form eines Rades. Über die Jahrhunderte wurde dieser Grundriss aber immer verwaschener, da Erdbeben und Brände Stadtviertel zerstörten und diese nach anderen Konzeptionen, wenn überhaupt, wieder aufgebaut wurden.

Irem, the city of dreams – it is a household name for the mysterious. As such it fits perfectly into the unknown reaches of the Badlands. In this article I present you my personal vision of Irem on TerraNova.

The Story

A long time ago, there was a king. Well, he wasn’t a rightful king but the position of CEO and majority holder in a major electronics company comes close to this. His name was Khareem Shadad, called the Golden, for he was a man of great wealth. He also was a man of many enemies. And thus it came to pass that one day he packed his belongings and a few hundred of his most loyal retainers and went out into the desert.

There, he vanished without a trace.

Or so the story goes. In reality, Shadad had constructed a fortress for himself long before he went away. The fortress was a self-contained complex built into one of the many mesas of the Badlands. It was quite large and was constructed in such way, as to ensure ist survival even under the most dire of situations. This ability was tested quite soon when, a few cycles after Shadad had moved in, the whole structure was buried under a sand storm.

Nobody heard from the City of Dreams ever since.

Irem today

The city itself is large underground system of tunnels and caverns set into a desert mesa. From the outside one cannot see anything of the city since the sides of the mesa are covered with tons of sand, enough to deter any digging in – or digging out for that matter. Thus even the windows set high into the mesa look out only into a wall of dust and stones.

There are three main areas in the city. The first is the Great Hall, a natural cavern almost 500 metres deep and 150 metres high. Within this hall is the main city proper. The inhabitants, of which there are more than 700, have erected various buildings in this hall, just like they would have, if the city had been under an open sky. There are simple two-bedroom houses made from broken stone, there are large mansions, housing entire families and there are spiralling towers at least 100 metres high. And then there are the Pillars of the Sky. The pillars reach up from the ground to the cavern’s roof and are constructed in such a way as to maximise the stability of the hall.

All of these buildings are beautiful works of art. The inhabitants have virtually spent centuries improving their city until it now is nothing less than a dazzling sight. The buildings feature stuccoworks, colourful paint-schemes and many, many balconies. There are bridges spanning the void between the towers, decorated with hanging flowers. Many of the side streets have been lain out with grass, only occasionally broken by statues.

In short it is as beautiful as an underground city can get.

The cavern’s roof is a wonder by itself. When the city was constructed, the architects went to great lengths to create the illusion of an open sky. Thus they painted the roof in a pale blue colour, with a deeper blue near the center of the roof. They couldn’t create a sun, so they had to make do with large plasma arcs housed in special lamps. These lamps are placed on the highest points of the pillars and are dimmed in such way as to permit the illusion of a sun wandering over the city. The architects even set little halogen lights into the roof to create something akin to stars.

From one end to another flows a small underground river connected to the MacAllen Network. It is large enough to permit fishing and represents the main source of water for the city. Its sides are lined with small parks, small bridges and amphitheaters.

The second main area is the hydroponics section. It consists of long halls of green houses, carefully nurtured by the population of the city. It is here that most of the food is produced and the air is cleaned. On all ends there are massive redundant pumping station bringing air and water from the city into the gardens. Otherwise the area is quite plain.

The third area consists of the engineering section. Within these few halls there are a geothermal power station, a back-up fusion reactor and the waste disposal facilities. There are also several CAD/CAM units here used to permit limited manufacturing of spare parts. Most of the items used by the populace is made from local materials like clay and plants anyway, so these machines aren’t overworked.

The People of Irem

When you spend a few hundred cycles under a mountain without chance for outside contact, you naturally look for something to take up your time. TV doesn’t work, since there are tons of iron-veined rock over your head. Juggling stones also gets dull after a time. The inhabitants of Irem found their hobby in the holo-machines made by King Shadad’s former company.

Every cycle the inhabitants gather on the streets, bridges and balconies to watch the most beautiful works of art ever created with a holo-projector. It is a competition between various houses, a house being the inhabitants of assorted buildings in a quarter of the city, a tower or even part of a pillar. Every single family member contributes to this effort, be it with words, work or creativity.

The contest runs like this: The various heads of the houses come together in the city’s main square and watch the works of their house-mates projected from the Pillars to the roof of the cavern. Whoever won the contest gets to test their abilities against the winners of the previous four cycles. Every eligible house sends out one representative who must improvise an original work set around a random theme. The winner of five consecutive competitions gets the main prize.

The main prize is cloning. The winner’s DNA is taken and stored in the city’s medical center. After her death, the DNA is taken out of the fridge and a clone is constructed. When the clone is ripe, it is sent to a special creche, where other clones are raised as well. At any time there are about five clones in the making.

Of course, there are other ways to be cloned. For once, there are elections every seven years deciding which citizen has the most talent to be a future administrator. Then, there are clones made at the behest of the administrators. These are generally chosen for genetic advantages.

The clones have a special role in Irem’s society. First of all, they are not raised in families. They are official wardens of the city and have special duties to Irem, not their respective houses. It is they who run the city, administrate it and are most fully educated in its secrets. Thus the 25 clones usually active in Irem make up its ruling class. Though they are welcome to mix with the general populace and are often invited to do so, they may not be cloned themselves.

Originally King Shadad had himself cloned repeatedly and the clones had themselves cloned as well. After a while the result was a visual degredation in the quality of the clones, with some even developing dangerous psychoses. Thus the citizens decided (after a blood-less coup) to keep the clones as their administrators but to replace the genes in regular intervals.

Ways in/Ways out

How do the PCs get into all this? First of all, they may have heard of a fabled City of Dreams out in the desert, that one day was swallowed up by the sands. Caravan traders and grandmas from all over the Badlands tell this story. Then there is the delirious scavenger the PCs pick up after a sandstorm. However they know of Irem’s location, there is only one way to get in or out of Irem.

During certain sand storms occuring every 30 cycles or so, the sand covering the mesa is blown away. For a few hours, in eye of the storm, the entrance is uncovered and curious wanderers can see the many lighted windows of Irem. This is a very spooky sight and more than one wanderer mistook it for a trick of the mind.

The Department of Controlling

Want to see the IRS meets the Men in Black? This is what they are. The nightmare of all paxton executives, it is said that parents of the management caste bring their children to bed with sentences to bed like: “Sleep now, or the Controllers will come and get you.”

In spite of rumours of eating the children of embezzlers alive, the job of the Department of Controlling is a quite mundane one. In every company on this world and others there is someone who keeps an eye on the money and where it goes. With Paxton Arms, being a very large company, the number of these people is legion – as are their names since the individual members don’t wear name tags when in official business.

The job of the DoC is to monitor monetary flows through Paxton and to ensure that no money is lost on the way and that no money is spent on useless endeavors. As such, they check the books of PA and fully owned subsidiaries, approve large investments and make sure that every good bought by Paxton money is definitely, physically where it belongs.

In reality their job is much larger in scope. The DoC operates in parallel and competition to PacSec’s Corporate Crimes Division. Over the years, the DoC has managed to increase their privileges until it now forms a kind of intelligence service unto themselves. Agents of the DoC have the right to inspect the accounts of Paxton Arms employees and do so on a regular basis. The employees do not necessarily know this – unless the DoC decides to leave a few hints.

Indeed, the sinister image of the DoC is so on purpose. Even though it creates a certain paranoia among paxton employees, it undeniably helps keep corporate crime to a minimum.

With this in mind, the available resources of the DoC have been expanded. The DoCs Agents can now count on the latest in personal equipment and surveillance devices, have agents in most banks and work with all the resources of PaxSec at their beg and call. They operate out of a sealed compound next to but apart from the PaxSec headquarters.

Needless to say, PaxSec itself doesn’t exactly like the Department of Controlling. Their agents turn up when they’re least expected, take over cases whenever they wish to and generally don’t waste valuable air to speak to lowly cops. Most cops think the DoC only gives Paxton a bad name and provide no return on investment whatsoever considering their budget.

In reality this view is exaggerated, though not by much. There are only a hundred members of the DoC at any given time. Considering the size of Paxton’s holdings, this number is not large. The department counters this lack of personnel with technology. Several large dedicated Onnets sort through Paxton’s accounting data on thirty-six hour basis and its agents are trained to place surveillance equipment wherever they may be needed. Rumour has it they are trained by some humanist expatriates on the run from HIRA.

Thus, despite a public image of omnipresence, the DoC simply doesn’t have the manpower to keep an eye on anyone. Oftentimes, cases are simply dropped because they are not worth the bother. At other times members of the Corporate Crimes Division get anonymous pointers to where to look. But now and then the external agents of the DoC climb into their black limousines and drive into the night, silent and unseen.

The Mines

There are two types of mines in question – fully owned ones and contract suppliers. The contract suppliers are generally less of a problem as Paxton doesn’t have the right to inspect their books. These are normally only given a cursory look – which in the case of the Department of Controlling is still quite taxing.

The checks include seeing to it that the minimum working standards of Paxton Arms are held, looking over the freight papers with wares going to Paxton and talking to people about the state of affairs. All this is quite routine and taken in stride by the mining proprietors. After all, they are still badlanders.

The fully owned mines are another matter entirely. There, the DoC conducts full checks of the books, does a complete inventory and makes sure the mines are in order. This is usually the most dangerous part of the visits. Of course, neither miners nor managers are particularly happy about this. Consequently, agents of the DoC are stalled in their job. Not that this would impress them much. On the contrary, whatever the problems, the agents do their assigned jobs as cleanly and consistently as ever.

The Bad Apple

The story:
There is a copper mine in the Pacifica Range that is less than kosher. The local miners have made a deal with Wounded Knee smugglers, making them accomplices. The scheme runs like this: Every 40 days or so, the smugglers deliver a package of drugs to the miners. These then put them in marked containers with a few tons of copper ore. At their destination, Peace River, local partners of the smugglers pick up the drugs and prepare them for retail.

The packages themselves are simple metal cylinders filled with about ten kilos of pulverized drugs. The smugglers usually deliver about 10 of them. Not all of them are put in one container, at most three are sent in one container. Thus for several weeks the miners need to store highly illegal material. Clever as they are, they do this right in the parts storage. The container is labeled Clyinders, Metal.

So what happens when the DoC decides to make a surprise visit to this den of evil?

All sorts of things, of course. Weights are dropped accidentially, tires are cut and doors are locked. The agents and their loyal lackeys counter this with detcords, runflat tires and, especially, watchful eyes.

Within the ESE, the inner-city slums of Strathclyde and Javari are the places to be avoided. Their inhabitants not only have to fear the sudden whims of their Emirs, they are also haunted by over-active solicitors.

Vigilantes

Time and again some solicitors band todether and decide to take their anger out on those weaker then themselves. They put on black masks, steal or rent cars and drive out into the slums. Once there, they corner some beggars – essentially the lowest class of shajhalin there is. The unfortunate victims are then immolated, shot or beaten.

In certain areas this has even become a sort of gentleman-sport. Some of these ‘clubs’ are simple regular get-togethers of solicitors for a night out in the slums. Others are elaborate clubs with solicitors gaining a foothold in decadent circles by performing induction ceremonies and swearing oathes of secrecy among their brethren.

Then, of course, there are the loners. These are solicitors that somehow snapped. It has become a virtual tradition for those who can’t stand the stress of a soliscitor’s life anymore to go out with a bang. They usually pick up a gun, walk into the slums and don’t stop shooting until someone takes them down.

Shajhalin

What do the inhabitants of the slums do about this? They form gangs. Among the lowest of the low, these usually consist of mutual defense pacts between several families. They post guards always on the look-out for the vigilante’s black limousines and help each other out. Their third job is to defend their turf against other gangs. Since the gangs also often deal in narcotics and have the ultimate say in alotting housing areas, having turf is prerequisite in surviving in the slums.

Another specific element in their lives is the daily feeding of the masses. The patriarchal regime employs a sort of ‘bread and circuses’ policy toward its shajhalin. On many days, those shajhalin without jobs obtain their food from public kitchens. The shajhalin receive ration cards for use in these kitchens. If they are unable to get their food, then their gang members must do the job. These are needed in any case as the lines at the kitchens are often quite contested among gangs, with the weakest waiting the longest for their food – if they get it at all.

Of course, there are those without families, friends and human support. These form the lowest of the low, the true dregs of Emirate life. It is most often them who run afoul of solicitor hate gangs or starve in the shanty towns.

Happenings

Once in a while, the violence in the slums reach a certain threshold and boil over. Then, the slums erupt in a week of death and destruction with gangs fighting for their turfs, Emirate soldiers keeping the peace with heavy weaponry and widespread fires in the slums. Incidents like these sometimes even get reported on Dominion and Republican Media.

More often than not, the violence begins in one of the many screen places. The latter are virtual market places where the poorest of the poor gather to watch teevee. The ‘bread and circuses’ policy also entails entertaining the lower classes. As the lowest don’t have the option of going to the great stadiums, the stadiums must come to them. Many Emirs have placed large video screens in their slums to entertain the masses. The market palces where these things happen are either areas under the sole dominance of the local gangs or virtual freeports where none may harm another.