Co-authored by: Ray of Meep (GM), Acewing13, TheCountryWarrior
23XX A.D, ten days after the court decision of Page v. Ambrose
Silbern System, Stahl Belt, Fabron Station
Under the shine of Silbern, Fabron Station looked like a baby's rattling toy stuck into a potato, if the potato was made of ice, carbon, and metal; and the rattling toy made of refined alloys. The most striking feature was a great cylindrical drum, unmoving, attached to the asteroid by a space elevator, a carbon fiber tether, that moved goods up to the space station and down to the surface stations on the rock. Capping the drum was a rotating habitat, smaller than even a single ring of Magnuski station.
Daheim One reoriented its own internal room layout to point axial with the rest of the ship as it approached the station. The entire frigate fired up its RCS thrusters to match the rotational velocity of the station, its own own pointing towards the habitat's center. Finally, two docking clamps reached down from the station and gripped the ship after an hour of careful maneuvering.
Eberhard was the first to step up into Fabron Station proper from the docking ports. He wore an orange jumpsuit with blue stripes and equipped black maglock boots, different from the usual grey and torquiose suits that characterized the Grau Lancers. He also dyed his hair from a pale blonde to a rich brown, and made sure to wear a pair of sunglasses.
Unlike Magnuski Station, Fabron Station was far more cramped. It didn't have the large airspace afforded by an entirely pressurized drum, but was confined by a torus shape, the headspace above at best three stories tall. A single mainstreet wrapped around the entire station, with a few elevators that moved people and goods up and down the docks, residential areas, and the space elevator. The ceiling was thousands of large monitors that simulated a day and night cycle. The entire station's gravity was weak, only half that of Magnuski Station, and it reflected in the long term residents, who were taller and paler than the Graus, who themselves were taller and paler compared to Beatrix and Juan.
"Feel even more like a midget than usual," Bee said, brushing an errant black hair away from her face.
"You haven't been on the average space station, have you?" Eberhard remarked, looking for a map on his datapad. "Castle Services and Magnuski Station are the anomalies. Most of the GDW space-borne in both the Sol system and the Silbern system are like this."
"Usually went to the bigger ones back in Sol," Beatrix said with a shrug. "Probably doesn't help that I was more playing tourist than anything."
"Bodies are weird like that." Juan was there as well, of course, as was his job, and his attire reflected the previous nonchalant statement. Muted colors, sunglasses, designed to make him fade into the background. Unfortunautly he was also jacked, which might take away from the "Nobody in a Crowd" thing. "I'm from Earth damnit, we have gravity." He chuckled, and followed the others.
"We have a few points of interest." Eberhard informed the two as they walked forward. "There's the spaceport traffic control, where we can get some information of any shipments that come in and out of this place. There's the microgravity industrial center where they could be fabricating the goods on a massive, rapid scale. Then there's the surface facilities, where it's easier to hide things." He then took note of a blip on his datapad, and frowned. "Well, that's just cliche."
"What is it? Is it in the back alleys? The abandoned warehouses? Some evil lair?" Juan joked, though his question was entirely serious.
"A missing... person's case, if you want to call it that." Eberhard replied. "We're still working with the police after all, so we get these notifications. In this instance it's a Chongwu. The records say it's a fiance looking for his partner after he arrived on the station a few months ago for labor, and haven't heard from him since. Guess where this case has been put on the priority list?"
"I thought we got fired, that this was our last thing for them. How long is this chain they got on us?" Juan sighed. "We're lucky Joan is busy. Now we get to go dog catching."
"Well here's the thing." Eberhard scratched his head. "We don't have to deal with this case. It's technically none of our business. Frankly, I'm just plain annoyed this is happening while we're on the station. It dampens the spirits."
"Is the lady that talked to the police along the way to where we're going anyway?" Beatrix asked, pulling out her own pad and pulling up a map.
The map was in the form of a long strip that could be zoomed in and out. As Beatrix scrolled left and right, the map looped onto itself like a map of Earth. The station's precinct was next to one of the elevators, a quarter-way around the station. Underneath the elevator, the spacedock traffic control was halfway around the station. To get to both the microgravity factories and the surface facilities, the team had to go up through the elevator and onto the space elevator.
"Looks like it's on the way to the micro-g center and surface facilities?" she asked, not quite sure if she was reading the map correctly.
"If we take the elevator next to the preccinct, yes." Eberhard replied.
23XX A.D, ten days after the court decision of Page v. Ambrose
Silbern System, Stahl Belt, Fabron Station
Under the shine of Silbern, Fabron Station looked like a baby's rattling toy stuck into a potato, if the potato was made of ice, carbon, and metal; and the rattling toy made of refined alloys. The most striking feature was a great cylindrical drum, unmoving, attached to the asteroid by a space elevator, a carbon fiber tether, that moved goods up to the space station and down to the surface stations on the rock. Capping the drum was a rotating habitat, smaller than even a single ring of Magnuski station.
Daheim One reoriented its own internal room layout to point axial with the rest of the ship as it approached the station. The entire frigate fired up its RCS thrusters to match the rotational velocity of the station, its own own pointing towards the habitat's center. Finally, two docking clamps reached down from the station and gripped the ship after an hour of careful maneuvering.
Eberhard was the first to step up into Fabron Station proper from the docking ports. He wore an orange jumpsuit with blue stripes and equipped black maglock boots, different from the usual grey and torquiose suits that characterized the Grau Lancers. He also dyed his hair from a pale blonde to a rich brown, and made sure to wear a pair of sunglasses.
Unlike Magnuski Station, Fabron Station was far more cramped. It didn't have the large airspace afforded by an entirely pressurized drum, but was confined by a torus shape, the headspace above at best three stories tall. A single mainstreet wrapped around the entire station, with a few elevators that moved people and goods up and down the docks, residential areas, and the space elevator. The ceiling was thousands of large monitors that simulated a day and night cycle. The entire station's gravity was weak, only half that of Magnuski Station, and it reflected in the long term residents, who were taller and paler than the Graus, who themselves were taller and paler compared to Beatrix and Juan.
"Feel even more like a midget than usual," Bee said, brushing an errant black hair away from her face.
"You haven't been on the average space station, have you?" Eberhard remarked, looking for a map on his datapad. "Castle Services and Magnuski Station are the anomalies. Most of the GDW space-borne in both the Sol system and the Silbern system are like this."
"Usually went to the bigger ones back in Sol," Beatrix said with a shrug. "Probably doesn't help that I was more playing tourist than anything."
"Bodies are weird like that." Juan was there as well, of course, as was his job, and his attire reflected the previous nonchalant statement. Muted colors, sunglasses, designed to make him fade into the background. Unfortunautly he was also jacked, which might take away from the "Nobody in a Crowd" thing. "I'm from Earth damnit, we have gravity." He chuckled, and followed the others.
"We have a few points of interest." Eberhard informed the two as they walked forward. "There's the spaceport traffic control, where we can get some information of any shipments that come in and out of this place. There's the microgravity industrial center where they could be fabricating the goods on a massive, rapid scale. Then there's the surface facilities, where it's easier to hide things." He then took note of a blip on his datapad, and frowned. "Well, that's just cliche."
"What is it? Is it in the back alleys? The abandoned warehouses? Some evil lair?" Juan joked, though his question was entirely serious.
"A missing... person's case, if you want to call it that." Eberhard replied. "We're still working with the police after all, so we get these notifications. In this instance it's a Chongwu. The records say it's a fiance looking for his partner after he arrived on the station a few months ago for labor, and haven't heard from him since. Guess where this case has been put on the priority list?"
"I thought we got fired, that this was our last thing for them. How long is this chain they got on us?" Juan sighed. "We're lucky Joan is busy. Now we get to go dog catching."
"Well here's the thing." Eberhard scratched his head. "We don't have to deal with this case. It's technically none of our business. Frankly, I'm just plain annoyed this is happening while we're on the station. It dampens the spirits."
"Is the lady that talked to the police along the way to where we're going anyway?" Beatrix asked, pulling out her own pad and pulling up a map.
The map was in the form of a long strip that could be zoomed in and out. As Beatrix scrolled left and right, the map looped onto itself like a map of Earth. The station's precinct was next to one of the elevators, a quarter-way around the station. Underneath the elevator, the spacedock traffic control was halfway around the station. To get to both the microgravity factories and the surface facilities, the team had to go up through the elevator and onto the space elevator.
"Looks like it's on the way to the micro-g center and surface facilities?" she asked, not quite sure if she was reading the map correctly.
"If we take the elevator next to the preccinct, yes." Eberhard replied.