The Beyond Subsector B: Liberty Hall

The Beyond Subsector B: Liberty Hall

System Data

Hex  Name                 UWP       Remarks                  {Ix}   (Ex)    [Cx]   N B  Z PBG W  A    Stellar                

---- -------------------- --------- ------------------------ ------ ------- ------ - -- - --- -- ---- ----------

0905 Fraldon              B100234-B Lo Va                    { 1 }  (B11-1) [1367] - -  - 523 9  NaHu G8 V                   

1002 Dragonrest           C767485-7 Ni Ga Tz Pa              { -2 } (732+3) [4249] - -  - 834 15 NaHu M1 V                   

1006 Bethoom              C200110-9 Lo Va Co                 { -1 } (601-5) [4144] - -  - 603 11 NaHu M0 V M7 V              

1102 Utgardar             CC82532-A Ni Ho Pr                 { 0 }  (846+5) [751D] - -  - 422 14 DiWb K4 V D                 

1103 Neuschwaben          A534435-B Ni Fz                    { 1 }  (432+1) [355C] - -  - 602 9  DiWb K1 V M9 V              

1104 Peenemünde           B666758-C Ag Ri Ga Ht Tr           { 4 }  (C66+3) [5B2H] - -  - 823 11 DiWb F7 V D                 

1107 Liberty Hall         B311320-C Ic Lo Co Sa              { 1 }  (D21+1) [1458] - -  - 613 13 NaHu M1 V                   

1205 Von Braun            E523000-0 Ba Po                    { -3 } (700-4) [0000] - -  - 001 13 DiWb K1 V M4 V              

1302 Brandenburg          A846735-C Ag Ht Pi                 { 3 }  (B69+1) [5A69] - K  - 502 8  DiWb F7 V                   

1306 Schlechtewelt        E733630-5 Na Ni Po Lt Fo (Ewurmer) { -3 } (651+2) [8354] - -  R 513 16 DiWb F8 V BD                

1307 Rhodan               C8A6632-9 Ni Fl Sa                 { -1 } (A54-2) [A574] - -  - 410 5  DiWb M2 V BD                

1308 Braunschweig         B963483-8 Ni Tz                    { -1 } (B31+4) [4374] - -  - 711 7  DiWb M2 V                   

1401 Lothringen           A856527-B Ag Ga Ni                 { 2 }  (746-3) [676F] - K  - 921 15 DiWb M2 V                   

1403 Oldenburg            C766554-9 Ag Ga Ni Pr              { 0 }  (B44-3) [754C] - -  - 502 11 DiWb K1 V                   

1405 Liebeskinder         C000431-B As Ni Va Co              { 0 }  (C36+3) [245B] - -  - 422 8  DiWb M0 V                   

1409 Baden                D663659-6 Ni Ri                    { -2 } (654+1) [94A7] - -  - 502 8  DiWb F7 V                   

1501 Aioaoa               B52695A-B Hi In Fo                 { 4 }  (C8C+1) [AD6C] - R  - 522 15 NaAs K2 V M1 V              

1503 Anhalt               A674757-C Ag Ht Pi                 { 3 }  (867+1) [6A19] - K  - 410 7  DiWb K0 V                   

1505 Nervenheilstalt      D234213-A Lo Co                    { -1 } (C11-1) [1149] - -  - 623 13 DiWb F8 V                   

1604 Bundestag            A576955-C Hi In Ht Cx              { 4 }  (C8E+4) [BD6A] - K  - 522 11 DiWb G3 V                   

1607 Oberth               E610000-0 Ba Tz                    { -3 } (900+2) [0000] - -  - 030 10 DiWb M6 V M6 V              

1609 Holstein             C434434-A Ni                       { 0 }  (B32-5) [144E] - -  - 413 12 DiWb M2 V                   

The Liberty Hall subsector consists of 22 systems with a total population of 10.2 billion sentients, approximately half of whom are Aslan residents of Aioaoa and nearly all of the rest are Human citizens of Die Weltbund. Only 86,000 sentients reside in the subsector's four independent system. The spinward region of Die Weltbund is home to its original and current capital and the bulk of its population. The government of Die Weltbund has ruled the majority of the region for more than a thousand years. But the freeport at Liberty Hall has a wider and wilder reputation than its true nature supports, and therefore lends its name to this distant subsector on Third Imperium charts.

Worlds

Aioaoa (1501 B52695A-B)

Aioaoa is a clan name, not a world name, for the Aioaoa clan adhere to the radical belief that land is a distraction from the proper focus of an Aslan's life: honor. But the Aioaoa were not considered  aberrant because of their belief in honor, but by their philosophy of holding all land in common. The entire clan owns land. No family or individual can own land or maintain possessions greater than their need. This belief did not result in peace, for the hyper focus on honor led to constant dueling at the smallest slight or deviation from increasingly intricate formal codes of behavior. The aberrant beliefs and consequences of their philosophy caused the Aioaoa to be expelled early during the Kinstrife, and after being hounded from two previous homeworlds, they established themselves on Aioaoa in 80, when Die Weltbund was a tiny state of three lightly populated systems. Raids by other Aslan clans caused the Aioaoa to fortify their system and for the past thousand years, attempts to visit the world are met by swarms of fighters and heavily armored monitors armed with particle accelerator spinal guns.

Brandenburg (1302 A846735-C)

Sublight sleeper ships from Terra settled Brandenburg in -123 after a voyage of more than 2,200 years. The world was not as habitable as distant surveys had predicted, but the colonists made do and quickly developed an agricultural and light industrial base. Acquisition of jump drive technology in -109 allowed the settlers to explore and settle nearby worlds. Brandenburg was the original capital of Die Weltbund and its most populous world for four centuries before being overtaken by Bundestag. Most of the ruling Sternritter class can tie their family history back to estates on Brandenburg, though few spend much time on world themselves. The planet's many volcanoes cause local devastation at times, but contribute to the fertility of the soil that allows vast agricultural fiefs to survive, provide export goods, and generate income for their controlling families.

Bundestag (1604 A576955-C)

Capital of Die Weltbund and the second world to be settled by its citizens, Bundestag is the center of industrial and commercial as well as political life. Surrounded by dozens of industrial satellites and home to three-quarters of Die Weltbund's citizens, it is the most important and populous world in the coreward subsectors of The Beyond.

Physical Characteristics

Bundestag is the fourth world of a yellow G3 V star very similar to Sol. Despite the world's small size, a large iron core provides a strong magnetic field and a surface gravity of .76 standard, supporting an atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere that was once similar to Terra. Two moons, the inner a dwarf planet-sized sphere, the outer an irregular captured asteroid, circled the world. What was once a close twin of preindustrial Terra became a close twin of twenty-first century Terra at the worst period of its industrialization. Significant cleanup since the forced relocation of heavy industry to space has improved the environment, but the world will need centuries to fully heal from its period of industrial exploitation.

History

Originally named Thüringen, Bundestag was colonized from Brandenburg in -37. It was a pleasant forested world that would service as the breadbasket of Die Weltbund for centuries. Opportunities to claim productive landholdings and expanding local industry drove the population of the planet to exceed that of Brandenburg by 300. In 505, the reorganized state of Die Weltbund recognized the world as its capital of and gave it the name of the ruling legislative body of Die Weltbund: the Bundestag. By the seventh century, the world was no longer a place of blue skies, rich farms and rugged forests; heavy industrial development led to pollution that fouled the environment, ruining Bundestag's agricultural output and poisoning the air, land and sea. In 687 the world reached two milestones: its population exceeded one billion and it became a net importer of food. Eventually, the government realized that the unrestrained development which had propelled the world to prominence was fundamentally unsustainable and in the 900s forced the relocation of heavy industry to space. In the present, the world is encircled by industrial factories, many carved out of captured planetoids that supplement the world's two natural satellites and lead to the Bundestag's nickname of "The World of Many Dozen Moons".

Social Characteristics

Bundestag suffers from political fragmentation. Upon settlement, the Sternritter ("Star Knights") ruling class divided promising farmlands into vast fiefs with the nucleus of the Freie Städte ("Free Cities") assigned to Gilden ("guilds") that would develop basic services needed for the growing colony. Both the Gilden and the Sternritter became shareholders in the corporations that began the industrialization of the world in the third century. In present times, the world is government by representatives of these corporations. The complex multi-level directorates of the corporations of theoretically give power to the major shareholders, managers and employees of a corporation, but only the major shareholders are members of multiple borders, and these powerful individuals, who number in the thousands, effectively control policy of the corporate interests of the world. The Freie Städte are techincally independant entities, but the Gilden families have direct or indirect control of the municipal councils, and those families are among the directors of the major corporations. In theory, the provincial territories and  Freie Städte elect representivites to the world's Bundestag, who in turn elect one less than one-half of the representaives to Die Weltbunds interstellar Bundestag, but in practice, all of the candidates are either members of or sponsored by the few thousand wealthy ruling familes. Despite this inequality, a generous social welfare system and a culture of respect for authority limits unrest among the lower classes, who all experience a comfortable existence and have at least a fair chance to advance to the upper middle class.

Liberty Hall (1107 B311320-C)

The Freeport of Liberty Hall has been in operation for more than 400 years. In the Third Imperium, Liberty Hall has a greater-than-life reputation as a notorious lair of pirates and cutthroats, preying on ships across four sectors. In reality, while a criminal element does exist, the Freeport would never survive so close to civilized states without at least a strong reputation as a legitimate port and trade center.

Physical Characteristics

The Freeport is built into the crater wall of a moon, also named Liberty Hall, of the small gas giant Hancock, which orbits a red dwarf just inside the 100D stellar jump shadow limit. The moon's crust is a mixture of rock and ice, with a considerable layer of slushy water 50km below the surface. Volcanic activity and large impacts have driven some of this water ice to the surface, creating patches and valleys filled with readily recoverable ice deposits. The floor of Paine Crater, two kilometers below the ridge occupied by the Freeport, was once filled with ice water. Centuries of harvesting has removed most of that ice, but a substantial reservoir exists just below the surface. From the vantage of the port, the pale blue and green stripes of Hancock, a full light-second distant, hangs perpetually on the horizon. The mostly subterranean Class B Freeport installation supports ten times its official voting citizen population of 6,000.

History

Liberty Hall originated as a disreputable refueling depot for ships operating beyond the borders and patrols of the Corellan League and Die Weltbund some time in the early eighth century. By 724 permanent structures and fueling pads existed and charts began to designate it as a Class D starport. The cartel of entrepreneurs who ran the earlier port were disreputable, some clearly pirates with outstanding warrants from multiple governments, but they advertised the Liberty Hall system as a Freeport protected from pirate activity, encouraging even legitimate trading ships to utilize the port as an alternative to wilderness refueling. Over the centuries the installation has shed or hidden its disreputable operations, though the tainted reputation persists. The lack of formal regulations allows ships of dubious origin and crews of less than upstanding citizens to enter and exist freely, but after a raid by Die Weltbund forces in 896 that resulted in heavy losses to both the invading force and system defense squadrons, the guarantee of safe passage for all ships, backed by a strong system defense presence has been enough to prevent further attempts by Die Weltbund to curtail operations. By 950 Liberty Hall had achieved all the characteristics of a Class B starport. While unable to manufacture starships, Liberty Hall's four private shipyards can manufacture spacecraft and perform repairs and modifications on starships. The famed Total Eclipse Yard has four construction bays dedicated to the production of up 400-ton displacement ships and a backlog of three to five years.

Social Characteristics

Liberty Hall is officially an open full democracy, with all matters voted upon by the 6,000 citizens of the Freeport. Citizenship is only given to those who have resided at the port for at least four years and who demonstrate financial independence. The true "permanent population" is closer to 50,000 and another 10,000 consider Liberty Hall to be their home, despite spending much of the time elsewhere. While all citizens have a theoretically equal share of power, the seven member Standing Committee proposes all legislation and appoints the managers that run the port and civil services required to make the installation function. The members of the Standing Committee are all descendants of the original founders of the Freeport, and only the Committee members themselves appoint new members when a vacancy occurs. Despite the lack of formal regulation, heavily armed police, strict and clearly applied laws and a near instant legal system encourage good behavior. Criminal penalties are determined by a randomly selected (and mandatory) jury that has the power to investigate crimes and subpoena witnesses. Besides a codified list of monetary penalties, crimes can carry only three types of punishment: confinement to residence or ship for a fixed duration, banishment or expulsion for 1, 10 or 100 years, and death by airlock, a penalty that serves to reinforce the mystic of Liberty Hall's past.

Schlechtewelt (1306 E733630-5)

Schlechtewelt is the interdicted homeworld of the Entsetzenwurmer, a subterranean race of centipede-like aliens. The Entsetzenwurmer's forward body has a dozen "hands" arranged in a ring around a large chitin-lined mouth. Each of these hands has an eye in a protected palm socket and four opposable fingers with broad claws suitable for digging in dense soil. All that is known about Entsetzenwurmer society comes from observation by probe drones. The race is apparently caste-based, possibly hive-like in organization and arranged around cavernous cities of more than ten thousand individuals lit by electric light and a solid technical infrastructure. Xenophobia and the ability of the warrior cast to carry cannon-caliber rifles has discouraged direct contact. Strangely, the Entsetzenwurmer societies do not appear to war against each other, so the purpose of the heavy firepower and defensible towns is unclear.

Articles

Die Weltbund

The state of Die Weltbund has been the dominate power in the coreward portion of The Beyond sector since before the founding of the Third Imperium. This human-dominated state of 30 systems and 6.65 billion citizens is a source of stability for the region. While interstellar commerce is restricted to ships of the Sternhansa monopoly, no one can say that the stars of Die Weltbund aren't safe, as long as visitors follow the rules.

History

Die Weltbund was settled by Solomani colonists who arrived at Brandenburg in -123 via a pair of sublight transports that had departed from Terra 2,200 years previously, just a decade before the discovery of jump drive. The leaders of the colonial expedition believed themselves to be descendants of the first Terran rocket scientists, originating in the nation state of Germany. Most of the 10,000 colonists were of German or Dutch heritage.

Crossing space at the then unprecedented speed of .3 c, the ships quickly passed the larger and better funded colony ships of the ESA long range colony mission, targeting a system first tentatively discovered by the Kepler space telescope and later confirmed to have a planet with an oxygen atmosphere.  The world proved only marginally habitable, but the ships were too worn out to attempt another voyage and the colonists settled into their harsh world. Just five years later, a scout from the Corellan League stumbled upon the colony and was seized as a "security threat" by more paranoid elements in the society. By -110, the engineers of Brandenburg had built an "indigenous" starship and begun the exploration of nearby systems.

Despite this beginning, Die Weltbund and Corella maintained good relations until the arrival of scouts from the Third Imperium in the early third century. Having gained technology from Corella and established itself between the nearby old power and the faraway new superpower, the ruling families of Die Weltbund shifted their attention to closer relations with the expanding Third Imperium, becoming a client state during the period 612-984. Ultimately, trade and technology transfer policy disputes, exacerbated by the trade monopoly of the Die Weltbund's Sternhansa shipping company, led to a break with the Imperium. While not officially a client state of the Zhodani Consulate, Die Weltbund's break with the Third Imperium during the Third Frontier War led to a de facto alliance with the Zhodani which was renewed during the Fourth Frontier War of 1082-1084 and led to the destruction of Westfalen's Highport by Imperial commerce raiders in 1084.

Structure

In theory Die Weltbund is a parliamentary republic of member states ruled from the capital and most populous world of Bundestag. In practice, it is a decentralized oligarchy with power concentrated in the land and business-owning Sternritter ("Star Knights") families and the monopolies of the Gilden ("Guilds").  Various Sternritter and Gilden share ownership of many businesses and organizations, most importantly the Sternhansa monopoly that controls all interstellar trade within and outside Die Weltbund.

With thousands of Sternritter families and thousands of Gilden (some controlling industries at an interstellar level, some just a single industry on a single world or in a single city), power is concentrated in the upper percent of the population, but fragmented to such an extent that no one faction dominates. The Bundeskanzler ("Chancellor") is elected from the Bundestag (the parliament, not the world) but is effectively a manager of executive departments with little authority compared to the various parliamentary committees that govern all aspects of domestic and foreign policy.

The government is very bureaucratic, with regulations on all commercial activity, including employment, health and social services.

Military

Each system within Die Weltbund is responsible for its own security, including starport and system security, though the Sternhansa maintains its own security forces to ensure the safety of its ships and personnel. In some systems, such as Neuschwaben, Braunschweig, Zeben, and Ilse this Sternhansa force is the only security service available.

The Grossesternmarine, or Grand Navy of Die Weltbund is a permanent federal force with a unified command and permanent assets. It suffers from an undercurrent of competing interests, but is a professional force with good assets, organized into a dozen fleets of mixed assets from cruiser to corvette-sized ships, most built to TL12 standards.

Liberty Hall TEY Hammer-class SDB

The Hammer, sometimes referred to as "the Brick" is a 200-ton System Defense Boat designed and produced by the Total Eclipse Yard at Liberty Hall. Designed to be carried in a modified Type-R subsidized merchant or Type-L liner, the Hammer is a 6m X 10.5m X 45m slab with a forward mounted bay, a pop-up turret and recessed telescoping airlocks and breaching tube/forced link apparatus equipment to allow boarding of non-compliant vehicles. The heavily armored vehicle is capable of 7 g acceleration and in standard configuration is armed with a 50-ton missile bay and a pop-up triple turret equipped with highly tuned pulse lasers, with long range and high yield attributes. Total Eclipse also produces variants that replace the missile bay and magazine with particle or fusion gun bays and the additional power plants and fuel required to operate them.

The yard can also perform modifications to existing Type-R starships to carry a single Hammer and jump twice, but at the cost of all passenger space. The yard provides validated blueprints for a Type-L conversion but does not have construction bays capable of modifying 600-ton ships. While such carriers exist, the extensive modifications require the relocation of both the maneuver drive and powerplant make a clean 600-ton jump-3 carrier design a more cost-effective proposition.