Nueva Cuauhtémoc: Difference between revisions

Order and chaos intermingle among peaks reaching towards the sky and the valleys that wind between them. Bandits clash and revel in the name of mighty warlords whose legacies are built on foundations of sand, their names lost to the test of time. In the brief interludes of peace, when gunfire rattles to silence and blades are sheathed, these outcasts gaze to the horizon. They dream of distant sunworlds and hunts that span the firmament. By starlight they dream, oxygen reserves spiraling towards nothing – when the bright sun rises the next morning, it is back to hardship and struggle.

Nueva Cuauhtémoc is cast between extremes. Continents clad in high desert and barren mountains dominate the surface, giving way to humid and tropical oceans at the planet’s poles. AmongRising from the waves of these waters, terraformed archipelagos form the base of advanced habitation on the world. Imported biodiversity is hosted among glittering arcologies and orbital resorts that hang in the sky above. Many off-world visitors will never set foot beyond these isolated locales, and will leave with the impression of an idyllic beauty planet crafted to an exacting ideal. They will never know of the thousands who bleed and struggle on distant shores – those who wish to be noticed, and are desperate to be seen.

Nueva Cuauhtémoc circles the A-type star of Mentta, which bathes the world in a white-blue light and oppressive heat. At night, three moons hang in the sky, and the light they reflect from Mentta means even the darkest hours never fade below a dusking lightradiance. The harsh sun hangs low in the sky, its projected heat trapped close to the world below by a dense atmosphere of noble gasses. Swirling winds of neon, xenon, and argon circle the planet, choking out any potential life save for tailored microorganisms and flora imported in vain terraforming efforts. Less than half a minute of breathing the open air, as opposed to a supply of oxygen, can rapidly lead to inert gas asphyxiation, convulsions, and cardiac arrest.

Above the storms and colors, the three moons of the world circle and spin – Alcis, Re, and Cern, caught forever in their cycles. Alcis, small and feeble, circles the planet once every eight days or so in a tight orbit. Re, the brightest and largest of the moons, makes rotations of thirty-two days. The loyal hunter, Cern, is always close behind in the outermost orbit of the three with a forty day rotation. Alcis and Cern are more so glorified asteroids pushed and pulled in the wake of Re, yet the searing brightness of Mentta sets all three alight - staring directly at the lunar cousins of Nueva Cuauhtémoc leaves spots in one’s eyes, and their glowing passagepassages castscast shadows across the deserts even on the darkest nights. It is by their motions and cycles that the Aguamalan lunar calendar – a confusing arrangement of holidays and hunting rituals forto offworlders – takes its shape.

It is, supposedly, the fate of Nueva Cuauhtémoc to one day be left abandoned, for all those below to cross the void in an eternal hunt. There is no love lost between Aguamalans and their brutal, uncaring home; while others in the sector have quested for a world to call their own, the Syndicate labors to abandon its cradle forever. Yet with every passing day, thethis ‘Empyrean Dream’fate slips further and further away, crushed under the weights of necessity and scarcity.

Approximately 300,000,000 souls call Nueva Cuauhtémoc home, while 38,000,000 individuals see the planet from above in orbit and lunar settlements. Most of the planetary population residescan inbe pressurizedfound among ‘core tower’ cities which have been constructed in massive boreholes that wind deep into the bedrock below the desert, capped off with pressurized domes and solar arrays that meet the unrelenting sun. Tens of millions live within and around each of these pits, which are clearly visible from space as yawning wounds into the earth. These spiraling urban centers are the only places down the gravity well that offer a semblance of normal life, so long as one ignores the omnipresent whine of oxygen recycling plants far above and below. Light is reflected throughout these inverted towers with complex arrays of mirrors that adjust with the passing sun, setting the vertical cityscape alight in dazzling colors – even so, natural illumination is a premium in the lower reaches of the metropolitan funnels, where bright UV lamps replace the light of Mentta. Curated parks cut between housing units in vertical swathes of greenspace which boast imported biodiversity from across the Veil.

Many industries have devoted themselves to the support of incoming prospectors, from the provision of exploration equipment to speculative investment firms offering predatory loans. These businesses rise and fall like the tides, yet the flow of refined radioactiveminerals and ancient artifacts continues unabated.

This is to say nothing of the dangers that prospectors face on their own. Radioactives are highly toxic in their own right, and most miners don’t have sufficient protective equipment for long-term excavations. Many prospectors leave Nueva Cuauhtémoc wealthy, sterile, and riddled with cancers, forced to burn their riches seeking medical treatments among the experienced oncologists of the Syndicate’s medical facilities. Buried ruins have their own dangers, of course – dormant defense mechanisms, traps, and architectural instability are only a few of the perils faced by mercenary archaeologists in the field.