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1.1 Ramsey
With diameter of 5.05 billion kilometers, Ramsey is a rather compact solar system. Its sun is a K-type main sequence star, a bit on the orange side of the spectrum. Directly related to that, at 4300 degrees Kelvin on the surface, it's also slightly more bearable when venturing up close. The sun is called Hell and first planet—Hellios Prime. Its climate is moderate and quite pleasant actually. Lorena is a bit more temperamental with typically close to freezing temperatures and occasional severe blizzards and snow storms. Third planet, Pinkerton's Butt once had a thriving colony that is now reduced to a fraction of its initial population. Last planet Pure is not habitable and is used as a dump yard.
Of all four planets [ ● ], it's just Lorena that has a moon by the name of Santi Oro. There are two asteroid rings—an inner and outer, that provide plenty of valuable resources. In relatively close orbit around the sun, as well as in immediate proximity of inner asteroid ring, some planetoids [ ⬣ ] can be observed. Asteroid rings themselves, are full of, well, asteroids [ ◆ ] and space dust.
There are also two outposts [ ■ ]. Zenit/1 was built as a miner motel/depot for all those brave souls, who decided to earn hard but honest living drilling rocks in the hellish climate of the inner ring. Zenit/2 on the other hand was built to facilitate exploration and exploitation of much colder outer ring. But mining in both rings saw steady decay with the discovery of The Great Beyond.
1.2 The Great Beyond
Just beyond planet Pure lies vast uncharted territory that leads to dangerous and mysterious places. Many have attempted roaming it, but only few have returned. Those who have returned however became ludicrously wealthy. So there is always craving in one's heart to go out there for fame and riches. Yet, there is also this shiver down their spine when they realise the odds of never coming back are quite high. A silent agreement exists between all returnees to never talk about their ventures in The Great Beyond. For whatever happens in The Great Beyond, stays in The Great Beyond.
1.3 Notes
One may wonder why is there a planet named Pinkerton's Butt, right? At first, this celestial body was known as Ae and was named like that until the first [which also happened to be the last] colonization attempt. Legend has it that during descend, ship hull cracked and an individual by the name of Pinkerton, also a proud owner of behind of enormous magnitude, got sucked in the crack and his fat deposits sealed the crack, so to say, thus saving everyone around. As a tribute, grateful colonists named the planet Pinkerton's Butt and errected a monument.
Celestial bodies aside, society in Ramsey is also one of a kind. Citizens of Hellios Prime are obedient and hard working. Planet is controlled with iron fist and it shows. You can always tell apart Hellian and Lorenian, because latter are on the other end of the spectrum. It would be unfair to say Lorena equals anarchy, but let's just say it's a different life out there and not necessarily safe or happy one.
1.4 Genesis
Listen here, sonny, it doesn’t take much to figure things out on global scale. You don’t have to be ex-government worker or ex-agency operative. Yes, it helps a bit, but is not necessary. And while there are some schizoid paranoid fruitcakes out there and that's not a thing I'd even argue about, you don't necessarily need to be a nutjob either.
See, government literally only wants one thing and it’s fucking disgusting.
And everything a government does is related to that one thing. And citizens? Hell, they want it too. And you can bet they like it when the government gives it to them. So it’s a perfect symbiosis. Keep that in mind for future reference.
Two centuries ago, things were not going great on Hellios Prime. The once thriving free society began decaying quickly. Some saw [or planned] this coming, so radical changes were introduced. Centralized control, government-funded private militia, severe penalties and crime punishment, you know how this works, don't you? And while these measures had certain beneficial impact, there was still this part of society, typically regarded as useless eaters that was growing annoyingly bigger.
1.5 Ramsey Exploration Program
Addressing society issues in clever and positive manner takes a lot of planning and effort and Ramsey Exploration Program was no exception. While space exploration itself was nothing new and some brave souls have already set foot on Lorena and even Santi Oro and have developed a rather successful mining operation under the corporate name of Kometa Freight and Industry, deep space was largerly unexplored.
Motivating large groups of the 99% to take part in anything is not much of a challenge, especially if you know the basics of human psychology. Tax-free salaries and pensions and sizeable property claims were promised to deep space explorers and first ships went off. Of course, there's always this bunch of non-believers and backward thinkers, who would ruin any good initiative. So ones that would not take the offering, but were still within the target group of useless eaters had to be volunteered. And there went the prisoners, pensioneers and sick bastards. Just without the benefits they were initially unwilling to take. That set a good example and there was always steady flow of volunteers for the program from this moment on.
1.6 The Rift
It wasn't before long however, brave new explorers realized the dreams of tax-free picturesque life are not coming up the desired way. Pure was uninhabitable wasteland, Ae was way too far. Inner ring was way too hot and outer ring was way too cold. See, you can force people to do stuff, but they will always find their way around it.
So most of the explorers settled on Lorena and formed some sort of alternative worker's society, just without the centralized control. And it took less than 50 years for that society to actually become a proper counterpart to the one on Hellios Prime.
Slowly but surely Kometa turned into a mastodon and became Lorena's industrial backbone. Operations expanded in the inner ring, where an outpost was deployed and some decades later, a second outpost was deployed in orbit around Pure, facilitating outer ring exploration and resource extraction.
And soon after, The Great Beyond was discovered. First group of explorers silently amassed considerable wealth and founded their own corporation. Planetarii Exploration started producing advanced exploration ships and equipment immediately. In a matter of few years some members of Lorenian society became unspeakably rich and suddenly Lorena started to look like a twisted version of Hellios Prime, with its own laws and society structure. At this point it was already obvious Hellian government had no power on Lorena. And that triggered a major shockwave throughout Ramsey.
1.7 One Ramsey
Keeping everything in check requires universal rules that apply to all citizens. Not just that, but keeping taps on citizen health, wealth and life choices is also required for a healthy society. That's where One Ramsey universal citizen system came into play. It made sure there are no poor, unemployed, endangered or deviant citizens. Sort of.
With that sandbox establisled, it was time to give citizens the power to choose their ruler. Every year there is an ellection. Hellios Prime and Lorena distinguish one candidate each and everyone casts their vote. Ellected governor would rule over Ramsey for one year. It is only fair that way and most people love democracy.
Most doesn't mean all however. And with time, a hefty amount of the population turned to a mix of socialist, communist and libertarian ideas. It all started on Lorena, but didn't take long local organizations and networks to develop on Hellios Prime as well. And while everything may seem balanced, truth be told, it would not take much for our healthy society to collapse.
1.8 Megacorporations
Currently, there are four megacorporations operating in Ramsey.
It all started with Kometa Freight and Industry. The first megacorporation formed in Ramsey and actually the only one for quite some time. It became the backbone of everything. In all fairness, should it not have formed back in the day, things might have looked a lot grimmer for everyone. It's not to say they were saints or something, not at all, there was quite a hard labor exploitation involved, but hey, no one was ever forced to work, right? It was an educated choice. Sans educated in this case, because most of the workforce was and still is way below the IQ 80 barrier. But you get the idea.
The rich kids on the block. Few of The Great Beyond returnees formed Planetarii Exploration and it soon gained momentum. Partly because of a mutually benefitial agreement that was signed with Kometa Freight and Industry, according to which Planetarii will do the research and pinpoint valuable resources and Kometa will provide the brute force to extract it. Being former Kometa employees, they still shared some of the socialist ideology, so Planetarii actually roots back to proletariat and proletarii, a wordplay of sorts. Still, being the new riches, they could not help, but develop florid line of ships that sets them apart from the plebs. I mean, you can't miss a fucking golden boat.
The only official source of augmentation technology in Ramsey. Everyone in the corp has been augmented to certain degree and that's part of the deal—if you want to be in touch with latest technological achievements, you need to transcend your human origins. It's not widely discussed and many bash it as outrageous conspiracy theory, but there is certain deviation in every individual's behavioral pattern after augmentation. Some whistleblowers have tried to shed light on the controversial happenings in the corporation. Needless to say, they soon died in tragic domestic accidents.
A private militia corporation, mix of ex-militants and plain thugs. It's the only corporation whose ships are allowed to mount weaponry. To enforce law and order. Law and order in Ramsey have been functionally dumbed down to match the quality of genetic material they need to govern. I.e. if you don't like the verdict of the jury or the sentence you are given, you will be provided the chance to meet the Creator instead. Any way you like. For taking your own life is your only human right out here. And let's not get dramatically outraged, but there is a practical side to that. 150 kilos of feces less to reprocess each year. Give or take.
//EOF, dsnpedia.nfo
