Trinity RPG - Absolute Sixty

Matt · August 7, 1998

Absolute Sixty

Forward Firebase 60, a Legion base in the Belt

by Fred Wolke

Foreward Firebase Sixty originally started out as a Seventh Legion base, set up to enable patrols through the thickest part of the Asteroid Belt sixty degrees to spinward from Absolute Zero. Founded only eight years ago, it soon attracted a small cluster of services, catering to the asteroid miners that were beginning to move out into that portion of the belt.

The original design for the base called for all of its structures to be internal to the asteroid where it was to be constructed, with as few openings to the surface as possible. On virtually all sides, however, housing units, converted cargo pods, and even the occasional derelict spacecraft have been anchored to the tiny rock, making it look more like a spaceborne junkpile than an interplanetary fortification.

Heaven's Knights

From its founding, the Seventh Legion squadron posted to Absolute Sixty has been "Heaven's Knights," a splendid example of the noted eccentricity of the Seventh Legion. The unusual style of the squadron can be traced, mostly, to its leader, Baron Heinrich Voss-Neumann. In an impressive display of wealth, he has decorated the base in neo-medieval style. The stone walls of its tunnels and chambers have been carved to resemble great stone blocks. Its airlocks and access doors are hidden behind wooden veneers. Where authenticity cannot be preserved, such as the fireplace, holograms are used to simulate it.

The duty uniforms of the twelve men and women of the Heaven's Knights consists of tunic, braes, boots, white belt, and a surcoat blazoned with the winged sword and shield emblem of the unit. Officers are denoted by white baldrics and spurs. Each Knight carries a special piece of bioware made on commission exclusively for him by Orgotek, an Enhancer Blade (see below).

On several occasions, the miners and such of the area have made tried to enlist the squadron's help in arresting suspected pirates docked at the station, but unless someone is actually in immediate danger, they do not get involved.

Koop Memorial Clinic

Tucked away in a back corner of the base is a tiny Aesculapian clinic. A single vitakinetic, Doctor Irena Ngao, handles the medical needs of the whole community. Technically, she is supposed to be attached to the legionnaire contingent, but as she spends more time with the 'outside' community than with the troops, the only person who thinks of her this way is her supervisor back on Luna.

Irena was trained in the Haitian paradigm, and her office shows it. None of the stark white, the glass and chrome and starch shows up there. Instead, clients at her tiny sickbay are more likely to receive acupuncture needles than medication for many of the conditions that continue to plague mankind. The surgeon's kit and the sterile conditions are there, but they are kept out of sight except when needed.

The Refinery

Asteroids (or pieces of them) are hauled close by, broken up, and put through the Refinery to remove all useful and profitable elements, for a price. The refinery is operated by a subsidiary of A.N.Dupres-Metusa & Co., mostly as a tax dodge. They usually will not buy asteroids, but instead take a fee to process asteriods brought in by miners and give them the proceeds.

The Refinery is home to six or seven guards, a handful of technicians, and supervisior Nick Grady. Nick only came to Absolute Sixty a few years back, a victim of some very nasty boardroom politics back on Earth. He would dearly love to return, so he intends to make the refinery truly profitable, and thereby make a name for himself back ot the home office. As a result, prices have gone up recently, a development that the miners like none at all.

The Spacedock

Covering one whole side of the base, the spacedock is not so much a single structure as a framework from which several structures depend. Using thin plastic membranes, sections of the spacedock can be put "in air." A small team of technicians is on duty here twenty or more hours a day, fixing, repairing, and upgrading. They ask no questions about what work needs to be done, and noone asks them where they get their hardware from.

Also found here is the Warehouse, a no-questions-asked repository for goods awaiting transshipment. It is run by Willie "Pete" Whitfield, a disgusting pig of a man who fouls ventilation systems wherever he goes. Luckily, he finds little reason to leave the warehouse or his rancid housing alongside.

The Free Market

The tramp freighter Monica's Joy docked with the station a few years back for some "emergency repairs" and never undocked. A nasty electrical fire gutted her soon after she arrived, due to terrible battle damage suffered at the hands of an Aberrant. An enterprising technician by the name of Benito Sepassi took posession of the hulk, fixed up her leaks, patched together a life support system, and opened a marketplace in her rather large hold.

Absolute Sixty doesn't have enough traffic to support full-time shops. Instead, ships arrive on a more-or-less regular basis to sell goods to the miners who congregate there. When they do, they come to this little site right next to the Warehouse to sell their wares. When it's not taken up with these activities, Benito opens up a small bar, and entertains those who are waiting for the next 'market day' with his collection of bizarre holovids.

The Dome

Occasionally, someone will find themselves on Absolute Sixty with nowhere to stay. The Dome is where these people wind up. Originally constructed by Irena Ngao to get the derelicts out of her office, it has become a free flophouse for the station's small population of homeless.

The Empyrospex

(See the Characters archive)

The Enhancer Blade

The Enhancer Blade is a custom piece of biotech available only to members of the Heaven's Knights squadron. It was designed to be an effective hand-to-hand weapon with minimal tolerance requirements. It appears as an oversized biotech knife, with a straight double-edged blade. If unformatted, it operates as a perfectly ordinary blade. Formatted, it gains an extra die in use, but also may be the focus of any psychokinetic mode. By spending a point of psi, the blade will either grow burning hot, chilling cold, or vibrate as per a vibroblade. Each effect will do an extra die of damage per point of the highest effect in the appropriate mode. This effect lasts 5 minutes times the user's current psi, or until it is consciously "turned off."

Tech:	Psi
Damage:	Strength+3d10 L (plus special)
Maneuvers:	D P T W Tw
Concealability:	O
Mass:	2
Tolerance:	1
Cost:	3 (restricted)

Plot Hooks

There are many reasons a team of psions might get sent to Absolute Sixty.

Aeon Trinity may want to find out what the mysterious Empyrospex is up to.
The Aesculapians, stung by events at the Beaulac Clinic on Luna (see Descent into Darkness and Passage Through Shadow) have sent teams of investigators to all of their far-flung installations to make sure that there are no more surprises coming.
Abbas Kastami, the Al Alif Mashriq (see Luna Rising) has a hunch that there is something sinister behind the seeming innocuous behavior of The Empyrospex, and sends a team to investigate.
With aberrant attacks increasingly taking up the time and effort of Heaven's Knights, the Seventh Legion decides to send a second team to Absolute Sixty to "clean up" the community that has grown up around it. The hard part will be sifting the pirates from the relatively honest miners and traders.
The Ministry sends a secret mission to Absolute Sixty, also to clean it up, but for a different reason: They want to keep it from attracting attention. Its agents are to stay undercover.
Orgotek has a new version of the Scarab biofighter, and Foreward Firebase Sixty is one of the first bases slated to recieve the upgrade. A team is sent to deliver the new spacecraft, deformat the old ones, and reformat the new ones to the Heaven's Knights. That's the cover story. The real reason for them being there is to try to uncover something about the Empyrospex.
A Leviathan returns from a mission to deep space, and arrives at Absolute Sixty devoid of crew. The United Nations sends a team of psions to investigate.

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