Prefsbelt Commander
CAMP HOLT: PREFSBELT'S DARKEST CORNER
- Commandant Winston Huxley
Address of the third prisoner intake, circa 862 ABY
Address of the third prisoner intake, circa 862 ABY
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To create a location sub to help elaborate on what Prefbselt Command does and life on Prefsbelt is like.
- Image Credit:
- Canon:
- SE-44C Pistol [x]
- Permissions: None.
- Links:
"This is a free range prison! Inside these walls there are no cells. There are no cafeterias, or schedules! You have but one task. To dig. To find whatever metal ores, big and small. You are to deposit those on our landing strips we have dotted around the compound. As individuals, we don't care if you murder, steal or shit yourselves in there. But if you fail to meet our quotas, we will make you suffer."
SETTING INFORMATION
- Mine Name: Camp Holt Mineral Extraction Penitentiary
- Material: Assorted metal ores used for the smelting into durasteel and electronic components.
- Location: Prefsbelt IV [x]
- Affiliation: Prefsbelt Command, but by extension the New Imperial Order [x].
- Size: Massive.
- Population: Heavily Staffed
- Profit: High
- Accessibility: The mine is only accessible by either conveyex line or shuttle. But to a general member of the public? No access is afforded. Geographically, the mine itself is not easy to get to, given there is a concentrated perimeter guard, and the nature of the terrain makes that a difficult proposition. While the Outer Perimeter facilities are not all physically
DESCRIPTION:
To an outsider's perspective, the Camp Holt Mineral Extraction Penitentiary is a mountain, with a few dotted villages upon it, walled off and blocked off from the rest of the planet. Small facilities exist at the bottom of it, but it is largely an inaccurate picture.
One of the smaller independent settlements on Mount Holt's upper peaks.
Camp Holt, is in fact one of the Galaxy’s largest open air prisons and mines. Housing thousands of inmates, Camp Holt sets them loose on a resource rich mountain for one purpose, mining. There, they experience none of the comforts of a normative prison life, so no cell, no meals, but rather work mining ores for Prefsbelt IV’s ravenous war economy. Prisoners are given a strict quota to be met each week, and should they meet it, they are to be rewarded. If they fail in the prosecution of this effort, they are punished. Severely. Failure to comply with this demand will see ration drops via shuttle, cut by upwards of 40%, or with the strict hand
Camp Holt maintains control of its prisoners with a mix of fear, force and violence. Given the prisons lack of laws regarding the mixing of affiliations, gangs and groups form, creating settlements, and often times fighting each other in conflicts engineered by informants loyal to Prefsbelt Command. The Command itself, to balance things out will occasionally bomb settlements via artillery or TIE fighter strafing. But there are also other forms of control, like the arming of certain groups to rise up against the larger, ‘overlord’ gangs, or even straight out liquidation performed by regular troops.
"Now, dropped in with you will be three articles. One platinum pickaxe. One communicator, calibrated to receive our weekly quotas, and to coordinate with your fellow employees. And finally, one SE-44C Blaster Pistol. None of these items can or will be replaced. You break it. Your problem.”
POINTS OF INTEREST
The Perimeter Wall: Situated around what was Mount Holt, a perimeter wall exists to rangle in the prisoners working, and seal them off from the outside world. Such guard duty requires constant vigilance. The perimeter wall is reinforced with both anti-air and artillery emplacements, to be able to shell prisoners in case of riot, or to shoot down enemy fighter craft that may attempt to subvert the security.
The Forge: Formerly staffed by prisoners shipped in from the rest of New Imperial space, the Forge is now the only part of the facility actually employing civilian contractors. The reason for this? It was found by the Prefsbelt Office of Labour that those assigned to the position often used their position to, in their words, ‘unduly terminate themselves with state assets’. In other words, throw themselves into the industrial smelters to avoid aiding the war effort.
Little Ravelin's main house.
The Terminal: Prefsbelt Auxiliaries run the main conveyex terminal into Camp Holt and use it to haul supplies off to be dropped, and also pack these trains with ingots and raw materials to be shipped to the industrial centres of Prefsbelt IV. The Conveyex trains run at all times, continuously feeding the camp with supplies and returning to other settlements laden with materials to be forged into weapons of war.
Supply Drop Zones: Dotted across the mine complex are the supply hubs where food and barrels of water are dropped via shuttles. These areas have in recent times come under the control of self-proclaimed warlords, who often hoard the supplies, or are places where once supplies are dropped, become skirmishing grounds over groups attempting to take the supplies for themselves.
Little Ravelin: One of the larger cores of prisoners who have established themselves are the ‘Sons of Carnifex’, a group of Sith Imperial prisoners of war who’ve found themselves at the mine. Although none of them actually served with one another, something of Prefsbelt Command ensured cohesiveness, the Sons of Carnifex still show a loyalty to their former masters. They are one of the larger groups who have formed in the mine, and are by far the most organised and coherent groups. They occupy Little Ravelin, a haphazard settlement on the upper peaks of Mount Holt, and from there conduct mining operations and act as the ‘overlords’ of several smaller gangs and groups, who provide them with ores in exchange for protection.
Riccard Falls: Located at the lower peaks of Mount Holt are the Riccard Falls, a smaller settlement that houses perhaps the most dangerous of Camp Holts gangs, the Warkrayts. The Warkrayts are made up of former slavers and pirates captured in the New Imperial Order’s campaigns in Wild Space. The Warkrayts are lead by perhaps the most dangerous man in Camp Holt, Captain Dav’ris Ruucan, a Twi’lek slave master who organises raiding parties and often makes up his mining quotas by stealing from other groups. What makes the Warkrayts so dangerous, is less so their combat ability, but more their cunning, often performing guerilla operations. While over four times, they’ve been met with ration cuts for failing to meet quotas, they tenaciously continue, pillaging and raiding others.
Riccard Falls' gatehouse and outer compound.
Deep Cut Cave: Perhaps the deepest excavation yet performed on Camp Holt, is Deep Cut Cave. Carved into the depths of Mount Holt, and following a vein rich with metallice ores, Deep Cut Cave is one of the larger mine, operated by a few independent groups of prospecting prisoners. However, the caves often times become a place of ambush and bloodshed as either the Warkrayts or marauding independent raider groups often ambush and occupy the cave system.
The Hollow: A vast portion of the side of the mountain is the ‘Hollow’, a forest of now dead and decaying trees, some charred by rhypalm scorching, most posioned by mining exists. Most independent miners avoid the area in fear of the so called ‘Scorch Rats’. A group of dissidents who refuse to work under any circumstances for the imperial cause and instead turn their efforts to stealing and killing those who do. While Prefsbelt Command declares that such dissidents will be found and tracked down, they haven’t been. Leading to some inside to suspect these stalwart rebels may not be who they claim.
Communication Tower Porter: Prisoners working in Camp Holt are fitted with communications devices to organise themselves, which does hold an inherent danger. Prefsbelt Command recognised this, and ensured that within the defences for the Camp, the communications tower be able to intercept and monitor all digital communications. While this was done at first to monitor the denizens of the Camp, this latter bore unsuspecting fruit. Drama. Real drama between the peoples of Camp Holt. As such, the Prefsbelt Bureau of Information and Culture has begun recording the communications of the Camps workers, editing and censoring them, before selling them as an ongoing audio drama.
“Failure to provide for our quota will be met with one of a few punishments at my and my superiors discretion and severity of your incompetence. First, we’ll cut your next ration run. If this continues, we’ll send overseers in to sort things. And if they cannot sort you out? You. Will. Die."
SECURITY
High Security: Security of mine largely is minimal, given most of the staff are concentrated on the outer perimeter, hemming in the mines occupants. The guards of the mine make extensive use of a wing of TIE fighters and bombers to remind those inside of who is in charge, but also occasionally use artillery shells tipped with rhypalm to destroy settlements and sow chaos and discord within the warring ‘tribes’ of the prison. Sometimes, when intervention is deemed necessary, Prefsbelt Command dispatches Naraka-I Worksuits, armed with battle rifles to engage the inhabitants of the prison and reshape the balance of power within. Occasionally this is escalated to either Prefsbelt Auxiliary or even Stossjaeger units.
One of the mineshafts of Deep Cut Cave.
Prefsbelt Command influence doesn’t stop at mere force however. As apart of their initiation, those who have entered the intelligence services are given assignments to infiltrate these organisations and provide intelligence on movements and political agitation. This gives the wardens of Camp Holt continuous data on the emerging groups and gangs which have started within the prison, and also as informants grow closer to leadership, the ability to influence events within.
“I see some of you there, scratching your empty heads at the notion of us arming you. I assure you, there is very good reason for this. You are being sent to Virgin Land. Untamed and unstable. Much like you. You’re not all cut from the same cloth. Some of you are the worst of the worst. So we consider these a privilege for the more industrious of you to deter and defend from the more profligate of your comrades. But should any of you, abuse your privilege, attempt to sabotage operations by turning your weapon on yourselves? Well let me warn you, you will continue suffering here until the end of days.”
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
With the establishment of significant industrial interests on Prefsbelt IV, soon came the need to fuel these assets. Initially, this was done through imports, but statistics run through by the Prefsbelt Office of Labour found the practice of this impractical. Such importing, with how quickly the factories were developing would be unsustainable, and so the need for locally sourced raw materials became apparent. Prefsbelt Command thus began to see if they could source local mines and opened several, but soon they found a glorious target for their efforts. Mount Holt.
Mount Holt was the right sort of build for mining. The geological makeup of the mountain was rich with resources and metals perfect for the development of weapons and infrastructure. Ergo, it was chosen. But the question then came, as to how to house such an operation and who to work on it? Enter the forced labourers. Thanks to an under the table deal struck with the New Imperial authorities, Prefsbelt Command imports most of the scum captured by the New Imperial Order and sicks them on worksites. Camp Holt only being the latest of these installations, yet the most revolutionary in regards to layout.
Prefsbelt Auxiliaries patrol the 'Hollow' for hostiles after the successful dispensing of rhypalm.
Rather than build an entire mine and prison complex, the Prefsbelt Office of Labour thought differently. They mapped out the extent of the geological richness, constructed a series of walls and fortifications around, and decided the best option was to have prisoners dispatched inside to work independently. While this would not necessarily be as direct as per se a normal work camp, control would be leveraged via mandated ore quotas, and if those quotas were not met? Cuts to the food supply. Thus requiring prisoners, while given freedom of roaming the mine, a goal to work toward.
Upon the first arrivals, it became clear a culture of violence would plague the miners inside. Violent and visceral brawls broke out, and a lack of communications ability saw a cave in and almost entire evisceration of the populace. As such, it was back to the drawing board. Communicators were issued to the next generation of prisoners, along with weapons in the form of basic side arms. While this should have on paper seen to another massacre and failure of the Camp Holt concept, it wasn’t. Rather, a fear of mutually assured death and destruction festered, along with socially engineered as well as organic factionalism. While there were certain obstacles, such as the Scorch Rats and their indiscriminate killings, an environment of productive fear festered. One where, with the threats of death of either attrition or direct termination, Prefsbelt Command prospered.
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