Laira Darkhold
Well-Known Member
QUARANTINE ZONE
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: To codify a setting for upcoming threads
Image Credit: [xhttps://kotaku.com/5470530/star-wars-the-old-republic-will-always-have-taris/] | [x] | [x] | [x] | [x] | [x] | [x] | [x] | [x]
Canon: Not Applicable
Links: Rakghoul Plaguehttp://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Rakghoul_tunnels
SETTING INFORMATION
Region Name: Quarantine Zone
Classification: Ruined Metropolis | Rural Settlements
Location: Cademimu Vhttp://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Cademimu_V
Affiliation: The Quarantine Zone is independent, ruled by various factions and settlements trapped within it. Several settlements represent a degree of order and civilization, organized together to share resources and protect travel routes, however they are harassed by roaming bands of raiders, nests of rakghouls, and warlords attempting to take over more of the region.
Demographics: The majority of the Quarantine Zone’s sentient population is human as was the region before it was closed off by the Governor-Militant and his supporters, however there are strong minorities of various alien species, such as Bothanhttp://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Bothan/Legends, Dugs, Gran, Mon Calamari, Tognath, Twi’leks, and Yinchorii, among many others.
Rakghoulshttp://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Rakghoul, however, form the largest body of the population with several variants and mutations of the creatures having been seen or recorded such as Nekghouls, Raklings, Eyeless, and others such as infected animals and beasts.
Wealth: Low
What scraps and resources the Quarantine Zone does possess is unable to be transported out of the city, leaving it relatively worthless, leaving most to live deep in poverty. Most of the settlements scavenge for useful materials in order to fuel their limited manufacturing and farming capabilities, or to trade with smugglers who bring in goods from the outside world. Even expensive materials are difficult to trade and sell as they hold little value, and many extort those in need heavily. Those that aren’t poor are usually warlords or barons who have collected the useful resources in order to control the portions of the population who support them or live around them.
Stability: Low
Wars between settlements aren’t uncommon as they struggle and compete for limited materials, knowing that an influx of new trade is not available. Food, fuel, clean water, and even power can be commodities that are increasingly scarce. Famines spurring revolts or wars for territory are common place within the oversized ghetto. As everyone that enters is not technically allowed to leave the region, very few travellers enter it. Even most smugglers consider it a high price location, regardless of what is being shipped in or out.
These issues are aside from the ever growing threat of Rakghoul nests and tunnelshttp://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Rakghoul_tunnels, as more people are infected with the plague every day, and there are fewer and fewer people left to resist them within the region. Nests tend to form around population centers, or areas with plenty of living beings for the Rakghouls to eat, which only increase the threats to each settlement. Infected people, driven insane by the disease but not yet transformed by it will also attack travelers or set ambushes for their mutated brethren.
Additionally, Imperial Supporters are known to make forays into the Quarantine Zone on occasion, usually bent on destruction. Officially the Stormtroopers only move into the zone to clear out Rakghoul Nests, but normally this also involves raids upon settlements and other population centers. The Imperial supporting regime considers every resident within the region to be a threat to their control over the planet, either soon to be rakghouls or criminals. Aerial bombardments often act as the precursor to most Imperial attacks.
Description:
The Quarantine Zone suffered heavily in the early days of the edict, having been bombarded and suffered from artillery strikes in an effort to destroy Rakghoul Nests near the construction of the walls, leaving massive portions of the city in ruins. At least one nuclear explosive was deployed creating an irradiated swampland within the sector. Hot and humid is the normal weather the sector suffers, with electrical storms and rainfall on occasion. Rain in the ghetto varies from sickening to drink without purifying, to acidic enough to melt holes in permacrete during heavy downpours. Hail, when it does happen falls in razor-sharp shards, sharp enough to slice through flesh and light armor if caught out in the open. Radioactive fogs sweep across the Radlands during extremely humid days, as it rises from the marshland to poison the air. Power supplies, communications, and other necessities were all disabled by the attacks leaving those within unable to communicate with those outside the walls and without reliable sources of water, power, or waste management. Very few speeders work, and any that attempt to leave the Quarantine Zone are destroyed with extreme prejudice.
The sky is almost always a darkened reddish brown, and the light from the system’s star only somewhat breaches through the clouds of smog and pollution from the planet. Vegetation has taken over much of the Quarantine Zone in the wake of the collapse of its societal and government functions, and its buildings have fallen to ruin and disrepair. The buildings that aren’t crumbling or fallen already, are normally used by the settlements of survivors within, who do their best to keep them standing with the limited supplies they have available.
REGIONS
The Radlands
The Radlands are a large area of city ruins that have been flooded with septic water and runoff from the city and irradiated and contaminated by pollution and chemical waste. The quarantined city was quickly left without power, communication, or proper waste management facilities and so what manufacturing of hazardous materials were simply dumped, where the chemical waste mixed with the groundwater in the area. It was only made worse when the planetary government used airburst radiation bombs in an attempt to destroy the Rakghouls in the region and reduce the population that could be infected by the disease. The increase in radiation and pollution left the water undrinkable for most sentient species, or dangerous to attempt, and caused the growth of mutated and sickly vegetation to hasten.
Rad-moss grows on most buildings and other creatures wander the area. Reports of a large Rakghoul Nest within the sewers and undercity caverns remain unsubstantiated, but travellers near the area tell tales of dangerous variants and mutated rakghouls the size of rancors. The only sentients that even attempt to live in the radlands are mutated beyond normal recognition, barely resembling the species they once were as they scavenge across the marshlands and hunt in the poisonous bogs. Those that have adapted to survive in this region are considered vile and monstrous, barbaric in the extreme. They make small villages within skyscrapers and move from building to building via ziplines and catwalks, only rarely venturing down to ground level to hunt or fish when necessary.
The Rift
When the order was given to create the quarantine zone by the planetary government, they employed a star destroyer to fire upon one of the borders of the city in order to carve a fathomless crevasse through the city structure in order to create one of the barriers that would contain the plague. The surgical strikes tore through inhabited city blocks down to the bedrock, slashing through the city and into the planet’s crust until they were certain that they had destroyed any tunnels that lie beneath the surface and then continued the stretch of destruction across hundreds of miles in a line to create the what would become known as the Rift.
For most, it is a sheer drop from the edge of the city down into the depths of the planet. On one side much of the city has been walled off and repaired so there are not openings for escapees to attempt to flee the quarantine zone, and on the other side crumbling ruins and makeshift buildings. Despite the government’s best attempts, the Rift is the easiest way in for smugglers who must only track the patrols and pass from one side as quickly as possible. While they can’t move much product at a time, it is the easiest path to do so, especially near the end where Port Naru sits where friendly faces are always grateful to cover them from ambushing bandits, patrols of troopers, and help them back across.
The Blast
The Blast is the ruined, ash covered crater where the Planetary Government employed a nuclear weapon against the largest population center in the Quarantine Zone in secret. It was a decision made to limit the number of beings within the zone that could be infected so they would be able to limit the number of rakghouls they would eventually have to destroy. The explosion rendered that part of the city almost completely destroyed for kilometers. The weapon turned many buildings into piles of rubble or wiped them out completely, and left the streets that were left standing filled with the ashen forms of the beings slain by the blast.
Hardly any living thing populates this region of the Quarantine Zone, life covered in ash. The area is hotter than anywhere else and said to be dry and arid unlike the rest of the city. The sun never breaks through the irradiated clouds and the rain evaporates before it hits the ground, no matter how hard the downpour. The arid land suffers from random lightning strikes as the charged air erupts into a storm of electrical outbursts, striking randomly across the city without warning. Force wielders that have visited it have said that it is haunted by the millions that died, warning of vengeful spirits and dark side corruption in the Blast.
The people that are left are controlled by the warlord, Fin Turola, based in what used to be a mooring tower for cargo ships too large to land. He orders his raiders and bandits to scavenge from the blasted city and subdue anyone who enters, either ransoming them back to their settlements or using them as slave labor. He happens to be sitting on a stockpile of vanadium and other rare metals, but obviously can’t ship them where they would truly be worth anything. Instead he uses the materials to extort the survivors from the more peaceful settlements to buy their supplies as they are able to transport it more easily out of the quarantine zone. His limited manufacturing capabilities keep his people well armed and with a small handful of working cargo speeders.
The Broken Hive
The Broken Hive is one of the remaining parts of the city that is still populated. While calling its structures buildings might be too generous, the standing structures are home to several neighborhoods, operating manufacturing plants, and water processors. While hardly the safest or most stable settlement, the Broken Hive is certainly an impressive feat given the hardships found within the Quarantine Zone. Each neighborhood has its own ramshackle walls, guard towers, and guards surrounding it hoping to protect it and its citizens from outsiders. Raiders and marauders frequent the area, trying to steal, kill, or enslave the people that live on the ground level in order to pay their pirate overlords who reside in the crumbling Damask Tower, while the neighborhoods fight to defend themselves so that they might afford the tithe they owe to the pirates.
Rakghouls are known to be bold in this section of the quarantine zone, with many of the highly aggressive berserker strain residing in the area, along with maddened infected humans travelling in crazed warbands with some ability to use weapons and technology remaining within their minds. Some speculate that the increased violence in the area have driven the rakghouls to greater violence and aggression, that the plague somehow feeds off the aggression of the sentients it infects but so far little evidence has been found to support this hypothesis.
Ruination
The Imperial II-class Star Destroyerhttp://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Imperial_II-class_Star_Destroyer/Legends, Ruination, was used to secure the quarantine zone from flight risks during the opening days, gunning down fleeing ships and transports. Scarring in the city from its weapons remain to this day as it rained hell from above on the city, unloading ion cannons, emp missiles, and other weapons to attempt to trap everyone within the quarantine zone. In the panic, many craft simply tried to bullrush past the Destroyer when it moved to intercept them. Maybe they believed the destroyer would pull away at the last second, maybe they thought they could make it, perhaps the captain was certain his ship could take the abuse. Whatever the case, dozens of small craft rammed into the destroyer as they attempted to leave the planet, causing enough damage to down the vessel. The captain had attempted to angle the vessel to crash outside the quarantine zone, but other vessels tractor beamed the ship and shoved it into the zone. Later the government blamed the captain’s bloodlust for many of the turbolaser bombardments while he and his crew were left stranded within the quarantine zone.
The ruination is partially operational, some of its weaponry functioning, especially the internal defenses in the bridge tower, as well as some of its octuple barbettes. The captain of the vessel was slain by his crew shortly after the crash, and the thousands dispersed. Those who remain form serve the Arch Warlord and his forces, one of the more bloodthirsty bands of pirates. Occasionally they will fire arcing turbolaser shots at other settlements right before a raid with limited accuracy, but great psychological effect.
The vessel also sits upon the largest Rakghoul nest in the quarantine zone, whether attracted by the thousands of crewmen or the ground shaking crash, it doesn’t matter. This nest has exhibited numerous Force Sensitive Nekghouls within its ranks, directing the swarming mass of mutated monsters.
POINTS OF INTEREST
Port Naru
The settlement of Port Naru was named as such for being the most common entry point for most doctors, smugglers, and other seeking to enter the quarantine zone and what few are able to escape it normally make their way out from this settlement. Sitting at the end of the Rift and along the wall of the ghetto, the Port consists of several levels. The upper levels of the port are open to the skyline, crumbling buildings and overgrowth are illuminated heavily by searchlights from the other side. The Elder Council that tries to govern and organize the settlement hold their meetings here as does the Tribunal which acts as the court system in an attempt to remain civilized. Even with these attempts the Port is at best a frontier town akin to Mos Eisley on Tatooine, with petty crime a common place and the occasional murder or gunfight breaking out within the town.
The mid-levels possess a large assortment of hydroponic farms for livestock, foodstuffs, and medicinal use, though even with these shortages are common place. Some on the mid-level produce moonshine to serve in cantinas and restaurants found within the town. The port is frequented by Stormtroopers who are sent into the quarantine for this reason or that, and while they don’t normally burn anything down while they are there, it is clear that the Government forces are above the law the Elder Council attempts to enforce and are known to take things they want from citizens.
On the lower levels, called the arrival levels, the hidden passages leading outside can be found. Sometimes people will zipline across the Rift through the dense fog at the bottom; others go through broken sewer lines where they must evade guard posts, bandits, and droid patrols; and some have hidden wicket gates through the wall controlled by criminals who are willing to open it for a price. Drugs, alcohol, rare minerals scavenged from within the quarantine zone all change hands in the arrival levels. Some criminals from the outside even hide out in the Port in order to evade capture and conviction.
Damask Tower
Damask Tower, soaring high above the skyline within the Broken Hive is the crown jewel of the Pirate Lords the Bloodstalkers. The three Trandoshan Pirate Lords hold their court and award their followers Jagannath points for their service through their worship of the Scorekeeper. The Bloodstalkers are well equipped pirates, using the arms stores from Damask Tower and the artillery weapon at its pinnacle to keep the Broken Hive in line, taking a tithe from every neighborhood and every marauding band that dare live within their territory.
The tower itself is crumbling, barely able to support the weight of the M-68 Planetary Magnapulse Cannonhttp://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/M-68_planetary_magnapulse_cannon anymore but for scaffolding the Bloodstalkers have installed. Throughout it there are cantinas, watering holes, barracks, brothels, and dormitories awarded to the pirates based on how many points the Pirate Lords have awarded them and they secure it fairly well. The pirates use MSP80 Pteropter pods, LAVr QH-7 Chariots, and a few WLO-5 tanks to enforce their will on the Broken Hive as well as various terror tactics. The Pirate Lords are quick to dispatch any semblance of resistance they detect, hanging those they execute from the tower to be picked at. They also purposefully attract rakghouls towards settlements that displease them.
Hell’s Halfway House
The Underground township of “Hell’s Halfway House” sits in the eastern portion of the Quarantine Zone, away from the Broken Hive and the Ruination, beneath the surface of the ruined cityscape. Hell’s Halfway House is a lawless shanty town built around a repaired power plant controlled by a Hutt gangster and his goons. The shanty town is built from stacks of apartments, cargo containers, and ramshackle fortifications. At the lower levels, creeks and canals are traversed by boats and canoes, while at the upper levels catwalks criss-cross the stacks.
The Hutt demands certain things be provided to him and his gangsters, but is otherwise uninvolved with the town’s operation. The slum of a town is known to have rakghouls within it, wandering in the darkened allies and canals when they aren’t heavily used. People go missing all the time, and the ‘death’ sentence the Hutt passes down to criminals is simply having them locked into cages and dropped mostly into the water to wait for Rakghouls to get them.
Despite its rustic charm, Hell’s Halfway House has its uses. It is easy to hide there, and easier to find homemade drugs and spice. It is also devoid of ethics while being much easier to placate the ruler of the city than most of the warlords, so some less than ethical scientific experiments have undoubtedly been performed there. However its real draw for outsiders and smugglers would be its deposits of diatium which can be bought dirt cheap and flipped on the outside for a huge profit if it can be acquired in large enough quantities.
SECURITY
Maximum
The barriers of the Ghetto are well guarded and maintained, often patrolled by crewed speeders or droids, possessing automated cannons to fire upon any coming within one hundred meters of the walls or towers. Death Fences and energy barriers section off large portions and the Government’s troops keep those within from being able to leave. There are some ways into and out of the Quarantine Zone, but those are either well kept secrets or change as they are located and destroyed. A star destroyer occupies the air space above the Quarantine Zone at all times, lingering as a constant reminder to the people below that they are the prisoners of this place.
Low
Inside the quarantine zone, even the safest places are hardly secured. Between poorly armed militias, rakghoul infestations, mutants, and pirate warbands, even a well established and well guarded settlement isn’t necessarily safe and those are just external threats. Law and rules vary wildly, with frontier justice being almost as commonplace as simple ‘might makes right’ governance. Some settlements won’t care about the killing of its dregs, while others attempt to maintain some order by holding tribunals for criminals but without proper investigators or the scientific procedures.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Before the Netherworld Crisis, the Cademimu system was held by the Mandalorians and Mandalorian Clans, but was never a major system for their warmachine. Its polluted skyline and treacherous global city was always in a state of mild disrepair and rarely paid attention on the galactic scale. When the Netherworld Rapture occurred, the Mandalorian influence vanished overnight, along with a vast portion of the planetary guard and law enforcement that had held the Rakghoul infestations in check. For years they had deployed troops to nests and warrens in the undercity, but with the population suddenly bottoming out, the city was no longer able to root out these incursions and hold the infestations in check.
Several attempts were made at quarantining off only the infected areas of the planet and trying to evacuate the civilians from the barricaded sections. Unfortunately as each area was cleansed of the beasts, it seemed two more rose in unsecured locations in a rapidly expanding part of the world-city. Governor-Militant Kenchov finally made the executive decision to expand the perimeter to unheard of proportions of the planet, a massive country-sized region in the north-eastern quadrant of the planet, and ordered it sealed. His regime continued by claiming that evacuations would follow as soon as the area was locked down to prevent the outbreak from expanding throughout the city. Turbolaser strikes followed as prefabricated walls were put in place. Vast canyons were carved to the very bedrock of the world through inhabited levels of buildings, and energy barriers were employed across long sections of the border. Gun turrets and droids were deployed along the walls and barriers turned inward to ward off attempts to escape.
Public outcry rose as the barbaric policies continued, including strategic destruction of power plants, water purifying plants, and other utilities within the quarantined area. It reached a boiling point when the Governor’s supporters announced there would be no evacuation of the area, and that all those within the barricades erected by the local government would be left in place. To the government’s benefit, they were able to broadcast that their plan, however unethical, had worked to great effect as there had been no sighting of Rakghouls outside the quarantine zone, which pacified many of the planet’s inhabitants, while others continued their protests as the government reorganized to resemble Imperial ideals and doctrines in a clear attempt to garner favor with the encroaching Sith Empire. However unpopular the decision may have been at the time, the brutal tactic has so far worked in containing the outbreak.
Within the new quarantine zone, the political landscape fell to immediate chaos. Former police turned on one another and warlords took their place. Criminal gangs rose in certain areas, while others suffered riots and upheavals aimed at the barricades that were answered with aerial firestorms unleashed in the streets and the use of a nuclear weapon on the largest population center that went unreported and unnoticed by those outside the city. Chaos became daily life, and the struggle for survival in a cruel and unforgiving galaxy became that much harder.
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: To codify a setting for upcoming threads
Image Credit: [xhttps://kotaku.com/5470530/star-wars-the-old-republic-will-always-have-taris/] | [x] | [x] | [x] | [x] | [x] | [x] | [x] | [x]
Canon: Not Applicable
Links: Rakghoul Plaguehttp://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Rakghoul_tunnels
SETTING INFORMATION
Region Name: Quarantine Zone
Classification: Ruined Metropolis | Rural Settlements
Location: Cademimu Vhttp://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Cademimu_V
Affiliation: The Quarantine Zone is independent, ruled by various factions and settlements trapped within it. Several settlements represent a degree of order and civilization, organized together to share resources and protect travel routes, however they are harassed by roaming bands of raiders, nests of rakghouls, and warlords attempting to take over more of the region.
Demographics: The majority of the Quarantine Zone’s sentient population is human as was the region before it was closed off by the Governor-Militant and his supporters, however there are strong minorities of various alien species, such as Bothanhttp://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Bothan/Legends, Dugs, Gran, Mon Calamari, Tognath, Twi’leks, and Yinchorii, among many others.
Rakghoulshttp://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Rakghoul, however, form the largest body of the population with several variants and mutations of the creatures having been seen or recorded such as Nekghouls, Raklings, Eyeless, and others such as infected animals and beasts.
Wealth: Low
What scraps and resources the Quarantine Zone does possess is unable to be transported out of the city, leaving it relatively worthless, leaving most to live deep in poverty. Most of the settlements scavenge for useful materials in order to fuel their limited manufacturing and farming capabilities, or to trade with smugglers who bring in goods from the outside world. Even expensive materials are difficult to trade and sell as they hold little value, and many extort those in need heavily. Those that aren’t poor are usually warlords or barons who have collected the useful resources in order to control the portions of the population who support them or live around them.
Stability: Low
Wars between settlements aren’t uncommon as they struggle and compete for limited materials, knowing that an influx of new trade is not available. Food, fuel, clean water, and even power can be commodities that are increasingly scarce. Famines spurring revolts or wars for territory are common place within the oversized ghetto. As everyone that enters is not technically allowed to leave the region, very few travellers enter it. Even most smugglers consider it a high price location, regardless of what is being shipped in or out.
These issues are aside from the ever growing threat of Rakghoul nests and tunnelshttp://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Rakghoul_tunnels, as more people are infected with the plague every day, and there are fewer and fewer people left to resist them within the region. Nests tend to form around population centers, or areas with plenty of living beings for the Rakghouls to eat, which only increase the threats to each settlement. Infected people, driven insane by the disease but not yet transformed by it will also attack travelers or set ambushes for their mutated brethren.
Additionally, Imperial Supporters are known to make forays into the Quarantine Zone on occasion, usually bent on destruction. Officially the Stormtroopers only move into the zone to clear out Rakghoul Nests, but normally this also involves raids upon settlements and other population centers. The Imperial supporting regime considers every resident within the region to be a threat to their control over the planet, either soon to be rakghouls or criminals. Aerial bombardments often act as the precursor to most Imperial attacks.
Description:
The Quarantine Zone on the smog-choked planet Cademimu V is a massive country-sized walled off ghetto of the ecumenopolis, approximately three hundred fifty thousand square kilometers in size. The ruined portion of the city is sequestered by canyons created by turbolaser bombardment, energy barriers, walls, and other barricades in an effort to contain the Rakghoul Outbreak on the planet with significant success. Unfortunately, the containment efforts also trapped a fairly large population of civilians within the ghetto to survive alone as the planetary government failed or refused to properly evacuate the region.The Quarantine Zone suffered heavily in the early days of the edict, having been bombarded and suffered from artillery strikes in an effort to destroy Rakghoul Nests near the construction of the walls, leaving massive portions of the city in ruins. At least one nuclear explosive was deployed creating an irradiated swampland within the sector. Hot and humid is the normal weather the sector suffers, with electrical storms and rainfall on occasion. Rain in the ghetto varies from sickening to drink without purifying, to acidic enough to melt holes in permacrete during heavy downpours. Hail, when it does happen falls in razor-sharp shards, sharp enough to slice through flesh and light armor if caught out in the open. Radioactive fogs sweep across the Radlands during extremely humid days, as it rises from the marshland to poison the air. Power supplies, communications, and other necessities were all disabled by the attacks leaving those within unable to communicate with those outside the walls and without reliable sources of water, power, or waste management. Very few speeders work, and any that attempt to leave the Quarantine Zone are destroyed with extreme prejudice.
The sky is almost always a darkened reddish brown, and the light from the system’s star only somewhat breaches through the clouds of smog and pollution from the planet. Vegetation has taken over much of the Quarantine Zone in the wake of the collapse of its societal and government functions, and its buildings have fallen to ruin and disrepair. The buildings that aren’t crumbling or fallen already, are normally used by the settlements of survivors within, who do their best to keep them standing with the limited supplies they have available.
REGIONS
The Radlands
The Radlands are a large area of city ruins that have been flooded with septic water and runoff from the city and irradiated and contaminated by pollution and chemical waste. The quarantined city was quickly left without power, communication, or proper waste management facilities and so what manufacturing of hazardous materials were simply dumped, where the chemical waste mixed with the groundwater in the area. It was only made worse when the planetary government used airburst radiation bombs in an attempt to destroy the Rakghouls in the region and reduce the population that could be infected by the disease. The increase in radiation and pollution left the water undrinkable for most sentient species, or dangerous to attempt, and caused the growth of mutated and sickly vegetation to hasten.
Rad-moss grows on most buildings and other creatures wander the area. Reports of a large Rakghoul Nest within the sewers and undercity caverns remain unsubstantiated, but travellers near the area tell tales of dangerous variants and mutated rakghouls the size of rancors. The only sentients that even attempt to live in the radlands are mutated beyond normal recognition, barely resembling the species they once were as they scavenge across the marshlands and hunt in the poisonous bogs. Those that have adapted to survive in this region are considered vile and monstrous, barbaric in the extreme. They make small villages within skyscrapers and move from building to building via ziplines and catwalks, only rarely venturing down to ground level to hunt or fish when necessary.
The Rift
When the order was given to create the quarantine zone by the planetary government, they employed a star destroyer to fire upon one of the borders of the city in order to carve a fathomless crevasse through the city structure in order to create one of the barriers that would contain the plague. The surgical strikes tore through inhabited city blocks down to the bedrock, slashing through the city and into the planet’s crust until they were certain that they had destroyed any tunnels that lie beneath the surface and then continued the stretch of destruction across hundreds of miles in a line to create the what would become known as the Rift.
For most, it is a sheer drop from the edge of the city down into the depths of the planet. On one side much of the city has been walled off and repaired so there are not openings for escapees to attempt to flee the quarantine zone, and on the other side crumbling ruins and makeshift buildings. Despite the government’s best attempts, the Rift is the easiest way in for smugglers who must only track the patrols and pass from one side as quickly as possible. While they can’t move much product at a time, it is the easiest path to do so, especially near the end where Port Naru sits where friendly faces are always grateful to cover them from ambushing bandits, patrols of troopers, and help them back across.
The Blast
The Blast is the ruined, ash covered crater where the Planetary Government employed a nuclear weapon against the largest population center in the Quarantine Zone in secret. It was a decision made to limit the number of beings within the zone that could be infected so they would be able to limit the number of rakghouls they would eventually have to destroy. The explosion rendered that part of the city almost completely destroyed for kilometers. The weapon turned many buildings into piles of rubble or wiped them out completely, and left the streets that were left standing filled with the ashen forms of the beings slain by the blast.
Hardly any living thing populates this region of the Quarantine Zone, life covered in ash. The area is hotter than anywhere else and said to be dry and arid unlike the rest of the city. The sun never breaks through the irradiated clouds and the rain evaporates before it hits the ground, no matter how hard the downpour. The arid land suffers from random lightning strikes as the charged air erupts into a storm of electrical outbursts, striking randomly across the city without warning. Force wielders that have visited it have said that it is haunted by the millions that died, warning of vengeful spirits and dark side corruption in the Blast.
The people that are left are controlled by the warlord, Fin Turola, based in what used to be a mooring tower for cargo ships too large to land. He orders his raiders and bandits to scavenge from the blasted city and subdue anyone who enters, either ransoming them back to their settlements or using them as slave labor. He happens to be sitting on a stockpile of vanadium and other rare metals, but obviously can’t ship them where they would truly be worth anything. Instead he uses the materials to extort the survivors from the more peaceful settlements to buy their supplies as they are able to transport it more easily out of the quarantine zone. His limited manufacturing capabilities keep his people well armed and with a small handful of working cargo speeders.
The Broken Hive
Rakghouls are known to be bold in this section of the quarantine zone, with many of the highly aggressive berserker strain residing in the area, along with maddened infected humans travelling in crazed warbands with some ability to use weapons and technology remaining within their minds. Some speculate that the increased violence in the area have driven the rakghouls to greater violence and aggression, that the plague somehow feeds off the aggression of the sentients it infects but so far little evidence has been found to support this hypothesis.
Ruination
The Imperial II-class Star Destroyerhttp://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Imperial_II-class_Star_Destroyer/Legends, Ruination, was used to secure the quarantine zone from flight risks during the opening days, gunning down fleeing ships and transports. Scarring in the city from its weapons remain to this day as it rained hell from above on the city, unloading ion cannons, emp missiles, and other weapons to attempt to trap everyone within the quarantine zone. In the panic, many craft simply tried to bullrush past the Destroyer when it moved to intercept them. Maybe they believed the destroyer would pull away at the last second, maybe they thought they could make it, perhaps the captain was certain his ship could take the abuse. Whatever the case, dozens of small craft rammed into the destroyer as they attempted to leave the planet, causing enough damage to down the vessel. The captain had attempted to angle the vessel to crash outside the quarantine zone, but other vessels tractor beamed the ship and shoved it into the zone. Later the government blamed the captain’s bloodlust for many of the turbolaser bombardments while he and his crew were left stranded within the quarantine zone.
The ruination is partially operational, some of its weaponry functioning, especially the internal defenses in the bridge tower, as well as some of its octuple barbettes. The captain of the vessel was slain by his crew shortly after the crash, and the thousands dispersed. Those who remain form serve the Arch Warlord and his forces, one of the more bloodthirsty bands of pirates. Occasionally they will fire arcing turbolaser shots at other settlements right before a raid with limited accuracy, but great psychological effect.
The vessel also sits upon the largest Rakghoul nest in the quarantine zone, whether attracted by the thousands of crewmen or the ground shaking crash, it doesn’t matter. This nest has exhibited numerous Force Sensitive Nekghouls within its ranks, directing the swarming mass of mutated monsters.
POINTS OF INTEREST
Port Naru
The settlement of Port Naru was named as such for being the most common entry point for most doctors, smugglers, and other seeking to enter the quarantine zone and what few are able to escape it normally make their way out from this settlement. Sitting at the end of the Rift and along the wall of the ghetto, the Port consists of several levels. The upper levels of the port are open to the skyline, crumbling buildings and overgrowth are illuminated heavily by searchlights from the other side. The Elder Council that tries to govern and organize the settlement hold their meetings here as does the Tribunal which acts as the court system in an attempt to remain civilized. Even with these attempts the Port is at best a frontier town akin to Mos Eisley on Tatooine, with petty crime a common place and the occasional murder or gunfight breaking out within the town.
The mid-levels possess a large assortment of hydroponic farms for livestock, foodstuffs, and medicinal use, though even with these shortages are common place. Some on the mid-level produce moonshine to serve in cantinas and restaurants found within the town. The port is frequented by Stormtroopers who are sent into the quarantine for this reason or that, and while they don’t normally burn anything down while they are there, it is clear that the Government forces are above the law the Elder Council attempts to enforce and are known to take things they want from citizens.
On the lower levels, called the arrival levels, the hidden passages leading outside can be found. Sometimes people will zipline across the Rift through the dense fog at the bottom; others go through broken sewer lines where they must evade guard posts, bandits, and droid patrols; and some have hidden wicket gates through the wall controlled by criminals who are willing to open it for a price. Drugs, alcohol, rare minerals scavenged from within the quarantine zone all change hands in the arrival levels. Some criminals from the outside even hide out in the Port in order to evade capture and conviction.
Damask Tower
Damask Tower, soaring high above the skyline within the Broken Hive is the crown jewel of the Pirate Lords the Bloodstalkers. The three Trandoshan Pirate Lords hold their court and award their followers Jagannath points for their service through their worship of the Scorekeeper. The Bloodstalkers are well equipped pirates, using the arms stores from Damask Tower and the artillery weapon at its pinnacle to keep the Broken Hive in line, taking a tithe from every neighborhood and every marauding band that dare live within their territory.
The tower itself is crumbling, barely able to support the weight of the M-68 Planetary Magnapulse Cannonhttp://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/M-68_planetary_magnapulse_cannon anymore but for scaffolding the Bloodstalkers have installed. Throughout it there are cantinas, watering holes, barracks, brothels, and dormitories awarded to the pirates based on how many points the Pirate Lords have awarded them and they secure it fairly well. The pirates use MSP80 Pteropter pods, LAVr QH-7 Chariots, and a few WLO-5 tanks to enforce their will on the Broken Hive as well as various terror tactics. The Pirate Lords are quick to dispatch any semblance of resistance they detect, hanging those they execute from the tower to be picked at. They also purposefully attract rakghouls towards settlements that displease them.
Hell’s Halfway House
The Hutt demands certain things be provided to him and his gangsters, but is otherwise uninvolved with the town’s operation. The slum of a town is known to have rakghouls within it, wandering in the darkened allies and canals when they aren’t heavily used. People go missing all the time, and the ‘death’ sentence the Hutt passes down to criminals is simply having them locked into cages and dropped mostly into the water to wait for Rakghouls to get them.
Despite its rustic charm, Hell’s Halfway House has its uses. It is easy to hide there, and easier to find homemade drugs and spice. It is also devoid of ethics while being much easier to placate the ruler of the city than most of the warlords, so some less than ethical scientific experiments have undoubtedly been performed there. However its real draw for outsiders and smugglers would be its deposits of diatium which can be bought dirt cheap and flipped on the outside for a huge profit if it can be acquired in large enough quantities.
SECURITY
Maximum
The barriers of the Ghetto are well guarded and maintained, often patrolled by crewed speeders or droids, possessing automated cannons to fire upon any coming within one hundred meters of the walls or towers. Death Fences and energy barriers section off large portions and the Government’s troops keep those within from being able to leave. There are some ways into and out of the Quarantine Zone, but those are either well kept secrets or change as they are located and destroyed. A star destroyer occupies the air space above the Quarantine Zone at all times, lingering as a constant reminder to the people below that they are the prisoners of this place.
Low
Inside the quarantine zone, even the safest places are hardly secured. Between poorly armed militias, rakghoul infestations, mutants, and pirate warbands, even a well established and well guarded settlement isn’t necessarily safe and those are just external threats. Law and rules vary wildly, with frontier justice being almost as commonplace as simple ‘might makes right’ governance. Some settlements won’t care about the killing of its dregs, while others attempt to maintain some order by holding tribunals for criminals but without proper investigators or the scientific procedures.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Before the Netherworld Crisis, the Cademimu system was held by the Mandalorians and Mandalorian Clans, but was never a major system for their warmachine. Its polluted skyline and treacherous global city was always in a state of mild disrepair and rarely paid attention on the galactic scale. When the Netherworld Rapture occurred, the Mandalorian influence vanished overnight, along with a vast portion of the planetary guard and law enforcement that had held the Rakghoul infestations in check. For years they had deployed troops to nests and warrens in the undercity, but with the population suddenly bottoming out, the city was no longer able to root out these incursions and hold the infestations in check.
Several attempts were made at quarantining off only the infected areas of the planet and trying to evacuate the civilians from the barricaded sections. Unfortunately as each area was cleansed of the beasts, it seemed two more rose in unsecured locations in a rapidly expanding part of the world-city. Governor-Militant Kenchov finally made the executive decision to expand the perimeter to unheard of proportions of the planet, a massive country-sized region in the north-eastern quadrant of the planet, and ordered it sealed. His regime continued by claiming that evacuations would follow as soon as the area was locked down to prevent the outbreak from expanding throughout the city. Turbolaser strikes followed as prefabricated walls were put in place. Vast canyons were carved to the very bedrock of the world through inhabited levels of buildings, and energy barriers were employed across long sections of the border. Gun turrets and droids were deployed along the walls and barriers turned inward to ward off attempts to escape.
Public outcry rose as the barbaric policies continued, including strategic destruction of power plants, water purifying plants, and other utilities within the quarantined area. It reached a boiling point when the Governor’s supporters announced there would be no evacuation of the area, and that all those within the barricades erected by the local government would be left in place. To the government’s benefit, they were able to broadcast that their plan, however unethical, had worked to great effect as there had been no sighting of Rakghouls outside the quarantine zone, which pacified many of the planet’s inhabitants, while others continued their protests as the government reorganized to resemble Imperial ideals and doctrines in a clear attempt to garner favor with the encroaching Sith Empire. However unpopular the decision may have been at the time, the brutal tactic has so far worked in containing the outbreak.
Within the new quarantine zone, the political landscape fell to immediate chaos. Former police turned on one another and warlords took their place. Criminal gangs rose in certain areas, while others suffered riots and upheavals aimed at the barricades that were answered with aerial firestorms unleashed in the streets and the use of a nuclear weapon on the largest population center that went unreported and unnoticed by those outside the city. Chaos became daily life, and the struggle for survival in a cruel and unforgiving galaxy became that much harder.
