Description
The Yards of Gadani station is known for two things: its ship breaking yard, and its reduced gravity. During the Catastrophe, a freighter slated for decommissioning exploded with enough force to slow the station’s rotation, causing untold death and destruction as buildings shifted, collided, and collapsed around the hapless citizens. In the time since, its residents have gradually adapted to life with less gravity and it has become home to many Belters; those long-limbed individuals who have adapted over the centuries to lower gravity environments. After the Catastrophe, Belters from all over rushed to this station, enchanted with the idea of having a home that wasn't their ship where they could really stretch their legs properly. The ship breaking yards of Gadani also attract a regular stream of visitors, some looking for parts to with which to repair their starships, while others come seeking to purchase a new (to them) ship from the shipyards.
There is a saying: “Ships come to life on København, and come to die on Gadani.” Yards of Gadani is a massive station, built to be able to swallow up broken and disabled ships and spit out their bones. Workers toil in dangerous conditions on the yards, both within and on the outside of the station's asteroid. They swarm like ants over enormous retired ships, stripping them down and turning them into scrap. Hulls of ships rise up many stories, their exposed metal girders like fleshless skeletons. The decreased gravity makes the hard work both easier and more dangerous.
Chronicle Text
On Kobenhavn, ships were once born, when we knew how to craft them. On the Yards of Gadani, they came to die. The scrap-yards of Gadani are the final resting place of hundreds, if not thousands of once space-worthy vessels. Here, on the patron station of reclamation, do the enterprising come to loot the bodies of the chariots of the stars.
Arrival Text
Be welcome on Yards of Gadani, Citizen. Be wary of the lower gravity on our station.
Statistics
System: Alpha Centauri A
Affiliation: Consortium
Level: 10
Legal: 5 (Average)
Orwellian: 5 (Moderate)
Areas
Bank (Gadani Galactic Bank)
The street outside the bank is marred by the indentation of a large impact crater. Though it’s long since been removed, something enormous once crashed to the ground here.
Stone steps rise to meet tall, smoked-glass doors that part with a shush of cool, recycled air. The bank's interior walls show signs of old damage; ghost lines, faint cracks, and patchwork, which become visible when viewed at odd angles and under the multi-spec light seeping through stained skylights. Along the walls, down a wide, slightly buckled corridor of polished steel and plastic, are the banking counters where tellers conduct their business under the unblinking eyes of security enforcement cameras.
NPCs
Brig (Central Prison Gadani)
The barred windows of the prison are set into walls of thick gray stone. A tall chain fence topped with coiled barbed wire surrounds the building. Stained walls, rebuilt with scorched and blasted stone reclaimed from post-Catastrophe debris, give the prison a fortress-like feeling.
Past the steel reinforced doors with stenciled warnings and triple lines of razor wire fencing, there’s an open-air square, bordered on all sides by high metal gangways, auto-gun towers, and stacked rows of cells. Gray-uniformed prisoners huddle in small groups. Some, inked with symbols of the various ship breaking guilds, form loose circles, cheering on fellow inmates in wrestling matches.
NPCs
Clones (Anima Clones Inc.)
Slender technicians move lightly between clone pods. The bodies floating in the pale nutrient fluids include the bulkier shapes of stockier genotypes as well as the slimmer, gangly forms of Belters, whose long bodies were bred long ago to perform better in lower gravity environments. Shipbreaking is a dangerous business, and it's unwise not to have a clone ready on standby.
Anchored to the ceiling, cable-trussed pods of unusual length sway between grated catwalks. Blue-white lights blink on control panels in steady, reassuring patterns. Technicians in green suits stand nearby with slates in hand. They check and re-check the system values required for optimal clone reproduction and growth. Golden-eyed medical drones flit like flies from pod to pod, their transparent wings a soft whining blur.
Available Clones
- 3D Printed clone: 19851 cr
- Premium clone: 99 bonds
Decommissioned Area (Ship Breaking Yards)
Crews swarm around the skeletons of ships, their exposed bones jutting out of the yards. Buyers haggle with shipyard representatives, who try to sell them on the points and features of salvaged materials. Larger ships are docked on the ship breaking yards on the outside of the station's asteroid, until they can be broken down into small enough sections to be brought for scavenging to the additional yards within.
The ship breaking yard is the working muscle and financial heart of The Yards of Gadani. Beyond the central computerized trading hub of the market, filled with buyers, sellers, and deal makers watching overhead displays or huddled in private conversation, is the vast yard, carved from the asteroid’s surface. Illuminated under full-spectrum spotlights, the shuttles, cargo loaders, arcing cranes, inspection drones, and ship-tugs move like polished toys against the massive dock structures. Ships, in various states of being dissembled, sit with scaffolding enveloping them and workers swarming over them in the zero-grav environment.
NPCs
Employment (Shipyard Job Center)
Dominated by postings for the ship breaking yard, the job boards are filled with ads for work, ranging from entry-level physical labor to higher paying engineering jobs.
Multiple lines of job seekers lead to a wide, brightly lit open space and a long counter, where Employment Resources clerks direct candidates to their proper board. The chronically unemployed and underemployed all shuffle toward the posted lists of vacancies and work offers. From the curling scrolls and faded recruitment posters on the walls, to the dirty vents overhead fitfully spewing out freezing air, it’s a cold and grimy environment that has been worn down with endless transient use.
Side Jobs
This is the right place if you are looking for quick and easy jobs.
Name | Description | Credits | Statistic |
Low Grav Cargo Loading | Gadani's low gravity makes muscle go a long way. It also makes people clumsy. If you have the speed and grace to handle yourself, there's cargo work waiting in the port. | 40 | Agility |
Patient Comfort | Many of our citizens are suffering through painful bone loss treatments. Even just a friendly conversation can help them make it through. Credits available for socially skilled volunteers | 45 | Social |
Prison Cleaning | Even the guilty deserve a clean place to sleep. Work with our staff to keep our prison cells clean. Who knows? You might be the next one who winds up sleeping in one. | 40 | Stamina |
Ship Scrapper | Chamberlain Hulls has recently hauled in a rare derelict that we're dismantling for salvage. We need hard workers to assist in the process. | 40 | Intelligence |
NPCs
Government Center (Secretariat Building)
The governmental building of Yards of Gadani is a massive building, painted white. The main building is flanked on either side by two long wings, and each section has multiple round towers, each topped with a white dome.
The administrative offices of the local government also is houses the business offices of those who oversee the ship breaking yards. Officials are tucked away inside small offices, registering incoming ships, handling their dismantlement, and making trade deals with the copious amounts of scrap torn from the the huge starships.
NPCs
Info Hub
Holo screens illuminate the area as news sources flow like a river of data from one terminal to the next. Occasionally, some government drone will adjust a particular metric or record another before buzzing about their duties.
Syndicate Services
A number of recruiters, both in physical as well as hologrammatic form, interact with would-be members or peruse applications on the wall of terminals that lines this room.
VIP Lounge
Soft music and soothing lights drift through the atmosphere in the lounge. Robotic waiters clad in shiny (but not too shiny) chrome wheel between Citizens, dispensing smooth looking beverages.
Gym (Low-G Gym)
Everything in Low-G Gym looks larger than life. Massive weights and extreme equipment are the standard, and much of it would be too dangerous for human use, were it not for the station’s low gravity.
Due to the nature of low-g impact exercise, and the need for specialized equipment to address issues of bone and muscle density, there are banks of resistance-banded exercise systems along the spot-lit walls of the gym. Tall, smooth-muscled trainers in tracksuits move briskly among the clients, offering advice and support, or checking individualized fitness programs. There are fewer dead weights than found in a full gravity gym, and the wide-treaded cardio-monitor mills are adjusted to extreme inclines and speed to meet the enlarged pulmonary systems of the Belters. Non-natives are warned against using “standard” settings on all the machines.
You must have minimum combined physical stats of 39 to avoid injury at this gym.
Inn (Al-Farooqi Hotel)
The walls of the hotel's lobby are covered with signs warning visitors about the effects of long stays in low gravity environments: “Extended visits may result in bone loss, muscle degradation, and other effects. Please contact health representatives for more information.”
In between official signs warning of “Low-G Sickness” and its varied symptoms, the walls sport aging holographic tributes to famed ships and various antique nautical artifacts. Raucous laughter, muted conversation, ambient music, and the faint scent of musky incense fill the room. Hosts and hostesses in satin sit casually by the curved, worn bar when they’re not accompanying guests upstairs.
NPCs
Bar (Al-Farooqi Bar)
Ship breaking is a dangerous and arduous job, and most of the workers can be found here after their shifts. They tuck themselves into booths with fellow workers or family members, unwinding and celebrating another day of surviving the yards.
The scent of synthetic spices and grilling biomeat, imported directly from the 3D printers on Ghosts of Mali, permeate the air of this large restaurant. Tables set along the walls have heavy curtains draped around them in the front room, while in the back room, low tables, set in front of long couches, line the walls. The back room is loud with the sound of laughter, spirited conversation, and music from live musicians who are set toward the far end of the room. Now and then, people will rise to dance to the music, then fall back into their couches, laughing.
Menu
NPCs
Hotel Rooms (Guest Rooms)
The guest rooms of the Al-Farooqi Hotel are sparse and utilitarian. Very few have matching beds, and each is outfitted with furniture and items from old ships that have been torn apart on the ship breaking yards.
Prices
- 1 day: 80.6 cr
- 5 days: 322.4 cr
- 10 days: 564.2 cr
- 30 days: 1450.8 cr
Lounge (Al-Farooqi Lounge)
Heavy burgundy curtains line the wall of this large, oval-shaped room. Thick couches line the walls, and pillows heavy with embroidery, slippery satin, and lush velvet can be found, both on the couches, and about the floor. Low tables set around the room hold tall glass hookahs, and the air is heavy with their scent, spicy and fragrant with undertones of synthetic sweetness. Between the tables, a serving bot rolls by with a tray full of glasses.
Market (The Bazaar)
Along the narrow, back avenues, away from the station’s administrative and financial hub, colorful stands overflow with goods for sale.The lithe bodies of Belters loom tall as they mingle with the shorter, stouter frames of other genotypes. Merchants offer up everything from common ship parts to more specialized, harder to find commodities.
Anything a trading captain or supplier might need to bolster their cargo or wallet can be found here. The market is the traditional nexus of commerce and information on a station. For Gadani, it’s also a melting pot of every genotype in the system. A constant flow of visitors circle the market like the vultures of Earth, looking for ship parts to snatch up.
NPCs
Vendors
Here you can find many things sold by different vendors.
Storage
You can find here enough space to store the things you do not want to carry.
- Small: 202 cr
- Medium: 484 cr
- Large: 1209 cr
Port (The Port)
The Port is mostly staffed with immigrants from other stations. The workers haul massive cargo loads alone and do jobs that would require twice the effort in normal conditions.
The Port of Yards of Gadani is enormous, built to be able to receive large ships slated for being stripped down in the ship breaking yards. Outside of the station, ships that are too large to bring into the asteroid float, dead in space, or sit tethered to the outer hull of the station, their insides slowly being carved away by workers searching for scrap metal and anything that can be reused. Local shuttles zoom around these husks and remains, taking people to and from the station.
NPCs
Arrivals
A bustling river of humanity with endlessly branching tributaries flows from the shuttles arriving here, through the processing gates, to crash onto the banks of eagerly awaiting locals receiving visitors from near or far flung parts of the galaxy. A number of travelers post the usual glazed looks of those recently harangued by any type of transportation system created and run by the human species. They drift with a mixture of existential confusion and relief through to the station beyond. Always, they are scrutinized by security or some type of subspecies therein.
Shipping Bay
In the commercial sections of the port, out beyond reinforced translucent walls, power loaders float gracefully from large shipping compartments, while cargo lifts glide up and down between ship berths. Taking advantage of the decreased gravity, ship captains fill cargo carts with heavy loads their crews would otherwise struggle to budge.
Dealing mostly in the export of salvaged goods from ancient or derelict space ships, the Shipping Bay is busy at all times of the day. Large steel beams, strapped together securely, are lifted by huge mechanical arms, and placed gently in waiting cargo holds. Ships from København are most common, though private buyers also come for smaller parts or scrap with which to build out and repair their home stations.
Docks (The Docks)
The Docks are full of private vessels, most often owned by companies and individuals who have traveled to the station in search of materials and salvaged goods.
Local Shuttles
Departures, arrivals, farewells, and greetings, all in a crowded rush of people passing through control points. The station's Local Shuttles area is a wide, glass enclosed space that funnels down to queued travelers waiting for gated entrance or exit. Automated messages broadcast from hidden speakers, as large suspended monitors display travel information. Small security drones hover and dart from area to area.
NPCs
Residences (Residential Zone)
Houses of regocrete and scrap metal sit in neat lines that stretch into the distance. Some of the dwellings look exactly alike, and are set together in neighborhoods delineated by what ship breaking company employs their owners. Others range from the enormous buildings belonging to company owners and station governmental officials, to smaller houses built by individuals from reclaimed materials.
Many stations still have the bulk of their population living in ruins, or in a handful of private residences. This station has managed to rebuild sufficiently that a safe, secure residential area has been established. Guards patrol frequently and disreputable sorts are run off quickly.
Ruins (The Ruins)
Few windows in the ruins are intact and many buildings tilt precariously on their weakened foundations. These ramshackle buildings and debris piles bear the scars of an old disaster.
Weathered signs designate what was once the station’s agricultural receiving docks. Now they are but the outer-reach remnants of the catastrophic event that, for better or worse, defines the entire station. Here, darkness and shadows hold more than old survival stories. The broken walls, twisted metal, and scorched, shattered stones all bear gang tags. The bruised faces and downturned eyes of the poor tell a story of violence. This is not a place for visitors or tourists.
NPCs
The Wrecks
Station authorities are adamant that the Wrecks are currently beyond their jurisdiction; at least officially. And yet, there are plenty who have little choice but to make these risky warrens their home. Sections once used for storing imported foodstuffs now house a ramshackle settlement, living largely from scavenging the surrounding area.
Beyond the Wrecks' improvised dwellings, there are three hazardous decks known as 'the fields' by the scavs who operate here. Once impressively-equipped before Catastrophe, these levels handled the testing and secondary processing of food imports. Such tools were the first to be raided in the chaos of Catastrophe and now only the lab's less-valuable and least-portable items remain. Today, even a small piece of usable scrap material tends to provoke a fierce contest. Wreck-pickers rarely give up on their prize without a fight, and never to an outsider.
The Wilds
Gadani's low spin gravity is at its weakest in the Wilds. These upper levels are so close to the station's center that even Belters complain of the intolerably low-G environment. Ill-suited to habitation, these fringe spaces are now the domain of notorious gangs, well-versed in brutality and thuggery.
The logic of the Wilds is simple: take what you want by any means. There are those who prefer this to the more complex social organisation of the main levels below. Most who spend time here eventually find the world below ever less-suited to their ways. 'Wilders' as they're sometimes known, have a higher chance of ending up in the Brig than anything else if they try to rejoin the lower levels. But up here; you're in their world. You shouldn't expect a warm welcome.
Security (Consortium Security Services)
The Security Offices are located in a short, squat building made from regocrete and reclaimed steel. Banners, proudly displaying the Consortium emblem flank the front door, and security cameras swivel and lock on to anyone who passes by.
Huge monitors line the wall of the Security Office, and multiple officers watch the feeds as they cycle through their locations. One shows the ship breaking yards, then swaps to show a corner of the market. In the next unit, the interior of the Lounge is displayed.
Both the private and public security forces have access to these cameras. Heavily armed private bodyguards walk among the official Consortium officers, and often the two groups pool resources when one has relevant information to the other. The private security services house their offices in a sectioned off area of the Security building, but they are quite familiar and tight-knit with the official Security team.
Shipyard
Beside the ship breaking yards, with its hulls and piles of parts, rows of starships wait to be purchased. Though a few are new, many are cobbled together from parts recovered from ships that were torn down in the nearby ship breaking yards.
Outside the hull of the station's asteroid, a handful of starships sit, waiting to be purchased. A few have glossy hulls that reflect starlight, but most are a hodgepodge assortment of reclaimed parts, cobbled together by shipbuilders who wander the ship breaking yard, hunting for the perfect piece of scrap to add to their works in progress. The ships are strapped down, to keep the spinning of the asteroid from flinging them off into space. But here and there, a ship is released from its binding and taken on a test drive by potential buyers.
NPCs
Available ships:
Class | Price |
Private Shuttle | 210000 cr |
Razorback | 995000 cr |
Sick Bay (Shalamar Galactic Hospital)
Staffed by imported Consortium doctors and nurses, the sick bay occupies an old regocrete building on the edge of the ship breaking yard. The towering ships nearby cast their shadows over the small facility, shrouding it in an unwelcoming gloom.
Ship breaking is a dangerous job, especially for those who aren't used to working in low-g environments, and the hospital sees more than its fair share of patients. Moemedi Medical signs adorn the walls of rooms used for vat-grown limbs, organs, and skin. In one room, a woman learns to walk again, her new metal prosthetic leg glinting in the dim light, while in another, a nurse sprays a gel over a head wound, sealing it and closing up the skin instantly.
NPCs
Notes
- Yards of Gadani was originally a Gaule station.
"Galactic Destinations" Introduction
“Ships come to life on København, and come to die on Gadani.”
In our last installment of Galactic Destinations, we introduced you to the Wreckage, and the shipyards of København. Today, we will give you a glimpse at a station light years away: The Yards of Gadani. Whereas “new” vessels are born on København, ships whose services are no longer needed come to Gadani for their final days.
The Yards of Gadani
The Yards of Gadani is known for two things: its ship breaking yards, and its reduced gravity. During the Catastrophe, a freighter slated for decommissioning exploded with enough force to slow the station’s rotation, causing untold death and destruction as buildings shifted, collided, and collapsed around the hapless citizens.
Life After the Catastrophe
In the years since, its residents have gradually adapted to life with less gravity, and it has become home to many Belters; those long-limbed individuals who have adapted over the centuries to lower gravity environments. After the Catastrophe, Belters from all over the two star systems, Sol and Alpha Centauri, rushed to this station, enchanted with the idea of having a home that wasn’t a ship, where they could finally stretch their legs.
The Yards of Gadani also attracts a regular stream of visitors of all genotypes; some looking for parts with which to repair their starships, while others come hoping to purchase a new (to them) vessel from the shipyards. Those seeking parts find themselves wandering the Bazaar; a marketplace of colorful stands and merchant tents, overflowing with salvaged goods harvested from the ship breaking yards. And those looking for a new ship have a motley crew from which to choose. There are no sleek, shiny corvettes here. Instead, they find a selection of Frankenships, cobbled together from recycled and found parts which more often than not don’t match each other in any way. At times, however, the sundry pieces torn from the metal and plastic carcasses on the ship breaking yards create a more powerful, faster, whole.
The Ship Breaking Yards
Gadani is a massive station, built to be able to swallow up broken and disabled ships and spit out their bones. Workers toil in dangerous conditions on the yards, both within and on the outside of the station’s asteroid. They swarm like ants over enormous retired ships, stripping them down and turning them into scrap. The decreased gravity within the asteroid makes the hard work both easier and more dangerous. The lower gravity makes it possible for workers to move and handle massive objects that would normally require heavy machinery or twice the effort. On the yards, the hulls of starships rise up many stories, their exposed metal girders like fleshless skeletons. Outside of the station, ships that are too large to bring into the asteroid float, dead in space, waiting their turn to be tethered down to the outer shell of the asteroid, where they will come to their final rest, their insides slowly being carved away by scavengers searching for scrap metal and anything that can be reused.
The residents of the Yards of Gadani have adapted to and are flourishing in the buoyant environments both inside and outside of the station. Ships from all over the star systems, from those only large enough to carry a single pilot, to the massive leviathans that once provided luxury star-cruises, pass their final days here in the ship breaking yards. However, nothing goes to waste in a post-Catastrophe society, and every piece, part, and salvaged good goes on to find a new purpose and to live another life.
Additional information from the storyline
In this Station are headquartered of the Consortium Security Services that handle things like corporate crimes, fraud, forensics, and corruption. A specific division that deals with corruption, the Office of Special Investigations, is headed by Lieutenant Lotta Olofsdotter from Tau Station (Secrets and Servos).
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