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Freelancer Houses - The Kusari
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As the Kusari sleeper ship approached the
Sirius sector, they looked for evidence of high percentages of
water, analyzing spectrographic wavelengths of various planet
atmospheres. One area in particular looked interesting. Lying
near a distinctively shaped blue nebula that the on-board
astronomer named the Crow, it was composed of relatively young
stars, and possessed at least two planets with high amounts of
atmospheric water vapor and oxygen. Planetfall was made on the
New Tokyo in 5 AS., five years after the arrival of the
Liberty. New Tokyo had plenty of water. What it didn’t offer
was much land. The ocean planet was dotted with a few small
volcanic islands. A culture that had left their cramped
homeland far behind had to accept a cruel twist of fate once
again, on the other side of the universe.
Shortly
after planetfall, the Planners decided to restore the title of
Emperor as the leader of the Kusari government after centuries
of figurehead status. Strong and absolute leadership was
needed to rebuild their civilization. The political
maneuvering was intense. There were two rivals - Masamune
Samura and Yosai Hideyoshi. Ultimately, Hideyoshi won. As a
compromise, Samura was offered the presidency of the
corporation that would rebuild the industrial might of the
Kusari people from scratch. He accepted, and Samura Heavy
Industries was incorporated, the first of the two great Kusari
industrial conglomerates that dominate commerce in the region
to this day.
By 100 AS., Samura had constructed the
Yamamoto Shipyard and established its reputation as the
premier shipbuilder in Kusari. Over the next several
centuries, Samura expanded its gas mining operations
throughout Kusari space, began regular trading with the other
houses, and perfected the construction of polymer hull panels
and shielding. Samura's contracts to construct ships for the
Kusari Military remain highly lucrative, while its commercial
transports almost entirely dominate that sector. Throughout
its history, Samura Heavy Industries has exhibited many of the
traits of its founder: methodical, implacable, slow to change,
quick to anger.
The second company had far more humble
origins. In 10 AS., a small research company, headed by
Katsuhiro Kishiro, genetically modified an existing earth fish
species and introduced a super-breed optimized for life in New
Tokyo’s alien ocean waters. He also tackled the rice problem.
The soil conditions were quite different than Earth, lacking
certain nutrients that rice brought on the sleeper ship
needed. Again, Kishiro came to the rescue, this time with a
new rice strain that could handle the harsh growing conditions
found planet side. Kishiro won the adulation of the Kusari
imperial family, and thus began the second of the two
industrial dynasties of Kusari. Adapting the name Kishiro
Technologies for his company, Kishiro espoused a progressive
research oriented environment that relied more on brains than
sheer size and intimidation, unlike his primary rival, Samura.
In 91 AS., Kishiro Technologies achieved a
breakthrough in the development of quantum circuitry that
revolutionized the entire economy almost overnight. Just as
its founder had originally planned, Kishiro products found
their way into almost every consumer, commercial, or military
product on the market -- including those made by Samura. With
their new found capital, Kishiro Technologies rapidly expanded
their manufacturing capabilities and established the Yukawa
Shipyard within the nearby Honshu system, devoted almost
exclusively to the construction of ships to be used in gas
mining operations in the nearby Crow Nebula.
Kusari was generally poor in natural resources, although the New Tokyo system did contain limited deposits of aluminum and titanium, which enabled Kusari shipbuilders to be relatively self-sufficient, at least for the first three centuries after arrival. The surrounding Crow Nebula had little in the way of asteroid fields found in such abundance in the Walker and Barrier regions. It did offer one key resource, however, that the entire Sirius Sector needed. Virtually unlimited supplies of Helium-3 and Deuterium were present inside the great clouds of ionized gases in the nearby Sigma systems. Both isotopes were quite rare on planets, but essential for the fusion engines that powered spacecraft of all sizes. Kusari soon became the exclusive supplier of H-fuel, as they called it, to all of the colonies. H-fuel was the foreign currency source that allowed Kusari companies to purchase the many raw materials found in the other colonies that Kusari lacked.
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Settled in 5 A.S., New Tokyo is the capitol of the Kusari Empire and, with nearly two hundred million people clinging to its scattered islands, its most populous planet. Despite (or perhaps because of) this crowding, New Tokyo is a vibrant world with centuries of history and some of the most advanced technology in the colonies. It is also a culture in transition, as bureaucrats and corporations wrestle with the best ways to manage the rapidly increasing pace of change.
To more gracefully accommodate the difficulties of change, the Kusari ruling body, the Shogunate, works closely with corporate keiretsu -- such as Samura and Kishiro -- to advance the interests of the Empire while safeguarding the heritage of the Kusari people.
New Tokyo’s fields have been long since mined out, but it still remains the unquestioned cultural and commercial capitol of the entire colony. Home to Samura’s Yokohama shipyards, the system also houses the headquarters of both Kishiro and Samura, naturally at opposing ends of the Trade Lanes from New Tokyo. New Tokyo contains two other bases of interest. Interspace Commerce maintains the Roppongi Station, high above New Tokyo planet.
Home to IC and other Liberty companies, it is regarded with suspicion by many of the Kusari bureaucrats in New Tokyo, especially since the Trade Embargo of 521. The system is also home to the Kusari crime syndicate known as the Hogosha. The Kusari equivalent of the Junkers, they dominate the Artifact trade within Kusari. They also have been known to perform dirty jobs for Samura on occasion, such as stealing supplies from depots outside the Narita Outpost, home to the foreign shippers in New Tokyo.
Diameter: 14,802 km.
Mass: 6.01 x 10e24 kg.
Terrain: Archipelago
Temperature: -35°C to 39°C
Escape Velocity: 12.01 km/sec
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The first Kusari colony established after the settlement of New Tokyo, Honshu is mostly covered in water with few sizable land masses. The first settlers struggled for several centuries before a catastrophic decline in ocean harvesting forced most of the inhabitants to turn their attentions to the nearby Crow Nebula and its bountiful gas resources.
Honshu is also the original home of an interesting independent faction, the Gas Miners Guild. The Guild traces its ancestry to those dispossessed Kusari fishermen who left Honshu many centuries ago in search of Crow Nebula gases. Over time, the former Honshu settlers moved entirely into space and formed the Gas Mining Guild (GMG), all but abandoning their ancestral home. The GMG yearns to be a truly independent entity, although they were forced to depend on covert Kusari military aid during the Eighty Years war with Rheinland. Honshu lay fallow until Kishiro selected the planet in 510 A.S. as the location for their main optronics manufacturing facility.
Today, Honshu is home to Kishiro’s Engine Component and Optronics plants, who supply most of the Sirius Sector with these vital commodities. Samura maintains a huge gas facility at Osaka, established many centuries ago to facilitate the shipment of GMG H-fuel to the rest of the colonies. The GMG also maintains the Aomori base within the Hiryo Nebula near the Sigma-19 Gate. They coordinate many of their Crow Nebula operations from here, safely within House protected space.
Diameter: 15,201 km.
Mass: 6.12 x 10e24 kg.
Terrain: Archipelago
Temperature: -52°C to 40°C
Escape Velocity: 12.02 km/sec
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The Kyushu system represents tradition in Kusari. Colonized by Samura backed farmers many centuries ago, Kyushu planet has been the rice supplier for Kusari since the second century. Consumer goods were also once produced here, although most of the plants have shut down in recent times due to cheaper labor costs in the Shikoku system. The arrival of Synth Foods within Kusari has been the most serious threat to the Kyushu way of life, however. Operating from the Deshima base in Shikoku, they have managed to break the long stranglehold on the Kusari food market that enabled generations of Kyushu farmers to prosper, albeit at the expense of urbanite Tokyo residents.
Kyushu has few appreciable mineral resources but does possess arable land and an ideal climate for rice farming. While the independent farmers of Kyushu provided much of the basic food stuffs for New Tokyo for over three centuries, a recent Shogunate directive to further develop the planet has resulted in Samura assuming control under government contract. Samura has organized the farmers into collectives growing new, genetically engineered rice purchased from Samura's labs in New Tokyo. But the farmers have had difficulty recouping their investment as Synth Foods products have grown more popular among young Kusari.
A terrorist group called the Farmers Alliance was recently formed in reaction to the farming crisis. Attacking Synth Foods transports and bases, and most foreign shipping for that matter, they have become somewhat an embarrassment to the more progressive elements within the Kusari government. It is rumored that most of their funding may be coming from Samura, who has the most to lose from a successful foreign invasion of the Kusari food business.
Diameter: 13,820 km.
Mass: 5.98 x 10e24 kg.
Terrain: Terrestrial
Temperature: -38°C to 40°C
Escape Velocity: 11.99 km/sec
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Aso is a massive gas giant whose rings were once a rich source of gas and polymers for the orbiting Tsushima Depot, but they have since been depleted.
Diameter: 25,412 km
Mass: 11.68 x 10e24 kg
Terrain: N/A
Temperature: N/A
Escape Velocity: 18.02 km/sec
A large gas giant whose ring system provides a scenic backdrop to the orbiting complex of the Yokohama Shipyards, but which otherwise lacks any useful resources.
Diameter: 23,652 km
Mass: 9.02 x 10e24 kg
Terrain: N/A
Temperature: N/A
Escape Velocity: 14.37 km/sec
One of the largest gas giants ever discovered in the Sirius Sector, Fuji's massive gravity well prevents any effective exploitation of its resources. Shinagawa Station, headquarters for Kishiro, orbits the planet at a safe distance but within sight of its magnificent rings.
Diameter: 31,121 km
Mass: 14.02 x 10e24 kg
Terrain: N/A
Temperature: N/A
Escape Velocity: 24.26 km/sec
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Junyo is almost entirely covered by a deep ocean that remains liquid across the planet's entire surface due to the young, hot, Shikoku sun. While initially dismissed as infeasible for further development, the impending collapse of fisheries throughout Kusari in 630 A.S. motivated the government to begin terraforming the planet using recently discovered alien organisms in order to jump-start the nascent ecology. Within 50 years, the planetary environment had been sufficiently altered to begin wide-scale production of luxury seafoods under the administration of Samura, a company that refuses to concede the market to the competing Liberty firm of Synth Foods.
Diameter: 5,280 km.
Mass: 3.89 x 10e24 kg.
Terrain: Water
Temperature: 4°C to 46°C
Escape Velocity: 8.83 km/sec
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A small moon composed of little more than dirty methane ice around a rock core. The potentially dangerous methane pockets have discouraged any development.
Diameter: 4,458 km
Mass: 2.43 x 10e24 kg
Terrain: Ice
Temperature: -72°C to -54°C
Escape Velocity: 3.98 km/sec
The gas giant Seto consists primarily of hydrogen. Its striking orange color and location astride the primary Liberty-Kusari trade route make it a memorable landmark. Its only moon, Junyo, is the sole habitable planet within the Shikoku system.
Diameter: 25,412 km
Mass: 13.04 x 1024 kg
Terrain: N/A
Temperature: N/A
Escape Velocity: 18.02 km/sec
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