Reft / Old Islands / 2225

This a wet, mountainous garden world. Most of the land in the most habitable regions of the planet consists of rugged, mountainous islands which are difficult to colonise.

Acadie is ruled from Amondiage, which provides financial support to the colony of Acadie, in turn for full control over its exports, which is mostly from mining.

This is a world which is mostly ocean. There are small island continents with about half the landmass concentrated in a single continent covering the south pole. The northern most tip reaches up to mid-latitudes. Most of the land is rugged mountains, with jungle around the steep coastlines of many of the equatorial islands.

There is single orbital port in geosynchronous orbit that varies between 30° north and south in view of the ground port. There is refuelling, loading and unloading, and shuttles down to the surface. There are some basic hotels, bars and a nightclub, but that is about it.

The low port is type C, at the tip of the southern continent, which is outside the major city of Acadie City. The starport has a lot of support for handling ores coming from the various mining towns around the planet, including the mining settlement of Houillon about 100km to the north on a nearby island.

Rumours that have been heard here recently.

Some for which there is little evidence:

1. The Imperium is secretly providing the rebels with guns in order to overthrow Amondiage. They want to take over control of Amondiage themselves.
2. The miners in the North have found something in the mines that Amondiage is keeping under wraps. The increased security is trying to hide knowledge of this.
3. The Imperium is a lie. It’s a conspiracy put out by the governments in the Islands to keep everyone under control. There is no civilisation outside of the Islands.
4. Somebody has smuggled a nuclear bomb into the Starport, and is threatening to destroy it unless they are paid a lot of money.
5. There is a pirate base located just a parsec from Acadie, hiding out in the depths of space.
6. The rebels are really a front for a child sex ring, and they are diverting illegal funds to pay for shipping kidnapped children off world.

Some which might be true:

1. The rebels have got hold of some new guns over the past few months, apparently they came from an off-world source.
2. Amondiage has been raising taxes to pay for the threatened war with Neubayern. They don’t care about it hitting the living standards of honest Acadien miners.
3. The grav bike battle a few months back was between different offworld factions fighting for control of Acadie, nothing to do with rebels (partly true).
4. Colchis is offering to buy Uranium ore directly from Acadien miners, paying more than the Amondiage government does. The government is refusing to allow this, but some people are trying to smuggle it out.
5. There’s a large bounty out for the heads of the rebel groups being offered by the government. They’re finding it hard to find local people willing to help, so are quietly trying to find offworlders to do their dirty work for them.