A new holy war is brewing on Tartan (GLX-α3) and someone is using this chaos to try and disrupt the peace of larger New België by turning worker robots into killing machines. The New België Onderzoeksbureau has hired De Havikmannen to investigate. Who is the mysterious Wittespin?

[DESIGN] The First Mission: Robots Amok

Sector A10F has had nine violent robot uprisings even in areas where robotic workers had full rights and autonomy. In investigation, the NB Onderzoeksbureau (NBOB, said in English like "Nay-Bobe") has tracked down robot parts recommissioned and rebuilt on GLX-α3.

De Wittespin ["White Spider"] is the target as the saboteur has left the icon of a small white spider on all the modified circuits. One person? A group? It is unknown.

GL = "Galactic Longrange" which was a project to identity stellar systems which had likely candidates for terraforming in 2709. X designates the 10th likely candidate system. α = the first planet in the system. 3 designates a moon or secondary planetoid in rotational lock with the planet.

Therefore, this is the Tenth (X) System of the Galactic Longrange study and the 3rd identified moon of the 1st planet. GL X α 3. α is gas giant of stable rotation. α1 and α2 are both smaller moons. α3 is sizeable (70% Earth Normal Gravity [ENG]) and has numerous metal and mineral deposits.

It is nicknamed "Tartan" and the unique copper alloy on it, Tartanite, is used in autonomous robot design.

GLX-α3 uses non-autonomous drone-bots to mine the Tartanite, though corporate pressure has increased to allow autonomous robots to take over which threatens the livelihood of 10s of thousands of workers. There is also a massive market place in the city of Tartan.

NBOB has enlisted the help of the premiejagers [bounty hunters] De Havikmannen [the hawk men], led by Dr. Willem Havik. Havik comes from a group of hawk-human hybrids once tasked with colonizing planets where personal flight was deemed a boon. He is big and burly, can fly, but refuses to budge from his morals [Doug's Notes: precise morals to be decided].

Havik is joined by Natum Five, a research robot rescued on a previous mission but still a bit trapped by the programming left for its original function as a library research bot used in the CorpWars, and Roos Ellim a quick-to-temper scout who has been cyber-enhanced to track her prey.

Photo by Svetlana Gumerova on Unsplash. Modified by Doug Bolden.

[DESIGN] Five Locations

Five locations gives plenty to build up a few bounce spots without having to have a massive mental overhead. One will be the market and that's a given, the rest I will generate through my Interstellar Bounty Hunter Image Oracle Tool.

  1. Tartan Market {given}: a mash up of old Earth open air markets and high science fiction. Street vendors sell exotic tech along side copper jewelry, clothing, and local foodstuff. De Wittenspin presumably works out of this market based on initial investigations, or at least has connections to it.
  2. {Light Saber + Ruins} The Robot Arena: Decades ago, autonomous robots reclaimed from the CorpWar would fight to "the death," here but worker- and robot-rights groups shut it down. Now a large metal ruin going to verdigris.
  3. {Dripping Vial + Biohazard} Tartan Processing Plant 4: A hulking industrial complex used to process the Tartanite ore. Filled with huge bubbling vats, large crane arms, walkways, and all the sort of stuff a 1990s cartoon would have put inside a chemical plant.
  4. {Starfighter + Eclipse} The Port: Originally used as a launch pad for fighters in the CorpWar, now renovated as the shipping port off-world and also a higher-end resort for tourists interested in seeing the market.
  5. {Strafe + Crosshair} The Ruins of Battle 3013.F: A large fight among starfighter drones and corp soldiers took place 150-years ago, leaving a lot of scrap and waste in what is effectively and open-air graveyard. Mostly left alone by locals though opportunists still scour the area. Prowled by local wildlife.
Photo by Ehud Neuhaus on Unsplash. Modified by Doug Bolden.

[DESIGN] Four People + Two Factions

This is technically (maybe) five people since De Wittespin might be one of these people but also might not be. By the general rules of episodic narrative, they will be likely introduced relatively early though it could be a surprise.

However, for the other four:

  • {Concept: Circuitry, Backstab} {Name: RR 1,3 Kyl + 6,1 yl + 3,6 ain} {Quirk: RR 3,3 Silvered Hair} {Secret: 1,4 Ancient Lineage} >> Kayla Elaine, Robot Engineer who was let go by Tartan Corp, has metallic hair which she claims is cosmetic surgery but actually from her alien heritage. I'll put her at {1-5} >> 4 = The Port. She does repair work at the port now, and is the contact for the crew.
  • {Concept: Starfighter, Receive Money} {Name: RR 1,3 Kyl [heh] + 3,3 Lon + 2,2 us} {Quirk RR: 5,1 Sardonic Chuckle} {Secret RR: 2,6 Cursed Wealth} >> Lon Kylus, Scrap Seller who specializes in reclaimed CorpWar weapons. Laughs rudely at jokes no-one has told. He has gotten hold of some tech that he can't unload (for some reason). Makes sense for him to be at the market. Lon traffics some goods through the port, and Kayla is the contact there.
  • {Concept: Light Sabers, Dripping Tube} {Name: RR 4,3 Lys + 2,3 gan + 4,2 es} {Quirk: RR 6,3 Constant Humming} {Secret: RR 1,3 Broken Vow} >> Laisa Gannes [Gan-nes, pronounced in the Dutch way], Retired Weapons Designer. Hums as they wander around the Ruins of 3103.F. They stay mostly isolated because of some broken vow, but we'll figure that out. Let's say one of the other characters {1-3} >> 3...the one we don't know yet.
  • {Concept: Wolf Trap, Wooden Crate} {Name: RR 1,2 Ker + 1,6 ven + 5,1 ot } {Quirk: Hushed Whispers} {Secret: 6,1 Undercover Spy} >> O.T. Kerven, Hunter of the Tartan Wastes. Locals know him as slightly crazed loner who tracks across the heat of the Tartan Wastes to capture wildlife. In reality, he works for NBOB deep undercover. Laisa was supposed to report if certain items were found but instead, Laisa sold it to Lon who is now stuck with it. O.T. senses something is up, and has been around the old battle arena to stick close to the market.

Now to come up with two factions, very quickly, that represent most of the other people [out of the dozen or so possible other factions:

  • {Receive Money, Ancient Ruins} The Tartan Children: a protest group who was part of the original colonization ship for Tartan and who considers this to be their planet.
  • {Circuitry, Alien Skull} The Kionites: an alien race whose biology is closer to machine than animal. Here on Tartan for the Tartanite. Able to survive in harsher conditions than humans and so colonizing parts of Tartan past the main TFZ [Terraformed Zone]. {for | against} >> against The Tartan Children, leading to increased violence at the edges. Kayla is going to be part Kionites, who can change their genetic structure enough via nanomachines to intermingle with other species.
  • Is Kayla aware? >> 1,1,[4] >> No, But... = She knows she's not purely human but since only her hair seems metallic, she has not realized that she is related to the almost purely metallic Kionites.
from a surreal photo (?) by Annie Spratt via Unsplash+. Modifications by Doug Bolden.

[DESIGN] Finishing Touches

That should be enough for several scenes and to start filling in several details about The Slice at large.

In the late 31st century, the spaceship Vilvoorde brought the original colonists to Tartan. Looking to make it rich off the strange mineral deposits located there despite the harsh conditions outside of the TFZ. The first disaster struck less than 20-years later when the CorpWar spilled over Tartan and two Corporations turned it into a battlefield. The number of survivors from the original colonists were only 40% of the peak population.

While rebuilding from that, the Kionites showed up. Their species has pilgrimages to Tartan every 120-years to feast on what they see has holy metal. Rather than fight the humans, they worked with them. Only the Kionites stayed behind rather than returning to Kion.

Now, a hundred years after that, multiple quasi-corps have been using Tartan to gather materials and several are fiddling behind the scenes to try and take it from the people. The Children of Tartan are a separatist group who wish to claim dominance over the moon. This has caused The Kionites to appeal to New België to have Tartan (in Kionite language, Derschillantri) ceded entirely to their people since it is part of their heritage. The next pilgrimage is soon and Kionian interests are worried that humans might prevent it.

People looking to profit are actually pushing towards this fight.

Is this related to De Wittespin or is De Wittespin merely using the tension to work unheeded? Unknown, at this time.