Quest Dead Belters: A True Tale of the Gasping Frontier

[DorianRaker]

You are alone out here.​

But that’s the way we like it. Out here in the Dead Belt, surrounded by the carcasses of space-faring history ripe for plunder and picking, another heartbeat means enough time for someone else to give your justly prised and prized salvage the old hairy eyeball. That means trouble, and there’s enough of that out here as is.

Not everyone’s got the temperament to be a Belter. Plenty of folks crack when the grav cuts and the lights go off. Plenty more jump at shadows when their flash starts to flicker. Others are too busy watching their O2 to see opportunities. Some folks just don’t have the know-how to rig a three-channel override through the primary induction boot shroud to get to the juicy payday underneath. But that isn’t you. If you can only rely on your gear, your smarts, and your grit, you’re going to make a stack of cred out here among these hulks.

Or you’re going to die trying.

Either way, you’re going to do it alone. No one’s coming looking. No one knows you’re here.

 

[DorianRaker]

You are a Belter.

You are twenty-three, athletic, and smart.

You have been picking the bones of the wrecks of the Dead Belt for about six months, which might as well be a lifetime in this profession. You're deep in debt, but you own your own ship and all of the handy tools of your trade, and that's not nothing.

Nothing has been your run of luck for the last couple of weeks. Nothing but bones and stripped birds as far as the eye can see. Your scanner's been on the blink, and it seems that you can't catch a break. Every bird you cast your eyes over shows the marks of other Belters who've already come and gone. The bills are coming due.

But you got a good feeling about this one.

You pushed out past the tideline, and the supermassive blackhole, SAG-A, is glaring down through the polarized viewscreen like the edge of all perdition. Still far enough away that you ain't about to get et, but close enough to make you wonder. Makes sense that the freighter here doesn't show any obvious signs of tampering from a cursory inspection. Out here, you'd have to be desperate to push this far toward SAG-A.

You really need a win here.

Do you:
[1]---- Run a broadpass scan over this old hulk, maybe see if there's anything worth knowing
[2]---- Take stock of your gear and decide whether you've even got the stuff necessary to tackle a bird of this size
[3]---- Initiate the Belter Prybar hatch and begin boarding protocol
[4]---- Turn back and see if there ain't easier pickings elsewhere

 

[DorianRaker]

Don't all y'all key up that mic button at once, now...