Operation: DUSTGRAVE
Stavros agrees, apologizing for not filling you in on Port Conroy (his mental state hasn't been the best, and he had expected the Grande's crew to fill you in).
The city of Port Conroy is split into three main sections: Lower Conroy, Upper Conroy, and the Surface.
Bustling and sprawling, Lower Conroy is dug deep into Havelburg’s bedrock. Vast subterranean chambers and corridors, streets, and even parks, are all constantly illuminated by pale floodlight suns installed in the ceilings. Administered and supervised by IPS-N, Lower Conroy is undoubtedly the safest, cleanest, and most environmentally secure place on Havelburg since the Disaster. Even so, it doesn’t hold a candle to the amenities and services available in the heart of Union space. Connected to the various launch and landing pads on the surface via ultrafast elevators, it has become a maze of corridors and hallways. Once a glorified compound for warehouses, manufacturing plants, and smelters, it has evolved into a city with over three million inhabitants. Most people whose settlements became dustgraves found refuge in Lower Conroy’s cavernous halls, quadrupling the city’s population in just a few years after dustfall became commonplace. While this transitional period posed many problems, the people of Havelburg showed remarkable unity in the face of a crisis. This, coupled with generous IPS-N funding and material support, has stabilized the situation for the population.
Upper Conroy is Lower Conroy’s opposite. Built close to and on the surface of the planet, it lacks the environmental protection needed to withstand the near-constant dustfall. While some people still live here, they are few and far between and usually have their own reasons for doing so – often tied to the fact that law enforcement has long since abandoned the upper layers of the city, leaving a vacuum filled by gangs and criminals. Not quite a dustgrave, the oppressive external environment nevertheless makes itself known throughout the upper levels. Going outside without a breathing apparatus is all but impossible and streets are often blocked off by dunes of dust, constantly reshaping the layout of Upper Conroy. Having fallen into disrepair over the past decade, most elevator shafts connecting the upper levels have long since broken down. They can still be accessed via various maintenance shafts and hatches which, while nominally locked and sealed, are too numerous to permanently secure. While the buildings of Upper Conroy are slowly crumbling under ever-growing amounts of dust, it has become home to Port Conroy’s criminal “Upper underworld”. This is partly due to its proximity to the surface-level spaceport, its landing and launch pads just above Upper Conroy, as well as its de facto status as a lawless zone. This has encouraged smugglers to offload their merchandise here, where it is either stored to be picked up by different ships or distributed directly and discreetly throughout the city. If you’re looking for anything illicit on Havelburg, chances are you can probably find it in Upper Conroy.
The Surface is just that – those external parts of Port Conroy originally designed as a spaceport. Landing and launchpads stretch on for miles over an enormous flat plane constantly patrolled by blow drones, their large frames outfitted with oversized fans, perpetually working to clear the spaceport of any dust that might impede the constant stellar traffic. While this ensures that the flow of ships is never disrupted, it also compounds the problems of Upper Conroy, which receives the runoff cleared from the spaceport premises. With ships and freighters coming and going every day, Port Conroy has, despite the hardships of recent years, maintained its status as an important economic asset for IPS-N’s mining branch. Overseen directly by the PCPA, the spaceport is technically a different jurisdiction to Lower Conroy and is often seen as somewhat stricter. In addition to providing law enforcement, the PCPA governs all traffic to and from orbit, as well as the convoys that bring resources from all over the planet. If Port Conroy is the heart of Havelburg, its surface-level facilities and the PCPA are what make it beat in the first place.
Locations (That you/Stavros would know about) by District:
Lower:
Garfields - : Interplanetary chain restaurant pretending not to be. Mainly known for its variety of fusion pasta dishes. This franchise is owned by Juan Tismon, who was a miner and prospector in a previous life.
Upper:
Dustmarket - Gray- and black-market bazaar. Vendors wrap themselves in flimsy enviro-tents to protect themselves and their wares from the near constant dust showers. Almost anything can be found here, including milspec gear.
Outskirts - The dilapidated outskirts of Upper are in even worse shape than the rest of it due to greater exposure to the environment.
Surface:
The Tower - The Tower: Headquarters of the PCPA; the nerve center of Port Conroy’s vast surface spaceport.
Dynast’s Embrace - The ship that was supposed to accompany the Rio Grande off Havelburg, currently stranded on its launchpad after the abduction of its NHP.
Creighton’s Printshop - : Extensive printing facility, usually used in the repair of ships; it offers its services to private individuals as well. Does some shady business right under the PCPA’s nose, supplying Upper Conroy with whatever printed parts they require to keep their machinery operational.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:18, Wed 27 Mar.