Beginnings (IC)
Background:
The Republican criminal justice system is not the most efficient, by design. The system was originally designed to rehabilitate, and while it retains that capacity, it is now used to punish. Because of this there are two kinds of prisons, which would not exist in an efficient system: the labor mine and the penal colony. In the former robots could more efficiently mine in hazardous environments without the need for supervision. In the latter, the cost of transport is rarely worth the effort. In both cases, it would be more efficient to simply execute the prisoners. But the current rulers of the Republic prefer the terror and hopelessness inspired by these two forms of punishment.
Invictus Prison on the toxic mining world of Noricum Prime is a labor mine. It also has facilities for rehabilitation and traditional incarceration, and is designed to handle the full range of penal work. But it is most famous for the mines. It is also the last stop for prisoners bound for the penal colony on Cygnus Omega. Noricum Prime is an arcology world. That is, the population lives in a series of self-contained city/buildings called arcologies, linked together by a network of magnetic levitation train tubes. Invictus Prison is its own arcology with landing pads for the transfer ships.
Noricum Prime is also the sector capitol of the Noricum Sector, a spherical region roughly 50 parsecs in radius in the Scythia Province, the farthest province to the Galactic North-East of Terra Secundus. Scythia Province is on the border with the alien Parthian Empire and the Kingdom of Armenia, and Cygnus Omega is in the Cygnus Sector, the farthest system claimed by the Republic in this direction. In short, Cygnus Omega is as far as you can get from the center of the Republic and still be in the Republic.
Opening Scene: Invictus Prison
A Republican holding cell, Invictus Prison, Noricum Prime. The cell is 20m by 10m, has 10 padded benches and 20 prisoners. The walls are tan, the padding on the benches is orange. The north wall is a force field, on the south wall is a door with no lock or mechanism. All tof these prisoners have been sentenced to a life term on Cygnus Omega, the Prison Planet. The transfer ship was heard landing a few minutes ago outside the south door.
Among the prisoners:
A man of Roman or Achaean descent, fair-skinned, physically fit but not athletic, with short brown hair neatly trimmed, wearing archaic-style eyeglasses.
An alien with the appearance of a bipedal lizard, scales in shades of green and brown, a tail sticks out through a hole in his jumpsuit.
A large human with a short mohawk, tattoos evident at his wrists and neckline, a scar on the right side of his face, powerfully built, tanned skin. Two other men, nearly as large and nasty in attitude, stay close to him.
There is only one woman in the group: Marcia Valeria.
Post an introduction for your character, a physical description, mannerisms, what they are doing, etc. The first prisoner brought to this room arrived about 5 hours ago, the last about 15 minutes ago. Depending on how ling you were here you may know each other. Marcia would have been one of the last, as the only woman in the bunch. The prisoners are of every ethnic and racial combination on Earth today, all wearing orange prison jumpsuits and velcro-tied white sneakers.