Surviving the Savage Skies: Life in the Asteroid Colonies of Braroclyn

What’s up people of the universe? Welcome to The Halcyon Daze! You might have seen my first little introduction, or you might not have. For those of you who are just getting to meet me, I’m Deno Wynn, star system traveler. We’re out here hitting the star systems and seeing whatever it is we can see. On that note, our first destination is the asteroid colonies of Braroclyn in the Rayon Prime system.

Braroclyn isn’t like most of the planets in the universe. It’s a series of asteroids orbiting the planet Jargun-Ba and the residents are mostly made up of the descendents of the original inhabitants of the planet. I won’t go deep into Jargun-Ba history until we go there, but the short version is the moon Grater crashed into the planet a long time ago and made it almost unlivable. More on that in future blogs.

Braroclynites, as the people here are called, have it pretty harsh compared to what I’m used to seeing. The Black Palace keeps the place under pretty tight control since the asteroid colonies are like a waypoint for the import and export of Jargun-Ba resources. Abyssalite and Chaosium are only found on Jaragun-Ba, as far as anyone knows, and that stuff is precious and expensive. 

Mining teams are recruited from the local population and shipped down to the planet to find the stuff and bring it back up. I saw one of the mining teams returning when I first arrived and they looked roaking haggard (by the by, roaking is one of the local swear words and I totally dig it). Anyway, the teams are made up mostly of these people the Black Palace Military call Nulls. I haven’t been able to suss out what that means yet, but I’ve got my ear to the ground. 

So, the Braroclynites are totally under the thumb of the Black Palace. They’ve got mostly Fargulkian guards here, and those guys straight-up tower over everyone else. Which is kind of a good thing cause you can see them from a ways off.

Most of Braroclyn looks like the slums of any of the cities I’ve seen on my home planet. There are different districts on each of the asteroids for specific things. Everyone lives in the Residential District, goes to school in the Academic District, works in the Commerical District, and so on. Despite that, there’s definitely an underground culture that exists on the asteroids. I’ve been seeing this graffiti on the walls, right? I can’t figure it out yet, but there’s for sure some kind of meaning to them all because they keep showing up all over the place. Same kinds of symbols in different places. And I know they are just tagger signatures because the same symbols show up in different styles and stuff like that. 

Also, the subspace underworld has a big presence here. Most of the Braroclynites are the descendants of Jargun-Ba, but there are people from all over the galaxy here. I’m guessing some come because of the thriving pirate trade and black market and others come because they’re running from trouble on their home planets. I’m not super familiar with the subspace underworld, but I know gang tattoos when I see them. I’m going to dig around and see if anyone is willing to tell me more. I have to kind of play it cool because I’m new here and I ain’t trying to get people stirred up by asking too many questions right off the ship. Might end up finding myself taking a long flight out of a short airlock, if you know what I mean.

Despite the hardships, the poverty, and the constant presence of Black Palace Marshals, the people here are really solid. As soon as I got off the ship a kind soul took me aside and gave me the rundown on what places were safe and how to avoid trouble with the Marshals. She asked me not to name her directly, but I hope she gets a chance to read this so she knows how much it meant to get her help.

Right now, I’m staying at a little hostel nestled inside an abandoned mall the people call The Green Rabbit. The place used to be entirely empty, but people have started to move in and make something for themselves. Sure, they have to pay the Marshals to look the other way, but other than that it’s the closest thing to private property I’ve found so far. 

The Brarcolynites, as well as the transient population that moves through the asteroid colonies, are good people in a bad spot. Many of them want to return to Jargun-Ba and reclaim the planet as their own. But when the moon crashed into the planet it created this stuff they call cyanochaos vapor, and its rough stuff. The vapor causes all sorts of problems if you inhale it, the biggest among them is rapid mutations of your mind and body. There’s a small group of people called Nulls that don’t seem to be affected by it, but everyone else is one bad breath away from becoming a homicidal mutant freak called a cyanovore. The Black Palace could probably build a city to keep it out, but they only invest in these small mining camps where they send teams of Nulls and Fargulkian guards in protective suits to mine for chaosium and abysallite. When the Itarian Empire liberated the planet a couple of cycles ago they tried to ship the refugees to other planets. Problem was, the other systems didn’t want them and the refugees didn’t want to leave. They still love their planet, and they hope to move back someday.

So here they stay, orbiting the planet they call home but can’t live on while scrapping by on whatever living they can make on the asteroid colonies. All the while looking down on Jargun-Ba, waiting for the day they can return and bring their planet back to how it was.

It’s really kind of inspiring, and it makes me take a second look at my home planet. I never saw my home as anything more than something to escape from. Even then, I always knew it was there and I guess I take that for granted. How would I feel if something was keeping me from going home, forever? The fact that these people still hold onto hope after centuries is a kind of generational goal that I can get behind. Hopefully, someday, they can go back home.

Anyway, that’s enough daydreaming. I’ve got a lot more to see while I’m here, and hopefully, some good stories to tell. Snapshot of the future, I met someone in a local bar who runs their own pirate crew. Seriously on the hush-hush, but I’m going to take a run at him and see if he’ll let me see what that life is all about. I’m going to have to buy him a lot more drinks though (Fun fact: They have a drink here called a Grater Hammer that gets you wild!).

That’s all for today. I’ve got places to see and people to talk to. Stay tuned for the next installment of The Halcyon Daze. Until next time, keep your eyes on the stars and your dreams in the forefront. 

Deno Wynn