Difference between revisions of "77 Frigga"

Revision as of 14:29, 25 June 2013

77 Frigga (or "1936 SP" in older databases) was home to the New-Birmingham asteroid mine, which operated from mid-2010 until the end of 2016. Operated by Jacob Pinkard, and home to the eponymous mining company, the mine was initially successful, the boom-town of New-Birmingham growing in the original working tunnels just beneath the surface to provide for the mine workers and their families. However inefficient mining practices mixed with outdated equipment, falling prices, accelerated competition and the increasing cost of material extraction once the easy deposits had been exhausted, led to the mine falling into debt by early 2016. Creditors called in their debts and the New-Birmingham mine was forced into receivership with most of the assets being sold off in a fire sale.

The mine itself was written off as no-longer economically viable. While there are still gigatonnes of ore, most of it is too difficult and expensive to extract and refine with 2015 technolgy. Frigga would likely have been abandoned if it hadn’t been bought up by Jet Jaguar and Ford Sierra.^[1]

Publicly, they bought the defunct mine with a view to Jet establishing a Martial Arts training school in the former accommodation block, while Ford could establish her own workshop beneath. Secretly, Jet also bought the rock to serve as a covert base for her planned group, the Knight Sabers. Jet and Ford took out a large joint loan with the Bank of Sol in order to pay for Frigga, securing the loan on the asteroid itself.

To pay back the majority of the loan while steadily outfitting the asteroid, they both took up contract work with the Roughriders. Working at weekends and on their time off, it took nearly three years to outfit the accommodation block and build the SilkyDoll inside the old ore-separation plant.

With the mine workings mapped, the pair established the Survival Shot combat simulation centre inside the former mine.

Jet and Ford live in the former mayor’s residence, a traditional American wood-panel two-story house at the center of a rough lawn that seems to forever need mowing under a creaking pressure dome. The original Highway Star lives here on display. Visitors are asked to call ahead to make sure it isn’t making an appearance at another event. The accommodation block beneath is very sparse, with only a few of the apartments containing any sort of furnishing. There’s a large gymnasium which Jet uses as a training centre and some facilities for Survival Shot customers including a café and a briefing room. Customers can stay if they like/need. Long term students generally live on site while studying.

Frigga itself is nearly 70 kilomtres long and many sections are isolated from each other by 10 kilometres of tunnel or more, with the mine workings being dug through the areas where the ore was purest. The old ore lifts have been re-activated to transport guests while the service tunnels are used when speed is of the essence. The workshop levels are deep in the asteroid and are connected both to the main landing bay, the mine workings, and on down into the former mine itself. The workshop areas are mostly used to store and repair Survival Shot drones, or for commissioned work. A makeshift shooting range has also been set up down here.

The main landing bay is easily large enough to accommodate a Gagarin-class craft, being built to handle the largest of bulk ore carriers, and features a thousand ton capacity loading crane named BIG BEA and switchable gravity plating to ease loading. It is usually next to useless, with the main door rarely opened. Access is usually through a smaller airlocked door, capable of handling most visiting spacecraft. The personal craft of those who live on Frigga, of students and some guests are tied down in a partitioned area.

An offshoot cavern leads to the KnightWing landing bay and the SilkyDoll. The KnightWing always uses the main door; depressurising the entire bay is the best way to ensure that nobody is left behind watching it launch.

Frigga played host to Motorcon in September 2023. The event became notorious when Mackie Jaguars Griffon's throttle stuck wide open.

Most of Frigga however, remained empty and unused until those living there voted to join the Crystal Millennium in December 2023 in an effort to bring life to the settlement. The local peerage was left vacant as nobody wanted the political trouble the position came with, the position only finally being filled by the loser of the Game of Thrones boardgame. The position holds no effective power, yet carries the blame for each and every incident at disaster that befalls Frigga. And a nice hat.

Blitzkrieg Training School

Jet’s original plan was to establish a training school to teach her own personal variant of Panzer Kunst, named Blitzkrieg. Blitzkrieg Panzer Kunst emphasises speed and hard-hitting assaults. At any one time, there will be one or two dedicated students, and Jet actively bids for contracts to train troops from reputable factions. The mine workings were converted into a practice area for use by the students, which would later become the Survival Shot combat simulation centre.

The school welcomes all students - cybered, armoured or not. Jet teaches both hard combat Panzer Kunst and softer teachings regarding the self and living. Combat training is most effective for cybers or those wearing Stingray-based hardware, but can be universally applied.

Jet asks that students contribute to the general upkeep and maintenance of the asteroid in exchange for their training and that experienced students help with Survival Shot by acting as the opposing force in exercises. This has the added benefit of acting as further practical training for them.

Survival Shot

Survival Shot uses the mine workings for combat exercises, up to and including being one of the few live-fire capable training centres in Fenspace. It began as a side project to pay the bills for the school, and quickly outgrew it.

Simulating the sort of operations Jet once commanded as leader of the Engel Gruppe, the mine is equipped with a modern sensor array, simulated ^[2] point defense weapons and an old Roadrunner in orbit that’s incapable of flight. Survival Shot aims to simulate a number of other environments within the workings and is actively trying to acquire another ship’s hulk for zero-G combat. It is capable of simulating an entire mission, from the approach in through to the final attack and surrender, with TITANIC co-ordinating the exercise.

Anyone can hire Survival Shot out. Fees are charged hourly and are based on damage and gimmicks employed. The training centre is available to reputable groups and teaches both offensive and defensive tactics. They also provide for corporate outings, days-out and the like, allowing customers to take control of the base defenses against an attack, lead their own assault using non-lethal simulated-ammunition weaponry, or even hold versus matches between themselves.

Weapons are provided on-site. External firearms are generally forbidden. Survival Shot offers a range of weaponry, from a standard loadout of a 9mm USP pistol with a Steyr Aug rifle, up to heavier general purpose machine guns, bolt action rifles, 12 gauge shotguns and simulated explosives. Live weapons are also available for certain scenarios.

Blitzkrieg students mixed with modified combat drones are employed as the Friggan OpFor, taking both defensive and offensive roles as the scenario requires.

Jet and Ford regularly bid for training contracts with big factions. For the first few months of its operation, Survival Shot operated at a loss. The Bank of Sol was about to begin foreclosure proceedings when the training centre secured its first big contract with StellviaCorp.

StellviaCorp is known to have run each of its security personnel through Survival Shot exercises at least twice: once as defender and once as attacker. So far, only Security Chief Mishima has successfully completed both exercises - even Noah Scott has failed to attack the facility and "live", although he's defended it successfully three times.

Although Survival Shot aims to replicate the experience of combat, there are still some safety rules that must be obeyed and patrons are expected to understand even simulated combat is a potentially dangerous activity. Even simmunition marking rounds fired through a modified Steyr AUG can still do damage. There is a basic infirmary on site to provide emergency care, more serious cases are rushed to the nearest station.

Catgirl Industries Friggan Factory Complex

Under construction for nearly a year, and opened in August 2023, the Catgirl Industries Factory is located inside a mined-out chamber on the far side of the asteroid from. The site was chosen because it was easier to redevelop, than construct from scratch on virgin rock. The original minworks and the CGI factory are seperated by a 22 kilometre tunnel, containing power cables and a dedicated communications line. A checkpoint prevents Exocomps from mingling.

Otherwise, both facilities remain entirely seperate.

The Friggan Fleet

Like any asteroid settlement, 77 Frigga has a number of local spacecraft, ranging from the personal craft of students and residents, to those used for Survival Shot. The main landing bay has been partitioned, and some of the off-chambers are used for maintenance and repair. While at first glance, surprisingly large, many of the spacecraft are either unused, unfinished, worn out, partly cannibalised, wrecked or just gathering dust with no-one to fly them. It might explain a few things about Frigga's finances.

• Dragon Wagon: Ford's personal truck. Rarely used due to being well worn out. But refuses to die.
• Dragon Wagon II: Outlaw class grappler ship, purchased as replacement for the aging Dragon Wagon.Crashed in February 2024
  
• K.M. Lun: Used for damn near everything from Survival Shot exercises to bounty hunting, to business trips, to a quick holiday out into the wild black yonder.^[3]
• Exxor: Scrap-sold Blackbird hull, retrofitted with basic cockpit, datalogging equipment and fittings and swappable propulsion.
• Don't Say it: Gr-01. Prototype chopper. Only occasionally used for Survival Shot. Deliberately disarmed. Navigation computer 'missing'.
• Stratos: RF-047 Kulbit, Prototype asteroid racing Homologation special.
• Jake & Elwood. Used for Survival Shot exercises, usually in attack/defence roles. Three more planned.
  
• Screamin' Demon: Technically still flyable. Hurricane thrusters cannibalised for one of the Havocs.
• Boxer: Replacement for the Screaming Demon, using a development of the Havoc's technology. A mouldline copy of Kamov Ka-50. Five Ordered for the Frigga Defense Force.
• Silver Arrow: Daryl Haur's Aeritalia F-104. Asteroid racer. Sold to help cover the costs of the 2024 racing season.
• Little Cool Rider: Anika Daini's custom-ordered BAT A-wing.
• Zuikaku: Kotono Ito's personal transport.
  
• SC One-Night: Engineless Boskone hulk moored in orbit because nobody can afford to move or scrap it.
• Fitter-K: Mackie Jaguar's perpetually unfinished Su-22 project. Sold to pay for the Motorcon damages.
• Lightning Rod" The asteroid racer Mackie actually finished, built out of an old Blackbird's Nacelle. Sold to pay for the Motorcon damages.

Only Lun, the Havocs, 'Little Cool Rider' and Boxer see regular use. Zuikaku and Silver Arrow are used occasionally by their owners. Don't Say it never goes far from Frigga. Dragon Wagon is used for occasional towing. Fitter K is missing a powerplant and the Screamin' Demon is next to useless without it's booster engines. The One-Night is just being kept from crashing into Frigga while someone figures out what to do with it. Meanwhile, the equipment ordered for the Frigga Defence Force lies unused and up for sale due the collapse of the plan.

Station Quirks

It was acceptable in the 80’s: Computer displays, interior design, all of it seems to be stolen straight from 1987. After a while, even residents seem compelled to take up the fashion, any hardware they bring seems to follow.

Riding the lightning: Despite Jet’s best efforts, the station’s electrical systems are still a little ‘finicky’. Hungry rats, corrosion and some of Jet’s hacks lead to some... interesting... malfunctions.

This town is looking like a ghost town: The station was equipped to cater for over 100 workers and their families. Nobody can quite put their finger on it, a strange feeling of emptiness or loneliness seems to be cast across the station. The station still ‘feels’ abandoned. Cold drafts blow through empty corridors and distant voices are like the ghosts of previous occupants.

Nobody walks in L.A.: Frigga is huge.... with distances between some parts of the former mine being ten kilometres or more. For guests, the old cargo-lifts are slow but functional, but most who live on Frigga have some motorised way of getting around quickly. Most of them run on petrol and are unwaved.

Crew Quirks

See no Evil... Most residents and students soon become aware that something’s going on when the main bay is depressurised and the owners disappear for several hours, but don’t push the question.

Roll up your sleeves: Anyone living in the station’s quarters is expected to contribute to the physical upkeep of the station.

Frigg’s Day: Friday’s are an official day of rest and relaxation, honouring the Norse Goddess Frigg, from where the asteroid takes it’s name. The seventh of July is an excuse for throwing a major party, especially if it happens to fall on a Friday.

Trivia

Because of the amount of unused living space, excess life-support and a large landing bay, 77 Frigga is a designated emergency evacuation point for a number of nearby settlements.

Notes

1. ↑ After Jet used her puppet body to bluff a rival in the auction room, when Ford discovered he was easily capable of outbidding them.
2. ↑ And real; Frigga was attacked by raiding Zwilniks twice in the first year of operation.
3. ↑ And classified operations