EXODUS GREEN

The Fall, while a tragedy, has many stories of heroism, defiance of the odds and perseverance against adversity.

This is not one of those stories.

To tell the story of "EXODUS GREEN", first we must tell of Colony Ships. Similar to the Scum Barge (p. 349 EP) these massive constructs were built to house and move large numbers of people, but were intended to support them for the months or even short years it would take for a mass migration to other planets. Colony Ships in fact served as blueprints for the "lifeboat" barge designs. These massive ships were build in orbital "drydocks" and never intended to land on a surface - or if they did to ever return to space. Several of them were sent to Mars, Venus and many outer system worlds like the Saturnian or Jovian pools. However, as transport technology advanced and the egocasting field opened up, colony ships fell out of vogue, and prior to the Fall several of their designs lay canceled or unfinished as the nations building them had more pressing concerns. However, during the Fall several of these models were dusted off, or hastily completed to serve as transport for refugees off Earth, in the hopes that the long delay of the trip would provide sufficient time for new housing to be built. EXODUS GREEN is one of these ships.

It's original name is unknown. It is known that it was grouped with at least two other sister ships, "EXODUS BLUE" and "EXODUS RED" which did launch from the orbital dock facility in LEO, all ships using quick code names to avoid confusion which may have been caused by complex serial numbers or prior names. Why EXODUS GREEN did not launch is unknown. Local computer systems were fried by some TITAN attack (or preventative measures against), or by later scavengers as a precaution. The Fall conflict may have bled into orbit before EXODUS GREEN could take off, or a stray weapon may have hit something vital. TITAN bio- or nanowarfare may have infected and taken out the populace in such a small space. Or the ship, already outdated may have suffered a critical hardware failure which was beyond the skill of her crew to fix. What is known that all persons aboard EXODUS GREEN, estimated between 10,000-20,000, died.

This would have been a simple footnote in the history of the Fall, except for an interesting turn of events. First, EXODUS GREEN was discovered and began to be explored by a Scavenger team based out of Fresh Kills, who began identifying themselves as the "Re-Green" team. Starting small they expanded after their discovery, and in addition to recovering Earth artifacts to sell also attempted to document the people they found. They recovered Cortical Stacks from the very small number who had them, and looked for other forms of identification. If they could, they would find relatives and inform them, possibly even attempt to dispose of the remains as they would, with unidentifieds being cast respectfully back to Earth in a process known as "sky cremation". This was a minor note in local news circles, which quickly vanished when a pirate gang drove "Re-Green" out. This group identified themselves as the Gadhka-Samada "Tribe", and began to process the ship much quicker for profit, and turned it into a pirate base. They flushed unknown numbers of the dead directly into vacuum with little regard, but only after stripping them of their valuables. From there the "tribe" began to be a bit of a nuisance for flightpaths through the area.

Their nuisance stopped a few years later when some Reclaimers quietly paid mercenaries to flush the pirates out. Faced with real military response, the pirates were outmatched, and many of them suffered the same ignominious fate they had confined the dead to. The reclaimers then got in contact with some remaining members of Re-Green, and very methodically cleared the majority of the dead from the open spaces of the ship, as well as stabilizing some portions damaged in the assault. But, Re-Green now had little interest in the ship itself, having merged with the outfit PastFinders. This is where Firewall steps in.

Using a front organization set up by a pro-reclamation server, Firewall has covertly taken over EXODUS GREN under the guise of small corp dedicated to long-term recovery of Earth but more importantly the clearing and organizing of her orbits. Known as "Kessler Cure", officially this group is using the large ship designed for long-term habitation as a test case for salvaging, and a research base to plot and document other such wrecks and relics in Orbit. Underneath that, Kessler Cure has a long established legend as an organization which assists Reclaimers in reaching the surface of Earth or helping them find orbital bases to scavenge - particularly mapping the Cordon around the Earth. But the real truth is that Kessler and EXODUS GREEN are operated by Firewall. The organization serves as cover for several operatives who monitor Reclaimer operations under a kind of "catch and release" policy - tracking them and their possible cargos so Firewall can intercept anything too dangerous, and even arranging operations to recover assets Firewall is after. EXODUS GREEN itself does something more, however.

Both the ship itself, and many virtual recreations of it have been arranged to be a covert course to teach Firewall Sentinels the basics of clearing derelict habitats. While refurbished to handle a decent population in the hundreds, rarely do more than a few dozen transhumans reside here at any time. This "boot camp" is used to impart basic skills Sentinels operating in the Earth area may need to know, and many of its cleared, interior chambers have been modified to mimic certain environments and scenarios with practical elements. Where practical effects cannot substitute, AR overlays or simulspace replicas can provide. Possible obstacles here cover all manner of traps, TITAN artifacts, servants and weapons, to basic combat tactics vs transhuman opponents; from pirates to professional military. Many Sentinels in the area trying to be operational must pass one or more tests on EXODUS GREEN at some form or another, or are sent there for remedial training after one too many fouled up ops. Other parts of EXODUS GREEN are part of the infrastructure of Kessler Cure (Closely associated with operation CENOTAPH), or even part of their cover. It's not all work over at the ship either, groups of trainees have been known to take simulator weapons and engage in "friendly" matches inside the ships areas, both in free-for-all and classic "team deathmatch" formats. Officially, this is frowned upon by trainers and proxies as it reduces the psychological impact and seriousness they try and cultivate on EXODUS GREEN, but as they say, "all work and no play".