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Jul. 20th, 2006 12:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bzarcherOoo.
Heavyminer
In the future, Earth has given up her children to the stars. As they've spread, first through the use of generation ships, then through more practical methods, the demand for more resources has lead to the development of the Heavyminer system. Powerful robotic units the size of a small house, piloted by a Foreman who was either born into a heavy gravity environment, or genetically adapted over a period of several years. Each Heavyminer acts as a mining and ore processing system that can work to harvest needed minerals from planets that would be too difficult to exploit by conventional means.
Operating in groups of three called "Shifts", Heavyminers will spend up to a year working a mining Claim on a planet, with a Ferryman periodically descending from their base ship in orbit to take up their haul. A fairly rough (and easily abandonable) shelter serves as a home base for the Foremen, usually sunk below the surface to protect from atmopsheric storms or other disturbances. Once the Claim has been worked long enough (until the ship has been filled with valuable ores, compounds, liquids, gases, or a contracted amount reached), the Foremen pull up stakes, the Ferryman lifts ship with them aboard, and they usually get stinking rich from selling off (until they spend it back out on better equipment, baubles, drink, etx).
A Shift and their Ferrymen are usually a very tight knit group, and it's not unusual for them to be a legal corporation, if not simply a large extended family (by marraige or other arrangement).
Unfortunately, as you'd expect, it's not just the work. Claim Jumpers exist, just as they did in the days of the Old West, though now they often use combat craft to hijack the Ferry or even the base ship, or land in Heavyminers of their own, often retrofitted with weaponry in addition to their mining and harvesting gear, and take over.
Some of the nastier tactics include blasting the Shift's base camp while they sleep, burying them in the ground of their Claim.
Because of this, more and more HMs have been equipped with "defensive armaments", but the problem is that if a Shift has a Claim go south on them, Jumping gets to be more and more of an attractive option, especially if they're already armed...
Heavyminer
In the future, Earth has given up her children to the stars. As they've spread, first through the use of generation ships, then through more practical methods, the demand for more resources has lead to the development of the Heavyminer system. Powerful robotic units the size of a small house, piloted by a Foreman who was either born into a heavy gravity environment, or genetically adapted over a period of several years. Each Heavyminer acts as a mining and ore processing system that can work to harvest needed minerals from planets that would be too difficult to exploit by conventional means.
Operating in groups of three called "Shifts", Heavyminers will spend up to a year working a mining Claim on a planet, with a Ferryman periodically descending from their base ship in orbit to take up their haul. A fairly rough (and easily abandonable) shelter serves as a home base for the Foremen, usually sunk below the surface to protect from atmopsheric storms or other disturbances. Once the Claim has been worked long enough (until the ship has been filled with valuable ores, compounds, liquids, gases, or a contracted amount reached), the Foremen pull up stakes, the Ferryman lifts ship with them aboard, and they usually get stinking rich from selling off (until they spend it back out on better equipment, baubles, drink, etx).
A Shift and their Ferrymen are usually a very tight knit group, and it's not unusual for them to be a legal corporation, if not simply a large extended family (by marraige or other arrangement).
Unfortunately, as you'd expect, it's not just the work. Claim Jumpers exist, just as they did in the days of the Old West, though now they often use combat craft to hijack the Ferry or even the base ship, or land in Heavyminers of their own, often retrofitted with weaponry in addition to their mining and harvesting gear, and take over.
Some of the nastier tactics include blasting the Shift's base camp while they sleep, burying them in the ground of their Claim.
Because of this, more and more HMs have been equipped with "defensive armaments", but the problem is that if a Shift has a Claim go south on them, Jumping gets to be more and more of an attractive option, especially if they're already armed...
