Belusha

The most famous of the Imperial prison planets, the last destination of many political prisoners. A dismal, cold world.
- Tor Paulos, Empire of Silence

Primarachate: Unknown

Province: Unknown

Known Prefectures:

Unknown

Locations of Interest:

Alma: An oilfield labor camp in the western hemisphere of Belusha. One of the satellite mining outposts scattered across the Ordina Planum.

Deepstone: The hidden subterranean stronghold of the Outborn* reavers beneath the frozen wastes of Belusha. A hive of caverns, corridors, and hangars. A city carved from the stone of the planet and shored with scrap and salvage from centuries of wrecked ships. Primary base of operations for Sachin, the self-styled ruler of the Outborn and Prince of Belusha.

Downwell: The central prison complex of Belusha. Houses the sleepers, long-term convicts, and elite prisoners. Built around the mile-high orbital Tower and illuminated indefinitely by the Emperor's Eyes—orbital mirrors that reflect the sun's light to the surface of the planet. Contains a motor pool, medica, and the primary Martian garrison (over 3,000 troops).

Farside: The most remote and feared of Belusha's prison camps. Lies near the equator and serves as the primary base of operations for manual salvage crews. Surrounded by triple-ringed palisades and watchtowers. Prisoners known as "vultures" pick clean derelict warships in the surrounding scrapyards. Contains a central, command ziggurat, a foundry cube, and a flight control spire. Operates with minimal personnel and rotates shifts infrequently due to limited staff. Once the location of an Outborn attack that famously killed a quarter of the Martian garrison and resulted in the theft of mining equipment and the abduction of dozens of women.

Fort Sab: Martian stronghold on the planet Belusha.

Ordina Planum (Ordered Plain/Flat Land): A vast, frozen upland plateau stretching across western Belusha. Contains Belusha's prison camps, scrap yards, and oilfield labor camps.

Perigee: The closest major labor camp to Downwell on Belusha. Supports pipeline repair and logistics.

Snowhead: A massive industrial camp in Belusha's scrapyard belt. Specializes in salvage, smelting, and scrap processing. Ringed by skeletal factories and great foundries, it is where starships dropped from orbit are melted into ingots. It is considered marginally less deadly than Farside, but only just.

The Tower Station: Also known as the Orbital Lift Tower. The mile-high black citadel anchoring Downwell and connecting Belusha's surface to orbit. Constructed of obsidian-toned metal and glass. Laced with whiskered nanocarbon tethers. Garrisoned by over a thousand Martian troops, plus ship crews and orbital staff. Serves as the planet's primary spaceport and prison intake hub.

*The Outborn are descendants of escaped prisoners, living beyond the reach of Martian control in the frozen tundra and deep wilderness. For generations, they have endured in subterranean caverns, derelict vessels, and fortified hideouts. Some factions, such as the one led by SACHIN, operate as organized paramilitary forces seeking full planetary autonomy.

See here for notable prisoners.

Far below, the world was a place of black and white, of snow and the ebon stone of long-dead volcanism. There was nothing but snow and ice as far as the eye could see—and Lorian could see all the way to the bending of the world and the horizon. Nothing but snow and ice, and the knobby towers of oil rigs where the prisoners labored to extract the petroleum that was the only remaining imprint of the planet’s verdant past. There were mountains in the middle distance, blue and ice-crowned. But it was not to those mountains that his eyes were drawn, or to the towers and stacks of the oil refineries, connected by crawling pipelines like so many arteries.

It was the sky.

Lorian had known, intellectually, about the planet’s mirror grid, had been to planets that possessed a reflector or two of their own. Gododdin, whence the Legions directed much of the defense of the outer colonies, had one such orbital mirror. But Belusha had several. Lorian had counted seventeen in that first glimpse out the window, of them filling a portion of the sky like a second, smaller sun.

It was said the sun never set on Belusha, but for the first time, Lorian realized that much at least was truth.

The Dregs of Empire, Chapter 1: The Prison Planet

And worse, Belusha had no moons to figure by—leastways none visible through that multiply reflected sun. As such, there could be no way to orient oneself without a compass—which the sledge at least possessed—and no way to be certain of one’s location without an uplink to the planet’s mapping service, which it did not. That was by design, was why the crawlers had Martian crews to steer them. Without access to the crawler’s map, any mutineers would be lost.

Lost . . . and dead on the ice.

The Dregs of Empire, Chapter 10: Vultures