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
Salvage/scrapping wrecked ships often done in orbit about Belusha by the Martians themselves. They stripped incoming vessels of weapons and more sensitive materials—electronics, fuel containment, and the like—before passing the hulks down to the surface. These were tendered down from a great height, carried by repulsor buoys the size of castles. Time and again, ships were dropped on the plains to smash and shatter. Then the vultures were sent out, crawling and combing over every deck, every inch of hull, every engine port for precious metals, circuit boards, and anything the space crews might have missed.
Primarachate: Unknown
Province: Unknown
Known Prefectures:
Unknown
Locations of Interest:
-
Alma:
Downwell: The central prison camp;complex homeof 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’splanet. Contains a motor pools,pool, usedmedica, forand the repairprimary ofMartian crawlersgarrison and(over skiffs.3,000 troops).
Farside: prisonThe camp;most homeremote and feared of “vulture”Belusha's crews,prison camps. Lies near the scavengeequater and serves as the primary base of operations for manual salvage crewscrews. whoseSurrounded jobby ittriple-ringed waspalisades 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 scourlimited staff. Once the fieldslocation of an Outborn attack that famously killed a quarter of the Martian garrison and scraperesulted in the wrecks.theft of mining equipment and the abduction of dozens of women.
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: prisonThe camp;closest anothermajor labor camp filledto withDownwell vultureon crewsBelusha. forSupports scavengingpipeline repair and reclamationlogistics.
Snowhead: prisonA camp;massive locationindustrial ofcamp thein planet’Belusha's scrapyard belt. Specializes in salvage, smelting, and scrap processing. Ringed by skeletal factories and great foundries, theit great smeltersis where thestarships bonesdropped offrom ruined shipsorbit are melted down forinto 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.
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
Spoilers ahead, proceed with caution
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Following the events at the Battle of Perfugium, HADRIAN MARLOWE was thrown in the brig of the ISV Tempest for assaulting the EMPEROR WILLIAM XXIII. Though he was sentenced to time on the prison-planet Belusha, Hadrian was broken out as part of a escape plan designed by his friends SIR OLORIN MILTA, TRIBUNE BASSANDER LIN, and LORIAN ARISTEDES. The consequence of this plan meant that Lorian would take Hadrian's place on Belusha and Jadd would secretly (but no-so-secretly) harbor Hadrian and the surviving Dragonslayers as political fugitives.
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Queen Amid Ashes - Chapter 8 The Dregs of Empire - N/APresent
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Queen Amid Ashes - N/A The Dregs of Empire - N/ATales of the Sun Eater & Other Stories
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