The ever moving cities

Moving cities are a common thing on the red planet, entire cities who can move on every moment. The people who inhabit these cities are called “roamers” by the settlers. The roamers travel across the entire red planet in search of new resources and new lands to inhabit. The largest of these cities house hundreds of people and exists of dozens of vehicles ranging from bikes and quads to cabs and trucks.

Many of these vehicles are scavenged from the great dumps outside the Imperial cities. However parts and fuel are scarce and there for expensive, many of the roamers are experienced metalworkers. Because of the scarcity of fuel many of the vehicles from the ever moving cities are fueled with alternative energy sources such as wind, solar power, …

The roamers are a mix of different races and ethnic groups but with one common will: the will to travel. But the life of the roamer communities is harsh, constant threats from creatures of the wasteland, other scum, shortages of water and food. The lack of food and water is a constant threat for the roamers who are not able to grow enough food for their entire convoys and are obliged to trade with other colonies and cities.

However some clever roamers have invented a new type of roamer vehicle: moving farms. These vehicles can have all sizes but have sometimes the size of 2 trucks! These vehicles are filled with earth on which crops can grow and which are heavily armed. But these moving farms aren’t fast and the traveling time of the convoys has critically increased during the last 5 years. With the heavy vehicles slowing down the convoy and the amount of food on these vehicles. Because of these reasons, farms are often the first targets of enemies and for that reason they are heavily protected and are always accompanied by several heavily armed trucks and quads.

Many of the other vehicles are lightly build but stowed with huge amounts of material and trading goods. Roamers on bikes and quads are scouting a head of the convoys in search of easy routes and sources of uncontaminated water. These scouts are the eyes and ears of the moving cities moving a head of the convoys they interrogate colonists about criminal activity and new opportunities. The scouts are often armed with scoped rifles, binoculars and radios (often they use pigeons) and are expected to survive 5 days without the support of the convoy.

Because of the constant moving these cities aren’t found on any map and their travelling routes are only know by the scouts and leaders of the convoys.