The Imperial city of Relic

The city of Relic is one of the larger cities to be found on the planet, the city was founded in 2218 by hundreds of settlers. These settlers were mostly farmers and other artisans from the planets of Antar, Maijpoor and Twinsun but life for these settlers wasn’t so hard as for the hundreds of other newly arrived colonists. Greats parts of the city were prefabricated on the industrial planets of the New Terra Forma and shipped to the red planets by convoys of hired cargo ships and accompanied by several cruisers of the serpent-class.

Arrived on the planet, the cargo liners dropped the prefabricated houses, bars and even entire industry zones onto the planet’s surface. On the other hand the warships and their crew were building the city’s defense systems, a network of trenches, walls and turrets. When this fleet left during the year of 2217, they left an entire city ready to be inhabited and a small police and military force equipped with the latest weapon technologies.

With the arrival of convoy B, the city was quickly inhabited by 441 colonists. Protected by the military force and the state of the art defense perimeters, gangs and mutants were unlikely to be able to breach the perimeters. And so the city boomed, hundreds of new authorized citizens were arriving and were friendly welcomed into the city’s inner walls. But with the boom, hundreds of unauthorized settlers were also arriving. These settlers were unable to obtain a Imperial Entry Card were not allowed within the city and were stranded outside the walls. With no future and all of their money invested in the journey toward the city. They decided to built their houses outside Relic and so the great shanties were founded, these shanties were quickly expanding because of a shortage of IEC’s. Prices of these IEC’s were raising on the black markets some of those for the second department were sold for Ω 5000 a piece!

Most of these shanties are controlled by gangs of mutants and criminals but some parts are managed by the inhabitants themselves divided in 5 militias. They control their homes and shops but gangs are luring and always on the lookout to breach their defenses.

However the city of Relic was originally built for 5000 inhabitants, the total number of them in 2222 was 6742. The 5 city parts were overcrowded and were becoming too unhygienic and dangerous to live in.

Department 1: colonists from Maijpoor mainly artisans and farmers.

Department 2: colonists from Twinsun and Antar mainly farmers.

Department 3: colonists from Earth mainly merchants.

Department 4: colonists from Ryo Grande and Ishtar mainly factory workers.

Department 5: the city’s governmental district

Department 6: colonists from Thribb, Trafalmadore, Melmac and Troas.

So Relic’s council decided to build a new city part, this new part would contain 3500 homes and would also be the most defended part of the city. In case of any breached the entire population could fled into this citadel. The new part of the city was finished in 2225 and was called department 6. The new population in 2225 was 15 000 inhabitants with this number reached no new colonists were allowed. The estimated population of the great shanties was 35 000!

In 2225 civil unrests rose because of new and harder measures against the shanties, hundreds of shanty-houses were destroyed in order to build a new spaceport. With this news reaching the 5 militias and their families, the militias decided to ask the gangs of mutants and criminals for armistice.

The mutants and criminals agreed and were allowed to sack the city parts 3, 4 and 5 when the city’s walls were breached. Preparations were made, Some engineers from Holmgard housed in the shanties were building a large bore machine, able to drill through 15 meters of armed concrete! Militiamen were building thousands of small computerized anti-air craft guns and were buying large amounts of weapons and ammo from alien dealers. Gangs and other criminals were gathering scum from across to galaxy to storm Relic.

A week later the anti-air craft emplacements were put into action, no spaceship could enter Relic and his spaceport without severe damage. Large numbers of cargo liners and troop transporters were lost, stocks of food and many other needed materials were dwindling. The police and military force were unable to protect the city on their own. So a Relic militia was formed, each of the 5 colonist departments must recruit 450 men.

The attack followed soon but was a big disaster for the shanty town forces, in their first attempt hundreds of them died due to mines and precise machinegun emplacements. In the second and largest attack the giant bore machine was unable to breach the city’s wall and hundreds of men were killed, thousands were wounded and mutilated. In last desperate attack, militiamen were able to reach the walls and plant a flag onto one of the guard towers but luck was short lived, a fierce counterattack forced the brave 82 men to retreat.

The city of Relic survived the initial attack but more would follow soon, hundreds of new unauthorized colonists were arriving in the shanties each day.