The Free Port of Pogue
Created By: Jay P Hailey (Shamelessly ripped off from
the WYNN of SFB)
Appearance: Mentioned in the STB-600 game
Number of Members: About 2 million beings
Nature of Members: Villains, criminals, adventurers and
mercenaries with strong stomachs.
Organization: There is no government on Pogue. Bands of
thugs, bandits and pirates follow a random selection of strong war
leaders until they, or their leaders are killed.
Game Role: A location for play.
World Role: A hive of scum of Villainy protected by
massive terrain Advantages
Economy: The Economy of Pogue is one of harshness and
misery with high technology thrown in. A brutal world, slaves are
worked to death in plantations and mines to support the rest of the
population. The main pillar of the Economy is theft and piracy. This
brings in all the funds that the Pogues have to build their planet
with. Pogue has connections to black markets all over the region, and
funnels stolen good off planet.
Pogue also has a small but
hard core tourist industry composed mainly of spies who routes into
their target nations, intelligence operatives trying to find a way to
shut the place down. mercenaries looking for work, and most of all,
thugs, bandits and pirates looking for berths and victims.
Public or Secret?: Both
Publicly Stated Goal: The strong survive, the weak don't.
this makes the weak easier to loot.
Relative Wealth: Small, Pogue could never withstand other
Kogari powers without the nebula to provide leverage. They get by on
stealing and agriculture with minors in ship building and other
technological activities.
Group advantages: Anything can be bought on Pogue for the
right amount of money. Got a few billion credits? An enterprising
operator can and will steal you a Mongo, Kaladoran or Mizerti warship.
(Expect all the technology to be thoroughly investigated when you take
delivery)
Pogue has the highest
per-capita average of combat skill of any planet outside of the Klingon
Empire. Blood-soaked and evil but *competent* warriors are always
available there and for surprisingly cheap rates.
Special Abilities: The Nebula: The Pogue Nebula is
energized by a powerful black hole at its center. This black hole
charges up the gas of the nebula creating powerfully negative effects
on the ships entering the nebula. After a few days it's possible to
adapt a ship to existence in the nebula, but in the early going, a ship
entering the nebula is very vulnerable.
Some of the effects include -
Shields are weakened massively on large ships. smaller ships (Fighters,
shuttles and missiles) quickly loose all protection and are destroyed.
Sensors are all but useless,
weapons lock-ons don't work.
Heading control is difficult
at best, holding a course is a much more approximate situation. holding
close formations is all but impossible.
Navigation is severely
hampered and warp drive becomes slower and more difficult until near
the center of the nebula, it's impossible.
Since Pogue ships have had
the time necessary to adapt, they suffer these effects much less - they
can navigate and get partial weapons lock. And this is all they need to
really stick it to much larger fleets attacking through the nebula.
Group disadvantages: Because of its reputation as a
galactic hive of scum and villainy, no one sane wants to list it as a
home address. Being from or around Pogue tends to draw hostility and
violent responses. Just visiting the place is good for a long session
with the police and military investigators.
Special disadvantages: The Pogue nebula which is a mass of
exotic particles, charged with exotic energy and exotic radiations is
not a terribly healthy environment. Ships and people exposed for long
durations may well suffer more long term wear.
Relations:
The UFP - The UFP opposes Pogue raiding
and depredations on principle, but can't mount any serious campaign
against them, the UFP has made it known they're up to support a
coalition attack but repeated failures in the nebula prevent any
serious thought of taking down Pogue for now. Pogue Raiders are
attacked aggressively when spotted
Pogue, like Akbara sees a
certain amount of "Black" traffic from the UFP, black marketers, the
corrupt and spies.
Miatra - Miatra has more of a relationship
and more hostility with Akbara, but they oppose Pogue on principle and
from minor losses of their own. At least one Miatran task force, sent
out in a fit of arrogance and self assurance was cut to pieces of the
Pogue Nebula. Miatra strongly supports other forces against Pogue but
isn't very comfortable making a more in depth coalition with it's
rivals for power.
Kalador - Kalador is the chief victim of
Poguish depredations and it's chief opponent in battle. Kaladoran units
when they catch Poguish raiders outside of the nebula almost always
triumph in their encounters, but Poguish raiders are slippery and hard
to catch outside of the nebula. if the Kaladorans found it the only way
to end Pogue's reign of terror, they'd launch planet busters and leave
an asteroid field behind. Interestingly enough, they'd get more support
for this than outright conquest, since adding Pogue people, resources
and defensive advantage to Kalador would just make then that much hard
for Mizert or Miatra to catch up to.
Mizert - Mizert dislikes Pogue with
matter-of-fact brutality and shows little mercy to Poguish raiders when
they are caught. Mizert sees them mainly as test cases for new sensor
rigs, using advanced sensor platforms to run down hapless raiders.
Mizert also sees the Pogue nebula as a technical challenge, always
scouting it and trying to track down the effects of the nebula and how
to protect equipment against them. this hasn't been very successful
before.
Mizert units often join the
Anti-piracy patrols of other nations, mainly to hear pirates scream and
to get signit on the units of other militaries.
The Realm of Ko'ot - Ko'ot maintains
anti-piracy patrols but doesn't suffer piracy as much, because they
have little that Pirates can't get closer. they do suffer as pirates
occasionally realize that Ko'ot isn't as stimulated to be earnest in
their Anti-piracy work.
The Ko'ot military often
cooperates with the militaries of other nations in anti-piracy patrols.
The Principalities of Anzon - Anzon forces
and mercenary units are often recruited to beef up anti-piracy patrols.
Down on their luck and desperate Anzons migrate to Pogue looking for a
berth on a Pirate. occasionally Anzon shipping is his by pirates
operating out of Pogue.
Akbara - The Akbaran considers Pogue a
terrible warning of the end result of life without the One True Faith.
Barbarians and Psychopaths live among Corruption, violence, debauchery,
humiliation, every type of vice known to the mind of sentient creatures
and some new inventions and these are Pogue's GOOD points. Meanwhile
Pogues think of the Akbarans as a pack of hypocritical,
holier-than-thou jerks who need to get laid and loose the gay-ass
yellow uniforms.
Sweet talking aside Akbara
and Pogue are each others biggest trading partners and their only
source of support in the whole universe, it seems so while they sneer,
they also work together and show no sign of stopping.
Akbara is the only place from
which one can catch a commercial flight to Pogue on a reasonably
consistent basis.
The Free Republic of Zolan - The Free
Republic of Zolan has little contact with Pogue although some raids are
reported in Zolan Territory. Zolan opposes Slavery on principle, and
supports anti-Pogue campaigns.
The Mining Guild of Porniqt - Pogue and
Akbara are the reason why Porniqt hires mercenaries and privateers.
Porniqt also pays heavily for the Anti-Piracy patrols of the Kogari
powers. Unlike Kalador, who'd destroy the planet and loose it's
resources and people only if there was no other way, Porniqt would
prefer to use planet crackers mainly out of spite.
Mongo - Mongo, who's people suffered at the
hands of Pogues who squeezed their supply lines, continued aggressive
anti-piracy patrols, but have not mounted any attempt to test the
nebula. Ming knows his limitations and knows that Pogue will fall to
him in time, if he focuses on the first things, first.
Ix!tor - The Ix!tor are common visitors to
Pogue, although they take some pains to hide this. they are customers
of Pogues ship building industry and a good market for slaves. Near
Ix!Tor itself, Pogues are greeted with hot weapons and demands to stand
down. Neither side has any illusions about the other.
Tanak - The Pogues love Tanak, landing there
with some impunity and raiding the place almost at will. Tanak sucks
for the average Tanaki but Pogue one of the few places that sucks
worse. Interestingly if Tanak can round up a ship and a crew to make
the trip, Pogue will cheerfully sell them all the weapons and
technology they can afford.
Bykaler - Pogue has little awareness of
Bykaler, let alone any relationship. Like the rest of the UFP they
disapprove of piracy on principle and support the UFP's attempts to
wipe it out. Bykalers work out their violent tendencies and warrior
nature on Pirates.
Haven - Haven reacts violently to raiders
from Pogue and attacks with hostility. they have lost task forces of
their own in the Pogue nebula. Disgraced or exiled Bykalers can find
work on Pogue as leg breakers. And Ripper-offers. And Eaters.
Havenite and Bykaler Bykalers
engaged in life or death combat will drop it and cooperate to take down
these miserable specimens, so their life expectancy isn't long.
Even so, Some of the cruel,
miserable dishonored Bykaler are actually haven agents, working to gain
information and goods for their home land.
Vargr - A few Vargr traders and Raiders have
visited Pogue and done business there. Many more have come to grief at
the hands of Pogue Raiders. Vargr mercenaries are very agreeable to
being hired on anti-Raider patrols near Pogue and Akbara. Vargr raiders
who visit Pogue are not above selling information they get from the
planet to outside interests.
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Area of Operation: Inside the Pogue nebula. the Kolgari
region
Headquarters Location: Golden City, Pogue, where he who
has the Gold, Makes the rules.
Public Face: A Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy.
Notable Members: Zeena the Pirate Queen -- Zeena
was one of the few recognizable personalities that could be found on
Pogue. As a result she was unpopular. Pogue, and its people prefer that
no light shine on their dark little hole. As a result of that Zeena
vanished one fine day and her compound was hit by several mercenary
bands at once. Scuttlebutt has it that Zeena herself "entertained" the
backers of that little raid and then various parts of her got a guided
tour of the digestive tracts of a number of renegade Bykalers. The
truth? No one that knows is telling. The end result is however, no one
has seen fit to "make a name" for themselves in the 20 years since.
History of the Organization: No one alive knows when Pogue
was first settled. The main city, the port itself, is built over ruins
of previous installations.
There are old records of a
Zarian Imperial Scout ship discovering the planet and inhabitants when
first probing the mysterious nebula. Rebels and bandits quickly
realized they could evade pursuit in the nebula, and it quickly took on
it's current role.
The Planet Pogue itself has a
slightly larger metallic core and slightly higher over all density than
Earth. This means it's magnetic field is correspondingly stronger, and
the provides Natives on the ground with protection from the radiation
and other effects of the Nebula.
Pogue and it's small retinue
of sibling planets orbit a type G3 star that drifted into the nebula
within the last 100,000 years. within the next 3 million years, the
star and it's planets will be separated by the black hole and absorbed
into it. A bad place for real estate development.
The interaction of the nebula
and the magnetic fields of Pogue create huge auroras which light up the
night sky of Pogue. This creates a sort of ever-shifting neon in the
sky which is said to be quite spooky at times.
Culture: The culture of Pogue is brutal for most people.
Slaves taken to Pogue tend to be worked to death in harsh mines or
hydroponic farm plantations, or slaughtered outright in pit fights or
at the whim of some psychopath.
For the average free man or
woman, life isn't a whole lot better. People go armed on Pogue not as a
statement of their freedom but because people who don't risk being
kidnapped into slavery. Neighbors have learned to support each other
but that there are limits to fighting the big pirates.
For the wealthy and powerful
on Pogue life seems almost civilized, they get full services and
security, because they are able to pay for them. However if one doesn't
have a taste for illegal drugs or activities, or hurting helpless
people, the usual wealthy person on Pogue knows someone who does.
And you don't get rich and
powerful on Pogue without doing something unpleasant to somebody
somewhere.
Languages: All common local Galactic languages are spoken
on Pogue.
Military: The Freeport of Pogue depends on mercenary and
pirate ships for their defense. However , these are usually perfectly
adequate.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, places, and
situations are fictional. Any resemblance to persons, places, or
situations living or dead is coincidental.
© Garry Stahl: 1997-2006. Except where other
copyrights apply. All rights reserved, re-print only with permission.
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