Ice Station Echo

[darkgreen]

Location: Extreme south, on the outskirts of the Great Ice Cap
Imports: Nearly everything, little local manufacturing
Exports: Massive ice chunks, delivered planet-wide to water-starved locations via modified dropships on parabolic trajectories; limited rare ores

Ice Station Echo (ISE) began as a joint venture between multiple corporations. Differences and warfare have been suppressed to some extent due to the sheer necessity of supplying water to other settlements. Few corporations would want to risk being excluded from ice deliveries if an attempt to take over Ice Station Echo were to fail, but regular raids from "unsanctioned extremists" are regularly condemned by the various political factions. The managing director of Ice Station Echo navigates a difficult political path trying to maintain both strength and neutrality in the face of constant warfare among his constituents.

Ice Station Echo was built at the convergence point of several wastage glaciers, glaciers routed upward to dead ends by the pattern of the guiding rocks. This provides a constantly supplied replenishment of ice for farming while also bringing to the surface significant amounts of ore and rock from deep within the ice fields which could not otherwise be mined. Those ores include numerous rare and valuable raw materials.

Most of Ice Station Echo is within a series of metal domes and tunnels, although people and mechs often find reasons to venture outside as well. Radars and drilling machinery needs to be serviced, supplies must be moved, and the occasional rescue operation are all best performed from within the warm safety of a mech. Security patrols are also rigorously observed against the raiders who see the strategic potential of disrupting key ice deliveries to water-starved desert settlements. Outside the station one is presented on clear days with startling vistas of carved ice sheets and sinuous glacier trails. When the weather gets worse the scenery can be little more than blowing snow and one needs to rely on radar and navigation beacons.

(I have a whole bunch of pictures from a trip to Alaska that would be relevant, maybe I'll find a way to upload and link them at some point. Wastage Glaciers rule!)

[darkgreen]

Fun added detail:

What happened to Ice Station Alpha-Delta? Perhaps the ruins are around for part of missions, perhaps they are home to merc bands who want a quiet place to lay low.

Auroral discharge: In addition to cool sky displays perhaps the Auroras have effects on electronics - providing no-use zones for some types of sensors or making it hard to get in Dropships except at pre-placed beacons.

Ice Solitude: who knows what lies out on the immense ice plains

[Agamemnon]

Ice Solitude: who knows what lies out on the immense ice plains

That is the big question isn't it?  hehehe 


Great submission and add-on idea.

[black18]

They should need to providing no-use zones for some types of sensors so that it make it clear. .


_________________
Scotsman Ice Machine

[texmechs]

It has been speculated that before the planet was forced into its current orientation, it was a temperate and diverse world.  Since the northern latitudes are now extremely hot and pointed directly at the sun, what little life survived the cataclysmic change either migrated south or died.  Only the strong survived.

The lower temperatures and near-sunless environment around the southern ice zones are among the few places on K9-WD capable of supporting life these days, and the stark contrast of exisitence has, over the years, promoted genetic adaptation to enhance survival.

In the zone of perpetual twilight, plants and animals cling to a harsh existence.  There are trees and grasses, caves, and crevasses that provide shelter and sustenance to some of the strangest and deadliest forms of life humanity has ever known.

I'd think that regular deliveries of food to my cave were rather convenient.  Quite the opportunity for creatures so curious and hungry... 


Perhaps we don't really want to know what lies on that barren ice shelf after all?  Or maybe there are secrets there we ignore at our peril?  Don't you just hate suspense?