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Nobody's changed amything on the wiki in over two weeks...
Nobody's changed amything on the wiki in over two weeks...
#1
...so let's have a trivia party.

Tell me something about L5 station http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?titl ... he_Rainbow]Over the Rainbow that isn't already known. Anything, no matter how small - pile up enough grains of sand and we'll get a mountain ... or, at least, a small hill.

This shouldn't be too hard: all we do know is "industrial platform partially abandoned mid-build, inhabited by squatters; suspected Boskonian waypoint" - unless there's something on the forum that didn't get ported over. We also have an image:

[Image: 285px-Over_the_Rainbow.png]

(Larger version http://www.fenspace.net/images/e/ec/Ove ... ainbow.png]here.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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#2
I don't know how willing anyone else would be to the idea, but I would be willing to take it over and turn it into Solaris 7 station. Finish the construction and provide for the current squatters some housing either on station or elsewhere for a set amount of time.

One of the things I've wanted for S7 was that it have been a boskone possession at one time that we take back. It could even be the one Wolfboy and Loviatar break out of.
 
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#3
* The original owners of Over the Rainbow were Wasatch Mining & Manufacturing, LLC.
* Wasatch Mining & Manufacturing hoped to build competition to John Henry Station in the large space manufacturing industry.
* Over the Rainbow wasn't the station's original name: it was founded as New Ogden Platform #1.
* As the name might suggest, the plan was to build a series of orbital factories.
* Wasatch Mining & Manufacturing ran out of money when Platform 1 was about 75% completed.
* The company itself vanished in the 2010s; the original owners are believed to have scraped up what was left of the operating capital and vanished into the anonymous masses of Luna or Mars.
* The first squatters were originally construction workers who didn't want to head back down. These people make up the core of the station's New Ogden community.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
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#4
Had the alternative idea

*OTR was planned as a competitor for Stellvia
*OTR Tourism ran out of funding halfway through - tried to go big early, and blew it - so sought investors
*Got desperate, and got funding from someone involved in the Mariposa Network, though they didn't know it at the time
*Some industrial reconstruction begun...
*Investor starts leaning on them to do illegal things, threatening first to pull the money, then do start doing nasty things to family
*Many shipments of construction materials were in fact, thionite shipments, or armaments runs
*One of the OTR directors dies in a 'construction accident' involving an industrial oven.

*Only discovered when some of Naoko Sato's files were decrypted.
*Trouble with dealing with OTR, is it's location in L5 means you have to worry about debris.

*Many of the employees on the Station were unaware of it's true purpose, and are just honest employees.
*OTR tourism collapses on the foot of the revelations.

*Some of the directors and employees arrested.

*Trials ensue. Some found innocent. Others unequivocally guilty.
* In the kerfuffle, Naoko Escapes. Again.

* OTR taken as forefeit by GJ
* A plan to turn OTR into Post-Boskone housing was nixed when it was felt to be easier just to grab some more unreal estate from down below.

* OTR now sits effectively derelict, passing from owner to owner, perpetually unfinished, but aquiring a fringe population of its own anyway, who've effectively taken adverse possession
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#5
I still want it.
 
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#6
"Why wouldn't you!?" The realtor wearing the "Century 24 1/2" blazer said brightly.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll
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#7
Nobody's objected to it being... acquired.

A lot of people who did a 'lot' at the teeth of Great Justice earned a fair chunk of price money. Some may have even invested it sensibly
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#8
I always invest money not immediately needed sensibly, gold market always going up more than it goes down. And when you sell a major aerospace contractor a new engine design that requires only minimal retooling you then buy stock in them and watch it soar.
 
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#9
Hmmmmm...

I'm tempted to pull pieces from both Mal and Dartz's writeups, if only because doing so gives me an idea for Legend of Galactic Girls.

Rajvik, there's no reason OTR can't become Solaris 7 after the Boskone War. The current "writeup" is Season-1 vintage; who knows what happened to it in Season 2?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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#10
Some more bits:

* Nobody's entirely sure where the name Over The Rainbow came from. It just showed up painted on the outer hull one day and it stuck.

* The station is divided up into various communities of squatters, each of whom have control of one or more critical systems.

* To say there's a command of the station is kind of a joke; the balance of power is maintained by the community leaders, who range from democratic to autocratic and everything in between. But as long as each community can fuck over everyone (by shutting down life support, or killing the greenhouses, or putting the station into a collision course with Luna and so on) nobody will mess with that balance.

* Demographics-wise Over The Rainbow's population comes from the poorer parts of Earth, people who just managed to scrape together enough handwavium to build a short-range ship and not much else. Also there's a largeish population of transient refugees fleeing one damn thing or another. Refugees tend to filter through OTR on their way to Luna or Mars (mostly Mars).

* As the years roll on each community aboard OTR has added on to their part of the station, using random debris plus whatever new arrivals bring with them from Earth. The original industrial platform is slowly disappearing under a crust of junk.

* Over The Rainbow is considered a free port (in the Golden Age of Piracy sense, not the more modern 'duty-free shopping' sense) and is the only visible free port in the cislunar volume.

* Like the free ports of yore, smuggling is the major business in OTR. Most of it is narcotics going Earthward, some of it is high-value manufactured goods going spaceward. OTR's bazaar has the best bootlegs. People get transshiped through (see refugees above) but most of that business is closer to legit than anything else moving through OTR.

* Boskone has a presence here - of course they do - but the station isn't under their control. Too many factions aboard for them to subvert effectively, and force of arms would bring the Convention down on them like a ton of bricks.

* Great Justice (and by extension the Convention) watch the movement of good through OTR like hawks, and run more than one sting operation through there. "Cleaning up" the station OTOH is a low-priority operation: the onboard factions keep the peace between themselves just as well as the 'cleaner' stations, and honestly 99% of the people living on OTR aren't doing anything that would demand their arrest and/or removal from the facility.

* There is an undercurrent among the Lagrange unificationists to find OTR a new legal owner and get them to remove the squatters, however. This will likely not end well...
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
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#11
* There is a corridor known as the "Over The Rainbow Drug Culture Holdover Memorial Art Collection". An unknown squatter or squatters managed to paint its entire length with an essentially random collection of pictures ranging from realistic (in both the common and Soviet senses) to abstract to "My god, Lovecraft would adore this!" Even though it is in the middle of (select community), it has come be considered "neutral territory". Intercommunity meetings are sometimes held there, and visiting it is considered justification for entering (community)'s turf uninvited, even for members of opposed communities. (Such guests are escorted to the corridor, and escorted back out, and are allowed to contemplate the Collection unfettered by guards or minders.)
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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#12
I think this gets almost everything folks have suggested. along with tying the description into a few already-established events. Comments, suggestions, additions, deletions, bricks through windows, a better name for "Club Space"?


The station (or, rather, partial station) known as '''''Over the Rainbow'''''Nobody's entirely sure where the name "Over The Rainbow" came from; it just showed up painted on the outer hull one day and it stuck. (or ''OTR'' for short) is considered by many to be the "wrong side of the tracks" of the L5 cluster. This annoys many people, but not to the point where they are willing to actually do something about conditions on the station.

== History ==

Originally designed by Wasatch Mining & Manufacturing, LLC. and called ''New Ogden Platform #1'',First of a planned series of orbital factories. they hoped to build competition to [[John Henry] Station in the large space manufacturing industry. They ran out of money when Platform 1 was about 65% completed, and the company itself vanished in 2011.The station's original owners are believed to have scraped up what was left of the operating capital and vanished into the anonymous masses of Luna or Mars.

What existed of the station was auctioned off by Wasatch's creditors to recoup unpaid debts. It was purchased by Butterfly Entertainment, who renamed it ''Club Space'' and planned to use the station as a competitor for ''[[Stellvia]'' - on paper. In reality, "Butterfly Entertainment" was a front for the Mariposa drug-running cartel, and they used the construction work as cover to move thionite, weapons, and new recruits through the L5 cluster. Many of the employees on the station were honest employees, unaware of its true purpose until somebody in the Mariposa cartel used the station as a forward base for a retaliation attack against ''Stellvia'' during the [[Interdimensional Incursion Incident]. That event blew Butterfly Entertainment's cover; some of the directors and employees were arrested, many of those arrested were found guilty and sentenced to long terms at Azakaban, and the station was taken as forfeit by Great Justice.

A plan to turn the station into Post-Boskone housing was advanced, but dropped when Noah Scott proposed purchasing Unreal Estate from over-built areas on Earth and relocating that throughout the Solar System instead. ''OTR'' has gone up for auction many times in the last decade, passing from owner to owner, perpetually unfinished, but acquiring a fringe population who have effectively taken adverse possession.

== Current Events ==

The station is divided up into various communities of squatters, each of whom have control of one or more critical systems. The station's first squatters were originally Wasatch Mining & Manufacturing construction workers who didn't want to head back down; these people make up the core of the station's "New Ogden" community. Similarly, the core of the "Butterfly" community are honest construction workers hired by the Mariposa cartel, and so on. The population comes from the poorer parts of Earth, people who just managed to scrape together enough handwavium to build a short-range ship and not much else. Also there's a largeish population of transient refugees fleeing one damn thing or another. Refugees tend to filter through ''OTR'' on their way to Mars (or occasionally Luna).

To say there's a command of the station is kind of a joke; the balance of power is maintained by the community leaders, who range from democratic to autocratic and everything in between. But as long as each community has a Sword of Damocles over the others (one can shut down life support, another can kill the greenhouses, a third can put the station into a collision course with Luna, and so on), nobody is willing to upset that balance.

''Over The Rainbow'' is considered a free portin the "Golden Age of Piracy" sense, not the more modern "duty-free shopping" sense - the only visible free port in [[Cislunar Space]. Like the freeports of yore, smuggling is the station's major business. Most of it is narcotics going Earthward, some of it is high-value manufactured goods going spaceward, a bit is goods going in either direction. ''OTR'''s bazaar has the best bootlegs.Including Martian iPods pre-loaded with movies and songs from the [[Whole Fenspace Catalog]. People get transshiped through (and some refugees remain on the station), but most of that business is closer to legit than anything else moving through ''OTR''.

[[Boskone] has a presence here - of course they do - but the station isn't under their control. There are too many factions aboard for them to subvert effectively, and force of arms would bring the Convention down on them like a ton of bricks. [[Great Justice] (and by extension the [[Convention]) watch the movement of good through ''Over the Rainbow'' like hawks, and run more than one sting operation through there. Permanently "cleaning up" the station is a low-priority operation: the onboard factions keep the peace between themselves just as well as the "cleaner" stations do, and 99% of the people living on ''OTR'' aren't doing anything that would demand their arrest and/or removal from the facility.

There is an undercurrent among the Lagrange unificationists to find ''OTR'' a new legal owner and get them to remove the squatters. [[Jon Helscher] and other historical analysts expect this will likely not end well.

== Structure ==

The station was designed by Wasatch as a modified ring structure, popular in the early days of the Convention. As the station has passed from owner to owner to neglect from outside, each community aboard ''OTR'' has added on to their part of the station, using random debris and whatever new arrivals bring with them from Earth. The original industrial platform is slowly disappearing under a crust of junk.

** SIDEBAR ** - The "Over The Rainbow Drug Culture Holdover Memorial Art Collection"

There is a corridor known as the "Over The Rainbow Drug Culture Holdover Memorial Art Collection". An unknown squatter or squatters managed to paint its entire length with an essentially random collection of pictures ranging from realistic (in both the common and Soviet senses) to abstract to "My god, Lovecraft would adore this!" Even though it is in the middle of Butterfly territory, it has come be considered "neutral territory". Intercommunity meetings are sometimes held there, and visiting it is considered justification for entering Butterfly's turf uninvited, even for members of opposed communities. (Such guests are escorted to the corridor, and escorted back out, and are allowed to contemplate the Collection unfettered by guards or minders.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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#13
* Some of the brighter and more forward-looking faction leaders are corresponding with the more competent of Fenspace's many anarchist groups, hoping to make themselves enough of a faction that the Convention can't have Space Patrol go in and 'sanitise' the place.

* Padraig O'Neil tried to buy it once, but decided there's limits to how far even he will go in the name of getting one over Noah Scott.

* Speaking of Noah Scott, a sculpture resembling a hand with an upraised middle finger was welded to the hull in a spot that is guaranteed to point in Stellvia's general direction once every rotation. None of Noah's multitudinous enemies has ever come forward to claim responsibility.

* Some of the Elite fen have occasionally talked about trying to raise the money to buy the place for a faction headquarters, because it vaguely -very vaguely- resembles a space station design from Frontier: Elite II. Tom Rutley, the only Elite fen with a Handwaved replica craft from the franchise, is on the record as thinking this is a bloody silly idea.
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#14
Looks Good to me....
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#15
How many factions are in control of sections of OTR that are extremely important.
 
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#16
Rajvik Wrote:How many factions are in control of sections of OTR that are extremely important.
Enough for plot purposes.

Dartz Wrote:Looks Good to me....
http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?titl ... he_Rainbow]It's up, including JakeGrey's additions.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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#17
Works for me, working on a story for this calling it Operation Roannapur currently 
Edit: gee, a few days and no one has anything to say....i figured there would a comment at least 
 
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#18
Just waiting for the story...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Reply
 
#19
---------------------
"Y'know, Some people wonder how that place really managed to survive for so long. I mean, there's so much that's illegal running through there and so much more that should be illegal running through there that you think by know someone would've bothered to grab the bull by the stones and twisted. Despite the Love and Justice, the Rainbow shines on. Oh sure, The occasional sweep happens when someone crosses the line - the nail that sticks out gets hammered - but so far, the Convention's happy to let Oz be.

Why?

Well, what better way to hide your grey and black operations, then in plain sight? You can't openly declare war on Turnerite colonies and the like without causing a major incident with their mundane backers and friends in high places, but slipping a few guns to a bunch of pirates and letting them do some of the dirty work, now that's an idea. Need some cash off the books to fund a black op? Then funnel the right kind of drugs to the right kind of dealer and you'll get it - and you'll make sure the wrong kind of dealer gets dealt with quick and easy into the bargain.

And What better way to keep it all under control? Because now you've got a whole station full of housebroken villains who know to toe the line to curry the favour of their benefactors, and with a vested interest in making damn sure that the rest of the riff-raff does the same. Each an' everyone one of them knows that if anything happens on their station to attract the attention of the Big Eyes of public opinion, it's all over for them. It wouldn't surprise me if some Three Letter Organisations from down in the dirt had their fingers up a few puppet's asses to boot... The Wicked Witch of West Virgina's got her little monkeys everywhere.

Maybe I'm too cynical. Comes with the territory. I grew up in the Islands around Thailand if you get my drift, and that smell on Oz, well, it reminds me of another town I once knew.....

------------------------------------

Welp... I was watching something last night. The fucking dubbed version....
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#20
Heh. All I get is weekly instalments of the dubbed version. That said the main cast will makea appearances.
 
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#21
......Speaking of the Wiki

I trialled a different format cfor character pages the last few days.

Partly to provide more information to make it easier for people to use them in stories - and partly to make it easier to build a gaming profile
The second, was to make a record of what they're each doing, and try and give them proper lives beyond orbiting the author avatar....

http://fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Talk:Jet_Jaguar
http://fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Talk:Ford_Sierra
http://fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Talk:Daryl_Haur
http://fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Talk:Kotono_Ito
http://fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Talk:Mackie_Jaguar
http://fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Talk:Anika_Daini

I've done 'em up on the Talk pages for the time being. If there's anything worth keeping out of them, or not..... or if there's anything worth changing. There're also a few detail changes representing how things seem to be written....
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