The Phoban Pilot Craft, Koreshbâd

The pilot craft Koreshbâd, captained by Goresh Demetriou, is one of hundreds hovering over and around Phobos, waiting to catch hurled containers from the asteroid belt or Lunar orbit.

The xenon tanks are an expensive option, but it’ll get them where they’re going.

When the craft intercepts an incoming container, they dock to it using one of their collapsible collar adapters, then attach a network of reaction thrusters on the craft and the container to maneuver it. As long as the container behaves according to the physics implied by the manifest, they can be fairly sure it contains what the manifest claims, and they are responsible for making sure it arrives in the same condition, sealed.

The craft is usually crewed by Goresh and their agent/confidant, Bitcrush. The craft gets cramped with a third person onboard, but they’ll occasionally bring help hired from one of the families when they need it. With the two of them, though, they could live in reasonable comfort for several weeks. With a third person, to make up for the loss of ∆V, they have to live a more spartan life.

Two days ago, they found that the container that they’d captured contained a human being in an induced coma, living on failing, minimal life support. They’re trying to figure out if perhaps they should take their momentum somewhere else than back to Phobos. After all, the container includes a substantial tank of hydrogen (listed as helium), intended to counteract the mass of the occupant.

We might not make it to sustainably living in space. If not, The Fifth World is how I hope we wind up.

The only Solarpunk RPG I've ever seen.

2 thoughts on “The Phoban Pilot Craft, Koreshbâd”

    1. This is one of my favorite things: the Cold Equations of space travel mean that statements like, “Well, helium is almost as light as hydrogen” are actually interrogable. Like, helium masses TWICE AS MUCH. And (at least at these speeds), F=MA, so you gotta deal with that. There’s so much to know and the consequences of being wrong are so inarguable, that humans need to pull out all of our scientific and social smarts to solve the basic issues of existence.

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