The Many Decks of Fordek (Part 1)

The bow half of the UESF DISCO consists of many hundreds of decks, divided among fifteen distinct sections. Below is a light summary of what you can expect to see in five of them:

Bredj-Too

Holding vantage at the top of the DISCO, access to Bredj-Too is strictly controlled by specific members of the Kohman caste known as "The Wise". Compartments in this section are some of the best-maintained on all the ship, and contain a wide array of sensitive equipment and specially calibrated navigation tools. At the fore of this section is a massive stellar observatory with an assortment of devices called "telerotorscopes", which allow The Wise to chart the courses of celestial bodies even while the DISCO remains in a constant spin. Those who normally keep away from windows and portholes will become instantly nauseated upon entry, as the mass of spinning space moving in all directions around them is extremely disorienting to those without special practice in its observation.

A central control room originally intended for control of the ship by human pilots dominates three central decks in this section, though ancient looters and a lack of power have since rendered it almost entirely nonfunctional. Many of the original consoles and navigational gauges have been replaced over the cycles as part of a rebuilding effort by Kohman Preservationists, and The Wise are hard at work trying to get Bredj-Too back online. Unfortunately, this makes the command room a juicy target for heists from the lower decks.

The aft chambers of this section hold archival rooms that have since been converted to private quarters, stockpiles, and living facilities for The Wise, as well as communication rooms stripped of electronics and charting rooms that no man has yet been able to decipher in any usable fashion.

Bredj-Own

Bredj-Own is the nexus of activity for the Kohman people, hosting both their rudimentary seats of government as well as a sizeable chunk of their specialist population who deal with enforcement efforts aboard the ship (including the Preservationists, who specialize in the recovery of systems vital to the function of the ship taken as salvage over several BilSpins).

The forward decks of Bredj-Own constitute a secondary command centre for the whole ship, designed to be operated by artificially intelligent robots while the biological crew rests in cryonic sleep. As such, it is nearly impossible to use any equipment remaining there without the unique tools possessed by the DISCO's scattered and dismantled robotic crew. Nonetheless, there is a great deal of reserve copper wiring within, which ensures the Khomen people have ample stockpiles should they find their funds dwindling.

The aft decks hold a myriad of armories (half-stocked with non-lethal riot control weapons), meeting rooms and lecture halls, converted repair bays made into sleeping bunks, and an emergency communication room with a dedicated power source that allows Kohman leaders to broadcast propaganda messages throughout the DISCO. It also plays host to The Grand Masquerade; an exclusive once-in-a-BilSpin event that unites many of the lower decks with the Kohman aristocracy for a full cycle of festive celebration.

Kohman Bulk

Believing themselves to be direct descendants from the original Command Crew of the UESF DISCOVERIES, the Kohman people afford themselves the highest luxuries on the ship - the decks of the Kohman Bulk are a perfect example of this type of mindset run amok. Gaudy furniture and elegant art pieces pulled from every corner of the ship adorn the grand halls and massive staterooms of this section. Instead of relying on the standard lumiform panels that adorn the "lesser sections", larges swaths of the Bulk are lit by grand chandeliers, in a way that carelessly consumes incredibly valuable batteries stolen from other groups as "taxation" and "reclamation".

The halls of the Bulk buzz with servants who keep a clean ship and attend to the every needs of their Kohman masters. The sounds of gentle music bathe the decks from the gilded speakers mounted at every major intersection. The common rooms are filled nightly with the lavish parties, expansive feasts, and hedonistic orgies of the Kohman elite.

Nearly all of the roughly two-hundred families living in the Bulk individually have more wealth than all of the lower sections combined. While there is the occasional class uprising every few BilSpins, the Kohman in the Bulk are well protected by their own veritable army of personal bodyguards armed with high-tech riot control gear (and a few illegal weapons of a more lethal nature). Unfortunately, despite their many protections and precautions, the denizens of the Bulk are often targeted by kidnappers and blackmailers looking to make some quick copper notches, and by hungry Sleeper raiders crawling up from Creeyo-Stasi-Own in the dead of a sleep cycle.

Creeyo-Stasi-Own

The most recent group of people to emerge from a frozen sleep only a single BilSpin ago, the people of Creeyo-Stasi-Own (known as "Sleepers" to most) are mostly a primitive bunch who fiercely isolate themselves from other groups on the ship. Like the dwellers of the lower decks, their population has mostly fractured into groups of fifteen to twenty families (called "clusters"), though they are not nearly as inbred.

The clusters of Creeyo-Satsi-Own subsist mainly on the vermin that scrounge their decks, coming to be quite skilled at farming cockroaches. They've also converted many of their former sleeping tubes into mildew and fungus incubators, and some of the braver clusters will launch daring raids against other factions on the DISCO to obtain more exotic fare.

Due to a strange defect in the cryonic pods in this section, all Sleepers have a more violet hue to the skin (rather than the usual indigo hue attributed to normal cryonic freezing) - this means that the Sleepers can easily identify one another at a glance. They are also fond of piercing themselves with screws, glass shards, and braided copper wire.

It is rumored that outsiders are killed and eaten upon entering Creeyo-Satsi-Own; likely only a rumor, though not all clusters act in accordance with one another's ideologies. It is also rumored that the Sleepers are descended from the genuine original Command Crew of the UESF DISCOVERIES; damning proof is held in the esoteric knowledge passed down by their ancestors concerning operations aboard the ship, though the Kohman people are quick to quash such talk.

Keype-Kleer

A dangerous vacuum gap shears the UESF DISCOVERIES in twain, cleft right down the middle of a section known only as "Keype-Kleer" (at least, that's what the old automated voice messages called this place). Accessible from the Manetube only by cutting through thick bulkheads or by navigating a web of mangled service shafts, Keype-Kleer's decks are filled with rooms devoid of life, exposed to the harsh vacuum of space and the dangerous residual radiation of the ship's long-exploded core.

The section is a jumping-off point to ERIES, the aft half of the ship, and features many lashings of cables, hoses, pipes, ropes, and other lengths of debris used to ferry oneself across to the other side - the chaotic movement of the ship ensures these pieces of debris flail about at maximum speeds, easily capable of severing an unwary explorer's head. If that wasn't dangerous enough, there are still quite a few nests of unpurged mutants sandwiched in between decks, waiting to snag anyone who pokes around.

Those who find themselves entering Keype-Kleer are often at a loss to return, as they often find the bulkheads behind them sealed, either by suction, or by protectors of the DISCO who don't wish to risk a massive wave of decompression running rampant through the rest of the ship. Many a fortune-seeking scavenger or adventurous young Sleeper has found themselves trapped with nowhere to go but the darkness of infinite space.