The Many Decks of Fordek (Part 2)

Read Part 1 Here

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:

Madbi

The decks of the Madbi section are prowling with lunatics, death cults, killers, cannibals, and all manners of folk who have been locked away for the general safety of DISCO's citizens. Originally a medical wing and ship's brig/asylum, most if not all of Madbi has been scoured and vandalized to the point of non-recognition by billions of rotations of bedlam. The only luxury to be found here is a safe corner in which to stow away from the other murderers and maniacs, most of whom have been born and raised as hearty survivalists and terrible brutes through generations of rape and inbreeding.

Access to Madbi is tightly controlled by enforcers from all factions, as everyone on the ship has a vested interest in preventing a mass escape - nonetheless, there are a few instances of the occasional crafty madman winding his way through air ducts towards freedom. Only the desperate have reasons to physically wander the decks here, and those venturing into Madbi must adhere to rigorous security screenings and arduous red-tape regulations - most outsiders are mercenaries sent on recovery missions to rescue kidnapped aristocrats, or to assassinate hidden liabilities as a means of wrapping up loose ends for powerful clients.

Ubberunk

 Ubberunk was once the site of an ancient city of sorts, as the largest collective of survivors recovering from the disastrous core explosion of the UESF DISCOVERIES gathered in these multipurpose rooms and family bunk decks to build the first real civilization aboard the ship. As BilSpins passed, the group would eventually fracture and dissolve into the mass of the rest of the DISCO, leaving behind a sprawling mess of passages honeycombed with the stories of countless former lives.

Due to its proximity to the dangers of Madbi, the neglect of venerable infrastructure, and the piecemeal mish-mash of construction with no thought given to safety standards, Ubberunk is largely undesirable real estate. Though scrappers eke out a living here cutting away old floors and tearing down ramshackle shanty villages, and though there are still more than a few impoverished families tucked away between decks, large swaths of this section presently remain unoccupied, abandoned, sealed, or condemned.

A few factions wishing to be left alone conceal themselves within the decks of Ubberunk; the dilapidated section appears to be the perfect hiding spot for smuggling rings, black market dealers, human traffickers, drug laboratories, spy networks, and other shady organizations. This section also conceals more than a few dangerous psychopaths, including the lairs of deranged serial killer fugitives and the dark covens of doomsday cults devoted to destroying the entire DISCO.

Manetube

The beating heart of commerce deep within the DISCO. Manetube is a gigantic lift tube shaft that cuts a path from the depths of the lowest decks all the way to the spire of the Kohman Bredjs. The catwalks that ring each deck of Manetube are a buzzing hustle of traders and merchants, plying their wares from crude stalls and shuttling stocks up and down the tube cables. Swarms of orphaned urchins wash over the unguarded, cleaning out pockets and pouches and then retreating just as quickly through the smallest of conduits and service shafts. Powerful trade monopolies dominate dozens of decks at a time, ensuring their customers are kept safe and happy and spending freely while within their commercial territory.

Manetube tapers near the top as it enters the Kohman decks - here, security is paramount, prices are exorbitant, and access control is strictly enforced. The Kohman only want the highest calibre of clientele in their section of Manetube, even going so far as to violently muscle out "undesirables". Upon these catwalks one can expect to find huge banking conglomerates, proven mercenary guilds, top-tier bordellos, and some of the rarest items in Fordek. It has long been suspected that there is a working Younee-Fabb secreted away somewhere in the area as well, pumping out special requests for the most wealthy of Kohman aristocrats.

At the bottom of Manetube, huddled masses congregate to catch the "droppings" of higher catwalks. Scavengers muddle about the refuse pile picking out choice bits, while keeping an eye ever upward for maliciously discarded junk dumped into the shaft out of spite or boredom. Surprisingly, these folk fare quite well, especially when they can extort entire reels of copper wire from some poor soul who wants to retrieve an irreplaceable keepsake that's slipped from their pocket.

Colnis Podes

Bay after bay of vast open real estate dominates Colnis Podes - once holding warehouse-sized rooms filled with cryonic lockers, now this section serves as home for tens of thousands of Fordek families. Each bay has its own distinct style, culturally and architecturally, as families band together into factions and fight for control of scarce resources. It is not uncommon for one bay or cluster of bays in Colnis Podes to make war against another, resulting in prolonged affairs that spill into other parts of the ship, and shedding much blood on all sides.

The current most dominant faction in the Podes are a band of a thousand families that call themselves "The Children of Freezers". Identifiable by their blue-painted skin (in reverence to their cryonically-frozen forefathers) and elaborate hand gestures, the Children extort and bully all outsiders who pass through their territory, and swarm en-masse against any who would harm their members. Those who come under their protection, however, find the Children to be a warm and welcoming community that goes to great lengths to keep each other safe and comfortable.

While other factions rise and fall, more than a few have enough staying power to influence the landscape of the Podes: The Screamers are a religious sect whose ubiquitous message of "keeping one hand open and one hand closed" rings true for many ears on the DISCO. The Loving Mothers fulfil a much needed peacekeeping role among the communities of their territory by means of sympathetic nonviolence, blackmail and guilt protests. The Black Smears do a brisk trade of greese and flooid from the massive stockpiles hidden deep in their bays, holding a veritable stranglehold on such products among the upper decks. The Nap-Snatchers strike in ambush from their hidden dens to steal away unwary individuals for torture and ransom (and suspected cannibalism). The Bloodwash are a howling group of warriors who survive by pillaging from those with goods to take, leaving the bays of their victims strewn with the mutilated dead.

Not all is chaos in the Podes - most families survive by locking themselves away and keeping a keen eye to the shadows, and are content to live normal lives aboard the DISCO by being generally polite to one another. The best way to survive here is to keep your head down, your hands working, and your wealth hidden away.

Sentruldek

Like Colnis Podes, Sentruldek is a mixed assortment of people banding together for safety, just trying to survive for a few cycles more. The largest difference between the two sections is a lack of open space - where the Podes are collections of huge warehouse bays, Sentruldek is an amalgamation of odd-shaped rooms with differing original purposes. Some families live in spaces designed to be little more than broom cupboards, while others occupy open theatres and sprawling cafeteria halls. If one can find a room to set up shop, however, they can expect a better degree of comfort  and security than on most of the other lower sections.

The decks of Sentruldek are sensibly divided by function: some decks are residential, some are spaces reserved for trade markets and scavenger shops, and others still are places of industry and production. The entirety of the section is governed by a council of appointed deck representatives who act on behalf of their constituents and are elected fairly by democratic vote. All policies are expected to be self-enforced by each deck, so lawbreakers will often find themselves turned upon by their own neighbors out of a communal sense of harmony - vigilante posses are regularly formed in Sentruldek to quash illegal activities.

Sentruldek is the location of what was once a massive laboratory complex, now converted to the Grand Sentrul Garden - a park of exotic plants tended by a dedicated workforce of erbojists, and a major preservation effort to keep unique species of flora alive that would otherwise have gone extinct a few BilSpins ago. Another popular draw to those in the know is Lumi's Kasino, a speakeasy run by the Glow Kartel, which plies clientele with cheap drinks, live entertainment, colorful lumiforms, and the chance to win (or lose) entire spools of copper wire with a roll of the dice.