The Orsini Crucible

The Orsini Crucible

The most distinctive feature in the region, and the reason why sector is called the Azurian Divide, is the Orsini Crucible. The Crucible is a massive nebula of swirling gas and scattered matter 1,500 light years long, stretching from 200 light years within the Anvil Galaxy to 1,300 light years outside of it, like a smoky blue tentacle reaching for the Corkscrew Galaxy nearby. The Orsini Crucible is probably one of the largest known nebulas in the Three Galaxies. It was formed a couple billion years ago by most estimates, when three super massive blue supergiants went nova at the same time, likely a chain reaction caused by their close proximity. These stars were estimated to have been about 100 times the mass of our own Sun and allegedly caused the major disruption of a nearby yellow star (legend has it the star was “blown out” by the supernova).

The Crucible is now a mysterious roiling cauldron of blue gases, ion storms, young new stars, dark matter, gravitational disturbances, spatial anomalies, and just about any other odd astronomical phenomena you can think of. Most spacers consider it too hazardous to traverse. It is only about 300 light years thick at some points, and these heavily used spacing routes are generally the way most ships maneuver around the Crucible.

Politically, the Crucible is a large dividing line with the Altess Dynasty on one side and the Orsini Freehold and the beginnings of the Transgalactic Empire’s Anvil Galaxy holdings on the other. Since there just isn’t that much trade between the Altess and the TGE, the Crucible and the Freehold are not along major trade routes, keeping them isolated. This has led to the entire Azurian Divide being a great locale for Runners moving precious cargo, spacers looking for a bit of independent land to stake out as their own, and treasure hunters seeking the legendary Markette treasure planets.

It has also become a haven for pirates. One pirate group in particular has become quite notorious in the region, the Black Claw pirate fleet. They are the only group with the intestinal fortitude (and luck) to stake out a place inside the nebula itself. From there they raid the extremely rich Altess Dynasty, smuggle contraband goods into the TGE, and harass miners and prospectors bringing platinum from Yarsia, among other targets of opportunity. When things get hot they retreat into the dizzying gravitational and tumultuous maze of the Crucible, which only they have mapped out to any extent.

For information on the hazards of nebulas in Rifts, see Three Galaxies, p. 17-18.

Locations within the Orsini Crucible:

While it is mostly a swirling, giant cloud of turbulent gas, there are a few places of note within the Orsini Crucible.

The Nursery

This region is so named because it is the birthplace of three stars, each being repelled from the others and heading outward, like children making their way into the big galaxy. There is also a massive 1.2 million diameter gas giant which fell just short of having enough mass to become a star in the region as well.

At the center of the nursery is a massive interdimensional rift that is completely unstable and potentially could be the source of serious problems in the future. At any given time the rift is connected to one of four locations.

1-25: The outlying regions of the Manhunter Universe. There is a 5% chance per month of a small detachment of manhunters or Gorushan Marauder vessel coming through to investigate.

26-50: A random location in the Milky Way in the Aliens Unlimited setting!

51-75: Somewhere in the heart of the Thundercloud Galaxy, in a region frequented by star hives! (5% chance per month of one coming through).

76-100: A desolate, burned-out star system rotating around the shadow of a star which seems to have disappeared or been removed. This is in actuality a star system devastated by the mechanoids in another universe! Once a year, there is a 5% chance a mechanoid scout ship (same crew compliment as a spider fortress) enters into the nebula. Fortunately this has only happened twice, and both times the ship was destroyed by the gravitational forces within the region, but one day the mechanoids may get curious…

This region does have its uses, however. A shifter onboard a ship with a rift jump drive, can activate that drive right when the ship is crossing into the rift and jump the ship to anywhere within the Three Galaxies! However getting through the region is not easy. It requires three piloting rolls at -20%, in addition, the region is so unstable that those in the Nursery (a 20 light year diameter sphere) must roll for nebula encounters every four hours instead of every 12, AND virtually nobody except a few of the magically inclined pirates knows about it. Black Claw himself won’t allow it to be used frequently. He thinks this rift should be used as little as possible, and if there was a way to close it (there isn’t), he would.

The Gemini Stations and Black Claw pirates HQ.

Near the center of the Orsini Crucible is a 6 light year zone of totally calm, clear space, beautifully backlit by the swirling blues of the surrounding nebula. It is here that the Black Claw pirates make their home on the Gemini Stations, twin space stations orbiting a brown dwarf (remember that yellow star that got blown out when the Crucible was formed?), essentially a dead star.

The Gemini stations are so named because they are identical structures, brought to the region via dimensional magic about 60 years ago. They make an ideal base, because the Black Claw pirates are the only known group to have a safe route mapped into and out of the Crucible from both Altess space and the Orsini Freehold.

The Black Claw pirates are an extremely well-equipped group of pirates headed by none other than an adult nightstalker dragon called Black Claw. With his long lifespan, he has slowly but surely taken the pirate fleet higher and higher, moving cautiously and never overplaying his hand. When the Altess get to upset, he raids the Freehold. When the Freehold gets too hot, he raids the TGE, when that’s unsafe he’ll hit independent worlds, when they ban together, call a cosmo-knight or whatever, it’s back to the Altess or just lay low for a while. Black Claw has also been careful to keep and refurbish good ships and keep a good working relationship with Naruni. This caution has allowed Black Claw to create a well-equipped fleet with about 400,000 pirates!

To date, the Black Claw pirates have 12 heavily armed Merchantmen, about 30 runner ships of various make and model, six Rain of Death transports, eight CAF shuttles, three Scimitar patrol vessels, six Kittani Mantis Escort cruisers and has had his engineers convert an Argon-Class Mining ship into his personal, heavily armed flagship (double the main body MDC, and add twin heavy particle beam cannons doing 2D4x1,000 each, also replace the gas collectors with 24 Naruni Broadsword fighters. The pirate group loves Naruni gear, and uses Broadswords and Fire Eaters almost exclusively (they have a total of about 100 assorted space fighters and probably double that number of power armors). Nobody has any idea how big and nasty this fleet is. And if they did, somebody would likely step in to take care of it (more than likely the Altess).

The Black Claw pirates are a very well equipped and well-prepared lot. Each pirate gets either a Naruni or Hi-Laser rifle, plus many carry their own personal weapon. All of them get either a set of Naruni Camouflage armor or a light or medium Naruni forcefield belt. As mentioned, the group is not short on vehicles, and has nearly 40,000 men capable of working as ground troops, and was successful in stealing a shipment of 1,000 groundpounders from the CCW, who was in the process of staging a fake pirate attack so that they could give the suits to the Free World Council. The group has infiltrated both the Orsini Freehold quite liberally and has made good success in penetrating the Altess Dynasty with its agents. No luck so far with the TGE however.

The group is involved with all kinds of illegal operations, including assassination, forgery, the smuggling and selling of contraband, and of course, piracy. Each pirate makes good wages and lives well, despite every civilized group in the region hunting them. Security at the headquarters is tight, but not paranoid. The pirates trust the Crucible to keep unwanted intruders out (with good reason).

Notable characters in the Orsini Crucible:

Black Claw, 14th level Nightstalker adult dragon, male, leader of the Black Claw gang, he is a calculating, ruthless being. He does not believe in unnecessary violence, but does see it as an amazing motivator and doesn’t shrug from ordering someone’s death or getting his hands personally dirty if need be. He has already personally killed one cosmo-knight and two invincible guardsmen who successfully tracked him down. He has put a lot of effort into this operation and it will take more than that to bring it down. That being said he has heard scraps of information about the Seals of Avarice and in response has toned down piracy in the region until he can either confirm or dispel the rumors.

Sylth Deed, 9th level Seljuk mindmelter, female. Black Claw’s right-hand sentient, this cold-hearted reptilian female is completely ruthless about using her psychic abilities or brute strength to rip information from the minds of her enemies. Unlike Black Claw, she does like inflicting pain, and Black Claw loves using her in a “good cop, bad cop” role with prisoners. She is a dishonorable outcast among her own people and most honorable Seljuk would be proud to bring her head back to home world (incidentally, it was she who named the twin space stations after her own birth world).

Jayso Wylde, level 7 male, human turbojockey. Commander of the Black Claw starfighter squadrons, Wylde pilots either a converted Proctor heavy starfighter (adjusted to require only one pilot) or a Silverhawk power armor. He loves to take risks, but knows better than to push it as far as disobeying one of Black Claws orders. He loves to duel with good fighter pilots and considers himself a sort of “Ace of Aces.” He has heard reports of the new Nightfangs and really wants to tussle with one sometime in the future.