M A R O O N E D
It is 2382 A.D., and 55 years have passed since the disappearance of the Meliora: a heavy freighter starship carrying equipment, foodsuffs, and some 7,000 colonists from the overcrowded Sol System to the fledgling colony world of Nuevo Arauco 44 lightyears away: a 36-week journey with the superluminal drive technology at the time. It took over a year for the relevant authorities on Earth to receive notice from Nuevo Arauco that the Meliora had never arrived.
A naval starship was dispatched to Nuevo Arauco and a small fleet of vessels crewed by adjusters from the affected insurance companies searched nearby systems and planets in an attempt to ascertain the fate of the Meliora. No transmissions to Nuevo Arauco had been made and no distress beacons were detected. Not even a single piece of debris from the lost freighter was ever found by the search parties. Three years after the Meliora had departed Earth, the International Space Transportation Organization concluded that the freighter was lost with all 7,235 souls aboard. The families of the lost crew and passengers mourned the disappearance of their loved ones, insurance was paid out to policyholders, and the disappearance of the Meliora faded into obscurity, regarded as yet another cautionary reminder of the ever-present perils of spacetravel.
But the Meliora had not simply vanished into the void. Ejected from Einsteinian space many lightyears farther along than planned, the Meliora had inadvertently arrived in a distant and unexplored star system, then crash-landed on an earthlike planet.
Many died in the turbulent landing, but the vessel arrived more-or-less intact on the planet's surface. But the ship's propulsion systems and warp drive received catastrophic damage during the impact. Without the complex shipyard facilities and equipment needed to return the vessel to operable condition, the Meliora was stuck. And being some 70 light years away from the nearest colony world, their distress beacon would not be heard within the lifetime of even the youngest passenger. The passengers of the Meliora were stranded on this planet for the rest of their lives.
And Boondock, as the planet came to be known, was a rather inhospitable place. It was an ancient planet orbiting a declining star. Shallow, planet-spanning oceans had evaporated away millions of years ago, leaving only seasonal rivers and streams crisscrossing endless badlands and desert. And the wildlife that populated this dying world were as hostile and unyielding as the planet they inhabited.
But the survivors of the Meliora have eked out survival in spite of incredible hardship. Their downed starship was cannibalized and its remains were repurposed to rebuild a society on this planet. A number of walled settlements have been established to provide a simulacrum of civilization for those marooned on Boondock. But with civilization come the same vices and inequities that have followed Man since the first human settlements on Earth so long ago. The Skid - Boondock's largest city - has come to be ruled by a heavy-handed despot and has exacted a heavy tax burden the inhabitants of Skid and outlying settlements in exchange for protection from Boondock's predatory wildlife. Several small settlements on the far side of the planet have refused to pay these protection taxes and fight a low-intensity brushfire war in the wilderness against mercenaries from the Skid. Others still want no part of the conflict, and have established small homesteads in the wilderness, taking their protection against the predators of Boondock into their own hands.
This roleplay follows the survivors of the Meliora and their children, and through the perspectives of a handful of characters tells the story of the survivors as they try to rebuild civilization on a hostile alien world.
