The Slow Zone's news, and everything behind it — the timeline, the powers, the people, the ships, the Medina ring map, and your First Footing briefing. What's moving through the gates, on one channel.
You're a contractor crew working out of Medina Station, the great hub at the heart of the Ring gates. Your employer is First Footing, a small Belter outfit in the pre-arrival trade. When settlers buy passage through the Ring to a new colony world, somebody has to make sure there's a there, there — before they arrive. That somebody is you. “We're there before you are.”
Medina Station — a two-kilometre former generation ship, spun for gravity, parked in the Slow Zone where 1,300 gates meet. Home base is the cramped First Footing office, off the souk near the docks.
Go ahead of a settler convoy, through the gates to their destination, and make the ground ready: scout hazards, find water and safe air, mark the approach, drop supply caches and beacons, pick landing and build sites — sometimes clear whatever (or whoever) got there first.
Settlers reach the Ring the cheap, safe way: one hard burn out of Sol, then cut the drive and coast dark — cold and near-invisible — for the better part of a year, slipping past pirates and bad luck. That long coast is your head start.
| Coast speed | Sol → Ring (~20 AU) |
|---|---|
| 50 km/s | ~1.9 years |
| 100 km/s | ~11.5 months |
| 150 km/s | ~7.5 months |
| 200 km/s | ~5.7 months |
A warship doing a full flip-and-burn makes the same trip in ~13 days — but loud, bright and broke. Settlers trade speed to stay alive; you get months to do your job.
A personalized Narlikar-class survey ship, built to go where nobody's been and figure it out. Crew of 4–8, long legs, good sensors, quiet running. ▦ View deck plan
Sefa hires you and has your back; Hal runs contracts & paperwork; Mari runs gear & the supply cage; Téo runs the tide board and knows how long you've got. Your handlers, your home, your lifeline.
The clock is always running — the settlers are already on their way.