The Valle Santa Estrella Project - Planet Crete - [Invite only]

[Jack_Henderson]

Opportunities do not happen often when you are born on Planet Crete. The arid planet doesn't offer much to its inhabitants except an arena to harden themselves from the first moments of their lives. The sacrifice of the Ventru blood line served as the constant reminder to the Chavez familia that Crete was an unforgiving place, and still fate had presented them with an opportunity that the clan was unwilling to let pass.

They named this spark of hope for a brighter future Valle Verde de Santa Estrella.

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"Valle Verde de Santa Estrella" - The Green Valley of Santa Estrella

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It had been a bumpy ride in a small, old intra-atmospheric shuttle before the security team of the Chavez family signalled Arcelia and Hans to prepare to exit the craft. Hans had agreed to be shown the site which would be turned into a green valley to produce food by irrigation farming from deep wells. It all would be powered by the energy cells that had been taken from Hans, and here some would be put to good use.

The landing ramp hit the ground and the ship shook for a moment, before the security opened the door. Ana turned around to Hans, smiling with a somewhat wry expression around her lips: "Don't forget... equipamiento protector..." she yelled into the passenger compartment of the freighter.

Some of the security guards that the Chavez clan had insisted on put on goggles and masks that would make breathing easier. Moments later, hot dry air would gush into the spacecraft, and everyting would immediately be filled with swirling, fine dust.

"Bienvenido... welcome to Santa Estrella Valley!" Ana speaks somewhat muffled through the piece of heavy cloth that she wrapped around her neck and lower part of her face to keep the dust away: "... don't let... ehm... first impresión fool you, Hans! Soils... are good here..." she claims, and when he gets out, he would see this:

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+ IMG| DISCORD: https://discord.gg/TWrGWjp
+ IMG| IS RECRUITING: Click to find out more!

[Hans von Goeben]

Ana wasn't sure how to construe Hans' reaction: After taking only one step outside the shuttle, he simply remained on the gangway's edge, gazing through the goggles over the vast, empty dryland. For a whole minute not a single word crossed his lips. The howling wind and the mouthpiece would have made that difficult, anyways.

Finally, he descended the ramp to walk a few feet over Crete's future. Ana cought up with her guest, now irritated by his unusual scarcity on comments. "So! A...good place for the project, si? Enough space to realize it." Goeben turns around to her with a dead-serious expression. "Without doubt. But 'enough space' is the only option this area appears to have. I mean, no offence, but this valley is dryer than Rheinland humor. I can imagine why you need the energy cell to power an irrigation here, it ain't a miracle cell though!" Despite the cloth around her neck, the scientist could clearly see a mixed expression combined of defiance and a hint of disappointment...a typical expression he had seen many times on her.
"...but, you wouldn't be a real Chavez if you didn't have an elaborated plan to manage it nonetheless, right?", Hans added instantly to avoid a rebuke. After such a long time not having seen each other, it wouldn't be appropriate to start an argument within the first hour of reunion. Something which had happened oftenly between the two rather stubborn minds, by the way.

[Jack_Henderson]

Ana did not expect Hans to be excited or optimistic about the prospect of making this work, but she calmed herself and kept herself from immediately jumping to the defense of her home planet against the accusations and the damning verdict of this Rheinlander. And there it was, the immediate softening of tone on his side, as if he had expected an imminent counter-attack if he did not take a step back.

Ana was giving him a nod, even though he might easily see the dismay at his scepticism. "In contrast to what you... silver-spoon-in-mouth Rheinlanders who are used to great planets with great conditions think..." she tells him, while tugging at the scarf that keeps some of the sand and dust particles from her mouth while speaking... "... this is not as bad as it seems!"

She kneels down after a few meters, showing him a little plant that seems to be defying the odds at this arid place: "See?" she asks him, as if the existence of this normal-looking, unspectacular plant meant anything.



Ana realizes that Hans likely lacked the very specialized knowledge about fauna on Crete, so she adds - not without a winning smile around the corners of her mouth: "They signal the presence of aquifers... plus...." she adds before he can contradict: "... we checked the geology. This basin has a large aquifer in a depth of 50 to 75 meters, and one further down, at around 400 meters. Hard as hell to get to, but..." she looks him in his eyes and seems to be really serious about this: "... there -is- water here! Not... obviously... however... it's there!" she insists with Corsair stubbornness showing in her eyes.

[Hans von Goeben]

Hans kneeled down next to Ana. His shadow was casted over the valiant sprout, shielding it from the punitive, merciless sun for a moment. Despite such hostile circumstances, this plant was successfully blooming. To the right and left, more representatives of its species flourished scarcely where the aquifier was flowing along in the deep, forming a thin trail of hope in a desert.


Memories of his six terms on Cambridge hit Goeben. Expeditions to alien worlds in order to study their strange fauna and flora had always been an exciting break from class and theory. Hans' group was always assigned to the same academic, Professor Doctor Martin Sinclair. An old, experienced biologist who prepared his students thoroughly for field trips.

Once, the Professor taught them a quick, yet remarkable history lesson about reading the gifts of Mother Nature. Even the ancient Egyptians, one of the first civilizations on Terra, were already able to find not only water, but ressources and medicine by simply examining plants. Knowledge aquired over thousands of years since the dawn of mankind, now nearly forgotten in our age of technology and abundance. The following excursus would forever be stuck in Hans' brain.


The flashback left him kneeling in front of the plant for a minute. Truly, this fascinating stubborness for life wrested respect from the scientist. Again. A clear counter-argument to his assumptions on Crete. Without backtalk, Hans looked up. A smile formed underneath the mask. "You are right, Ana. Please forgive me that I jumped to conclusions." A Rheinlander not stubbornly defending a statement he made? A rare occasion. She received a reassuring nod. "With a lot of effort, strong pumps and huge Biodomes, I think your clan can make this work after all."

[Jack_Henderson]

Ana seems pleased by his change in reaction and she can't avoid having the smug smile of 'I told you' on her face when he admits that this might not be as totally crazy as it might have seemed before. "Glad you agree with me..." she says, trying to bite back on some other ways of saying 'I told you!'.

"So..." she points towards the mountain ranges that are barely visible in the dusty hot air: "... from a strategic point... it can be overseen easily. Even protected if needed. And... rebellions would not much be a problem, if the clan has the highground like up there." and she points to the rocks that form steep towers with vertical walls. "... up that needle..." and she smiles for a moment: "Could even be a great place for a little villa... who knows?" and she seems half-joking, half-serious - even though it would mean an amazing effort for any piece of infrastructure to get up there.

"Anyway... do you think that the energy source that you have... and the place here... and some tech we would have to import likely... with irrigation techniques and enough protection from rivalling clans..." she does not finish the sentence, but looks up to him with the question on her face, and some unmistakable expectation of a positive outcome. However, she did not take him here to have him say 'Si!' to everything... even though it was nice whenever it happened - but to get his honest opinion, and so she says: "... really... do you think it could work? Is it worth scarce resources, a lot of effort... and risk?"

[Hans von Goeben]

A villa on top of a mountain? Even better, a heavily fortified villa with feudal intentions? Just like in the villian movies. Hans' darker side seemed to have surfaced for a moment by only mentioning such ambitious plans. A quick, distraught smirk commented her statement. Only short, but noticable.

Ana's next question made the scientist snap back into reality. Before forming an answer, he had been gazing across the plataeu for a moment. "In theory, such a project is manageable. After all, we are living in times where orbital farms feed entire populations on spaceports, surrounded by vaccuum. Compared to that, building biodomes in a dryland appears easy...".
A rhetoric pause followed.
"Water, energy and know-how are available. The essentials. Logistics and material, on the other hand...*those* present difficult challenges. A project of this dimension requires literal tons of different metal alloys, engines, pumps, polymeres, IT-systems, filters, seeds, fertile soil and of course construction machines."
Goeben used his fingers to list the various materials. "I still got contacts outside and inside IRG who owe me one or two favors. Surely, we can get construction plans and some high-tech out of this. And a few qualified architects or engineers should live on Crete, right? The rest is hard manual labor. Somehow, your clan has to organize everything else and bring it to this place. The tricky part is to do so without creating a sensation until defenses are online. Which brings me to the second main problem..."
Hans crossed his arms and sighed. "...I can not contribute much to weapon systems but an efficient energy network to keep it running. I am a biologist and no strategist or warlord. Unless you want biological weapons on your home planet. In short: You have to organize a division and stationary defenses."

Ana's face still had the same expectant expression. Looked like she wanted to hear more. " In conclusion: It is possible. Therefore, if logistics, material and an army can be realized, it will certainly be damn worth it. Enough food and water are the basics for prospering societies. Hell, you could re-invent the Corsairs with that."
Whatever he exactly ment by that was left unspoken, but one thing is true: This idea had immense potential...

[Jack_Henderson]

Ana wanted to Interrupt him a few times while he was laying out his thoughts to her, but in the time that they have spent together, she has learnt to sometimes Keep her trap shut and just listen. This was one of these moments.

"Hans, that's exactly why I brought you into this." she smirks and points towards the vastness of desert: "... you and your engineer friends, in combination with the energy source... you lay the foundation. With power in this area, things can kick off like... Caramba! Until you do this... we can already start low-key work here. One or two landing strips for inner-atmospheric freighters and gliders... that's something we can manage. A well or two for the workers to draw water from. A small encampment, somewhere hidden between the mountain ranges..." she shrugs her narrow shoulders and looks over the vastness of desert in front of her, trying to imagine the final product.

"... Defense... low key... against other Clans and envious rivals might be more tricky. I'll talk to my brother, who is more of a warlord than we two. I mean..." she shrugs and makes a gesture that seems to put the level of thought that should go into defense at a rather low level of importance: "... we only need real defense once the energy source is here. If it were sabotaged or hit... adios compadres..." she makes it sound funny, however it's not. "I'll contact Rodrigo... and my father for the shipping metworks of our clan. They can do something for us, too... not just run Stone-cutter-artifacts around Sirius."

[Hans von Goeben]

Goeben couldn't hold back an amused chuckle on Ana's comment. After all this time, ever since they had first worked together in the hideout here on Crete, she still had not forgotten about his snarky comment on Corsair artifact reworking: Crude, like stone cutting. A nightmare for hobby-archeologists like himself.
"Heh. Well, hopefully your whole family is convinced of this enterprise...especially when a foreigner, even a House dweller, gets in on the project. But we can worry about that later..."
Once more, his gaze surveyed the horizon. "You already mentioned the need for a well to supply workers locally. That should be our first step: Preparing a camp for those workers. And a place where the logistics can be managed."
He pointed towards the mountain chain a few miles away. "The shadow casted by the massif offers a good site. We are protected from both heat and enemies from at least two, or even three sides. We should go investigate it."
Ana nodded. "Si, I was about to suggest the same. Can't bear this torridity in the blazing sun for longer than a few hours. Let's leave the shuttle here, though...the wind is getting stronger, and we got a way more enjoyable option of travelling.", she added with a special smirk. Her guest never knew if this was a good, or a bad sign...

Moments later, a heavily modified beach buggy jumped over the dunes. Hans was driving the vehicle while Ana was trying to get a good signal on the radio.
A few adjustments, and the duo travelled to tunes of CRR, the Corsair Rock Radio.
The driver wasn't able to suppress his excitement. Every time they lifted after passing a dune, Goeben had to laugh like a schoolboy. "This is simply awesome, dude!", he exclaimed, "Why haven't we done this earlier?"

[Jack_Henderson]

Ana could not help but laugh when she sees in his face that he remembers the "stone cutter" command, too, and she shakes her head lightly. "Oh, good old times...", but then she furrows her brow a little and shakes her head: "Unlikely that my complete familia is behind this. However... there is an easy way in the Chavez familia: once it is a family issue, it has to be brought to a success. That means... once I am in it, they can't really ignore it. It becomes a question of honore." she smirks, but there is still that certain caution in her facial features.

[img float=left]https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRsyWhgH2iI6lG_8JlaQ_Bpr0K3-R99GE9x12vB6M4urNPeGRGpkA[/img]And then they take off in the buggy that was on the transport shuttle that they had taken to get to this place.

Ana was holding tightly to keep from getting shaken up too much while the dust was swirling around them. Behind them, they left a little sandstorm that would be visible for miles as there was no sign of life out here except perhaps a few sand spiders or snakes that would have hidden way before the loud buggy would even have got close.

"... <yelling> You never asked!!!" she yells back over the noise of the engine and they jump over the edge of a dune and she goes: "Careful! If... we die before we arrive... no project!" and it is part-joking, partly also serious, yet Hans seems to have the vehicle under control pretty well and she found a music channel to add some blaring music to their off-road drive. A few little bushes would lose their few leaves, some little rocks would be flying through the dusty air...

They would arrive in the shade of the massive vertical rocks around 20 minutes later, parking the buggy in the shade of the red limestone rocks. Ana jumps out and spits some dust out: "... Crazy... no windshield... caramba... I have sand everywhere!" she complains but laughs at the same time. She takes a sip from her water bottle, then hands it to Hans. "... wash it down, saves your teeth from making these sand sounds!" she explains and then starts looking around.

The cliff was higher than it looked from far away. It was also a lot steeper and harder to climb than she had expected. The rock had some places where one could possible start climbing, but with around 120 metres height, only a experienced climber with good gear would get up there without putting himself into danger. "Bueno..." she says... "... I guess... we are here! Let's take a look around." she nods into the direction that looks like a camp could be hidden here.