Samarran Raiders

Samarra
Owner	Contested
Location	Unknown, Babylon Sector
Technical information
Population	~3 million
Docking	Unknown
Terrain	Desert
Diameter	Unknown
Mass	Unknown
Temperature	-50°C to 50°C
Escape velocity	Unknown

The Beginnings

Since the beginnings of House settlements, there have always been Zoners. People sought to escape House space, to live freely in the wild and unregulated systems, away from government control. For a long time, these Zoners did not have the funds or abilities to construct ships that would launch them far enough away from house space to give them independence, so they sought isolation in remote and unsettled parts of the House systems. The first purely Zoner base was scheduled for construction in 390 A.S, when those first, until then planet bound Zoner communities from all the House systems assembled on Planet Manhattan.

By combining their recourses and with some outside help, they managed to construct four Transportation Liners, which were state-of-the-art technology at that time. The Liners were christened, "Mesopotamia", "Sumeria", "Assyria" and "Babylon". At the time they were considered lunatics by the majority of the population and by all House governments. Consequently, their expeditions were ignored, and they were able to complete their preparations for the launch with out interference. They finally launched in 394 A.S and were forgotten by everyone, mainly because no-one really cared what happened to them since they were considered to be misguided lunatics anyway. Having stocked their ships with ample provisions, the 4000 emigrants (One thousand on each ship), set course for the Zone, or what is now known as the edge worlds...

They were prepared for a long voyage, first through the reaches of Liberty, then Kusari and finally the unknown reaches at the edge of the nebula where they had to navigate using various natural anomalies that were found scattered around there, since there was no definitive astronomical data to navigate by. When they reached the furthest edges of the green clouds, the communication systems aboard the "Sumeria" ceased to function. Minutes later there was an explosion in it's engine room of such violence that the entire ship disintegrated. So fast and so violent was the disaster that there was no chance to reach the lifepods and all of the thousand people aboard were lost. The other liners had no choice but to continue, they quickly salvaged what could be saved from the wreckage of the derelict ship and headed further on into the unknown.

Samarra - The Jewel of The Desert

As the story continues, the travellers from the three remaining liners continue deep into unknown space, far beyond the boundaries of the Sirius Sector, beyond what is now known as the Nomad Worlds. They accomplished this by recklessly travelling through a previously unknown and semi-stable wormhole, which later readings revealed was so unstable that there had only been a 12 percent chance to accomplish the transition successfully. What they discovered on arrival at the terminus of the wormhole was a large system, with yellowish fragments and debris of a former planet and a red giant sun scorching them as they drifted throughout the void of space. The system contained two planets, one of which was a desert planet with a single moon and an atmosphere stable enough to support human life. The other one was a barren red tinted rock on the other side of the mysterious system. The liners established orbit around the desert planet, which they christened “Samarra”, translating “A joy for all to see” from the ancient language called Arabic. A small shuttle containing ten people dispatched to investigate the red planet they named “Sur-Marrati” and were never heard from again. It was presumed that it was crippled by the radiation from the red sun and that its crew died from either suffocation, cold or hunger.

When the liners arrived in orbit around Planet Samarra, the passengers saw a number of structures, alien in origin floating around the planet and its small moon “Qamar”, creating something that upon a closer look looked like a fence or artificial satellites of sorts. After closer inspection, it was discovered that the planet was almost entirely covered with dunes and deserts, although it was dotted with numerous oasis’ and contained a single large river that ran from the southern hemisphere to a large desert, where it disappeared in the sands.

Realising that there was little chance that they would ever be able to return from whence they came, the passengers decided to make planet fall on Samarra. All 3000 men, women and children disembarked near the large river, and started a small settlement with technology and materials salvaged from the liners and with the materials that they had brought with them to construct what was originally planned to be a space station. Decent water filtering systems and aqueducts were constructed, while the several plants that were indigenous to the region were discovered to be edible and were cultivated for food, most notably a tree that bore fruits similar to the plum from ancient Earth.

The settlers were forced to work together to survive on this harsh planet, but inevitably such rugged individualists wanted to go their own ways.

The Great Divides

Slums of the Capital Assyria.

Not everyone on Samarra was lucky enough to be able to gather sufficient food, many were enduring great suffering, scratching out a bare existence among its dunes and the ever burning sun. The time Samarra needed to revolve around itself was equal to 100 hours, resulting in long burning days, and long freezing nights. It fell far short of what the initial settlers had been looking for, it was a place where one had to kill in order to survive outside the settlements, and soon enough all Zoner ideologies of peace were lost among the generations.

Warring factions formed, between the former Zoner settlers as strong individuals, looking to control the main supply of food, mineral and fuel sources in order to feed their people and power their fuel hungry terrain vessels. Most of the planet’s population was decimated in the battles between what were rapidly becoming separate warring tribes. These battles eventually ceased when a charismatic leader arose, a great sheik from the largest city of Samarra. He told the people of supreme beings that had established their reign in the system, he referred to them as Anunnaki, and of how they had come to him in a vision and that they had been the ones who had established the fence around the planet in order to mark a place for the settlers’ which was destined to become a paradise.

Most of the surviving population was swayed by his words and tired by the ceaseless wars they gratefully accepted his leadership and his vision. Having finally unified under one leader, prosperity could at last be achieved as the population worked together the achieve the promised paradise that they so desperately wanted.

The Prosperity

In the ensuing centuries of peace, the planet flourished despite individual regions eventually being ruled by sheiks and self proclaimed kings that had attained control of the liquor and fuel trades. An orbital skyhook was constructed to boost shuttles into planetary orbit. An asteroid field rich in water ice was discovered just at the edge of the system, that when mined provided water for most of the planet. Samarra’s population rapidly reached about 2 million who inhabited three major cities and many other smaller settlements.

Over the years, explorers foolish enough and lucky enough to stumble upon the system, made their way to the planet from various parts of Sirius, bringing their ships to the planet looking upon it as a safe haven. Among them were criminals, smugglers and freelancers of all sorts that found that Samarra offered them asylum from the authorities or whoever else was after them. These visitors provided insight into advanced ship technology that had been developed elsewhere that the Samarrans were able to replicate. Soon the perimeter of the planet was crawling with private shuttles that sought to explore the system, searching for some rumoured pockets of gold and diamonds, that were supposedly to be found in the asteroid fragments that covered the system. Some even dared to leave through that highly unstable wormhole that was the only known exit from the system.

Samarran Raiders

Overview

Soon, those who successfully negotiated the wormhole, started to plague the Omicron systems with sporadic attacks and raids on their supply convoys. Managing to loot the convoys and run back to Samarra with the goods, earning themselves fame and glory, thus pleasing the Anunnaki. A small, but rather organized group, for reasons known only to them left Samarra for good to seek their fame and fortune in this, to them, new world. As they reached the more populated Tau systems in their shuttles, they encountered Slave Liner and by deceiving the Junker captain into believing them to be injured travellers in crippled ships, they persuaded the captain to allow them aboard his ship. Having accomplished their purpose, the hostile Samarrans immediately attacked and slaughtered most of the Liner’s resisting crew, taking the rest as slaves.

They succeeded in earning something of a name for themselves with the nearby Outcast population by supplying them with special kinds of liquor fermented only on Samarra from the plum-like plant that was grown near the rivers. The Drink soon became so extremely popular and was soon greatly in demand. They founded a lucrative smuggling operation to meet that demand, smuggled the drinks in wine bottles, and even in oxygen tanks. Even though, the short term profit was very good, they needed something more to establish themselves, which they discovered in slave trading and the Outcast export of cardamine. This all proved to be a highly profitable business, which along with their piracy and raiding, they continued to expand. The secret of Samarra’s location though is still a closely guarded secret, although it is rumoured that the wormhole that provides the only access the system is located somewhere near the Omicron Beta system.

Diplomacy

Faction	Relationship
Anunnaki	Allied
Rorry's Renegades	Allied
Outcasts	Friendly
Liberty Rogues	Friendly
Steelworkers	Friendly
Legion of the Damned	Friendly
Zoners	Neutral
Junkers	Neutral
Maquis	Neutral
Council	Neutral
Corsairs	Unfriendly
Lane Hackers	Unfriendly
Xeno	Hostile
Gas Miners Guild	Hostile
Bounty Hunters	Hostile
Colonial Republic	At War
IMG	At War
The Outer Project	At War
House Law Enforcement	At War

Ranking Structure

Sheik

- Known as Lerdi (Miloš Marjanović)

Reaver

-Bassam Hussaini (MareシKing)

-Leonard Seth

Marauder

-Jediah Bayne (MareシKing)

-Ashley Bainbridge (Spoy)

Pillager

-Adorra Vigil (Buja)

-Ivan Dulin (Sava)

-John DeWilde (Zoki)

-Djeghri Ahmed (Satchafunkilus)

Mamluk

-Adam Gontier (Punisher96)

-Al-Rahan Haidar

-Paul Naves

-Sabutai Bahadr

-Sarah Bayne

-Moi Meci

-Ricardo Mixel (sly-beetle)