Coventry--a campaign twist

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by YankeeGamer

Some praise it. Some fear it. Some compare it to a British or American Concentration Camp. (Few compare it to the Nazi camps. The British camps contained Boers, the American ones contained Japanese Americans—neither were intended to kill the people there.)

My interpretation of Coventry has a well defended fortress; the Infinite Headquarters. It’s one of the most secure places in the universe--a place where Infinity’s law prevails. All well and good, but for one minor problem.

No satellites, no DEW line, no space facilities. The only radar is designed to control the area right around headquarters.

To keep the squeamish happy, they have an assortment of Potemkin Villages, where life is “good,” and things like medical care are available for “free.” Life isn’t great, but it's stable. People are free to leave, but those who do are on their own. Most of the ones who leave don’t go too far, and live somewhat under the aegis of Infinity.

Others have gone further afield, including some that Infinity would rather…didn't. Some have died, some are monitored by drones, but others have faked their deaths in the wild. Now living in places that Infinity has not found, they are trying to bootstrap their technology, aided by stolen goods and some truly brilliant people. They wouldn’t be very far along, but they can listen electronically. Some have more psionic powers than Infinity realizes, and others are just inspired. Their base is in caves, helping hide their minimal emissions.

In a few generations, they might be an escape risk—perhaps sooner, if one scientist’s ideas are valid.

One fine evening, life changed for everyone. None noticed the occultation of the stars, or the silently descending survey ship. The spacefarers could clearly see that the planet was an outpost of a mid-tech range civilization. With stealth fields raided

The survey ship very quickly realized that this isn't a civilization's homeworld, but some form of colony. After a few weeks in orbit, they could tell that people were arriving and departing without space ships, and the demographics and settlement patterns were all too familiar: Coventry is a prison planet, of an unknown civilization that travels without space ships.

On realizing that, they leave post haste.

A few days/weeks/months later, a heavy cruiser arrives to begin first contact...

The idea here is that The Secret is effectively blown regarding the spacegoing civilization, but it won't do them any good--Coventry is only reachable with conveyors boosted by projectors on homeline. (At least for now.)

Interstellar technology does Homeline no good, either; it doesn't work on homeline.

Can of worms cracked, but not necessarily opened...

The thing is, Coventry is a whole universe. Marooning people, can't be exactly a concentration camp of any kind-it's just to big. Furthermore anyone who gets a passage there is probably intelligent enough to survive, especially if supplies are regularly brought in.

Maintaining a fortress there is dubious. Maintaining a prison-within-a-prison has the same objection though if someone there is really important to "deal with" Infinity might want to do that. You do not want the locals to get a chance to hijack it. The best thing to do is temporary visits to make sure everything is up to snuff. Even then you want to guard your LZ carefully and then leave when the job is done.

I don't see it as being like a detention camp of the kind you describe. There is really no reason to go to a great effort to lock people up. It is to much work and expense and counterproductive and Infinity sounds like they are at least practical about such things. It sounds more like Australia. Or that thing Havenites used to do in Honor Harington where they would dump prisoners on an island and ignore them unless they were StateSec and liked bullying people for the heck of it.