Axia is the working title for a science fiction story set in orbit above a dying world. The following are excerpts from the design documents. All text Copyright ©2004 by Brendan Sechter. All illustrations Copyright ©2004 by Scott Lininger.

You can download the latest version of Star Fortress Dendron (the working title) over at my main GBA site...

Axia is a dying planet. After years of capitalistic greed, the environment has taken a turn for the worst and the planet is becoming uninhabitable. People with enough money to do so have moved to sheltered domes. The rest of the population has to brave the elements- not many survive.

Axia is a dying planet. The government of Axia is corrupt and refuses to do anything about it. Eight years ago, under pressure from foreign businesses, the government sponsered the construction of the Axian Space Fortress Dendron.

Many consider Dendron a haunted space station due to the number of misfortunate events and strange happening that have occurred there.

The project was undercapitalized and riddled with disasters from the time of it's conception and construction. Dendron was supposed to contain high powered shields and state of the are planetary defense systems. The government even procured a rare crystal to synchronize these high tech systems. A construction accident destroyed sector 5 of the station. It was never rebuilt. Sector 4 was damaged by the accident but it was repaired. Without sector 5, the power grid had to be reconfigured. Due to an obfuscated, overly complex design it has been buggy ever since. The life support systems suffered similar problems.

Axia is a dying planet. This promotes short term thinking. Initially created to facilitate trade and protect the planet, the Axian Space Fortress Dendron was ultimately a disaster and fell into disrepair and was sold to the highest bidder. Only two of the six planned civilian sectors are inhabited. (Sectors 1 and 2). One of the two control sectors is used (Sector H), the other has been sealed off (Sector L). The station core (Sector C) is not properly maintained.

Sector C (the station core) was designed to be powered by both sectors H and L. It has been put in a low power state. Sector H was designed to power civilian sectors 1, 3 and 5, and sector L was designed to power civilian sectors 2, 4, and 6. Since sector 5 was never completed, an ad hoc solution was devised to power sectors 1 and 3. After sector L was sealed off, another ad hoc solution was created to bring power from sector H into sector 2. The current owners and inhabitants of Dendron are considering repairing civilian sector 3.

Each civilian sector is at least as big as a small town. They are also fairly crowded. They are large enough that a careful individual can escape into one and go underground with an effective zero percent chance of being located.

The station has a bad reputation, and they are generally having trouble keeping people. Superstitious people desert or find a way to transfer. Sometimes secular individuals transfer for safety reasons. The station has a relatively but not ridiculously high suicide rate. The suicide rate is higher among military personnel than it is among civilians.

Sector H is considered spookier than the civilian sectors. Military personnel are responsible for patrolling Sector C. Sector C is considered worse than sector H. The unused sectors are considered the worst, but they are not patrolled. Many people believe that strange things go on in the uninhabited sectors- either cult or spirit related, but those in charge refuse to investigate.

Axia is a dying planet. Everybody knows it, but nobody outside of the doomsday cults are willing to talk about it openly. Close to 100% of the non-secular population belongs to at least one doomsday cult. Axia is as polytheistic as there are stars in the sky, and it is not uncommon for those with a religion to belong to more than one. 70% of those with a religion at all belong to at least one of the following three cults: Draruan Resurrection Movement, the Creators of Eternal Machines, or the Ever Watching.

Axia is a dying planet. The Draruan Resurrection Movement just knew this before before anybody else did. This is Axia's oldest and most powerful doomsday cult, although the Creators of Eternal Machines are arguably more dangerous. This cult worships a god of death and destruction- Drarua. They believe that the ones that resurrect Drarua will be granted immortality in world of the dead. Some members of this group claim to merged their spirits with demons. They claim to have supernatural powers.

The Draruan Resurrection Movement believes that a key artifact vital to the resurrection of Drarua was taken by the Axian government and desecrated in the creation of the Axian Space Fortress Dendron. Many of this cults followers move to the Space Fortress in search of what they call "The Artifact". Followers of the Draruan Resurrection Movement own over 60% of the property and establishments in sector 2 of the Space Fortress.

Axia is a dying planet. The Creators of Eternal Machines believe that eventually all of their race will die, but machines will live on. This order is highly academic and runs a great number of the colleges and universities on Axia. Many of its members are scientists and engineers. Leaders of this order will do anything to get the money to fund their (often psychotic) experiments and prototypes. The order has been known to create high powered robots that are programmed systematically kill. The Creators of Eternal Machines believe that as their race nears its end, everybody will become sterile and people will need to cloned to improve the chances of creating machines capable of running the planet.

Axia is a dying planet. The Ever Watching is a group that believes an individual can prolong his or life- potentially indefinitely, by honing his or her psychic powers. Because people with psychic abilities are relatively few and far between, this group has a weaker following than both the Draruan Resurrection Movement and the Creators of Eternal Machines. Many of its members are dreamers, and are not disciplined enough to hone any psychic abilities they may or may not have. This group is not violent.

The secular population thinks that all of the cult members are a bunch of quacks.

The main character, Alvin, is a member of the military of the planet that purchased the space station. He is transferred to the station from somewhere else. He is an atheist. He does not believe in ghosts, psionics or anything other than the physical world. That is the reason why he was chosen to be transferred. His beliefs are going to be tested. He does what he needs to to get the job done. He is about 25 years old.

He does some free roaming security, some group security and is also responsible for completing assignments. Most of the assignments are in sector 2. There are a lot of murders there. Oddly enough, most of those that are are murdered have no ID and no records in station files. Rarely does anybody come forward to identify a body. There rest of the people that turn up dead in sector 2 tend to be deserters. More deserters than not are found with ID, so it does not look like people are being killed for their ID. The people in charge of the station suspect unregestered immigration (smuggling) into the station, but can not find any evidence.

Physical Description: Just below average height, but well built. Wears glasses with thin frames and round lenses. Sometimes wears contacts. Crew cut. Dark eyes, ligher hair than his sister. Wears a military uniform. Has a generally neat, tidy and professional. 25 years old.

The main character has a half sister, Janice, who he last met when he was 11 years old. She died when he was 13. She is 12 years older than he is. She was a spiritualist, and although the main character will not come into contact with her, he will meet people that she knew. She was 25 when she died, and died in a shuttle accident more or less where the station is now. She died there before the station was built. The main character does not like to admit that he has a half sister because it is something his father is ashamed of. (The situation was a mess on the fathers part.)

Physical Description: Average height. Long dark curly hair. Lots of hair. Dark eyes. No glasses. Wears robes and beads and lots of jewelry. Wears loop earrings. Wears lots of rings. Multicolored painted nails. Has a generally mismatched look. Clothing is very colorful. 25 years old when she died.

The main character is going to meet a strange woman in sector 5 named Arira. She has yellow eyes, a pale complexion and pale hair. She is not his sister, but claims that she is one of his sister's friends. At times she seems to argue with herself aloud, and laughs after she says anything, be the statement positive or negative. She refuses to enter sector 2 and avoids occult shops and exorcists. She has great respect for the main character's sister, and finds it hard to believe he doesn't believe in spirits. At times she abruptly excuses herself and leave for long periods of time without explanation. She is able to turn off most machines by coming into contact with them (at will).

Physical Description: Slightly tall. Extremely thin and frail looking. Long, fine, abnormally pale hair. Bright yellow to orange eyes. Eyes have almost a glow in the dark look to them (kind of like cat eyes). Abnormally pale complexion. Almost looks albino, but has some pigmentation of a clearly unnatural color (blue to violet part of the spectrum). Nails are abnormally long and pointy but are rounded at the tips. No piercings, jewelry or other ornamentation. Always wears the same long flowing reflective gown. Gown has long sleeves. Never wears shoes. Toe nails are like finger nails- abnormally long, pointy but rounded at the tips. Has a generally ethereal and youthful appearance.

The main character is told by the above mentioned strange woman, to meet another one of the sister's friends in sector 2. This friend is a sham psychic healer. He offers healing until the main character mentions his sisters name. At that point the healer admits he is a sham and does his best get the main character to leave. He comments that the main character's sister died, but strange things always did happen when she was involved. The healer moved to sector 2 from another planet about a year ago. The main character has more dealings with the healer. The healer is greedy.

Physical Description: Tall, long blond hair. Hair looks untidy. Wears a suit and tie and lots of gaudy jewelry. Carries an elaborate painted cane, with a large orb of colored glass on the top. Has many piercings in his left ear and one in his right. Has a glyph of some sort tattooed on the top of his left hand.

Supporting Character: Cassandra
30 y/o. Short (above the neck) brown hair with green eyes. Average height. Athletic. She is a mercenary hired by the Draruan Resurrection Movement, but has decided to desert because she does not feel safe working for them. Met in a cult robe, she switches over to a black combat suit with a helmet and night vision. She is non-registered and entered with others via a makeshift port in sector 4.

Supporting Character: William
William is in charge of all the military personnel on the station. He is a short fat old man with a long white beard an mustache. He looks like Santa Claus in uniform. He is very superstitious and doesn't want his men to be attacked by demons. Nobody talks about it, but everyone knows that he is making deals with the cults.