Helios Gate Setting
Once a deep-space mining platform orbiting beyond Ganymede, the Helios Gate has since been reforged into something far stranger: a sanctuary for the lawless, the desperate, and the dangerously competent. It drifts in a gravefield of fused asteroids and hollowed rock, armored by debris and guided by cold automation. Officially, it’s under the control of a single man—Vorn, the station’s outfitter-in-chief and self-declared proprietor. Unofficially, no one controls Helios for long. Bounty hunters, smugglers, mercs, and scavengers move through its hangars like blood through old veins. There are no guards—only mounted turrets, drone swarms, and rules enforced by memory and muzzle flash. Vorn runs the docks, fits the ships, and names his price in cryptowrits, salvage, or silence. He doesn’t care where you came from—only whether you can pay, or whether you’re already tagged for collection. Helios is a waypoint, a trap, a haven—and a war waiting to happen. If the guns don’t get you, the contracts might. Welcome aboard. Try not to make yourself too visible. Or too valuable..
The Station
Peak Population ~ 32-6,000 estimated
(32 Permanent Citizens, 1-6k Temporary Residents)
(temporary residents fluctuate depending on local conflicts)
Government ~ Central authority figure behind automated proxy.
(CEO Lazlo Vorn assumed total control after the original research team left)
Primary Export ~ Data, contracts, armaments, and ship outfitting.
Primary Import ~ Salvage, medical resources, and rations.
Total Military Strength ~ Automated Defenses and Contractors.
(Helios Gate has no regular guards or soldiers)
Rotational Flak Turrets ~ Main core of the point defense systems.
(firing solid projectiles, they are perfect for most threats)
Teleforce Array ~ Designed to handle larger shielded threats.
(stationary structures that generate devastating directional bursts of energy)
Mass Driver Rail System ~ Reserved for fleet level threats.
(capable of penetrating the toughest shields and armor)
Drone Swarm ~ A deployable screen of unmanned fighters.
(meant to slow enemies and provide an extra layer of external defense)
Mercenaries ~ Temporary defenders operating off personal gains.
(contracts are offered station wide when a crisis breaks out)
Vorn's Command Frigate ~ Civilian frigate with military outfits.
(will sometimes be deployed for extra support or as a quick escape)
Law and Order ~ Strict penalties for theft or damage to station.
(large fines turn quickly into high priority contracts if one is not careful)
Currency ~ Cryptowrit – ∴
(accepted throughout the colonies, it is a rising form of digital currency)
Religion ~ None. (people are free to do what they please, but this isn't the place for preaching)
Power Sources ~ The station draws power from a Genesis Engine. (stored at the core, this device was left over from the previous owners)
Carbonaceous Cradle built from asteroids fused together through advanced engineering, the station's added mass offers both exceptional durability and naturally imposing aesthetics
Teleforce Array the true backbone of the station’s defenses, it was engineered from Nikola Tesla’s long-lost design for a so-called “death ray”—now made real
The Hive Market even shopkeepers must sleep in their ships, but this sprawling multi-tiered market feeds most of the outcasts in the system so no one starts any trouble here
Vorn Outfitters the best spot for off-the-books ship modifications—whether you're upgrading firepower or finding clever ways to stash cargo off the logs
Faction Influence
Although Helios Gate is said to serve no flag, that doesn’t mean the factions keep their distance. Some slip in under fake registries, others rent hangar space through shell fronts. A few don’t bother hiding at all—they just offer the right payout to the right person and let the station’s silence do the rest. The result? A volatile mix of off-the-books alliances, backroom deals, and quiet power plays unfolding in the shadows. Whether Vorn tolerates it or simply profits from it is anyone’s guess. Either way, no one moves through Helios without leaving something behind.
The most common denizens of Helios Gate, the Eidolon Fleet are a ragged collection of criminal outcasts who treat the station as their second home. As some of Helios’s most loyal repeat customers, the pirates are more than welcome. Provided they police their own and settle any fines their members rack up. Incidents still flare up from time to time, but overall, it’s an arrangement that suits both sides. Helios serves as the perfect middleman in the resale of stolen cargo and raided ships. Automated systems strip, scrub, and repackage anything that comes through the hangars, leaving little trace of origin. Some argue the station should be doing more to clamp down on this kind of activity, but no one’s seen Lazlo Vorn in nearly a decade, and his opinion on the matter remains as distant as the man himself. Profit, it seems, still has the final say—and there’s no denying that stolen goods sell exceptionally well.Eidolon Pirates
Officially, Helios is sanctioned by every major civilization in the solar system. After funding collapsed and the original research team retreated back to earth, Lazlo Vorn remained. The black-market magnate saw opportunity in the wreckage—and struck a quiet deal with KNIGHTCOMM. In exchange for using Helios as a deep-space relay hub, the corporation would outfit it with infrastructure: automated defenses, surveillance networks, and weapons arrays. But hardware alone wasn’t enough. Helios needed a few boots on the deck to maintain the systems and enforce basic order. Donated by the UEC’s overflowing prison system, these “agents” are stripped of identity and rebuilt using black-market bionics imported from Port Mariana. Most of the frontal lobe is replaced. Empathy, memory, and fear—cut out at the root. What remains is obedience, precision, and cold silence: the agency of man with the mind of a machine.KNIGHTCOMM Contractor
What began as a niche outfitting service for Kōan Vesta pilots has evolved into one of the most loyal and well-armed customer bases in the system. Margins are no longer measured in account balances or personal resources, but instead in long term survivability. Every ship fitted and every drone launched is part of a long-term strategy: outlast, outgun, outmaneuver. The rising tension with the Himmelskrieger isn’t ideological, it’s logistical. Territory, access, and autonomy are the levers of profit, and Kōan Vesta refuses to surrender any of them. Founded by a lineage of engineers whose family history stretches all the way back to the Edo Period in Japan, the company carries a deep cultural memory of sovereignty earned, not granted. They didn’t come to space to be ruled by foreign powers masking their intention as unity. They came to build and to thrive. If necessary—they also came to fight.Kōan Vesta 公安ヴェスタ
Another off-the-books contract, Orison Works found its own use for Helios. The lawless outpost offered the perfect testing ground for prototypes deemed too volatile—or too unethical—for use in civilized space. There’s never a shortage of young pilots willing to strap into an unproven craft in exchange for a handful of cryptowrits and the promise of flight time. A few ships have exploded on the pad. Others vanish mid-burn. A few survive just long enough to leave wreckage scattered across the asteroid belt. Vorn doesn’t seem to mind, so long as the crates keep arriving and the credits clear. Now and then, a pirate crew will try to seize one of these experimental vessels. Rarely does anyone intervenes—after all, most of these ships are fighters, and live combat data is worth more than a dozen simulations.Orison Works Test Pilots
While Helios runs on fuel, comms, and credits—its darker economy pulses beneath the surface. Already partnered in a separate deal, Umber Deep and Quiet Engine Corp have taken a quiet but deliberate stake in the station. Officially, they have no presence. Unofficially, they handle some of Helios’ most sensitive transactions. High-value contraband. Obscure chemical dependencies. Memory-locked courier drives. Here, what would take months to secure through a dozen false identities in civilized space is a simple exchange of funds. No questions, no records. Just a nod and a number. But vice isn't the only currency. Helios offers something even more valuable to Quiet Engine: a sandbox. A place to field-test malware strains that can slip past UEC firewalls. To run synthetic identity burnouts against live subjects. To erase minds—and then repurpose the bodies. Nothing draws attention, because no one’s looking. And if something goes wrong? It’s just another power fluctuation, another body spaced, another name scrubbed from the manifest. Helios keeps no ledgers.The Obscura Consortium
Although no formal aggression has been recorded, unidentified scouting vessels linked to the Himmelskrieger have been observed near the sector. Most glide through silent and precise, indifferent to the criminal hub orbiting Ganymede. But some linger just long enough to stir unease. No one ever attempts contact. No hails, no warnings, with even the boldest captains keeping their distance. The Helios Gate boasts reinforced plating, layered countermeasures, and a defense grid forged for war. All that would matter little in the event of an actual attack. Himmelskrieger ships don’t bristle with weapons. They hum. Space bends around them and sound travels in a vacuum where it should not. Their harmonic weapons don’t strike—they rupture. If you're in range, there's no escape. No countermeasure. Ships that engage them are shattered like glass with no survivors.Himmelskrieger
Whispers persist about a secret family hidden deep within the bones of Helios Gate—kept by Vorn himself, or so the rumors go. Some claim to have glimpsed them by accident. Others admit they were snooping where they shouldn’t have been. Either way, the story’s always the same: they’re never alone. Always flanked by autonomous security drones—military-grade, unnervingly silent, and programmed to neutralize threats before they happen.Vorn's Secret Family
These drones are a rare sight on the station floor, deployed only in moments of extreme crisis—or suspicion. Their reputation for excessive force has earned them a wide berth. Those who know better turn the other way the moment one appears. It’s said even a nervous twitch can land you on their kill list.
A leaked manifest once listed thirty-two permanent residents aboard Helios—an odd number, considering most assume the station is either fully automated or solely maintained by Vorn from the shadows. A few engineers and specialists have been granted temporary quarters while contracted, but even they admit: they’ve never seen the man. Only directives. Only silence.
Bounty Board
While anyone can submit a contract, it must pass several stages of vetting before going public. First, it needs approval from the system admin—allegedly Vorn himself, though most suspect he offloaded that task to an AI years ago. Once accepted, the bounty must be paid in full—no refunds, no exceptions. A non-negotiable listing fee is charged to cover "liability concerns," though in practice it seems more like a steady source of profit for Helios. The payout offered rarely reflects the risk—just the cost of being allowed to do business.
(a great jumping off point to build campaigns from)
Wanted : Ivan Checkov
(posted by the Eidolon Fleet)
"Highly modified Russian national that managed to cause big trouble. Contract pays for elimination, don't bring in alive."
- However long it takes.
- Need a ship and a few friends.
- Pays 5,000 cryptowrits.
Egg Head Needed
(posted by Vorn)
"Found something in the middle of an asteroid that needs a big brain to check it out. Discretion is required."
- Three months to start.
- Personal equipment, egg head.
- 3k cryptowrits + room & board.
Expedition Escort
(posted by Orison Works)
"We need some extra staff to investigate an anomaly in deep space. Science, military, or medical backgrounds welcome."
- Could take up to month.
- Gear and personal supplies.
- 1.5k cryptowrits+ room & board.
Array Instillation
(posted by KNIGHTCOMM)
"A promising new spot for an instillation has been found and we are hiring an engineer to see it through,"
- Plan for a month.
- Your own ship and tools.
- Pays 1,000 cryptowrits.
Wanted : Recruits
(posted by the Eidolon Fleet)
"Want to get your teeth wet on some corporate colonist pigs? We need some more heads for a job."
- Week tops.
- Able to patch meat/metal or fight.
- Share of the haul. We eat, you eat.
Bounty : Derelict Miner
(posted by Kōan Vesta)
"Miner has gone missing with Kōan Vesta property before his contract was up. Callsign Sipe."
- Undetermined timeframe.
- Tracking skills, non-violent target.
- 1k CW for Sipe, 5k for stolen assets.
Derelict Ghost Ship
(posted by the Quiet Engine Corp)
“We're not sure who built it, or how long its been out there. Paying for a salvage team to retrieve us for us.”
- A few weeks to a month.
- Ship large enough to tow a frigate.
- 25k cryptowrits for retrieval.
Earth Pickup
(posted by Umber Deep)
"We have special cargo that needs picked up on Earth and delivered to Phobos. Discretion essential"
- Less than a week.
- Cargo bay and stealth outfit.
- 10,000 cryptowrits.
Bounty : Himmelskrieger Ship
(posted by Kōan Vesta)
"We've been able to engage a few but recovery has yielded nothing. Need an intact vessel for study."
- One engagement.
- Something to disable them.
- 50,000 cryptowrits.
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