Radio Revolution
Life on Ledyanoy Shar is incomprehensibly hard for those unfortunate enough to labor there. Former serfs, prisoners, debtors, and other unfortunate souls are forced to live in the violent barren wasteland for little to no pay or rights afforded to them by the corporate officers who keep them in line. Life for said officials is not much better, as stints out in the icy tundra can last months at a time. What few creature comforts the corporate status allows them does little to stymie the terror of living in a cave or mining rover, especially when they are sustained on nothing but alien mushrooms, always uneasy of when the enemy might attack. With all the horrors and trials inflicted upon those cursed to work on Ledyanoy Shar, it is no wonder that the rates of murder and madness are unsettlingly high.
To help elevate the nightmarish conditions, every Chernaya Zvezda Ice Crawler, Kharkovchanka, and corporate officer is issued multiple radio receivers not only for communication and coordination of the fleet but also for the sake of the morale of all those serving on the hellish celestial body. When not passing the time drinking pukhlyy grib morret, the workers on the “Ice Ball” tune in to the various broadcasts from the Bolshoi Aetherplex. These broadcasts include various comedy shows, news programs, and recorded performances from the different casino theaters frequented by the Boyars and aristocracy. These stations are broadcast at a significant delay to giant dishes mounted to the Ice Crawlers, and then transmitted to the smaller receivers for the workers and foremen to listen to at their leisure. Unfortunately for those living on the celestial body, the broadcasts from the Aetherplex are often wrought with technical errors due to the volatile ring systems surrounding Ledyanoy Shar. Most broadcasts contain extreme static and often go in and out. For this reason, every broadcast is repeated across dozens of sister stations, so that if the signal is weak or lost for one station, listeners can tune in on another. The result of this is that radio broadcasts from Bolshoi Aetherplex have created a maze of stations many of which are mostly static that the workers tirelessly navigate in the hope of escaping the dreadful conditions of life on the celestial body.
Among this labyrinth, one station rises above the rest, the infamous Radio Revolution(Радио Революция) and its affiliate stations. Radio Revolution provides its listeners with a nonstop blast of Bolshevik propaganda ranging from talk shows, to foreign music, to live readings of the Communist Manifesto. Similar to the station broadcast by the Bolshoi Aetherplex, Radio Revolution floods the airwaves with multiple radio stations repeating the same shows. Unlike the Aetherplex however, every broadcast is clear with little to no static. The result of this is that for the average listener, it is easier to listen to a Radio Revolution broadcast than to listen to fragments from the Aetherplex. This heightened audio quality has completely baffled engineers and corporatists alike.
Listening to these controversial broadcasts is highly discouraged by corporate enforcers, though given the convenience of the stations and the monotony of life in an ice crawler some officers are stricter than others in banning the propaganda. The presence of the station has puzzled Russian scientists, as no one has yet to discern the origin of the broadcasts. Some have theorized that the broadcasts come from deep within the planet's cave system, while others have proposed that perhaps the remaining Bolsheviks hide somewhere in the asteroids orbiting the planet. Whatever the reason for the mystery, for many Radio Revolution provides a great escape from the harsh reality of life on Ledyanoy Shar.
Comments