Burn Crew

by J. I. Rogers

Career

Qualifications

There are only three qualifications to join a Burn Crew:

• You must be Diasporan.

• You must be over the age of twenty-five.

• You must be unemployed.

Career Progression

You must earn your starting place on the Burn Crew.
Recruits are put through a rigorous series of physical tests to determine if they're fit enough to be deployed.
The second portion of the test is psychological, to determine if you're going to be an asset or a detriment to the other crew members.
Note: If either of these tests is failed, a position will be found for you that doesn't place anyone else's life in jeopardy. Most who fail are assigned logistics-related positions and never go top-side. The worst recruits, those that pose a danger to themselves or others, are shipped back to their Diaspora of origin.
The final test is live. If you survive the first tour, you are paid then added to the official roster.
You age-out of service at fifty.

Promotions are much as they are in the military.

Payment & Reimbursement

Pay Rates:
Everyone is paid in Trade Currency Scrip at the end of each tour. While it's not as valuable as the Creds used in the Cluster Cities, it is accepted everywhere and hard to trace.
Members of a Burn Crew are paid well in comparison to most jobs in the Diaspora (except essential services, which require a high level of education/training).

Enlisted
Recruit (first tour): 2500 TCS*
Private: 3000 TCS
Corporal: 4000 TCS
Sergeant: 5000 TCS
Lieutenant: 7000 TCS
Captain: 10000 TCS

Specialists:
Mech: 5000 TCS
Master-Mech: 7000 TCS
Tech: 5000 TCS
Master-Tech: 7000 TCS
Pyro-Tech: 8000 TCS
Med-Tech: 5000 TCS
Doctor: 7000 TCS

Other Benefits

Perks:
As you progress through the ranks or complete more tours of duty, you begin to earn bonuses. Holidays and early retirement (forty) are among the most popular.
In an attempt to draw more people to serve in the Burn Crew, the Ranking family of Merrow Cluster is offering habitation and work visas to entire Diasporan families if a member of their household signs up. Merrow Cluster is now within the outer fringe of the Seep.
Survivor benefits to families are the highest paid out in any Diasporan profession and amount to 50% of the net income times time served.

Perception

Purpose

The Burn Crew are the people that detect and repel incursions from the massive, toxic jungle known as the Seep. They prevent it from growing out into the inhabited regions of Korlune, and they've been slowly losing the battle for the last four hundred years.

Social Status

Applying for Burn Crew is an act of desperation. Anything that places you topside, in weather, and in proximity to the Seep increases your chances of dying horrifically, tenfold. Diasporan who are unlucky enough to find themselves meeting all the criteria to join will often become M'Kang**** and accept the ostracization that comes with it.

Demographics

9,487 out of a population of 2 million Diasporan (.47%) work as Burn Crew, and they are all from Diaspora that have lost Trade Guild Status.

History

In 1792, the Seep's edge spread a record fifty kilometers in 6 months. The Council wisely recognized the threat posed by the toxic jungle and took action. The hardiest Diasporan workers (those with Birlo and Tyran ancestry) were drafted from the Lorsa development and assigned to Major Tashean Rand. Under her command, the first Burn Crews were trained and deployed from the newly constructed Farlen, Wald, Nul, and Lindo Stations.
The learning curve was steep. It took a year to develop an accelerant gel that would stick to the mold growth and plants during storms. The development team's new envirosuits were insufficient. A third of the Diasporan were lost in the first year to weather and infection. Prides of Meerac played a role in reducing the numbers and showed a marked preference for individuals with Birlo blood. Team sizes were increased from two to five to dissuade the predators.
By 1807, the Burn Crews had halted the Seep's expansion, and in 1812 they'd pushed the jungle thirty kilometers back toward Lake Evora.
Major Rand was promoted to Colonel. The surviving teams were all publicly recognized for their bravery by Eliam Makon during the official opening of Lorsa Cluster in 1813. Burn Crews were made an official branch of the Korlune Military.

Operations

Tools

by Jace1969 and Canva Pro Images

Dangers & Hazards

Burn Crew is the most dangerous occupation in both Korlune and Ankoresh. Members who have survived more than three tours without sustaining third-degree burns, physical injuries, or infection are rare. Fatalities on the ground are more common than reported publicly, which takes a psychological toll on everyone there. Many veterans of Burn Crews and the support staff retire early due to PTSD.

The Menace:

"Exhale"

The portion of The Seep's growth cycle where the vegetation releases spores that drift out from the periphery of the jungle onto uncontaminated land. If it is too cold, the spores will lie dormant until favorable conditions present themselves. Once they establish, the resulting mold blanket can grow .3 meters a day. If left unchecked, this blanket provides the footing for trees, vines, and flowers, all of which are toxic to humanoid life. Fire is the only thing that can destroy it.

"Exhale" by J. I. Rogers

"Exhale" - An artist's interpretation.

The Typical Tour:

Schedule: 2 Weeks Off - ? Weeks On

by J. I. Rogers

Stage 1 - Air transports douse the leading edge of the jungle canopy with a Flammable Gel Retardant called Pyrochar, then ignite it. This stops the "Exhale." Ground-based "Bloom*" regions are identified using infrared imaging scans; those spots are saturated with more of the Pyrochar. Once the site is contained, Burn Crews rappel down with their equipment and begin working. They systematically set the area alight using flamethrowers and remain on location until all regions, including the jungle, are completely overtaken by the blaze. It should be noted that the fire in the jungle never spreads past the areas coated with gel and goes out after the accelerant has been consumed. Upon returning to base, all transports and personnel are subjected to a rigorous decontamination procedure. Contaminated items are sterilized or burnt.**

Stage 2 - The Bloom is monitored from the base using patrol drones equipped with infrared cameras. Any areas that escape the first pass are subjected to a second, third, fourth... until nothing but ash remains.

Stage 3 - Mop-up. The burn crews return to the site and go through the still-smoking debris with long, scanning probes. If no dormant spores are detected, the area is again sprayed with the gel retardant. The zone boundary is tagged so it can be watched remotely. After this stage is complete and decontamination protocols have been observed, the Burn Crew spends two weeks in quarantine before their rotation is over and they're allowed to return home.

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Alternative Names

"Seep Fodder" and "Harkkur Vei" (Death's Candles) are the most popular.

Demand

There is a tremendous need for Burn Crew; only three of the seven stations are fully staffed; the rest are monitored remotely. Crews are dispatched when problems are detected. It's proving to not be enough.

Legality

This profession is legal in Korlune. Ankoresh does not employ Burn Crews as their relationship with the Seep is less threatening.

Related Locations

• 11. The Seep

Notes:

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*Bloom - Where mold spores take hold, form a colony and release spores into the air around them.

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**Humanoid Mold/Fungal Infections: If any member of the Burn Crew is injured or their envirosuit is compromised, they are quickly placed in an Autonomic Suspension Bag. They are brought back to base in a specialized carrier that clips under the wing of the transport. Once the ship and crew have passed through decontamination, Med-Techs move the ASB to the Med-Lab vault and the infected individuals are placed in quarantine and treated. The decon protocols rarely fail, but when they do, the results can be catastrophic. Sadly, there have been instances where spores escaped detection and found their way into the air-recycler system for the base. In each case, all personnel were compromised, and only a handful escaped being killed by the resulting Bloom. Mold infections are 98% lethal once they pass the blood-brain barrier. Thanks to modern pharmaceutical advances, early-stage fungal infections can be treated, and Bloom Survivors (active carriers) no longer pose a threat to the general population.

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***The average monthly take-home of someone in the Diaspora is between 1500 TCS - 2000 TCS. Essential Services/Specialists earn 2000 TCS - 3000 TCS.

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**** The M'Kang are Diasporan who have become disenfranchised from their home Diaspora due to criminal activities, or that Diaspora going "offline" (being shut down). They live where they can, making a living by scavenging, trading, theft, and darker things.