08/08/24 ♦ microcosm crime

so it's really hard to be a career criminal in the microcosm. i mean, it seems pretty cool from the outset, jetting around in a cool ship firing guns and shit, kicking ass and taking names, but it's like the romanticisation of the cowboy lifestyle

what's more likely is that you'll end up drifting, taking real damage and sustaining injuries you can't mend in any port of call lest folks recognise you, with no support net or connections and no ability to affect meaningful political change. there's no real benefit to living outside of the system in that way. but... there is another way!

many colonies in the Outer Wilds were founded by dissident groups who found the rather rigid organisational structures within Gossamer to be limiting. while ideally not doing so, the sheer level of saturation and pipelining in longer-lived echelons can, ironically, make change far slower than some would like. there are many habitable planets in Syndication borders, and not even the Core Systems are truly fully developed - take your pick!

even on planets with established populations, there's opportunities to be had. want to start a little village up in the mountains? might take a bit if you want some modular prefab housing shipped up there, but if you have a solid plan, a couple folks to help, and are willing to put in a bit of work to supply the place with all you need, fuck it, go for it. as long as you're not stepping on anyone's proverbial toes up there it's cool. even better if you start producing - you'll even get a few bars for the trouble

"but what if i don't want to live on a habitable world?" yeah sure, habitation probably exists for that, just check the label. there's a few worlds that you really shouldn't colonise, just out of common sense, but some folks don't have the same common sense as others. have you ever fished diamonds out of a hot gas giant's atmosphere? dove to the bottom of an ammonia sea to farm weird fish? stepped out for a while to enjoy the sulphuric acid rain?

hell, you don't even need to colonise a planet. ever looked out the window at the ethereal viscera of a nebula? skimmed the kessler cloud of a ruinworld for valuable metals? felt the thump and shudder of the truly massive hypermagnetopulse system taking your home from A to B?

idk. there's a lot of opportunity out there. dream big, and for god's sake unionise