The Golden Rings

## Introduction

The Golden Rings (The Rings for short) are a set of three Dyson Rings orbiting a lone star, that would be later called the Star. These rings have different biomes, regions, inhabitants, and functions depending on how far they are from the Star. A Dyson Swarm orbits the Star directly, collecting energy from the Star and relaying it back to the Rings. It was made to serve as a vacation hot spot for the incredibly wealthy, though that soon became an issue, and the Rings no longer shine of gold like they once did.

(Note: No planet location page existed, so I have no idea how the formatting for it is supposed to go. Be sure to yell at me in all caps on how to format this, and include "AAAAAHHHHHHHHH" so I know you're being serious.)

## History

### Construction

Jetchel Machloch was a very wealthy man, having owned amasses enough wealthy to buy out an entire continent to his name. His sight belonged onto that of his riches, and so he sought to acquire more wealth for himself, despite possible repercussions on the galactic economy. There was a certain niche in the vacation market that Jetchel had noticed and wanted to cash in on it. He decided he would invest in and pay for the construction of a new celestial body solely for the rich and wealthy to meet and mingle.

He first picked a lone Star, one that had no orbiting bodies except maybe for a few asteroids. That way, he wouldn't have to bargain peace with the planet and any possible civilizations there. Having found such a Star, he marked the star and several hundred thousand kilometers around it as a construction zone whereby anyone who wanted to pass through the zone had to speak to chief officials that Jetchel appointed. He provided the plans including three rings and the swarm that would orbit the star almost at point-blank range and grant the rings power. This was the first step.

Once the gravity rails were completed to help simulate a gravitational pull onto the surface of the ring as to prevent the people from falling into the Star, next came the structure around the rings. Due to the amount of money invested in the Rings' construction, it was completed in a matter of a few years, and calculations on the Rings' orbits were made to prevent the Rings from crashing into the Star, and vice versa.

Jetchel made sure to apply a purpose to every Ring and named each one:

* The Barren: The hottest of the rings as it was the smallest and closest to the Star. It would bear the weight of fueling the other rings with energy, and also served as the place for community service as penance for crimes committed.
* The Golden: The moderately sized ring resting within the Goldilocks zone of the Star. This would serve as the ring inhabitants of the Rings would reside in. It is also where most of the trade would happen.
* The Frozen: The coldest of the rings as it was the largest and furthest away from the Star. This ring would house outward communications and prison wards for criminals, though tourist locations, such as ski mountains and log cabins, were also planned for construction there.

Jetchel thanked the Star, and swore to make sure his gratitude was known by making Star its name, and requiring all legal and informal documents that would ever use its name include the name with a capital S. Breaking this law was a felony of the highest degree. Whether or not his adoration of the Star became religious is unknown, but a religion was spawned off this idea called "Children of the Star", which believed the Star to be the origin of their lives.

### Patching Holes

For several years, Jetchel, who had named himself mayor of the Rings, had struggled with a problem. He made a promise that the Rings would be available to everyone who could pay to enter. This bore a few repercussions.

The first of these was how he would make sure that people didn't simply pay all the money they had to arrive, and then be impoverished when they arrived. The purpose of the Rings was so the wealthy could escape from this socioeconomic division. To have them chase the wealthy was a threat to Jetchel's image. What he decided to do was to persecute and deport those whose bank accounts did not meet a certain criteria, called the Red Line. This led to the economically unfortunate and those who fell in extreme debt fleeing the government eye by heading down into the bottom floors of the Rings. Of those who were captured, a law was passed whereby anyone who had been below the Red Line their entire inhabitant were departed, but those who had been above it at some point, but fell below were instead placed to work on the Barren to pay off their debts of half the wage of a salary worker.

The second issue was language. Many different being from across the galaxy came to the Rings to seek a high life. Of course, there was nothing wrong with that as long as it meant money in Jetchel's pocket, but these immigrants brought with them languages that were seldom understood. He needed to make a kind of universal language, and establish a Ringian language as the official one. This one was simple: he spoke Ytlech, so he made Ytlech the official language of the Rings. Many inhabitants still speak Earthen and Mobian languages, however. It didn't solve the problem entirely, but three languages were much more manageable than 84.

The third was currency. Many people arrived with their pockets full of money that were legal tender. Exchanging between currencies for every transaction was slow and tedious. Jetchel acknowledged this, and decided to make a new currency standard for the Rings: Gold. Jetchel didn't like the idea of physical money because of how slow it was, but chose to call it Gold because it fit the theme of the Rings. The currency would be digital and kept on cards or on gauntlets wearable on a person's wrist or other similar available appendages. To transfer money, those involved in the transfer would shake hands or otherwise, and turn their appendages so that the one receiving would have theirs be on top. This position was held until the desired amount was extracted. Jetchel also does what he can to keep the value of his gold currency as valuable as possible. Currently, reports say that Earthen currencies exchange 37:1.

The fourth was time- rather, how it was measured. The atomic clock, the one based off the seconds system, didn't fit well into the way of life of the Rings. Especially when not everyone across the galaxy used such an arbitrary system of measuring time. Therefore, he developed his own system: the Sol system, which was based around the orbits of each of the rings around the Star. A cycle refered to how long the rings would take in orbitting the star: The Barren only takes about an hour to orbit the Star. The Golden takes about a day, and the Frozen takes about a month. A sol, on the other hand, referred to how long it took for all three rings to align, about six months.

The fifth was how the Rings lacked a night, but Jetchel didn't seem interested in adding a night to the Rings unless a large enough contribution was made to change his mind. Another issue was the minds of the people.

### Crime

Money and power have great influence over others, and the citizens that came to the Rings brought with them the same selfish and greedy practices that had made them rich to begin with. Human trafficking, though the diverse demographic and galactic origin of the citizens has placed the name of the crime in question, had become a large issue. Be it for ransom, prostitution, slavery, torture, or even for their organs, became a large market. Especially for those who had no sense of moral standing, or that their moral standing allowed for such behavior. Discrimination against new immigrants became an issue too, along with radical views on how to deal with illegal immigration. The term "alien" became a derogatory slur, and though "offworlder" became the politically correct term, it too was being used as a slur.

Although the philanthropic community began to speak out and take action against this, they were silenced via the very methods they were speaking out against. Publicly torturing these and other kindhearted philanthropists to death became very sought after attractions in the Rings. Despite the moral counter arguements to this, Jetchel couldn't deny that these public murders were popular, and their attendance granted him and his compatriots a hefty sum of cash, especially when he passed a law requiring that people buy in to observe these tortures. Still, he knew he needed to do something, and he implemented a bounty system, knowing the only way to get through to his citizens was to speak to them in a language they all knew. Criminals with high bounties would have their gauntlets turn a bright red, and be unable to remove them without also removing their arm, marking criminals of high priority for apprehension.

Some people felt cheated that, despite the Golden Rings having been advertised as a paradise for the wealthy, there were still people of low economic status on the Rings. Though they had been pushed to the bottom of the Rings, this was not enough.

Some of the more radical of the inhabitants had paid a scientist, Dr. Ajobav Aa'chmlech, to get together a team and discuss possible ways to decompose biological waste, such as sewage, in a clean and environmentally friendly way. Dr. Aa'chmlech took them up on their offer and began to develop a hyperfungus. Many projects were made, and while the most recent one at the time, F-P3N15, showed promise, it was stolen by paid mercenaries and spread across the Gutter, affecting thousands or even millions of undocumented and documented citizens that had been Red Lined all the same. The process was done for each Gutter of each Ring, starting an outbreak. Luckily, a quarantine has left F-P3N15 under check, but it was still not eradicated. It currently runs rampant among the poor and unfortunate of the Gutter. A more effective fungus, F-P3N16, was made that wouldn't target healthy flesh.

A hospital was opened on the Barren to help combat this new disease called "Fungal Rehabilitation Center for the Children of the Star", but distrust in the hospital's brand has made the hospital hemorrhage funds. A vaccine and cure was developed for the fungus, but lack of funds, and general distrust towards the hospital, have prevented the hospital from being able to sell their vaccines and cures or host a campaign to clean up the Gutter. Many believe their vaccine will make the fungus worse, despite numerous studies proving otherwise.

## Structure

The Rings are comprised of three Dyson Rings orbiting the Star in the center. Each ring has 5 floors, including the top floor, to it stemming downward. The absolute bottom of every Ring was a Gravity Rail that ran all along the length of the Ring and gave it it's gravitational pull. It's power, especially when near it, was akin to a neutron star. This is likely because it was made using a neutron star.

The bottom floor, Basement 4, is often called the Gutter, as that was where the impoverished "filth of the Rings" resided. The fungus F-P3N15 ran rampant here, and this floor was described as off limits, though no official would stop anyone from going in.

The floor above that, Basement 3, was a storage room for merchandise and for tools to troubleshoot any parts of the Rings that needed fixing. The network of hallways made it easy to get to major engineering points of interest, but those who knew the layout knew it could also allow for quick and unhindered travel across the rings. However, accessing this floor without permission was a crime.

Above that was an energy floor on Basement 2. This would be used in receiving and processing the energy sent to it by the Barren. The levels of this area needed to be regulated to keep the energy flow going, but also keep them from over heating. This only needed to be done every few Frozen cycles.

Above this floor was a floor that consisted of transportation to the other basement floors and was called Basement 1. Entering Basement 1 could either be done via a manhole, or a small flight of stairs, each of which were near the edges of the rings they resided on. From here, the other floors could be accessed via a flight of stairs going even further down on the right, or an elevator on the left.

The ground floor is where most of the action takes place, but it's normally just called the name of the ring too, since it's the place where most of the action takes place anyways. Above that is a bubble made of an organic genetically engineered algea meant to trap in the air and convert used air into breathable air, making a breathable atmosphere, but also dissipating the heat along the ring and outward into the vacuum of space as to prevent the ring from overheating.

## Laws

(This section is under development. Any ideas or contributions would be greatly appreciated.)

Committing a crime adds the amount that crime is worth to your overall bounty. The higher a citizen's bounty, the more their gauntlet will glow red, and the more severe their sentence will be when captured. Alternatively, a criminal can turn themselves in and have the option to pay off their bounty. The amount paid will be deducted from the bounty, at which point a sentence will be determined based on how much of the bounty was left. Sentences include:

* 1 gold: Slap on the wrist
* 100 gold: Fined 100 gold
* 500 gold: Gold cycle of slave labor or Frozen cycle of
* 1000 gold: One Sol of Slave labor or three Sols of incarceration.
* 5,000 gold: Ten sols of slave labor, or death via Gravity Rail.
* 10,000 gold: Death - method is decided via public auction.
* 50,000 gold: Public torture as a paid event, death - method is decided via public auction.

Crimes that would incur these bounties, along with their values, are as follows:

* Disruption of Peace: 50 gold
* Harassment: 100 gold
* Theft: 100 gold plus 120% of the value of the stolen item(s)
* Assault: 600 gold
* Manslaughter: 800 gold
* Fraud: 900 gold plus the value of damages caused
* Trafficking, buying or selling: 900 gold
* Emotional Murder: 900 gold
* Kidnapping: 1000 gold
* Abuse: 1000 gold per type and person
* Planned Murder: 1100 gold
* Assaulting a Keeper of the Peace: 1200 gold
* Emotional Murder of a Keeper of the Peace: 2000 gold
* Planned Murder of a Keeper of the Peace: 3000 gold

## Key Players

Jetchel Machlock: Mayor and commissioner of the Golden Rings. He cared only for the profits the Rings can bring him, and that mentality has spread to most of the populace. He tries what he can to please his citizens while also trying to make sure that the citizens don't realize that they are a part of a capitalistic dictatorship.

Ajobav Aa'chmlech: the lead scientist in the development of F-P3N15 and F-P3N16. After seeing how F-P3N15 had been used, he decided to make it his life's mission to stop it and clean up the mess he helped create. He founded a hospital on the Barren to stop the the fungus from ever getting a chance to cause an outbreak. He struggles to stay awake and not pass out from heat stroke. Being an aquamarine being in a super heated locale isn't easy, but he believes too strongly in the eradication of F-P3N15

F-P3N15: a fungus that has a necrotic effect on organic tissue both alive and dead. It latches onto the cell, and saps it of energy while giving a small amount back, staying alive long enough to grow and spread. It can retract and expand to protect itself from temperatures cold and hot respectively. A chemical known as Tetra Flouride Cannibanol has been proven to have a great effect in treating this fungus. Paired with the ability to make the fungus expose itself, a specialized hospital for treating this fungus was made on the Barren.

Keith "Axel" Winters: A conman and business owner that sells digitized consciousnesses as Electronic Personal Assistants or EPAs. Having made himself a multi-millionaire following the capture of a prime target after a mission gone wrong, he makes contributions to the Fungal Rehab Center, helping to increase the hospital's and his own clientele. He also helps in running a bounty hunting ring, selling information on targets. Though his fortune came at the price of his body, he's living fine with an artificial one.

Subject "Ky" MIST-01: An offworlder who arrived seeking refuge from his creator and 'brother'. He aided Axel in making Axel a multi-millionaire and had the same fortunate fortune befall him. In his visit, he met a girl, Sarah Samuelson, that he adopted as his daughter. He makes frequent trips back and forth to help improve the Rings. (Subject is owned by Mephiles\_97.)

But there's always room for more...