Event Horizon

***Event Horizon*** is one of the two ringworld space stations built by humanity, alongside *Fortune*. Unlike its sister station, *Event Horizon* is independent and governed as the **Station-State of *Event Horizon***. Officially a "neutral zone", several competing factions operate freely on the station, including the Legion, the Transport Union, Twin Moon and a recruitment office of the Free Economic Zone.

## History

The origins of *Event Horizon* trace back to the 21st century, when humanity was beginning to permanetly colonize the worlds of the Sol System. Before planetary colonies were established, many explorers settled on space stations within the L2 Lagrange point of the system's planets; one of the largest and most important of these early space stations was the Japanese *Kibō* station, which possessed the first von Braun wheel to generate artificial gravity via rotation; similar technology was eventually installed on the *Gateway*. The World Initiative for Space created active plans to build an international ring-shaped station in the late 2070s, but these plans were ultimately abandoned to provide funding for the secretive *Crusader* Program.

By the 24th century, mankind had spread far beyond Earth into a territory called the Settled Systems; in the wake of the Herschel Wars, many spacer settlers were displaced, caught between serving either of the two new governments or joining the Spacers Legion. An alternative was offered by Von Braun Construction, an aerospace architecture corporation that sought to build two ringworlds, true wheel-shaped space stations, that could be permanently inhabited; one would be built in orbit of a planet, while another would be built around a white dwarf. The vast amount of metal required for these stations was harvested from planetoids, asteroids and a few uninhabited moons.

The objects that resulted became *Fortune* and *Event Horizon*; Von Braun Construction sold *Fortune* to the United Colonies to try and avoid bankruptcy but ultimately folded, leaving *Event Horizon* unfinished. With the project in limbo, the station's workers and their families decided to finish construction themselves. Once the station had been completed - without the aid or influence of any outside faction - *Event Horizon* declared independence as the Station-State of *Event Horizon*, the first sovereign territory outside of the United Colonies or Herschel Nations.

## Structure

### Size

The diameter of *Event Horizon* is approximately 10,200 kilometres, making it the largest man-made object ever built, larger even than some terrestrial worlds; it is slightly larger than its sister station *Fortune*, which clocks in at 10,050 kilometres, and a little under four times the diameter of its white dwarf host. Its width of 4.5 kilometres is mostly uniform across the interior face of the station. Its immense size has made it almost impossible for its weight to be calculated.

### Zones

The ring-shaped *Event Horizon* is divided into eight "zoning districts" or "zones"; each zone is named for a founding member of the station or someone who aided its completion. Each zone is subsequently divided into "levels", and each level into informal "neighbourhoods".

#### Combat Zone

The Combat Zone is a gladiatorial arena where all violent disputes are mandated to be settled. It is an unofficial zone located between Ayer Zone and Travis Zone on a formerly-derelict section of the station that was used to store equipment during its construction. The entire area is less than 0.3 kilometres thick, and its levels each act as a different "stage".

Since open violence is strictly forbidden on the station - all visitors are required to turn in their weapons for the duration of their stay - due to the presence of many competing factions, disputing parties are given a choice: peaceful settlement there and then, or accepting the challenge of the Combat Zone. Fights in the Combat Zone attract thousands of spectators and are overseen by the Station Chief. Battles in the Combat Zone are not necessarily to the death; if one party surrenders at any time the fight is immediately suspended.

## Government & Politics

The Station-State of *Event Horizon* is a modern day city-state that strictly follows a doctrine of neutrality: it is aligned with no singular faction aside from its own and allows almost all other factions to operate within its territory, including Twin Moon pirates; Transport Union engineers (whose galactic headquarters is located on the station); the office of Frontiers; representatives from both the United Colonies and the Herschel Nations; recruiters for the Free Economic Zone; and an Iconoclast church. The Station-State was the second sovereign state to be declared following the Herschel Wars.

During elections, each level chooses a councillor to represent them in their district's council; each resident also votes for their district chief. The eight district chiefs serve as advisors to the Station Chief, who serves as the head-of-state and head-of-government of the Station-State. The position of Station Chief is usually for life, since most of them have been descendents of Nick Edwards, the original founder of *Event Horizon*.

Given the fact that so many often-competing factions operate on *Event Horizon*, the station has strict regulations on weapons; fighting is therefore reserved for the Combat Zone, which attracts thousands of spectators. Street violence is quickly dealt with by a robotic security force, which patrols the station at all hours.