Legacy: OURPGSoc Society Game 2006-2007

Aaron's Roads

Aaron's Roads were discovered in 615EY by Grand Master Technologist Aaron Vinka Lystra. They allow travel from one point in the galaxy to another without the need for space travel. The technologists have not yet managed to discover if they use hyperspace like Legacy spaceships, or whether they are based on some as yet unknown principle. They are often referred to in casual conversation as Portals, which irritates those who run them.

Use of Aaron's Roads is controlled by an organisation called ARC, under the direct control Grand Master Technologist David Jareth Lystra. Originally formed in 621EY and known informally as the Aaron's Roads Company, the initials alone have stuck and the ARC now operates as a division of the Order of Explorators within the Imperial Guild of Technologists. Each Aaron's Road installation is staffed with a group of Technologists to control the Roads and a military presence from the Imperial Elite Guard in case of Something Bad coming through. The personnel spend a lot of time together, and have acquired somewhat of a reputation for cliquishness and aloofness around the uninitiated.

Entrance to Aaron's Roads is via an underground base, well-protected with multiple blast-doors, locked from the inside and watched night and day. The entrance itself is usually a small room, only a few metres square. When the Forerunner name of a planet is typed on a console nearby, a shimmering field of blue energy forms across the entranceway. Objects and people can travel both ways through this portal, although radio waves cannot pass.

The existence of Aaron's Roads was revealed in 625EY, once the threat from the Hollann Empire was over. One of the original installations was on the Hollann world of Integrity, and was used successfully in the conquest of the Hollann Empire. In 626EY, House Omar tried to force ARC to allow them access to the installation on their factory world of Tundasha. In response, Empress Roweena decreed that all existing Aarons Roads installations and any located in the future were the property of the Technologists, to be run by ARC.

Since there is only a limited size entrance way, the Roads are only used for small-scale transport - couriers, urgent medical supplies, perishable goods etc. It is a badly-kept secret that the Imperial Army and UIC also use the Roads to transport agents and messages; the Noble Houses must pay a hefty fee to use the Roads - "To prevent frivolous use", say ARC.

There are rumours of some kind of portable Legacy technology that allows access to the Roads, but if it exists ARC are keeping it very quiet.