The Needle
The Needle is the orbital Kadiss-relay Station that anchors Argus Eye's inter-space beacon network: two hundred and forty thousand staff, almost all of them Argus technicians and relay engineers.
Rules Reference
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Aesthetic | glitter |
| Anchor System | argus-eye |
| Controlling Faction | Argus |
| Fold Bleed | low |
| Population | 240000 |
| Role | satellite |
| Zone | Core |
Notes
Dangers: Stale patch: a relay on the Needle that is behind on its inter-space beacon updates will quietly desynchronise the Kadiss grid for that whole system until the next Fold arrival; the desynchronisation is not always noticed in time, and the cadence of the quiet patch is the cadence of Core politics., Tier-of-passage: anyone who sets foot on the Needle without an Argus-issued Kadiss tier is logged, slowed, and quietly recorded; the Needle's own staff are subject to the same rule, and the rule is the reason they look so tired.
Hooks: The Needle's inter-space beacon has begun returning its updates late, and Argus Eye wants the party to ride the next Fold-capable ship into the receiving system to find out why the local relay is feeding the grid stale data., A Helix gene-screening team has docked at the Needle for a routine Kadiss-tier integration; the team is a front for a quiet Helix sweep of unrecorded gene-psion markers on board, and Argus would like the sweep stopped quietly before it becomes a record., A Legion courier has arrived at the Needle carrying a sealed Kadiss-tier override meant for an Argus editor who died three days ago; the courier wants the override delivered and Argus wants the courier turned around, and the editor's desk still has coffee on it.
Lore: The Needle is the orbital Kadiss-relay station that anchors Argus Eye's inter-space beacon network: two hundred and forty thousand staff, almost all of them Argus technicians and relay engineers. The Spoke is the station's central antenna bay, sealed, only entered by paired technicians because the bay's signal is loud enough to make a Kadiss unit hallucinate. The Cold Gallery is the station's quiet museum: retired Kadiss nodes from every tier Argus has ever issued, kept in working order for reference, which is also where the station's quiet historians work and where the curator has not been permitted to retire in twenty years. The Editor's Lounge is the only public space on the Needle, deliberately Kadiss-silenced so editors can talk on the record without the grid overhearing, which is also where the legend of the cadence of the quiet patch is told in the only room on the station where the telling cannot be patched. The Needle is what makes Argus Eye's panopticon actually panopticon: a relay chain that updates only when the Fold is opened, and a quiet awareness that every quiet update is a small opportunity.
Notable: The Spoke: the Needle's central antenna bay where the inter-space beacon updates are processed; the bay is sealed and only entered by paired Argus technicians, and the bay's signal is loud enough to make a Kadiss unit hallucinate., The Cold Gallery: a maintenance ring around the Needle's perimeter where retired Kadiss nodes are stored; the gallery is a quiet museum of every tier Argus has ever issued, and the gallery's curator has not been permitted to retire in twenty years., The Editor's Lounge: the only public space on the Needle, kept deliberately Kadiss-silenced so editors can talk on the record without the grid overhearing.