Aethel City Sewers

Overview

A dark, labyrinthine network of pipes and tunnels beneath Aethel, handling both municipal waste and starship runoff from Aethel Starport’s landing bays. The large waste pipes converge in the starport’s lower levels and run under the two-fence city perimeter — which makes the system a route into the city that bypasses the Aethel Security Checkpoint entirely, for anyone willing to be inside a pressurised sewage main when the pressure comes back.

Six was. He tore the hinged cap off a service hatch (a maintenance worker above blamed “Valve 427 busting again”), crawled in during the pressure cut, and was flushed at high speed through the twisting tunnels deep under the city, taking minor damage and a full coating of waste water. From there the tunnels gave him manhole access to the Firetemic Tower’s front street and its back alley, picking left at every intersection with GPS and a compass bearing.

Session 8 added the far side. The city’s maintenance pathways run to the starport boundary and stop at an underground no-man’s-land, a DMZ separating the city proper from Aethel Starport. The only way across is the large waste pipes that connect the two systems, the same pipes that flushed Six into the city. The crew reached the city’s edge with Peter Goodwin on Six’s back and the crossing ahead of them.

Session 9 explored the middle. The maintenance tunnels and catwalks between the city and the starport separate clean-water lines from the waste pipes running toward the station. Vibration and noise sensors sit in the walls, and the crew found corrugated sheathing and old pipe pieces near the wall that looked left by someone who had used the passage before. The Sewage Discharge Room collects pipes from several directions and holds a maintenance ladder to a manhole cover beside crude stone stairs that appear on no official map, leading up to the Hidden Basement. The crew’s own tunnel through packed earth ran along the starport wall and broke into the Aethel Starport Sub-Level. See The Sewer Breakout.

Points of Interest

• Valve 427 — the service hatch near the perimeter fence, now missing its cap.
• Manhole, Firetemic front street — a two-inch peek, then back down.
• Manhole, Firetemic back alley — Six’s surfacing point, previously occupied by a resting transient who did not enjoy what happened next.
• The alley grate behind the Firetemic Tower — the crew’s exit from the raid.
• The DMZ — the underground no-man’s-land between city and starport, crossed only by the big waste pipes.

Appearances

• Session 7 (Session 07 - The Goodwin Contract) — Six’s infiltration route from the starport perimeter to the Firetemic Tower.
• Session 8 (Session 08 - A Crappy Plan Comes Together) — The extraction route from the Firetemic Tower to the starport boundary with Peter Goodwin. The Firetemic Tower Raid.
• Session 9 (Session 09 - Snakes on a Catwalk) — The crew’s hiding place, digging site and split-up escape route: a planetary security drone, a four-man Aethel Safety Bureau squad, and gas pumped through a wire tube into the tunnel. Shackleton Magellan left by the stone stairs into the Hidden Basement; Six and Rock Lavey carried Peter Goodwin through to the starport. The Sewer Breakout.