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QUERY:>>WHAT IS TORTUGA?
An autonomous spaceport, known for its unaffiliated corporate status and unregulated approach to warpgate services.
QUERY:>>WHO BUILT TORTUGA?
The spaceport’s origins are a matter of dispute, as records are incomplete or suspected forgeries. The lack of continuity within Tortuga governance makes it impossible to verify documents. Speculation on the funding agent of the spaceport ranges from the short-lived mini-corp, Wilson Armaments, to criminal organizations such as Family Savare, to political movements like Miners’ Front. Some <who?> have posited one or more of the three legacy corporations financed the construction of Tortuga [disputed: see community tab].
QUERY:>>WHAT RESOURCES DOES TORTUGA HAVE?
As a man-made spaceport, Tortuga has no natural resources.
QUERY:>>WHAT UTILITY DOES TORTUGA HAVE?
Regarded as ‘the Gateway to the Wild Ten,’ Tortuga is one of the only cost-effective waypoints between colonized space and contested zones. The spaceport’s warpgate successfully links the Wild Ten to the larger galaxy, allowing for corporate freight, mercenary units, and settlers to reach the outermost portions of known space.
QUERY:>>WHO LIVES ON TORTUGA?
The total resident number is unknown, as is the yearly visitor total. It can be assumed settlers on their way to the Wild Ten account for the majority of migrants. In recent times, a high volume of mercenaries have used Tortuga as a stop, leading to the emergence of corporate ‘union halls’ on the spaceport. Essentially recruitment offices, the union halls compete for any mercenaries arriving on Tortuga without a contract. Robot mechanics and salespeople, notably The Lace, also maintain semi-permanent residences on Tortuga. These resources are crucial for transient mercenary units.
QUERY:>>WHY HASN’T A CORPORATION TAKEN CONTROL OF TORTUGA?
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QUERY:>>WHAT IS TORTUGA’S LEGAL STATUS?
Neither a contested space nor a protected asset, Tortuga enjoys a unique position outside the corporate superstructure. Of the three corporations, only FreeCon officially recognizes Tortuga and internal documents refer to it as ‘independent / tolerated.’
QUERY:>>WHO RUNS TORTUGA?
Running off a modified version of the Settlers’ Bill of Rights, Tortuga is a direct democracy and citizens have no proxies within the government. However, there is some dispute as to how many full-time residents Tortuga has and what qualifies someone for citizen status. The number may be as low as ten. Some <who?> have suggested that a democracy that small is a junta by another name. Other critics <who?> posit that Tortuga does not qualify as a democracy or even a government and is more accurately referred to as a ‘house society’ or ‘non-kinship tribal holding.’ Since Tortuga’s earliest days, there has been a theory that the actual leadership lies above the show-democracy and has never been revealed to the public.
Tales From The Wild Ten is a series composed by writer Patrick Kindlon. Stay tuned as the saga continues in War Robots: Frontiers, and catch up on the story with Old Wars Never End, Kate and Varangian, and Corporate Empires.
