Bartyn's Landing

Bartyn's Landing, sometimes abbreviated as The Landing, was a coastal town in the planet Lamaredd, to which it served as unofficial capital and only spaceport. It received its official name for its founder Hugo Bartyn.

Bartyn used an old Hoersch-Kessel LH-3010 cargo freighter, strategically placed in the coast, as the skeleton for his city. Bartyn used mining technology to blow up parts of the hull, creating a coastal city with ports, and then he populated it with indentured servants of several species.

Since its very creation c. 529 BBY, the economy was based in fishing seafood that was exported through the company Bartyn Gourmet Delicacies. Descendants of Bartyn kept control of both the company and the town as mayors; by also controlling the local mines officially owned by Outer Rim Oreworks, the Bartyns controlled most of the planet. Eventually, the living conditions of Bartyn's near-slaves improved considerably and they became full-fledges citizens.

Several times Bartyn's Landing was attacked by external agents, including outlaw gangs and the native Menahuuns.

Creation
Hugo Bartyn was an agent of the exploratory branch of Outer Rim Oreworks. His work included locating planets that could be exploited by ORO for metals and gas. C. 529 BBY, while analyzing the Lamaro system, he noticed that the planet Lamaredd was rich in useful minerals, and also in life, including the sentient Menahuun and several forms of seafood. Bartyn, who wanted to retire as a scout due to his advancing age, also wanted to exploit personally this last resource and enrichen himself. To do so, he contacted the Senate Mining Bureau and claimed Lamaredd; and then contacted ORO. Using his influence and skills, Bartyn obtained a golden retirement as a scout and became the Administrator of the mining facilities that ORO was going to build in Lamaredd, later known as ORO Mining Station LM0228. Bartyn's team also remained in Lamaredd with him.

Following Bartyn's request, ORO also registered an amount of terrain around a local bay near the mine to his name and gave him charte blanche to do whatever he wanted. ORO officers were familiar with Bartyn's usual illicit activities, including exterminating sentient primitives for sport, but they were also familiar with the fruitful results of his work. ORO sent droids to build the mines and then to extract metal while Bartyn was busy hunting Menahuun to the verge of extinction &mdash; to the point that even ORO believed them to be. Later, once the mine was finished, Bartyn made sure that the droids would remain behind.

Bartyn then contacted with Neimoidian traders and bought an old, three-kilometer-long Hoersch-Kessel LH-3010 cargo freighter they intended to dismantle. Bartyn used his droids to place the ship in the shore of his land, with the bow in the water. Then, Bartyn used his mining technology to blow up parts of the hull to transform the ship into a town: The top of the core command module was destroyed, creating an open town centre later known as Center Sphere District; the bulkheads were disassembled to create piers; the engines were removed to create a spaceport; and a seafood processing plant was built in the hull. The remains of the outer hull curved to create the town wall. Eventually, the rust and the holes would allow brown water to rain in the insides of the city. At the same time, he kept ORO's best interests in mind and continued the work in the mine. In a few months, he had created a ghost town &mdash; as the only inhabitants were his team and the droids, numbered in dozens.

Bartyn acquired software about fishing and seafood processing for his droids, but he nonetheless needed organic, expert fishermen to bring the catch, and workers for the processing plant. He sent recruiters to worlds with amphibious species, including Champala, Dac, Iskalon and Naboo. Bartyn's people contacted poor, uneducated locals and inspired them to move to the untouched oceans of Lamaredd and start anew. Many followed them.

As Bartyn was less than honest in his deals, he destroyed the documents of the settlers and turned them into "indentured servants", little more tha slaves, living crowded in the outer area of the freighter &mdash; from that point on "The Ring." Most of the Iskalonians refused to accept, and Bartyn exiled them to their probable deaths. The city was then populated mostly with Chagrians, Gungans Mon Calamaris and Quarrens. History would know these first citizens as the First-Wavers, a revered culture of martyrs who endured the harsh conditions imposed by Hugo Bartyn.

In the following centuries, the origin of the town's name, "Bartyn's Landing", became a mystery. The MD medical droid MD-0C6 would later claim to have coined the name, but not everybody trusted its word.

In the following years, Bartyn's Landing began exporting seafood, mostly to Alderaan nobles, Hutts and rich dilettantes, and the independent business Bartyn Gourmet Delicacies made Administrator Bartyn a very rich man. ORO was still unaware of all this, knowing only that Lamaredd was profitting them even if Bartyn himself was probably making some illegal activities.

Bartyn's Landing thrived as a trading center and, knowing that the fishermen were a valuable asset, Bartyn gave them some liberties &mdash; placing them before the less valuable plant workers, and creating more inter-species violence that would have existed otherwise. He created a number of services in the Landing, and taxed them heavily. The Administrator also took control of the budget of ORO's security & law enforcement division, so that ORO would pay the local Security Chief.

Bartyn also obtained the deeds to several important locations of Lamaredd from ORO, without the company knowing. Soon afterward, Bartyn was approached by a big number of his Quarren citizens. The Quarrens were at odds with the Mon Calamari and they wanted to create their own, isolated community. Bartyn leased them a land, later known as The Shoals, in the other side of the bay.

Only too late, ORO discovered that Bartyn had turned Lamaredd into his own fief. A part of ORO wanted to leave things as they were, as Lamaredd was still giving money; but many executives were angry. They sent a security force to take control of the spaceport in The Landing, and Bartyn allowed them to &mdash; making sure, however, that those ORO employees would answer to the ORO Administrator, which would allow the seafood exports to fly under the radar of ORO.

As Hugo Bartyn felt no particular love toward non-Human species, he restricted the commodities they could have, including the food, and asked the employees for hard work. Plant workers, who came from low social strata and were unfamiliar with cultural differences, began to fight with each other for the meanest of reasons, sometimes with great violence &mdash; soon, the number of deaths due to inter-species violence exceeded those due to plant accidents. Meanwhile, the sailors enjoyed a better life in Bartyn's trawlers, with a greater amount of freedom and open spaces.

Hugo Bartyn's last years
C. 517 BBY, Bartyn had promoted seventeen hard-working, valuable aliens to unofficial skippers of trawlers. One of these was the Chagrian Sirrik Olyeg. Olyeg organized the other alien captains, and some Human captains, to rebel against Bartyn's unbearable living conditions. Following Olyeg's lead, many of the captains suddenly idled in the open sea, disappearing from Bartyn's sensor in a work stoppage without any warning. In a planet that was 85% ocean, Bartyn could not afford to lose the few trawlers he still had looking for the missing ones.

As none of the trawlers had reported any valid reason to disappear, Bartyn's Landing was flooded with rumors, that included the Menahuun, the discovery of an ancient Sith temple with an active Sith Lord and undiscovery predators. Eventually, the citizens of the Landing discovered the truth, and the workers of the plant joined the strike, suddenly stopping any inter-species violence. Bartyn, who wanted to fulfill his pending orders particularly with the Hutts, threatened the workers and resorted to violence, but they knew he could not afford to kill them.

Sirrik Olyeg from the recently-created Sailor's Union met with Bartyn and both of them reached an agreement that allowed Bartyn to have workers again. Bartyn, however, had to open unused parts of the Ring to aliens, lease several acres of land outside the city to any willing worker that could take responsability for its care, and cede the second-biggest landmass, Jotsen's Island, later "Little Mon Cal", as alien homeland for those people not wanting to work for Bartyn. This improved greatly the living conditions in Bartyn's Landing.

In 499 BBY, Bartyn's Landing suffered the attack of supposed monsters with interest in stealing young babies. Outside the town, strange altar-like mounts appeared bynight, and several trawlers were lost due to unexpected mechanical failures. 84-year-old Hugo Bartyn went to the jungle to investigate the happenings with a team. All of them disappeared mysteriously, apparently dead at the hands of the attackers.

Benevolent Tria
ORO Administratorship, BGD ownership and the title of mayor were inherited by Hugo's oldest daughter Tria Bartyn, in a succession practice that would continue at least until 529 BBY. Tria did not continue the policies of Hugo. Instead, she fred all the aliens from their indentured servitude and prompted the Sailor's Union to expand and have a presence in other cities.

During this time, Lamaredd became a prosperous place that attracted other settlers from aquatic species, even if the economy was still based in business in Bartyn hands. Hugo's trawlers were already old, but they were not replaced. However, during Tria's times, independent and private fishermen became more frequent.

The descendants of the First Wavers built a new port in Bartyn's Landing, the Three Jetties, that became the choosing port for fishermen. It was also one of the ports for incoming visitors coming from other parts of the planet.

As Tria Bartyn had been so popular, she became a local legend and almost a religious figure: In successive centuries, natives of the Landing gave thanks to "Benevolent Tria", as she would be called, and to the First Wavers. She was clearly more popular than one of her successors that was active c. 229 BBY.

Five centuries later
In 69 BBY, Bartyn's Landing, along with their adjacent farms and the local trawlers, were raided repeatedly by a ring of desperadoes led by Byrch Dyshkava, a dark Jedi that went by the nickname of "The Padawan" and made a reputation for himself as a sorcerer. Security Chief Ertine and his four Seconds tracked Dyshkava to his hideout and fell into his trap. The only surviving second was a young Mon Calamari by the name of Mix Liddell, who suffered heavy injuries.

Liddell recovered and was named new Security Chief. Chief Liddell then named several Seconds, including his personal friend Grubber Vapps and baited Dyshkava using the farm of a courageous voluntary. Dyshkava fell in Liddell's trap and all of his gang were captured or death, although Dyshkava himself escaped from jail soon afterward. Liddell became a well-liked Security Chief who continued a prestigious career for several years. He was also a skilled sniper who won the annual Landing Shootout ten times in a row, a record that gave him even more prestige.

In the times immediately after the Battle of Naboo, Bartyn's Landing had some movement including a visit of representatives of the Jedi Council wanting to research about the local story &mdash; although, up until that point the Jedi Order had never felt any interest in Lamaredd or Bartyn's Landing, an anti-Human terrorist group that demanded revenge for Hugo Barytn's crimes, and the Landing exercising as the unofficial planetary capital by helping the remote Little Mon Cal with epidemics, along with the usual police investigations, local competitions, attacks of the local aquatic and land fauna and the reappearance of the Menahuun.

C. 29 BBY, Bartyn's Landing was attacked by several Menahuun performing stealth raids and sabotages, but keeping their presence mostly a secret. A new contact with the former outlaw leader Byrch Dyshkava, who was eventually jailed for good by Liddell, led to the Chief hiring some new Seconds who, in turn, made diplomatic contact with the Menahuun.

The Menahuun agreed to stop hostilities in exchange for some concessions, much to the relief of the inhabitants of the Landing. A number of Menahuun joined the community of the Landing. However, the Menahuun were living proof of the illegal activities of Bartyn as an official of ORO; wanting to avoid a scandal, ORO decided to forfeit Lamaredd and abandon their activities there. This reduced the power of the Bartyns to a point where, for the first time ever, Bartyn's Landing called free, democratic ellections for the post &mdash; with Mix Liddell becoming the new leader and his former second-hand man, Grubber Vapps, replacing Liddell as Security Chief. Although BGD was still profitable, the town council held control over it and the Sailor's Union pretended to own BGD in a near future. Disgruntled, Guther Bartyn re-programmed several MMV droids to attack the Menahuun citizens.

In times of the Galactic Civil War, the Galactic Empire placed at least one garrison of stormtroopers in Bartyn's Landing, but nonetheless the Alliance to Restore the Republic considered the advantages of placing a secret base there.

During the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, the Yuuzhan Vong species considered that a city made from a humungous machine was an abomination that deserve utter destruction, and the resource-rich and untainted planet was of their liking; however, the planet was lucky enough to be far from the invasion route.

Hugo's times (529-499 BBY)
Soon after the settlement of the planet, before the Landing itself was founded, it was merely a land in the bay owned by Hugo Bartyn. At that point, the area was inhabited by Bartyn himself, his personal entourage and their droids. A number of Menahuun living there were either exterminated or forced to move toward the forests due to Bartyn's extensive hunting.

Once Bartyn had pacified the area, built the mine and modified the hull of the cargo freighter, Bartyn's Landing saw an influx of hundreds of Chagrian, Gungan, Iskalonian, Mon Calamari and Quarren immigrants that had been attracted with empty promises of a new life in a frontier world, working freely in the untouched oceans. These people became Hugo Bartyn's indentured servants and forced to work in bad conditions. A number of the settlers, including most of the Iskalonians, refused to yield; Bartyn then exiled these people to be sent to the high seas in badly-built rafts, where they were assumed to be killed by the predators or the weather.

The remaining immigrants or "First Wavers" were assigned to live in certain areas of The Ring, in crowded conditions. Bartyn gave them little food and asked for hard work in exchange for that. Many of the First Wavers worked in the seafood processing plants, and the rest worked in Bartyn's old trawlers, fishing boats he had bought from the Hutts. Although the alien sailors spent most of their time in the entrails of the boat, life in the relative freedom of the seas was considered to be a better alternative than working in the plants.

Once Bartyn's Landing began to be lucrative for Bartyn, the Administrator organized several entertainment businesses for his citizens, taking care to tax them heavily. He also gave the citizens a number of liberties, including allowing them to live outside Bartyn's Landing in some cases. Understanding that the death of his workers was counterproductive, Bartyn also tried to eliminate threats to them, including his attempt to erradicate the Gulletbeasts, aquatic predators that attacked the trawlers. Even at his older age, Bartyn himself worked as a hunter to unravel the mysteries that disturbed his people.

Bartyn's duplicitous manipulations allowed him to evade his bosses from ORO for enough time to stabilize the little empire he created in Lamaredd, centering it in the Landing. ORO took control of the local spaceport with Bartyn's blessing and, from that moment onward, the Administrator would have control over the spaceport security staff &mdash; which allowed him to export both minerals to ORO and "gourmet delicacies" to independent customers.

Many of the aliens came from low social and economic strata and were unfamiliar with life in multi-cultural conditions. Although plant accidents were common, inter-species violence was even more common, including the competition among people for living space in the form of street fighting and later great conflicts. This situation was kept until 517 BBY, when the Sailor's Union gathered all of the aliens under their banner.

After an unauthorized work stoppage, Bartyn negotiated with the union and authorized a number of changes that improved the living conditions for the citizens of the Landing. Besides, inter-species violence also was reduced, and the Union became a constant presence.

The inhabitants of Bartyn's Landing were very supersticious. In 517 BBY, when the work stoppage began unexpectedly, many rumors thrived in the Landing, some of them related to the Sith. In 499 BBY, the appearance of strange altar-like constructions and the disappearance of ships and babies prompted the people to believe in goblins. The so-called "Half-Under" population, who inhabited the underwater area of the city, were particularly prone to believe in myths. The locals also mistrusted the Jedi, even although they knew almost nothing about them. Both ORO and BGD encouraged this belief, as it would help keeping the Jedi outside Lamaredd.

Guther's times (29 BBY)
In the five centuries since the times of Hugo Bartyn, many things have remained static in Bartyn's Landing &mdash; by then known only as "The Landing" except by tourists and Bartyns. Although Lamaredd was still a backwater planet and Bartyn's Landing was a backwater town &mdash;even if it was "the big city" for people coming from any other place of Lamaredd&mdash;, the population increased steadily until 10,000 official citizens, with only a 10% of Humans, several decades before 29 BBY. Extra-planetary tourists visited Bartyn's Landing attracted by its natural beauty and commonly stayed for longer than they intended to. A number of Aqualish, Ithorians, Rodians and Talz had become citizens of Bartyn's Landing by that moment.

The political power of Bartyn's Landing was based in the mayor, who was always "coincidentially" the same Bartyn holding the Administratorship or a proxy. The town council also included fourteen publically-ellected councilors with limited power,as ORO's town charter gave the Administrator all the control about interplanetary trade, and the mayor could veto any action of the council &mdash; although this was only done in the worsts of times. The councilors did have control about the trade of food and textiles with other parts of Lamaredd including Little Mon Cal.

The Security Chief or local constable was officially an officer of ORO's security division, but in Bartyn's Landing the Chief was ellected by the town council. Any ellection, be it for councilor or for Chief, was prone to fraud.

As the owner of the mines, ORO was officially owner of the whole planet and received incomes from the nearby fully-automated mines, but no citizen of Bartyn's Landing felt any need to go there. The Bartyn family, administrators of the mine, owned most of the properties in the city, managed the bank, and taxed local businesses. A number of farmers exploited the nutrient-rich soil in the lowlands outside the Ring, and many aliens and Humans fished the seas, although many of them did not live in Bartyn's Landing.

The Sailor's Union publically spoke in the name of the fishermen and crew, improving the living conditions of the workers and allowing them to earn a decent part of Bartyn's sales plus a money for their catches. A number of the fishermen were self-employed, something unthinkable in the times of Hugo Barytn, while others worked for BGD. Most of the sailors were members of the Union, which was open to any organic working in the seas of Lamaredd.

The spaceport was staffed by ORO employees that were closely watched by ORO &mdash; contrarily to what happened with the Security Chief. ORO controlled most of the exports, except for the seafood which was controlled by BGD.

People moving through the city commonly used swoops as their vehicle of choice, even for the illegal Cargo Track races around the Center Sphere, and swoop gangs were not unheard of. Whoever wanted to travel through the port commonly resorted to gondola skimmersubs, a Quarren- and Gungan-engineered vehicle. Air vehicles were uncommon, except for the cloud car owned by the Security Chief. The most common boat in the port was the fishing trawler, that could be traced back to Hugo Bartyn.

No organic doctor practiced in Bartyn's Landing, but the independent MD-series medical droid MD-0C6, known as "Doc", had been the official doctor since before the city was founded. In all these five centuries, MD-0C6 had never suffered a memory wipe and as a result he developed a personality, becoming a well-liked member of the community. He obtained a small assistant, F-RTZ-2, alias "Fritz".

Blaster technology was not very extended, because energy for that kind of weapons was difficult to obtain. Nonetheless, sidearms were extended; most of the citizens carried a slugthrower of some kind and sometimes a secondary melee weapon. Blaster-users included Miss Mylla, outlaws and sailors who had problems with wet powder in the high seas.

A public, annual Landing Shootout was held in Bartyn's Landing, with snipers competing for monetary prizes and short-lived popularity. As of 29 BBY, the Administrator provided 2,600 credits for the second to fifth prizes, while the Security Chief Mix Liddell, a skilled artisan himself, crafted a handmade, pearl-handed weapon for the winner. As it was a public holiday, non-participants could resort to drinking and eating while watching the show.

Inhabitants
Some of the inhabitants of Bartyn's Landing included:


 * Ackrahbala
 * Bamfurd
 * Bartyn Family
 * Guther Bartyn
 * Hugo Bartyn
 * Traggat
 * Tria Bartyn / "Benevolent Tria"
 * Unidentified impopular Bartyn
 * Boom Boom
 * Nyubuna Bulul
 * "Bantha" Burloo
 * Vondri Deeq
 * Byrch Dyshkava
 * Ertine
 * Gillis Hayner
 * Jerrahg
 * Khreenk
 * Mix Liddell
 * The Mighty Musstoro
 * Miss Mylla
 * Trusty Trikker
 * Olsini Turpo
 * Grubber Vapps
 * Howe Walwahd

Locations
The buildings in The Landing were mostly made either of durasteel, of duracrete or of a combination of both. Directions were handwritten in the walls.

Some of the locations of the Landing included:


 * Ackrahbala's Swoops & Speeders
 * Bamfurd's Tapcafe
 * Center Sphere District
 * Center Sphere Flimsinews
 * Miss Mylla's Saloon
 * Tailfin Cantina
 * The Even Cut Sabacc Parlor and Casino
 * The Skylight Market
 * Hayner's Mercantile
 * Khreenk's Smithy
 * Olsini Turpo, Tailor and Haberdasher
 * Pier Green
 * The Ring
 * The Three Jetties
 * Noloh Gunga Fuel Station
 * Three Jetties Gourmet Restaurant
 * Trusty Trikker's Guns & Ammo

Behind the scenes
Bartyn's Landing was created by writer Cory J. Herndon and featured in the article Bartyn's Landing and in the role-playing adventure Reckonings, both of them published in the magazine Star Wars Gamer #7 (2001). It was also mentioned in the entry about the Menahuun in the book Ultimate Alien Anthology, edited by Christopher Perkins (2003).

Alternate ending
The article assumes that the player characters of Reckonings achieve the best possible ending but, should they fail, the adventure offers an alternative path that takes place during an open war between the Menahuun and the citizens of Bartyn's Landing. In that case, the Menahuun openly attack Bartyn's Landing, and mayor Bartyn reacts by fortifying the city with heavy weapons. The constables and many sailors are recruited as soldiers, which increases crime in the city &mdash; even the Sailor's Union becomes a crime syndicate. Many honest citizens, such as Miss Mylla, attempt to leave the Landing and start again somewhere else in the planet.