January 11, 2010

Stroud is a Martian colony, run and populated almost exclusively by Sunlanders.

Blackout crew: Kieselburg's energy situation is complicated. Most of the power supply in the Americas is currently generated in the Great Plains Desert, particularly the southern end of it, and the massive 'tallboy' solar collectors that dot it -- and most of the tallboy rigs are under the control of various Leagua states. An exception is the Sunlander collectives along New Ozark's southwestern border. A great deal of the country's income comes from piping energy up to northern cities who would rather not pay the price for orbital microwave power but would also rather not be supporting the Leagua.

In winter, however, when demand in the north is up and supply from the tallboys is down due to shorter days, the power companies have a tendency to short the locals in preference to the higher-paying northern cities, frequently leading to brownouts or rolling blackouts in the poorer areas of Kieselburg. Thus the blackout crews, smuggling outfits that are essentially filling up giant batteries that they can later offer up for sale during the cold winter. This is not in the least legal, but since the tallboy collectives have at best a strained relationship with the government they tend to look the other way -- especially, as Zeke notes, if the crew has had the sense to hire on one of their own kind to handle the negotiations.

... I think my worldbuilding notes are getting wordier. Man, I didn't even know that was possible.

Anyway. Yes, I skipped Friday's update; I was just getting too far behind, with no real chance of getting caught up until next weekend at the earliest. I'll make it up to you guys later, I promise.

And my power is out here, so no telling when this note will go live. Good thing I uploaded the comic last night, eh?