The Regolith

The Regolith Waystation is a large Asteroid Hotel in geosynchronous orbit around the Planet Collena. It is connected to one of the remaining Space Elevators that connects the Stellar Regalti with their homeworld below. Countless travelers stay here for the night either before riding the elevator below to Collena or getting on a starship and travelling elsewhere in the The Delvi Star System, or to other parts of the Cairn Sector or even the rest of the Galaxy.

Contents

History
About Waystations
Facilities
Food

History

The Regolith is an asteroid roughly 10km across, originally placed in orbit around Collena for mining and material processing. Over the course of a century much of it was hollowed out and the material used to build starships and space stations. It was then converted into a space station itself and used as the counterweight for the massive, 30,000km long space elevator rising out of Argen, the Silver City. Later, the Regolith played an important role during the Exodus, an event where most Regalti left their homeworld. As many as 25 million people left the world daily on the space elevators, travelling to space stations and other worlds across the Delvi System.

After the Exodus, activity at the Regolith died down greatly. As the decades went on, fewer people left Collena and most of the space elevators and attached stations fell into disrepair. The Regolith and the attached Space Elevator is one of four remaining.

While traffic is greatly reduced from its peak, over a million people still use the Waystation each day. Many different products from the surface of Collena are brought up to the Regolith for sale to the Stellar Regalti, and products from across the system are brought to the elevator to be brought down to Collena.

About The Waystations

Civilizations and Scale

The Regalti civilization consists of over a hundred billion people spread out across the Delvi star system. Many millions of beings from across the galaxy visit the system each year for business and leisure. The Planet Collena is the most popular destination, with almost a billion people visiting each year.

In order to accomodate such a large number, every industry in space is scaled up dozens to hundreds of times the size it would be on a planet's surface. A hotel is no exception. These super sized rest stops are called waystations and there are hundreds of them spread out across the star system, serving as fuel depots, hotels, and shopping centers for travelers.

The Owner

The Leuthera corporation, owned by an enigmatic White Vusinor named Desho Noron, runs the vast majority of Waystations in the Delvi system. He got his start in the system roughly five hundred years ago when the Vusinor first came to the star system on diplomatic missions.

Several hundred years later, after the Exodus had ended, the space elevators of Collena fell into disrepair. He bought the four that remained and converted the counterweights into hotels. He has been getting indescribably rich over the last few centuries, while the Regalti he serves still have a cheap way to get back to their homeworld whenever they please.

Facilities

Hotel

The Regolith Hotel has space to comfortably sleep over a million people, and occupies several large domed areas on the surface of the Regolith, made to resemble cities on Collena from the past. While the vast, vast majority of rooms are designed for Regalti (or Regalti sized beings), there are also rooms designed for the much larger Maorian people, as well as more exotic aliens. There are even fifty thousand rooms that can readily have their atmospheres adjusted for almost any atmosphere mixture.

While these domed mega hotels superficially resemble cities, they generally only contain rooms for patrons, living quarters for the quarter million person staff, as well as plenty of places to go for eating and entertainment. There is also some commercial acitivity to support such a large structure, but industrial production is non-existant.

Aura Casino

While there are hundreds of places to eat and do other activities on the Regolith, the Aura Casino is the most well known. Travelers from all over the system come here to drink and play games, bet on sports, and just relax from the rigors of living on starships. On the upper floors of the casino, a number of backroom deals have occured or are in progress between politicians that determine the fate of the entire Delvi Star System.

Shopping Center

The Chalco World Shopping Center is a massive collection of stores selling items from various locations, from the farthest reaches of the galaxy, to the local star system. The shopping center is most well known for selling authentic products made from the world the Regolith is attached to. Items made on the planet Collena are rare and sometimes impossible to find elsewhere in the star system, at least for a good price.

Space Elevator

The space Elevator is the cheapest and most efficient way to get to and from the surface of Collena. It is also a 20 hour ride to move 30,000km. There are about twenty elevator cars the size of large buildings. Each of these can accomodate sleeping areas for fifty thousand people and has its own Restaurant and Lounge where people can relax on their long ride to the surface or back out into space.

Spaceport

The Spaceport allows the simultaneous docking of over a thousand starships from the size of tiny fighters to massive kilometer sized carriers. Most ships are autopiloted to a nearby shipyard and parked in orbit during the stay, as the fees for staying docked overnight are rather high. For an even higher fee, one can access a private dock out of view of the thousands of other people that use the Waystation on a daily basis.

Food

Being a city sized hotel, there are hundreds of options for food. Whether their final destination is Collena or not, most visiting Regalti prefer to eat food that has its origins from the world below. The reason is that virtually all food sources in the many space stations across the star system are 3D printed substitutes made entirely of algae. Some of the more popular restaurants and selected dishes are below::

Titorya Oralm: Bevarian Style Breakfast

The Bevarian style breakfast is one of the more popular choices. Made with fried eggs, sandmeal, fresh fruits, and sausage cooked in a sugary glaze. All these ingredients are brought from the world below, making up a hearty meal for anyone.

Namalti: Sandmeal and Eggs

The Namalti restaurant strictly makes traditional Fevarik food. An example is this Fevarik style breakfast, which unlike its Bevarian counterpart, has a much larger portion of sandmeal with eggs and fruits mixed in.

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Namalti: Mierue Kin Pasta

Sticking with Namalti, their lunch and dinner offerings are just as traditional as their breakfast. Take this Mierue Kin Pasta. The sauce has acidic mierue grapes and sugarcaps, a type of mushroom. The result is a dish unique to the Fevarik people and unlike anything in the Delvi star system.

Salika's Treats: Tradegan Pudding

This dish is also known as blood pudding, but doesn't have actual blood in it. Instead it uses red sap from Ironheart trees that grow in western Kenerife. This gives the dessert a pink color and an oddly metallic taste. It is also often spiked with alcohol.

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Huntsman of the Void: Ryeson Tenderloin

This establishment is run by a Maorian named Narak Tulso, and has been in operation for over 200 years. He is a big game hunter and has his restaurant walls lined with dozens of trophies he's tagged over the years. The theme of the Huntsman restaurant is centered around large cuts of meat from just about any non-endangered animal on planet Collena.

The example shown here is a Ryeson Tenderloin, set ontop a large piece of cyanobread and served with vegetables. Ryesons are a large horned mammal native to northern tundras of Collena and rather difficult to hunt and can't be domesticated, making this dish one of the more expensive options of any offered on the Regolith.