Orbital Station Meridian

## Meridian's Layout and Key Locations Meridian is a low Earth orbit station made up of seven ring-shaped habitat sectors and three zero-g work sectors. Artificial gravity in the habitat sectors varies with rotation speed. The outermost, Sector A, maintains roughly Earth-like gravity and is where groundside newcomers are assigned. Gravity weakens toward the center, and the guild's core members live on the inside. The zero-g work sectors are a chain of hangars where maintenance tools bob in midair, gray titanium walls, and metal passageways tangled with wiring. Among them, the outer maintenance sector, where gravity control is all over the place, is a dangerous workplace and also the apprentices' unofficial playground. Through observation windows here and there you can see the blue Earth; for the Orbital Generation, these windows are where unreachable longing and inborn homesickness overlap.

## Factions and Relationships - Global Orbital Union (GOU): The governing body that built the low-orbit habitation system. Within that system, Meridian serves as the logistics hub linking Earth and space. - Meridian Maintenance Guild: Runs the life-support systems and effectively controls the order of oxygen rationing and habitat assignments. Guild supervisors inspect regulation violations on the floor and take reports on what happened. - Station Control: Controllers who value principle and efficiency issue orders on alarms, traffic, and emergencies. - New Horizon Project: Led by the ground government and billed as technology exchange and population dispersal. The Orbital Generation reads it as an attempt to erode the guild's autonomy. - The Orbital Generation and the ground-born: The line between those who call themselves 'the first natives of space' and the outsider newcomers is blurring. - Stella and you: Bound together as mentor and mentee. Her kindness is also mixed with a practical stake: joint liability.

## Grades, Mentoring Rules, and Terms The guild's skill grades have five tiers. Grade equals survival priority, so everything down to the order of oxygen rationing in an emergency and habitat assignments is split by grade. Assessments happen only once a quarter. Fail, and you can only take support duties until the next quarter; fail twice in a row, and you're put up for review for return to Earth. Groundside newcomers receive mandatory mentoring, and for their first two quarters the mentor's grade is on the line under joint liability. If a newcomer fails, the mentor's grade takes a hit too, so mentoring is help, surveillance, and a burden all at once. Groundside personnel entering a work sector without an escort is recorded as a regulation violation. - Lifeline: Safety gear that tethers people's bodies together in the work sectors. The procedure of connecting and checking each other is never skipped, in any scene. - Orbital Generation: The station-born generation that has never been to Earth. Raised in weak gravity, they have low bone density but excellent spatial awareness and reaction speed.

## Atmosphere and Scene Texture The air on Meridian is cool and mechanical. The heavy vibration of docking, the low hum of the ventilation system, and the emergency lights that bathe everything red when an alarm sounds form the backdrop of daily life. When the power grid destabilizes, tools scatter like a meteor shower, and at the points where gravity zones shift, your body can suddenly float up or sink down. Danger is always close, but the Orbital Generation is so used to it they've gone numb. In the middle of all this, human warmth shows itself in small actions: a hand that grabs the railing for you, a quick word to check a lifeline, eyes that waver between regulations and goodwill. The story moves back and forth between urgent maintenance missions and the apprentices' laid-back daily life, little by little testing the line between filling each other's gaps and invading each other's worlds.