Description
Not even two hundred years after its founding the earthly colony on Tranthal is only a shadow of its former self. Instead of bringing democracy and prosperity to the peoples of the planet, it sinks into agony and political intrigue. Governor Seth Adam is spreading false hopes, even though the contact with the Earth has been broken for forty years. As before, raw materials are produced and hoarded at the spaceport that the population lacks. More and more people are wondering why nothing is done against the perceptible decline. Taking advantage of a moment of weakness, Dar'y's neighboring tribes are venturing a massive assault on the colonial territory as the recruit of the new military year celebrates its completion in Hallwa, its capital.
Brit Darburg, daughter of one of the highest government officials, believes in her own propaganda and volunteers for war with her friends Len Kakaia and Dars Poole, against her father’s warning. Soon they face a dreaded and despised culture, which, however, does not appear as foreign as initially thought.
"Blood and Ore" shows the vitality and close emotional ties between many of the still unpolished figures of this war drama as they set out into the world.
Almost forty years after the last contact with the Mother Planet Earth, the human colony on Tranthal, under the leadership of Governor Seth Adam, is holding fast to the colonial treaties that were signed two hundred years ago. These treaties insure the residents protection and technology transfer, in return for which raw materials, energy and rare chemical compounds for the earth are mined, produced and stored. Despite the broken contact and no support, Governor Adam refuses to suspend the contracts. While the standard of living declines and the colony is more despised than respected by the other peoples of the planet even after two hundred years of existence, societal and economic development is stagnant. The decades-long promised democracy would have taken place if the peoples of Dar'y, Isaris or Sin-Dar'y were kept at a distance, but instead it degraded into a gentle form of totalitarianism.
In order to fulfill the old colonial obligations, raw materials are stored near the spaceport, which are missing everywhere in the colony itself. While even their own space program must be stopped due to lack of energy and raw materials, the huge warehouses are expanded and equipped with goods that have not been collected by earth for a long time.
In a climate of stagnation, domestic pressure and a new war with the neighboring Dar'y, three young recruits are finishing their training at the prestigious military academy of the colonial capital Hallwa: Brit Darburg, daughter of the influential colonial officer Frid Darburg and a student at the Propaganda Department , Dars Poole, a dissident and extremely talented young astrophysicist, and Len Kakaia, scion of a dynasty of farmers who studies criminology and longs for the city's street canyons. Both of them love Brit, in their own unique ways. However, Brit, who has a direct lineage back to the Earth on her mother's side, loves the state and the colony, and she firmly believes in Governor Adam.
Together, they start their journey into the world after graduation. A world that is not only determined by politics and religion, but also marked by a powerful military-political complex and sacrosanct hierarchies, intercultural conflicts and economic disputes, at the end of which not only life, as they know, but also their very personal Ideals, hopes and fears are put to the test. A world where politicians, religious leaders and serious criminals are pulling the strings and many will lose far more than their faith in the colony.
