Tour Compendium

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Sirius Tour Guide
Visiting the Heart and Soul of Rheinland (2/2)

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A nos chers auditeurs.

This is part two of your auditory guide to one of Sirius's many gorgeous and interesting sites.

Planet New Berlin serves as the perfect metaphor for Rheinland's change starting with the conclusion of the 80 Year War. One day and night cycle each last almost an entire year, plunging the nightside into a freezing winter, with temperatures south of -50°C, and an almost spring-like paradise with temperatures hovering above the freezing point. In a way a harsh, an unforgiving winter makes way for a lush wave of greenery and sunlight.

In this edition we will take a look at three distinct attractions that you may want to visit during your stay.


1. The Wandering Glaciers

A veil of extreme cold travels around Planet New Berlin at any given time, indicated by the sunset. At a speed of roughly 78 kilometers per earth day the unstoppable force of nightfall turns meadows into snow-covered plains, forests into gatherings of icicle-lookalikes, and the vast rivers into enormous glaciers. Visitors are invited aboard hovering observatories that keep pace with the impending winter, offering a breath taking view of what time manipulation would look like, if it existed. Flowing water, even waterfalls become, quite literally, frozen in time. For nearly an entire year this scenery will remain as is, not counting occasional snowfall. Many smaller cities rely on monthly supply deliveries, and are otherwise entirely self-sufficient to defy temperatures of as low as -78°C.


2. Kronburg Residence

Marking another remnant of the 80-Year War is the Kronburg Residence, a once luxurious residence built deep within the Lernhofer mountains, hundreds of kilometers away from the nearest settlements. Built to look like a beacon of Rheinland's engineering skill, overflowing with flawless craftsmanship and highest quality furnishing, saunas and indoor swimming pools, it was a place where Rheinland would keep high ranking prisoners of war of the Gas Miners Guild. As they were not to be harmed, an entirely different approach was attempted. Treating these officers, commanders, and admirals more like guests of a luxury resort than prisoners aimed to make them feel comfortable in each other's presence. So much so, that they would start to talk about classified information, which would then be picked up by the residence's plethora of surveillance equipment and transmitted to the nearest military intelligence department of the MND. Prisoners remained in this facility for an average of one and a half years, before their intel was deemed to be outdated and they were made prime candidates for prisoner exchanges with the GMG.


3. City of Ice

Every New Years Eve a group of talented engineering graduates comes together to build a small city of houses made almost entirely of ice. Visitors may book up to three nights in one of the city's bungalow style residences. Don't be afraid, it does come with basic furnishing such as beds, tables and chairs. The walls, dividers, roof and flooring are made of cristal clear blocks of ice. Given New Berlin's day and night cycle the city will remain for roughly one year, the entirety of a day's nighttime, before melting away once more, making place for nature to return and a New City to be built by next year's graduates. The city's pendant of a crown jewel is the fifty meter tall church, called the Berliner Dom (Berlin's dome). In it hangs an actual small scale replica of the Alexander's Bell which, according to the planet's history, rang every day for 200 consecutive years upon the capital's establishment. It was destroyed when one of its support beams broke, more than two decades before the church's planned renovation. To pay tribute to their predecessor's mistake in planning ahead for possible instability of the structure, graduates in practical engineering come together each year to faithfully rebuild the entire church amidst numerous other historic buildings in the City of Ice.



Thank you for taking part in our Grand tour de Nouveau Berlin, Orbital Spa & Cruise is honored to welcome you aboard one of our many vessels, showing you places in Sirius like you have never seen them before.

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