A look at some of the entertainment media you can pick up on the relay satellites when you're cruising the Sol system. Space is big and empty, but there's plenty to play on your speaker or screen to help you fill the time in your transit between starports.

Hailing from the beating heart of Naredaprimalinne, Neptune's largest city, Starbeat Satellite is a Rocketpop duo beloved throughout the Sol system. Consisting of ST4R, an Android built by Quasar Galactic; Beat, short for Beaterraminzephyleer; and their manager, Roxannabimedileer, Starbeat Satellite has risen to interplanetary fame on the back of their growing catalog of bouncing, melodic music and infectious good vibes. They are good-natured and friendly, frequently selling out stadiums for their shows and happy to meet their fans when they're planetside for a musical tour. They are scheduled to play a show this month in Titan Garden, at the E-District's Imperial Arena. Good luck getting yourself a seat!

Starbeat Satellite has a simple but highly successful formula. Their brand of Rocketpop is a fusion of Pulsewave, Cathode Funk, Terran Disco Revival and Old Plutonian House music backing catchy and easy-to-follow lyrics about living and loving in the year 2389. It's very easy to bounce in your seat to a Starbeat Satellite track, whether that seat is an office on Terra or a starship in Caelian orbit, and the lyrics are easy to pick up on and sing along with, even if it's your first time hearing the chorus. They usually have versions of their songs with lyrics in both Common Terran and Karalese Neptunian languages, and they like to mix up which versions of what songs they sing at their shows. It's easy to pick up on even if you don't speak one language or the other, but superfans like to make sure they know them both by heart. Some of their hit songs include Clean and Serene, 404 Reasons, Tell Me Goodbye, Warp Skip Record Scratch and H.E.A.R.T. Breaker Deluxe. This isn't an exhaustive list, their catalog is huge.

Fans will tell you that ST4R provides the beat and Beat is the vocal star, but the truth is the pair collaborate on all aspects of their work. The pair are always searching for new inspirations for their tracks, often sampling older and lesser-known music and giving it their twist. When they've blended something together into a bouncy new beat the pair will write lyrics to layer overtop of the track- they often want to capture a relatable experience and phrase it in a way that is easy to hear and to repeat, even for people unfamiliar with one of their two performing languages. Beat tends to be the vocal lead with ST4R providing backup singing but occasional ST4R will have his own moments at the front with Beat supporting him. We can do it together! Together! We can sail in any Weather! Together! There ain't any other way.

It makes sense given how much work they put into making their songs catchy and fun, but Starbeat Satellite love their fans and love fan participation in their music. They wouldn't be on top of Sol without their supporters, and they recognize the two-way nature of the connections their music has made. ST4R and Beat will often use their platform to speak out on social issues important to them, particularly those related to Neptunian politics and its influence as one of the only two worlds to try and enforce a military presence in space, alongside Terra. They've built enough interplanetary support that they can fairly safely denounce Neptunian pursuit of the Old Myths, which gets a particular kind of starfarer all sorts of cranky. They've been approached by Alchemist FX to collaborate on a track or two, but the pair recognize his vibe and politely decline.

One of Starbeat Satellite's biggest little fans is Red Raven friend and collaborator, EV3R. She loves these guys! When she's cruising around the Sol system in her personal ship, the Sunfish, she'll put on a Starbeat Satellite playlist and just bop along in her seat, tapping her metal paws on the control yoke, singing along with ST4R and Beat and just overall enjoying her ride. She likes to hum the rhythm to their songs while she's hanging around a starport with her ears up for salvage leads, and when she's got a tune in her metal heart she's got a little spring in her step, it's very cute. She's a friend of the crew, and Red Raven appreciates the work she does for them, so Amy and Haley asked Scarlet if she could do her thing and find a ticket or two to the upcoming Starbeat Satellite concert in the E-District. They're very hard to get a hold of, but Scarlet's very persuasive. EV3R's due to pop back into Titan Garden soon, and long story short, the Red Raven crew's got a little surprise for her the next time they meet up with her at the Ox & Carriage. She's gonna flip a breaker, it's gonna be soooo cute!

Alchemist FX is an Android musician who is well-known in the Sol system's electronic and drum & bass scenes, particularly in the Outer Belt. Both a producer and a DJ, Alchemist FX has built a reputation for putting on great live performances, both impromptu and pre-planned, allowing him to share his music anywhere, at any time. He has a lesser-known reputation for being a bit full of himself, though; his music is great but he tends to be difficult for fans to approach and prefers the company of "high value" friendships within his industry. Up and coming talent trying to get to know him is just chasing clout; he's a professional, though, so he approaches his peers as a matter of business interest. It is what it is, what can you say? The music is good, and at the end of the day that's what people come out for.

Somewhat young by Android terms, Alchemist FX is a HAL-5 droid manufactured by Delta Astronautics- he didn't need to upgrade from a HAL-3 or a HAL-4 frame, he was built to state-of-the-art standards and has no chassis debt to pay down. Taking advantage of this stroke of fortune, Alchemist FX has invested a fair amount of credits into upgrading his hardware, giving him a distinct physical appearance. He's opted for a cherry-candy panel coating and a monoptic lens with backlit, scrolling marquee display capabilities. All HAL-5 units are equipped with holovector projection technology, which normally allows them to plot three-dimensional astronavigational charts that their crewmates can reach into and interact with; they typically project in one color, but Alchemist FX has installed a set of full-spectrum holoprojectors to allow him to give his vector projections a strobing rainbow aesthetic. And where Delta units are built to interface with sophisticated astronavigational starship computers, Alchemist XL interfaces with his music-producing rig when he's creating tracks and connecting directly to house speaker systems when he's performing them.

Being a fairly self-sufficient music producer is a big part of what helped build Alchemist XL's reputation for delivering live impromptu shows. He likes to work in many drum & bass styles, centuries-old or present-day, mellow or pulsing, glossy or dungeonous, and when he plays a set he prefers to blend together tracks with a given aesthetic theme. While he can technically generate mixes inside his own internal computer, Alchemist FX prefers to use holovector projections of analog turntable setups to play his mixes, as imprecision gives creative works character and the physical act of using a device- even a projected one- introduces opportunities for imprecision. He can cross-fade, adjust his levels and play samples from his holovector turntable deck, and he can do this anywhere with a speaker system and a wireless access point. A stage setup is nice, but Alchemist FX can also project his holovector displays behind him to show equalizer and other effects related to his music and his mix. It really is a great little gimmick.

While he plays a lot of tracks he himself has produced, Alchemist FX is also a walking archive of tracks he's acquired from his peers. As an up-and-comer he got to know other DJs and other producers, and he'd share a track he'd produce with them, and they'd share a track they produced with him. It goes into the archives, and from the archives it goes into the mix, blending into a narrative that chronicles his own journey through his music scene, his own rise to prominence and success. Alchemist FX loves to work with talented emcees and lyricists when he's putting on a live performance, using his computer systems to integrate vocal samples into the mix as the set is happening. After a show, in private company, he likes to impress other artists by creating tracks live using found samples from his environment, building them into a track that another artist could speak over and just vibe together. It's a great trick and it's got him a lot of attention with the right people- just make sure that includes you before you ask him to hop on a jam session. He's good at his craft but, well, you know how it is.

Gutt Funker is a Martian performance artist and the host of the Gutt Funker S.L.U.D.G.E. Network, a two-hour radio show broadcasting every Wednesday night across the relay satellites on TCCC 106.9FM. Gutt Funker is a towering man with a mellow temper, he's generally soft-spoken in regular company but when he's in front of a mic he'll dial up his energy and put on his stage persona, coming across as way more forceful and aggressive than he actually is. He loves to smoke Ganymedean tobacco. He has two tattoos of the same woman; he believes she is a Mercurian Firewalker who sneaks into his room at night to pin him to his bed and he's really into that, but she is in fact simply his sleep paralysis demon. He is Puke Commander's ex-lover.

The Gutt Funker S.L.U.D.G.E. Network is a weekly radio program dedicated to surfacing new and underground talent from around the Sol system, primarily focusing on scenes and genres of music that don't see a lot of widespread support. Scuzcore, ratfunk, skrizz, rust metal, toilet noise, dockstep and void fusion are some of the many wells Gutt Funker draws from to feature on his show, often choosing to promote a certain genre in the first hour of the program before segueing into a regular medley of things in the second. Blocks of music will be punctuated by bits from Gutt Funker himself, sometimes telling stories from when he knew a band in his touring years, other times taking callers and razzing them over whatever they have to say, and then playing their requests anyways. It's all part of the show, and the volume and intensity of Gutt Funker's stage persona are a big part of why people tune into the S.L.U.D.G.E. Network in the first place.

Back in the day, back home on Mars, Gutt Funker was the guitarist and co-vocalist for a band called The Skidmarks, sharing microphone duties with his then-boyfriend, Puke Commander. The Skidmarks gained a bit of fame within the scuzcore scene and soon they were playing shows offworld, on abandoned satellites and backwater moons, eventually finding their way to Titan Garden. The band was approaching its zenith when a rift tore the group asunder: Gutt Funker wanted to pursue wider acceptance of scuzcore, he wanted The Skidmarks to find a bigger audience and find comfort through commercial success, believing if more people were exposed to The Skidmarks then more people would get onboard with the scene. Puke Commander vehemently opposed the idea, believing that the power of their work was in presenting an alternative to curated media, to show that there is always more to life than what we're served up and that those who needed them would find them organically. Half of the rest of the Skidmarks agreed with each opposing viewpoint, and their differences would prove to be irreconcilable, splitting the group in half. Gutt Funker's half would go on to form Gutt Funker & The Screaming Shits, while Puke Commander's half would become The Pukes. The Screaming Shits were successful in bringing broader awareness- if not widespread acceptance- of scuzcore to the wider Sol system, while The Pukes forged deeper roots within the underground community of Titan Garden. Gutt Funker and Puke Commander haven't spoken to each other since.

Today, Gutt Funker is retired from the performing life. He enjoys a modest but comfortable living on Titan, broadcasting once a week out of the E-District's studio block across the Outer Belt's satellite relay network. More than a few starfarers look forward to The S.L.U.D.G.E. Network program on long flights through space, and have begun looking for cartridges of music by featured acts when they land in port cities throughout the Sol system. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but then what is? Gutt Funker loves to play up his stage persona when he's on the air, speaking big and brash, but every now and then, once every few months, Gutt Funker will close out his show with a song dedicated to "Pea Sea", wherever he is out there, if he happens to be listening in to the program. Once every few months, Gutt Funker will close out his show with a song by a little band from Mars called "The Skidmarks".