Station 23 by Vosto

Station 23

Rumors of war circulate. Not between the big powers of the world, but between authoritarian, globalized systems and the people who are tired of being told what to think, where to work and what to put in their bodies. Everything is dictated; from what to eat, which has become close to nothing, to which medication to use, which usually only perpetuates illness. Taxes have grown beyond reason and are used for questionable projects.

A cold war has been ongoing for quite some time, with the intelligence services doing everything they can to find out about potential revolutionary hubs, and try to stop them before an actual uprising takes hold. At the same time, the people are gathering their own intelligence, and creating a blueprint with primary targets; a new system to replace the old is being envisioned, based on a united conceptual framework combining many elements of the people's beliefs.
When people have nowhere to work, almost nothing to eat and sickness is rampant, it is time for revolution. Even the people who were content before, those who criticized the anti-system thought, have now joined with the rebellion.

The war starts. It can't be pin-pointed exactly where or when it began, but people have had enough. The regular person is in the fight now against the military industrial complex. Those who were already depressed, tired and hungry have been fueled with a glimmer of hope that something can change, and they will fight to the death for the chance of a better world. Even if a better world never comes, at least the mechanism which has placed humanity in shackles is becoming dismantled.

Fortunately, some states refused to join the control grid. These states now give resources and equipment to the rebellion. The rebels themselves are not so weak, as during this cold war they have developed ways of hacking the system. The ability to hack is very powerful in an age where a lot of equipment works through smart technology that is hooked up to the grid.

Hackers have united with drone operators to create new devices called sky crystals. These glow like a crystal when launched, due to their shield which is based on electromagnetic principles. The sky crystals are deployed in a swarm in the hopes that some will reach their objective. Once they reach their target destination, a sky crystal can scramble the grid for a radius of about 5 miles, rendering grid-based weapons unusable. This opens up the possibility for the rebels to launch offensive operations with classic infantry, and gain more ground in the fight for freedom.

The headquarters of the rebellion lies at Station 23, a former radio station. Station 23 used to be one of the anti-system radio stations, tens of years ago. From the outside it looks like a long-gone entertainment hub, but on the inside there is an elevator that leads to an underground facility. Back when censorship was becoming too tough, the owners of the station decided to get off the radar. They faked their transmission closure, but worked against the status quo by creating a network of the best minds in alternative thought. These were the building blocks of the revolution. It is within this facility that the best minds from all fields plan their logistics and their next moves to propel the revolution towards victory.

Join our fighters not only through trench warfare and offensive operations, but also through their deepest of thoughts. Share in small human moments, like finding an old phonograph, playing an old record, or thinking about a lost love. Harness brotherly strength in harsh times, or whistle in the tunnels to keep up morale up, as you can hear the bombs flying overhead.

This is the musical story of war, humanity and hope.


cover art by Kevin Castaniero: https://www.instagram.com/countpagan/

Follow these places:
https://twitter.com/VostoSynthwave - I post updates here
https://www.youtube.com/@vo0sto0 - I post unreleased song demos here
https://nightride.fm/ - I DJ live synthwave shows here

extra notes:

I've lost my hdd on which these musical projects were due to a power surge on the power supply which fried other components too. I have sent my hdd to data recovery and I did manage to get my files back so now you can hear those lost songs. If I didn't send my hdd to data recovery I had only half these songs backed up. Due to this event me and my friends at rekt network thought about calling this album the Burnt Hard Drive album but I have decided not to go for this even if it's a good idea because then the lore that I wrote for the album wouldn't have mande any sense.

The songs in romanian don't necessarily fit the lore but they also kind of do.
"Îi Dăm Jos" is a song in which I critique our current system. A system that demands so much from us as if were just some obeying slaves with our spiritual fabric killed and replaced with superficial entertainment.
"Și Mă Gândesc" is a song about my own personal experience of lost love and sometimes thinking about it, we can transpose this into the fictional world of this album as a soldier thinking about his lost love and the past in general which contrasts with the current war chaos, lost glimpses of humanity as the bombs are flying by.
"Destin" is a song about the clausthrophobic feeling of being surrounded by problems and thinking if it is possible to get out of that

The voice is done by me and is not very good but I think it's good enough to fit with the atmosphere of this album and help tell a human story..

Atop Transylvanian peaks a lone synth lets cry

rekt.network
nightride.fm