Tuesday 21 February 2017

Desert World

The Stars without Number Wolf Sector setting I am developing has to have a desert planet. There are just too many iconic movies and books that occur on desert plants.  I decided that the planet Aradin sounded sufficiently desert like.  So Aradin in the Ansel system will be my desert world.

Since Aradin is not on an established spike route and is in fact 3 jumps from the nearest such route I decided it would be make sense for Aradin to be a backwater world. In this case a recently re-discovered world under the control of a single mega-corporation.

Aradin vista (Generated in Terragen)

ARADIN  (Ansel V)

Atmosphere
Breathable
Temp
Warm
Bio
Miscible
Pop
500K+
Tech
4

Planet Tags Desert world, Company planet, Mining and industry..
Enemies Neogen Enterprises functionary, Water Pirates, Claim Jumper.
Friends Friendly Free Trader, Sympathetic Neogen Factor, Prospector.
Complications High food and water prices, Port Fees, Contraband
Things Terra forming station, Pre-Scream technology, Abandoned Mine.
Places Gerson Spaceport, Broken Wastes, Deep Core Mine.

Aradin is the fifth planet from the yellow star Ansel. The four planets sunward from Aradin are airless rocks. The 5 outer planets are gas giants of various size. Ansel VII has a hydrogen rich atmosphere and a Hydrogen factory on one of its moons.

Aradin was being terraformed by the Terran Mandate before the Silence. It was apparently abandoned after the Scream. An explorer working for Neogen (and consulting Terran Mandate jump maps) found Aradin 80 years ago. At the time the only evidence of earlier settlement were the enormous 6 white towers 1 km tall that housed terra-forming equipment. The equipment had run out of fuel and stopped functioning at some point in the past.  But Aradin has enough atmospheric pressure to feel like high altitude on Terran standard planets. Settlers require no additional breathing equipment. The atmosphere is thin so while it is warm during the day it is very cold at night.

Neogen took control of Aradin and brought in mining operations once it was discovered that their were large deposits of several substances crucial to spike drive and ship manufacture. The planet is administered by Neogen and the Company Factor is the governor of the planet (currently Issai Russel). Neogen maintains order with Company security and has a number of interplanetary defence boats. Neogen ships (Neogen Spirit, Raven and Flame) arrive at least 2-3 times per week with supplies and take rare alloys off system for factories on Touchdown and Attis. The mines are largely automated, either open pit or deep bore.

Aradin Map generated in Hexographer

There are non-company settlers on Aradin. Many of them are from independent merchant ships or former employees of the company. They make up 50% of the population of the 2 towns of Strickson and Amorite. At these two towns there is a lot of greenhouse farming that provides raw material for the protein vats from which most of the food on Aradin is derived. There are also independent prospectors but they must sell anything they mine to Neogen officers.

Gerson is a rough and tumble company town with a spaceport and the offices of Neogen Enterprises. The population of Gerson is 10,000 people of which 7,500 are company employees.

Prices for food and water are higher than average on Aradin.

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