Sector 23: Week 1!

I have been working, one world a day, on Sector 23. Here are the first seven worlds in the project!

Subsector A

0103 Melqart B741544-9 Ni Po Scout and Naval Bases

An otherwise marginal colony, Melqart housed an Imperial Naval Station before the Collapse, with a Scout attachment. When the Star Empire fell, Melqart’s population retained both the advanced starport and a few naval assets, which they still maintain, albeit at a partial level. Their fleet, however, is aging, and they can only manufacture replacement small craft locally. Melqart lacks the industrial might to become even a regional power, but its strong martial roots and remaining advanced facilities permit it to repel foreign intervention and keep pirates away from their system. However, this still leaves Melqart as a prime target for technological larceny.

Themes: vast decaying starport and naval yard; jury-rigged, patchwork technology; strong martial culture.

0104 Anu E563270-7 Lo Ni Gas Giant RED ZONE

A dry but otherwise hospitable world, Anu was devastated by a pandemic - potentially a bioweapon - during the Collapse. The few survivors live in three isolated, tiny tribes in the ruins if past civilization. Developing an effective vaccine for that pandemic would permit re-colonization, and several neighboring worlds are developing such technologies to open up Anu for their own colonization.

Themes: vast ruined cities; biohazard; zombies???

0106 Suen C510585-9 Ni Gas Giant

Suen is a small, remote, but active, mining colony. While it lost part of its population to migration during the Collapse, it did retain its technological base and starport, and was thankfully not a frequent target for raiders. Suen has a well-known Antediluvian site, which was already excavated and explored centuries ago during Imperial times, but rumors persist of further, untapped sites deep within the local cavern systems.

Themes: heavy mining; heavy equipment; hidden alien ruins?

0110 Tammuz B674774-9 Ag Scout

Tammuz is a “breadbasket” world, a prime agricultural technology with a population of 80 millions. While its technology partially regressed following the Imperial Collapse, it still aggressively exports food and other agricultural products. Its main weakness, however, is its balkanized nature, with three agricorp-dominated “trading blocs” vying for control over their market shares. So far, violence was kept at the tolerable level of petty border skirmishes, but tensions are slowly increasing in the past few years, opening the possibility of all-out war.

Themes: agriculture; cold war; espionage and sabotage. Potential open warfare.

0201 Asherah B567888-9 Ri

The jewel of the subsector, Asherah is a pleasant, well-managed rich world boasting the highest living standard in the Subsector - or so its government claims. Originally ruled by a self-proclaimed Emepror who cited continuity-of-government rules to declare himself the true ruler of the (dead) Star-Empire, such regime was short-lived. Following a successful coup, and a short-lived Revolutionary Council, Asherah developed a stable civil-service bureaucratic government. However, while the so-called Emperor is long dead, rumors have it that his family still plots to regain control of Asherah and build a new Empire funded by this world’s wealth.

Themes: comfort; sleepy but friendly bureaucracy; plots and intrigue under the surface.

0203 Milkom C620266-7 De Gas Giant Scout

Milkom is a minor transit station on the Main going to the Trailing from Melquart. The government of Melqart operates this station, maintaining a starport crew of approx. 500 people on-site. The station can produce lower-grade (unrefined) liquid hydrogen fuel (and water) by chemical means from Milkom’s soil, but lacks the equipment to refine it. Melqart also permits the Scout Guild to operate a small base on Milkom for the benefit of interstellar communications. One must note, however, that Milkom was overlooked and held a small transit station even at the height of the Star Empire, so much of its extensive cave systems are barely mapped. Who knows what may await deep in these caves…

Themes: loneliness; close-knit community of professionals; caves; hidden alien ruins?

0206 Ashtoreth C566521-7 Ag Scout Gas Giant

When the Empire fell, Ashtoreth, an under-populated frontier world, was settled by the staff of its Scout Base, most of whom became farmers. Only a few still operate the old base, as well as the small starport. The local culture is informal, as is the government. The main threat to the locals’ way of life, however, is the sorry state the remnant fusion power plant is in; it was a TL15 model, so spare parts are rare. The locals are looking for such parts, and slowly building a fission plant as a failsafe.

Themes: rural anarchy; informality; decaying technology.