The Threads
Thanks to Role Generator's Planet and Star System Generator for supplying the basis for this.
The official name of this system, in the Unity Central Database, is C.271 XIV. Its inhabitants, however, call it "The Threads", due to its most extraordinary prevalence of comets, of which more than fourteen thousand are catalogued.
From any point of any planetary surface, or from the deck of any starship, there are always dozens of comets visible, their trails forming, by day as by night, a remarkable and enchanting criss-cross pattern of threads.
C.271 XIV is a 5 billion year old Type K sun, of orange colour. It is of course part of the Milky Way Galaxy, and lays 284 LY from Earth, and some 32 LY into The Fringe. Travel time to it from the closest sector of Unity space requires around 80 to 100 days of tunneling, depending on ship and navigator.
With 60% of the mass of the sun of humanity's home system, it has 0.1 Sol Magnitude, and is thus, especially compared to the Threads, a pale presence in the sky. It also emits far less radiation, meaning that the settlement of no or thin atmosphere planets is rendered easier, if other conditions are met.
Zemlejos Major, first reached eight hunded and forty years ago, is the main planet of The Threads. In a close 0.3 AU orbit around C.271 XIV it is a Class L planet with funademental characteristics very similar to Earth. It is of approximately the same size, and gravitation is 1.09G. Average surface temperature is 21°C. The atmosphere is thin, made up of 70% nitrogen, 24% oxygen and 5% argon, and is breathable without additional equipment.
Each day is 16 Standard Hours in length, and the planet rotates around the sun every 77 days.
Water makes up 92% of its surface. Zemlejos lacks any significantly-sized moons and thus any strong tidal activity, which has made colonisation easier, although seismic activity and the accompanying risk of tidal waves causes certain zones to remain untouched. All in all, as its 400 million inhabitants would agree, Zemlejos is an attractive planet, as long as you don't mind getting your feet wet.
Before human colonisation, the planet was home to an extremely wide variety of original ocean-based lifeforms, many of which provide useful and exotic resources. Exploitation of its rich resources has reached a considerable level of intensity, with some negative impact on the planet's ecosystem already being noted. The planet has insufficient population and trade output to warrant its own Karlenhertz generator, meaning that C.271 XIV has a wandering Weak Point, but this rarely creates any serious delays to starship navigation.
Second out, in a 0.7 AU orbit, is 51 Pegasus, a small class F planet with no atmosphere. Its diameter is half that of Zemlejos Major, and it offers only 0.35G. Average surface temperature is -100°C. Its day is 13 Standard Hours, and the planet performs a full orbit every 276 days.
51 Pegasus has been colonised, due to the substantial deposits of an energy-rich substance named malasite-B, that can be mined there. Although Pegasians avoid census, it is thought that around five million people dwell there, mostly in the sub-surface.
The planet has a moon, LGZ-359, which has a thin but highly toxic atmosphere and impressive volcanic activity. The most impressive eruptions on its surface are visible to the naked eye.
Hoccoria Gamma (1.1 AU orbit) is a Class D rocky planetoid, a quarter of the size of Zemlejos, with 0.17G and an average surface temperature of -120°C. It has a 6 Standard Hour day and a 544-day long year. It is devoid of any atmosphere.
By one of those miracles of the cosmic clock, the planet plays a major role in the ecology of The Threads. Its orbit regularly intersects with the main "comet highways", and the debris ejected by the frequent impacts create new comets, ensuring that the phenomenon is eternally renewed.
All sorts of exotic minerals can be found at the edge of the crater impact zones, but the impact risk, coupled with such rapid axial rotation, makes it impossible to predict survival time down on the surface. It is impossible to live on the planet, and only the most foolhardy or desperate will attempt a salvage mission there. As the laconic saying goes : Hoccoria Does Not Disappoint. You will either die as expected, or survive unexpectedly and come away rich.
Patfall (1.9 AU orbit) is another Class D rocky planetoid, one-fifth the size of Zemlejos. With 0.22G, no atmosphere and a surface temperature averaging -130°C, it is already unwelcoming. To make matters worse, its extremely long day and year (1233 of its 42 Standard Hour long days) and its unusually high axial tilt combine to offer long winters where temperatures plummet to -200°C.
Devoid of resources, the planet attracts those for whom it represents a refuge - pirates, criminals with bounties on their heads that very few will come to collect, or hermits seeking solitude. One particularly unusual feature of Patfall is the Oracle, a group of mystics that read omens in the The Threads' many comets. Their soothsaying is surprisingly popular, and exerts unexpected political influence throughout the solar system.
Patfall's moon, Harkdaleko, would be unremarkable except that it lodges a discreet Unity naval base, with its complement of Marines.
W15.I (3.5 AU orbit) is a Class J Gas Giant. Ten times larger than Zemlejos, presenting a theoretical surface gravity of 3G, it orbits about C.271 XIV every 3085 days. It has an atmosphere composed mainly of dihydrogen and ammonium. It is a useful source of helium-3 for Zemlejos' hungry fusion plants, and siphoning it is one of the most dangerous and lucrative activities in The Threads.
Another important resource of W15.I is the White, a belt of asteroids made up of millions of inexhaustible chunks of
orbiting ice, exploited by "rock-hoppers", and exported
throughout the C.271 XIV System.
The gas giant has fourteen satellites, two of which warrant a particular mention.
The moon of Duzara, which presents an unusual green colour when seen from space, offers dense support infrastructure for helium-3 skimming and its processing, mostly run by bots overseen by a human population that is measured in hundreds of thousands, rather than in millions.
Secondly, there is the small moon XFK-963, home to the supposedly small, definitely reclusive and apparently hereditary scientific community that first discovered the star system centuries ago. What they get up to there, nobody knows.
Very recently, The Threads has been the victim of an inexplicable EM pulse. The first electromagnetic shock wave was of an intensity never before recorded, and it was followed by two others of increasing magnitude, all emitted over a period of five Standard Weeks. The initial study of the direction of their impact makes it certain there is a definite source, but it is so far unlocated and at an unknown distance. When a Zemjelos researcher stated they seem to be carrying "music-like information", they colloquially become known as the "Solar Chord Pulse"
The EM pulses have wreaked havoc throughout the star system. Ship systems are usually EM proofed, but the initial blast overwhelmed many, and the effects of the following pulses were sometimes lethal. Whilst none of the infrastructure damage has caused catastrophic failure to any planet's ecosystem, the damage done to star-going vessels has effectively cut The Threads off from the outside.
To make matters worse, the quick succession of the EMPs, has done something to the system's Weak Point. It is still there, but barely detectable. Trading vessels sent out before the disaster have sought to return to C.271 XIV, but there is something like a one light year standard deviation on such attempts, with several fatal accidents already having occurred. Even if a vessel makes it through, it then faces a long sub-light journey to actually reach its destination.
Those families, guilds or corporations blessed with still functioning vessels are already bickering over whether to use them for internal relief efforts across the system, or to get one up on their rivals whilst they are still down.
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