Solar System

Home sweet human! The Solar system is centered around a smallish yellow G-type star. Four rocky planets are surrounded by four gas giants, and a number of smaller bodies fill out the rest of the system. It is home to two warp bridges - one to Sirius and one to Redland - in the orbits of Saturn and Uranus, respectively.

The Solar System is second only to Parella in number of planets, and has a high number of large moons, unmatched anywhere in the rest of the Orion Arm. It's also one of the largest systems in terms of distance; most other systems are more tightly clustered around cooler stars.

Earth

Following the occupation's end in 2065, Earth begins a process of recovery and rebuilding. By the 2080's, it has largely recovered, and the booming economy allows space travel to become a regular occurrence.

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Poles: The northern and southern polar regions - includes Antarctica, Canada, Northern Europe, and most of Russia.

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Luna

Luna, Earth's moon, experiences extreme temperature shifts during its month-long cycle of light and dark, like many worlds with no atmosphere. It is only habitable inside domes, which contain atmosphere and equalize the temperature shifts.

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Dome: Domed lunar cities begin to crop up across Luna in the 2080's, mostly used as way stations and fuel mines for orbital refueling stations. Luna also serves as a meeting place for Earth-dwellers to meet with those who were raised in low gravity environments, for whem Earth gravity would be dangerous.

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Venus

Earth's closest neighbor is far too hot and crushing for humans to survive on its surface. The atmosphere protects against radiation, which is nice, I guess.

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Skystead: In the year 2081, the Chinese space program drops a probe into Venus's atmosphere, with the goal of using nanotechnology and the compounds in the atmosphere to chemically construct a floating platform. The experiment succeeds; after about two years of growth, the platform is stable and, being less dense than the Venusian air, floats at about 60 km above the surface, above the crushing depths of the atmosphere. In the mid 2080's, several more seeds are dropped around the planet. These "skysteads", as they came to be known, form the basis for a habitable Venus - though still hotter and denser than any environment on Earth, the skysteads bring Venus within the realm of survivability. A few of the skysteads are placed at the poles, where they get permanent twilight sunset, and becomes a tourist destination. Hydrogen and oxygen can be chemically separated from the compounds it normally resides in, and plants can use this produced water along with the abundant CO2 in the atmosphere and plentiful sunlight.

The skysteads themselves are partly constructed of sulfur compounds, and have an effect of sequestering sulfur out of the atmosphere. By the time of the Artifact Wars, Venus is covered in fractal, cloud-like floating skysteads, and the atmosphere is largely non-toxic to humans (though a breathing mask is still required to avoid CO2 poisoning).

Skysteads are located at slightly different altitudes, which are actually measured as depth into the atmosphere using fathoms (about 6 feet) as the main unit. This measurement standard begins at zero fathoms being at 62 km altitude (the highest altitude at which a skystead can theoretically be stable) and increasing as one moves towards the surface. Most skysteads are at between 800 and 2000 fathoms (58-61 km altitude). One small skystead, a tourist attraction at Venus's north pole, is named Negative Fathoms - it uses jet engines to hover above the theoretical "fathom line", where the environment is more comfortable for non-natives.

Venus's colonist population is mostly from China (who launched the nanotech probe) and Australia (who invented the technology and licensed it to the Chinese in exchange for their own skystead).

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Mars

Outside: Mars's frigid, thin atmosphere cannot support most life.

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Dome: The first Mars colony was established shortly before the Bactaran attack. They survived independently through ingenuity and determination; following the occupation, the colony grows, and domes begin to dot the landscape. These domed cities are intricately planned before they are built, and buildings quickly fill up the limited space in the dome.

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Ceres

Habitat: Ceres, the largest asteroid in the belt by far, serves as a travel hub between the asteroid belt and, effectively, everywhere else. In the late 21st century, it becomes the first place where human and Bactaran civilians coexist, and, for better or for worse, this cohabitation becomes its defining trait over the years. As such, its environment is tailored to the survival of both humans and Bactarans.

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Asteroid Colonies

By the end of the 21st century, thousands of asteroids have been colonized. Most asteroids that are colonized follow a similar model: Hollow out a cylindrical shape in the center of an asteroid, use the hollowed material to construct a cylinder, and spin it up for artificial gravity. This process leaves surplus rock and ore from the hollowing out process, which is typically refined and either sold or turned into spacecraft. The structures of the colony itself are built within this cylinder, with the outer levels have the most gravity. The rock of the asteroid itself (which does not spin) offers protection from meteors and harmful solar radiation, and the docking ports are built into this non-rotating section, connected to the spinning cylinder at the center.

Every asteroid colony has its own unique flavor, quirks, and oddities. The belt is the wild west of space, and every colony is a new frontier town with its own mayor, sheriff, and townspeople. Kicking around the asteroid belt can be a source of endless variety for a campaign, not to mention danger.

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Saturn

Thanks in part to the orbiting Warp Bridge, and in part to its vast array of moons, Saturn becomes a hub of activity in the last decades of the 21st century. Hyperion Station is built as a transport hub between all these destinations, being the nearest moon to the warp bridge. Numerous ice mining operations are established on the various moons, providing water and oxygen to the planetary system, while Titan and Phoebe provide a number of other materials required for life. The warp bridge and the activity it brings boosts the economy with trade and tourism.

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Titan

Dome: Titan's lakes are composed of a wide variety of hydrocarbons. These elements are extremely valuable to life in the outer solar system, as they can be recombined chemically to form food. Taking advantage of this, a number of domes are established starting in the 2080's near the lakes' shores to harvest hydrocarbons. First, the surface ice (which comprises most of the solid surface of Titan) is mined, melted, and split into hydrogen and oxygen by electrolysis. The lakes' hydrocarbons are pumped from the lakes into stations where they are mixed with the oxygen derived from the ice - that is to say, burned - resulting in carbon dioxide and water, as well as much-needed heat. Food crops, grown with artificial lights, process the CO2 and water into useful food and breathable oxygen. This food supplies the entire Saturn system. A Titan colony is self-sustaining as long as it has power to supply these processes, and its invaluable food resources are worth far more than the small amount of nuclear fuel it needs to support its power generation.

The first colonists to establish a sustainable farm on Titan live in the large dome known as Othrys, and begin exporting their produce in 2090. Othrys quickly becomes wildly wealthy, and its citizens start expanding their influence, largely with Herschel Station in orbit around Titan. Although Hyperion Station is the hub of Saturnian life early on, Herschel Station begins to overshadow it in the last decade of the 21st century.

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Outside: Though the air is not breathable and the temperature is unlivable, the presence of an atmosphere makes Titan surprisingly easy to survive in.

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Herschel Station

Station: Herschel Station, built in 2095, is Hyperion Station's bigger, wealthier countepart. While Hyperion Station is a hub of travel and the gateway to the warp bridge, Herschel Station is Saturn's marketplace. Built by the wealthy colonists of Titan to facilitate trade of foodstuffs and other goods, it overshadows Hyperion Station in size, importance, and luxury within five years of its opening.

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Hyperion

This tiny moon would not be worth notice if not for its proximity to the Sirius warp bridge, and by virtue of this, proximity to Hyperion Station. Water ice is mined from this moon for rapid-response demand purposes on the station - when water is needed quickly, ships are dispatched here.

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Hyperion Station

Station: Hyperion Station is built in the 2070's in orbit around Saturn's moon Hyperion, a location chosen for its proximity to the Sirius warp bridge. It's a major waypoint between Earth and anything past Sirius, and Earth's first line of defense within the Solar system. For twenty years it is the largest station in the solar system, and includes both a strong civilian and military presence. Mining operations on the small moon's surface keep the station supplied with water and ore for raw materials.

Like Ceres, Hyperion is designed to be habitable to both humans and Bactarans due to its position and role in the Bactaran mining operation.

Following Herschel Station's completion in 2095, Hyperion Station is no longer the dominant living space around Saturn for humans. Its focus shifts in favor of the military, and the civilian population soon becomes majority Bactaran. When the Orion War breaks out, Hyperion Station restricts the rights of its resident Bactarans (beginning with their right to leave the station), and the civilian quarters are gradually transformed into a virtual internment camp for Bactarans. When the Parella Treaty is signed, the Bactarans are again permitted to leave, and in the next few years the station again becomes a blend of civilian and military - but the shadow of oppression (and racism) never fully leaves the station.

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Enceladus/Tethys/Rhea

These moons of Saturn are a major source of water in the outer solar system, which is used for drinking, for oxygen, and for hydrogen rocket fuel. Ice mining and drilling operations dot the moons.

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