Dallia - SM1435 - District 268

Dallia        1435 B8B5883-9    Fl                 610

UWP:	B8B5883-9	Location:	Spinward Marches/1435	System:	Dalia
Starport:	B	Good, refined fuel, spaceship repair
Planetary Size:	8	Medium 12,800 km
Atmosphere:	B	Corrosive Requires Vacc Suit
Hydrosphere:	5	50 percent surface area covered by oceans
Population:	8	Moderate Population 600,000,000
Government:	8	Civil Service Bureaucracy
Law Level:	3	Low Law Heavy Weapons Prohibited
Tech Level:	9	Early Stellar (fusion power)
Base(s):		None
Zone:		Green: Unrestricted
# of Planetoid Belts:	1		# of Gas Giants:	0

Dallia/1435 is a very curious world in District 268. It is located along part of the Collace Arm, and is also connected to the Spinward Main. As such it sees a lot of trade traffic, and has built up a reputable class B starport. The orbital component is called Raleigh Highport.

Dallia was first settled by colonists leaving Mora, approximately 700 years ago.  The curious cave structures (see below) on Dallia were known, and some terraforming was enacted in order to make them suitable for human habitation and exploitation.

The subterranean hive system, in contrast to the barren surface.

The surface of the world is harsh, covered by chlorine seas, rough mountain ranges, and a corrosive atmosphere.  There are several navigational beacons guiding visitors to the main down port (located underground in a massive cave complex, see below), known as Essex Station.  It is located in the Serapis Hive.

Navigation beacon on the surface of Dallia

Approximately 160 years ago (840), because of Dallia's growing population, the government (Commonwealth of Dallia) attempted to buy out the Ag Worlds Combine (an alliance of Motmos/1340, Tarkine/1434, and Tarsus/1138 - three worlds that produce the bulk of the food for the worlds along the Collace Arm). Forine/1533 and Collace/1237 opposed the move, because they (like many other worlds) rely on the Combine for much of their own (imported) food.

When Dallia was first colonized, in the early 4th century, by colonists from Mora - they came and found the fabled Caverns of Dallia.  These are vast honeycomb networks of hexagonal caverns - miles and miles across, evenly placed around the surface of the planet.  The different "chambers" in the honeycomb are all able to be sealed off from each other.  It is not known who constructed these massive chambers, but they are certainly artificial (not natural geological processes).  The chambers themselves are sometimes four or five kilometers high, and they are often fourteen or fifteen kilometers across.

Approach to the Essex Spaceport, in the heart of the Serapis Hive

It appears that the exploration and settlement of the caverns took place all on the same horizontal level of cavern, however, recent geological discoveries made by researchers funded by Sternmetal Horizons have uncovered deeper layers of caverns.  Some of these were infested by some (unsuccessful) attempts to introduce biological specimens to Dallia, in the hopes of creating a food ecology.  The attempt was unsuccessful, but in some of the caverns, especially, under the Apshai Hive the re-discovery of those lifeforms has resulted in identifying some vast fungal and mushroom forests, with growths of truly astonishing sizes, along with species of aerial floaters, and subterranean reptiles that have grown to truly massive (dinosaur-like) proportions.

Re-Discovered lifeforms in the deep caves under Apshai Hive

System Details
Primary - Zes/Bes 1435
Hayes - Orbit One - Inner Zone - Size 8 Radiation World - Size 2 Moon (Throckmorton)
Barton - Orbit Two - Habitable Zone - Size 17 Big World - Size 8 Moon (Dallia)
Budleigh Belt - Orbit Three - Outer Zone - Asteroid Belt
Devon - Orbit Four - Outer Zone - Size 2 Worldlet

Non-Mainworld Facilities
Hayes - Size 8 radiation world, no known facilities, surface or orbit. Visited regularly by robotic landers, from Arkin Center, on Throckmorton.

• Throckmorton - Size 2 moon around Hayes, on the surface is the "Arkin Center" - a manufacturing site that processes radioactive ores, collected by robotic landers, from Hayes - into medical products.  Owned and operated by Cetera Biochem.  The Arkin Center features not only control facilities for the robots, but also processing, research labs, and housing for the staff and families.  It has a population of 8,000 - 75% mixed stock Humans, and 25% Aslan, from the Hidmarowl clan.

Barton - Size 17 large world,  no known surface facilities.  In addition to Raleigh Highport (the system's main Starport), there are two other orbital facilities.  These are the Hallowell Project, and Gugashim IV.

• The Hallowell Project an extremely large, dispersed structure, orbital facility consisting of mainly solar collectors, and a central processing hub that uses the energy to produce large capacity, industrial strength powercells and batteries. These are shipped to the various Hives on, and under, the surface of Dallia.  The company operating it is Tracey Solar Ops (TSO).  The regular staff of Hallowell amounts to only 20 personnel at a time, but TSO uses it as a training facility, so about half of them are only on short term stays (TSO is also expanding into nearby systems in the Collace Arm).  A number of cargo shuttles arrive every day from each of the major hives on Dallia.  TSO staff are almost entirely Solomani descent.
• Gugashim IV is the name of a corporate space station, in orbit around Barton.  It is owned by Tukera Lines, in their Cargo Trans-Shipping Division, and the holding company operating it is called Atkins Multi-Stellar.  This station has a special permit from The Commonwealth of Dallia, to operate a cargo storage and handling facility separate from Raleigh High Port.  This means that cargoes can be processed here, and moved from vessel to vessel, without having to pay any duties to the world government (the starport here is operated by the local world, unlike most starports in Imperium systems).  Considering that Dallia's Space Patrol and orbital facilities are funded by the money it collects from normal cargo operations, Tukera's company (Atkins Multi-Stellar) must have cut a really good deal with Dallia. The facility is an enclosed cylinder space city, with dispersed platforms to serve as ports and cargo handling pads.  In addition to cargo facility personnel, brokerage personnel, and administrative personnel, the station also houses families and is responsible for overseeing the operations of the Dallia Transfer communications station in orbit around Devon.

Budleigh Belt -A very dense, medium mineral content Asteroid Belt, with a high amount of iceteroids.  Several large asteroids are of note (Chuff-967, Rho Angus, Red Rock) because they have establishments constructed on them. Of similar note, is a secondary ring of  orbiting asteroids, slightly eccentric and off the elliptical of Budleigh, but it intersects it at two points.  This secondary ring has seven significant asteroids, spaced relatively regularly around the orbital path, these are called the Lost Kittens.  They collectively house a fueling and resource operation called Dromedary Fuels.

• Chuff Reflection Center is built on the surface, and burrows extending into the body, of Chuff-967, a major body in the asteroid belt. CRC is a training center for the Stellar Unity Church (meditative and reflective body, that believes that all sentient beings come from star stuff, and will return, adding their wisdom and awareness to the stars).  The CRC has a permanent staff of 70, mostly mixed stock humans.  It can house an addition 200 students at any time.
• Stellorum Hermitage is built into the body of Rho Angus, another large body in the asteroid belt.  It is a monastic facility built into the interior of Rho Angus.  The celebrants (both male and female) of the Hermitage observe meditation, mostly, but also honing of physical and mental skills.  There is a population of about 40 celebrants at any one time, and perhaps another 20 clergy that maintain the facility.
• Dromedary Fuels is operated by a Sharurshid subsidiary, called Armada Systems.  It harvests fuel and other chemical and ore resources out of the asteroids, and then returns them for trade, to the facilities located throughout the Lost Kittens.  Each of the Kittens is a swarm of small craft, moving around trade materials, operating and repairing the docking infrastructure, and providing shuttle services to and from ships.  Each of the seven Lost Kittens has a population supporting orbital facility, built ring style, in locked orbit around that Kitten.  These are called, respectively Armada-One, Armada-Two, etc.  All together the seven Armada facilities have a population of workers and space citizens of about 200,000.  The trade products are refined fuel, water, and other materials that can be gotten out of the rock and ice bodies of Budleigh.
• Ferraow Aielouaa is an orbital city, and a cargo trading center, that is inhabited by approximately 500,000 Aslans.  It is a multi-clan operation, run by a council of females.  The station, in addition to the normal security vessels and personnel, operate a system wide search and rescue service called Ferraow Rescue.  The Aielouaa (Aslan for Space City) is spin-anchored around a large asteroid body called Red Rock.

Devon is a size 2 cold worldlet, in the outermost occupied orbital around the system primary star.  It is orbited by a small orbital facility called the Dallia Transfer.  This is a commercial communications outpost, that serves to capture and relay communications traffic and private couriers coming into and out of the system, all operated by Tukera Lines, and overseen by the staff at Gugashim IV, in orbit around Barton.  Dallia Transfer has a staff of 800, and operates a number of spacecraft for retrieving the commercial equivalent of Tukera Lines x-boats, and also serving as out system picket craft, mostly capturing and relaying information from inbound and outbound vessels, for a transfer fee.

Mainworld Details

The population is fairly evenly split between the main hive complexes, of which there are five with approximately 120 million people living in each hive.  There are several other, smaller hive structures, but they are either incomplete, have suffered partial cave-ins, or for some other reason have not been targeted for large scale human habitation.  The surface has two main seas, the Northern Sea and the Southern Sea, which are composed mainly of hydrochloric acid.  Storms on the planet have misting precipitation of hydrochloric acid, and there is a frozen briny frost of it existing over large portions of the northern and southern parts of the globe.  A curious surface vegetation (crying trees), consisting of a stout rocky trunk with hard stacked lamina of outer dead material, with a central core that is still alive (the crying tree trunk has a lifespan measured in centuries), is tipped at the top with rapidly growing fronds that wave and undulate while they are intact (the fronds have a short lifespan, measured in hours).  These last only a few days, but undergo a sort of photosynthesis, providing conversions of the hydrochloric acid into the greenish chlorine that makes up the atmosphere.  Other lifeforms inhabit the surface, the most dangerous being swarming hordes of arthropods (mustard crabs) that feed on family of large slug species.

Life in the Charon Hive

Other than the five main hive areas, the other smaller hive structures (all are marked on the planetary map as cave areas) have been named and are occasionally the topic of exploration or survey.  The five main hive areas are connected to each other by tube trains along the surface, but the main form of transportation is by hardened flyers and g-carriers.  Much of the energy generated on the world comes from geothermal sources.  The volcanic activity is tapped for this reason, and for the harvesting of minerals.  The main economy of the planet has to do with surface harvesting and processing of chemicals and rare earths.

The Administrative Center of the Commonwealth (the planetary government) is located at Serapis Hive.

A. Mormo Hive (population 105 million)
B. Actium Caves - next to Aybay Volcano (active)
C. Charon Hive (population 130 million) - edge of the Tobal Desert
D. Caverns of Hope
E. Rhoda Caverns - next to Chiros Volcano (active)
F. Serapis Hive (population 135 million) - Essex Station (downport)
G. Apshai Hive (population 105 million) - next to the Nopsis Volcano (active)
H. Caverns of Light - next to Nemesis Volcano (active)
J. Pontos Hive (populatio 125 million)
K. Lost Lotus Caves - next to the Maxos Volcano (active) 

Surface map of the moon, Dallia - each hex is 256km

Rhoda Caverns, like the others, is home to several large cavern systems that have free standing water in it, and subterranean vegetation that is supporting a very large lifeform.  This could be related to the subterranean reptiles that were genetically manipulated for this world, but if so -then it has taken on even more massive size than the ones that exist below the human inhabited hive areas.  It has been nicknamed the Rhoda Dinosaur, and has become famous due to repeated visits to the caverns, where curious ruins are said to exist.

Rhoda Dinosaurs feeding on the fungus that grows in their caves

There is a cult that is small but persistent, that was once lead by a malcontent from Charon from over 100 years ago.  His name was Trevor Lush, and his followers are called the Lushites.  Other than attempting to sway the Parliament against trying a purely military conquest of Tarkine once they failed to acquire the Ag World Combine, Lush also believed that there was an older indigenous race that inhabited Dallia, that was responsible for building the cavern hives, and that would one day reveal themselves as secret masters of technology and benevolent patrons of the entire Third Imperium.  The Lushites have acquired the rights to an archaeological site in the Rhoda Caverns that is known as the Stone Hermitage.  As with the Rhoda Dinosaur regions of this most curious of caverns, the area around the Stone Hermitage has natural sources of water, and has vegetation growing.  The political activities of the Lushites, when the exist at all, are against the Dallia government interfering with the rule of Tarkine.  These activities are rarely noticed, however.

Stone Hermitage

As an example of the honeycomb structure of the hives, here is a map of the northwestern part of Serapis Hive.  It has several areas marked on it.
A- Essex Spaceport.  The approach way is a long, large shaft, that rises up to the surface.  A series of overpressure atmosphere generators help to keep the chlorine atmosphere out, and the breathable air in, but as a measure against disaster, the whole of the spaceport region is surrounded by stone walls.
B - The Capitol Area where the main government buildings are located for supporting the Commonwealth government.  The surrounding area is full of professional offices, covering this hexagonal region, and parts of those adjacent to it.
C - The Market - home to not only the stock market and financial core of this, the capitol hive, but also home to many, many upscale shopping venues.  Given the relaxed law level, nearly anything can be bought here, but regardless of the product or service, it is all presented very tastefully and with a high degree of decorum.  Other shopping areas, in this hive and others, are not nearly so upper scale.
D - Passenger Transportation Hub - this is the transportation area that has a terminal for the surface tube train that leads, first, to the transfer station at Rhoda Caverns (the transfer station is a rare surface structure, a domed transportation hub, with access to the caverns below), and then on to Charon Hive.  Grav-taxis here can be gotten very cheap to the Market, the Capitol Area, or Essex Spaceport.
E - Cargo Transportation Hub - Another transportation area, this one also houses the warehousing district of this hive, as the tube train here leads up to the Serapis Surface Gas Refinery (SSGR) areas, and warehousing for products here await shipping across the hive to Essex spaceport.  Sternmetal Horizons has a very large, private warehousing facility here.  The shipping traffic is carefully planned to avoid the Market and the Capitol area.  The tube train from the SSGR, eventually passes to a transportation hub, with lines going southwest to the Caverns of Hope and east to the Apshai Hive.

Northwest portion of Serapis Hive - each Hexagon is approximately 15 km across

The region pictured above is a very urbanised, highly developed portion of the Serapis Hive.  To give an idea of the population/urban density of the hives consider the following information.  Each surface hexagon on the World Map for Dallia is 256km across, which means that they provide for approx. 56,754 square kilometers.

Processing area in Apshai Hive

 As the Serapis hive covers approximately 7 of these surface map hexes, it means that Serapis Hive (and the other four large hives) covers a surface area of approximately 397,278 square kilometers.  With a population of 135 million, that equates to an Average of 339 persons per kilometer over the expanse of the hive structure.  Except that the vast majority of the cells in the hive (and there are about 250 such cells per 256km Surface Map hexagon) are undeveloped.  Only about 40 percent of the cells (100 cells) in each surface hexagon is developed, which leads to about 700 cells total, which leads to an average population density of 1,000 persons per square kilometer.  In contrast, New York City by the latest census has about 26,000 persons per square kilometer.  So, while the high density cells (business, shopping, manufacturing cells) have a lot of people crammed into them, many of the residential and agricultural cells (algae farms, microculture farms, fisheries) have a lot lower density.  Unfortunately, even with all that, however, the food production of the world is inadequate for the 600 million inhabitants.

Lab Ship Nightingale

A vessel moving through the Collace Arm, around the rift, is the 400t Laboratory Ship.

From The Traveller Book:

Using a 400-ton hull, the laboratory ship is a mobile base for scientific analysis and investigation. It mounts jump drive-D, maneuver drive-C, and power plant-F, giving a performance of jump-2 and I-G acceleration. Fuel tankage for 90 tons supports the power plant and one jump-I. Adjacent to the bridge is a model-2 computer. There are twenty staterooms and no low berths. The ship has two hardpoints and two tons allocated to fire control. No weapons are installed. There are three ship’s vehicles: two air/rafts and one 40-ton pinnace. Cargo capacity is 23 tons. Laboratory space equals 85 tons. One ton is waste space. The ship is unstreamlined.

The laboratory ship requires a crew of five: pilot, navigator, two engineers, and medic. Gunners and scientific research personnel may be added. The pilot operates the pinnace; the engineers operate the air/rafts. The ship can carry 20 passengers (35 if double occupancy) on a noncommercial basis. The ship costs MCr158.98 (including 10% discount for standard designs) and takes 14 months to build.

 
Relying on the Pinnace and the two LSP Air/Rafts, the crew of the Nightingale can visit a wide variety of worlds.  As the vessel is capable of jump 2, it can visit all the worlds on the rim of the Greater Collace Rift, but will have difficulties visiting the three worlds within the rift.

The Nightingale is dedicated to Biological and Medical research.  It is equipped with a wide variety of different laboratory spaces.  A large number of research scientists could be operating on the Nightingale at any time.

District 268 - Subsector N - Spinward Marches Sector

The following information is from the Imperial Encyclopedia -

District 268 is Subsector N of Spinward Marches Sector. The District was formally added to the Imperial rolls in 610 (the neighboring Five Sisters Subsector, created at the same time, was originally District 267) as the 268th subsector to be considered for inclusion in the Imperium.

As a district, its worlds are not members of the Imperium, but they do receive Imperial protection. Imperial affairs are administered from Glisten (Spinward Marches 2036) although a token capital is maintained at Mertactor (Spinward Marches 1537).

In the early years of Marches exploration, the Spinward Main route through District 268 was the only viable route for jump-1 ships trading with the Imperial worlds in the Glisten Subsector. The Main forks into two branches at Talos (Spinward Marches 1436): the Collace Arm runs Spinward toward Five Sisters, while the Glisten Arm runs Trailing.

Although jump-2 and jump-3 traffic is more economical, enough jump-1 ships plied these routes to create a trickle of settlement. In time, several important worlds grew up along the route:

• Forine (Spinward Marches 1533/D3129B8-A) - an industrial world producing electronics components;
• Tarkine (Spinward Marches 1434/C466662-7) - an agricultural producer of exotic spices; and
• Collace (Spinward Marches 1237/B628943-D) - an industrial world producing a wide variety of low-cost, high-tech goods.

Collace is also the site of one of several Imperial scout bases in the district. Application has been made for membership in the Imperium, which is pending.

District 268 contains 32 worlds with a population totaling 10.6 billion. The highest population is 5.9 at Forine; Collace has 1.0 billion; the highest tech level is D, at Collace.

Major astrophysical features of the subsector include the Greater and Lesser Collace Rifts.  The Greater Rift extends Spinwar through the Five Sisters and is rimmed mostly by worlds along the Collace Arm along the rimward edge, and the Spinward Main along the coreward edge.

Rim Worlds of The Greater Collace Rift

There is a region of space, that extends from the middle of subsector District 268 in the Spinward Marches, through the Five Sisters, and into the Urnian Subsector.

The rift is completely empty, with the exception of three worlds, all of which are cut off from the outside universe by a gap crossed only by vessels capable of jumping 3 parsecs, or greater.  The outer rim of the rift, however, is a densely packed ring of worlds, most of which are along the Collace Arm and reachable by jump-1 vessels, and the remainder are all reachable by jump-2 vessels.

The Collace Arm is a navigable grouping of worlds that are all reachable via Jump 1.  The group begins in the Sword Worlds subsector, at the world of Caliburn/1329, and then winds its way down through non aligned space, throughout District 268, until it eventually into the Five Sisters subsector, until it ends at Froin/0539.  But the majority of the worlds are in District 268.

Where the Arm rejoins the Imperium, connecting from Talos/1436 to Mertactor/1537, it comes into the edge of Imperium space that is dominated by the Glisten Subsector. Several of the world in the Five Sisters subsector are also Imperial worlds.  Because of this, travel and trade along the Arm, between Mertactor/1537 and the Five Sisters, is extensive.  Traveling, however, through non-aligned space means that there will not always be recognition of, or support of, ships and/or crew that are openly aligned with the Imperium.  To be sure, there are many factors and worlds that are aspiring client states of the Imperium, but just as many that are fiercely independent.

Coreward of District 268, of course, is the Sword Worlds subsector.  Ships and trading factors out of the Sword Worlds are frequented along the arm, and rimward from District 268, in the Egryn subsector and beyond, are numerous groups of Aslan.  Both of these outside groups have many, many representative populations within the Collace Arm worlds.  A number of rim worlds are also home to several minor races.  And, as the whole of District 268 represents an exposable weakness for the Imperium, as it tries to keep contact with and control over the worlds of the Five Sisters, this means that any number of clandestine Zhodani agents will be operating in the area.

The only known worlds in the Rift are Andor/0236 and Candory/0336 in the Five Sisters Subsector, and world 875-496/0834 in the District 268 Subsector.  It is possible that other, unsurveyed worlds, exist within the Rift.  Curiously, both Andor and Candory have large Droyne populations.

Mertactor - SM1537 - District 268

Mertactor     1537 B262732-B  S Cp                 610

UWP:	B262732-B	Location:	Spinward Marches/1537	System:	Mertactor
Starport:	B	Good, refined fuel, spaceship repair
Planetary Size:	5*	Medium 8,000 km
Atmosphere:	6	Standard
Hydrosphere:	2	20 percent surface area
Population:	7	Mod Pop 60,000,000
Government:	3	Self-Perpetuating Oligarchy
Law Level:	2	Low Law - Portable Energy Weapons Prohibited
Tech Level:	B	Average Stellar (large starships)
Base(s):		Scout
Zone:		Green: Unrestricted
# of Planetoid Belts:	1		# of Gas Giants:	0

Anchor Spaceport, outside of the city limits of Anchor City

From the Imperial Encyclopedia:

Mertactor is a low gravity planet with a dense atmosphere, and as a result much of the animal life has evolved into flyers of one sort or another. Human powered flight is a popular leisure activity. Most of the planet's water is scattered in small seas and large lakes rather than being concentrated in larger oceans. The human population has adapted to this by colonizing in small towns around the shores, and this has led to a tendency for the culture of the planet to be considered rather boring by its neighbors. About 10% of the population is Aslan, descended from a group of mercenaries employed by the Imperium around 950. They are pretty thoroughly assimilated, although their presence does attract attention from Aslan long range traders.

This is the tip of the Imperium, from the Glisten subsector, into District 268.  The other world, of course, is Mille Falcs/1637.  The world serves as the subsector capital for Imperial Interests in the District 268 subsector.

The starport for the world is centered at Marlow High Port.  The Marquis of Mertactor maintains an orbital palace there, but it is also the hub for not only all commercial traffic, but also the home of many Imperial offices that are concerned with maintaining and upgrading the status of Mertactor, along with the rest of District 268 (the long term goal is to make many of the worlds into Imperial Aligned territory, connecting Glisten to the Five Sisters).  Cheatz-Barney Scout Base is located at Marlow High Port.  However, the X-Boat Servicing Facility (this is the terminus of the Imperial X-Boat Route that comes down through Glisten subsector) is located in orbit around the world Peal.

System Details
Primary - Zeven/Yedi 1537
Clangor - Orbit One - Inner Zone - size 5 storm world - no moons
Tonelet - Orbit Two - Inner Zone - size 2 worldlet - no moons
Silver Belt - Orbit Three - Inner Zone - asteroid belt
Ringing - Orbit Four - Inner Zone - size 3 worldlet - no moons
Mertactor - Orbit Five - Habitable Zone - size 5 world - no moons
Sanctuary - Orbit Six - Outer Zone - size 2 worldlet - no moons
Peal - Orbit Seven - Outer Zone - size 8 ice world - three moons (Peal/A, Peal/B, Peal/C)

Mertactor System

The many small settlements on the planetary surface (the 60 million inhabitants are quite dispersed) do not have a single spot that can be called the world's planet side Starport.  All of the province capitols (the world is divided up into 8 administrative provinces) have their own Spaceport, however.

Mertactor Planetary Map - Each hex 160km

The eight province capitols are:
A - Dideon (pop 300,000)
B - Tambuur (pop 450,000)
C - Faustine (pop 600,000)
D - Edwardia (pop 750,000)
E - Parellus (pop 550,000)
F - Herodia (pop 400,000)
G - Anchor (pop 250,000)
H - Leander (pop 350,000

The Marquis of Mertactor maintains a planet side palace, across the central lake/sea that Faustine is located on.  The noble land holdings are sequestered away from the eight provinces, so as not to give any of them precedence, but Faustine and Edwardia benefit from proximity.

The majority of the 60million inhabitants are dispersed, with perhaps 10 percent dwelling in the province capitols and their related urban dependencies.  The remaining population lives in dispersed villages and on ranches and farms.  Both Tambuur and Parellus have sizable Aslan populations.

Typical  Mertactor Settlement

* - Recent FFE publications and efforts have upgraded the world from size 2 to size 5, because at size 2, it would not retain the atmosphere that has been generated for it.