Maja is a fiery planet with constant hot temperatures, high amounts of seismic movement and no more native biosphere. It is the home planet of House Fornax and part of theImperial Prime system, holy planet of the Empire and seat of its ruler, the Emperox.
[This article is still a work in progress]
Lay of the land[]
Majas north and south poles are the most highly volcanic active areas of the planet. While everywhere and especially at the edges of tectonic planes there are volcanoes and cracks in the surface that release Lava onto the surface, these clusters, which are oddly shaped in what looks like a giant ring around the most northern and southern point of the planet, are by far the most active and powerful.
Regularly mass outbreaks darken the sky of the poles and the near flat wastelands, at times even reaching inland as far as the six big cities. Due to the extreme density of metal ores towards the poles, these gigantic eruptions sometimes also spit out vast amounts of metals and in conjunction with wild winds they can form odd cyclones that move inland and carry metal hail storms with them, often notably damaging the industrial zones in the adjacent flatlands.
These barren wastelands are home of most of the heavy industry that remains on the planet’s surface. The amount of minerals in the earth in these vast and mostly flat landscapes invited the human settlers to dig, mine and refine. In the process and over the centuries the grounds became poisoned with byproducts of the industrial activity, making them completely uninhabitable. Seismic activity is strong in these regions, especially around certain coastlines, and so early colonists were forced to give up trying to found settlements in these regions at the latest after the war (see below under Colonization history).
Further toward the equator, huge mountain ranges separate the flatlands full of industry with the few stable areas that House Fornax took as grounds to build their grand cities. Defying the rising mountains that are still expanding every year due to the tectonic plates’ violent movement, humans managed to find huge depressions and in case of Carborg a giant mesa that prove to be almost untouched by the seismic activities, relatively safe from common earthquakes and able to reroute streams of lava; some ever flowing, some breaking out in sporadic fashion.
Most of Maja’s surface is the iron-rich lands that give the planet its remarkable red shine. A good sixth of the planet, however, is covered in liquids, seas of liquified sulfur and dihydrogen monoxide, full of iron, manganese, calcium carbonates and other minerals. Technology allowed the first settlers to generate drinkable water from these seas even before setting up artificial water farms far away from the coasts.
Colonization History[]
Maja was the second planet ever to be colonized in Acheron Rho. After settlers landed on Imperial Prime and found a hospitable new home, more daring humans attempted the same on its fiery neighbor, visible as a red dot in the night sky. What these first humans to set foot on Maja found was a planet ruled by an alien race. These beings had created the technology to generate insensate living matter that connected the tectonic plates, easing the force of the continental plates crashing into each other. The same biomass was also used as a compound to strengthen the alien structures they lived in.
Sources are rare and historians are still debating when exactly the conflict began, but when the war against them began, humans on Maja fully obliterated the alien dwellers on the red planet. While the ancestors of House Fornax were able to get their hands on and repurpose the strange alien technologies and artifacts to build their own, grander cities and even the famous spaceyard Ambolt, uprooting the biomasses from the planet’s crust increased the planet’s volatility and the seismic instability of certain areas came to light, further denying humans to live outside of the relatively stable equatorial belt region of the planet and signaling to leave settlements out in the wide flatlands behind and flee to the safer, bigger cities.
Today there are six major cities that makeup almost the complete population of Maja, they are called "the Överlevande", "the surviving cities".
The Överlevande[]
Crohnskrona[]
Crohnskrona is the largest city on Maja and was named after the original inventor of the Spike Drive back on earth, Dr. Tiberius Crohn. As this place was to be seen as the pinnacle of Dr. Crohn’s invention, the drive that allowed humanity deep space travel and to arrive at a place like Maja, to colonize and prosper on it, it was named as his crown. In old Scandinavian fashion, it was Crohn’s Krona.
Current population: 11 million
Tialstad[]
One of the most important aspects of spaceship production is the right usage of metals, alloys and the like. The rich surroundings of titanium oxide, aluminium flakes and pegmatitic minerals containing lithium made an excellent start to constructing refineries for the rare substances.
Originally named Allistad, due to the early processes of aluminium lithium, the giant reserves of titanium found later gave the second biggest city on Maja its logical name after titanium aluminium.
Current population: 8 million
Litholm[]
Always competing with what is now Tialstad was the city of Litholm, named after their abundance of minerals that contain Lithium in the ground around the city. Early settlers wrote stories of children playing in the dirt and coming across flakey ores never seen in Terran history. Those harbored so much Lithium, that Litholm quickly became the main producer of the alkali metal. Current population: 7 million
Carborg[]
Named after the element of carbon, highly needed and used in everything around spacecraft. Rich in diamonds, the area around Carborg was quickly fitted to work the element in every way possible and needed. Different to the other big cities on Maja, Carborg got its name not only from old “scando” tradition (as the Scandinavian language mix is called lovingly by the people of Maja) but also from an actual castle built out of slate and metal by one of the first families to get rich through diamond processing and trade.
Even today the old noble family resides in the castle, even if only in spirit and serfs, as like all Fornax nobility they live in the Aeternus' Chain. Carborg sits on a gigantic mesa, surrounded by deep canyons.
Current population: 5 million
Graphå[]
Starting as a small settlement and almost given up on when Tialstad and Litholm dragged high amounts of settlers in, a few brave souls remained in Graphå, named after the incredible amounts of small and up to gigantic flakes of graphite in the earth. The semimetal was so abundant, the flakes were easy to spot purely by eyesight. In writings of the beginning of the settlement, there is talk about ‘cliffs of pure graphite’ and the omnipresent hexagonal shapes giving the area an almost surreal feeling.
Only due to Carborg’s ever rising need of carbon did Graphå emerge as one of the big cities. Those who left soon were to look back in sentiment, as the original settlers who stayed got richer and richer.
Current population: 4 million
Aramsvall[]
Aramsvall is the odd one out. The least populated of the six big cities it is also the youngest. In fact, would House Fornax not have built the Aeternus' Chain and the gigantic Aeternus Links, the pillars of the habitational ring spanning around Maja, functioning as a transport medium to and from the planet, the city of Aramsvall would not exist.
As the Chain was built and the Links were buried deep into the planet’s crust, the very last link was drilled too deep for the highly volcanic area. Standing and functioning, the Link was usable. But the surrounding environment saw lava flowing like never before. The construction did shake the environment, so to protect the Link, Fornax engineers devised a plan to build a bulwark around it. Made out of modern aramids, this bulwark not only saved the Link and its functionality, it also drew in people from small surrounding settlements who did or where about to lose their homes due to the newly increased seismic and volcanic activity.
In a never-ending cycle the high temperatures of the surroundings combined with Fornax’ ingenuity allow for a growing city based on strong synthetic fibers. The engineers used natural heat to create stronger and stronger aramids, renewing and improving the literal Wall of Aramids, the Aramsvall, that protected the people. Factories were built, shipyards were opened, money was made. And always the Aramsvall rises.
Current population: 4 million
Composition of the cities on Maja[]
With the creation of the Aeternus Links, the cities crawled more and more towards them. The closer to the Links, which function as quick transport elevators to Aeternus' Chain spanning around the planet, the higher the buildings and apartments become. All the cities are surrounded by domes of the most indestructible plastics, to ensure a breathable atmosphere and regulated temperatures.
The lower levels of the cities usually don’t have a lot of greenery while in the upper levels are blooming terraces of shops, parks and the like. Only up high provide air filters always a somewhat fresh and healthy feeling. The terraces are popular meeting spots, have lots of shops, malls and restaurants. Most offices that work under the noble administration are also located around them. Closest to the Link are the most beautiful streets and buildings. Out- and downwards the beauty fades and less and less varying stores are found. Naturally those who have the most live in the highest levels and as close to the Link as possible.
Seeing little natural light, having bad traffic connections and being the least well maintained, the lowest apartment blocks closest to the Link are usually inhabited by the poorest. Due to the horrible traffic opportunities, workers living in the depths of the cities need to leave hours before their work shifts start and will only come home after work well into the late evening.
The cities are built on shock absorbent pads that are able to withstand even the worst earthquakes, making city buildings swing heavily, but never collapse. Outside of the cities lie the mines and factories that a good number of Maja's populace works in, safe but still affected by the thick atmosphere and the burning temperatures that make movement outside impossible without safety suits.
Aeternus' Chain[]
Over time all the industrious creations of House Fornax left their toll on Maja. The planet, riddled with mines, factories and shipyards, began to break apart even further.
As the population grew and the space to live shrank, Cordifex Fornax Aeternus Fabros brought up the idea of moving the nobility off of the planet's surface. Starting from the gigantic Ambolt Spaceyard that already was in orbit, a habitational ring was built, spanning around the angry planet. Outfitted with everything a noble could want, it elevated the Senators and their families to a life of luxury, looking down on their homeworld. Enormous halls turned into gardens and parks, artificial rivers and lakes to soothe the mind. Recreational areas full of luxuries, housing areas mimicking the most beautiful sceneries of other planets.
Meanwhile, the planet undergoes further changes. The living space of humans shrinks further to the ever-growing industrial complexes, factories large as small moons spring up, mines dug up ever deeper.While the families of those who work closely under nobility are moved up into the more confined habitational areas of what was now named Aeternus' Chain, most of the common people remain on Maja.
Layout of the Chain[]
Chain Links[]
To centralize transport from the planet’s surface to the Chain, House Fornax built the giant pillars most commonly referred to as Chain Links. These enormous constructions function as elevators for goods and people both, creating an effective way to quantify wares and keeping an eye on serf movement for House Fornax. While it is technically possible to fly to Aeternus’ Chain via spaceship or even some Grav Vehicles, almost all serfs and foreigners travelling to and from the Chain use the Links.
The Senate City[]
There’s a small city of a few thousand people between the Senate building and the giant shipyard. A lot of nobles live here, but also a few highly esteemed serfs.
The town includes shopping areas for nobles and visitors, cultural spots like theaters and music stages, a whole district of restaurants, bars, distilleries and other food or drink related buildings, parks and recreational areas, the embassies of other noble houses and access to the bullet trains driving through and alongside the Chain, allowing fast transportation from and to the Senate and the city around it. Outside of the Senate City is another residential area of hotels, holiday homes and the like for visitors and tourists that can afford it.
The Koissi Orchestrum[]
When approaching the Senate City, one's eyes are automatically directed to the grand cupola rising high above the skyline, it glistens in red and grey under the artificial lights of the Chain. The Koissi Orchestrum is the seat of the Ancient and Venerable Assembly of the Elders of House Fornax, Lords Regent of Maja and the Associated and Numerous Territories of its Nobility Therein, in the Combined Interests of House Fornax and the Imperial Crown, Governed and Dictated by the Most Knowledgeable Senate, House Fornax’s ruling body.
The central building was originally designed as a concert hall for Machinafex Fornax Koissi Wilfried. Koissi rose to fame not only due to his musical works and conducting but most importantly for his important works on House Fornax’s data recovery after the Scream. He discovered that the Visceral Discs (‘Viscs’) stored in large quantities actually are pre-Scream data records and invented a method to decode and read the data on them. He was born into an already wealthy noble family and that wealth allowed the Koissis to stay an important figure in the dark times post Scream, the times of reconquering Maja, the times of rebuilding and finally of engineering ways to find other humans in the sector, to be able to travel through space again.
In those difficult periods of time for House Fornax, Koissi was inspired to build a monument to House Fornax, an incredible, stunning deed to commemorate the history of the noble house and its ability to overcome anything. That monument was supposed to commemorate the genius, the creativity but also the traditions and harsh realities of the ruling class. And so, not entirely without ulterior motives of selfishness, Koissi designed a huge concert hall, even going so far as to financing significant portions of the construction out of his own and his family’s pockets.
In its core, the Orchestrum is a huge concert hall with intricate acoustics, perfected architecture for the ideal sound.
It is centered right beneath the gigantic cupola, the main characteristic of the building from the outside. This cupola glistens in dark tones of red and orange and is embraced by an installation of grey and black, massive chains. These are constantly moving around, slowly wriggling around the dome and thus creating the illusion of the roof itself slowly moving, rotating like a planet. The symbolic is blatant: The cupola represents the planet Maja, the chains around it the firm grip of House Fornax over it - but also how the noble house holds the planet together and keeps it moving. Naturally, and by design, the first impression for most visitors is that it is an homage to Aeternus’ Chain itself, the gigantic ring spanning around Maja.
Adjacent to the concert hall are the main building’s wings, originally used for artists and orchestra members to retreat and find some tranquility, for storage and other more administrative tasks.
Wilfried Koissi named the Orchestrum after his family and for the rest of his life would only play and conduct here. Later in his life family members would scoff that it was only himself he named the Orchestrum after and not his family, which he in large parts grew estranged to. When Koissi died, his will caused confusion and anger: The famous conductor forbid any of his colleagues to ever play in the Orchestrum if they weren’t born Koissis. At the same time, he denied his four sons to have any musical talent and asked them to stop pursuing artist’s careers as they would bring shame over his name. They complied and so the Koissi Orchestrum stood empty and unused for a while until the House Fornax Senate found a new use of the building.
Originally the Senate building was situated directly adjacent to the Ambolt Shipyard. But as some of the shipyard’s alien structural enhancements weakened and died off, the Senate halls were closed for reconstruction and restoration purposes. As a temporary substitute, the Koissi Orchestrum proved perfect: it stood empty, had enough space and seats for the Senate, the acoustics would prove beneficial for speakers and debates and many Senators approved of the more comfortable surroundings of the concert hall compared to the more spartan and bleak Senate Hall at the Ambolt. Little construction had to be done to the Orchestrum; security measures were increased, the building was closed off to the public for good and the building’s wings were restructured. Later two entirely new twin buildings were built to create even more space for the many committees and sub-committees, for recreational purposes and several meeting rooms outside of the main Senate hall. When the structural repairs of the Ambolt Shipyard and the Senate building were finally done, the Senate voted in an overwhelming majority to stay in the Orchestrum instead of moving back.
Only the Fulcrum, the admirals of House Fornax, preferred to move back to be closer to the major spaceports and the shipyard, as they see it more fitting to have their headquarters there.
Over time the surrounding area of the Orchestrum was re-designed to fit the needs of the Senators more. A huge park called The Speaker’s Garden was built behind the main building, to allow peace and tranquility - and meetings in secret, without ears to overhear. Water and greenery were introduced, long rows of incredible Fornax engineering and artworks line the premise alongside evergreen grass, flowers, and trees from all over the sector. In front of the Senate Hall’s main entrance is a long pool of incredibly clear water. Many senators wash their hands in it before their first or an important session in a symbolic gesture of clean consciousness.
The Angelus Fabrica[]
The cathedral close to the Senate.
[Work in Progress, more coming soon]
The Speaker’s Garden[]
Close to the Senate is a large park which residents of the Chain often use to stroll around surrounded by greenery. It is a popular spot for young nobles to meet up and from there move further into the city on the Chain, the cities on the planet or just to sit and enjoy the quiet a bit.
Secluded from the main walkways is an area where each of the [lucky number] paths is lined with statues of notable Fornax nobles, all of them ending on a slightly raised platform, surrounded by statues of former Orafexes and with perfect view onto the Koissi Orchestrum.
Senators often wander these paths in silence when they are deep in thought and several Orafexes reported feelings of inspiration and enlightenment after they visited the statues of their predecessors.
The Annals[]
Advertised as the Chain's most prestigious watering hole, and the bar of choice for the Majan Senate, “The Annals” is an expensive bar and restaurant close to the Koissi Orchestrum. Many deals with foreigners are made over lavish drinks in the secluded alcoves that grant a nice view over the small city that surrounds the Senate.
Fornicators Sports' Bar & Grill[]
Is a bar on the Lower Chain, famous for its 24/7 Psiball streams and the classic Majan experience of grilled meats. In this famous and supposedly ancient bar high and low nobles mingle with Psiball fans and visitors from all over the sector. It helps that the building is not exactly in the center of attention and that traditionally what happens in the Fornicators Sports’ Bar & Grill stays in the Fornicators Sports’ Bar & Grill.
The Aftdeck[]
A bar of low prestige yet high turnout every night and day, located on the lower Chain level. Serfs come and drink, visitors and businessmen of dubious reputation meet up and every now and then even an adventurous Fornax noble strolls in.
The Mechanism[]
A cluster of workshops and business that build, maintain or repair Mechs. Visitors can take a tour that will not only let them see the museum of The Mechanism, a history of Mech building and battling, but often enough they’ll even be able to witness mock battles and other tests of Mech prototypes from afar.
The tour and the area itself are highly guarded for fear of industrial sabotage and espionage.
The Ambolt Shipyard[]
House Fornax’s pride and glory is a gigantic construct that protrudes even from Aeternus’ Chain itself. Absolutely monstrous in size it houses all facilities needed to maintain, repair and most importantly build ships of all sizes.
Dozens of noble Fornax families have their own designated areas in and around the shipyard to experiment and test weapons, drives, hulls and every other aspect of tech that House Fornax installs in its prized ships. Entry to outsiders is strictly forbidden and punished extremely harshly, since the shipyard is not only the very core of House Fornax’s businesses and successes but also heavily relies on an ancient relic that the nobles stole and repurposed from the aliens that lived on Maja before humans colonized the planet.
With the total annihilation of the aliens on Maja came lots of plunder, most notably the biological mass that House Fornax’s ancestors analyzed, repurposed and then used to build the shipyard, perfectly stabilizing it in space long before Aeternus’ Chain was built, securing air filtration and the seemingly seamless ability to just build onto the shipyard without much effort.
The Shipyard was named ‘Ambolt’ (old Scandinavian for ‘anvil’) after the Fornax belief that the planet is the heat, the serfs the tools and the nobles the mind of creating greatness, thus the spaceyard is the base of all work, the anvil on which the greatness is hammered into form.
Via[]
Rumors speak of a labyrinth of tunnels and mines on Via, the only moon orbiting Maja. The founders of House Fornax were extracting incredible amounts of rare metals from it before the Scream, which helped ensure the rich success of the noble house and enabled their industrial advancement heavily. House Fornax does not comment on any of the myths surrounding the moon, some of which whisper about alien prisoners still mining.
A common saying for people on Maja is ”That’s lunacy!” (usually meant along the lines of “this is extremely rare” or “that will take years/a long time”) since they don’t see the moon very often as it rotates extremely slowly around the planet and is hardly if at all visible through the bluely tinted domes that span around the cities or the thick air full of ash and debris outside of them.
Orbital Ruin Aki-9[]
Aki 9 is a ruined orbital station around Maja’s moon Via.
The name derived from the Machinafex Fornax Shirabemasu Aki, who created several autonomous stations before his ninth and final. It was originally built to house experimental robots and even early versions of synthetic humans, when House Fornax still tried to beat House Cygnus in the race to superior androids and robotics.
Those early Synths, still clearly distinguishable from humans, were a secret Fornax experiment to create cheaper, more effective work forces.
As part of the experiment the Pre-Synthetics (in the books often abbreviated as PS, sometimes also jokingly called “Phoenix Sons”) were mostly left to their own devices but heavily monitored. When it became clear that they were building means of transport to and from Aki 9, Fornax ships bombarded the stations to cut off the Pre-Synthetics from the rest of the sector entirely.
Since then they were left on their own, very loosely monitored.
According to Fornax researchers these robots of dubious sentience are still building. Something.
Daly 2 - Orbital Ruin[]
[coming soon]
Refueling Station Li Fan 1[]
Occupation: Religious missionaries to travelers
Situation: A ship is in severe distress
Li Fan 1 is a refueling station in orbit around Maja, owned by House Fornax. The station’s primary task is to allow ships travelling to or past Maja to refuel, but it also houses various shopping possibilities and a grand hotel.
Modelled after designs of Urbifex Fornax Li Fan in 2963, it was a revolutionary station in accessibility for ships of almost every size, giant battleships the exception. With new ways to separate the docking areas and streamline the various fuel lines for different ship technologies, Fan Li set an example for refueling stations all over Acheron Rho.
In a very successful attempt at modesty she named the station after herself.
In recent times Li Fan 1 became famous for an entirely different reason however: It is the star of a one hour comedy show aired weekly on Fornax Noble Channels, a program that summarizes the last week of events and actions on Li Fan 1 in comedic bits for the noble populace of Aeternus’ Chain (and the few serfs that are able to watch these channels too).
These summaries are presented and narrated by famous sports commentator Ignus Fornax Jensen Jens and even more famous TV personality Gemma Jager.
The clips show why the station is currently not functioning and how one of the largest tanker ships in Fornax’s fleets is unavailable for further missions:
In 3197 the HFS Fuel Is Like The Sweetest Dew From Heaven (in short: HFS Dew) was sent to the station to refuel it, as Li Fan 1 was starting to run low due to a leak in one of its main tanks and unforeseen numbers of civilian ships passing by for whatever reasons.
When the tanker approached the station, the crew was greeted not by the usual officer in command of docking but by a new voice, one that ‘welcomed their brothers and sisters, to the Observatory of the Old Star’. The captain of the tanker and his first mate were, so tell the logs known to public, quite confused and did not realize that the docking process was initiated already - but at the wrong docking station, one that the tanker was not assigned to.
As captain and first mate tried to fix the mistake, their young docking officer jumped up from his station, a weird glint in his eyes and spoke of finally having found his place. He then proceeded to storm off the bridge only to return a few minutes later with what seemed like half the crew; almost 60 sailors stormed the bridge to start a brutal fist fight with the dozen or so officers there.
It ended as tie and with half of the assailants (and assailed) fleeing to the refueling station in vac suits - and with the ship wedged into an awkward position between two docking stations, blocked in and unable to move; in the scuffle someone either intentionally or by accident accelerated the ship for just a second, which broke parts of the refueling station off and locked the ship into a position it could not get out of.
The captain and first mate, apparently having been beaten to unconsciousness, were unable to send an immediate distress signal so what happened on the HFS Dew did not reach any other ship or Maja for a couple of days - in the confusion after waking up neither captain nor first mate thought of sending an alarm, as both were sure the other one would have done so.
In the meantime the refueling station itself was taken over peacefully by religious fanatics of the Cult of the Old Star, an extremist branch of the usually harmless oddballs that believe that the planet Maja used to be a star and was reformed (or reforged) into a planet by Fornax engineers a long time ago. These fanatics somehow managed to take key positions on the station’s stores, engineering squads and the like, effectively positioning themselves to run the whole station.
All of this could have been remedied easily if not for a big ship of pilgrims to Andophael landing on Li Fan 1 only four days later. The pilgrims quickly came into contact with the cultists and immediately started discussing religious aspects. They discovered that the cultists revered ancient Fornax engineers as saints that were able to use and manipulate alien technology, that said alien technology was a product of Fornax ingenuity and God’s will - and that the High Church of Messiah-as-Emperox was wrong in their assumptions about the Chain of Being, Fornax Alien Engineers being a higher class than even nobility.
Naturally the believers in the High Church’s faith did not take that lightly and so wild theological debates started all over the station in mere hours.
They did not stop until today.
On day 6 after the HFS Dew crashed into Li Fan 1, the fuel reserves of the station were fully depleted. The tanker technically still has large fuel supplies in it but is even now, almost 5 years later, not in a position to unload them. The crew left the ship except for the captain who is still sending reports back to Aeternus’ Chain every month.
With the whole sector being in an uproar, first in the war against treacherous House Cygnus, later in the conflict with the Sector Trade Organization, maps and guides were not updated as fast as they should have been and especially ships coming from further outside of the core still tried to dock and refuel at Li Fan 1.
But with the fuel reserves completely depleted, they all got stranded on the station.
Since most of the new guests on Li Fan 1 were of the High Church’s faith and since a few of them even are Repentant believers, the religious disputes only got wilder and more out of hand, although still strangely non-violent. In fact there is even a courtroom installed in one of the former eating halls in the station’s hotel, spearheaded and led by three judges, all of them of one of the dominant faiths on the station (High Church of Messiah-as-Emperox, Church of Humanity, Repentant and Cult Of The Old Star).
Nowadays House Fornax offers taxi and shuttle services to Li Fan 2 and 3 for those still landing on Li Fan 1 by accident and finding themselves stuck there, although some speak of abhorrent prices.
There are also a large number of cases of ships being salvaged by Vagrant crews and brought to Maja where they are further processed.
Not always do the owners of the ships get a notice.
House Fornax does deliver food and drink to the refueling station and was allowed to install CCTV, which they promptly started to use for their weekly TV entertainment.
Nobody is allowed to leave the station unless they are able to pay hefty fees and agree to full searches of ship and body, as neither House Fornax nor anyone else want the cultists to ever leave Li Fan 1 again. The technically still functioning tanker HFS Fuel Is Like The Sweetest Dew From Heaven is still part of the transportation taxes House Fornax has to pay, but it is a sacrifice the Senate deems worthy for the entertainment.
Gas Giant Mines[]
The 0505 system (“Imperial Prime”) knows 4 gas giant mine tags, three on Maja, one on Imperial Prime. These tags don't fit the planets however, instead they are merely projects controlled from nobles on Maja or Imperial Prime - the gas and ice giants they happen on are proper planets on their own.
Arago Project[]
Occupation: Miserable gas-miner slaves or serfs
Situation: Things are emerging below
Arago used to harbor the biggest mining operations in the whole Imperial Prime system. The planet is classified as an ice giant, the white and grey with slight tints of blue in its atmosphere making it look the part. Under imperial decree House Fornax riddle the planet with mining operations to refine gasses like helium and hydrogen but also to collect, refine and ship the ‘ices’, ammonia, water, methane, but also hydrocarbons, especially polymers that the rulers of Maja knew to work into different types of plastics, strengthen metal alloys with and, back when Cygnus still acted as a peaceful noble house, even collaborate with the life specialists from Gats in breaking down rare biopolymers existing on Arago, defying known logic and explanations.
In 3101 a series of explosions shattered the foundation of no less than six polymer mines, burying thousands of expensive mining robots and some serfs.
Even though rumors state otherwise and insist that House Fornax blew at least some of them up themselves, the hot-headed nobles quickly announced the explosions to be a terrorist attack on Arago and thus Maja itself.
While not publically mentioning the fact, Fornax nobles thought to know who the culprit was, as they left behind a political statement on Arago’s intranet servers: »The MAN himself has spoken. Nobody can stop us, because we Khan!« Together with House Crux, who were large benefactors of polymers found on Arago as the Hieran nobles had an ongoing deal with Fornax about some of the materials being used for standard issues of rifles, armored helmets and vests, House Fornax mobilized a small force immediately to send it towards the Meneus System in 0901, where the terrorist pirate Meneus Khan was allegedly hiding and controlling the efforts of his group to disrupt the Empire’s peace and prosperity. This would end in the tragic events of Haele’s Gambit.
Nowadays the human miners on Arago are largely convicted felons from far outside the Imperial Prime system. Even the lesser nobles controlling the mines on site don’t know where they came from, but today it is already the third generation of convict miners working deep below the surface under miserable conditions to atone for the sins of their forefathers they never knew.
As they bore and push ever deeper, something seems to come up to meet them.
An incredibly slow planetary blowout event perhaps? Or something else?
Herculaneum Mine Project[]
Occupation: Scrappers in the ruined old mine
Situation: Things are emerging below
Hercules is a gas giant class planet that harbors among other mines and refineries the Herculaneum Mine Project.
From the space the planet is looking almost as if it wasn’t a gas giant, its red, brown and orange clouds of different gas mixtures almost looking like physical continents.
Many refineries orbit the planet and on the planet’s semi-solid surface relatively close to the planets actual core are a handful of actual mines as well, drilling deep into what little solid ground there is before it gets too hot to move on. These mines generate minerals and metals, compounds, gases and scientific knowledge about the nature of this odd planet and how it came to be.
The Herculaneum Mine Project was a large undertaking of House Fornax on the planet’s surface to extract the noble gas Oganesson2, a wild and natural form of the synthetic seventh noble gas, alongside the eighth and even rarer noble gas Tuvanion.
This highly sought after gas, named after Teranex Fornax Tuvani Olo, who discovered it more or less by accident on Hercules, as she was looking to synthesize more common gases on Hercules into refined noble matter useful for Spike Drive catalyst reactions, was a long kept secret of House Fornax until House Triangulum scientists discovered traces of it by observation of Fornax Spike Drive tech. Since then the gas was found in only very few other places in Acheron Rho, always highly guarded by whoever found it as the prices for even the smallest amounts of Tuvanion are exorbitant.
Today the Herculaneum Mine Project has run its course, too far down did House Fornax drill, the lower levels became too hot to cost-efficiently extract resources.
While other mines are still being used on the planet and the mostly automated gas refineries in orbit are working around the clock, the HMP is officially shut down.
For some time that was it but in recent years scrappers have begun circling around Hercules, some even daring to dive into the planet’s spheres, land on its surface and try to scrap what is possible from the Herculaneum Mine Project.
There are complications for these unruly serfs, as some seem to disappear at random and some of the mine shafts seem to vanish seemingly overnight, cutting off crucial connection points to leave the Mine Project.
Outside of House Fornax’s knowledge something is brewing down below the thin crust of Hercules. If the scrappers stick around long enough, they will be the first to find out what.
Newport Mine[]
Occupation: Scrappers in the ruined old mine
Situation: Things are emerging below
The planet Newport got its name from the old idea that the ice giant should be used as an anchor point for travellers going in and out of the Imperial Prime system, aeons ago. House Fornax and the rulers of Imperial Prime at that time (which can’t be dated back exactly, as it was pre Scream) allegedly built a large space station orbiting the planet, trying to make traders use it as a forced stopping point before going to Imperial Prime (planet) or Maja.
As the station was already being built, scientists pointed out the odd orbiting times of Newport and its irregularities, so the idea of it being the literal new main port of the system were scrapped.
Instead House Fornax used the structures already present to have a mining and refining base around the ice giant, from which the nobles could easily start harvesting resources on the small, white shining planet.
The planet got scoured for rare matter and is nowadays still a steady supplier of the more common elements oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, carbon and making up almost two thirds of Newport’s total mass: water.
Due to architectural errors, some of the mines and smaller space stations are currently in the process of being scrapped by official Fornax workers and contractors. Behind closed doors people speak about a noble who attempted to betray House Fornax in the Cygnus wars and thus has all their work scrapped down, but there is no official confirmation of such (though there is also no official denial).
As seems to be par for the course, the planet being riddled with projects to extract resources and elements seemed to have shaken it to its core, making the surface work a lot more dangerous. Some of the workers who believe in the supernatural swear they see irregular movements on their scanners, deep below the surface.
Oddly enough these contracted, non-Majan workers all seem to have faulty hardware and thus House Fornax believes that they simply inhaled a little too much of Newport’s ‘air’.
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