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Description
I thought I would return to the system charts series, this time visiting Alphecca System, the central and most important system of the Coreward Reach. As with the other system charts, the background is by - everything else is mine.

Background:
Welcome to the maelstrom.

Just as Tegmeni System dominates the Windward Reach, so does Alphecca dominate the Coreward. Both are major jump nexuses which tie the majority of the Reach together, at least so far as the Inner Diaspora is concerned, and both have habitable planets. Both were discovered early on, and rapidly became the key to an entire Diasporal Reach, unlocking dozens of systems and helping expand the Inner Diaspora to the dimensions it enjoys today. And both are the site of the capitals of their Reach's major government - WindFed in Tegmeni and the Alpheccan Union in Alphecca.

But there, the similarities end. While Tegmeni is a clement multi-star system with the largest number of terraforming candidates in the known galaxy, Alphecca is one of the Inner Diaspora's harshest environments. A system formation disk was suspected as early as the pre-Diasporal Threshold - in the flesh, Alphecca is a maelstrom which no sane captain would attempt to navigate. The outer system is pummelled by the swirling debris of a Formation Disk only kept at bay by the youthful rage of the Alpheccan suns, which flay the worlds within the ice line with radiation far in excess of Sol's. Even beyond the ice line, just beyond Ashtaroth's orbit, the stellar radiation is a hazard. Most of the planets sport rings of debris, their Lagrange points crowded with Trojan asteroids, the skies thick with cometary matter in every direction. Despite the system's status as a jump nexus, interplanetary navigation is all but suicidal for non-native pilots and arcons - although the Formation Disk's unparalleled mineral wealth make the journey incredibly lucrative.

And yet, even in the heart of chaos, there is life. A vast furrow has been ploughed in the Formation Disk by the chlorinated gas giant of Almizar, and its mighty gravity and enormous magnetic field make its lunar system a region of comparative calm. Its family of Galilean moons, four large and three small, include a synchronous outer pair which between them deflect most interlopers away from the inner moons, either into the planet itself or back out to the Formation Disk. As a result, nestled between Ennoea and Sige lay a surprise for Alphecca's first explorers: an interloper from the outer system, snared by Almizar and melted by the Alpheccan suns - the Ocean Moon: Aion.

The phrase "Aion is nice, this time of year" is often uttered by those out-system contemplating running away from whatever is about to befall them. Despite the quip, the truth is that Aion is never "nice". In fact, for all its breathable atmosphere, liveable gravity and abundant water, it could be argued that Aion is a world actively resisting human habitation. Forty-metre tides are driven by the gas giant, the suns and the other moons. Barely 5% of the surface is regularly above sea level; the remainder only barely impedes a global ocean able to generate currents, waves, winds and storms that dwarf anything on Old Earth. Rotating twice for every circuit of Almizar, a day lasts 152 hours, meaning that daytime temperatures regularly top 50'C, while sea ice is common at night. The moon's own magnetic field, in overdrive thanks to tidal forces, keeps the worst solar radiation at bay but only barely deflects enough to prevent Almizar itself dosing the inhabitants when it looms in the sky. The interacting magnetic fields of Aion and Almizar make orbital shipping hazardous, quite apart from the danger of debris which pervades the system - and periodically, when Aion falls into Almizar's shadow at just the wrong moment, the gas giant's immense magnetotail will ground into Aion's own magnetic field, creating geomagnetic storms the like of which no other habitable world has ever seen.

Despite all of that, it remains true that Aion is one of a tiny number of naturally habitable worlds known to humanity. When it was discovered in 61 ADH by the first exploration expedition to survive the formidable challenge of navigating the system, half the crew remained behind to stake a claim on the only habitable world for many light years in any direction. The ensuing colonial boom attracted attention from China, Russia, and the Interstellar Consortium. Too far to reliably govern from Old Earth, and further isolated by its danger and inhospitability, Aion was one of the first extrasolar colonies to declare independence; the resulting war was a cat-and-dog affair as rebel strike craft hid from Chinese and Russian capital ships and lured them to their doom in the Formation Disk.

Independence for Aion was recognised by a United Earth Alliance only recently out of the cataclysmic Jovian War; the recovery period allowed relations to warm, and by 165 ADH, the fledgling Alpheccan Union rejoined the United Earth Alliance as a full member in its own right. Its accession accounted for the largest single expansion of Allied territory in its history, bringing virtually the entire Coreward Reach into the fold and islanding a number of independent systems, all but one of which subsequently joined as well. Aion's role as a centre for trade and government, fostered by the Union's attempts to mitigate the significant hazards of its home system, fostered a highly innovative culture on the Ocean Moon itself, albeit at something of a remove from the Diaspora as a whole. Today, Aion is one of the most advanced worlds in the DH, with artificial consciousness, materials science, and genetic research at the cutting edge of human development. The Union itself, theoretically democratic, lets its member worlds get on with their own governance - Aion is effectively a technocracy in thrall to a clutch of families indistinguishable both from the corporations they direct, and the wider society they dominate. The system works and the populace is both engaged and happy, but a beacon of liberty, Aion is not. A beacon of human ingenuity, on the other hand, it most certainly is.

Description
I thought I would return to the system charts series, this time visiting Alphecca System, the central and most important system of the Coreward Reach. As with the other system charts, the background is by - everything else is mine.

Background:
Welcome to the maelstrom.

Just as Tegmeni System dominates the Windward Reach, so does Alphecca dominate the Coreward. Both are major jump nexuses which tie the majority of the Reach together, at least so far as the Inner Diaspora is concerned, and both have habitable planets. Both were discovered early on, and rapidly became the key to an entire Diasporal Reach, unlocking dozens of systems and helping expand the Inner Diaspora to the dimensions it enjoys today. And both are the site of the capitals of their Reach's major government - WindFed in Tegmeni and the Alpheccan Union in Alphecca.

But there, the similarities end. While Tegmeni is a clement multi-star system with the largest number of terraforming candidates in the known galaxy, Alphecca is one of the Inner Diaspora's harshest environments. A system formation disk was suspected as early as the pre-Diasporal Threshold - in the flesh, Alphecca is a maelstrom which no sane captain would attempt to navigate. The outer system is pummelled by the swirling debris of a Formation Disk only kept at bay by the youthful rage of the Alpheccan suns, which flay the worlds within the ice line with radiation far in excess of Sol's. Even beyond the ice line, just beyond Ashtaroth's orbit, the stellar radiation is a hazard. Most of the planets sport rings of debris, their Lagrange points crowded with Trojan asteroids, the skies thick with cometary matter in every direction. Despite the system's status as a jump nexus, interplanetary navigation is all but suicidal for non-native pilots and arcons - although the Formation Disk's unparalleled mineral wealth make the journey incredibly lucrative.

And yet, even in the heart of chaos, there is life. A vast furrow has been ploughed in the Formation Disk by the chlorinated gas giant of Almizar, and its mighty gravity and enormous magnetic field make its lunar system a region of comparative calm. Its family of Galilean moons, four large and three small, include a synchronous outer pair which between them deflect most interlopers away from the inner moons, either into the planet itself or back out to the Formation Disk. As a result, nestled between Ennoea and Sige lay a surprise for Alphecca's first explorers: an interloper from the outer system, snared by Almizar and melted by the Alpheccan suns - the Ocean Moon: Aion.

The phrase "Aion is nice, this time of year" is often uttered by those out-system contemplating running away from whatever is about to befall them. Despite the quip, the truth is that Aion is never "nice". In fact, for all its breathable atmosphere, liveable gravity and abundant water, it could be argued that Aion is a world actively resisting human habitation. Forty-metre tides are driven by the gas giant, the suns and the other moons. Barely 5% of the surface is regularly above sea level; the remainder only barely impedes a global ocean able to generate currents, waves, winds and storms that dwarf anything on Old Earth. Rotating twice for every circuit of Almizar, a day lasts 152 hours, meaning that daytime temperatures regularly top 50'C, while sea ice is common at night. The moon's own magnetic field, in overdrive thanks to tidal forces, keeps the worst solar radiation at bay but only barely deflects enough to prevent Almizar itself dosing the inhabitants when it looms in the sky. The interacting magnetic fields of Aion and Almizar make orbital shipping hazardous, quite apart from the danger of debris which pervades the system - and periodically, when Aion falls into Almizar's shadow at just the wrong moment, the gas giant's immense magnetotail will ground into Aion's own magnetic field, creating geomagnetic storms the like of which no other habitable world has ever seen.

Despite all of that, it remains true that Aion is one of a tiny number of naturally habitable worlds known to humanity. When it was discovered in 61 ADH by the first exploration expedition to survive the formidable challenge of navigating the system, half the crew remained behind to stake a claim on the only habitable world for many light years in any direction. The ensuing colonial boom attracted attention from China, Russia, and the Interstellar Consortium. Too far to reliably govern from Old Earth, and further isolated by its danger and inhospitability, Aion was one of the first extrasolar colonies to declare independence; the resulting war was a cat-and-dog affair as rebel strike craft hid from Chinese and Russian capital ships and lured them to their doom in the Formation Disk.

Independence for Aion was recognised by a United Earth Alliance only recently out of the cataclysmic Jovian War; the recovery period allowed relations to warm, and by 165 ADH, the fledgling Alpheccan Union rejoined the United Earth Alliance as a full member in its own right. Its accession accounted for the largest single expansion of Allied territory in its history, bringing virtually the entire Coreward Reach into the fold and islanding a number of independent systems, all but one of which subsequently joined as well. Aion's role as a centre for trade and government, fostered by the Union's attempts to mitigate the significant hazards of its home system, fostered a highly innovative culture on the Ocean Moon itself, albeit at something of a remove from the Diaspora as a whole. Today, Aion is one of the most advanced worlds in the DH, with artificial consciousness, materials science, and genetic research at the cutting edge of human development. The Union itself, theoretically democratic, lets its member worlds get on with their own governance - Aion is effectively a technocracy in thrall to a clutch of families indistinguishable both from the corporations they direct, and the wider society they dominate. The system works and the populace is both engaged and happy, but a beacon of liberty, Aion is not. A beacon of human ingenuity, on the other hand, it most certainly is.