Perseverance system (Classic Journeys Era)

Perseverance is a main sequence, type G star, slightly hotter but with the same luminosity of Sol. The excess heat of the star is tempered by its innermost sphere of asteroids. Similar to Sol, it has an inner core of hydrogen and helium, with a thin photosphere surrounded by its chromosphere and corona.

Three major asteroid belts surround the star Perseverance. The asteroids themselves range in size from dust to floating mountains. The largest field, where Ungstir-Two is located, was once a single celestial body, but has since been shattered.

Perseverance 1: Kaschei
Careening around the central star in a reckless pace, the small planetoid is blasted rock barely larger than an asteroid. Its burned surface only holds a trace atmosphere, as its sunward side glows and shimmers, just this side of molten. Indeed if the little planet has rivers, they are of but the shifting flows of minerals and exotic ores, set in motion by fierce tidal drifts. Kaschei's dark side in a sharp contrast to her sunward, frozen and black, with temperatures barely rising above absolute zero. The termintor line, however, is a constant hell of fissures and tortured activity, as the consequences of freeze and thaw continually threatens to tear Perseverance's smallest child apart.

Resources
While a potential source of igneous minerals and heavy metals, the surface conditions make the small planetoid too dangerous for commercial exploitation.

Ecosystem
The surface of Kaschei is marked with many scarps, smooth lava flow plains and a few impact craters. It has an average surface temperature of 425K, but ranges from 80-900K from sunward to shadow. Its atmosphere is so minimal for most purposes the planet can be considered airless. The average 'lifespan' of the atoms which compose its atmosphere is about three hours, and are continuously replenished by the solar wind, vapor from micrometeor impacts and outgassing from surface materials.

Lifeforms
No signs of life indicated.

Perseverance 2: Maryushka
Little more than blasted rock, Maryushka orbits Perseverance in a fearsome rush. Its surface is a barren badlands burnt by the star's fury, staining the surface in ribbons of scarlet and ochre, worse than any desert or blast furnace. Broken rock typifies its texture, as if huge sledgehammers beat upon Maryushka with each passing moment. Opposite the sun, the shadowed side of the planet is a hell of cold, the surface frozen and bitter, cloaked in darkness. Maryushka's day is also its year, and thus her sunward side always faces Perseverance, a fierce perennial day where the only time is high noon. Matched, of course, by Maryushka's arctic dark side, where the only time is midnight.

Resources
While a potential source of igneous minerals and heavy metals, the surface conditions make the small planet too dangerous for commercial exploitation.

Ecosystem
Kaschei's sister planet Maryushka is marked with scarps, geo-thermal generated craters and open lava flows, her surface unstable and volcanic. Maryushka's atmosphere is thin, its density decreasing as it is burned off when small planet's orbit takes it closer to the sun. It has a mean average temperature of 375K, but varies from 10k on its shadow side to 650K on its sunward equator.

Lifeforms
No signs of life indicated.

Perseverance 3: Cossack
The largest of the three inner planets, Cossack is a rough hewn rock with a norrow atmospheric band, a thin gray swirl of hot carbon dioxide wrapping the planet's unstable volcanic shell. It makes a slower pass around Perseverance than its nearest siblings, though its orbit is unique, its path at a distinct angle to the system's ecliptic plane.

Resources
While a potential sorce of basaltic minerals and other rare elements, the surface conditions make the small planet extremely hazardous for commercial development.

Ecosystem
The atmosphere, while only a narrow band about the planet, is extremely dense. The greenhouse effect raises the surface temperature to approximately 350 degrees C. The cloud belt is composed primarily of sulphur dioxide and sulphuric acid, completely covering the surface. Pressure and temperature make Cossack extremely unhospitable, with most probes surviving only for a few hours.

Lifeforms
No signs of life detected.

Perseverance 4: Youngster
Settled in 2193 by followers of religious fanatic Corbin Daltanov, Youngster is better known these days as Ungstir. It has been obliterated twice; once by the Nall in 2257, and then again by the Kretonians in 2806. All that remains now are planetary chunks scattered throughout a massive asteroid belt midsystem. The Ungstiri, descendants of the first settlers, have carved their homes into the largest remaining planetoid: Ungstir-Two. Please follow the link for more information on that particular habitat.

Perseverance 5: Solace
Solace traces its orbit about Perseverance just beyond the midsystem asteroid belts. A huge swirl of orange, crimson and yellow, the gas giant drifts around the central star in a slow and lazy eclipse. Like a child's toy the planet seems, a bright ball splashed in evershifting colors. But its playful appearance hids a terrible secret, as storms large than some planets tear through its atmosphere like fantastic monsters ravaging a treacherous sea. Always different, always changing, and always unpredictable, Solace is never the same twice.

Resources
Despite its dangers, Solace is a major source of hydrogen used in starship insystem drives, which can be collected by specially equipped starships skimming its upper atmosphere.

Ecosystem
The gas giant Solace lacks any viable ecosystem. Its thick atmosphere under goes not only differential rotation, with the polar regions taking approximately 10 minutes longer than the equaterial, but band of clouds at different lattitudes flow in opposite directions on the prevailing winds. This rsults in massive storm structures with wind speeds up to 750 km/hr. The planet also has a massive magnetosphere, often interfering with local communications and equipment operation.

Lifeforms
No signs of life indicated.

Perseverance 6: Baba Yaga
Little more than layers of ice locked about a nickel iron core, the small planet orbits at the very edge of the system, its only company the scattered dust and debris of the fringe. Frozen gases and frozen water make up its lonely surface, a dull gray sphere with a pocked and mottled surface.

Resources
Baba Yaga consists of a frozen nitrogen and methan atmosphere wrapped about a nickel-iron core. Other elements are present, but only in trace amounts.

Ecosystem
With both the planet and its atmophere frozen, the small planet lacks a viable ecosystem.

Lifeforms
No signs of life detected.

Ungstir-Two: The City of Resilience
The largest remaining fragment of Youngster; now home to the cavernous city of Resilience. For more information on Ungstir-Two and its inhabitants, please refer to the Ungstir section.

U-212: TwoOneTwo Township
A large chunk of space rock, brownish gray, roughly 500 kilometers long. Cut into one side is the narrow slot of a sturdy docking bay, from which rockhoppers dart to and fro.

Resources
U-212 is part of the Youngster asteroid field, which analysis suggests was once a single celestial body. This field is rich in iron, nickel and most industrial minrals, as well as a scattering of precious stones and starship debris.

Ecosystem
While the planetary fragment U-212 cannot support life on its own, it is the site of the largest Ungstiri remote township of TwoOneTwo. Primarily a residential habitat, U-212 has limited manufacturing capability and only enough hydroponics facilities to keep it self sufficient for four months. The township's support technologies provide a humanoid-friendly atmosphere as well as a gravitational field of slightly less than one gee.

Lifeforms
TwoOneTwo's population is almost 15,000, most of which are Ungstiri. A significant minority have either Lunite or Specialist roots, the families of refugees having fled here to escape the Moebius Effect of 3003. And of course, there are also rockrats.

U-999: Triple-Niner Township
A large chunk of space rock, brownish gray, roughly 500 kilometers long. Cut into one side is the narrow slot of a sturdy docking bay, from which rockhoppers dart to and fro.

Resources
U-999 is part of the third asteroid field, which precedes the central Youngster belt. This field is rich in iron, nickel and most industrial minerals, as well as a scattering of precious stones and starship debris.

Ecosystem
While the planetary fragment U-999 cannot support life on its own, it is the site of one Ungstir's far-flung asteroid townships. It serves as a supply and maintenance and supply port for the local prospector fleet and, as it is perhaps better known, a thriving smuggler's port. The township's support technologies provide a humanoid-friendly atmosphere as well as a gravitational field of slightly less than one gee within its hollows.

Lifeforms
Triple-Niner's population is at most 7,500, most of which are Ungstiri. A significant minority have either Timonae or Human roots, most of which have come to barter in the black markets. Mother Madina, an Ungstiri gunsmith, is the authority in these parts. Even over the rockrats.

U-001: Avalon
At 6,000 feet long and 2,000 feet wide, Avalon is an enormous, brownish gray planetoid chunk which rivals the size of Ungstir-Two. From its bottom section hand spires of twisted and broken metal, and thick metal cables which bind a trio of cylindrical modules the size of a small starship. Along its rim are set several titanium collars, docking ports, all blocked by hemispherical forcescreens.

Resources
Avalon's exact origins are unknown, but rumors suggest that it is a remnant of Youngster that somehow drifted far beyond the fringe. In this remote region, far, far off in Perseverance space, there are little to no resources to speak of.

Ecosystem
Though this planetary fragment cannot support life on its own, Avalon's sophisticated support systems facilitate an exclusive wildlife preserve and a humanoid-friendly atmosphere, as well as a gravitational field of slightly less than one gee within its hollows.

Lifeforms
Hundreds of different varieties of flora and fauna, including the infamous laaskavolk, can be found here. Some have gone so far as to claim there are unicorns present, but whether that is fact or fiction has never been determined. Also, Avalon is home to many rockrats.

U-1313: Blitzkrieg
The blocky mass skates at the farthest edge of the Perseverance system, its eccentric orbit keeping it centuries between its closest aproach. It is a grey mass, with a small tail as bit and pieces of it flake off and ionize as it dives closer to its sun.

Resources
The primary mass of the asteroid appears to be frozen water, an preliminary scans seem to suggest it was may have once been a fragment of a planatary polar cap or perhaps even a portion of an acean. Buried deep beneath its surface, however, there is a high concentration of steel and other exotic metals in a highly refined state.

Ecosystem
As the planetoid approaches Perseverance, while it doesn't gain an atmosphere the ionization of it surface layers provides a moderate hazard or radiation and interference to standard communications. The gravity is almost non existent, making passage on the surface a dangerous affair.

Lifeforms
Information is classified by the Ungstir Militia. The secure facility's shielding prevents sensor scans by civilian ships. Access is restricted.

U-498
A large chunk of space rock, brownish gray, roughly 250 kilometers long. It has a small docking port slot carved in one side, lit by crimson warning beacons.

Resources
U-498 is part of the Youngster asteroid field, which analysis suggests was once a single celestial body. This field is rich in iron, nickel and most industrial minrals, as well as a scattering of precious stones and starship debris.

Ecosystem
The planetary fragment of U-498 cannot support life on its own. The sensor analysis reveals, however, a small landing bay that supports a breathable atmosphere and gravity a little less than one gee. Connected to the landing bay is a small but heavily shielded facility. Last, the planetoid seems to be riddled with old mineshafts, creating a complex honeycomb of passages within.

Lifeforms
Information is classified by the Ungstir Militia. The secure facility's shielding prevents sensor scans by civilian ships. Access is restricted.

U-6879, U-3075 & U-1621: Mining prospects
All are large chunks of space rock, brownish gray, roughly one kilometer long.

Resources
These fragments are part of the Youngster asteroid field, which analysis suggests was once a single celestial body. This field is rich in iron, nickel and most industrial minrals, as well as a scattering of precious stones and starship debris.

Ecosystem
The planetary chunks lack any viable natural ecosystem. Sensor scans indicate small landing bays, with support technologies providing breathable atmosphere and a slightly less than one gee gravitational field within the cavern only.

Lifeforms
No signs of life indicated.

Related links

 * Ungstir
 * Ungstiri