System Datafile:
System: Veursa
Star: Ves (yellow)
Orbital Bodies:
Name
Type
Moons
Veursa I
Temperate terrestrial 0
Veursa II
Hostile terrestrial
1
Veursa III
Gas giant
12
Veursa IV
Ice ball
0
Capsule: There isn't very much to distinguish the Veursa system
from countless systems across the galaxy. The 4th planet in the system
is no more than a large comet that has been trapped into a planetary orbit,
and is commercially useless. The 3rd planet is a medium-sized gas giant
with limited resources, and no noteworthy moons. The 2nd planet is somewhat
interesting to xenobiologists due to the wide variety of life that can
be found there, but the hostile atmosphere is poisonous to most sentient
lifeforms in the galaxy, and so Veursa II is largely ignored. Veursa
I is the only moderately important planet in the system, due to the
fact that it is highly suitable for human inhabitation.
Veursa I
Type: agricultural plains
Temperature: Temperate
Atmosphere: Type I
Hydrosphere: Moderate
Gravity: Light
Terrain: Plains
Length of day: 19 standard hours
Length of year: 292 local days
Sapient species: Humans, ZeHethbra
Starport: Standard class
Population: 18 million (Human), 7 million (ZeHethbra)
Planet Function: agriculture
Government: cooperative (with Imperial advisors)
Tech Level: space
Major exports: grain, meats, hyperbarides
Major imports: High tech
Capsule: Veursa I was first settled in the days of the Old Republic
by a group of ZeHethbra (see the Last Command Sourcebook, or the Thrawn
Trilogy sourcebook for more info on the ZeHethbra) who slowly built the
planet into a prime supplyer of foodstuffs for the surrounding planets.
Before long Human colonists, disillusioned with the urbanized planets of
the core worlds, began settling on the planet. Within a few centuries they
outnumbered the ZeHethbra. At first there was a great deal of hostility
between the two groups, the ZeHethbra felt that the Humans were trying
to take over the planet that they had colonized, while the Humans felt
that the ZeHethbra were greedily trying to hold onto more than they could
possibly use. Over time, as the flow of Human colonists to the planet declined
to an extremely slow trickle, the two races realized that there was plenty
of space on Veursa I for all of them, and began to cooperate on a limited
scale. Eventually, for the purposes of maximizing crop yields and profitability,
a cooperative government was formed that formalized the mutual support
between the two species, and controlled many aspects of the agricultural
economy for the greater good of the farmers. Today the only vestige of
the hostility of yesteryears can be found in a friendly rivalry between
Humans and ZeHethbra. This takes the form of mild jokes at the expense
of the other species, and is taken with good humour. It is very rare on
Veursa I that anyone will take this rivalry any further.
With the rise of the Empire, Imperial advisors were
put into place on the planet to ensure that the local government complyed
with the wishes of the Empire as a whole. There were initially a few protests
aginst the Empire, but these were peaceful, and due to the relaxed manner
of the then Moff of the sector, Moff Ferwa, were ignored. As life under
the Empire proved to be little different from life under the Old Republic,
save for some additional tariffs on exports (these tariffs take the form
of foodstuffs for the use of the military), tariffs which were surprisingly
bearable. When Moff Ferwa was replaced by Moff Lesbeat,
Lesbeat chose Veursa I as the site for a secret Hyperbaride synthesis plant.
Hyperbarides are ultra-dense materials which are vital to advanced turbolaser
technologies (for more info see Goroth: Slave of the Empire). Publically
this plant, which is owned and operated by Imperial-friendly Vaufthau Processing
Industries (Lesbeat is, of course, a major stockholder), is a strategic
metal refining factory, important, but far from unusual. The placement
of this plant on Veursa I has made Lesbeat immensely popular on the planet,
and since then the cooperative government has been loyal to Moff Lesbeat
personally rather than to the Empire. To the residents of Veursa I Lesbeat
is the first off-world official who has made an effort to aid and diversify
the economy of the planet. Those natives who actually work in the plant,
and know of its true nature are loathe to reveal this nature to anyone,
even their own families, due to this sense of loyalty, and also due to
the fact that the planet could become a strategic military target if the
hyperbaride facility was discovered.
Veursa I has many small settlements rather than
large cities. Indeed, the only settlements large enough to truly be called
cities surround the planet's 4 starports, on the 4 settled continents.
The largest of these cities, Oikos, is also home to the hyperbaride plant.
The planet has an elaborate centralized transportation system which uses
extensive monorail tracks to transport foodstuffs from all of the scattered
farming towns of a continent to that continent's starport, and to transport
other goods back to the towns. This state-run system ensures that produce
is efficiently shipped, and the cost is absorbed by all of the participating
producers in order to minimize the cost to any one farm or ranch. In the
eyes of most Veursans this transportation system, which also transports
a limited number of passengers is the major symbol of the government, and
its successes. Indeed, early protesters of the Empire used the monorails
as a symbol of the local government's advantages over an impersonal Empire.
Of course, Moff Lesbeat's introduction of the hyperbaride plant to the
planet changed many people's ideas about the Empire being a cold and faceless
beauraucracy which cared little for its constituent worlds.
Despite their overall loyalty to the cooperative
government and to the Empire as a whole, and Moff Lesbeat in particular,
most Veursans maintain a strongly independant streak. In fact, the cooperative
government was first devised as a way to allow the small farmers to combine
their efforts in order to compete with larger agricultural companies without
losing sight of the individual. To a large degree this has been a success,
and most of the farming operations, as well as most other industries on
the planet, remain family-run affairs. It should be noted that due to a
very slight axial tilt, the seasons on Veursa I are fairly negligible,
and a large portion of the planet is effectively in a growing season for
90% of the year. Most of the ranches are in the cooler northern and southern
areas of the planet where conditions are less ideal for crops, but where
it is still possible to raise livestock that is adapted to the long, cold
winters.