Strategic Location: At the very edge of the far end of
the sector, beyond any governmental control.
Temperature: Vacuum; insulative atmosphere, as space.
Atmosphere: Vacuum.
Hydrosphere: No surface water whatsoever.
Gravity: .08% standard.
Terrain: Meteoric craters.
Mineral Resources: Substantial reserves of iron and
duridium.
Length of Day: No day or night.
Length of Year: No orbit.
Sapient Species: None.
Capital City: Last Jump Station is a single
subterranean city with two domed surface neighborhoods, and a
number of ports leading to the central starport.
Other Cities: None.
Starport: Last Jump Station is built around a large
planetary class port.
Population (within +/- 1%): 46,800, mostly transients,
of many races.
Government: Last Jump Station is owned by Rihthix Kaeb,
a retired Kumidai spacer, and order, of
a sort, is maintained by his security force of ten Aldru and Kumidai.
Tech Level: High Space.
Major Exports: None.
Major Imports: Foods, trade goods, fuels, starship
mechanics.
System: None
Star: None
Name
Planet Type
Moons
Last Jump Station
Airless Rock
0
System Capsule:
Last Jump Station: An airless rock, pulled out into the void
of space, by Rihthix Kaeb, and Kothur Nathuchak, a rather inventive
tech in his employ. Last Jump is now located at the edge of the
Kurmaad waste, a vast, virtually empty area of space that marks the
end of the Yaeger Sector furthest from known space.
Planetary Capsule:
Flora and fauna: Some silicon based life forms have
apparently either been introduced, or introduced themselves though
sporation or natural spacegoing abilities. Some of those species
are mynocks, some small space slugs, and rock mites, which have
proved a persistent pest.
Sentient Species: None native.
History: Rithix was one of those Kumidai that left Humitajj before the Empire took over.
Roaming the edges of civilization in the Yaeger Sector, Rithix soon
made a small fortune as a smuggler. However, he never was a
smuggler in spirit, forced into that career through lack of other
options. He first conceived the idea for Last Jump Station when a
mindlessly persistent Imperial patrol chased him out into the
Kurmaad wastes. Running low on fuel and supplies, Rithix was able
to double back without the Imperials noticing, but found himself
completely without food and running on fumes when he got to the
nearest freeport, a Shakkur held world.
Any number of smugglers had found themselves in that position, and
scouts trying to cross the wastes found themselves having to stock
up well before they reached the near end of the wastes, and the
fuel spent getting to the wastes could not be replenished.
Rithix decided that the edge of the waste was an ideal place
for a smuggler's haven. At first he planed on constructing a space
station of some type, but the costs for work and material proved
prohibitive. At that time Rithix was the captain of a stripped
down Panther Class cruiser, the Nomad
Craw, and his Ulfgar chief engineer,
Kothur Nathuchak, suggested that they move a large asteroid to
where he wanted his base. Kothur suggested that a sufficiently
metallic asteroid or moon could serve as both a source of raw
materials and as a base for further construction, but really
suggested the plan for the engineering challenge it posed. Rithix
chose the fifth moon of Grieos-9, a gas giant in an uninhabited
system.
The crew of the Nomad, under Kothur's direction, grounded on
that moon, and then virtually disassembled their craft. The high
end hyperdrives were rigged to solid rock, and the hull of the ship
disassembled, and reassembled as a giant accelerator tube. The
crew lived in the vacuum sealed crew quarters that were buried deep
in the moon, rechristened Rithix's Folly. Rithix himself spent his
time ferrying additional materials to the moon in his personal
freighter, the Ninth Depth. When Rithix's funds were beyond
exhausted, Kothur declared the moon ready to jump. Slow, and
incapable of stopping without several days warning, Rithix's Folly
crossed into hyperspace. The mass shadow it created caused full
scale military alerts across the sector, and several unfortunate
spacers took a great deal of damage avoiding the moon at the last
minute. However, it made it to the wastes before the hyperdrives
exploded. Conversion of the moon into a smuggler's base was a
gradual process at best, but almost as soon as it came out of jump
customers started to arrive.
Protected from Imperial sweeps by the simple fact that it was
lightyears from the edge of Imperial jurisdiction, and that Yaeger
and New Republic monitors would see high level military movements
into the waste as an attempt to sneak around the front lines and
attack their rears, Last Jump Station became known as a good place
to run if you wanted to avoid all governments, at least for a
while. Kothur's reputation as a technical wizard was secured for
all time as soon as Rithix's Folly left realspace, and his
shipyards became a sufficient reason to visit the station. Its
isolation made it a good place for smugglers to conduct business,
and entertainers of various types followed the smuggler's cash.
Scouts bound for the far side of the wastes always fuel up at
Last Jump, and Rithix's vision is almost definitely responsible for
the first successful trip across the waste, Loheng Atyl's voyage to
the Epoch Sector. As of now, only scouts that can afford a small
convoy of cargo craft have made it to the Epoch sector, but
improvement in hyperspace technology or the discovery of
substantial resources will probably cause much larger numbers of
ships to pass through Last Jump.
Rithix is now enormously wealthy, as is Kothur. Many of the
other members of his crew have become important members of Last
Jump's community, from Shar, the Aldru security chief, to Marshuk
Cel Ar, the Durgur bartender and owner of
the Snake Arm tavern and arena. Various criminals and crime lords
have attempted to gain control of the profitable Last Jump, but
their attempts have thus far been foiled by Rithix and his chosen
heir, Larin Kreen, his human first mate.