Strategic Location: At the edge of the Chakh Empire's
sphere of influence.
Temperature: 134% standard.
Atmosphere: Thick, with very high concentrations of
water vapor and oxygen, producing unpleasantly humid conditions in
the planet's high temperatures.
Hydrosphere: 69% of the surface of Ustic is covered in
water, of which 84% has a salinity between 4% and 10%.
Gravity: 103% standard.
Terrain: Vast plains and rolling hill regions, with
three small mountain ranges, covered in swamps, plains, and very
dense stands of thicketlike growth.
Mineral Resources: Some small deposits of mangiobite,
duridium, and diamond.
Length of Day: 34 standard hours.
Length of Year: 202 local days.
Sapient Species: The amphibious Shaund and the forest
dwelling Rai Bats are the world's native sentients.
Capital City: The Chakh governance of Ustic is centered
at the small military and mining center at Di'thcuir. However, the
majority of the action on the planet takes place on the other side
of the planet, near Damburin, a small community that has become a
smuggler's haven of the first order.
Other Cities: There are a few scattered mining and
farming communities on the planet, as well as any number of bolt
holes for the smugglers and assorted scum who spend most of their
time in Damburin, but occasionally find it necessary to lay low for
a while.
Starport: Damburin has a near planetary class port,
Di'thcuir has a limited service port, and there are several other
landing strips across the planet.
Population (within +/- 1%): 1,747,914 native, 397,839
aliens, mostly Chakh races, with some humans and others.
Government: Officially under the control of the Chakh
Empire, and the major left in military control of the world, but is
in actuality a near complete anarchy, with not even a powerful
crimelord controlling the action.
Tech Level: Medium space, with the occasional very high
tech cargo passing through.
Major Exports: Contraband, minerals.
Major Imports: Contraband, military personnel, raw
materials, processed goods.
System: Khalmaromian
Star: Khalmarom
Name
Planet Type
Moons
Juthis
Airless Rock
2
Ustic
Terrestrial
4
Gruagh
Cold World
5
Khijak Narom
Frigid Desert
3
Muraw
Airless Rock
0
Gremkori
Gas Giant
12
Alkath
Gas Giant
4
S'elmir
Airless Rock
1
Kom
Airless Rock
0
System Capsule:
Juthis: This world is cool enough for some mining, but it
contains no resources of great value.
Ustic: See above.
Gruagh: This world is almost pleasant during it's brief
summers, and ferociously hostile during the long winters. The site
of some gold and duridium mining operations.
Khijak Narom: Cold, and very dry, the ice sheets of Khijak
Narom still hold the perfectly preserved bodies of the creatures
that lived there when it was a warmer world.
Muraw: The site of a small fighter squadron that serves as
Ustic's system defence fleet, Muraw is seldom inhabited, even by
the crews of the fighters, who tend to spend their time in the
dives of Damburin.
Gremkori: This huge world is a pale green in color, and is
slated for gas mining, though no companies have bid on those
rights, due to the system's border position and criminal
reputation.
Alkath: Smaller than Gremkori, Alkath has little to recommend
it, aside from it's brilliant rings.
S'elmir: Apparently a captured comet, S'elmir has some ruins
on it of an almost unimaginable age.
Kom: A small world, far from the center of the system, Kom
may switch orbits between Khalmarom and Atak every fifty thousand
years.
Planetary Capsule:
Flora and fauna: Ustic's native flora is quite
tenacious, and rather uniform. The marshlands are dominated by
Krien reeds and algae mats, the forests by the twisting Korthu and
the oleaginous Carw, and the plains by the Rief Grasses, a variant
of a common form of Rift grass, found across the galaxy.
Feeding on these rather uniform plants are a wide variety of
lifeforms. The seas and swamps are inhabited primarily by bony
fishes and crustaceans, though there is a substantial minority of
other life forms, including large invertebrata such as the shroud
leeches, reptilian and saurian water breathers, and mammalian
amphibians, including the fang seal, and the giant marshrat. The
deadliest creature of the waters of Ustic is probably the eelshark,
a massive relative of the bony fishes, though the intelligent and
solitary Shaund can be nearly as dangerous.
In the plain regions, the eellike Carn are the primary
herbivore, though vast herds of porcine Kurkh are also quite
common. These are fed upon by the flying Rabban and the saurian
stalking Urkahn. They also make up the largest part of the diet of
the Rai Bats, who tend to nest in the forest regions, and glide out
over the plains in search of prey. Other denizens of the forest
include Snake Monkeys of various breeds, Clawbill birds, and
poisonous tree pythons, some of which breeds are both poisonous and
capable of powerful constriction.
Sentient Species: The grey skinned, saurian Shaund are
water breathing inhabitants of the marshes and oceans. Using both
speed and stealth to bring down prey, Shaund are known to attack
virtually anything in the water, including fishing skiffs and
swimmers, and their sawtoothed bite has virtually eliminated
fishing as a source of income on Ustic.
The large, dark red Rai Bats are capable of gliding great
distances, and their powerful leg muscles can get them airborne
from the most featureless plains. Deadly predators, the Rai Bats
tend to feed primarily on the viscera and blood of their victims,
leaving the rest of the body for scavengers. They use sonar for
navigation, and their blade like tail to kill and disembowel their
prey. Actual attacks on other sentients by Rai Bats are rather
rare, as Rai Bats are by no means common, and other prey is more
readily available, but the effectiveness and gruesomeness of those
attacks makes them feared beyond the actual danger they pose.
History: Ustic does not have a major Chakh presence for
a pair of reasons. For one, the Khalmaromian system is actually a
binary system, with Khalmarom separated from it's sister star,
Atak, by a distance of 47 light hours. The orbitals of the two
star's planets do not intersect, so they are classed as separate
systems, but the two stars do rotate around each other, switching
places every two hundred years. Atak is an Imperium system, and
the Chakh Empire does not want to risk Moff Rulduk's wrath by
stationing military bases that close to the border.
The second reason is that Ustic is a major point of entry into
the Chakh Entry for Imperial contraband, specifically weapons. The
Chakh Empire is willing to pay directly for weapons of all types,
until it's only military production can meet demands, but many of
the most successful gunrunners are responsible for any number of
other criminal acts within the Chakh Empire, and they would not see
a profit in risking capture every time they deliver a weapons load.
For this reason, security is kept lax on Ustic, to allow these
individuals to deliver weapons for the Chakh Empire, without having
to pardon them for their crimes.
Major Cruthina'Archin, the Ethcroi
commander of the Chakh forces on Ustic, has not been informed of
the government's decision to allow crime to thrive on Ustic, and is
continually angered by their failure to send sufficient support and
their failure to authorize raids on known criminal strongholds.
His normal irritability is compounded by these refusals, by the
humidity of Ustic, by the poor morale and discipline of his
primarily Krantian and Thalian command, and by his knowledge of the
low priority given to his post, and woe betide any who fall into
his grasp.
The freewheeling Shadowport of Damburin is almost legendary
for it's violence and anarchy, and several crimelords have
attempted to seize control of the action there. However, the IIA does not want anyone taking a percentage off the
weapons trade, and has taken care of the more ambitious major
crimelords. Several smaller fry have passed through the IIA's nets,
and become local powers in Damburin. The most important of these are
Kuthag the Hutt, the human Ash Threy, and Gorthuk Corar, a Skathelon, and a relative of the Imperium crimelord,
Juthurah Corar. Rather than acting as a
stabilizing influence on Damburin, the petty wars and the criminal
activities of these three have actually increased the dangers of Damburin,
a feat that would be very hard to duplicate.
The Ustic-Mamtirol run is notably
free of official interference, and relatively free of piratical
attacks, primarily due to IIA influence, and has become known as a
milk run; both easy and profitable. However, only the most canny
can retain their grasp on their lives in the twin shadowports of
Damburin and Port Kthan, let alone their credits.