Orcana (2105 Gateway C86A475-B)
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Orcana (2105 Gateway C86A475-B):
A water world Iying outside the recognized borders of the Hochiken People's
Assembly. Tidally locked to its cool, red dwarf sun, Orcana is a chill
planet with large icecaps, its world-girdling ocean kept liquid by currents
circulating between the day and night sides, and by the tidal flexing of
the planetary crust. Approximately 90,000 humans
live on gigantic, sea-going factory complexes which harvest free-floating
mats of jimjistisen, or waterweed, and process it for several off-world
pharmaceutical companies who buy it for the manufacture of certain broad
spectrum antibiotics.
The sea farmers' traditional independence is now being
threatened by their powerful and acquisitive neighbors in the Hochiken
People's Assambly. Hochiken ships have long used the system's
four gas giants for frontier
refueling purposes. They would like to fortify the system and create a
large base - including military and industrial facilities - and that means
bringing Orcana into the Assembly as a full member. So far, the farmers
have refused even to meet with HPA representatives, and the HPA has threatened
to blockade the system in order to prevent cargo vessels from arriving
to pick up waterweed cargos. Too small to have its own ship-building program,
the Orcana Collective has been hiring mercenaries and armed traders in
order to protect their world. Control of Orcana is vital for the Hochiken
Assembly, which needs the world and neighboring Tarkaan to create a Jump-2
route between the two halves of the Assembly's empire.
-gat MTJ 4