Portions of this material are Copyright ©1977-1996 Far Future Enterprises. |
There is a rumour in Foreven that the Darrians used Zett as a test site for an early test firing of a tactical Star Trigger, a version designed to cripple just one system and thus usable in a war against a neighbor. This rumour was planted by the Imperial FarSpace Service at the "request" of a classified office of the Imperial Navy, to lend credibility to the story of why this system is a Red Zone.
Foreven governments support this Red Zone, accepting the Imperial explanation at face value.
Aside from occasional IFSS visits (considered highly hazardous by the
service), the Red Zone maintains itself. No enforcement is usually
present, as this would blow the cover of the story. IFSS ships that
visit here are randomly sabotaged to maintain a suitable loss rate.
Acting on information obtained at other artifact sites, an initial survey discovered three Crusader ships here. One of these appeared completely intact, while the other two had suffered extensive hull damage. The damage on the two ships is apparently all from post-abandonment meteoroid impacts.
One of the damaged ships is the only known example of its kind -- fitted with very heavy energy weapons in limited-traverse forward-facing mountings, it is not clear what role it was intended to perform. Like other Crusader ships, the hull skin is extremely thin and weak, which helped preserve the major structure over the millenia of micrometeorid impacts.
The other ships are the typical Crusader design, apparently identical to all those found at other sites. The damaged ship is the source for the nuclear warheads that eventually were installed in the Kinunir at the Emperor's personal direction. The intact ship has not been disturbed, except for close examination of course, and now all three are stored within heavy meteor shields to protect against unforseen impacts. It has frustrated all attempts to determine how it works -- one such attempt triggered a trap that resulted in the total loss of a Navy team. Further attempts are now limited to simulations -- the ship itself is to remain undisturbed.
It is believed that the original mainworld was in the habitable zone in orbit 6, now occupied by the asteroid belt. Studies of the belt and the slightly odd orbits of the other bodies in the system have prompted the theory that the mainworld orbit originally contained a large world with several moons. It is conjectured that it was destroyed by unknown means for unknown purpose during an assault by the Crusaders.
Why hasn't anyone asked any of these questions?