971-852

(2814 Trojan Reach, 0404 Tobia; E78A000-0; Amber Zone)

Geologists estimate that this world was habitable some 300,000 years ago during the time of the Ancients, but in the Final War, the planet's crust was severely cracked.  Many species became extinct, as volcanic eruptions blocked the sunlight for years.  The world's tectonic plates are fragile to this day; volcanism remains extensive, and large areas are prone to quakes and tsunamis.

At one time humans of unknown ancestry lived here.  When contacted in 504, these island dwellers subsisted on a few plants, supplemented by cannibalism - a practice which provided certain proteins not available in the local wildlife.

The IISS introduced livestock to provide a socially acceptable source of protein.  The inhabitants gradually changed from a settled, agricuitural culture to a more nomadic, herding one.  To the Scout Service's regret, they persisted in eating the old and crippled humans.

971-852 was rarely visited, and when the Scouts last reappraised the world in 852, the small population of islanders had vanished.  As the fate of the cannibalistic natives has never been determined, 971-852 was given an amber travel code, despite its current listing as an uninhabited world.

The 971-852 incident forced the IISS to reconsider its non-interference policies.  Although the Scouts worked to modify the islander culture with the thought of making it more amenable to offworld contact, their interference might well have been the cause of its extinction.  IISS pre-stellar contact restrictions were strengthened as a result.
 
-TD20 tr