Ained
Once a habitable planet locked into its orbit around the Sun, Ained was launched by a passing binary star system into the dark, becoming a rogue planet. The event is often referred to as "the apocalypse" or "the slingshot".
Its inhabitants predicted the apocalyptic extinction event and organized to survive. Their technology was barely enough to build and maintain small nuclear-powered habitats.
The planet is now about two lightyears far from its former sun.
History
Before the Slingshot
Before the Slingshot, Ained had six continents and as many oceans separating them. The mean surface temperature was around 14 °C. Animals and people freely roamed the planet, living in lush ecosystems or more barren landscapes. A wide array of different environments hosted flora and fauna with different sizes, needs and habits. This tremendous variety of lifeforms was called biodiversity and has since been completely lost. People inhabited almost the whole planet's surface, except the most barren and inaccessible regions, like deserts, jungles and mountains. The population was growing exponentially and was estimated to hit four billion in a few years. When humans started looking at space, they quickly found a binary star system headed in their direction. People, even scientists, disagreed about the threat posed by a possible fly-by. Most people identified either as deniers or believers. The former considered the latter a kind of conspiracy theorist, while the others were preparing for the catastrophe. The richest people funded underground habitats and nuclear power generators, selling houses inside the structures and ending up even richer than before. At the time of the apocalypse, Ainedlings had just reformed their calendar and set as year 0 an approximate date of the building of the first major human structure. That made 11930 the year of the apocalypse.After the Slingshot
A binary star system flew as close to the sun as Ained was, causing the expected gravitational slingshot. It ejected Ained from its orbit, sending it into space. While the planet was going away from its sun, temperatures dropped, slowly killing every unprepared species. Victims included plants, animals and humans who did not take cover inside a habitat. Those who had refused to acknowledge the extinction event begged for a place inside the habitats, but no one listen to their requests. The Apocalypse Wars ensued between people inside barring entrance and people outside trying to break into the habitats for survival. The war only ended when the scarce resources on the surface could not meet the deniers' demand, and the temperature dropped low enough to freeze them to death. At the end of the war, the global population was estimated around five hundred million people, about one-eighth of the original population. In addition, all flora and fauna died, except the few species hosted for resources inside the habitats. Currently, Ained's surface temperature is slightly above absolute zero at about 20 K. The gases composing its atmosphere rained down on an already frozen planet, depositing a layer of oxygen and nitrogen snow 10 meters thick.
Alternative Name(s)
The Rogue, world, globe
Type
Planet
Included Locations
Related Ethnicities
Ainedling, human
Physical Characteristics
Mean Radius6400 km (4000 mi)
Surface area
510 x 106 km2 (200 x 106 sq mi)
Mass
6.0 x 1024 kg (1.3 x 1025lb)
Surface gravity
9.8 m/s2
Surface temperature
20 K
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