Tavitz System (tuh VIHTS Sih stem)
Geography
Holopedia Galactica entry:
Tavitz System is a terminal point star system for the Caloria Run in Reena Province. It is surrounded on most sides by high-radiation dense sections of the Shindra's Veil nebula. More than a third of the House Vorreena Ministry of Transit budget is spent annually on preventative maintenance to the hyperspace lane between Tillo System and Tavitz System. While very little value in terms of mining products come from Tavitz System, more than half of the Province's local food production is produced here, along with significant if small production of consumable goods such as kilsherst or artistic creativity components with fine-grain baradium inclusions.
Visiting vehicles must undergo customs inspections by House Vorhrabě before and after any direct contact with any planetary body in this system. These inspections will feature detailed holovid recordings and active sensor sweeps for specific chemical signatures; the holovid recordings will be compared by security computer, which will alert if the scans are too identical as well as if the designated chemical signatures are detected or the layout of the vehicle appears to be altered.
The system primary is Zora, a G0 V Yellow Main Sequence star.
The innermost orbiting planet is Kladivo, a heavily volcanic silicate planet which develops a thin atmosphere in between periods of high sunspot activity in the primary. Kladivo maintains enough distance from Zora that many mining consortiums have considered terraforming: at a radius of approximately 6500 kilometers and a tolerable gravity (1.14 x Galactic Standard, in BoSS measurements), the biggest obstacles would be that volcanic activity itself plus the orbital period of slightly more than 124 standard days. At current technology, the potential value in creating a semi-subterranean ecology with even a minimal permanent atmosphere is not likely to recoup the necessary resource expenditure.
Kladivo has been diligently investigated for valuable minerals, especially baradium. Potassium carbonate glass, formed by the volcanic flows, has been mined by small consortiums for resale to crafters or manufacturers since at least the early Dynastic Era. Kladivan Glasswork features in the Official Seal of the Tapani Imperium and comprises the translucent "skylight" panels in those portions of Reena University designed to withstand orbital bombardment.
Tavitz System includes three terrestrial worlds. While they do not precisely match in distance from primary nor in orbital period, two facts of their existence have convinced astrocartographers that the trio were arranged in this system by pre-Colonial Era civilizations:
- Chalup, the innermost of the trio, remains closest to the system orbital plane. Its orbit is inclined to the ecliptic by 5 degrees. This is unusual in a Galaxy where native planets normally remain within 3 degrees of their primary's ecliptic, but not at all unprecedented.
- Tavitzek, middle habitable world accompanied by two moons, passes every chemical analysis test thus far conceived for having first formed in the Tocco System of Melantha Province. Its orbit is inclined 9 degrees. Each of Tavitzek's moons has the basic structure to dock a herdship, although these docks would need some cleaning and maintenance to repair two thousand standard years of benign neglect.
- Zahradyar, outermost habitable world, has not proven to be a precise match for the planetary chemistry of any other star system within or near the Veil. However it has significant commonalities with Mecetti Province location Pella System and Melantha Province location Gania System. Its orbit is inclined 15 degrees to Zora's orbital plane.
None of the trio show geological signs of having ever experienced a close pass. Highly advanced mathematical models created at Reena University and Mrlsst Trade and Science Academy indicate that none of the three should develop an adverse gravitational affect upon one another for at least another two billion years.
A silicate world named Musetyar and its larger moon currently host the official starport for business visits to and from Tavitz System. Limited fuel and supplies are available for purchase at a steep premium. Customs inspections typically happen in orbit around Musetyar; low gravity cargo transfers also happen here.
Musetyar's orbital period is 515 standard days.
The planet itself does have a trace oxygen-and-nitrogen atmosphere, however, it is a heavily radioactive world. Surface visits are not recommended without proper clearance and shielding. Gravity in the subsurface docking caverns will be at 74 percent of Galactic Standard.
Musetyar is distantly orbited by five small moons, none of them sufficiently spherical or slow-spinning enough to be of practical use. BoSS installed advisory beacons in each for traffic safety. Rumors suggest that scanners for traffic control may also have been buried within these satellites. However, it would have been more cost-efficient to limit these scanners to the artificial platforms created by BoSS and for House Vorhrabě Customs use, including the minimal shipyard. Officially, House Vorhrabě does not comment on security placements. BoSS records clearly show that they have never contracted nor assigned the necessary tasks to install scanners of any sort on Musetyar's lesser moons.
Between Musetyar and the outermost orbiting world is the Fialara Asteroid Belt. This sparse ring of violet-tinted debris circles the primary at a respectable speed for such small, unpowered objects, taking an average of 3.3 standard years to complete one orbit around Zora. Since few planetoids or smaller bodies remain in the Fialara, standard precautions during intrasystem transit should be sufficient to avoid hull damage.
Zimekayar is an unusually large -- but not giant! -- ice planet on the outer reaches of the Tavitz System. Its dense ice crust is believed to conceal several lakes of liquid ammonia. It has no moons.
Until the Twilight missile barrage of 12724 T, the Tavitz System also had a long-period baradium-rich comet, probably captured from the Shindra's Veil nebula, named Prohászka. Referenced with masculine pronouns on his way into the system and with feminine pronouns on her way back to the clouded reaches of the outer system, Prohászka was celebrated by system residents as a distributor of good omens. Local legend says that all the deadly Galactic Empire missiles intended for the orbital starbase at Musetyar were confused by the scatter effects of powdered baradium on sensor scans. Instead of bombarding the starport, or continuing on to bombard the three populated planets, all of the missiles reoriented themselves to attack Prohászka. The compounded explosion was bright enough to be detected at the Tanger System observatories.
Throughout the Tavitz System, dustings of baradium came to each world in the wake of Prohászka or hypothetical precursor comets from the same origin point. While its presence has never compounded in concentrations enough to serve a direct manufacturing interest, it has had measurable long-term effects on everything from the contours of planetary surfaces to the living species that thrive or fail here.
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Thanks to donjon's Star Wars d6 System Generator for the heavenly bodies in this star system, and to Behind the Name for the epithets I applied.
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