Atharal Gas Torus
In the Phorus system, just inside the path of the gas giant Hacid, is an orbital ring of breathable atmosphere known as the Atharal Gas Torus. It supports a trio of planets and countless asteroids, stations, and genecrafted zero-G trees that make up the ancestral home of the avian Shikrai. Hidden from galactic star charts until recently, the avian warriors of the Argent Flight have waged a secret war against the Mahact, fighting their sleeper agents and monitoring the Acheron Gate and other threats in the western quadrant of the galaxy.
Avar
While members of the Argent Flight live throughout the Atharal Gas Torus, Avar, the largest population center, is home to over half of all Shikrai in the system. Avar is rocky, littered with sinkholes, cave-pocked canyons, and cavern-riddled hillsides. Some cave systems open into enormous aerie chambers that house tens of thousands of Shikrai, protecting them from neutron star radiation bursts.
Long-Talon Aerie
This barracks is home to the elite Long-Talon Recon Pinion special warfare unit. Set within a winding cavern high on a canyon wall in the northern latitudes of Avar, Long-Talon Aerie is home to a thousand elite warriors, a dozen dropships and crews, and twice as many support personnel. The Long-Talons often train in the canyon, especially with their maneuverable wingpacks.
Sauktun Aerie
On Sauktun, one of the larger mountainous islands within the equatorial regions of Avar, is Sauktun Aerie, among the largest population centers in the system. The mountain range features a warren of caves with tens of thousands of chambers of all sizes. It serves as the official strategic planning headquarters for the Argent Flight, but it is also home to bureaucrats and administrators. More adolescents and schools are located in Sauktun Aerie than anywhere else in the system.
Simulator Training Command
Not far from a tranquil harbor, Simulator Training Command is near enough to Sauktun to be mistaken as part of it. Here, starfighter wings, shuttle pilots, and warbird crews can train in high-tech simulators to prepare for combat situations. The faux cockpits and bridges use artificial gravity to ensure pilots develop an intuitive “feel” for their vessels while honing their tactical instincts, preparing them for real shakedown cruises and live training flights. The flightmasters include active combat personnel like Mirik Aun Sissiri, as well as living legends who have aged out of combat duty.
Valk
A dense, rocky planet of heavy metals and rare minerals, Valk is the industrial center of the Argent Flight. Mining crews on Valk work around the clock to extract valuable ores and minerals. They load them into specialized boost containers that lift into the sky at predetermined hours to connect with a skyhook, which then flings each container to an orbital refinery, often attached to a shipyard or other orbital factory.
The Airyards
Yardmaster Vossak Aun Zuvori oversees raw-material intake, refineries, component factories, and construction of sleek, gull-winged destroyers all at the same sprawling state-of-the-art orbital facility. Shipbuilding in the gas torus allows all the advantages of zero gravity and atmospheric construction combined. The result is speed and efficiency unmatched by all but the galaxy’s most technologically advanced shipbuilders.
Duranium Mine/Smeltery Ksaris
Used in starship construction, duranium is a hyper-strong alloy of titanium and uranium created by applying powerful energy fields that bond the two elements while rendering it radioactively inert. The Ksaris facility has the distinction of being located along a long fault canyon full of veins of both metals. However, the uranium is dangerous to mine, and the energy fields can cause extreme damage without careful control. To further complicate matters, the canyon is infested with darkropes, large lizards that use long tongues to ensnare and drag unsuspecting miners to their deaths.
Skyhook Falsth
A rotating skyhook that makes three hooks a day at roughly eight-hour intervals, Skyhook Falsth descends to altitudes as low as five hundred meters. It serves over a dozen local mines, all of which use boost containers to shift cargo and crews from the surface to hab-stations and refineries. The ride is described by Shikrai as exhilarating.
Ylir
Covered in placid oceans kilometers deep, Ylir is the government center of the Argent Flight. Here, the Murmeration meets on one of the many floating cities riding the ocean currents. Since revealing itself to the rest of the galaxy, the Argent Flight also uses Ylir as home to its burgeoning diplomatic corps, which seeks allies for the inevitable battle with the Mahact.
Murmeration Platform
The Argent Flight is organized into social units called flocks, each of which send a representative to the Murmeration whenever it convenes. The organization’s massive platform has support facilities and aerie trunks surrounding an enormous, bowl-shaped arena where the Murmeration takes place. Thousands of flock representatives stand on platforms set into the walls of the arena that can then detach and float across the central space to dock with other platforms for sidebar discussions. To an outsider, it seems too chaotic and even dangerous an environment to effectively govern in, but the Shikrai make it work.
Choksa Platform City
One of the newest platform cities on Ylir, Choksa hosts visiting dignitaries, ambassadors, and trade barons hoping to engage the Argent Flight in negotiations. The platform has only a few diplomatic facilities and an intimidating overabundance of security personnel. For years, the platform had little else, but after a few incidents between rival diplomatic envoys, the Shikrai added several dozen entertainment facilities and eateries that appeal to specific cultural groups to keep visiting factions occupied.
The Torus
Outside the three planets, the Atharal Gas Torus is strewn with asteroids and rocky planetoids suitable for habitation or mining. Military patrols, training exercises, and mining occur throughout the torus. Many Shikrai who retire from service spend time nesting on a quiet, tumbling planetoid, enjoying the exquisite views offered by a half-dozen daily sunrises and sunsets.
The torus is also home to many large genecrafted fruit-bearing zero-gravity trees that serve as oases for travelers. Some Shikrai use traditional mechanical grav-wings to fly through the torus, catching natural wind currents to soar as their ancestors once did between worlds. Many of these avians take a year-long sabbatical to orbit Phorus by grav-wing, earning the honorific “Aul Irik.”
Beyond the Torus
Outside the ring of breathable air, the Argent Flight remain busy. Military patrols throughout the system are frequent and aggressive. There are also extensive mining operations on the gas giant Hacid, and comet mining at the outer edge of the system. The rare gases found on Hacid are one of the Phorus system’s few exports, once traded in secret to secure vital imports.
Star Name and Type
Phorus, red neutron star
Population Status
homeworld, 1.84 billion (99.7% Shikrai, 0.3% other)
Government
confederation governed by the Murmeration
Major Imports
Shikrai recruits, raw materials, technology
Major Exports
precious gases, small starships
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