Wardn
Wardn is a garden world with an environment conductive to most sophonts. The system has a population between 10,000 and 100,000, lacking the population to be an agricultural supplier. It is a member of Third Imperium in the Lunion Subsector of Spinward Marches Sector and in the Domain of Deneb. Wardn, as a member world of the Third Imperium, holds the estates of an Imperial knight and a baronet. Both are members of the Imperial Nobility charged with overseeing the world. This world contains an Imperial Scout Base, capable of handling Scout Service starships and personnel.
Lying right on the border with the Sword Worlds, within one jump of a major fleet base, Wardn is of strategic importance to both the Imperium and Confederation. Its starport is often considered to be the first or last major port on the Spinward Main. This is not strictly accurate of course, but is the first (or last) on the part of the Main that runs through purely Imperial space.
Some worlds were coded rather than named, following the practice of assigning an X code to uninhabited worlds with no locally assigned name that had found their way into navigational databases.
Apelinne is also a good place to get stopped and searched by an Imperial Navy destroyer crewed by very bored personnel stuck in orbit over a nowhere gas giant for weeks on end. Searches and interrogation of suspect crewmembers tend to be rather intense.
There have been attempts to create a settlement on Pzl, but most failed to secure appropriate funding or were withdrawn after proving unviable. The world has extensive volcanism, which may make some minerals accessible. This has not been enough to make it worth the expense and effort to set up a community.
Wardn’s large and well-run starport sees a considerable amount of interstellar trade, which in turn provides a great deal of revenue for the world. Despite being TL11, Wardn does not have a sufficient workforce to create a major manufacturing sector, so most goods are imported. This makes high-tech items expensive on Wardn, though there are moves to remedy this situation, by bringing in skilled workers and investing in modest factories, but the process is going slowly.
At present and for the foreseeable future, Wardn relies on its starport and exports of agricultural produce for profit. Food is a high-bulk, low-value item with heavy shipping costs; agricultural economies are at a huge disadvantage in interstellar trade. This is offset somewhat by the export of higher-value goods based on agricultural processes. Thus, Wardn tends to export a little less grain each year and far more secondary products. These include wines and spirits, high-quality meat products and a range of truly excellent cheeses. The latter are so heavily pushed that the ‘Wardn cheese salesman’ has become a byword for hard selling.
Wardn’s ‘great anomaly’ as some call it – a rather grand term but one that has stuck – is the strange system of lines and patterns carved into the surface of what is known as the Patterned Desert. It is believed by scientists that these patterns are the produce of anaerobic life in the baked sand of the desert, but many still believe the patterns are evidence of a vanished civilisation. Expeditions occasionally attempt to prove one answer or the other, but so far there has been no solid conclusion.
The base on Wardn was drawn down, and parts of it are now all but derelict. However, a portion of the original facility remains in operation and fulfils a range of functions. It has its own landing field, and often receives couriers (and the occasional larger ship) from deeper within the Imperium. The installation is fed reports on shipping coming through the main starport, and data feeds from vessels monitoring traffic in other systems. This information is collated into monthly reports on shipping volumes, trade tonnages and the like, and sent to the region’s major bases, notably Persephone.
In addition to this function, the installation on Wardn sends parties out to Warden’s surface, but notably the Patterned Desert. The Scout Service does not comment on what it might be doing, but it seems that the work they are engaged in is mundane. Soil sampling, air composition analysis and so forth are common activities for these parties. There are those who remain convinced that the Scouts are looking for evidence of alien civilisations on Wardn, and there may be some truth to this. After all, the Scouts have enough personnel in the system to spare a few to poke around Wardn on the off chance that rumours of alien inhabitation in the distant past might be correct.
Although the installation on Wardn usually has a ship on the landing pad, virtually all Scout Service vessels coming through the system go via the Enex base. It maintains a large flotilla of couriers, survey scouts and other craft, including a few vessels that look a lot like common designs but may in fact be covert surveillance ships. Big scout cruisers sometimes visit Enex before heading over the border on long cruises into Foreven sector or even beyond.
Occasionally, a joint Scout/Navy taskforce forms up off Enex before heading out across the border. These groupings are usually short-lived, with vessels dispersing to carry out duties once they reach their operational area. Naval couriers also use the base as a refuelling point, typically when transiting between Adabicci and Caladbolg, or en route to Five Sisters subsector.
Lying right on the border with the Sword Worlds, within one jump of a major fleet base, Wardn is of strategic importance to both the Imperium and Confederation. Its starport is often considered to be the first or last major port on the Spinward Main. This is not strictly accurate of course, but is the first (or last) on the part of the Main that runs through purely Imperial space.
System Data
Monostellar System
| Star Name | Hierarchy | Category | Mass (Sol) | Temp (K) | Luminosity (Sol) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wardn | Primary | Main Sequence | 0.82 | 4830 - 5100 | 0.49928 |
| Unit | Diameter | Min Distance | Hab Zone | Jump Shadow | M-Drive Limit |
| AU | 0.0036 | 0.0586 | 0.7 - 1.26 | 0.36 | 3.6 |
| Orbit # | * | * | 3 | 1 | 5 |
- X0107-1: Uninhabited but has been surveyed from time to time, and as of 1100 is subject to routine flybys by Scout Service vessels. This is partly due to the system’s sensitive location on the Imperial border.
- Apelinne: Small Gas Giant
- Pzl: Uninhabited
- Wardn: Inhabited, mainworld. Imperial member.
- Enex: Small Gas Giant, location of Scout Base Enex
- X0107-6: A rockball planet.
- X0107-7: A forbidding environment of no real economic or strategic value, but the Scout Service maintains a small research outpost on the surface.
WARDN
Wardn orbits a K2V (orange main sequence) star named Wardn Primary as one of five terrestrial (rocky) planets and two gas giants. There are no planetoid belts in the system. Wardn is the only Imperial member world in the system, and the only one to be permanently inhabited. However, all bodies in the Wardn system are claimed by the Imperium and whilst transient inhabitation for economic purposes (e.g. mining or scientific operations) would be overlooked, a permanent settlement would constitute a territorial claim and require permission from Imperial authorities.X0107-1
X0107-1 is coded rather than named, following the practice of assigning an X code to uninhabited worlds with no locally assigned name that have found their way into navigational databases. 0107 refers to the system’s position within its subsector and the final digit is orbital position. Correctly speaking, this world should be referred to as ‘Spinward Marches X0107-1 Lunion’ but this is only relevant on large-scale charts. X0107-1 is not inhabited but has been surveyed from time to time, and is subject to routine flybys by Scout Service vessels. This is partly due to the system’s sensitive location on the Imperial border; even a tidally locked rockball like X0107-1 might be useful to external powers as a forward base or listening post.APELINNE
Apelinne is a small gas giant with no significant moons. It has a rather unimpressive ring system but is otherwise unremarkable. Apelinne is occasionally used for fuel skimming by cheapskate ship operators who do not want to pay starport operators. Vessels seeking to infiltrate Imperial space or bypass border customs inspections also sometimes refuel at Apelinne, a fact well known to the Imperial Navy. It is claimed that the gas giant’s atmosphere is seeded with mines of some kind, and that monitoring satellites orbit above it. The latter is far more likely.Apelinne is also a good place to get stopped and searched by an Imperial Navy destroyer crewed by very bored personnel stuck in orbit over a nowhere gas giant for weeks on end. Searches and interrogation of suspect crewmembers tend to be rather intense.
PZL
The origins of Pzl’s name are lost in obscurity, but the name appears in old star charts and may be a corruption of someone’s name or a non-Galanglic word. Whatever the case may be, Pzl is a small rocky planet with a trace atmosphere, and water locked up as ice in areas that receive little solar heating. It is not habitable, but a better prospect for colonisation than a true rockball planet.There have been attempts to create a settlement on Pzl, but most failed to secure appropriate funding or were withdrawn after proving unviable. The world has extensive volcanism, which may make some minerals accessible. This has not been enough to make it worth the expense and effort to set up a community.
ENEX
The gas giant Enex occupies the next orbit out from Wardn, and is typical of the type. It has several small moons and one large one, which is designated Scout Base Enex. The scout base is one of two installations in the Wardn system – the other being on the planetary surface – and is quite extensive. Its official purpose is to monitor shipping and traffic along the border and maintain charts of the region. It is an open secret, however, that Scout Base Enex exists mainly to support intelligence gathering operations by Scout Service vessels beyond the border. This includes neutral space, but the obvious target is the Sword Worlds Confederation.X0107-6
X0107-6 is a rockball planet orbiting far out from its primary. Full surface charts are on record, but there is no real reason to visit such a remote location other than to monitor it for occupation by pirates or infiltrators. A Scout Service ship dutifully makes a flyby every few months, but other than that X0107-6 remains undisturbed.X0107-7
X0107-7 is usually considered to be an iceball rather than rockball since it has an atmosphere of sorts and water is present, in the form of ice, and contains various compounds mixed in from the atmosphere. Overall, X0107-7 is a forbidding environment of no real economic or strategic value but the Scout Service maintains a small research outpost on the surface. It is resupplied from the scout base from time to time, and receives no non-official traffic. The assumption is that the Scouts are conducting planetology experiments on X0107-7, but no data is publicly available.WARDN
Wardn has a breathable if thin atmosphere and 60% surface water coverage, placing it well within the category of garden worlds. It has a rich and diverse ecosphere, with numerous native and imported species. As with other worlds of the Lunion Shield, Wardn is strategically important to the Imperium but cannot support sufficient defences of its own.Wardn’s large and well-run starport sees a considerable amount of interstellar trade, which in turn provides a great deal of revenue for the world. Despite being TL11, Wardn does not have a sufficient workforce to create a major manufacturing sector, so most goods are imported. This makes high-tech items expensive on Wardn, though there are moves to remedy this situation, by bringing in skilled workers and investing in modest factories, but the process is going slowly.
At present and for the foreseeable future, Wardn relies on its starport and exports of agricultural produce for profit. Food is a high-bulk, low-value item with heavy shipping costs; agricultural economies are at a huge disadvantage in interstellar trade. This is offset somewhat by the export of higher-value goods based on agricultural processes. Thus, Wardn tends to export a little less grain each year and far more secondary products. These include wines and spirits, high-quality meat products and a range of truly excellent cheeses. The latter are so heavily pushed that the ‘Wardn cheese salesman’ has become a byword for hard selling.
Wardn’s ‘great anomaly’ as some call it – a rather grand term but one that has stuck – is the strange system of lines and patterns carved into the surface of what is known as the Patterned Desert. It is believed by scientists that these patterns are the produce of anaerobic life in the baked sand of the desert, but many still believe the patterns are evidence of a vanished civilisation. Expeditions occasionally attempt to prove one answer or the other, but so far there has been no solid conclusion.
THE SCOUT BASE
There are two Scout Service installations in the Wardn system, though both are under combined command and considered a single base by the authorities. The oldest was built on Wardn itself, at what was then the starport. Its express purpose was to study the Sword Worlds, and over time the installation grew until a second facility was built on the largest moon of Enex. From this point on, the original base waned in importance until all interstellar operations were staged out of the Enex installation.The base on Wardn was drawn down, and parts of it are now all but derelict. However, a portion of the original facility remains in operation and fulfils a range of functions. It has its own landing field, and often receives couriers (and the occasional larger ship) from deeper within the Imperium. The installation is fed reports on shipping coming through the main starport, and data feeds from vessels monitoring traffic in other systems. This information is collated into monthly reports on shipping volumes, trade tonnages and the like, and sent to the region’s major bases, notably Persephone.
In addition to this function, the installation on Wardn sends parties out to Warden’s surface, but notably the Patterned Desert. The Scout Service does not comment on what it might be doing, but it seems that the work they are engaged in is mundane. Soil sampling, air composition analysis and so forth are common activities for these parties. There are those who remain convinced that the Scouts are looking for evidence of alien civilisations on Wardn, and there may be some truth to this. After all, the Scouts have enough personnel in the system to spare a few to poke around Wardn on the off chance that rumours of alien inhabitation in the distant past might be correct.
Although the installation on Wardn usually has a ship on the landing pad, virtually all Scout Service vessels coming through the system go via the Enex base. It maintains a large flotilla of couriers, survey scouts and other craft, including a few vessels that look a lot like common designs but may in fact be covert surveillance ships. Big scout cruisers sometimes visit Enex before heading over the border on long cruises into Foreven sector or even beyond.
Occasionally, a joint Scout/Navy taskforce forms up off Enex before heading out across the border. These groupings are usually short-lived, with vessels dispersing to carry out duties once they reach their operational area. Naval couriers also use the base as a refuelling point, typically when transiting between Adabicci and Caladbolg, or en route to Five Sisters subsector.
History
Wardn was formerly known as Silver and one of the Metal Worlds, but has not been considered part of that group for centuries.
The Imperial Scout Base at Enex (fifth planet of the Wardn system) was originally built to facilitate study of the Sword Worlds a few parsecs to Spinward.
The Imperial Scout Base at Enex (fifth planet of the Wardn system) was originally built to facilitate study of the Sword Worlds a few parsecs to Spinward.
Spinward Marches 1727
B756486-B
Starport - B (Good)
- Refined fuel available.
- Annual maintenance overhaul available.
- Shipyard capable of constructing non-starships present.
- 11200 KM
- Standard Gravity (0.70g - 0.94g)
- Thin
- Breathable
- 60% water
- 80,000
- Civil Service Bureaucracy.
- Government by agencies employing individuals selected for their expertise.
- Moderate Law
- All firearms except shotguns prohibited.
- Average Stellar (Large Starships)
- Ga
- Ni
Prohibited
- Weapons: All firearms except shotguns and stunners; carrying weapons discouraged.
- Drugs: Combat drugs.
- Drugs: Addictive narcotics.
- Drugs: Anagathics.
- Drugs: Fast and Slow drugs.
Type
Planet
Location under
Included Locations
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