The Beyond Subsector O: Siren

The Beyond Subsector O: Siren

System Data

Hex  Name                 UWP       Remarks                  {Ix}   (Ex)    [Cx]   N B  Z PBG W  A    Stellar                

---- -------------------- --------- ------------------------ ------ ------- ------ - -- - --- -- ---- ----------

1734 Inferno              XC22000-0 Ba Po He Bo Tz           { -3 } (900-3) [0000] - -  - 041 14 NaXX M5 V M8 V              

1740 Delcorre             C321312-B Lo Po He Ho Sa           { 0 }  (821-4) [536C] - -  - 831 10 NaHu M2 V                   

1831 Siren                C521310-A Lo Po He Co              { 0 }  (A21-1) [8359] - -  - 810 6  NaHu K3 V                   

1836 Point Null           X100000-0 Ba Va                    { -3 } (400-3) [0000] - -  - 010 11 NaXX G2 V                   

1837 Charanta             C54587B-7 Ph Pi Pa Pz              { -1 } (875+3) [C73C] - -  A 311 10 NaHu G5 V K2 V              

1933 Devil's Foot         X401000-0 Ba Ic Va Co Sa           { -3 } (700-4) [0000] - -  - 011 8  NaXX M5 V M7 V              

1939 Delentash            X321000-0 Ba Po He                 { -3 } (800-4) [0000] - -  - 010 7  NaXX K0 V                   

2036 Aktohr               X000000-0 Ba As Va                 { -3 } (600-2) [0000] - -  - 010 10 NaXX F2 V                   

2132 Sniel                X723000-0 Ba Po                    { -3 } (800-4) [0000] - -  - 020 11 NaXX M0 V M5 V              

2138 Tlankhu              B764676-A (Teakhea)2 Ag Ni Ri      { 3 }  (B54-2) [3939] - -  - 611 11 AsSc F8 V                   

2139 Hwyoweas             C422313-A Lo Po He                 { 0 }  (721+2) [133C] - -  - 312 12 AsXX K7 V M3 V D            

2233 Rockhome             X311000-0 Ba Ic                    { -3 } (600+1) [0000] - -  - 000 4  NaXX M2 V M8 V              

2234 Kittyland            E101000-0 Ba Ic Va Fz              { -3 } (500+4) [0000] - -  - 010 9  NaXX M2 V BD                

2237 Fesoikhte            A8769A5-B In Hi                    { 4 }  (G8D+1) [9D4E] - -  - 523 12 AsWc G7 V M2 V              

2331 Firuahtuka           B6435A5-B Ni Po                    { 1 }  (943+3) [468B] - -  - 422 15 AsVc K0 V BD                

2333 Ohteewan             X801000-0 Ba Ic Va Tz              { -3 } (400+2) [0000] - -  - 000 7  NaXX M1 V                   

2340 Shi Ukhtal           B443736-C Po Ht Pi                 { 2 }  (A69-3) [A95B] - -  - 512 13 AsTv F8 V M0 V              

2434 Esoueari             D558472-9 Ni Pa                    { -2 } (632+2) [6276] - -  - 603 10 AsSc K6 V M5 V              

2435 Khukhtyel            CB88436-8 Ni Pa                    { -2 } (B32+1) [424B] - -  - 712 14 AsMw G6 V                   

2440 Shitfaowol           B442334-A Lo Po He Tz              { 1 }  (821-3) [546C] - -  - 513 15 AsMw M3 V                    

The Siren subsector consists of 20 systems and 5.356 billion inhabitants, which includes eight Aslan Hierate systems with more than five billion inhabitants, nearly all of whom are Khawyeiyikhtera clan members residing on Fesoikhte. Of the three systems settled by Humaniti, Charanta is home to nearly all 300 million inhabitants, with the other two systems owned by struggling wayport corporations. Nine systems are officially unsettled in this desolate space between the frontiers of the Aslan and Humaniti.

The Imperium calls the subsector Siren, but many local call it Charanta or Fesoikhte, depending on their race.

Worlds

Charanta (1837 C54587B-7)

Charanta has been on the front lines of Humaniti's resistance to Aslan expansion for more than 1700 years, beginning when the world was settled by refugees fleeing Oberon. In recent centuries, the lessening tensions after the end of the Expeditions has allowed fragmentation of the world into competing nations, many of which are now at war.

Physical Characteristics

A fairly small world, half covered in water, Charanta has a thin but breathable, if somewhat unpleasant, atmosphere tainted by biological activity and industrial excess. Charanta orbits its G5 V star as its outermost planet. Beyond Charanta ranges a dense asteroid belt, all that remains of a failed world torn apart by the influence of the system's orange companion star 30AU distant. In orbit around that companion star are two barren rockballs and the system's only gas giant.

Charanta still exhibits substantial geological activity, creating tall mountain ranges and volcanoes that form the backbone of the world's two large continents, linked by a narrow mountainous isthmus.

History

When Oberon fell to the Aslan in -628, several convoys of ships took refugees to other settled worlds beyond the reach of the ihatei expansion. Most headed towards Halifax, Garrone, or Sant Rabloes, or further into the Corellan League. But the flotilla centered around the freighter Obe Hemmar headed rimward then spinward, reaching uninhabited Charanta and depositing the refugees on the planet. The last ship out of Oberon, the freighter Larsa Fugue arrived the following year after a harrowing journey still celebrated in song and myth. The nascent colony cannibalized the ships, retaining only three corvette-sized vessels for planetary defense.

For most of the Expeditions that followed, Charanta was intermittently a target of Aslan expansion. The corvettes were long lost defending the world, but Aslan incursions failed to gain a foothold on the surface. The League and its Storm Knights were too far away to provide support and made little effort to overcome that difficulty, a fact that the inhabitants of Charanta still remember. During the period of the Expeditions, Charanta had a republican government, much like that of fallen Oberon, with three balanced branches of government and universal suffrage for all. By the end of the Expeditions, the world's population had reached nearly 100 million and technology had fallen to pre-stellar levels, straining the aging infrastructure that kept the now sprawling colony united.

The Treaty of Kaiear mentioned Charanta only once, in Article Nine, in which the Stormhaven Republic and Corellan League both renounced claims to the world or rights to station forces in the system. The Charantans had not been consulted. They haven't forgotten that, either.

In 503, the western districts of Charanta seceded from the Republic after an argument ostensible over transfers of payments to the poorer districts in the east, but really about changes in culture that had grown over the past thousand years. The west was home to miners and ranchers and a more independent type of person than the those who lived in the faltering cities and smaller farms of the east. The First Charantan Civil War lasted from 503-527 and ended with the independence of Westrange, (pronounced "West range", not "We strange", but the Easterners would disagree). In 540, the eastern Republic fell apart in recriminations over the lost war, and with Westrange supplying arms to all sides in the four-way struggle, the Second Charantan Civil War ended in 547 with the east broken into six new nations. By 550 the infrastructure of the entire planet had collapsed to the point where electricity was a luxury.

Charanta stabilized for several centuries, stuck in a fairly low tech rut. Even so, the growing population was militant enough to drive off Aslan incursions, and the Aslan refrained from bombarding the planet from orbit, as that was a clear violation of the Peace of Kaiear.

The stagnation continued into the 1040s, when the local technological base had recovered to mid-tech ratings. Westrange remained the largest nation on Charanta, covering half the inhabited land and home to 70 of 300 million inhabitants. Westrange's government was small and not very effective, but the citizens liked it that way. It was not prepared when the Exrange Alliance of four nations mounted a concerted attack on its territory, driving tanks across its borders in a blitzkrieg attack. The Westrange War of 1048-1052 broke that nation into three.

The most powerful remaining piece of the west is the nation of Westgate, a mountainous region rich in mineral wealth and industry and home to the only functioning space program and starport. Since 1096 Westgate has been locked in war with four nations, including the other former pieces of Westrange, Rangeway and Far Midden.

Social Characteristics

The Charantans are xenophobic. They see the Aslan as hostile invaders and the rest of Humaniti as self-interested souls who would cheat or abandon them. While not completely opposed to outside trade, all nations maintain high tariffs and only the starport in Westgate has any sort of services beyond a concrete pad, a fuel pump, and some Quonset huts. Charantan Anglic has evolved into two mutually unintelligible languages, Eastlic and Westlic. Anglic is not taught in schools, except as a dead language used to interpret ancient documents related to the eras of the Founding and Lost Oberon.

Westgate is under martial law. While a puppet holds the presidency, the real power is Chief Marshal Agon Velt, who has mobilized his nation for total warfare and has begun a program to develop atomic weaponry.

The Arling Starport outside High Upton, Westgate's capital, suffers from sporadic air and long-range artillery attack, leading to periodic shutdowns, but it is still by far the most developed port on the planet.

Delcorre (1740 C321312-B)

The largest moon of its system's only gas giant, Delcorre is home to the only source of fuel in the system that doesn't require extraction. A surface-only installation deep within the jump shadow of the system's M2 V star, the Del Vastas starport has pads capable of supporting ships up to 10,000 tons and fuel shuttles available to service ships unable or unwilling to land on a world whose very thin atmosphere is filled with the abrasive sand of eroded basaltic rocks. The planet is very warm, heated both by the sun and its occasional flares and by the heat of its large parent gas giant, under a hundred million years old and still contracting. The starport is run by the Del Vastas Corporation, which employs half of the system's 8,000 inhabitants; most of the other half are family members of employees. Del Vastas once ran a second starport facility at Delentash, but it was destroyed by the Khawyeiyikhtera clan of Fesoikhte in 1101 for failing to pay tribute. The corporation had hoped to upgrade its Delcorre facility to Class B, but the required shipyard sits uncompleted, barely more than a hole in the ground. Traffic across the Broken Chain is too light to achieve the revenue required to run even the current facility and the corporation is basically insolvent.

Fesoikhte (2237 A8769A5-B)

Nearly 99% of the subsector's Aslan population of five billion reside on the cold industrial world of Fesoikhte. The Khawyeiyikhtera clan has ruled the world since it was settled in -600. Icecaps covers half the surface area of Fesoikhte, with rivers draining into one of seven mountain-bound basins centered on separate saltwater seas.

The Khawyeiyikhtera clan is bound to Fesoikhte and has no offworld assets except the starport at Hwyoweas which is run by a corporation owned by the Khawyeiyikhterako's sister. While not particularly militant, the Khawyeiyikhtera are touchy, even for Aslan, and demand respect, which translates into tribute from its neighbors. When the Del Vastas Corporation refused to give tribute at Delentash, ten thousand Khawyeiyikhtera participated in the raid that destroyed the Delentash starport facility. Many observers suspect the facility at Delcorre may fall next, crippling the already near non-existent trade in the region.

Tlankhu (2136 B764676-A)

A world of tall mountains and scattered seas rather than a world ocean, Tlankhu is the homeworld of the Teakhea, an amphibious snail-like race that has accepted the Aslan colonizers of its world as its master caste. Aslan now outnumber the Teakhea five to one on their own homeworld and have brought the stone-age culture into the stellar age, making the world like any other in the Hierate, though permanently changing the native culture in the process.

Six clans occupy Tlankhu, though only two, the Kteaoaiyaei and the Haolrauiai, interact with the Teakhea, who, in order to integrate the Aslan within their worldview, are treated as adopted members of the clans, not vassals.

Siren (1831 C521310-A)

On Imperial charts, Siren gives its subsector its name, probably because it was the first inhabited world visited by Imperial scouts. Siren orbits well outside the habitable zone of its K3 V star, adjacent to a large diffuse asteroid belt that continues far out along the star system's orbital plane. It is outside the star's jump shadow, placing it in an ideal location for a refueling waystation. At some distant point in the past, the Ancients made a half-hearted or truncated attempt to give the world a habitable atmosphere, but the effort clearly failed, leaving Siren a frozen wasteland with nearly as much carbon dioxide in its thin atmosphere as oxygen; in the case of both gasses, not enough to be useful.

Still, it was the best place in the system to extract fuel. The Siren Corporation established a foothold on the planet in -266, building a refueling depot to support the Storm Knights during the Sixth Expedition. Since that time, the small outpost has continued to operate as a Class C starport, providing fuel and some repair services for what little starship traffic crosses this backwater corner of space. The Highport is more developed than the small Downport that is mostly dedicated to ice extraction.

Siren High Starport does not meet Class B standards mainly because of its lack of shipyard. Refined fuel is available for a price. Siren High is known as a place where anything can be acquired for a price, but those seeking to take advantage of the lack of regulation are advised to be polite about it, as Siren's security forces include highly trained, well-equipped staff.

Additionally, any attempt to purchase or sell weapons of mass destruction will lead to a polite, but firm, demand to cease and desist and to conduct business elsewhere. Siren High Starport has existed as an independent entity for more than a thousand years and has no interest in inviting the intervention of outside powers that could reduce it to vapor if given sufficient cause.

Siren has become more of a destination than a wayport since the destruction of the freeport at Sniel in 1088 made through traffic between Nakris and the Hierate more difficult. The shops off the main concourse of Siren Hall do a brisk business in specialty items imported from as far away as the Vargr Extents and the other side of the Great Rift, but freighter traffic has dropped precipitously and the cargo terminal sits half empty. Rumors of a buyout by the Gateway Consortium have circulated for years, but the majority owners of the Siren Corporation reside on the station and are reluctant to surrender their legacy.

Articles

Teakhea

The Teakhea are an amphibious snail-like race native to Tlankhu. They have accepted the Aslan as a master caste and adapted to fit within Aslan culture as members of the Kteaoaiyaei and Haolrauiai clans.

Physical Characteristics

Teakhea are four meter-long bisymmetrical shelled beings, with two tentacle-based arms and a snail's foot. An adult amphibious Teakhea masses more than 300kg and moves with snake-like motion across tidal flats and partially submerged landscapes. The Teakhea lack an internal skeleton, and can be described as a bundle of pale yellow muscles in a shell. Their "head" is just the blunt end of their upper body that extends beyond the shell. The head is equipped with a single large eye for near detail and infrared vision, and two smaller stalked eyes for distance vision that extends into the ultraviolet. Two gill-like slits set on either side of a large sharp-toothed mouth provide oxygen in either air or water, and the crown of the head is ringed with "hairs" that provide olfactory and auditory sensors.

The Teakhea secrete a calcium-based multi-plate shell onto their torso, protecting their backs and sides. Their two tentacle-like arms stretch up to two meters from their bodies, though usually contract to half that length, and end in a hexagonal arrangement of sticky tentacle-like fingers that are sensitive to chemical "smells" as well as touch. The fat "foot" runs beyond the shell a third of the length of the body, allowing fairly fast movement on smooth ground, but has difficulty with rough terrain. In water, the foot acts like a tail, allowing the Teakhea to swim at a fairly fast rate. The bottom of the foot contains the anus in a recessed cavity.

Life Cycle

The Teakhea are serially hermaphroditic, with individuals reaching adulthood as a male, then after a number of years, switching to female until giving birth to live ten-centimeter-long free-swimming larvae, then they switch back to male for another period. The sexual cycle continues throughout a Teakhea's life, with the female cycle ending after each period of childbirth.

The Teakhea larvae are unintelligent and left to fend for themselves in the Orange Sea of Tlankhu, the only body of water able to support native Teakhea. Salinity levels in Tlankhu's other seas do not meet the requirements of the larvae and attempts to raise larvae in artificial environments have been met with severe cultural resistance. After a period of two local or about three standard years the larvae attach themselves to reef-like structures in the shallows and spend a full local year as a filter-feeder, gradually siphoning calcium from the seawater until they build a complete shell around their half-meter-long bodies. The larvae transform into adult Teakhea form after a fifty-day-long metamorphosis and emerge to seek out colonies of Teakhea to join and to be raised as part of the community. In most cases the newly emerged Teakhea join communities of adults unrelated to their genetic parents.

The young Teakhea join an apprentice caste, learning basic skills and language and after a few years, become specialists in one of dozens of occupational castes, growing to full adult size within 10 local or 14 standard years after their metamorphosis.

Castes are theoretically determined by aptitude, but more often by shortages or vacancies, but in any case, once assigned, a caste is a lifelong commitment. The Teakhea may live 60-90 standard years and do not retire until suitable replacements are found. Retired Teakhea, or elders, are still respected and consulted by others in their caste.

There are more than a hundred castes, three of them related to leadership. The Teakhea have adopted the Aslan as members of the High Leader class, essentially granting any Aslan more stature than any Teakhea.

Evolutionary Development

The Teakhea evolved from amphibious omnivore-scavengers that gathered food in the shallows and tidal flats of the Orange Sea, the largest of Tlankhu's six major bodies of water. Proto-Teakhea learned to specialize in specific food gathering duties and found that this efficiency allowed surplus labor to specialize in occupations that allowed for the construction of food storage ponds that evolved into covered amphibious shelters.

The caste structure evolved along with intelligence, leading to a widespread civilization of small settlement by the time of contact with the Aslan in approximately -700.

History and Society

Teakhea civilization had reached a Neolithic level with sophisticated towns and written language by the time of first contact with Sindalian explorers in -1654. The Sindalians found little of value for trade or settlement on Tlankhu, which they named Sloughfeg, and other than a few sophontology research expeditions they left the Teakhea alone, minimizing interstellar contact and cultural contamination.

The Corellan League has no records of expeditions to Sloughfeg, but were aware of the inhabitants, whom they predictably called "Slougs". Aslan ihatei began arriving in the area in the eighth century pre-Imperial. The Kteaoaiyaei staked the first claim of territory on Tlankhu in -701 and the Haolrauiai followed in -693. Contact with the Teakhea occurred almost immediately.

The Aslan over-awed the natives, who treated them like gods and adapted their caste structure to treat the newcomers as overlords. No conquest was required, and the Teakhea communities continued as before for some time, until Aslan technology and cultural practices began to influence the further development of the Teakhea.

Teakhea maintain their castes, but have adopted a gender bias in selection. Modern Teakhea learn two caste professions, a male and a female, following the first and then the second. In practice, the two are normally closely related: pilot vs. mechanic on the same type of equipment, for instance, and when an individual Teakhea is needed to stay within one caste specialty, drugs can prevent the transformation of sexes. For the male to female change, this can be accomplished by hormonal injections or by a permanent procedure that removes the glands responsible for the transformation. For a female, the change can only be prevented by preventing pregnancy. A large portion of Teakhea society chooses to retain a single gender. This has led to a declining birth rate and Teakhea population has fallen to 1.2 million, barely a tenth of its precontact size.

While the Teakhea see the Aslan as overlords, unlike the Ktiauao, they do not see themselves as Aslan. As a result, they do not engage in Aslan rituals such as the Rite of Passage or dueling. The only honor that is important to the Teakhea is the honor of their Aslan leaders; for themselves, honor is not important, only duty.

Interstellar Relations

The Teakhea see themselves as extensions of their adopted clan and they are evenly split between the Kteaoaiyaei and Haolrauiai clans, who account for more than half of the Aslan on Tlankhu. As such, Teakhea have no independent relations with anyone but their overlords.

Teakhea Travellers

The Teakhea are a race separate from, but beholden to, the Aslan. They practice their caste professions in order to serve the greater community, and as such, only behave like Aslan in that their caste has a gender component, and those who maintain the full Teakhea life-cycle will change caste as well as gender.

Characteristics

Teakhea Travellers have the following modifiers applied to their characteristics: STR+1, DEX-1, END+1, SOC-2

Traits

Teakhea Travellers all possess the following traits:

Amphibious: Teakhea are equally adept on land and in water and can stay submerged indefinitely in oxygenated water.

Senses: Teakhea have a broader visual range than Humaniti, allowing them to see into the UV and IR spectrum. Teakhea hearing and smell is superior to Humaniti. This confers DM+1 to initiative and recon rolls.

Snail foot: Teakhea have difficulty traversing terrain that is not fairly smooth. Half movement across rough or broken terrain.

Size, and body shape: Attack rolls on a Teakhea target gain a DM+2 to hit. Attacks to a Teakhea's rear or flanks are reduced by Armor +3 from a Teakhea's shell. Damage applied, after armor reduction, is halved and an Effect of +8 is required to achieve a critical hit.

Careers

All careers from Pirates of Drinax: The Trojan Reach (Book 2). are available to Teakhea characters except Ceremonial, Envoy, or Military/Space Officer. A Teakhea cannot change careers without changing gender and a new gender career should be as close as possible in scope to the original career. A Teakhea beings as male. Each term roll 8+ on 2D to initiate a gender change, if desired. Otherwise, the career may not change and reenlistment roles are automatic, unless a 2 is rolled, in which case, the character must cease character generation or become an Outcast. Any mishap that causes loss of career has the same effect as a roll of 2.

All Teakhea speak their own tongue and gain the skill Language(Trokh) 2. Aging occurs as for Humaniti.

Wisp-class Stealth Scout

Externally, the Wisp-class stealth scout is identical to a Serpent-class scout. From a casual inspection of the interior, it looks the same, but it is not. It is far more cramped, designed to be run by a crew of just two scouts. The internal space is optimized to allow for enough fuel for the Wisp's stealthy jump drive to makes two jump-2 transits, allowing it to jump into a system undetected, with its hull plates morphed into a near radar-invisible matte black surface and its drives powered down, glide through the system for weeks or months, and then jump out without detection.

Siren High Starport

Siren High Starport is the major asset of the Siren Corporation. Parts of the station have orbited the desolate frozen world of Siren since -266. The current station complex is rated as a Class C starport facility, but only because its shipyard is a tiny facility that does not meet the Imperium's rating classification. The 60,000 ton orbital station has the ability to provide refined fuel (though at Cr750 per ton) and repair services (for ships of no more than 600 tons if a pressurized bay is required), including annual maintenance work. With a complement of nearly a thousand staff, the station can handle up to 2000 visitors and local residents, though it usually houses barely half that population.

Siren High is an amalgam of centuries of growth and renovations. The electronics, including its updated computer, sensors, and security systems, are well-maintained, but some sections suffer from age-related issues that a fresh set of holowall panels can't fix. Station security is contracted to Blackcloud Associates of Nakris, who supply a company-sized protection force and a squadron of fighters. But sometimes the dangers come from the station itself. The maintenance staff is kept busy supporting equipment that hasn't had spares in a thousand years and some sections are held together with… creativity by technicians long dead. The boast that one of the reactor cores is older than the Third Imperium is more frightening than impressive.