Saavral

Saavral
General Information
System	Epsilon Indi, 11.8 light-years from Sol, class K5 main-sequence star (orange)
Radius	8320 miles/diameter
Atmosphere	Thin oxygen/nitrogen (0.66% density)
Moon(s)	1 medium moon
Age	estimated 2 billion years old
Day/Year
Alias
Civilisation
Races	Van Saar, Abh, Neumen, Beast-kin, CAST, Kerbals
Population	20000+
Places of Interest	one of the initial starter colonies of the Van Saar Nation, originally destroyed during the Zealot Wars.
Sovereignty	Van Saar Federation
Sailor Senshi	None
Language(s)	Federation "Common"

Saavral is a planet of the Epsiolon Indi system, which 11.8 light-years from Sol. It's sun is a K5 class main-sequence star (orange).

Description

Saavral is an unpleasant world to live on with an environment that's only marginally habitable. Daytime and nighttime each last almost seven Terran months due to the planet's retrograde orbit (much like Venus). Its atmosphere is breathable, but thin despite the planet's higher than normal gravity. Due to its slow rotation and close proximity to Epsilon Indi, Saavral's climate tends to be almost oppressively hot, but the thin atmosphere allows for a lot of that heat to bleed off into space. Large parts of the planet is covered by extensive oceans and shallow seas, while the landmasses consist of nothing but rocky plains, mountain ranges, and rolling badlands. There are no naturally-evolved lifeforms on the planet: the oceans are empty and nothing crawls on the land. The only plant life on Saavral is a type of edible algae that now covers the majority of the surface. The global weather tends to be very active, as convection currents flowing between nighttime and daytime parts of the planet, as well as the overall hot climate, encourages gale-force winds and heavy rain.

There was only one settlement on Saavral: Utopia City, the site of the original Van Saar colony that had been destroyed during the War. The original modular colonial structures are still there and provide the majority of the power and services of the settlement. The rest of Utopia City consists of ramshackle tenements, survival shelters, makeshift habs and industries, and underground warrens. Saavral was one of the worlds nearly destroyed during the recent Universal War when it was engulfed in a singularity. Upon the dissipation of the singularity, the Federation returned to find all traces of the original inhabitants simply...gone. No trace of them has ever been found and Utopia City remains as a complete ghost town.

The missing inhabitants of Saavral were comprised of a massive variety of different peoples, races, nationalities, and ethnicities, as well as political dissidents, religious and ethnic separatists, malcontents, criminals, social dropouts, radicals, and idealists who otherwise found the organized culture of their respective cultures too conservative, stifling and/or restrictive to their tastes. All had attempted to create an absolute, unrestricted utopia with a completely free economy and no restrictive regulations whatsoever. There would be no central government, complete individual autonomy, and perfect cooperation among all with everyone doing as they pleased for the benefit of all.

Their societal experiment was a complete failure.

In the aftermath of the Universe War, the Federation made a startling discovery on Saavral. During the search for any survivors an enormously extensive network of massive subterranean caverns were discovered, of which only some were natural. These networks of interconnected caverns (some of which were so massive that they contained the remains of entire alien ecosystems with their own individual internal climates) were so extensive that they covered an area of approximately ten million square miles. Even more unsettling, however, was the discovery of what ELSE was contained in the caverns: laboratories, data-vaults, defunct quantum processors, and other miscellaneous research facilities of a previously unknown alien race.

So far the Federation Explorators have explored a mere 1% of the mega-cavern network (which has been codenamed the "Husk of Knowledge"), but have determined that the entire place is over ten million years old.

Planetary Statistics

Local biochemistry: Compatible to Terran standard. Offworlders can eat the local food (if you can call it that) without too much difficulty, but vitamin supplements are recommended.

Minerals: Ample radioactives, Ample heavy metals, Plentiful industrial metals, Plentiful light metals, Extremely Plentiful petrochemicals. Natural gas and crude oil deposits are so common on Saavral that the ground water and oceans are contaminated with trace amounts of unrefined petrochemicals, requiring purification to make it drinkable.

Distance from local star: 0.45 AU's

Density: 7.0 (High-Iron, bordering on Metallic)

Gravity: 1.32 G's.

Climate: Hot

Surface water: 64%

Cultural Statistics

World Government: Full military control. A total of at least twenty Imperial Guard regiments are currently deployed on the planet in order to provide security for the Explorators searching and researching the ruins that have been discovered.

The debate to come up with their own name for their world (Saavral is the original name “imposed” by the Federation) has been raging for over two years with no unanimous consensus in sight.

No “Federal” agencies or authorities exist. There are no officially recognized legislative, executive, or judicial systems. Virtually no laws exist; everyone is free to do whatever they want and what few laws actually do exist are little more than suggestions. No official law enforcement exists and whatever people do attempt to impose standards are typically ignored because everyone is “sovereign” and exempt from all unwelcome authority. The most common form of law “enforcement” is whatever a given individual has in their hand. Already the system is beginning to crack from within with the “Guard agreement”. Some members of the population derive pleasure in attacking others, so they are advised to wear uniforms in order to warn others to “be on their guard” out of fairness. Naturally, the agreement is more of a suggestion than anything else. Hundreds, if not thousands, of different cultures, beliefs, and subcultures exist and more than a few of them exist in opposition of others. The prevailing attitude amongst a large part of the population is that compromise is contrary to the absolute recognition of personal sovereignty.

The economy itself is just as bad off. There is no centrally regulated economic organization. All taxes are voluntary, most commercial transactions tend to be based on pure barter, no banks or stock exchanges exist to establish standards of value, and no officially recognized universal currency has been established. While numerous individuals and groups do work and produce a limited quantity of goods, no official commercial standards have been set and goods are sold at whatever value their owners set for them. Distribution tends to be very uneven and what currency is recognized varies tremendously in value on a daily (or even hourly) basis. Even exchange rates amongst the hundreds of ethnic, political, racial, and religious groups ranges wildly since each group/gang/clan/collective demands to be recognized as “first among equals”.

Saavral has no official standing military. Unofficially, it possesses a large number of people who could quickly assemble into a volunteer militia, but lack any kind of pre-existing logistics, standardized training, or leadership structure. Weapons and equipment are whatever the individual volunteers bring with them. There is no centralized control or official chain of command. No aerospace or starship assets exist: Saavral lacks the sophisticated industries necessarily to build and maintain such things.

The Saavral militia is basically a mob, which could easily number in the hundreds of thousands depending on the circumstances. It lacks the funding and infrastructure to be an effective fighting force. Their overall troop quality is Raw to Green with inferior gear and logistics. Mercenaries could conceivably be hired and better weapons and equipment purchased and shipped in, but the Saavral government (such as it is) would have a very hard time paying for either. And hired mercenaries could just as easily attempt to take over the planet given the weak government.

Utopia City is comprised of many thousands of pre-fabricated structures and makeshift buildings constructed from whatever materials they can get. With so many clashing cultures and beliefs and no central organization the entire place has begun to resemble a collection of shantytowns since everyone builds their shelters wherever and however they want. Whatever industries, businesses, and services are available tend to be very small in scale due to strong widespread anti-capitalist, anti-corporate, and anti-government sentiments. Available goods and services are spotty at best with everything stymied by high demand, low availability, and wildly varying quality. Public services such as power, water, and sewage are of very low quality overall due to the complete lack of large-scale planning and no resources allocated to work with. What little is done tend to be small-scale constructions meant to deal with the immediate needs of a small area, often done without communicating with anyone else. The strangulated economy and inconsistent living conditions have resulted in a slowly growing sense of discontent that has already started flaring into violence. These riots have resulted in few real casualties but a lot of property damage and even more lingering frustration. Several of the more reactionary groups have begun targeting rivals as convenient scapegoats and quite a few old race, ethnic, religious, and political enmities that were outlawed under the laws of the Federation have begun to re-emerge.

Pluralism: Very Diverse. The native society is very fragmented along cultural lines and internal conflict is common.

Tolerance: Moderate. Foreigners are accepted to some extent, but they are expected to obey local customs. However, what's considered "local" could be as limited as a given individual and differ from person to person.

Solidarity: Very Low (Egoistic). Members of the society rarely sacrifice themselves for others. Altruism is regarded as very foolish compared to the importance of individual sovereignty. Collective action is very difficult to organize and economic competition is very common and often cut-throat in nature.

Tractability: Low (Rebellious). The inhabitants of Saavral actively resent and resist authority since they all believe that the individual IS authority. Armed revolt would be a real possibility if not for the fact that EVERYONE seems to have weapons at hand.

Aggression: Moderate (Semi-Violent). Cultural forces exist to restrain violence, but a lot of individuals still look to violence as a common means of exercising individual sovereignty. Some individuals have begun to emerge as venerated diplomats and "wise ones", but they're far outnumbered.

Pragmatism: Moderate. Overall, the society uses a mixture of empirical methods and intuitive mysticism. Too bad neither side wants to combine and cooperate in order to advance themselves.

Innovation: Moderate. The society tolerates change on the most part because of the massive number of cultural and ethnic viewpoints. Actual cooperation, however, is rare and true innovation tends to occur despite societal beliefs rather than because of them.

Providence: Low (Reckless). Little institutional sense of time since no one bothers to organize anything. Little long-term planning and resources tend to be squandered.

Technological Development

Physical Science: TL7 High-energy physics understood. Knowledge of elementary particles and forces.

Material Science: TL6 Versatile metal alloys, plastics, and other synthetic materials.

Energy Production: TL6 Internal combustion engines are very widespread. Electrical power grids cover all of Utopia City.

Information: TL5 Mechanized printing, personal printing devices, and electronic radios are common.

Vehicles: TL6 Rugged all-terrain automobiles are common, albeit ramshackle in appearance.

Weapons: TL6 Powerful smokeless-powder weapons and fully-automatic firearms are common.

Biological Science: TL7 DNA fully understood and crude genetic engineering. Some of the natives are attempting to continue with the originally interrupted terraforming program, but has so far achieved very few results.

Medical Tech: TL5 Basic first aid available, as well as reliable anesthetics and antiseptics.

Environment: TL6 Crude weather prediction and conservationist ethic.

History

Technically a Federation world, the planet Saavral occupies a strange place within the Federation in that it’s not officially part of it.

Prior to the Zealot War, Saavral was one of the marginally habitable worlds the original Van Saar Nation discovered near 82 Eridani and tagged for further investigation. The planet was completely uninhabited with a “reducing” atmosphere and a native ecology that consisted of little more than algae. After determining the extent of the planet's mineral wealth the Enclave established several mining outposts in addition to securing the services of an Abh planetary engineering company to begin terraforming the planet for habitation.

During the Zealot War Saavral was taken completely by surprise and overrun during the First Wave. The forces that had been present on Saavral at the time consisted of a company of Van Saar Guardsmen, the colonial workers, and the Abh engineering company. Outnumbered and unprepared, the entire outpost was overrun and wiped out with no survivors. The planet remained unoccupied for the remainder of the war and contact was never reestablished until after the deactivation of the temporal barriers that surrounded the Egae/Unmei and Gurhal systems. Contact would have been reestablished sooner, but the situations on Centaurus and Eradenia took up the majority of the Federation’s collective attention.

The Federation was rather surprised to find that Saavral had changed quite a bit during the interceding years. The planet’s atmosphere and climate had changed slightly as a result of the incomplete terraforming process – the atmosphere had become breathable (although it was still thin and low in oxygen by Human standards) and simple plants covered large sections of the surface. The planet wasn’t necessarily a pleasant place to live, but it WAS livable. Within a month an expedition to rebuild the old outpost was dispatched to Saavral, but when the Federation arrived it was in for another surprise when it found out that the planet was already occupied by a substantially large colony of its own, immediately declaring itself independent and sovereign of the Federation.

Under the law of the Humankind Empire Abh, Saavral was still recognized as a holding of Solarchos’ barony, making the people there subjects of the Frybar and the Federation regardless of whatever they thought. But by declaring independence they’d in essence invaded a world that didn’t belong to them. One word from Solarchos was all that was all that was required to evict the squatters. Or the Abh could just annex the world if the squatter’s claim was actually recognized since the Abh do not allow underdeveloped races to exist independently (they're too irresponsible in their eyes). Then Solarchos made a surprising decision. He recognized Saavral’s independence and let them exist as a world separate from the Federation.

Then the people of Saavral immediately began making numerous demands – for “severance”, for “reparations” for numerous conflicts and grievances dating back before the Enclave itself had ever been built (or even had anything to do with the Van Saar in the first place), aid packages, construction of industries and infrastructure for their exclusive use, and a host of other completely irrational and illogical requests.

Solarchos then applied his authority as Governor-Militant and vetoed all of their requests. Saavral would serve as an example of the Federation’s greatest right: freedom of choice. The people of Saavral had chosen to live independently of the Federation and had that right, but in doing so they would receive absolutely no assistance or aid from them in return. Saavral would be free and independent in every sense of the term, good and bad.

Current Events

“No. We reject all demands for reparations and concessions. These people wanted their freedom. They wanted to be recognized as sovereign. They chose to leave the Federation and everything it stands for. We gave them exactly what they wanted and deserve: the choice to succeed or fail entirely on their own efforts. They demanded that we leave them alone. We’re doing exactly as they asked. They have no right to complain now and make demands simply because things haven’t turn out the way they hoped.”

The Saavral government permitted the Federation to establish a small outpost within Utopia City, ostensibly to demonstrate to their “former oppressors just how far they’ve come since declaring independence”. The Federation’s embassy consists of a standard Munitorium base with attached starport facilities. The embassy itself sits within a large virtually quarantined area surrounded by multiple layers of fencing set up not by the Federation, but by the Saavral “government” in order to “protect themselves from any attempt at foreign manipulation”. The Federation then added more layers of defense, not trusting the people of Saavral to actually honor any agreements made. The people of Savraal on the most part do everything in their power to hamstring and badger the Federation as much as possible, from encouraging constant picketing and protesting outside the embassy to ridiculous demands for unlimited access to the base’s industrial facilities (for the good of Savraal’s people of course) to multitudinous rules and regulations about where the Van Saar can be and how they can do things. The Federation personnel at the embassy tolerate it all like it’s all an amusing joke: the embassy is their own sovereign territory and demands are generally countered with replies along the lines of “on whose authority are you acting on?”. In general, the Van Saar make it clear that when they do comply with any demands that they do so purely because they choose to do so.

The current situation at the embassy is best described as “bemused tolerance” with an undertone of growing concern. With no law enforcement whatsoever, there are no restraints put in place to discourage radicalism on Saavral. Quiet, peaceful protests are unknown on Saavral: they always become loud, destructive, and volatile with some asshole deciding at some point to start throwing rocks or improvised bombs. The defenses of the embassy are tailored to counter massive mobs, with multiple layers of walls and razorwire configured to corral invaders into kill-zones covered with minefields and brutal anti-personnel weaponry. While the soldiers are under strict orders not to fight the Saavral people unless specifically ordered to, the forces guarding the outer perimeter frequently report being shot at by unknown snipers. In many ways the embassy resembles a stronghold under siege. No Federation personnel are allowed to enter Utopia City at all for fear of them becoming targets of opportunistic crime or kidnapping.

The Federation tolerates the situation on Saavral for an interesting reason: it is, in essence, an unofficial recruitment world and penal colony. Criminals who commit crimes severe enough to warrant loss of franchise (full citizenship and the right to vote) or just have no desire to remain in the Federation are given the option of departing entirely. For those who do choose to leave Saavral seems to be the destination chosen by the malcontents themselves. Once there, the expatriates discover for themselves that Saavral is in many ways a polar opposite of the Federation, and not in a good way. After living on Saavral for a couple of years many of the residents of Utopia City have begun to actively petition the embassy to emigrate to the Federation: the regulated nature of the Federation might have seemed restrictive at first, but living amidst anarchy has only made them see the importance and necessity of that organization and structure. Many of those people who’ve returned to the Federation from Saavral have become amazingly motivated and productive workers. Other view the Federation as far preferable to the crime and chaos of Utopia City.

Another reason for Saavral as a penal colony is that many of the people who’ve departed from the Federation have been people who are completely unwilling to adhere to its laws. A large percentage of these types of people have been ultra-radical political and religious adherents who endorse violent xenophobic ideologies (such as the outlawed Church of Hubology and former members of the Imperium of Man who’ve rejected all offers of amnesty). The worst are repeat offenders who’ve refuse all attempts at rehabilitation. Again, most of them seem to gravitate towards Saavral for some reason. Saavral now serves as a “safety valve” for major political dissension: the people who hate the Federation the most have an opportunity to depart. This enables the Federation to safely and legally remove potential sources of discontent without having to deal with the costs of lifetime imprisonment or accusations of political oppression.

Some within the Federation military think the Governor-Militant is just biding his time and waiting for some group of nutjobs (since Saavral is already swarming with nuts, flakes, burnouts, dropouts, and crapouts) to actually launch a large-scale attack on the embassy, which would likely result in a declaration of "Imperial Interdiction" and the subsequent overthrow of Saavral's pathetic excuse of a government with something that's actually workable. If there actually is some kind of greater plan in the works, the Governor-Militant himself has said absolutely nothing.

November 11, 2014

A few weeks earlier an unsuccessful attempt was made to harm Natalia Amestris-Langister. An intense investigation immediately followed, with evidence being discovered linking the assassination attempt to a criminal mercenary organization known as the Black Cross. Further evidence determined that the Black Cross was operating openly upon Saavral.

Over the course of the next few weeks Governor-Militant Solarchos attempted to negotiate with Saavral's government for permission to prosecute the Black Cross. The result was complete failure: Saavral's anarchic "general assembly" refused to cooperate or even organize into any cohesive way. Federation intelligence specialists were deployed to further investigate the situation on Saavral. What they discovered was beyond unsettling.

In the time since contact was established and the Black Cross incident, Saavral had deteriorated from an experimental utopia into a "failed state" type of government where armed gangs controlled large portions of Utopia City, crime was rampant, many citizens worked in terrible conditions in whatever jobs they could find being paid in whatever method their employers chose to pay them, and pirates raiding surrounding star systems were using Saavral's spaceport facilities under a "privateer agreement" set up between Saavral's few wealthy inhabitants.

In other words, Saavral had become a criminal sanctuary where the majority of its economy was based upon slavery, drug distribution, prostitution, illegal weapon sales, piracy, industrial espionage, information trafficking, and illegal medical experimentation...nothing was illegal and absolutely nothing was for free.

Then the most radical and unbalanced inhabitants of Utopia City (i.e. followers of extremely hostile and xenophobic religious, political, and/or social ideologies) began attacking the Federation embassy, supported by soldiers from the Black Cross, armed with high-grade military weapons and supported by power armor troops.

On November 11, 2014, Governor-Militant Solarchos declared "Imperial Interdiction" against Saavral and launched an invasion of the planet, with the objectives of protecting Federation soldiers, putting a stop to the piracy, and putting an end to a "slave-state system of government". Four regiments of Imperial Guard were deployed, along with a fleet consisting of the Hellesponte, the Rebellious Command, and several frigates for escort.

Destruction

On May 23rd, 2016, the entire planet was destroyed by one of the spontaneous black holes created by the AU Actuary. No survivors were detected.