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| Ashio
Star Type: G6IV Position in System: 3 (of 8) Number of Moons: 3: (Kauner, Rossi, Hyde) Days to Jump Point: 7 Surface Water: 80% Atm. Pressure: Standard (Breathable) Surface Gravity: 1.00 Equatorial Temp: 35� C Highest Native Life: Mammal Population: 1,032,000,000 Governor: Seth Jasma Planetary Legate: Bianca Fetladral |
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| Once a prefecture capital under the banner of the Draconis Combine, Ashio is a world of high mountains and deep oceans, mostly owing to the planet�s low gravity and young geological age. The surface land is divided among three mountainous continents and a handful of island chains. Modest mineral deposits and limited expanses of arable land prevented Ashio from developing large manufacturing and agricultural industries, until the commercial potential of the planet�s extremely large native mammoths led to the rise of a ranching industry. These elephant-sized, cattle-like creatures, whose flesh is nearly indistinguishable from Terran beef, helped Ashio attain a better-than-subsistence-level economy, becoming one of the largest exporters of beef in the galaxy. Ashio�s most prominent geological feature is the giant Mt. Vesuvius Major. This ten-kilometer-tall volcano, said to be the largest in the Inner Sphere, is located on the southern island continent of Vesuvius Prime, at the crux of three major�if inactive�fault lines. Thought to be dormant until seismic activity was detected near the peak around the close of the 31st century, the volcano and its surrounding lands became the center of extensive mining operations, focused on the minerals and ores churned up by ancient lava flows. Local experts have predicted that an eruption would blast enough ash and sulfur into the atmosphere to block out Ashio�s yellow sun and plunge the planet�s mild climate into an ice age. During the Combine�s dominion, Ashio was home to Ashio University, a political and military college that boasted among its alumni members of the Kurita royalty. After it was destroyed in the First Succession War, a second Ashio University rose from its ruins under the auspices of the Combine�s short-lived People�s Reconstruction Effort, only to be destroyed again by a fire, believed to have been set by anti-Kurita insurgents. Today, a third incarnation of Ashio University�this time as a center for the studies of culture and earth sciences�has been established in the planetary capital city of Iscariot, located on the northeastern continent of Rhodesia. Iscariot also boasts three major DropPorts, mostly used to export the products of the mining and ranching trade. Ashio�s other continent, Zaire, in the northern hemisphere, is home to the majority of the planet�s beef industry and agricultural co-ops. Shigata, a large city in southern Zaire, is home to the Geological Institute of Ashio. Attached to the new Ashio University, the GIA recently announced it had detected movement along one of the Vesuvius Major fault lines, which could be indicative of a rise in pressure around the still-dormant volcano. The announcement has led to the gradual migration of mining industries away from Vesuvius Prime. | |||||||||
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