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| Gatatea
Star Type: F8II Position in System: 6 (of 8) Number of Moons: 1 (Gatatea Minor) Days to Jump Point: 12 Surface Water: 35% Atm. Pressure: Standard (Breathable) Surface Gravity: 1.0 Equatorial Temp: 55� C Highest Native Life: Mammals Population: 628,218,000 Governor: Bradford Nowakowski Planetary Legate: Celine Richtofen |
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Previous Planet, Prefecture VIII | |
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| Though it orbits far away from a yellow-white giant, Gatatea is nonetheless hot, and rendered largely barren in its equatorial and tropical zones. In the temperate and polar regions, where the solar radiation is less severe, the soil is largely sterilized, lacking in nitrogen from centuries of ultraviolet exposure. As a result, very little vegetation grows on Gatatea, save what may be found along the coastlines of rivers extending from the planet�s oceans: the Amersia Sea in the north polar region, and the Kileri and Paradise Oceans in the south. All three oceans are completely land-locked, however, trapped within the single, planet-wide landmass known as Lubbocks. Given the largely barren environment that is Gatatea, the first settlers to this world in 2250 were surprised to find that it actually supported a basic ecosystem, at the top of which was a furry, burrowing, rodentlike predator called the Gatatean Mole. Indeed, preliminary analyses made by the first surveyors of this world suggested that the root of the planet�s ecology actually lay in a complex system of underground rivers. These theories were partly corroborated by the subsequent discovery of subterranean oases all over the planet, where a much more exotic local flora and fauna had evolved. Further study was briefly denied, however, when a mixture of antitechnology religious sects subsequently colonized the planet, including a number of Amish, Native American, and African communities. Eager to escape the increasingly tech-dependent ways of the Terran Alliance, these colonists lived in relative harmony until Gatatea fell under the joint rule of the expanding Terran Hegemony and the Lyran Commonwealth years later. Under the original Star League, Gatatea became a military training ground for the SLDF, and Star League engineers helped develop the planet�s sprawling spaceport, Galaport, situated just north of the planetary capital of Gatatea City. In addition, a host of mining and refining enterprises flocked to the world as the Hegemony government opened the resource-rich lands for exploitation. The naturalists gradually found themselves pushed aside in the rush to exploit Gatatea�s riches, while the industries and economy came to depend on the prosperity of the Star League itself. During the Amaris crisis, Gatatea became a battleground, often pitting the Usurper�s forces against those of the Star League. Once more, the naturalists became the victims, caught in the crossfire of all-out warfare. By the time the fighting stopped, the Star League was in a shambles, and Gatatea right along with it. In the centuries that followed, the surviving populations did their best to survive. Many of the antitechnology settlements eventually relocated, reestablishing their roots in the southern reaches of the planet, while the more industrially developed northern hemisphere struggled to get by on mineral and metal exports and other limited off-world trade. Eventually, through a clever deal with ComStar, officials of the Gatatean government managed to establish the world as the center of the mercenary trade, a waystation for soldiers of fortune employed throughout the Inner Sphere. The traffic created a booming economy for Gatatea, almost surpassing the glories of the Star League era, though it also fostered a large degree of localized crime. After the Fourth Succession War, however, Gatatea�s fortunes again reversed, as the famous Wolf�s Dragoons established Outreach as the center of the honorable mercenary trade. With their higher standards of excellence and the sheer magnitude of their patronage, the Dragoons� Hiring Halls soon eclipsed those of Gatatea. Though agents of every major and minor power still sought hired muscle on Gatatea, the planet had become second-rate, a home for the down-and-out and the disgraced, with a soaring crime rate to match. In the years leading up to the FedCom Civil War, however, the local mercenary business once more began to boom as representatives from various factions once more sought the services of any hired guns they could find. Though initially good for Gatatea�s sagging economy, the tensions from so many factions in such close proximity soon exploded when the former Federated Commonwealth realms erupted in civil war. In short order, Gatatea degenerated into a planet-wide brawl between BattleMech gangs that ravaged the land and killed thousands of innocents caught in the crossfire. In the end, the planet was left almost as devastated as it had been after Kerensky�s Liberation, though the eventual pacification by the mercenary Group W helped restore some semblance of order over the world. During the Jihad, Gatatea once more became a battleground as Blakist forces and their mercenaries clashed with forces from the Lyran Alliance and Devlin Stone�s rebels in the worst �Mech warfare the local populace had ever seen. The virtual destruction of Galaport and Gatatea City, along with over eighty percent of the industrialized cities in the northern hemisphere, left the populace so shell-shocked, they eagerly accepted the restoration of peace and order under Devlin Stone�s Republic. Extensive efforts went into the rebuilding of the capital and major spaceport, a process that took nearly forty years to complete. | |||||||||||