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| Oliver Star Type: M5V Position in System: 1 (of 2) Number of Moons: 2 (Nasya, Shilo) Days to Jump Point: 2 Surface Water: 59% Atm. Pressure: Standard (Tainted) Surface Gravity: 1.07 Equatorial Temp: 39� C Highest Native Life: Mammals Population: 4,001,000,000 Governor: Frederic Chesterson Planetary Legate: Prudence Arlington |
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| One of the most quickly developed of the early colonies in mankind�s first exodus into space, Oliver�s population grew rapidly as droves of colonists came to exploit its rich, easily tapped resources. Before long, this world became an industrial and military mainstay of the Terran Alliance and its successor, the Terran Hegemony. During the height of the original Star League, in fact, Oliver was home to several major defense contractors, including AeroFighter Unlimited, a major aerospace fighter manufacturer, and BattleMech producer, Brigadier Corporation. The fall of the Star League and the Succession Wars that followed, however, were not so kind to Oliver. Both AeroFighter Unlimited and Brigadier�s Warez plant were both destroyed by repeated raids and invasions from the militaries of Houses Steiner, Liao, and even Kurita. The cycle of destruction and reconstruction stagnated the planetary economy. Its pressing need for heightened defense�a result of being a favored target throughout the Wars�led to the inevitable decline of the government into a military dictatorship, and its membership in the Ring Coalition, a loose alliance of other nearby Free Worlds League planets on the Steiner-Liao border. During the Jihad, fighting along the Lyran border led to the devastation of several cities, including the planetary capital of Fort Jagger, and the loss of Quickcell Corporation, a major producer of internal combustion engines for many League armored vehicles. Fortunately, the ceding of Oliver to The Republic, the influx of new citizens from elsewhere in The Republic, and the �peace dividend� raised from Devlin Stone�s military-material redemption program, helped the world to finally recover from the scars of perpetual war. Brigadier Corporation, significantly downsized and retooled, is now a producer of, primarily, industrial �Mechs for export to other worlds, while the rebuilt Quickcell Corporation plant offers ICEs for conventional vehicles, civilian transports, and industrial �Mechs of various types. Most striking, however, is the replacement of the planet�s military dictatorship with a representative democracy similar in many respects to that of The Republic at large, offering the citizens and residents of this industrial world a greater degree of personal liberty than their forebears knew. Oliver�s capital city, Stone City (named in honor of Devlin Stone upon the planet�s entry into The Republic), is located on the southern continent of Clausia, along with the planet�s primary spaceport. Brigadier Corporation�s main factory, in the city of Gordon, is located on the northeast continent of Gaineshi. Oliver�s third large landmass, Marania, is a less densely populated region, in part because much of it is a frozen tundra, where widespread use of weapons of mass destruction and rampant strip mining from the early days of planetary development have rendered much of the land scarred and unusable. Only a hearty few settlers remain in the scattered cities and towns on Marania today. | |||||