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| Summer Star Type: M4V Position in System: 1 (of 5) Number of Moons: 1 (Niflheim) Days to Jump Point: 3 Surface Water: 77% Atm. Pressure: Standard (Tainted) Surface Gravity: 1.03 Equatorial Temp: 44� C Highest Native Life: Plant Population: 894,000,000 Governor: Minerva Hayne Planetary Legate: Carlos Adler |
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| Though its sun is a cool M-class star, Summer�s close orbital path and an ever-decreasing ozone layer have made this world much warmer than one might expect. The surface of this world is rocky, with numerous mountain chains making overland travel difficult between the major cities that have sprung up over all four major continents. These cities, almost invariably located near oil fields and the veins of radioactive ores that crisscross the planet�s lowlands, have formed the core of Summer�s economy ever since the planet was established, during the first Terran exodus. Unfortunately, infertile soil, capable only of supporting a native purple scrub grass�limited the planet�s agricultural endeavors and forced the early settlers to form trading partnerships with nearby worlds to feed their industrial expansion. Summer�s export industry of oil, and radioactive materials, both crude and refined for fuels, easily helped address this need and made it one of the more valuable worlds of the Federation of Skye, even before that nation helped form the Lyran Commonwealth. During the height of the original Star League, the discovery of germanium deposits in the Balise Mountains, on the southern continent of Wessler, made this world a manufacturing center for JumpShip components as well, further boosting an already soaring economy and rating the planet not only a heavy garrison of Star League troops, but a few Castles Brian as well. Unfortunately, most of these facilities were destroyed during the Amaris coup, but enough survived to make Summer a valuable prize as part of the Lyran Commonwealth. Despite centuries of Succession Wars, when it became a favored staging ground for Steiner attacks on House Kurita, Summer miraculously maintained much of its industry. However, the output of its aging refineries, damaged by Kuritan raids on more than one occasion, began to gradually weaken the planet�s already thin ozone layer. The additional ecological impact of heavy DropShip traffic, made necessary by the planet�s rough geography and the presence of ten active spaceports, has only furthered this decline and is largely blamed for the increasing temperatures that make Summer a world more than worthy of its name. The worst, however, came during the Word of Blake Jihad, when fanatic Blakists hit the capital city of Curitiba and its surrounding countryside on the northern continent of Lestrade with a powerful thermonuclear device. The weapon annihilated the city of three million and destroyed most of the planetary garrison in what proved to be a mere �diversionary raid.� The Blakist attacks left much of the planet�s heavy industry on the Lestrade continent in ruins, and set off a brief off-world exodus, which was only reversed after Summer became part of The Republic of the Sphere. Today, though little remains of the cities on Lestrade, the new planetary capital of Mount Breighton, on the northern polar continent of Aberdale, forms the heart of recovering planetary industries, including those of Summer InterStellar Components, which resumed production of JumpShip parts less than ten years ago. | |||||