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The Vertico System
SYSTEM NAME: Vertico System
STAR NAMES: Vertico (Yellow main-sequence star)
AGE: 4.5 billion years
GOVERNMENT: Rebel Squadrons/New Republic
The Vertico system is located on the other side of the Binaural sector, away from the Cadrel expanse and the rest of the Binaural systems. As a result, it is only within the past five years or so that follow-up visits have been performed to the initial survey probes. What they found was system rich in tragic history, and rich in unexploited resources ripe for the taking. It is the potential of these resources that makes the Vertico system a target worth defending... and worth capturing.
PRIMARY MILITARY SYSTEM FACILITIES
Imperial Starbase Ortha Hed (Vertico VI (Greppo))
Orbital Gas Mining facilities (Vertico V (H'Sai) and Greppo)
Planet side Starports (Veritco III (T'sali), H'Sai IV, and Greppo XV)
Orbital Resource Processing Plants (Veritco I (Sh'vel) and Vertico II (Us'li))
Automated Mining Stations (Sh'vel and Us'li)
PRIMARY CIVILIAN SYSTEM FACILITIES
Valc University Research Center (T'sali)
Atalante City (T'sali)
The following sections provide the physical and social characteristics for each of the significant planetary bodies in the Vertico System:
Vertico 3 (T'sali)
Vertico III is the only inhabitable planet in the Vertico system. When the follow-up explorers arrived in system five years ago, they found a world lush and green, yet with few solid continents, several large craters scarring the terrain, a mysterious debris ring, and the remains of a fusion-era civilization. Translation of the records found took 1.5 standard years, and was completed by Dr. Savin Gendo and her assistant, Doctorial Candidate Solon Hegerty . In Dr. Gendo's words:
"... It was my assistant, Solon Hegerty, who came upon the final clue in deciphering the history of Vertico 3. We, quite frankly, had hit a snag in translation of the written records. This was before we had found the audio and video recordings of the spoken language. Our analysis of the language had revealed that they were phonetic markings, like the aurebesh, with each marking representing a certain sound. This was initially helpful in ruling out translation techniques common to hieroglyphs and to non-pictorial conceptual marks. Of course, this was when we hit the snag."
"Solon then had a brainstorm in which she pulled together two other anthropology students, three xenobiologists, a xenoanatomist, four well-preserved alien skeletons, and about three standard days of time. Solon's idea was to use the information that could be gained from study of the preserved skull of a native Vertican (as we called them at the time) to piece together a phonetic library of sounds that the aliens would have been able to emit. They took detailed measurements of the Vertican's nasal cavities, sinuses, mouth cavities, lung cavities, and vocal cords. A xenopsychologist was also called in for an analysis of the cultural effects of the Vertican anatomy (mostly of the four eyed head, providing a 360° view), and to analysis any cultural clues from the architecture of the few cities and dwellings that we could find. Most had been the destroyed in the cataclysms that had scarred the planet's surface.
This information, especially the phonetic library assembled by Solon Hegerty and her team, coupled with the discovery of recorded audio and video of the Verticans enabled us to finally translate the records and history we found. All species and planetary names are taken from these records."
"Approximately three thousand years ago, the T'salia (as they called their world T'sali) were an emerging space-faring race. Their science had developed an extremely efficient and powerful fusion drive system, capable of reaching .3C, or three-tenths of the speed of light. T'sali, at that time, had two moons, D'unsi and Ch'lisi. Both had been thoroughly explored in the heyday of the T'salia space programs, and colonization, for the mining of resources, had begun on both. Two great colony and exploration ships, using the newly developed fusion drive had been built, manned, and launched, with the purpose of reaching the moons of the two gas giants, H'Sai and Greppo. Due to the length of the trip, even at .3C, the crews of the two vessels were placed in cryogenic suspension."
"Then tragedy struck. Within days of the launches, a great comet tore through area of T'sali. The moon Ch'lisi was destroyed, and D'unsi was knocked out of orbit, the impact of that deflecting the comet into a rapidly decaying orbit around T'sali. The comet, named G'hovi (Destroyer) by the T'salia, fell into the surface of T'sali. The impact of G'hovi and the debris from Ch'lisi, coupled with the loss of both moons, produced immense meteorological, hydrological, and geological upheavals, laying waste to the surface and ecology of T'sali. What we see on the world now, even the very face of the world, is far different from that of the time of the T'salia. We believe that the growth we see today is no more than five hundred years old, that T'sali lay fallow and cold for more than two millennia. A few T'salian enclaves remained, barely surviving for a few years. Ultimately lack of food and change in environment doomed the race. What follows is what we believe to be part of the last written record of the T'salia race":
We are dying now. It is inevitable. It has been five years since the arrival of G'hovi, since the destruction of Ch'lisi and the banishment of D'unsi. Our food is almost gone; the administrators have stated that it will only last two more days at most, and then there will be nothing. There has been talk of cannibalism, that the bodies of those who die should be used to feed the living. Most wonder what would be the point. The ash clouds, the great darkness and cold still cover the planet; still cast their shadow over all that we once held dear. There would be no point to cannibalism of the dead for we are all dead, now, bereft of hope, bereft of future. Once we were powerful in our own eyes, the heavens and our system were in our grasp. We had seen evidence of other civilizations, other systems. We had hoped to confirm their existence, and then take our place amongst them as equals, and the great ones of the galaxy. Yet now we are struck down in our pride. Our race is dead. We believe that we are last of our people. Yet it does not matter, for any other enclave would soon be in the same hopeless predicament that we are now in. I will write no more, for soon I too will be dead. Yet should someone from those unknown civilizations come here, and find us, remember the T'salia! Once we were, soon we will not be. Such is the ultimate fading of all works, of all people. Such are the whims of fate, or whatever gods or forces that may exist. Remember that your civilization is but a passing breath in eternity. Such shall be my last words, and the last worlds of my people.
- Archivist H'lesu Grephi, 7thDistrict refuge historian
Originally Compiled by - Matthew Lorono/ Super
Edited by Defcon
2nd Edition Edited and Rewritten by Jared Fallick/ Rahj Tharen
with David Parnell/ Dave Trebonious-Astoris - September 24, 2000
3rd Edition Edited and Rewritten by Jared Fallick/ Rahj Tharen
- May 23, 2001
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