The Mayr System - A Primer
Planets of the Mayr System
The Mayr System is composed of nine planets and a sizable asteroid belt. While the orbits and distances between planets vary, travel between any planet and its neighbor only takes one week along a now centuries-old system of pin drive beacons.
Albatross is a small, red tidally locked planet. The dayside is a scorched badland and the nightside a frigid waste. It is sparsely settled with shielded outposts in the goldilocks range of the twilight band. Tensions flare between representatives of Zenith Heavy Industry and the pool of uncontracted miners that mount expeditions in either direction.
Bittern is a glassy planet with an atmosphere too thin and too hot for human habitation. Scholars from the Mayr Collegium have identified a fossilized world of trees and oceans beneath the translucent, vitreous surface and established augur sites to investigate.
- Bittern II is a small, airless moon scattered with mineral deposits too small to be worth the effort of establishing a permanent mining installation. Rumored port of call for outlaws and smugglers in the starward half of the system.
Cormorant is a temperate ocean planet, second most populous in the system. It is known for its pontoon arcologies and immense kelp and fish farms that provide the majority of the food in the system. Touristy artificial beachfronts abut deprecated districts that have been sunk as artificial reefs.
- Cormorant II, the planet's largest moon, hosts a low-gravity shipyard and a significant Solar Transit Authority base. Home to the Dockworker Republic, a self governing labor collective battling for representation in the Mayr Parliament.
- Cormorant III is covered in sweeping green grasslands and circular tarns, but has a corrosive atmosphere that has prevented a full survey.
Dunlin is a storm-wracked terrestrial planet that has been undergoing terraforming for generations, unsuccessfully. Its atmosphere is heavily stratified, producing turbulent pockets that float over and under one another like tectonic plates. As a result, the surface is only accessible via a now-irreplaceable space elevator. Settlers experience dustbowl-like conditions punctuated by superstorms.
- The Idunn, a cryo-ship launched from Earth hundreds of years ago, has recently arrived and remains in orbit. The ship is off limits to non-Idunners and the subject of much speculation by the Solar Transit Authority.
Egret is a surprisingly Earth-like planet, except for its rust red flora and fauna. It was the first settled by the Mayr Expeditionary Fleet and now boasts a sizable population dwelling in pyramidal cities scattered across the surface. It is home to the Mayr Parliament, the system's de jure governing body, as well as numerous aristocratic houses.
- The Gatecrash Ring is all that remains of the jump gate back to Earth after a disastrous explosion 40 years ago. The swirling mass of destroyed ships and fragments of irreplicable tech are picked over by salvagers, but heavily regulated by the Solar Transit Authority.
Finch is a green gas giant, ribbed with fuel refineries and zero-g manufactories. Banking clans based out of orbital colonies, particularly Zenith Heavy Industry and Finch Interplanetary Trust, finance most of the trade in the system.
The Mayr Belt is a dense ring of asteroids that orbits the system between Finch and Gannet. While officially only visited by mining and exploratory fleets, the Belt is known to be home to deep space bases maintained by pirate fleets and political dissidents. Rumors circulate about a second pin beacon network allowing access to distant points around its circumference.
Gannet is an icy planet primarily covered in cryogenic deserts and roiling glacial plateaus. Terraformation here is only in its infancy, so settlements cling to the bases of atmosphere and climate engineering stations and geothermal hot springs that pepper the landscape.
- Gannet II, III, and IV are tiny moonlets that travel together in a tight cluster. They were the site of a major space battle between the Solar Transit Authority and the dissident Starling Pact 20 years ago, the only such engagement in the system's history.
Hawk is a small planet whose surface is covered with liquid nitrogen seas. Generally too inhospitable for human habitation, a few research outposts and vaults have been established to study and preserve materials that need to be kept under conditions of extreme cold.
Ibis is the furthest planet from the Mayr System's star and an oddity. Airless and metallic, the planet is covered in colossal petroglyphs visible from orbit. A small research satellite has been established as a base for archaeological and scientific expeditions to study the planet.
System History
All dates in Mayr Standard, counted from first arrival.
0 MS — A colossal jump gate launched from Earth arrives in orbit above Egret. The Mayr Expeditionary Fleet emerges soon after, settling Egret and launching pin beacon laying expeditions to the other planets in the system.
0 MS - 20 MS — The Expeditionary Fleet expands to the central worlds of the system (Cormorant, Dunlin, and Finch) and anchorhead settlements are established. The fleet is decommissioned and its component parts repurposed into arcology structures and terraforming engines. The Mayr Parliament is founded by representatives of Cormorant, Dunlin, and Egret.
21 MS - 168 MS — The "Frontier Era" of the Mayr System. Cities on the central worlds flourish. Life on Egret and Cormorant is comparable to the life of those back in the Imperial Core. Albatross mining outposts (established 48 MS) and a shipyard on Cormorant II (52 MS) are built to support burgeoning local industry. The Mayr System specializes in the production and development of specialty ship components for export back to Earth, producing a vibrant profusion of outlandish designs.
168 MS — The jump gate back to the Imperial Core explodes - a disaster known as the Gatecrash. The Mayr System is cut off from the rest of the Empire. The Solar Transit Authority (STA) assumes emergency power and rapidly consolidates de facto control over the system.
181 MS — The Starling Pact, a popular uprising against STA authority led by Egret aristocrats, seizes fuel production on Finch. They fight a series of skirmishes, ending in the Battle of Gannet with the revolutionary group's dissolution.
198 MS — The Idunn, a pre-jumpgate cryoship, arrives bearing would-be colonists. As the first outsiders in 30 years, they are given a cool welcome, particularly by the STA. Most settle on Dunlin.
201 MS — The present day.