[this is obviously not a story, its just something I wanted to do. I plan to past an actual story soon]
Mar Aih and its Children: An Introduction to Your Neighbourhood
Mar Aih is a yellow-orange main sequence star, around six billion years young. Probably, it is completely unremarkable, except for the fact that it is
our star. To us, its rays are not simply the by-product of atomic fusion; they are the manifestations of cosmic will.
Bharrm is the first and most massive planet in our system, yet it was one of the last to be probed in detail. For a long time, it was thought to be an aspect of Mar Aih itself, as it is only visible to naked Satellian eyes as an occasional globular prominence beside the setting or rising sun. We now know it to be a massive gas giant, further bloated in size by the intense heat of its close orbit, expanding the layers of gas against gravity; even the night side glows bright red, with streaks of superheated gas and clouds of vaporised metal. Bharrm must have been considerably larger to begin with, perhaps just short of becoming a red-dwarf star itself; it continually loses mass as solar flares scour its outer atmosphere. Our infra-red and x-ray probes have imaged a complex and beautiful pattern of charged particles linking the magnetospheres of Bharrm and Mar Aih.
Kullu is Bharrm's only remaining satellite, a tiny asymmetrical object. Any other moons were stripped away billions of years ago. Our probes have found exotic metals here, which are of some interest to the metallurgists amongst us, though only the most daring of Satellians have attempted to land here in person - it is just a little
too hot and radioactive.
Ahrmm is our big brother; a relatively small gas-giant, which our homeworld is in orbit around. It is understood that the gas giants of our system migrated inwards during the early era of planet formation; Ahrmm was lucky enough to pick up a large trail of rocky minerals, water, and organic compounds, which eventually formed into life-giving moons, as it parked itself in the habitable zone of our sun. Ahrmm bombards its children with dangerous radiation, and its gravity is a mixed blessing with regards to attracting comets and asteroids, yet it provides the tidal forces that keep the core of our homeworld hot and alive. Fluffy, bright-orange bands of gas wrap around its equator, in contrast to the darker polar clouds; the composition and nature of the cloud layers is still something of a mystery, despite thousands of years of study by Satellian probes.
Naiar is a small moon with a blueish-red appearance; it was once thought to have surface water, until probes confirmed it to be a barren dusty world, without much of an atmosphere. The strange colours actually come from volatile chemicals, which are continually blasted out of volcanoes; otherwise the surface would be dirty brown with hydrocarbons. Naiar experiences the greatest tidal heating, due to its closer orbit. There have been occasional scientific bases on Naiar, some of which have met with disaster due to the unstable surface. The existence of nano-bacteria here is still under question. We Satellians need to wear full protective suits to survive on the surface of this world, to protect against the extra radiation more than anything else.
Saiumue is our closest sister, and arguably a more beautiful world than our own. A moderate atmosphere allows turquoise seas of liquid water to glitter on its surface. Saiumue suffers the same storm cycles as our homeworld, but most of the time the climate is pleasantly even. However, the surface is smothered in invisible noxious gases, and there is a lack of the vital organic compounds which are so abundant on our home world. By the time the first Satellian visitors arrived, roughly ten thousand years ago, native life amounted to little more than toxic slime moulds. Nonetheless, we Satellians only require a respiration filter to survive here; growing sufficient food is actually the biggest challenge, but one that is overcome with sealed hydroponic farms. Saiumue is now one of the four permanently-inhabited worlds in our system.
Hmmaiaa is our home, where more than 98% of Satellians still live. This discourse shall not attempt to describe the many wonders of homeworld; suffice to say, it is a vibrant world of heat, light, water, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, heavy metals, and a great abundance of useful organic compounds; a world which has nurtured complex life for over a billion years, despite the many violent and unsettling forces which act upon it. From space, our world ranges in colour from blue-red to blue-green, depending on the progress of the latest cycle.
Marraa is the largest, coldest and gentlest of the three life-sisters. With a slightly thinner atmosphere, its massive mountain ranges have accumulated glaciers that have spread across the rest of the globe, locking this world in an ice-age. Otherwise, this world may have been just as habitable as Hmmaiaa. Diverse microscopic life flourishes in the fertile sub-glacial sediments; some even speculate that Maraa was the origin of life in our system, if it didn't come from interstellar comets to begin with. There is strong evidence that Marraa once had a much warmer climate, and it may not remain frozen forever, especially if the Kinship of Transformation can gather enough support to begin tampering with the atmosphere. Even in its frozen state, many Satellians find this planet quite comfortable to live on. The mountaintops give spectacular night-time views of Ahrmm and its other moons. Radio-chemical processes in the upper atmosphere have increased the oxygen content to near-breathable levels, and local microbes can be processed into nutritious soup. Maraa now has underground cities to rival Hmmaiaa itself, with the biggest population outside the homeworld.
The Sleepers are the many small planetoids which orbit Ahrmm at greater and greater distances. Some contain useful minerals, and were important for early space exploration - several of these bodies were painstakingly moved into closer orbit of Ahrmm, or even into orbit of Hmmaiaa itself. Of the remainder, none are permanently inhabited at this time.
Khulumm and
Nulumm could be considered twin planets, marking the edge of the inner system; one medium-sized gas giant, circled by a smaller one. Technically, they both orbit around a common centre-of-gravity, which is only just inside Khulumm's core, and Nulumm actually has more water than gas. What is most unusual is that Nulumm has almost one-third the mass of Khulumm, a ratio that seems too big for a naturally-formed moon. It is likely that the core of Nulumm was spawned from a titanic collision billions of years ago. The study of these worlds has led to a greater understanding of the inner giants, Ahrmm and Bharrm.
Sarue is a tiny uneven planetoid, made of almost pure iron and lithium. As it moves retrograde to the other moons of Khulumm-Nulumm, it seems to be a captured object originating from somewhere else in the system. A few centuries ago, Sarue was an important base for outer-system exploration. Most visitors these days are simply wishing to enjoy views of Khulumm-Nulumm, a change of scenery from the cloudscapes of Ahrmm.
Hesmue orbits much further out from Khulumm-Nulumm. It is quite similar to Marraa, being an icy world with native microbes. But in this case, the outer surface is much further below zero, and the ice is much thicker; the hardy primitive microbes live in semi-fluid layers deep underground, heated by the usual tidal effects. Self-sustaining Satellian habitats have been built in stable patches of rocky substrata near these hotspots. During the first eras of space exploration, the Kinships of Hesmue attracted some of the most adventurous and technically-minded of all Satellians. Today the population remains very small, but it has the largest percentage of body modification and gene-ering; artificial sense organs, extra limbs, modified torsos, and bio-machine interfaces are common among residents. Hesmue is currently our furthest permanently-inhabited outpost.
The Sentries are the many small planetoids which encircle the Khulumm-Nulumm system at the edge of its gravitational influence. Most are in eccentric orbits. Some have yet to be properly prospected for resources, and there are competing claims from various Kinships, which Hmmurue is attempting to resolve.
The Jewel Ring gets its name from the glittering icy planetoids which make up most of its mass. This band was probably formed in the aftermath of the inwards passage of the gas giants, with much more matter besides being sent further out. So far, there has been relatively little exploration here, though some suggest using these objects to deliberately impact and alter the climates of other worlds.
Kurunnue is a very small borderline-planet that patrols the outer edge of the Jewel Ring. It has over a third of the ring's total mass, and may have eventually formed the core of a larger planet, if not for interference from the inner giants. Strangely, beneath the outer surface of dirty ice, there are thick layers of heavy metals, including abundant gold and silver. But what interests Hmmurue most is the large amount of Platinum, which is often used in our spaceship hulls. Permanent mining bases may one day be built here, but for now Kurunnue is uninhabited.
Raidamue could be called a failed gas giant, a kind of intermediate object between the truly big and small. Most likely, it originated as a rocky object in the inner system, and was ejected outwards during the early upheavals, at which point there wasn't much gas left to gather up from the outer system. A core of rock and iron is surrounded by highly compressed water ice and ammonia, crushed by a dense atmosphere of helium. Despite its cold temperatures and its distance from our sun, it has extremely strong winds which continually twist the atmosphere along the equator. Probes have found a definite solid-surface boundary, but no Satellian has ever ventured here, as far as we know; surviving the varying pressures and re-emerging from the strong gravity and thick atmosphere would be a considerable challenge.
The Far Ring is a band of unremarkable icy/metallic planetoids, which formed up at a stable point between the orbits of Raidamue and Nummurue. Some automated facilities have been built here to assist any spaceships venturing this far out.
Nummurue marks the end of our planetary system, and is the final resting place of many of our old inter-planetary probes. Its surface of dirty ice is almost totally black; this fairly large rocky planet eluded Satellian astronomers until the very dawn of the space age. On closer inspection, this planet has a certain charm; the rims of the larger craters are dusted with frozen gases, making them sparkle in the faint sunlight. There is nothing else of value here to attract visitors, save for the novelty of standing on the most distant planet in our home system.
The End Cloud is a huge collection of eccentric asteroids, comets and planetoids, to which we have added several thousand year's worth of space junk. The orbits of these objects can take them over a light-year out from Mar Aih, and close enough to pass inside Bharrm's orbit. There is always a danger of unforeseen collisions. Hmmurue is trying to organise a combined effort from the various astrological Kinships to map and track the largest objects.
Just throw in some nice amounts of detail about what it's like around the hive, not just what's going on. Even though the individual Distopterans are controlled by a hive-mind, it might be nice to see what they're up to and how their lives are on a daily basis.
