Eridonia Archives
(Tempest) Montes Lumen
Once a distant symbol of human exploration into the unknown, Montes Lumen now stands as a stark reminder of the dangerous of traversing the stars. The remote system sits on the edge of the Great Tempest Barrier Nebula, and was the location of the most catastrophic defeat suffered by the Old Federal Navy during the Radacri Wars. Today, the system is a quiet, if somewhat tense place, maintained by the Authoritative yet orderly Imperial Government of the ATIS Outer Sector Civil Development Program.
Montes Lumen is a remote system on the edge of the Tempest Ridge, one of the furthest Star Systems from central Aquarius, before crossing into the dangerous and largely unmapped expanses of the Tempest Far cluster beyond the Great Tempest Barrier Nebula. The system was first mapped in 2391 A.D by Old Federation Deep Space probes launched towards the Tempest nebulas in search of colonisable worlds during the First Era of Expansion. It would mark the furthest known Star from Eridonia for hundreds of cycles later, as the Supreme Senate passed the Expansion Act of 2417; limiting the colonisation effort for new systems.
As such, Montes Lumen was always considered to be the 'frontier' by explorers from Aquarius, often attracting tourists eager to see the fringes of known space and the great, mysterious Tempest Nebula beyond. The system saw limited development throughout the late 3rd millennium, it wasn't until the beginning of the Second Era of Expansion at the turn of the 4th millennium AD, that the Old Federation's sights were once again set on the Tempest Ridge's frontier sectors.
Despite rapid infrastructure development funded by the privatisation of the Outer Sectors - an initiative established by the UTN Senate in the year 3000 AD (762 FDS), Montes Lumen remained relatively sparse. A single privately owned mineral extraction facility on the small ice world known on the Astronomical register as "T Montes Lumen P-1B", was the only noteworthy human development of the system. Its location on the edge of known space gave it something of a stigma; suppressing major colonisation efforts despite a reasonable abundance of resources between its trio of small, frozen planets.
The System hosts an astronomical object known as a Brown Dwarf; a 'failed star', BD-1A as listed on the Astronomical Register is by far the largest natural satellite of the Montes Lumen Star - a Gas Giant of immense mass and size, so large that if it was only a few percent greater in mass, nuclear fusion would have triggered at its core - turning Montes Lumen into a binary system billions of years ago.
Montes Lumen gained notoriety during the Radacri Wars as the location of the single largest military defeat in Aquarian human history, and the largest single loss of life and materiel along with it. The Battle of Montes Lumen took place during the later stages of the Radacri Wars; between the orbits of the Brown Dwarf BD-1A and the distant ice world of P-1C. A huge Radacri hive fleet was detected approaching the Tempest Ridge on an intercept trajectory with the UTN's ORP 'Honeywell'-class installation in orbit over BD-1A; guarding a natural passage through the ice fields created by the gravitational wake of BD-1A.
The Federal Navy intended to cut off the alien advance here, using the astronomical conditions created by the enormous brown dwarf to their advantage, however, flawed intelligence regarding the numerical superiority of the approaching alien fleet resulted in a catastrophic strategic defeat of the Federal Navy's 2nd Expeditionary Fleet - almost wiping out the fleet in its entirety. The site of the final stand of Admiral Urich's Fleet is marked in modern times by an orbital installation known as "Urich's Revenge", and today hosts an important ATIS Naval Research facility, studying the effects of polarytic radiation on various elements, including research into Radacri bioships and potential means to counter them. As such, Urich's Revenge remains off-limits to civilian shipping.
As of 4410 A.D, Montes Lumen has been the site of development by the ATIS Council's Outer Sector Civil Development program, and major surface installations were erected on all three of the system's planets. Once again due to its important location between Aquarius and the Tempest Barrier Nebula, the system is the focus of the Aquarian Imperial Navy's defence strategy for the entire sector, and as such, hosts a sizable military garrison at all times.
|| PLANET: P-1A
ATMOSPHERIC TYPE: Negligible
TERRAIN TYPE: Frozen, Rocky
CLASS: Small Ice Rocky Planet
SURFACE GRAVITY: 0.4 Earths
DEVELOPMENT: Moderate Surface infrastructure
HUMAN POPULATION: < 1200 Surface infrastructure
NON HUMAN POPULATION: N/A
GOVERNMENT: Authoritative
ALLEGIANCE: ATIS
STATUS: Uncontested, Peace
ESTABLISHED: 4403 A.D
|| DESCRIPTION:
P-1A is a small, frozen rock planet with the closest orbit to the main sequence star, Montes Lumen. Despite its location, the surface is extremely cold with no significant atmosphere to retain heat. Like many small planets this close to their parent world, P-1A is tidally locked to the star it orbits, and as such one side of the planet is permanently in day, and the other in total darkness. P-1A's sun-facing side is more temperate, but still extremely cold due to layers of permafrost migrating from the dark side- pushed by geothermal activity in an never ending cycle of freezing and thawing. This activity has attracted some interest by terran scientists and geologists which tentatively work to study the frozen landscape under the watchful eye of the authoritarian local Imperial Government.
|| PLANET: P-1B
ATMOSPHERIC TYPE: Negligible
TERRAIN TYPE: Frozen, Rocky
CLASS: Small Ice Rocky Planet
SURFACE GRAVITY: 0.2 Earths
DEVELOPMENT: Moderate Surface infrastructure
HUMAN POPULATION: < 1500 Surface infrastructure
NON HUMAN POPULATION: N/A
GOVERNMENT: Authoritative
ALLEGIANCE: ATIS
STATUS: Uncontested, Peace
ESTABLISHED: 3001 A.D
|| DESCRIPTION:
The smallest of the three ice worlds of Montes Lumen, P-1B was also the first human colony established in the system, with a private mining expedition making a permanent base with UTN Federal Senate Funding in 3001 A.D. The operation wasn't as lucrative as expected and no further development was planned. During the Fall of the UTN in 4040 AD, the facility established on P-1B was essentially completely destroyed by the Aftershock; with no strong magnetic field to protect it, the small ice world was hit with the full brunt of the Polarytic Radiation shockwave. The facility that once stood on its surface was reduced to a derelict, and a graveyard and it wasn't until the Imperial Era on 4401 A.D that this world would see living human beings again.
Under ATIS's Outer Sector Civil Development program, P-1B was targeted for surface infrastructure development, and in 4404 A.D, an installation was dropped to the surface to begin the development proper. As with the other planets in the system, the government is authoritative and lacks any form of democracy; instead the officials are selected by, and report directly to, the ATIS Council on Lorentis.
|| PLANET: P-1C
ATMOSPHERIC TYPE: Negligible
TERRAIN TYPE: Frozen, Rocky
CLASS: Small Ice Rocky Planet
SURFACE GRAVITY: 0.4 Earths
DEVELOPMENT: Moderate Surface infrastructure
HUMAN POPULATION: < 1000 Surface infrastructure
NON HUMAN POPULATION: N/A
GOVERNMENT: Authoritative
ALLEGIANCE: ATIS
STATUS: Uncontested, Peace
ESTABLISHED: 4403 A.D
|| DESCRIPTION:
The most distant of the three ice worlds, P-1C's orbit is elliptic and takes the planet out to the very edges of the system, skirting along the fringes of the Tempest Ice Crystal Fields. On this orbit, it passes very close to the Brown Dwarf, BD-1A, and tidal forces cause spectacular luminescent phenomena as the planet passes through the immense magnetic field of the failed star. Unlike the other two planets, P-1C has a relatively strong magnetic field of its own for a planet of this size, and as such interacts with BD-1A's magnetosphere every solar year for the world. The orbit is so close, that during the alignment of their orbits, every solar year in Montes Lumen, the immense Brown Dwarf takes up almost 80% of the sky from the surface of this otherwise cold world. During this time, the surface warms to extremely high temperatures and the nitrogen ice fields melt, turning vast swathes of glaciers into gas; resulting in high pressure jets spraying up towards and covering one side of the planet in a blanket of nitrogen and argon clouds.
A single facility operated by the ATIS Outer Sector Civil Development program resides on its surface, performing resource surveys and hosting a variety of geological and astronomical research facilities for students from central Aquarius. As with most of the development in this system, the facility has a strong emphasis on militarisation and contributes towards the Imperial Navy's strategic defence initiative for the Tempest Region.
Perhaps the most infamous historical point of note about this world, was its use as a staging point by the invading Radacri hive fleets during the Radacri Wars of 4013-4040 AD. It was during the cycle of 4031, on a fateful cycle, that P-1C was passing close to BD-1A - providing a convenient hypercruise path for the alien fleet as they approached the Old Federation's defensive position in orbit over the Brown Dwarf. Such astronomical conditions are widely regarded to have contributed to the catastrophic defeat of the Old Federal Navy's 2nd Expeditionary Fleet in the Battle of Montes Lumen.
|| STELLAR OBJECT: BD-1A
|| TYPE: Brown Dwarf
|| MASS: 0.08 SM
|| DEVELOPMENT: Far Orbital
|| DESCRIPTION:
A Brown Dwarf of approximately 0.08 Solar Masses, BD-1A is a failed star that almost triggered nuclear fusion and would have otherwise become the companion star of the Montes Lumen hypothetical binary system. BD-1A radiates extreme amounts of energy into space, high-energy ionising radiation that disrupts electromagnetic communication and can damage star ship equipment if exposed for long periods of time. As such, it was considered of strategic importance by the Old Federation's Navy in the defence of the Tempest Ridge against the encroaching alien hive fleets during the Radacri Wars. The immense gravity well would also disrupt any known form of FTL transition, creating a natural subspace denial zone around the Navy's only installation in the sector; an ORP-7 Honeywell-class Deep Space Platform that was the scene of the final moments of the Federal Navy's desperate attempt to hold the system during the Battle of Montes Lumen in 4031 AD.
BD-1A passes close to the most distant natural satellite in the system, P-1C, and their interaction creates a brief passage through the Tempest Ice Crystal Field that orbits the Montes Lumen star. It was this stellar phenomena that facilitated the movement of the enormous Radacri Hive fleet that would essentially destroy the entirety of the Old Federation's 2nd Expeditionary Fleet, marking the beginning of the End of the UTN.
