• History
    Some time ago, an explorations ship, the Crimogi, turned up in earth orbit on auto. It would not respond to hails, except to say it was not able to provide any information. When REF marines boarded the ship, the found the crew dead. Investigators were able to access some of the ship records and found out about the S'Vellan system. According to reports, the Crimogi, a Tirolian exploration ship, arrived to find a system that seemed full of enigmas. There were planets that didn't seem to be in the right place and there were abandoned space stations and a dead civilization. The Tirolian explorers found a lot of useful information while there, but eventually, a deadly nerve toxin got onboard and killed all the crew. Following emergency procedures, the ship automatically set course for the next planned destination and activated an emergency beacon. Unfortunately, a collision with some debris on the way out of the system disabled the ship's beacon and FTL drive. It wasn't until cnturies later that the computer got the FTL Drive repaired and was able to get to the Sol system.
  • The Star: S'Vellan
    A yellow sun, type 3, very stable.
  • S'vellan I
    The first planet is even closer to the sun than Sol's Mercury, so it is basically a hot rock. The planet is extremely volcanic, but its proximity to the sun burns off any atmosphere it could have. The planet itself is nearly the size of Mercury with no moons. It has a weak magnetic field and there is no life at all on the surface.
  • S'vellan II
    The second planet is much different. This planet much resembles Mars of the Sol system. There appears to have been water on the surface at one time, and even a viable atmosphere. Now, the atmosphere is mostly nitrogen. There are the remains of what was once a rather primitive colony on the surface, but the Crimogi never sent a team to investigate. There is a lot of copper in the soil of this planet, resulting in a green tinge.
  • S'vellan III
    An enigma surrounds this planet. It is a small gas giant, but seems to be in the wrong orbit. According to all the Brockman-Planer models of planetary formation, this planet should be in the fourth orbit. It is in the right orbit, distance-wise, however. The atmosphere is made up of many gasses, the most plentiful being hydrogen, nitrogen, helium and argon, with pretty much all the other elements scattered in smaller amounts. The planetary core is a dense mass of elements, mostly mineral on the surface but with a dense liquid metal core. Believe it or not, life was discovered on this planet. There are creatures resembling slightly flattened hot air balloons with tentacles seemingly adrift in the atmosphere. There was a reference in the ancient documentation that led the Crimogi to investigate this system to a "...extremely dangerous entity, somewhere in the system with great psionic powers...", however, investigations by the Crimogi didn't turn up any evidence that these creatures are such an entity. It seems far more likely this old record had something to do with the Srak'i.
  • S'vellan IV
    S'Vellan IV is the biggest enigma in the system. There are the remains of a thriving civilization-ruins of vast technological cities, communications and transportation networks, etc. There is no breathable atmosphere to speak of; the planet is pretty much frozen. At one time there was a thriving, oxygen breathing people here...what happened? According to the Brockman-Planar models, this planet should be orbiting much, much closer to the sun. Research led to the name of the late inhabitants- the Srak'i. The construction on the planet led investigators to believe it was these people who built the asteroid belt outposts. Very little is known of these people. The same ancient documentation that mentioned the warning of danger does mention their existence, but the rest of the document was never found. In Cptn. K'val's notes, he mentions noticing signs of some disturbance on the surface of the planet that indicated liquid fuel takoffs, a lot of them. This may mean some of the Srak'i got away, but where'd they go?
      • The S'Vellan Outposts (Due in late July)
    • Outpost 1: Sedri
      Sedri was not the first outpost built by the Srak'i, but it was the first built upon an asteroid. There were others, before this, that were more like those we know, cylindrical metal habitats. These were not reliable for the long run and were easily damaged in the asteroid field, according to Srak’I documents. Outpost Sedri was not built completely underground, but it was built sub-surface. Approximately the top 1/5th of most constructed areas stand above the surface with the rest underground. Sedri was a mining base, as were other outposts. There is a complex network of tunnels and vast empty rooms underground resulting from the mining, but it was used for little more than storage. There is little sign of Sedri's inhabitants. Very few of the outpost's systems were functional when the Crimogi expedition came upon the system. In the outpost, there are five major areas: Hangers, Living Area, Command, Health and Systems. Each is divided into two buildings, with different numbers of rooms in each, but factoring to five. Being without inhabitants for so long, the base is in a bad state of disrepair. It is mostly empty of equipment, as if its inhabitants got up and left quickly, taking everything they could, but leaving things in a state of disrepair, which, according to the archeologists, wasn't like them. They left and never came back.
    • Outpost 2: M'Kai
      This was the next outpost to be built. It too, was a mining colony. Slightly larger in internal space, outpost M'Kai was built of much the same size sub-planetoid. It was built similarly to Sedri, with the biggest difference being space and more use of the underground areas. The Command and Health areas are about the same dimensions of those of Sedri, however, the Hanger, Systems and Living areas were almost doubled. Most work took place in the surface buldings, however, there were rooms underground used for maintenance and hanger work. Curiously, there are other rooms with great scorch marks on the walls, that appear to date several hundred years later than the rest of the construction. It is surmised that these could have been used for weapons research. Much equipment was left behind when this station was evacuated. We have a good idea of their technology level from this. There were also some remains, but when the place was evacuated, the airlocks were left open, so most remains were blown into space.
    • Outpost 3: Loka
      Much of this outpost is designed the same way the first two were, but this station served a different purpose. It had the same areas, the Hanger, Living Quarters, Command, Health and Systems areas, but this station didn't do nearly as much mining as the others. As a result, there aren't many tunnels underground here. In fact, the only tunnels and underground spaces seem to have been made for the base itself. Here, they used ships to reach other asteroids, where they did their mining. No one has yet figured out why, when Loka itself was abundantly rich in metals and minerals.
    • Outpost 4: Dakra
      Much newer than the first three, Dakra seems to represent a shift in focus for the Srak'i. There are several major differences. The biggest difference is the change in outpost configuration. There seems to have been two phases of construction, one phase at least a hundred years older than the first. The first phase is identical to the third outpost. The second phase, however, is much different. It appears that after the first phase was finished, there was a change in their society. Technology seemed to have advanced dramatically in a hundred years. Vast underground caverns were mined out and a VERY large airlock was installed to reach the caverns. Inside the caverns, two more areas were added, a research area and a life sciences area. The main underground caverns seemed to have been used for construction, possibly shipbuilding. The life sciences area was actually operating at minimal power when the outpost was discovered! Inside, the exploration team found many plants or plant remains. One explorer stumbled into a secret room, where he was shocked to find something resembling the flower of life! Unfortunately, there was a toxin in the atmosphere of that room that caused the eventual death of that crewmember. The crew leader, after noticing signs of sickness in others, evacuated the base and quarantined it. The toxin did, however, make it to the Crimogi, causing the death of all hands. This is why the system was only recently disovered, when the Crimogi arrived in the Sol system on auto. No other information is known of this outpost.
    • Outpost 5: Unknown
      Captain K'Val left his logs so they'd be found when the Crimogi was discovered. He believed there was a fifth outpost in the system, because the number five seemed to play an important role in Srak’ i society. He left what he thought to be several possible locations, based on the position of the other four outposts.
      Related Information (Due in August)
    • The Oort Cloud
      Many systems have these formations, but this one has the largest partcles ever found in such a cloud. According to the science notes, some of the larger particles should belong to the inner asteroid belt, not at the edge of the system.
    • The Crimogi Expedition
      This expedition was a remnant from the great explorers of before Zor's time. They were investigating the disappearance of another exploration ship, the "T'dal Moon." Following the previous ships itinerary, they found the S'Vellan system. Trying to figure out the enigmas, they stumbled upon a different breed of the Flower of life, which was poisonous to them. It isn't known whether the crew knew anything of this flower, because the flower of life was kept secret some time after it was discovered. The S'Vellan system was reached not long after Zor made his own discovery. After this contact, contamination measures were not adequate and the crew died within a year. Captain K'Val left his logs to be found, as he was the last alive, so someone would know of what happened and inform Tirol, because the long range communications were damaged by an asteroid. Thanks to this bit of luck, no one knew anything about this system until the ships slow FTL drive brought it to the Sol system, the next on the T'Dal's itinerary.







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