Sig V
Sig V is a world all but abandoned. Once a verdant and booming mining world run by Digger Co.. It now stands as a husk, sucked dry by Digger Co. and left abandoned, nearly to the point of being completely forgotten.
The Planet hosts a meager population, with nearly all of them living in the last functioning city, Cuidad Uno.
History
An Experimental Outpost
First claimed by the Andromeda Syndicate during the initial Era of Expansion, Sig V's hostile environment provided a ripe opportunity for the Syndicate to experiment with several colonization options.
The first experiment was the construction of dome cities with a goal to be self-sufficent in even the most hostile geographies.
The second experiment went underground, terraforming projects hoping to reduce cost by operating in smaller underground caverns rather than on the surface.
After The Melancholic Lacuna only the dome cities remained, with the underground projects either lost or abandoned.
The Discovery of Wealth
When the WayHalls reopened, most other Banners saw the surviving settlements of Sig V as a risk not worth taking. The Federation won the planet by default as no one else placed a bid.
For five years the planet stayed in limbo, with little to offer and little to gain from the universal stage.
It was not until a Perdurian native divined a series of motherlode veins of platinum and gold that industry and wealth flowed into the planet.
Massive mine complexes sprung up, and the dome cities founded by the Syndicate were refurbished and repolished, but it would not last forever.
The Great Recession
The mines did not fail all at once, but instead slowly capitulated and dried up one by one. The mines dried up, and then it became too dangerous and too expensive to go deeper. When the mines fell, the cities built around them began to die down as well.
Wealth fled, leaving only the poor and destitute to fend for themselves. Any wealth remaining was quickly preyed upon by criminal elements born out of desperation.
By the end of the century, only Cuidad Uno maintained any semblance of civilization, but like all the others, it's mine dried up as well.
Geography
A Planet of Extremes
Sig V is a thin atmosphere world with two stars that raise the temperatures to the border of uninhabitable. During the night, most of the heat escapes, creating frostbite-inducing cold.
There are only three major landmasses, with eighty percent of the planets surface being submerged in an ocean that is too salty to be easily usable.
Not a Drop to Drink
Look outside Cuidad Uno, you know what's out there? That's right, it's sand! Guess what's behind the sand! Wealth? Adventure? Companionship? Fuck no! It's moooore fuckin' sand!
The three land masses consist of ninety percent arid deserts. Dunes taller than stadiums swallow most who dare venture them, with little wildlife and even less water.
Small sections of brush forests break up the sand dunes near the coast, but even there, there is no soil to sustain crops nor any drinkable water to tap from the earth. The only major city of Sig V, Ciudad Uno, rests on the continent that consists almost entirely of desert as it was where the largest motherlodes of platinum and gold were found.
Some hardy Ka have staked out homesteads within the deserts, but the only notable population make their home within the lone city and port of Sig V, Cuidad Uno.
Desalination
At Sig V's height, two desalination plants operated to provide water to many of the Cuidad cities. As the planet sank into depression, the salination plants became too expensive to run, and were no longer required by the meager population.
They have since fallen to scavengers.
Yeah, Sig V's a shitty rock, with shitty people, where shitty shit all happens.
Summary
Banners at Play
Federation
While it does not invest into the planet itself The Federation of Free Planets still maintains its diplomatic hold over Sig V and it's surrounding system. They primarily use it a space station port for refueling, and rarely get involved with affairs planet side
Apple of Hedon
The Apple of Hedonism is rumored to have a Hotel California built within Sig V's capital city of Cuidad Uno. With such a desperate and struggling populace, Hedon is often praised as bringing hope to the city.
Jupiter Syndicate
The Jupiter Syndicate is rumored to have a cell within the city, what they are doing there is a mystery, but those who have heard of the cell assume that they are attempting to take over Cuidad Uno and thusly Sig V.
Valuselu Pact
The ValuSelu Pact has expressed interested in purchasing the planet from the Federation, seeing the harsh planet as a suitable project to give to Khatoum for settlement.
Populace
Scrappers
Many of Sig V's residents are scrappers, braving the dangers of the planet to take what they can pawn from the wrecks of the old infrastructure. They often travel in great caravans across the deserts, traveling to other Cuidad's before returning to Ciudad Uno for pawning thier goods.
Miners
Unsactioned and often viewed as insane, some dedicated individuals still believe there is gold and platinum to be found within the winding and trecherous mines. Many come in search of riches, some lose it all and are forced to live in Cuidad Uno, others don't even make it back to the city.
Criminals
The only thriving business on Sig V, criminal elements serve as government bodies. Cuidad Uno itself is headed by the notorious de-facto leader Sora-Khai and his criminal empire. All wealth is subject to 'appropration' by organized crime, trapping the people even further.
Wait.. how does crime thrive if there's nothing to steal? Do they produce illegal products like those hallucinogenic eggplants from the stream?
Theft isn't the only kind of crime.
Well there is an external trade, and the Eggplants are a big part of that. But the problem is more, any wealth that does come in, is stolen and horded by the organized crime of the planet. Of course there is plenty of other crime that this powerful 'family' takes part in. Trafficking is a big one as well.