Yendu System (Yen-do System)
The Yendu is the second of three star systems of the Epsilon Star Cluster. Of all the Epsilon systems, Yendu is the oldest and thought to be the parent system that gave birth to the others. This system was settled two solar standard years after the colonies in Thacarro were established. It is still considered part of the Second Migration at the start of the Third Solar Age.
This is a binary star system composed of two red dwarf stars, an M0 and M7 type, respectively. The M0, Yendu-A, is the actual primary star of the system. Yendu-B, the M7, orbits Yendu-A at 100 AU every 1,291 days. Most of the planets and orbital bodies in this system orbit Yendu-A, except for a single gas giant and asteroid field around Yendu-B.
To the surprise of the original exploration team, Yendu-A contained a well-developed habitable zone despite being a red dwarf. But the only garden planet of the system is Elovi, the second planet of Yendu-A. This is the main inhabited world and home to the local system government, the United Colony Commonwealth.
Planets, Yendu-A
There are four planets and one asteroid belt in this system. They are, in order from the nearest to farthest from the star:
Adas
Adas is a tiny, yellow-rust colored world of bare rock and minerals. It’s the closest to Yendu-A of all the planets, with a highly elliptical orbit around the star. Its orbit is extremely pronounced, to the point of being an elongated oval.
During this 129 day trip, Adas passes just outside the star’s corona, or stellar atmosphere. At the other end of the orbit, Adas is three quarters of the distance between Yendu-A and Elovi.
Centuries of close encounters with Yendu-A have long ago stripped away any atmosphere. But, despite that, the world has a powerful magnetosphere. One strong enough that the small world can resist most of the harsh solar radiation from Yendu-A.
This natural shielding causes the near dwarf planet to exhibit a holographic blue glow during Yendu-A’s seasonal solar flares. The aura is even visible through conventional telescopes on the surface of neighboring Elovi.
Elovi
Elovi is the primary inhabited world found in the Yendu star system. Earth-like in both size and climate, this ocean world is a blue-green orb in an otherwise hostile region.
This planet is rich with a young ecosystem. Initial surveys determined that the world resembled Earth’s prehistoric Cretaceous Period. Elovi dinosaurs wandered the continents and oceans. Giant insects moved between building-sized flowers, ferns, and other plants. The planet’s aggressive, hostile environment that was a challenge for the initial colonies.
Today, Elovi is home to 98 million inhabitants who have adapted to the aggressive natural ecosystem. They have learned to blend technology with nature, even domesticating several of the native dinosaurs. Here, cities take advantage of the dense, oversized forests or other environments.
In grasslands, Elovians design buildings with a round, dome shape. They are covered with soil and local gasses, providing a natural insulation against the weather. Mountain settlements are built into the surrounding mountain rock, with wide common areas, galleries, and reinforced widows to bring light into this underground settlement.
For the forests, Elovians incorporate the massive prehistoric trees into the architecture. There, buildings ‘grow’, expanding as the tree develops over the centuries. The architecture allows building and tree to support and provide strength for each other.
Elovi is also the seat of government in the system. This is the capital world for the United Colony Commonwealth and its member colonies across the star system.
Deskillon Belt
The Deskillon asteroid belt is a broken, rocky debris field that orbits between Elovi and the gas giant Polina. This scattered collection of asteroids and dwarf planets is all that remains of material from Yendu-A’s creation.
Deskillon presents an opportunity and a hazard for the Yendu locals. These asteroids are a treasure trove of minerals. Some are hard to find elsewhere, since they only appear near a planet’s core. Multiple mining companies operate throughout the region, mining locations for titanium, frozen helium-3, and more.
Dwarf planets in the belt provide a stable foundation for outpost stations between Elovi and the outer planets. But, an asteroid field is a dangerous place. Not for what can be seen, but for what isn't.
Deskillon is thick with clouds of cosmic dust. These clouds aren’t as thick here as they are in the Nagini Cloud of Yendu-B, but are still considered a major navigational hazard. Deskillon’s dust clouds wander the belt’s orbit, occasionally straying into the flight paths of ships in transit. These cosmic sandstorms can cause untold amounts of damage to most ships.
The United Colony Commonwealth’s Astronavigation Bureau closely monitors those cosmic dust storms. All ships that pass through Yendu keep a close watch on the solar weather report from the Yendu Astronav Bureau.
Polina
The first of Yendu-A’s outer planets is Polina. This is a large gas giant with four moons and twelve ‘moonlets’ or dwarf moons. Polina is a true gas giant with no actual surface, but has an unusual atmospheric composition that sets it apart from other gas giants of its type.
Most of Polina’s cobalt purple and yellow atmosphere is a hydrogen, helium, methane mix. But the world contains a rare ‘habitable zone’ in its upper atmosphere. This band of clouds maintains an oxygen-nitrogen mix favorable to both human and velid-like species. It’s a 48 km, or 30 miles, deep channel that circumnavigates near the planet’s equator. In this area, an entire air-based ecosystem calls this narrow channel home.
Algae clouds wander the narrow habitable zone, along with floating plants and manta-ray shaped animals. Storms also appear, providing liquid water rain and emerald lightning that fuel the ecosystem’s climate process. The temperature is maintained at a comfortable 21 degree Celsius, or 70 degree Fahrenheit, by the thick layer of greenhouse gases that make up the outer atmosphere of Polina.
To date, there are seven floating colony cities that sail Polina’s air-based habitable zone. They are independent city-states and members of the United Colony Commonwealth.
Geron
The outermost planet of the system is the yellow-green gas giant, Geron. A medium-sized gas giant, this world has a similar atmosphere to Polina with its toxic soup of chemicals. Unlike Polina, Geron lacks a habitable cloud layer and has fewer moons in its lunar system.
Geron has only one moon and nine small dwarf moons. Its atmosphere is a rolling mass of constant storms. Continent wide hurricanes rip through the world’s atmosphere, leaving a trail of thunderstorms that rain drops of iron in its wake. The storms are violent enough that ionized plasma is ejected from the outer atmosphere to strike its closest moons. The brutality of the world’s weather is because of Yendu’s companion star, Yendu-B.
Geron’s elliptical orbit is like what’s found with Adas, but not as extreme. At the far end, this allows Geron to pass close to Yendu-B on its 1000 day cycle around its companion star. Gravitational forces from the second star rock the gas giant, sending shock waves through the thick atmosphere. Since Geron lacks a surface, those shock waves are felt right to the planet’s core.
Another effect of the gravitational shock waves is the impact on Geron’s magnetic field. The powerful impact of Yendu-B warps Geron’s magnetic field. This warped field draws plasma bursts away from the continent-sized storms and out of the atmosphere. That energy is ejected at high speeds into Geron’s moon system like a violent solar flare, irradiating anything it touches.
Planets, Yendu-B
This is the companion star to Yendu-A and orbits that sun every 1,291 days. Unlike Yendu-A, this system is far less complex, having only a single planet and one asteroid belt in this system. They are, in order from the nearest to farthest from the star:
Zoya
This medium-sized, green-tan gas giant is the closest and only planet in orbit around Yendu-B. Zoya is another true gas giant in the binary system, and the most active. With a super-heated atmosphere of hydrogen, copper, and sulfur, this world is only 0.3 AU from Yendu-B. It’s close enough that the outer temperature of its atmosphere remains a steady 430 degrees Celsius, or 800 degrees Fahrenheit, throughout its brief year.
Zoya lacks moons or even asteroids. The cause is the speed of its orbit. This tidal locked world only takes six days to circle Yendu-B. During that transit, the solar winds pummel the hot world, boiling its atmosphere. As a result, the planet leaves a ‘tail’ of charged gas and energy that has been stripped away from its outer atmosphere.
This copper-hydrogen rich gas is a treasure trove for gas mining companies. But the proximity to the star, and a lack of a permanent outpost, makes harvesting dangerous. Despite the risk, certain companies from Elovi attempt it with outposts in the nearby Nagini Cloud asteroid belt and robotic drone mining systems.
Nagini Cloud
The Nagini Cloud is the last stellar object that orbits Yendu-B. Nagini is a combination of asteroid field, icy debris, and cosmic dust so thick that it forms a visible cloud that orbits around the star. Exploration teams that have studied Nagini state this may be what remains of the original stellar material during Yendu-B’s birth. But the formation of Zoya disrupted any further planets from forming, leaving this active dust cloud instead.
An unusual aspect of the Nagini Cloud is that the dust, ice, and other particles flow like a thick dust slush in their 179 day orbit. A nine dwarf planets on either side of the cloud orbit Yendu-B and act like ‘shepherds’. They stir the cosmic dust, moving it along but exert enough gravitational force to help keep the ice and dust in the orbital ring around the star.
Ambitious mining companies, such as Coric-Pegro Mining, and even Miban-Ontor Manufacturing, have outposts on two of the dwarf planets. They use outposts on those small worlds as a base of operations for mining the Nagini Cloud and the gas tails of nearby Zoya.
Alternative Name(s)
TJ997-A, TJ997-B
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