Deneb

Orbiting the star Denebola, the planet Deneb is a barren world, arid and lifeless, yet with extensive geothermal energy, massive rifts in the ground, and geysers of magma spouting up at a moment’s notice. These quickly cool into new and bizarre mountainous structures and hills, constantly changing the landscape of Deneb itself. Deneb is in the process of being terraformed, but is still around -50 degrees Celsius at its warmest. Terrans that do live on the surface live in Bubble Colonies, the largest of which is the Hedin Colony.
Founded by Terran Systems but now expanded to house citizens of many corps, Hedin colony is home to over 100 million Terrans, over ten times the size of the next largest Bubble Colony on Deneb.

Geography

Deneb has a very active core, and earthquakes are common. Work on the surface is currently extremely dangerous. In the meantime, both Terrans and transplanted Temari perform regular maintenance on the terraformers, which gather power from geothermal energy and vent hot plasma into the atmosphere. Carcasses of various Terran and robot workers assigned to fix these tend to litter the area surrounding them.
Several attempts at building sustainable colonies far from their initial bubbles ended in disaster as the scope of the geothermal activity was underestimated. Two bubble colonies were burnt to cinders, and a third is still visible on the horizon, melted and burned under a mountain of solidified lava. Now all efforts are put into completing terraforming first before worrying about colony space.

Fauna & Flora

Deneb is being seeded with wildlife first. While no Terran animals live here yet, a variety of plant life suited to the cold are on the planet. Spider plants crawl up the bubble colony’s domes and then eventually branch out into the surrounding landscape. As the planet warms, terraforming progress can be gauged by how far into the wilderness the plants spread. Once visibility for the colonists is severely impeded, the plants are forcibly removed from the domes and replanted in the Denebian landscape, with about a 50% success rate.

People & Culture

Nearly 100 million people live on Deneb, a five-fold growth in population since the initial Terran Systems colony ship landed. About 5% of Denebians are Terrans, are sub-species of Terran, primarily Temari and AI. The domes are now quite extensive and in some cases, mismatched and cobbled together, as terraforming has taken longer than anticipated and resources have been allocated elsewhere. As two generations have gone by without significant change to habitation, people are now cramped, and are used to being cramped, like an enormous New York City contained under a series of domes and connecting structures tacked on.
The people are used to corporate oversight, and nearly all claim affiliation with one corp or another. Still, it is a frequent location for riots and protests, and corporations even hold “hostile takeovers” of each others’ space on Deneb as a proxy, or sometimes testing ground, for their diplomatic actions on the core worlds. Denebians are typically considered technically proficient, salt-of-the-Earth, and relaxed.
Denebians work hard, and they play hard. The planet is home to a massive number of rec areas, including a 150-story tower called The Arena, (actually about 20 levels, but each 5-10 standard stories tall) on which each level hosts a different type of sport, and each sport holds between 5-10 stadiums which can be subdivided as needed based on capacity needs. The Arena offers majestic views of the Denebian landscape, as well as a variety of restaurants, bars, and even assorted nightclubs catering to nearly every demographic.

Politics

Deneb is best described as having a light corporate atmosphere - not as loose or independent as some of the other Edge worlds, but not as strict in terms of oversight as The Wheel or other core worlds. Terran Systems has spent a lot of time in this system recently due to increased expeditions into neighboring system Esoqq. Poverty and homelessness run more rampant here than in many colonies, as the population is growing faster than any of the corps can sustain, work-wise. This leads to more dangerous work, higher casualty rates, and higher number of orphans falling under the purview of Mother & Father.

Type

Planet