Yedi

Yedi is the first planet in the Yed Posterior star system, roughly 38 lightyears from Sol. As of 2257, it has a population of over ten million. The planet has several small landmasses and a number of large cities, but it is most notable for being the site of the UN General Assembly since 2153.
Scouted in 2092 and first officially settled in 2098, Yedi (also known as Yed Posterior a) is an Earth-like planet with an orbital period of around 311 standard days and a local day length of 23.5 standard hours, for a local year of 318 local days. It operates on a modified Gregorian calendar, with the standard 12 months, alternating between 27 and 28 days except February which is only 16 days long.
Large portions of the planet’s landmasses are covered in dense woodland, and whilst civic planners tried to pick locations for settlements that would not encroach of these habitats, many of the planet’s cities do now extend into the forest. The planetary capital, Aspen, was built on a mesa rising above the forest on one of the planet’s larger landmasses in the southern tropics giving it beautiful views. The planet’s second city, Banyan, is home to the General Assembly and is located on a small landmass on the planet’s equator.
The planet does not support a huge agricultural industry, and most of the food for the planet comes from orbital farms. A dense ring of space stations, habitats and dockyards forms the “Ring of Silver”, which is visible from the ground in low light as a continuous train of sparkling dots in the sky slightly brighter than the stars themselves.
Whilst the planet is home to the UN General Assembly, it does have its own independent local government. There are elections every third year for representatives from each of the planet’s cities, with a single representative for every hundred thousand residents. These representatives meet in the Planetary Senate and themselves elect the Planetary Council, which comprises five of the representatives who form the government of the planet. As with all other planets in the United Nations of Mankind, they also elect an ambassador to the General Assembly.
It was originally planned for the UN General Assembly to move from planet to planet to avoid the risk of any one planet gaining favour for having the assembly and in 2153 the assembly moved to Yed Posterior from Prope, a system on the other side of human space, with the intention of it staying for six years and then moving on. However, in 2157 as the assembly should have been choosing the next system to host it, the three primary candidates refused to take the assembly as protest for their actions regarding the Rasalhague system.
Officially, the choice was made to delay choosing a successor planet for another three years but 2160 rolled around and a report was published claiming that the cost of moving the assembly was too high. Yedi and Yed Posterior were well positioned for access to much of UNM space and the extra three years had cemented a lot of the infrastructure the assembly and the ambassadors now took for granted. And so in 2162 on the date that the UNM were meant to announce the successor planet, the UN Secretary General announced that Yedi would be the seat of the UN General Assembly for at least the next sixty years.
Some claim that this has helped suppress the growth of the planet’s population. The planet has no real industry to speak of and some have described it as a glorified political theme park. Much of the planet’s economy revolves around serving the ambassadors, their entourages and the assembly. Others point out that there is no real requirement for a planet to have a population in the hundreds of millions and that Yedi is growing at a rate that is sustainable. In 2222, the UN General Assembly voted to remain on Yedi without considering alternatives and are due to vote once again in 2282 however even now, nobody expects the vote to be anything more than a formality.
Yed Posterior does however have a direct wormhole link to IP3 space. An IP3 provided wormhole station sits in orbit around Yed d, the system’s Jupiter analogue, and is guarded 24/7 by a permanent UN Navy garrison of two full battlegroups. Additionally, Yedi itself has a permanent garrison of at least one full battlegroup and is often home to at least two battlegroups from nearby response fleets. As would be expected, the system does not suffer from any great problem with piracy and other spacefaring crime.

Founding Date

2098

Capital

Aspen

Alternative Names

Yed Posterior A

Demonym

Yebian

Government System

Democracy, Representative

Power Structure

Unitary state

Legislative Body

Yebian Planetary Parliament

Parent Organization

United Nations of Mankind