Glauce

by mod pank

Originally named after a sea nymph, though one would never think to cristen such a dry world after a water creature. The truth is, Glauce was once a deep and beautiful waterworld, protected from space by a sparse atmosphere and a thick coating of ice. Before Colonization Its deep oceans were filled with a rich variety of living but stationary structures and tiny aquatic creatures. The coral reefs found in the upper level of the sea grew to fantastic shapes and proportions; some branching like trees, others growing in sheets perpendicular to the rocks they clung to, still others forming delicate frills that waved in the currents. The typical Glauce swimmer had numerous paddle-finned limbs and a unique respiratory system; having several holes down the backs of their bodies in straight lines where water was taken in and filtered. The mobile creatures of Glauce never grew any longer than a meter in any dimension, regardless of species. During Occupation When the Stellar Soup Co. decided to make Glauce the location of their main factories, the company broke and melted the ice to make way for their floating establishments. Glauce was soon dotted with city-sized processing plants; many sat on gigantic chunks of ice, but many more floated, especially as time wore on and more ice melted. After several years of working at high capacity, scientists conducting a geographical survey noticed that the sea level was slightly lower than it once was. The evidence was hushed up as best it could get, but the rumor got out that Glauce was being drained to harmful degree. Since the proof had been destroyed by Stellar Soup Co., the rumors remained rumors and the factories continued to run. As the water disappeared, the atmosphere thickened on top of becoming much more polluted. Impact (Post-Industrial) Today, Glauce is hot and dry, its atmosphere is so dense it’s barely livable, and its surface area is much smaller than it once was. The Stellar Soup Co. factories were abandoned one by one as they dried up, left wherever they fell on the sandy bottom. And so there they sit, slowly being claimed by the dust and wind. Despite these obvious flaws in Glauce’s livability, several colonies of Vriis live in earthen structures around or inside the empty factories. These insectoids were once factory workers, though greatly outnumbered by humans and other alien species. The Vriis live off of the personal gardens designed to sustain to the working population in factories. Water is obviously hard to come by, but they manage by utilizing wells to draw water from the earth and condensators to draw water from the air. If one ventured out away from the patchy civilizations into the harsh winds, they could find the remains of giant coral skeletons bleached, half eroded, and half buried in the sand.

Type

Planet