It's a lovely place... if you like your planets 'remote' and 'desolate' with a side serving of 'sand'.
Holopedia Galactica entry:
Zetauri III is the third planet in the Zetauri system. A smaller planet, its size is comparable to Zetauri I. However, the surface environment is yet different from the other two rocky planets in the system.
More Mysteries Than Clues
This world is also known by the name of "Kaonov". Survey records indicate the name comes from the initial survey team who performed the initial exploration of the system and this world. The word was found etched into a piece of metal in a small set of ruins near the north polar cap. A place marked as the Kaonov Complex.
Those ruins were dated at several thousands of centuries old. A small complex, it has been suggested it was part of a terraforming attempt to reform the world's biosphere into a different environment. However, the makers of the outpost have never been identified. The few language samples on controls and even documentation are written in a language that has yet to be deciphered.
When Pala and I were on planet, we were there for the Protian Lab Incident. But we did manage some scans of the Kaonov Complex. Records indicate the complex isn't active. If that's so, why did Pala and I detect the Kaonov Complex scanned us briefly when we arrived?
The plate with the word "Kaonov" written in Galactic Basic was located by the survey team in the middle of the ruin. Tests performed on the plate indicate the word was carved using a plasma-based cutter. No attempts so far have succeeded in activating the complex.
I have this bad feeling the Kaonov Complex is waiting for a specific 'someone' to arrive on world...
Much closer to the equatorial regions there is a more recent ruin. The Advanced Physics Research Lab is owned by Protian Enterprises, a Corporate Sector Authority corporation, established on Nelona 14th, 12731.
The Protian Enterprises’ Advanced Physics Research Lab was created by the corporation as a remote site to develop and test new advances in hyperdrive type technology. This also included exploring alternate dimensions other than hyperspace as a means of fast galactic transportation methods.
However, due to an accident, all employees of Protian Enterprises are reported to have either vaporized in a hypderdrive prototype explosion.
Classified by the Tapani Ministry of Information, Click to Read
The official reason was listed as accident. However, search and rescue teams uncovered evidence this was in fact sabotage on an unstable hyperdrive prototype.
Geography
Kaonov is a desert world with almost no surface water. Wide stretches of rolling sand or rocky deserts cover the world, These are subdivided by several mountain ranges that crisscross the world in a jagged pattern. There is water on Kaonov but it is almost entirely subsurface, housed in massive natural caverns or aqueducts. However, due to the desert environment that is rich with alkali, the water must be filtered before drinking by any species.
On the surface,the soil is primarily a blue-gray that varies in color between navy blue with gray dunes in the lowland regions and a sky blue in the higher elevations, particularly in the rocky mountain regions. Craters from meteorite impacts dot the landscape, especially at the equator. In an unusual contrast, the soil at the impact sites is a striking rust-orange color. The initial survey of the world revealed the sand of Kaonov contains high amounts of azurite, chalcanthite, sulfur, chrysocolla, linarite, opal, and smithsonite.
The world is approximately the size of Zetauri I at 8,500 km in diameter. However, Kaonov's magnetic field strength lies between that of Zetauri I and II. It is enough to protect the world from solar storms but despite that and the standard gravity common to most sapient species, the world has only a thin atmosphere. It is thin enough, and peppered with enough dust and alkali, that visitors to the world require rebreathers to filter the air.
However, even though it is thin, the world has a rich weather system comprised of rust-orange or blue-rust dust and seasonal electrical storms. These storms are particularly intense in the latter part of Kaonov's year.
Kaonov has a 23 standard hour rotational period for its local 'day' and a 294 days in its 'year' with four distinct seasonal changes. These seasons parallel seasons on a more temperate world, including a winter, where it will snow in the northern and higher elevations. The snow carries the same electrified particles that are released during the fall electrical storms. This results in an 'electrified snow'. Snowfall doesn't contain enough charge to hurt any living creature but contains enough charge that the falling snow glows with an inner pale blue-green light.
The world has no moon or other satellites orbiting it.
Fauna & Flora
The presence of the ruins suggest there might have been life on Kaonov in the past. However, there isn't anything more that microbial life in the subsurface water and deep soil layers of the world.
by CB Ash
Alternative Name(s)
Kaonov
Type
Planet
Location under
Owning Organization
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