Pluto
Description
Whether it’s still thought a planet or not Pluto is still considered a more significant orbital body than its contemporaries in the kuiper belt. Scientists may get their panties in a bunch over its designation but even into the days of cheap interplanetary travel Pluto is considered a planet, a destination and a byword for ‘far away’. Here the military has placed a watch station, alert to the universe beyond the solar system, accompanied by a scientific research facility given the task of scanning, cataloguing and collating information on the kuiper belt objects. Civilians and military personnel in cramped quarters far from home makes for friction and makes Pluto one of the least desirable postings for either.
Government
The Pluto/Charon watch station is considered to be under the jurisdiction of the military and despite the resident civilians it keeps to military discipline, military timing and military protocol, strictly and without alteration or change. The base commander is appointed by the Western Alliance and is typically associated with the intelligence community, rank then falls down from him. Civilian personnel are considered in all things to be lower rank than any military personnel and are bound over to comply with their orders at all time, something that is a source of no small amount of rankling. For their part the civilian personnel are under the sway of a director of astronomy and, while other research goes on, this is all considered subordinate to the day to day cataloguing and tracking of objects that goes on. For the most part the civilians try to keep apart from the military and maintain a much more relaxed internal hierarchy as a reaction against the military discipline.
Geography
Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, (it has two others, Nix and Hydra) orbit as a binary system, around each other. Pluto houses the scientific and military stations underneath its rocky, icy surface and Charon carries the immense sensor arrays required for their jobs scattered across its surface forming an interconnected web of sensors that can operate singly on local objects or together as a massive radio telescope. Rumours persist about a second base on Charon, a secretive testing site known as Base Zero where dangerous and secretive military experiments are carried out. Despite being beloved of conspiracy theorists there is, as yet, no evidence of Base Zero.
Starport quality
B, Naval, Scout, Research
Size
1
Atmosphere Type
1
Hydrographic Percentage
3
Population
6
Government Type
8
Law Level
7
Tech Level
C
Price Multiplier
2.25
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