Rugbird (world)

Rugbird/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3102) Milieu 1116 BAC5634-A Starport B Good: Spacecraft Construction, Overhaul, Refined fuel Size A Large (16,000 km, 1.14g - 1.48g) Atmosphere C Exotic (insidious) Hydrographics 5 Wet World 50% Population 6 Moderate (8 million) Government 3 Self-Perpetuating Oligarchy Law 4 Moderate Law (no light assault weapons) Tech Level A Early Stellar (jump drive)
See also	UWP
style="width: 220px; height: 250px;" Jump map from Travellermap.com
System Details
Primary	M1 V
Worlds	14
Gas Giants	1
Planetoid Belts	1
Cultural Details
Government	Self-perpetuating oligarchy
Law Level	Moderate
Cultural Extension	4738
Army Size (BEs)	1
Economic Details
Technology Level	10
Economic Extension	A55-1 Resources A Abundant Labor 5 Moderate (800 thousand) Infrastructure 5 Limited Efficiency -1 Average
Importance Extension	1
Resource Units	225
GWP (BCr)	18
World Trade Number	4
Trade Volume (MCr/year)	1,970
Starport Details
Classification	Class-B
Port Size	4
Building Capacity (Tons)	7,200
Port employees	145
Port passengers (annual)	0

Rugbird is a fluid world with an oceanic geography of a liquid other than water such as ammonia, methane, hydrocarbons, or other exotic liquids. The system has a population between 10,000 and 10 million, lacking the industrial base to be completely self-supporting. This world is designated an Amber Zone with an environment, laws, customs, life forms, or other conditions make it dangerous to visitors. It is a member of Third Imperium in the Aramis Subsector of Spinward Marches Sector and in the Domain of Deneb. Rugbird, as a member world of the Third Imperium, holds the estate of an Imperial knight, a member of the Imperial Nobility charged with overseeing the world.

Rugbird (world)/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3102) New Era BAC5789-B Starport B Good: Spacecraft Construction, Overhaul, Refined fuel Size A Large (16,000 km, 1.14g - 1.48g) Atmosphere C Exotic (insidious) Hydrographics 5 Wet World 50% Population 7 Moderate (90 million) Government 8 Civil Service Bureaucracy Law 9 High Law (no weapons out of home) Tech Level B Average Stellar (large starships)
See also	UWP
Cultural Details
Government	Civil service bureaucracy
Law Level	High
Cultural Extension	695G
Army Size (BEs)	12
Economic Details
Technology Level	11
Economic Extension	A6B-1 Resources A Abundant Labor 6 Moderate (9 million) Infrastructure B Very extensive Efficiency -1 Average
Importance Extension	2
Resource Units	594
GWP (BCr)	228
World Trade Number	4.5
Trade Volume (MCr/year)	7,811
Starport Details
Classification	Class-B
Port Size	4
Building Capacity (Tons)	85,800
Port employees	590
Port passengers (annual)	3,200

Era: New Era

Rugbird is a fluid world with oceans of a liquid other than water such as ammonia, methane, or hydrocarbons, or other exotic liquids. This world designated as an Amber Zone. Caution is advised since the world has an environment, laws, customs, life forms, or other conditions that are not well understood and might be a danger to a visitor. It is a member of Regency of Deneb in the Aramis Subsector of Spinward Marches Sector. This world is an Interface world, with a quarantine inspection facility for all ships.It also has a nearby Regency Naval Base, capable of handling warships. 100% of the world's population is the Major Race Vargr.

Description (Astrography & Planetology)

It is located within the Towers Cluster.

Rugbird is a world with an extremely insidious atmosphere. The system's population lives in orbital habitats, and the world's considerable resources are exploited by remote-operated machines (heavily coated with resistant materials). Only repair crews, who receive hazard pay, venture down to the surface.

Rugbird has been described as “the most insidious world of the Marches”. Indeed, several scientific journals rate Rugbird as have the most dangerous/insidious/poisonous atmosphere of all the worlds in Spinward Marches Sector. One study, conducted in 822 by the Imperial Central Institute of Ecology on Capital (Core 2118), went as far as to crown Rugbird as the world with the most insidious (and radioactive) atmosphere of the Domain of Deneb.

Monostellar System

Rugbird Monostellar System

Star Name	Hierarchy	Category		Mass (Sol)	Temp (K)	Luminosity (Sol)
Rugbird M1 V	Primary	Main Sequence		0.5	3620 - 3660	0.08839
	Unit	Diameter	Min Distance	Hab Zone	Jump Shadow	M-Drive Limit
	AU	0.0023	0.0247	0.31 - 0.59	0.23	2.3
	Orbit #	*	*	1	0	5

History & Background (Dossier)

Rugbird was occupied by Kforuzeng forces during the Rebellion. This caused a major portion of the human population to flee safeside, and the corsairs moved a large number of dependents and support personnel into the vacated orbital habitats. The corsairs suffered a major defeat in 1124, and the system was retaken by Domain naval forces. The now stranded Vargr were permitted to remain in their adopted homes, and began to take an active role in their new community.

The very atmosphere is the reason for the system’s Amber Zone rating (imposed in 823 after the aforementioned study). Over the years, there have been countless incidences of “tourist” ships venturing too low for too long and having their hulls breached by the deadly air, ending up as skeletous hulks picked up by the surface machines. One study shows that on average, two ships crash on Rugbird because of the atmosphere a year. And that’s just the ones that are found. If a ship is unfortunate enough to end up in one of the chemical oceans, there is no hope at all, really...

Surface machines (unmanned robots coated in resistant material) are the only things that venture into the sulphurous and radioactive atmosphere, to extract rare materials from the ground, the oceans and the air.

Even in orbit one is not completely safe from the atmosphere. There are many geysers on the planet, which shoot jets of matter hundreds of kilometers upward. These jets are of particular interest to scientists, because of the chemicals within. Though they consist mostly of uranium, which is relatively common across the Imperium, they also contain rarer elements such as plutonium, thorium and neptunium. All radioactive elements that naturally exist on Terra are found in these jets, plus many isotopes and previously unheard-of compounds, in far larger amount than anywhere else in the Spinward Marches, or the whole Domain of Deneb, for that matter. These are very valuable, so the Imperium makes a point of predicting geyser jets, so shuttles can be set up to contain large amounts of the matter. A jet from geyser ZC-405624 on 133-411 (that’s the date, not a world name) contained a trace amount of hassium, an element until then thought to be non-natural by both the Imperium and Solomani Confederation.

About every fifty years a jet is recorded containing lawrencium, which was also thought to be non-natural before the first recorded lawrencium-containing jet in 113. A 567 jet from geyser ZC-409112 contained rutherfordium, but this non-Terran element had previously been found in a lake on Umri (Dagudashaag 1234) in the year 209. There have been unproved reports of jets containing mendelevium, darmstadtium, ununquadium and ununoctium (all thought to be non-natural), and a journal published by the Domain of Deneb Institute of Chemical Research on Vincennes (Deneb 1122), in association with Ling-Standard Products, published in 1034, reported surface machines possibly finding unbiunium (atom number 121) and unbiquadium (atom number 124) (synthesized in the Second Imperium) and as yet unsynthesized elements untrinilium (atom number 130) and unquadennium (atom number 149), but these have not been reported or confirmed by any other source. Lanthanum, essential for constructing jump drives, is also found on the planet, mainly as rocks.

The system was first explored by Third Imperium ships in the 40s, but was ignored until 61, when the IISS Rugbird noted high plutonium readings after an attempted landing (cancelled, of course, because of the dangerous atmosphere). The world is named after this ship, which is itself named after the Rugbird, a species of flightless birds native to Vland (Vland 1717).

Almost all of the world’s population lives in 244 orbital stations, all with a population of above 10000. In addition, there are smaller “satellite stations”, which make up for about 6% of the total population, have an average of 100 residents, and aren’t counted as “part” of any of the large orbital station for population censuses, though they are zoned into the “district” of the nearest station for political affairs. The highest-populated station is Vandershole, with a population of about 1,037,000, though the starport is located at the second-highest-populated station, Starport Station, which has a population of 557,000. The three highest-populated stations have class F spaceports, and the remaining 241 class G spaceports. As of 1105, the newest station is Nezeji, with about 24,000 residents, built in 1093.

Almost all of the bodies in the system have -bird as a suffix to their names, including the star, named Redbird, appropriate for its colour. Apart from Rugbird, two other bodies in the system are inhabited: Rugbird’s moon, Nearbird; and the system’s asteroid belt, Stonebird.

Nearbird has 4222 inhabitants, who all live in one settlement, known as Birdtown, around the moon’s class G spaceport. Nearbird has a thin, though breathable atmosphere, but no native life and low resources. Roads extend only a few kilometers from Birdtown, and the colonists’ plants only extend for a few hundred. The moon was first colonized in 151.

Stonebird is a rather average belt; most of it lies unmined and unexplored. Its 1627 residents are divided between Shallow Stone (956 residents) and Contact Point (671 residents). The belt’s class G spaceport is located at Contact Point, but Shallow Stone has more residents and facilities. The spaceport was first established in 95 as a possible location for a Scout Base, but this eventually fell through. Contact Point gained its first residents in 103, and Shallow Stone was established in 358.

The system’s gas giant, Bigbird, is mostly methane, and unsuitable for fuel dipping. Bigbird has a ring and six significant moons, all uncolonised and largely unexplored. The Terran-sized planet Greenbird has two moons, and the system’s only native life: small green plants, moss and algae which cover about 10% of its dry land. The system also contains Sandbird, a desert planet with a relatively large moon, and Smallbird, a small vacuum world with very high temperatures, the closest planet to Redbird.

References & Contributors (Sources)

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This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Marc Miller. The Spinward Marches Campaign (Game Designers Workshop, 1985), 27.
• Frank Chadwick, John Harshman, J. Andrew Keith, Marc Miller, Loren Wiseman. The Traveller Adventure (Game Designers Workshop, 1983), 19.
• Dave Nilsen. The Regency Sourcebook (Game Designers Workshop, 1995), 39.
• Martin Dougherty. Behind the Claw (Mongoose Publishing, 2019), 104.Martin Dougherty, Neil Frier. Behind the Claw (Steve Jackson Games, 1998), 104.
• External Link: Traveller_TNE Yahoo groups message from Peter Gray published Apr 27, 2001.
• External Link: Foreven by Martyn Wheeler
• External Link: Gossamer Penguin
• External Link: Explorer Base by Author: 77topaz