Stern-Stern (world)
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| See also | UWP | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Jump map from Travellermap.com [1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| System Details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Primary | M0 V M3 V | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Worlds | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gas Giants | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Planetoid Belts | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cultural Details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Government | Feudal technocracy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Law Level | High | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cultural Extension | 565B | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Army Size (BEs) | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Economic Details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Technology Level | 11 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Economic Extension | 845+1
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| Importance Extension | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Resource Units | 160 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| GWP (BCr) | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| World Trade Number | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Trade Volume (MCr/year) | 1,067 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Starport Details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Classification | Class-B | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Port Size | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Building Capacity (Tons) | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Port employees | 1,105 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Port passengers (annual) | 1,000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stern-Stern has a tainted unbreathably thin atmosphere and very little surface water. The system has a population between 10,000 and 10 million, lacking the industrial base to be completely self-supporting. It is a member of Darrian Confederation in the Darrian Subsector of Spinward Marches Sector. 100% of the world's population is the Minor Human Race Daryen.
Astrography & Planetology
The atmosphere is breathable but unpleasant enough that most residences have their own life support systems.
Binary Solar System
Stern-Stern Binary Star System Star Name Hierarchy Category Mass (Sol) Temp (K) Luminosity (Sol) Stern-Stern M0 V
Primary Main Sequence 0.57 3770 - 3850 0.13982 Unit Diameter Min Distance Hab Zone Jump Shadow M-Drive Limit AU 0.0027 0.031 0.39 - 0.74 0.27 2.7 Orbit # * * 2 0 5 Star Name Hierarchy Category Mass (Sol) Temp (K) Luminosity (Sol) Stern-Stern M3 V
Secondary Main Sequence 0.37 3270 - 3430 0.03081 Unit Diameter Min Distance Hab Zone Jump Shadow M-Drive Limit AU 0.0017 0.0146 0.18 - 0.35 0.17 1.7 Orbit # * * 0 0 4
IISS GURPS Astrographics Survey
0223 Stern-Stern (Darrian Confederation)
Starport: Class IV.
Diameter: 2,985 miles (4,800 km).
Atmosphere: Very Thin oxygen-nitrogen tainted with sulfur compounds.
Hydrographics: 6%.
Climate: Cool to Hot.
Population: 700,000.
Government: Civil service bureaucracy.
Control Level: 4.
Tech Level: 9.
World Trade Number: 4.
History & Background (Dossier)
Stern-Stern specializes in heavy industry with considerable robotic help in the factories.
Other Data
Stern-Stern was not one of the original Pre-Maghiz colonies of the Darrian Confederation, but was settled in the aftermath of the First Frontier War. The system, then known as 247-461, had originally been bypassed due to inadequate surveys, and except for a starport, had been ignored by the Confederation and its economic planners. The world was cursed with a very thin atmosphere, and possessed few obvious resources that would make it attractive to outside settlement.
This changed after a Sternmetal Horizons survey discovered in 576 that the world had extensive deposits of Iron, Nickel and Aluminum in large ore bodies buried under its extensive plains. Military tensions and conflict with the Zhodani, and the massive initial investment outlays required for subsurface mining delayed colonization until 603, and the Second Frontier War delayed actual exploitation of the deposits until 625.
Sternmetal, with assistance from the Darrian government, sank several deep shafts, some of up to 10kms deep, to reach the ore bodies. In doing so, the company had to compromise safety. The digging of deep shafts, in an atmosphere under severe underground pressure, on a world with very little air pressure to begin with, was a dangerous and expensive undertaking. Death due to the bends, or blowouts at the surface level, claimed a number of lives, and gave the world an unpleasant reputation. Sternmetal soon suffered a labor shortage, as skilled mining workers developed an understandable reluctance to work in the mines.
As production dipped, Sternmetal approached its fellow Megacorporation Naasirka for assistance in automating the world's production. Through a separate holding company called Sternmetal Automation, the two companies pooled their efforts and constructed a huge network of automated factories and mining complexes for extraction, processing, refinement and machining the mines output for eventual export. These complexes were probably the largest robotic factories ever constructed in the Marches before the Collapse, and still rank among the largest still extant. A major drawback was the pollution generated as a byproduct of various mining and industrial processes, but the two Sternmetal divisions (which is where the world name originates) profited enough to pay their employees very good wages and continued to deliver massive amounts of vital metals to both the Third Imperium and the Confederation.
The world was the target of major Zhodani raids during the later Frontier Wars, and of an attempted Sword World invasion during the False War, but it has remained in Darrian possession for its entire history.
But because of these factories, the Collapse and Virus posed a special threat. A controversy developed between the company and local authorities, between the Regency wanting to shut them down and the Darrians wanting to keep them running, and within their own governments between security services and industrial planning agencies. In the end, the now renamed Horizons was able to retain the factories, as the authorities came to the conclusion that more would be lost through shutting them down, and risking shortages and price hikes in resources vital to the Quarantine, than whatever viral threat they posed to the Spinward Extents.
In order to keep the factories, the company agreed to eliminate outside communication links, creating a totally self-contained and airgapped communication and control system placed in fortified military-style command centers. Horizons beefed up security around the facility, though more against outside intrusion by agitators and anti-virus radicals, than against actual Viral infection. The company still has the confidence of most of the local population, and it has eliminated most of the old silicon-based systems that made the world vulnerable, but there has been concerted action by offworld protesters and action groups to disrupt or impede local production. And while the company still enjoys the confidence of the Darrian government, a number of neighboring world governments and their citizens have staged frequent protests and passed disruptive resolutions against Horizons and the Stern-Stern world government.
References & Contributors (Sources)
- Marc Miller. The Spinward Marches (Game Designers Workshop, 1979), 8-9.
- Marc Miller. The Spinward Marches Campaign (Game Designers Workshop, 1985), 18-19.
- Marc Miller. Imperial Encyclopedia (Game Designers Workshop, 1987), 94-100. (UWP only)
- Rob Caswell. "Domain of Deneb: Sector Data." MegaTraveller Journal 3 (1992): 47-58. (UWP only)
- Dave Nilsen. The Regency Sourcebook (Game Designers Workshop, 1995), 44. (UWP only)
- Martin Dougherty, Neil Frier. Behind the Claw (Steve Jackson Games, 1998), 46.
- Mike West. The Spinward States (Avenger Enterprises, 2008), 108. (UWP only)
- Martin Dougherty. The Spinward Marches (Mongoose Publishing, 2008), .
- Martin Dougherty. Behind the Claw (Mongoose Publishing, 2019), 80-84,86,88. (UWP only)
- Peter Gray - BARD-OPAL 9527
- ↑ "Jump Map API" and map location from Travellermap.com