* Ownership: Lawless
Planets: 7
Planetary Orbital Periods: 286 SED (Gonn), 355 (Uriel)
Import: Oxygen, Reactors
Export: Heavy Metals
Crime Status: Medium
Black Market: Weapons
UEE Strategic Value: Purple
Oberon IV, Gonn, is home to a robust mining community like those found in the most distant places on Earth: a group of humans seemingly unconcerned with their own welfare in an impossibly harsh environment. The world is not terraformed, and inhabitants must brave extreme heat and cold in order to survive… but the process is worthwhile, with massive exports of titanium, durasteel and tungsten. Countless robotic refineries allow the miners to offer processed alloys rather than simply raw ores.
The historical centerpiece of the system is Oberon V, Uriel. One of the saddest stories in modern terraforming, Uriel represents an attempt to raise the core temperature to make up for the lack of heat from Oberon’s neutron star. The attempt was considered a sure thing and its failure left three sloships of colonists bound for the world trapped and forced to either eke out a life underground or die of exposure. A competitive, family-based society has formed on the world, with seven major clans vying for control of scant few resources.
Several above-ground settlements have sprung up in recent years, although they have a distinct expiration date. In five years, a swarm of 70-year cyclical insects will devour all organic matter above sea level. Attempts at extermination in advance of the deadline have thus far been unsuccessful. As the saying goes, the most valuable thing someone can ship in the Gonn system is Urielians away from it.