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Xi Ursae Majoris

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Xi Ursae Majoris

Note: X and Y are coordinates (light years on XY plane) relative to Terra at (0, 0)

Alula Australis
Alula Australis nearby systems
(Map Legend)
System Information
X:Y Coordinates-24.31:-4.70[e]
Spectral classA7II[1][2][3]
Recharge time168 hours[2]
Recharge station(s)Zenith, Nadir[2][3]
Planet(s)8[3]

The Xi Ursae Majoris system is the location of at least one inhabited world, Xi Ursae Majoris VIII, and as at 3145 is located in the Republic of the Sphere.[4][5]

System Description

Located near that Graham IV and Oliver systems,[4][5] the Xi Ursae Majoris system is an eight-world system with a single class A7II primary star.[3] During the thirty-first and thirty-second centuries the Xi Ursae Majoris system had recharge stations located at both the nadir and zenith jump points.[2][3] Xi Ursae Majoris is shown on maps as Alula Australis.

System History

The Xi Ursae Majoris system was settled early in the history of human colonization and exploration and was one of those systems to remain a part of the Terran Alliance even after the issue of the Demarcation Declaration.[6]

Xi Ursae Majoris VIII

Template:InfoBoxPlanetStandard Xi Ursae Majoris VIII - more commonly known simply as Alula Australis - is the eighth and outermost planet in the Xi Ursae Majoris system. Alula Australis has been home to a number of industrial manufacturing concerns over the centuries.[3]

Planetary History

Early History

Alula Australis was one of the worlds that remained a part of the Terran Alliance following the Outer Reaches Rebellion and the Demarcation Declaration of 2242,[6] and became one of the worlds within the Alliance Core region of the Terran Hegemony.[7]

Succession Wars

Alula Australis changed hands numerous times during the Succession Wars although there remained a long association between the planet and the Free Worlds League.[8] The Lyran Commonwealth captured Alula Australis after the fall of the Star League, only for Free Worlds League forces to capture the system in July 2789.[9]

The Lyrans evidently recaptured Alula Australis at some point after 2789, but in 2799 the Alula Australis system was captured by the Free Worlds League again in a lighting assault by Captain-General Kenyon Marik that was so swift a pair of mercenary BattleMech battalions employed by the Lyrans were left stranded on the planet.[10]

Rather than attack the stranded mercenaries, Kenyon Marik accepted pledges of loyalty from the mercenaries and their commanding officers and allowed both battalions to remain in place as a garrison.[10]

In 2831 the Lyran Commonwealth invaded the Free Worlds League again, with Archon Marcus Steiner taking personal command of what becomes a massive assault to recapture te New Hope Senftenburg and Zwenkau systems before pusing deeper into League space. By 2836 Marcus Steiner's forces had captured Dieudonné, Danais, Megrez and Alula Australis.[11]

The large-scale BattleMech manufacturing center on Alula Australis made it a tempting target for aggression, and the facilities were destroyed no less than four times during the Succession Wars - once by the Capellan Confederation, twice by the Lyran Commonwelath and once by the Free Worlds League Military, the latter being an attempt to deny them to invading enemy forces.[1]

The fourth and last time the BattleMech factories on Alula Australis were destroyed was in 2947, at which point Captain-General Brock Marik decided to relocate the production facilities to Savannah, a system deeper in the interior of the Free Worlds League and further away from the Lyran border at the time; the loss of the manufacturing facilities pushed the economy of Alula Australis into a depression that lasted for decades.[1] The former site of the BattleMech plant, originally known as Cedar Ridge, subsequently earned the nickname "Cinder Ridge" because of how often the plant had been attacked.[2]

After the better part of fifty years the fortunes of those on Alula Australis finally improved when deposits of gemstons and rare earth minerals were discovered in the mountain ranges near New Horizon City, the planetary capital city. Mining and exporting these mineral resources allowed the planetary economy to rebound, and by the end of the Third Succession War the rare earth metals were being used in chemical industries[1] in the cities of Cirebon and Leng-kong on Locke[2] and within the Mosiro system while the gemstones - which were predominantly sapphires - were being shipped to Atreus for use in top-secret technological experiments. ComStar had spent some time attempting to determine what the experiments being conducted on Atreus were, but without success.[1]

At the end of the Third Succession War Alula Australis was part of a three-world province within the Free Worlds League known as the Border Protectorate, the other worlds being Denebola and Zosma; the Border Protectorate was a relatively new province headed by a military dictator and represented in the Free Worlds League Parliament by two representatives. All three worlds of the Border Protectorate were economically depressed and heavily guarded as a result of the repeated invasions of the region over the three Succession Wars, and while both the dictator of the Protectorate and his appointed Parliament representatives were vocal supporters of House Marik and the ongoing war efforts, popular sentiment on all three worlds lay in completely the opposite direction.[8]

With the formation of the Border Protectorate the former mercenary forces that had sworn allegiance to Kenyon Marik in the First Succession War became the lead regiment of the Protectorate Guard, the provincial forces of the Border Protectorate.[10]

While the Border Protectorate was run as a military dictatorship in 3025, the planetary government was actually one of the more notable examples of a planetary oligarchy within the Free Worlds League.[12]

As late as 3067 the cornerstones of the economy on Alula Australis remained mining and refining, although petrochemical extraction and processing were also significant industries. The major industry in New Horizon City was the smelting of ferrous metals and the purification of rare earth metals for use in microelectronics. The gemstones dug out of mines remained in high demand, particularly the sapphires from Locke, and many gemstones extracted from mines on Alula Australis ended up in jewelers across the Inner Sphere.[2]

The centuries of heavy industry on Alula Australis had resulted in damage to the local environment, particularly around the cities, where the city surrounds were commonly pockmarked with working and abandoned mines and quarries, many of which were littered with machinery left to rust after the deposits were exhausted. Industrial pollution had also damaged freshwater bodies such as Lake Pattaya, and environmental groups were becoming increasingly vocal about the need for protection and clean-up measures. While the federal government had given backing to cleanup efforts the ruling body on Alula Australis, the Council of Nobles, was largely unsupportive of such measures due to the greed of its various members.[2]

The Jihad

In late June 3070 the planetary government and military forces on Alula Australis switched their allegiance to the Word of Blake, bringing the world into the Word of Blake Protectorate; Alula Australis was one of six worlds to declare for the Blakists in the space of a week, pushing the Protectorate into Free Worlds League space.[13]

Political Affiliation

Planetary Rulers

3025

  • Dame Renèe deLoulon[1]

3067

  • Sir Jasper De Lyon[2]

3130

  • Planetary Governor Anna-Maurie Meggan[3]
  • Planetary Legate Merril d'Astiogne[3]

Military Deployment

3025

3050

3067

Geography

Alula Australis has at least three continents, Auroria, Hume and Locke.[2]

Planetary Locations

  • Cirebon: city associated with petrochemical extraction and refining, located on Locke.[2]
  • Hubbes River Valley: region on southern Hume and location of Lake Pattaya.[2]
  • Lake Pattaya: large freshwater lake on Hume; heavily poisoned by industrial pollution by the late thirty-second century.[2]
  • Leng-kong: city associated with petrochemical extraction and refining, located on Locke.[2]
  • New Horizon City: the planetary capital,[1] located in southern Auroria.[2]
  • Sturgeon: industrial city based on refineries and located on Hume.

Industrial Centers

Image gallery

Notes

  • House Marik (The Free Worlds League) makes references to Alula Australis having originally been a Lyran world prior to the Succession Wars and to the system having been conquered by Captain-General Geralk Marik in 2458 as well as the site of the first full-scale BattleMech manufacturing plant in the Free Worlds League.[1] This information is inconsistent with later publications, which clearly show that the Alula Australis system remained a part of the Terran Alliance after the Demarcation Declaration and subsequently one of the core systems within the Terran Hegemony.[6][14][15][16][18][7][19] This confusion is possibly due to the borders of the Terran Alliance and Terran Hegemony not being well-defined at the point at which House Marik (The Free Worlds League) was published, and elements of this early history appear to have also influenced later publications such as Dark Age: Republic Worlds (3130) and Handbook: House Marik. It is also possible that Alula Australis was confused with other worlds with similar names, such as Tania Australis, Asellus Australis or Alula Borealis.
  • Handbook: House Marik records Geralk Marik capturing Alula Australis and Bella I in 2459 as well as attempting to capture Loric[50] - given the close proximity of these latter two worlds to Alula Borealis, it would seem likely that Alula Borealis has been confused with Alula Australis.
  • Handbook: House Marik also records the defection of Lyran technicians with the required plans to construct BattleMechs in 2462 followed by House Marik using BattleMechs for the first time to push back a Lyran offensive at Alula Australis[51] in 2470.[52] Alula Australis was one of the core worlds of the Terran Hegemony at this point, again making it likely that Alula Australis has been mistaken for another system.
  • House Marik (The Free Worlds League) details that Alula Australis was producing rare earths for in use on Cirebon, Longkeng and Mosiro.[2] Handbook: House Marik appears to have amended this somewhat, creating two cities on Alula Australis named Cirebon and Long-keng, but associating those cities directly with petrochemical extraction and refining.[2] It is therefore unclear if the Cirebon and Longkeng mentioned in House Marik (The Free Worlds League) refer to the Free Worlds League systems of the same name or the cities on Alula Australis.

Nearby Systems

Systems within 60 light-years (distance in light years)
Closest systems first:
Graham IV 5.7 Oliver 7.8 Zavijava 8.7 Chara 12.1
Thorin 12.7 Pollux 13.1 Denebola 13.9 New Earth 14.2
Lipton 14.7 Devil's Rock 15.9 Castor 20.1 Muphrid 20.1
Procyon 20.3 Sirius 22.0 Rigil Kentarus 22.6 Hechnar 22.6
Zollikofen 24.5 Terra 24.8 Liberty 24.8 Tyrfing 25.2
Killbourn 26.2 Zosma 26.5 Afleir 27.0 Haddings 27.1
Keid 27.9 Rocky 30.4 Yorii 30.6 Menkent 31.0
Talitha 31.6 New Home 32.5 Marcus 36.3 Outreach 36.7
Summer 36.8 New Dallas 37.0 Caph 37.5 Altair 37.9
Van Diemen IV 37.9 Bryant 38.4 Alioth 39.3 Mizar 39.4
Callison 39.6 Brownsville 39.7 Milton 40.8 Hall 40.9
Dieron 41.4 Asta 41.5 Cor Caroli 43.0 Wyatt 43.1
Lyons 43.4 Alchiba 43.9 Imbros III 44.7 Epsilon Eridani 45.8
Fomalhaut 46.3 Connaught 46.6 New Stevens 46.7 Dubhe 47.6
Bordon 48.2 Galatea 48.7 Capolla 48.9 Ko 49.0
Nusakan 49.1 Wasat 50.1 Phecda 50.2 Alkalurops 51.2
Wing 51.3 Chertan 51.6 Saffel 52.6 Elgin 53.0
Mandal 53.6 Acubens 53.8 Dyev 54.5 Epsilon Indi 54.6
Athenry 55.0 Terra Firma 55.0 Dieudonné 55.2 Syrma 55.2
Irian 56.3 Atria 57.0 Hsien 58.0 Northwind 58.5
Lone Star 58.5 Styx 58.6 Alhena 59.0 Zebebelgenubi 59.2
Remulac 59.9

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 House Marik (The Free Worlds League), p. 156, "Alula Australis Planet Guide"
  2. 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 Handbook: House Marik, p. 69, "Alula Australis Planet Profile"
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Dark Age: Republic Worlds (3130), p. 232, "Alula Australis"
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Era Report: 3145, p. 39, "Inner Sphere Map - [3145]"
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 Field Manual: 3145, p. VI, "Inner Sphere - 3145"
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Handbook: House Marik, p. 16, "Free Worlds League Founding [[2271]"
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 Historical: Reunification War, p. 159, "Inner Sphere - 2596"
  8. 8.0 8.1 House Marik (The Free Worlds League), p. 64, "Border Protectorate"
  9. 9.0 9.1 Handbook: House Marik, p. 35, "Timeline: First Succession War"
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 House Marik (The Free Worlds League), p. 98, "Steel Guards"
  11. 11.0 11.1 Handbook: House Marik, p. 39, "Timeline: Second Succession War"
  12. House Marik (The Free Worlds League), p. 73, "Provincial Governments"
  13. 13.0 13.1 Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 48, "The Jihad In Review"
  14. 14.0 14.1 Handbook: House Steiner, p. 13, "Lyran Commonwealth Founding [2341]"
  15. 15.0 15.1 Handbook: House Liao, p. 17, "Capellan Confederation Foundation [2366]"
  16. 16.0 16.1 Handbook: Major Periphery States, p. 18, "Rim Worlds Republic after Age of War [2571]"
  17. Handbook: House Marik, p. 24, "Free Worlds League after Age of War [2571] Map"
  18. 18.0 18.1 Handbook: House Steiner, p. 25, "Lyran Commonwealth after Age of War [2571]"
  19. 19.0 19.1 Era Report: 2750, p. 37, "Inner Sphere - 2750"
  20. Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1, p. 11, "Inner Sphere - 2765"
  21. Handbook: House Marik, p. 34, "Free Worlds League after First Succesion War [2822] Map"
  22. Handbook: House Steiner, p. 36, "Lyran Commonwealth after First Succession War [2822] Map"
  23. Handbook: House Marik, p. 38, "Free Worlds League after Second Succesion War [2864] Map"
  24. Handbook: House Steiner, p. 40, "Lyran Commonwealth after Second Succession War [2864] Map"
  25. Handbook: House Marik, p. 42, "Free Worlds League after Third Succesion War [3025] Map"
  26. Handbook: House Steiner, p. 47, "Lyran Commonwealth after Third Succession War [3025] Map"
  27. Handbook: House Marik, p. 51, "Free Worlds League after Fourth Succesion War [3030] Map"
  28. Handbook: House Steiner, p. 56, "Lyran Commonwealth after Fourth Succession War [3030] Map"
  29. Handbook: House Steiner, p. 59, "Lyran Commonwealth after War of 3039 [3040] Map"
  30. Historical: War of 3039, p. 133, "Inner Sphere - 3040"
  31. Era Report: 3052, p. 11, "Inner Sphere Map [3050]"
  32. Handbook: House Steiner, p. 61, "Lyran Commonwealth after Clan Invasion [3052] Map"
  33. Era Report: 3052, p. 23, "Inner Sphere Map [3052]"
  34. Era Report: 3062, p. 11, "Inner Sphere Map [3057]"
  35. Handbook: House Marik, p. 54, "Free Worlds League after Operation Guerrero [3058] Map"
  36. Era Report: 3062, p. 29, "Inner Sphere Map [3063]"
  37. Handbook: House Marik, p. 56, "Free Worlds League after FedCom Civil War [3067] Map"
  38. Handbook: House Steiner, p. 70, "Lyran Commonwealth after FedCom Civil War [3067] Map"
  39. Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents, p. 65, "Inner Sphere [3075] Map"
  40. Field Report: LAAF, p. 19, "Lyran Alliance Deployment Table [3079]"
  41. Field Report: FWLM, p. 17, "Free Worlds League Military Deployment Table [3079]"
  42. Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 63, "Inner Sphere Map - [March 3081]"
  43. Field Manual: 3085, p. 127, "Inner Sphere Map - [October 3085]"
  44. Map of the Inner Sphere 3130
  45. Era Report: 3145, p. 11, "Inner Sphere Map - [3135]"
  46. House Marik (The Free Worlds League), p. 108, "Unit Deployment Table"
  47. 20 Year Updage, p. 71, "Com Guards Deployment Tabel"
  48. Field Manual: Updates, p. 161, "Free Worlds League Deployment Table"
  49. Technical Readout: 3075, p. 206, "GLD-4R Gladiator"
  50. Handbook: House Marik, p. 19, "Paradigm Shift"
  51. Handbook: House Marik, p. 21, "Paradigm Shift"
  52. Handbook: House Marik, p. 25, "Timeline: Age of War"

Bibliography