Sol and Mercury

Source: The Well of the Ocean Is Water Aflame

Our Transhuman Space

Now that you've caught up on the rest, here’s the last info dump: an overview of transhuman holdings, region by region.

The center of our system is the source of our life — yet also treacherous and deadly to the unprepared.

Sol

The gravity well that anchors her islands within the empty seas of space is called by her people: Sol. Her soul is great, a flame 1.4 million kilometers across, and her depths are fierce enough to strip electron from atom, burn fields of energy across her face, and smile forth plasma storms that could swallow moons.

Temperatures at the surface alone make the journey impossible without specialized defenses such as solar survival suits and heavily shielded ships. Unpredictable magnetic fields can destroy equipment between one breath and the next, and shifts in the corona create bursts of magnetism and plasma so large that escape is impossible.

A solar flare, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), occurs when the sun’s magnetic grip slips and radiation breaks free. The free plasma can damage passing craft and unprotected life, disrupt communication and sensors, and provoke magnetic storms on vulnerable planets such as Mercury, Venus, or Mars, which lack protective magnetic fields. In theory, this power could even be harnessed as a weapon by disrupting the field with a strong enough magnetic force in just the right location to direct a CME at a chosen target.

Solarians

There are fish at the center of the well. The Solarians that live here have adapted many morphs to survive in the solar environment. Among them are the surya, commonly known as space whales. The surya reach lengths of ten meters or more and are designed to swim the currents of Sol’s corona, generating magnetic fields that shield them from the heat. The Solarians travel together in surya pods, roaming the corona itself. Other Solarian morphs include mirrored sundiver spaceship synthmorphs and the more humanoid salamander forms that are better adapted for using tools, residing within habitats, and interacting with other transhumans.

Many Solarians are uplifted dolphins and whales that seek the familiar sense of swimming in the ocean’s expanse with a pod. Their presence is a deep influence on Solarian culture; metaphors comparing the sun’s environment to their underwater experiences are common. Social structures mirror that of a cetacean pod, in which individuals live together as a close unit with few secrets and little social or personal boundaries. Relationships within the pod are open and physical, and social activities are often communal, including poetry and song as well as rough play. This close and intimate living can be difficult for outsiders to adapt to, which is an issue for the occasional socialite tourist.

Three habitats are found in the solar corona, near the northern pole of Sol to minimize exposure to flares. These habitats provide launch points for voyages into the corona and contact with the rest of the system.

Aten

An extension of the Martian University of New Shanghai, Aten is nominally a center of education. Most of the work done at Aten is for profit, taking advantage of the secrecy provided by Sol’s corona. While Cognite, Direct Action, and others claim to work on energy collection, they develop military research. The corona may destroy many a dangerous mistake before it is discovered by others.

Hooverman-Geischecker

This partnership between the Argonauts and Titan Autonomous University seeks to study Sol and gladly collaborates with Solarian pods. Those who wish to learn may be invited to travel with the pods after an introduction to minimize culture shock.

Ukko-Jylina

Ukko is our own home when we seek shelter from the destruction of Sol’s fury. It is also a place for pod members to recover, resupply, or travel outside of the well. The population of this habitat fluctuates from the hundreds to the thousands depending on the solar weather. Few non-Solarian visitors are invited here — the accommodations are not designed for non-solar-adapted morphs.

Vulcanoids

Between Sol and her closest escort Mercury lie the Vulcanoids. These small asteroids are cherished for a stable orbit and the protective cover of Sol’s glare. Secrets grow easily where few can see them.

V/2011-Caldwell

The first of the Vulcanoids to be claimed was Caldwell. Initially dismissed as small and empty, the asteroid was later discovered to hold a treasure: a pandora gate. Ownership was quickly acquired by TerraGenesis. Though courted by the Planetary Consortium, TerraGenesis has so far chosen to work more closely with Morningstaraligned interests. Pathfinder seeks to disrupt this alliance.

Mercury

Sol’s swiftest island is Mercury. It orbits in less than ninety days, but turns so slowly that a face may be exposed to the sun for nearly sixty of those days. The lack of atmosphere provides no blanket against Sol’s light, and temperatures range over 620 degrees between day and night. The sun’s daylight gaze overhead is fierce enough to melt metal, but at night the surface is as frigid as space. The terminator line moves slowly enough that a transhuman on foot could keep ahead of it at a steady pace.

Sol attracts many stray travelers of rock and asteroid, and Mercury takes the blows as they cross its path, leaving the surface of the planet covered in pockmarks and craters. Alternating heat and cold further breaks the rock, covering the surface in dust.

Mercurials

The residents of Mercury must be hardy to live in extremes of light and dark and dust. But there is little loyalty to Mercury as a home. Exposed heavy metals lie near the surfaces and are easily mined. Corporations mine Mercury’s bones and harvest the sunlight of Sol to profit elsewhere. Solar cells coat every crafted surface to best capture Sol’s gift, powering equipment. Hypercorps such as Tolstoj Mining Concern, the Vyasa Workers Cooperative, Jaehon Offworld, and Noonday Mining turn the efforts of their miners into profit. The isolation and difficulty of escape leads hypercorps to enlist prisoners who serve out their sentences — well-earned or falsely framed — working in the mining camps.

Those who are not with a corporation survive in the shadow. These sifters live nomadically, following the night cycle of the planet to avoid the temperature spikes of the day. The sifters are independent people and know the secrets of Mercury should they be asked, but they will not share without payment.

Mercury is tiny and isolated, so the production of antimatter is safest here and the intense light provides enough energy for the work. Antimatter powers spacecraft drives for voyaging and the most dangerous of weapons, making the research worth the risk for groups such as Omnicor, Gammax, Direct Action, and Fa Jing.

Al-Hamadhanj

The modules of this sifter capital are tucked under the sand and into the edges of a crater for safety in the extreme temperatures. This city is a gathering site for sifters, a place to rest, trade, and seek out news and services. Information and gear may be had and discretion sought for the more clandestine project.

Cannon

Cannon is the largest habitat on Mercury. It is also mobile, crawling on massive tracks. Ten-thousand individuals loyal to the hypercorp Jaehon reside here. This city-sized mass driver pauses at each mine to launch giant ingots of heavy metals into space for delivery to ships overhead. Cannon travels the edge of the Caloris basin and the northern hemisphere in its journey between camps.

The Egg

Mercury holds mysteries as close as Sol does, and the Egg is one of them. From a distance it does not appear to be a weapon. A pale gray ovoid of unknown material, the Egg orbits above the surface of Mercury. Left by the Factors in AF8, the Planetary Consortium declared the Egg off limits, overruling those who thought it safer destroyed. The Factors offer no explanation, they only ask us to leave it be. So far we have, though not without question or protest. Some speculate it watches over Caloris 18, site of a TITAN outbreak on Mercury during the Fall. Others believe its purpose is to monitor the Vulcanoid Gate from afar.

Lumina

Near the northern pole lies Lumina. Here energy is captured by solar panel fields lit at all times by the sun. This powers nuclear, radiochemical, and particle physics research, including manufacturing isotopes and the extraction of fissionables. Many hypercorps hold interests here, making it a shared resource as well as a resting place for the hyperelites who come to enjoy the spas and private meeting facilities.