Terrastar System

The Terrastar System is a star system in the Orion Quadrant of the Milky Way Galaxy. It is the setting for Worlds Apart Book 12: Earth. It is the location where the Battle of Terrastar took place and determined whether New Humans or Aurelians would prevail as the galaxy's dominant life form. 
Terrastar was known as the Sol System until the 45th Solar Century when, as part of a rebranding effort to attract tourism and investment, it was renamed the Terrastar System and given a spiffy new logo. 
== Planets of the Terrastar Ssystem ==
Until the Solar Year 7386, there were nine planets (yes, nine) in the Terrastar System. After that, there were eight. 
=== Ford-Mercury ===
The innermost planet of the system, Ford-Mercury (its naming rights were purchased in Solar Year 2263 by a manufacturing company of old Earth as part of a brand revival) has no atmosphere and is too unbearably hot for human habitation. When the Pathfinder Ship Pegasus surveyed Ford-Mercury in the Solar-Year 7386, the found the planet's equator girded by a massive array of stellar energy collectors. These collectors harvested the sun's energy output and distributed it through the system by means of a subspace power grid. 
=== Venus ===
According to historical records, Venus was the subject of multiple terraforming attempts that never succeeded. Eventually, the Commonwealth abandoned further attempts and designated the planet as an official dumping ground for Earth's industrial waste. 
=== Earth ===
The third planet of the system is called Earth (but also 'Terra' and 'diqiu' and some other names). Earth was the birthplace of humankind, the cradle of human civilization, and the one-time capital world of the Galactic Federation (the predecessor to the Galactic Commonwealth). In the Solar Year 2999, Earth's moon was "displaced" during an experiment that went awry. Another moon was transported from the outer solar system to stabilize the Earth's orbit and axial tilt. It failed, so an additional moon was added to the system. Both moons were terraformed to permit human occupation. In the 41st Century, Earth was evacuated so that it could 'recover' from the enviornmental damage humans had inflicted on it. Most of the population moved to the moons, which had been terraformed into habitable area. Because of engineering miscalculations, the inner moon's environment was not stable. After the annihilation of the Human Race, the water from the inner moon evaporated, leaving behind a planetary desert. Much of the water was drawn into the outer moon, raising its sea levels and creating a water moon. During the battle of Terrastar, the inner moon suffered from a massive impact of Aurelian attack ships and the subsequent detonation of a high-yield nuclenic warhead. As a result, the inner moon became a blasted, radioactive wasteland. The outer moon had a large Commonwealth-Era base complex that became the headquarters for human exploration of the Terrastar system. 
=== Mars ===
Mars, also known as Ares, underwent extensive terraforming to increases its mass and density of its atmosphere. Eventually, half the surface was flooded with water to become a planetary ocean. Much of the planet was made into a habit for extinct species from Earth's remote passed; restored via genetic engineering. The ancients built an enormous dome over a long canyon that stretched across half the planet's surface and converted into a shopping and residential complex capable of sheltering millions of people. After the annihilation of the human race, the complex became infested with sentient rats. In exchange for supporting the human race in the Battle of Terrastar, the Lynx were allowed to establish a colony on Mars. 
=== Juno ===
The planet Juno is the largest gas giant in the Terrastar System. The planet is uninhabited, but the survey teams from Pegasus discovered a number of Commonweath artifacts on the planet's larger moons. One remarkable structure is a ring system around its largest moon that was apparently designed to be a recreational facility, casino, and sexateria. Like other outer planets, Juno was named Juno in the 21st Solar Century as part of a movement to rename celestial and scientific artifiacts with feminine names because some influential humans actually believed that doing so was necessary to interest more women in science. Scholars believe this planet was known as 'Juniper' prior to that. 
=== Saturn ===
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Juno. It is a gas planet with an average radius about nine times that of Earth. Survey's conducted by the Pathfinder Ship Pegasus and the Atlantis Station discovered a number of Commonwealth Era facilities on the planet's moon; including a massive industrial complex on Titan. The hydrocarbon seas of Titan contain life-forms possibly created for the environment by Commonwealth scientists. Saturn avoided having its name changed during Earth's 'Crazy Period.' (Solar Years 2012 - 2082) 
=== Planet McPlanetface ===
This is another large gas planet in the outer solar system. It was renamed in the 21st Solar Century as the result of a public vote on Earth. Apparently, its previous name lent itself to inappropriate puns. 
=== Nephthys ===
Nephthys is a large gas planet in the outer solar system. A survey of the planet by the Pathfinder Ship Pegasus discovered an ancient Commonwealth Battleship embedded in the surface ice of the planet's largest moon. When a subsequent crew attempted to study the battleship, it reactivated and attempted to destroy the settlements on Earth, Mars, and Earth's Water Moon. Once called 'Neptune,' Nephythys was renamed in the 21st century to honor an African water goddess. 
=== New Pluto ===
The outermost planet of the system was once a dwarf world. Beginning the the 45th Century, a terraforming effort greatly expanded the mass of Pluto and three of its five moons. The eventual plan was to relocate Pluto to the inner solar system and create a second terra class world that would share the Earth's orbit on the other side of the sun. These plans never came to fruition owing to 1.) Budget cuts and 2.) the obliteration of human civilization during the Tarmigan Apocalypse. 
New Pluto was also the site of a large research facility known as the 'Crystal Pyramid.'
Category:Worlds
Category:Background