Skela

Skela is the long-destroyed Merine homeworld. It is located in the very center of the Merine Empire, inaccessible by USC forces due to its well-defended borders. Little is known about it outside of what can be gleaned from salvaged MANA-1 memory files. The location, geologic composition, and images of Skela are included in the memory of every M-Unit, which is believed to have been included by the original creators as a form of goodwill.

It orbits the star Calic in a spherical path, 0.9 AU from its star. It is the second planet from Calic.

### Planetary Makeup

Skela is completely stripped bare of even marginally usable materials. It was the epicenter of the rise of the Merine Empire, and even today there are MANA-3 units encountered in the field that are comprised in part of unusual materials such as mudstone or shale that can be traced back to Skela. It is assumed that Skela possessed plentiful reserves of iron, copper, gold, platinum, and silicate rock, as these are major components of the modern Merine forces.

Spectroscopic scans of Skela reveal that it supported a dense biosphere at one time. Its estimated arable land availability was approximately 95%, with vast oceans of liquid water. Such conditions are conducive to a majority of organic life, and so it is believed that Skela would have had a species diversity equivalent to the 5th percentile of known jungle worlds today.

#### Skelan Anthropology

*See Also: Precursor Race*

No traces of any of the species that lived on Skela have been found, and it is assumed that the planet's total destruction and lack of atmosphere have obliterated any remains or structures on the planet's surface. The few facts that are known about them are disparate and incomplete at best. At least four species came to a similar level of dominance at the same time, sharing the planet in a stable peace that lasted until the Skelan Ignition War. Nothing is known about the cultures or practices of any of the species, nor is it clear which species created the first Merine automaton. USC anthropologists have discerned that several of the species enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle thanks to advanced robotics, as well as extended lifespans and a mastery of Skela's weather.

From analyzing the file archetecture and overall body layout of M-Units, it is assumed that precursor Skelans were humanoid bipeds that had both spoken and written language. Similar to USC Standard computing styles, M-Unit coding has comments that vary from informational to humorous. These lines of text are informally known as the Merine Comments. Translated from machine code, one such comment appears below:

> *"//I do not know what this chain of code does, but my* **n'gekua**[sic] *hisses when I extract it, so I am leaving it in."*
>
>

Comments such as this have allowed USC anthropologists to infer many qualities about daily Skelan life, such as the presence of pets and the sharing of jokes, art, and music. There is disagreement among scholars whether or not the Skelans were a religious people, as some comments do refer to a sort of higher power, but their literal nature is disputed. Merine vessels and technology are devoid of any iconography, and so the Merine Comments remain the only direct window into Skelan culture.