Aschere System

The **Aschere System**, also known simply as **Aschere**, is a star system in the Virgo Stellar Stream, a previously unexplored component of the Milky Way, that is located approximately 32,000 light-years from Earth. Purchased and controlled by the Virgo Holdings Board, a collective of private human corporations, colonization of the system began in the 3100s during a period where entire galaxies were being explored using the Nexus. The system serves as the setting of *Ad Astra*.

## History

### Formation

It is not known specifically when the Aschere System formed; the central star, Aschere, is an M-type main sequence star that formed only a few years after the formation of the Milky Way; the star was named for an alternate name for the star Sirius. The star was contained within a dwarf galaxy that collided with the Milky Way billions of years ago, forming the Virgo Stellar Stream. The protoplanetary disk that surrounded the young star eventually formed four worlds: Shāo, Sojourner, New Eden VI, and Fēng. An anomalous black hole, later designated the "Gaping Maw", also formed at the far edge of the new system at a great enough distance to not interfer with the orbits of the new planets. At some point in its primordial history, the system was visited by an entity known only as The Whale, which lived inside the Gaping Maw.

### Colonization

In 2904, the final clash between the Frontier Covenant and the Titans in the Whirlpool Galaxy resulted in the creation of the Nexus, a star-sized body of element-C that paved the way for intergalactic travel. Despite this new opportunity, some explorers realized that less than 2% of all stars in the Milky Way - at that point the centre of intergalactic civilization - had been explored and documented, including within the Virgo Stellar Stream.

In an attempt to claim human dominance over several new planetary systems in the Stream, the HIN dispatched several hundred Chinese taikonauts to Aschere. This declaration was deemed illegal by the collapsing Federated Galactic Alliance, who used laws first drafted during the First Magellanic War to overturn humanity's declaration of sovereignty over the Aschere System, thus opening the system to private colonization.

In an attempt to compete with the Board of Dark City, several large corporations, the majority human-led, decided to band together as the Virgo Holdings Board, pooling their funds and resources to claim an entire system for themselves. They quickly settled on Aschere due to it containing two habitable planets: Sojourner and another planet designated New Eden VI. Sojourner was intended to be settled by an ark, also called the *Sojourner*, that failed to arrive in the system after it became trapped in the orbit of the Gaping Maw. With their rights to the planet slipping away, the Virgo Holdings Board decided to use Sojourner as a test-site for their new weapons technology, beginning a series of bombardments that destroyed the planet.

## Key

* Km: Kilometers
* AU: Astronomical unit (150 million kilometres)
* M⊕: Earth masses

## Worlds & Bodies

* **Shāo**
	+ Diameter: 9,438 km
	+ Mass: 0.91 M⊕
	+ Distance from Parent: 0.41 AU
	+ Rotational period: 47 hours
	+ Orbital period: 81 days
	+ Population: 0
	+ Resources: Oxygen, silicon, aluminium, iron, sodium, magnesium, potassium
	+ First landing: 3102
	+ Notes: The closest planet in the system to its star, Shāo was discovered by Chinese taikonauts mere decades after a catastrophic impact event had transformed the planet into a completely uninhabitable hellhole covered in an ocean of lava. With temperatures reaching more than 1200ºC at the surface, the planet is only inhabited by robotic drones that mine valuable materials from its fractured surface. The planet is owned by the Virgo Mining Company, the smallest member of the Virgo Holdings Board.
* **Sojourner**
	+ Diameter: 13,550 km
	+ Mass: 1.011 M⊕
	+ Distance from Parent: 0.78 AU
	+ Rotational period: 15 hours
	+ Orbital period: 220 days
	+ Population (as of the 32nd Century): 150
		- Humans: 100%
	+ Resources: Oxygen, silicon, aluminium, iron, calcium, sodium, magnesium, potassium, titanium, uranium, plutonium, trinitite
	+ First landing: 3103
	+ Notes: Named for the *Sojourner*, an ark that supposedly never arrived in the system, Sojourner was intended to be the principle colony of the Aschere System. With the fate of the *Sojourner* unknown, and with the Virgo Holdings Board's lease on the planet close to expiring, the planet was instead converted into a test site where the Board's technology companies could test their new weapons. This ultimately culminated in a series of planet-wide nuclear tests and antimatter-bomb detonations, destroying the surface of the planet, throwing radioactive debris into the atmosphere that killed its native flora, and covering its surface in a glassy substance known as trinitite. Sojourner is now an inhospitable wasteland home only to scientists and occasional scavengers who make their fortunes in recovering and selling scrap and nuclear material.
* **New Eden VI**
	+ Diameter: 12,407 km
	+ Mass: 0.902 M⊕
	+ Distance from Parent: 0.905 AU
	+ Rotational period: 19 hours
	+ Orbital period: 320 days
	+ Population (as of the 32nd Century): > 5 million
		- Humans: ~80% | GILs: 3% | Gekoids: 3% | Other species: 14%
	+ Resources: Oxygen, silicon, aluminium, iron, calcium, sodium, magnesium, potassium, titanium
	+ First landing: 3104
	+ Notable Settlements: Eden City, Forefront
	+ Notes: After the *Sojourner* failed to arrive in the system, a second Earth-like planet was selected by the Virgo Holdings Board to act as the system's capital. Colonization rights were granted to the New Eden Corporation; the unscheduled and rushed process resulted in the planet simply being called New Eden VI, the sixth such planet owned and operated by the New Eden Corporation. While a habitable garden world, New Eden VI is also home to hostile animals that regularly attack human settlements, as well as extraterrestrial microorganisms that are extremely pathogenic, resulting in several deadly epidemics. The planet is also infested with brigands, colonists who have been driven insane by their addiction to corporate psychostimulants.
* **Fēng**
	+ Diameter: 32,735 km
	+ Mass: 87.10 M⊕
	+ Distance from Parent: 5.2 AU
	+ Rotational Period: 9.7 hours
	+ Orbital period: 26 years
	+ Population: 2000
		- Humans: 99% | GILs: 1%
	+ Resources: Hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, oxygen
	+ First landing: 3105
	+ Notable Settlements: Fēng Atmospheric Complex
	+ Notes: The largest planet in the Aschere System, Fēng is a Saturn-like gas giant first settled by Chinese taikonauts leased to the Virgo Holdings Board. The planet is regarded as the tourist hub of the system, being home to a large settlement, the Fēng Atmospheric Complex, within the habitable layer of the upper atmosphere.
	+ Moons: 60+

**Gaping Maw**

* Diameter: 6 km
* Mass: 333,000 M⊕
* Notes: The Gaping Maw is an anomalous black hole lies at the far reaches of the Aschere System; the fact that it is nearly undetectable indicates that it consists almost entirely of dark matter.
* Satellites: 1
	+ *Sojourner*
		- Notes: An ark carrying hundreds of colonists, the *Sojourner* was intended to colonize the planet Sojourner, which was named for the vessel. While *en route* to the system, the *Sojourner* became trapped in the orbit of the Gaping Maw, causing a catastrophic failure of its life support systems that left all but one of its passengers dead.

## Space Stations

* **El Dorado**
* **Firm Landing**