Nikrontri

**Nikrontri** was a planet in the Caesar System in the Nikrontreen subsector of the Capital Sector, within the Galactic Interior, and was the capital of the Ariphius Confederacy, it was subsequently a hub for politics, bureaucracy, technological innovation, and trade. Nikrontri accounted for the greater part of the continued stability of the Ariphius Confederacy’s economy across millennia and was the location of the Ariphius Pyramid, the base of operations of the Ariphius Council and the Congress.

The major trade routes, including the Nikrontreen Run and Alradian Way that comprised the business infrastructure of the galaxy met at the cross-roads on Nikrontri, and subsequently, billions of refugees, dev-humans, and aliens immigrated to Nikrontri to search for new opportunities. The majority of the population lived in Nikrobiru City, the planet’s capital that covered the entirety of the supercontinent of Y’nati, composed of millions of high-rise skyscrapers and a vast slum underworld beneath them, where many refugees were forced to live.

## Overview

### Description

Located in the Caesar System in the Nikrontreen Sector, at the corporate coordinates GI-0.0, Nikrontri had a diameter of 12,616 and orbited the G-type main-sequence star Caesar, approximately one astronomical unit away from it. Nikrontri’s coordinates acted as the centre of the corporate coordinate grid, and Nikrontri was generally considered to be the ‘central point’ of the galaxy, both politically and almost physically. Nikrontreen had a rotation period of 25.3 hours and an orbital period was 371 standard days, which were themselves based on the 25.3 hours of a Nikrontreen day.

Nikrontri had six moons, the small, irregularly shaped moons Prathax-1, 2, 3, and 4, and the larger spherical moons Ordalaraus and the Affluent Moon. Ordalarus was rocky and barren, though exploited for its ores, and supported a resident population of miners and corporate directors in its small capital the Ordalarian city. The Affluent Moon was larger, and a luxurious city was built on its surface, supporting a low,  artificial breathable atmosphere known locally as the ‘Golden Roof’. The mining conducted on the moons supported the economy of Nikrontri greatly, and the resources were used for the production of miscellaneous supplies by corporations and bureaucratic organisations in the Ariphius Confederacy.

### Nikrobiru City

Nikrobiru City comprised the entirety of the Y'nati supercontinent, over sixty million square kilometres, and was the trade centre of the galaxy. Nikrobiru City's complex, multi-layered economy was controlled by megacorporations in the Corporate Trade Alliance, the aristocratic companies controlling their respective economic sectors. The centre of trade and the financial industry in the city was the Nikrontri Bazaar, a vast market in the Gunfashi central district. The Bazaar received a constant inflow of civilians, trading with the thousands of merchants and traders that sold their wares in the Bazaar, creating the largest non-corporate, civilian contribution to the economy of Nikrontri and the galaxy as a whole.

While megacorporations oversaw security in the Bazaar, crime would continuously run rampant throughout the market, especially potent during the Nikrobiru Civil War and the Datasea War. Operating illicitly beneath the busy trade of the Bazaar was a black market controlled by networks of gangs, used by the Datasea Insurgency during the Datasea War to acquire weapons and equipment.

### Geography

Nikrontri’s primary continent was the supercontinent of Y’nati, almost entirely covered in Nikrobiru City. It had an area of more than sixty million square kilometres, and the majority of it was within Nikrontri’s northern hemisphere. There were multiple other continents, although they were almost entirely submerged except for small isolated archipelagos. Nikrontri had a population of more than 4 trillion, at least two thirds of which were humans, while the others were dev-humans. Much of the population lived on the lower streets of Nikrobiru, in the slum districts such as B12. East of Gunfashi and the coast, was the Gij’nfai mountain range, which was left mostly untouched, with its alpine forests remaining, despite being within the galaxy’s largest city. On its slopes was the Aquinito theatre, a massive theatre and casino where the galaxy’s richest people would go for entertainment and to gamble. At the base of Mount Keseduhar, the highest peak in the range, was Krabenua Lake, a large body of water with several stilt villages on it and its banks, including Suknari. Branching off of the lake was the Deirbodua Canal, a canal important for the transporting of goods to the Bazaar via barges. On the banks of the canal were the small towns of Deirstead and Boduaton.

## History

### Galactic Expansion

Though it is debated by historians, it was generally believed that humans had been living on Nikrontri for at least 1000 years, or more if it was their homeworld (though this was only in theory; documentation was very vague during this time - either lost or performed in another way than what was orthodox in latter millenia). Around the beginning of the galactic expansion, a time thought to be around 200-300 before 1GE, the few salvaged clues, including star charts and fragmented data, indicate the colonists dispersing from an origin point on Nikrontri. The order in which many Interior and Inner System planets were explored and colonised was often based on their distance from Nikrontri, the closest colonised first.

The reason the galactic expansion took place is generally believed to be due to overpopulation on Nikrontri. Y’nati had already been covered in disconnected cities, those in the south serving the three clans of Nikrontri. Those in the south serving Aurn, the equatorial and central cities, such as the old town of Nikrobiru serving the Biru Clan, and the northern territories under the wing of the Scelg. The three clans had been fighting the Nikrontri Clan War for at least 300 years, oppressing the people and darkening the skies with missiles. Beneath Nikrontri’s surface were hundreds of kilometres of cave systems, containing valuable ores, and crysgas - its presence an unexplained phenomenon. The clans took their fair share of ores, exploiting the caves for centuries, but the ores were limited. The clans began to become desperate, as the ores were their chief source of wealth, if the mines ran dry they would not prosper - nor would the citizens of their cities. The clans started petty fights over pockets of abundant ores, until those ran dry and they began to steal from one another, sending smugglers into the cities to take shipments of ores. Eventually the clans learnt of each other’s crimes and they started warring over ores, even after the ores had disappeared completely. They had come to the conclusion that to retain power one clan had to control the entire continent.

The clan war was destroying society on Nikrontri, so several billion people left to find new opportunities in outer space. For at least a thousand years, it is believed that the colonists had remained with the Galactic Interior and Inner Systems as they had heard the tales of the horrors of the outer galaxy, though by around 1GE 1200, colonist groups such as the Nujakta colonists, formerly of the Biru Clan, and other groups, began to spread throughout the wider galaxy, and Edgespace. It was not until much later, around 1GE 1900, that political groups began to settle the galaxy. Baron Gala Ariphius of the Biru Clan was the first to do this, leaving the Scelg and Aurn clans fighting on Nikrontri. The Biru Clan was losing the war, the Aurn Clan closing in from the south, with a hold on the south and central eastern coasts of Y’nati, and Old Nikrobiru was the last fortress of the Biru Clan; in Gala’s eyes, it was an inevitable loss, so the clan surrendered. The Aurn Clan annexed Nikrobiru, and gave the Biru Clan a year to prepare its citizens to leave Nikrontri and join the Interior colonies.

The Biru Clan left Nikrontri in 1GE 1400, and slowly colonised the Caesar System, one planet at a time, extracting resources to expand further. The Biru Clan eventually established itself as a spacefaring state, though its territory was confined to within the Caesar System, as the space agency did not yet have enough resource capacity for cross-system travel. The systems of the Galactic Interior surrounding the Clan were entirely Regime Colonies, closing in on the Caesar System, and the Biru Clan was almost subject to Regime nationalisation, integrated into their colonies, if not for the advancements in AI that was made, instead of a focus on expansionism.

Artificial intelligence science agencies on Galachai successfully transmitted a digital network to points across the galaxy remotely, creating the digital web of the datasea, allowing instant galactic communication. This was a revolutionary invention, and the Tamarud Regime, which held dominion over the galaxy, took notice. The prototype datasea-controlling AI Genesis successfully formulated strategies that allowed the Biru Clan to make the perfect manoeuvres to become a formidable government rivalling the Tamarud Regime, despite its much smaller size and power.

Some time around 1GE 2600, the now established Ariphius Confederacy returned to Nikrontri to find it a struggling, war-torn place with the greedy baron of the Aurn Clan at its head. The Confederacy attempted to bring Nikrontri under their wing, to improve its economy and state, bu the Aurn Clan Baron refused, not wanting to lose his dictator-like barony. With support of Nikrontri’s denizens, the Confederacy took down the baron and his inner circle and made Nikrontri a democracy. The city was slowly rebuilt, supplies imported from offworld and the Ariphius Pyramid was constructed in 1GE 2685. As Nikrontri grew to be a healthier and wealthier world, with Nikrobiru being the political capital, colonists began immigrating back to Nikrontri, alongside aliens. It became a prosperous hub over centuries, its skyscrapers growing taller and buildings growing denser.

### Second Galactic Era

Around the beginning of the Second Galactic Era, the Bazaar finished construction, and millions came to sell their goods. The population began to grow too large, and the underworld beneath Nikrobiru was expanded, slums kilometres deep built for the constant inflow of immigrants searching for opportunities in the galaxy’s heart.

### Datasea War

The Datasea Insurgency, an anti-Intelligence resistance movement and terrorist faction, allied itself with the Regime in 3GE 958. Through the secret black market established by investors of the United Systems Company within the Corporate League of the Imperious Order, weapons and equipment were smuggled into Nikrontri and to the Insurgency from offworld. The Insurgency orchestrated numerous terror attacks throughout Nikrobiru City, and many gangs and prominent crime families, including the Neriabois family, joined the cause. This marked the beginning of the Nikrobiru Civil War, a period of civil unrest in Nikrobiru City, which intertwined with the Datasea War in 3GE 964.

In 3GE 972, sympathiser of the Datasea Insurgency, Frank Neriabois, murdered Ariphius Councillor Henri Rou in his apartment in the High Rise District of Nikrobiru City. Nex Sarionté, a detective of the Nikrontri Law Enforcement Agency of the Ariphius Security & Enforcement Bureau, investigated the murder and identified Neriabois, tracking him to the Aquinito Theatre, where, after a brief fight, Nex arrested Neriabois and interrogated him, discovering information relating to the conduit glands that all Ariphius Councillors possessed.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Datasea
2. ↑ *Datasea: Rift of War*
3. ↑ Datasea: Appendices