Uteria

Uteria as seen from orbit, covered by clouds of energized pollen

Crops

Energized pollen clouds

Uteria, listed on Government star charts as 9987-Vin b, is an underdeveloped human colony in deep No Man's Space. It is orbited by a supernatural space-faring creature known as The Flower, who was responsible for a major change in the colony's early years and the creation of the Fleurir.

## Description

### Overview

Uteria is a terrestrial world with a primarily green surface, although energized clouds of pollen, mainly orange in color, obscure parts of its surface, such as surface water and ice caps. Uteria is not on any major hyperlane, and is in a distant region of No Man's Space known as the Quiet Sectors, which lack major interstellar activity. It has five natural moons, one of which is famous for a crater that resembles a fish, and is closely orbited by The Flower.

### Geography

Uteria has a large and distinct landmass, with a large ocean located on its southern hemisphere. Hidden beneath its pollen clouds are polar ice caps, and most of its landmass contains forests and grasslands, although a vast desert is also present.

### Environment

Uteria has several environments ranging across its surface, but its most common ones are temperate climates on its landmass and arid climates in its deserts. Like other planets, it experiences different seasons at different times of year and related temperature changes.

## Inhabitants

### Citizens

The citizens of Uteria, known as Uterians, are human colonists from Earth. The Fleurir, plant-like hybrids between human colonists and The Flower, are considered a native species due to their distinctness from both humans and The Flower. However, the Fleurir were confined to slums and were not given the same rights as human citizens.

### Flora

Uteria's land is covered with forests and plains, with its most notable flora being the Uterian trees, which grow tall and wide.

### Fauna

The Clickwhale is a large marine arthropod native to the Uterian seas. Like the rest of the native wildlife, its species was killed when The Flower killed all native life, but was revived after the colonists sent up sacrificial mates. Other less notable fauna were used as farm animals and food sources by the colonists.

## Government and politics

The human citizens of Uteria are ruled by a central democratic government located in a walled city. The elected ruler during the theocracy of The Flower held the rank of Prime Minister, while post-Flower rulers held the rank of president. There is little to no emphasis on space travel or interstellar contact, mainly due to the energized pollen clouds disabling most spacecraft that are not equipped with shields or Imperialite armor, which Uteria does not have, and thus Uteria lacks advanced technologies or knowledge of interstellar affairs. Fleurir settlements are fairly autonomous.

### Military

Uteria has a military force that services its inhabited regions. Due to not being up-to-date with military technologies, they are equipped with ballistic weaponry, such as pulse rifles, and uniforms that sport Kevlar gear instead of exosuits or other tech-augmented armored gear. However, Uteria's elite branch, known as the Protection of World Elite Ranks (PoWER), possess the planet's supply of handheld energy weapons and advanced military technologies, such as a ballistic spider-like tank mech designated as the Weedkiller. PoWER's commander during the time of the Fleurir relocation was Glyphos, who assassinated the current president and led a coup to exterminate the Fleurir.

### Law Enforcement

Uterian law enforcement departments service human cities exclusively.

### Public Works

Due to a lack of space travel, internet services are provided by Ethernet systems that service each city. Cities are walled and crowded with pollution and Pre-Trans Galactic War Era analog tech. However, Uteria possesses some advanced civilian technologies, such as hovertech. Due to their lack of intergalactic knowledge, all tech made is still under the name of the defunct SpaceForce Corporation.

### Economics

Lacking interstellar trade, the Uterian economy is based within their cities and inner commerce. US dollars are still used as basic currency.

## History

### Colonization and The Flower

Uteria was uninhabited during most of its existence. In the early Trans-Galactic War, human colonists from Earth arrived on Uteria's surface in a generation ship known as the S.L. Jyist after an 80 year flight. The colonists created a rather flourishing society for the first 10 years of colonization, and not experiencing major difficulties. However, at the end of the first decade, all native Uterian flora and fauna inexplicably die, cutting off planetary oxygen circulation and food supplies. On the first day, The Flower appeared in orbit. On the second day, a being known as an acolyte was sent in a pod from The Flower, bearing a message, which states that if 150 of the strongest Uterians will agree to surrender to The Flower as sacrificial mates, The Flower will save Uteria. Utilizing crafts meant to deploy and maintain satellites, 150 colonists were sent to The Flower as sacrificial mates. On the fourth day, plant and animal life seemed to spontaneously return. On the same day, The Flower spewed energized pollen into the sky, along with 50 pods, which land on the surface. The pods were opened by the colonists, revealing three humanoid plant-like babies within them. The babies, the children of The Flower and the colonists, were known as the Fleurir, and were raised as the spawn of a deity, living in luxury and being served by the colonists. The colonists were assured by The Flower that they were perfectly safe on their planet, and that the energized pollen shielded them from extraterrestrial threats. Most of the colonists, especially the government, believed The Flower and devoted all resources to planetside developments. However, there were some doubts and distrusts among some of the colonists, especially those who tried to document the abilities and physiology of The Flower.

### Expelling the Fleurir and following years

On the 120th anniversary of the colonization of Uteria, the Prime Minister, who knew that The Flower had the power to restore Uteria's native life, formed a theory that The Flower itself could have been the one who killed the native life to begin with. With this revelation broadcasted, public opinion of The Flower and the Fleurir was flipped from heroic figures to impish tricksters and devils. Although mobs sought to lynch the Fleurir to get revenge for The Flower taking advantage of them, the Uterian government feared retaliation from The Flower. In order to quell the public and extract vengeance on the Fleurir, the Fleurir were stripped of their noble status and kicked out of the cities. They were crammed into slums and had several laws levied against them, taking away almost all their civil rights. Some time afterwards, the Uterian government attempted to launch satellites and other spacecraft in defiance of The Flower's planetside-only mandate, only to have every craft launched be destroyed or disabled by the energized pollen, as the crafts lacked shields or sufficiently advanced armor. With no way to strike back at The Flower itself, the Uterians begrudgingly went about their lives in a now-restructured society. Over the course of the following 130 years, city infrastructures notably deteriorated, and the Fleurir only gained more hate from the new generations. Some groups of Fleurir formed their own communities in isolated areas, such as the deserts. Alien contact was extremely rare, mostly consisting of passing spacers who crash-landed on the planet, although technology salvaged from the crashed ships was used to equip Uteria's elite military force, known as PoWER, which held the deepest hatred against the Fleurir.

### Contact

Uteria made contact with the Trans-Galactic Government after the creation of the Military Multi-Phase Suit. The suit, a prototype model, was stolen by a salvager following a battle with Imperial forces that destroyed the station it was held in. The salvager used their ship's Light Drive to blast themselves across the galactic distances to Quiet Sector 4. Although he had managed to escape before Starwatch forces could arrive, he was still tracked to the system. The salvager crash-landed on the surface of Uteria due to passing through the energized pollen without equipping shields. Emma Auto, a Government operative, was sent to Uteria alone to retrieve the MPS, as deploying Military forces was against Neutral Zone regulations. Emma was given a non-Megacorp made civilian craft to appear as another spacer, but unfortunately, her craft was also disabled by the pollen, causing her to crash as well. Both Emma and the salvager survived their respective crashes. Emma then met a Fleurir named Rue, who helped her track down the salvager to a nearby city, where a gang of anti-Fleurir humans inform Emma of Uteria's past. Emma and Rue manage to escape the gang and apprehend the salvager, retrieving the MPS. With the suit and salvager in custody, a Military gunship, with armor able to negate the effects of the pollen, picked them up from the surface and brought them to the battleships at the edge of the system. There, Rue was given a proposal at Emma's request: If she can get the population of Fleurir to claim political asylum to the Government, they can be evacuated from the harsh treatment they receive on Uteria. Rue was then sent back to Uteria to complete her task.

### Fleurir retrieval

Rue traveled across all the Uterian cities, gathering signatures and support from the Fleurir in the slums, with the exception of a supposedly mythical town of Fleurir founded in the desert. At this time, it had been a few standard months, and Emma returned to check on the events. Finding that the Uterian government was in agreement with the proposed evacuation, she went alone to the surface to conclude negotiations, while the transport ships waited in orbit. However, at the capital building, Emma and Rue were met with a PoWER-led coup, which resulted in the assassination of the president and a hostile takeover. Emma and Rue fled as PoWER forces were scrambled to find them and exterminate the Fleurir. After escaping from a bounty attempt at Vee's Inn, Rue and Emma made it to the supposedly mythical Fleurir village, populated by Magic-imbued Fleurir. However, Glyphos followed them there and attacked the village with his tank. Although he was forced to retreat when Rue got her own magical abilities awoken by a stream of energized pollen, he still managed to kill Aveloz, the village's leader. In retaliation, Emma, Rue, and another village representative named Lithop followed Glyphos and attacked him, hoping to use him as leverage for PoWER's surrender. Although he tried to escape in a pod, he was shot down into the ocean by Rue and Emma, just as The Flower became active again and destroyed him with a laser blast. Without Glyphos, PoWER had no leader or motive, and agreed to reopen negotiations. Government transports picked up the entirety of the Fleurir population, as Emma flew to and conversed with The Flower, who wished to go with the Fleurir to their new home. The Fleurir and The Flower were transported to Avrien III, a low-population world with little industrialization, where the Fleurir underwent the naturalization process to become Government citizens, with more freedoms and rights than they had on Uteria. Uteria was left behind to its own devices, as the Government had no plans for colonization or expansion in its sector anytime in the near future.