Day's End (planet)

Day's End is the capital planet of the Federation of Day's End, and is currently the only planet in the system inhabited by it. It is located in the Concourse region of the Aoshtai Galaxy directly between the UHR NS Transit Route 1, End's Run, and GCTO Route 2 etherlanes.

## History

### Formation and Geologic History

Day's End is a planet that formed shortly after its parent star about 7.6 billion years ago, gradually migrating inwards with the other six planets in the system. While all planets in the system lost much of their water on the surface due to the extremely luminous pre-main sequence phase stars like Threshold undergo, their initial positions further from the star spared many of them from losing most of their volatiles.

Despite the age of the planet, it's currently believed that the simple animal life currently observed in its oceans developed in the past 100 million years, following a nearly catastrophic glaciation event that lasted for hundreds of millions of years beforehand.

## Inhabitation

### Colonization

Around -60 NAC, the federal government of Day's End decided to start colonizing the surface of the planet. Due to the challenges faced by the lack of land, they opted to build their first cities underneath the ice sheets on the night side of the planet. Due to some of the similar engineering challenges faced by building large structures underwater to those faced during the expansion of the original space station the nation originated from, they opted for this over land reclamation or attempting to build on the ice sheet.

These cities take advantage of the surrounding seawater to collect deuterium for power production, as a source of water and salt, and also as a way to manage the heat produced without disrupting the integrity of the ice sheet above.

### Orbital Structures

Day's End has two notable orbital structures. The first, and oldest is the massive orbital station that still houses much of the nation's citizens, handles most of its agriculture, and serves as its center of government. It also serves as an entry point into the nation, and is the receiving point for almost all of its trade.

The second is a pair of orbital rings encircling the planet at around 300 kilometers above the planet. While called rings, they're basically magnetized wires spun up at slightly faster than the orbital speed at that altitude as to be kept taut. On the rings are a number of platforms magnetically coupled to them, and are stationary relative to the surface of the planet. These platforms provide various facilities, from manufacturing to serving as a base for tethers, which extend down to the surface of the planet, providing stability for the rings, and easy transport to and from the surface.

## Geography

With some exceptions, the entire surface of Day's End is covered in a somewhat shallow (on average less than one kilometer in depth) ocean. This relatively shallow ocean for an aquaplanet is believed to be due to the planet losing much of its water before its parent star entered the main sequence.

In some locations, past volcanic activity produces atolls and short-lived rocky outcroppings. Both are barren due to the lack of complex plant life and life evolved to live on land.

## Climate

The climate of Day's End is significantly simpler than most planets, due to the lack of land and its tidal locking. Conditions on the surface of the planet are dependent largely on the distance from the substellar point, and circulation patterns. The most dramatic example of this is the weather near the sub-stellar point, which is covered in clouds, and experiences incessant rainfall.

## Life

The life found in the oceans of Day's End resemble that of Earth's Ediacaran period, with creatures like jellyfish and sponges being common, but also a significant number of creatures that do not have any modern equivalent. These include a wide variety of organisms living on the ocean floor, ranging from simple organisms that receive nutrients from their surroundings through osmosis, to various arthropod-like organisms that prey on life, ranging from plankton to other macroscopic life.