Jura

**Jura** is the seventh planet in the Antares System.
This was the planet that for many years Alasdair Geddes called his home, since
his mother Morag had been born on the planet, and had often returned to it
during the course of her family's travelling. In spite of being located within
a Core Worlds system, Jura is rather a backwater planet, resembling the
Scottish Hebrides in appearance.

## Physical Description

Jura is an ocean
planet, with most of the limited land being taken up by a large continent in
the northern hemisphere. Other, smaller islands are present in the southern
hemisphere. The climate is temperate, and cold temperatures are to be
experienced year round. Thus it is important to wrap up warm when visiting the
planet.

Weather on the planet is characterized by long, sunny
periods, separated by short but severe rainstorms. The surface of Jura contains
rolling hills, dense forests, lush fields, vast seas, beaches and mountainous
peaks, as well as a vast southern ocean.

Jura has two moons, named *Coll* and *Tiree*. Coll is
an uninhabited desert moon, which appears yellow in the Juran night sky. Tiree,
meanwhile, has been terraformed, and is now an ocean moon, which appears blue
in the night sky. This moon is home to several tiny islands, only a few of
which are inhabited. However, Tiree is also orbited by a space outpost, which
houses one of the largest populations in the local area.

Jura's
capital city, *Calpa*, lies on a bay on
the southern tip of the northern continent. Other important settlements include
the coastal resorts of Cairnablair and Craigblane, the valley towns of Glengorm
and Glen Dora, the lakeside (or *loch-side*,
to use local terminology) town of Loch Cidhe, and the quiet fishing village of
Kyle Abbin. Kyle Abbin is typical of many such villages on the planet, and is
especially noteworthy because it was where Alasdair Geddes used to live
whenever he visited Jura.

## History

Although colonization
of the Antares System had already gotten underway shortly after the Stellar
Exodus of 2100, the planet Jura was not discovered and colonized until the
mid-2150s. When it was, it was by a group of settlers from the Scottish space
program, who set up camp on the bay that would later house the capital city of
Calpa.

Naming the planet *Jura*,
after an island back home on Earth, the colonists began to adopt a culture very
much like that of the Scottish Hebrides. They reverted to the traditional *clan* system, with various old Scottish
clans being resurrected on Jura. One such clan, the Baldwins, sailed out one
year into the southern ocean, and discovered a pair of large islands, the
westernmost of which they staked a claim on immediately. Over the years, this
island would become known as *Abbot*
Baldwin Island*, and the clan still owns the island to this day.*

Over the next few
centuries, Jura's importance to Antares grew, with its cultural history
somewhat paralleling that of the Hebrides. One of the most important and well
known developments in Jura's history was of its crofting and fishing industries,
and during the late 26th Century, people began immigrating to the planet
en-masse, to soak in the Scottish atmosphere, and help sustain the industries.

When the Stellar Federation took control of the Antares
System in the early 27th Century, they left Jura more or less alone, with only
a few major changes here and there. One of these was the integration of a major
railway network across the continent, and on the two southern islands. The
Federation merely planned the routes and laid down the infrastructure, leaving
the matter of day-to-day running in the hands of the locals.

What resulted was what was then one of the most
incongruous extraterrestrial railways systems in populated space; it opted to
use steam power, rather than more modern methods. The locals argued that steam
was easier for them to work with, as coal was plentiful, and a steam engine
could keep things going in a hypothetical nuclear strike. Thus the Federation
ended up agreeing to keep the steam trains on Jura, and were actually inspired
to introduce steam to other systems across the Galaxy on the same ideas as the
Jurans had claimed.

Another effect of the Federation's minimal interference
was a sudden influx of Gypsies and other travelling folk from across the
Galaxy. The Federation had made attempts to persecute these communities, who
didn't fit in with their ideas about how people should conduct their lives.
Jura was seen by these travellers as a place of refuge, and when the first
groups arrived in the mid-2740s, they added considerably to the population,
either travelling around the planet or performing seasonal work for the locals.

In spite of being designated as a Core World, Jura has
remained very much out of the public eye since its initial colonization, with
two notable exceptions being the first two Galactic Wars. During the First
Galactic War (2914-2919), Jura became famous for being home to several famous
regiments of the Stellar Federation Military, which were known collectively as
the *New Black Watch*. Their Scottish
brashness and fiery temper are thought to have been the main factors in their
helping to win many battles, and eventually the War altogether.

The Second Galactic War (2939-2945) was pretty much the
same story for the people of Jura, but they ended up playing a far bigger role in
this war. Because of the large amount of isolated land on Jura, it was chosen
as a training ground for soldiers trained in conventional warfare. The planet
saw another massive increase in population, as troops from all over were
transferred in for training.

Many of these soldiers grew to like the general
atmosphere of the place, and after the War ended, many of them moved to Jura
permanently, some of them having formed strong relationships with local women.
This was the case with the parents of one Morag MacCrimmon, her father being a
soldier from Procyon II, and her mother being one of the local gypsies (insofar
as a gypsy can be called *local*).

Morag herself was born on Jura in 2947, and spent most of
her early life on Abbot Baldwin Island, where she would travel around with her
family, performing seasonal work around the various small villages. She ended
up not leaving the planet until she turned 19 in 2966, when she met and fell in
love with one Hunter Geddes, who was then starting out as a freighter pilot on
Procyon VI. After going easy with each other for some time previously, and
saving up enough money between them, the two of them got married, purchased a
ship, christened it the *Clan Geddes*
and took off to start a new life travelling the Galaxy. They would still return
to Jura every summer they could, but for the most part Morag remained away from
her home planet.

Life went on in a peaceful manner for the rest of Jura
after Morag departed. After a slump during the 2960s, the planet's economy
picked up again during the 70s, when new deposits of iron, coal and slate were
discovered. However, this was never allowed to overly complicated the lives of
the locals, who carried on in very much the same way as they'd always done.

During that same time period, however, there was a
growing tendency among the younger population to try and get away from this way
of life which was, they felt, rather too simple for them to leave their mark on
the universe. Many young people began to try and get off Jura, while those that
couldn't leave tried to *spice things up*
back home. One of the results of this was the coming of the rock music scene on
Jura throughout the 60s and 70s, when various Juran bands made it very high in
the Galactic Charts.

However, even *this*
new and interesting side of Jura couldn't prevent the planet from being dragged
down with the rest of the Galaxy during the economic slump of the 2980s.
Unemployment had become a major problem on Jura, which was further exacerbated
by strike action at mines, pits and quarries around the planet. Countless
families relocated off Jura to try and find work elsewhere, but the remaining
population stood firm, and started to work to reverse the slump.

They eventually managed it in the late-80s, long before
any similar recoveries on other planets. Things started to pick up again, and
many families who'd moved away soon moved back, to make a new name for
themselves on their home turf. Life was still relatively simple, but now the
Jurans had become more receptive of outside influence. This was *within reason*, of course, and in the
mid-90s, a now-famous campaign rose up to ban the Stellar Federation's testing
of nuclear weapons on Jura. The campaign succeeded-*just*-and the Federation abandoned their plans for Jura, instead
carrying out the tests on Atrabiin (the aforementioned weapons were those later
used in an attempt to end the Sorados Civil War).

Nowadays, Jura remains a quiet planet, and this quietness
is appreciated both by the locals and by tourists, who often come to get away
from the hustle and bustle of modern society. Indeed, many people who visit
often end up returning permanently, having been lured back by the natural
beauty of the planet, its rich history, and everything else Jura has to offer.

## Inhabitants

The population of Jura
has a relatively small variety of species, largely comprised of those from
Scotland and other similar countries. Because of the planet's backwater nature,
the people of Jura are naturally given to a peaceful, simple way of life, which
has gone almost uninterrupted since the initial colonization.

Employment on the planet can be classified by a small
number of categories: farming, mining and quarrying, brewing, and oil and gas extracting.
These industries provide the bulk of Jura's exports, with a few smatterings of
other businesses alongside, such as the manufacturing of small, hand-crafted
goods.

The *Jurans* can
appear strange at first; either quiet and reserved, or loud and eccentric, and
one's perception of the planet depends on which of the two is first
encountered. However, the Jurans are a kind people, who won't hesitate to help
out a friend in need, however great the personal cost may be.

The
most notable family native to Jura is the Geddes family, with husband Hunter,
wife Morag, and children Valerie and Alasdair. Despite being travellers, Morag
and her family would try to return to Jura every summer they could, and
according to son Alasdair, those were the best summers of his entire life. It
has yet to be seen what it was about life on Jura that made Alasdair long to
return some day, but no doubt when we *do*
see it, it will be as wonderful an experience as he makes it out to be.