Australis (Australis I)

## History

Dubbed "Australis" by the United Commonwealth of Planets after the fictional continent of "Terra Australis" of Earth, which was theorised to be in the Southern Hemisphere until Australia was discovered by Europe in 1770.

Australis was first discovered in 2419, when the U.S.S. Nightshade was attempting repairs to the *Iris* Iconian Gateway in an attempt to restore a connection back to the Milky Way Galaxy from the Black Eye Galaxy.

During this attempt, the Nightshade was infected by an Iconian Computer Virus which forced the ship to emit a broad subspace pulse which pulled various celestial objects from subspace which were believed to have been purposely "buried" by the Iconians, revealing that this was not empty space as what was previously reported.

S.S. Gatekeeper was prevented from being destroyed while falling through the atmosphere of the newly revealed "*Australis*" which had been buried in subspace along with its companion star for some unknown reason. However the starbase landed in the ocean and sustained heavy damage despite attempts to save it.

A survey of the planet shortly after reveal that the planet is mostly water, with only a few habitable land masses, which are scarred with the ruins of a long dead civilisation previously unknown to the Federation.

In early 2420, the Borg Collective attempted an incursion into the Black Eye Galaxy, connecting their own Transwarp Network with a constructed gateway belonging to the newly formed Black Eye Borg Collective (Formally Sobekka Hegemony). The Black Eye Collective succeeded in sending a signal through the Iris to alert the Collective in the Milky Way Galaxy about the Black Eye Galaxy.

This led to the *Battle of the Supercube* where forces of the United Commonwealth of Planets managed to disable a Borg Supercube and the Transwarp Gate built within this system. As a result, the Commonwealth commissioned the Supercube as a research base and sentry facility against further Borg incursions. As a result, numerous archaeological digs have begun on Australis I.

In July 2421, Australis I was completed destroyed during the creation of the Trident Class Black Hole.

In February 2453, *Task Force: Atlantis*, a group of Galactic Commonwealth scientists and oceanographers discovered a vast *underwater forest*, made up of a new discovered form of flora at the bottom of one of Australis's oceans. These new types of flora do not require direct sunlight as most plants do in order to survive but have adapted to using nitrogen instead to respire underwater, releasing oxygen under the sea which has led to large and diverse fish life found in this region of Australis, similar to Coral Reefs found on many different worlds.

## Environmental

Since its emergence from a dormant subspace layer, Australis has proven to be one of the most diverse and comprehensive collection of different marine species from all over the Black Eye Galaxy. It has highly abundant oceans with an extensive coral reef system that has grown to be over one thousand times larger then the *Great Barrier Reef* on Earth.

Archaeological dives into Australis's oceans have revealed signs of massive subterranean power complexes which seem to work in order to contain Australis's ocean. These complexes have proved to be extremely inaccessible as they exist almost four times as deep as Earth's *Mariana Trench* in the *Atlantic Ocean*.