Qomar

Qomar, with the shining angry light of Demos' accretion disk.

Qomar is a relic from a forgotten age. The former citadel of the great Qomarat Empire, hanging majestically in interstellar space, it is now the home of some of the last remaining Qomarat, eking out an existence deep beneath the ice. Qomar is almost entirely unknown to the Verdan Federation, having only been visited by the Longshot probes designed to map the far reaches of The Silky Way.

However, these probes saw something strange. The surface of the planet was littered with ruins. The surface was almost completely obscured by a huge cloud of metallic debris, likely a ruined megastructure. What little of the surface was visible was glowing in the infrared, signifying a vast underground construct.

However, not much else is known about things on the planet, as it was only visited just the once. However, people all across the Verdan Federation and allied nations are clamoring for another mission there.

## **Overview**

Qomar is, at first glance, a classic example of a planet which formed in the accretion disk of a black hole. However, even the most cursory look at it shows something very odd. It is cold. Most black hole planets are very young, and hence are hot. Qomar, on the other hand, is ever so slightly above the freezing point of water. As well as this, the planet is almost completely obscured by a huge cloud of debris, all of which is metallic and appears to be fragments of something artificial.

Aside from this, deep beneath the surface lies a cryovault, with billions of individuals held in stasis until something is tripped to wake them up, likely a decrease in radiation. Qomar almost certainly did not form around Demos itself, as it's orbit is highly inclined relative to the black hole's accretion disk, as well as the fact that it's over 6 billion years old.

## **History**

Qomar formed around an unknown star near the outer edge of the deep core. It was originally a perfectly nice Teralla-like planet, and remained so until it was ejected from the system shortly after the fall of the Qomarat Empire. The Qomarat species evolved on the planet roughly 1.5 billion years ago, and rapidly expanded throughout the galactic core. As the core was mostly lifeless, this didn't take long. Roughly 170 years after the Core was fully conquered, a warlord decided to conquer the life-filled galactic ring.

However, the colonies sent there proved difficult to govern, and the government of the Empire were becoming less and less interested in them, so they gained independence. Unfortunately, the borders were horribly drawn, causing many different species to be trapped in the same territory. This caused civil war to break out, which was so devastating that it wiped out much of the life in the Silky Way's ring.

After the Empire's regression into isolationism, however, Demos decided to devour a massive clump of gases. This caused it to emit a huge, huge amount of radiation, which expanded throughout the territory of the empire, wiping out the entire population with the exception of what could hide in hastily constructed cryovaults.

Soon after this, a star passed very close to Qomar's home star, ejecting it to wander throughout the galaxy. It would be captured into direct orbit around Demos relatively recently, and the ice which had encrusted the planet during its long journey would begin to melt. This begun the revival process of the millions of Qomarat hiding in the vaults...

As this was happening, one of a fleet of Longshot probes surveying the deep core passed close to Qomar. It noticed a huge underground region glowing in the infrared, and decided to drop its landing probe there. The probe entered the atmosphere, but before it could land, the signal cut off. The main spacecraft whizzed past the planet to its next desination.

To this day, Verdan Federation scientists don't know why the landing probe didn't land, or what the pocket of infrared radiation was. However, a massive mission to the planet is presently being planned, which will hopefully reveal the secrets of this mysterious planet.