|
This article, Nova Yekaterinburg "No'burg", is currently under active construction. |
| Nova Yekaterinburg "No'burg" Therum | |
| {{{image}}} | |
| Milky Way/Artemis Tau Cluster/Knossus System/Therum | |
| Orbital Distance: | 6 AU |
| Orbital Period: | 6.4 Earth Years |
| Keplerian Ratio: | 0.8397 |
| Radius: | 6.724 km |
| Day Length: | 28.3 Earth Hours |
| Atm. Pressure: | 0.68 atm |
| Surface Temp: | 59 °C |
| Surface Gravity: | 1.12 g |
| Mass: | 1.236 Earth Masses |
| Satellites: | None |
When the Knossos System and Therum had been discovered back in 2166, Eldfell-Ashland had provided the the survey probes that did the initial geological scans of the planet, coring into crust and earth to look for mineral wealth. Dozens of probes were sent and returned, and the Energy Corporation sent the results for most of the probes to the appropriate authorities at the Citadel Geological Survey Society with interest of 'buying' the planet. Since most of the probes showed the planet to hold nothing more exciting than nickel and iron, Eldfell-Ashland quickly won colonial rights to the planet, seen as a mostly-undesirable world that would hardly turn out a profit.
Most, mind you.
2167 was a great year for Therum as the first human 'surveyor' teams arrived with a camp settled at the northern cap, where the cooler temperatures meant less equipment desired. Within the first week, someone struck platinum, beryllium, and iridium. By the end of the month, more rare earths, light metals deposits, and heavy metal ores were being strip-minded out of the geologically-active planet. The Systems Alliance Colonial Affairs Bureau and Eldfell-Ashland Energy Corporation couldn't promote the 'gold rush' fast enough as thousands of pioneers and colonists signed up on the contracts that would guarantee them two years worth of work, with a percentage of the profit of what was discovered and dug out added to the end. The words 'gold mine' unfortunately had the less-educated skipping the fine print about work pay, work conditions, hazards, and termination clauses implied in the contracts. The first group of miners found themselves working brutal eighteen-hour work days in the twenty-eight hour solar rotation, hard, hot, heavy, backbreaking work, four-days on, one-day off. This went on for the first few months with little grumbling as the port of Nova Yekaterinburg was literally dropped overnight, cheap pre-fab domiciles and stores placed wherever to accommodate the swelling population. The population went from hundreds to tens of thousands before the end of the year, and Eldfell-Ashland raked in the profits as the miners toiled night and day for rock and ore.
Nova Yekaterinburg (known as No'burg to its citizens) is a shanty gold rush town reminiscent of Bodie, California of Earth. Composed of cheap pre-fab buildings known as Container, Housing Units (or CHU's), stacked haphazardly along crooked boulevards and not always placed properly aligned with the ones above, below, or next to it, each CHU houses six individuals in rather cramped conditions.