Tuarte System

System Datafile:
System: Tuarte
Star: Tuarte (yellow)
Orbital Bodies:
Name            Type                        Moons
Tuarte             temperate terrestrial  2
Secondusa      barren terrestrial       1
Dun Belt         dense asteroid belt    -

Capsule: The Tuarte system is remarkable only because of the planet Tuarte itself. Secondusa is a played-out, airless mining world, and most of the resources in the dangerous Dun asteroid belt have likewise been used up. It is rumoured that the dense Dun Belt may contain a hidden New Republic base, although depending on who you listen to the base may also be home to pirates, slavers, or even a top secret Imperial research facility.

Tuarte
Type: temperate terrestrial
Temperature: temperate
Atmosphere: Type II (breath mask suggested)
Hydrosphere: standard
Gravity: standard
Terrain: hills, mountains, debris
Length of day: 31 standard hours
Length of year: 185 local days
Sapient species: Humans, Squib
Starport: limited services
Population: 6,000
Planet function: salvage
Government: none
Tech level: space
Major exports: salvage
Major Imports: foodstuffs
Capsule: Tuarte is a planet with a tragic history. Tuarte was one of the first planets to be colonized in the sector, soon after Ord Perpan and Conheav Prime had been colonized. Unfortunately, due to a book-keeping error Tuarte was woefully undersupplied. The colonists were forced to become self-sufficient much sooner than planned, and, though they were able to do so it was not done without a cost. For over a hundred years the citizens of Tuarte languished in extreme poverty as they had to struggle just to eke out a simple existence. Relief efforts from the Old Republic were forthcoming as soon as the mistake was realised, but by that time the damage had been done, and many felt that the so-called relief efforts actually did more to harm than help, since the colony was expected to pay back the Republic for these efforts over the course of 120 years. These payments crippled Tuarte's economy, and further caused the citizens to become self-sufficient, and isolationist. Eventually Tuarte broke away from the Republic, shortly before the Conheav sector was officially recognized as a region. For hundreds of years Tuarte remained almost entirely isolated from the Republic, slowly building herself up.
    Eventually a charismatic leader whose name has been lost convinced the citizens of Tuarte that the Republic owed them. Tuarte went through a 20 year military build up, and then attacked the neighboring worlds in a war of conquest. The Republic had little difficulty repulsing the forces of Tuarte, but could not get them to surrender. After 8 years of virtually constant fighting, the Republic reluctantly decided that a complete planetary assault on Tuarte was necessary, a decision that they had been avoiding for almost 7 years. The Tuartians resisted bitterly, though the years of fighting had already taken a great toll on their world. By this time Tuarte herself was already littered with the wrecks of countless crashed ships, both Republic Naval vessels, and Tuartian ships which had been shot down in the constant battle which had raged in the skies over the planet for close to 7 years. When the final assault came the remaining ground batteries on Tuarte opened fire with everything that they had, and anything that could fly was sent up against the assault craft, whether it had weapons or not. Countless civillian airspeeders rammed Republic dropships, shuttles, and fighters. At last the Tuartians could see that the battle was lost: all of their ships and vehicles were destroyed, their planet was a wasteland of wreckage, and virtually all of the planetary laser batteries that had protected the planet had been pounded into rubble. Despite this the stubborn Tuartian military commanders refused to surrender. A final wave of Republic assault craft approached the planet, and the Tuartian generals used their ultimate doomsday weapon. This secret weapon had been designed as a last resort to be used against invaders, and had not been used up untill now because it was certain to destroy all life on the planet. Hundreds of thousands of small nuclear missiles were fired from hidden batteries. These missiles sent virtually every ship in the Republic fleet that was encircling the planet spinning out of control to crash into the surface of the world. Hard radiation rained down upon Tuarte along with the debris, extinguishing virtually all life on the planet. The Tuarte War, as the whole incident was named, cost thousands of Republic politicians and military leaders their careers, and the planet was declared off-limits until the radiation died down.
    A little under a hundred years ago a scientific probe reported that radiation levels on Tuarte had dropped to safe levels. Before long 3 competing salvage companies had obtained licences to operate on Tuarte. Salvage is today the only industry on the planet and, except for a few Squibs, nobody lives on the world year-round. Instead salvage workers recruited from nearby systems take 2 month contracts to sift through the wreckage which covers large portions of the planet for anything which can be reclaimed. Tuarte is a rich salvage site indeed, but the operations there aren't as large or as profitable as one might expect. This is because virtually all of the salvage on Tuarte is military in origin. This neccessitates the employment of many experts who can deal with dangerous military-grade substances. As well there are a number of Imperial personnel assigned to each salvage company. These personnel ensure that any weapons, functional or not, are either melted down, or dismantled and the parts sold to an approved purchaser. This usually means that any salvageable weapon parts are sold to Lobic Arms, although on occasion these Imperials have been known to take bribes to look the other way as the weapons are diverted to other interested buyers. The 3 salvage companies; Vateer Reclamation, ReNEWal Salvage, and Tober Mining & Reclamation; are the only ones aside from Imperial forces who are allowed within the system, and the salvagers patrol the area around Tuarte vigourously with Bulk Cruisers and smaller craft to ensure that no interlopers decide to steal any valuable salvage.