Tayac I

After experiencing the high cost of the Tevarin war, particularly his own experiences on the front line, Ivar Messer was eager to develop weapons that would enable the Empire to end future conflicts swiftly and with minimal loss of military personnel. Under his rule, dozens of highly classified blacklist initiatives, proposals and research projects dedicated to mass destruction were quietly established and generously funded. One such project, code named Vespa, was the brainchild of Dr. Thessaly Tayac, who believed that terraforming technology could be adapted for weaponization. The half-finished terraforming of 368A.01M was selected as the perfect test environment and in 2546, the small rocky planet was assigned to Dr. Tayac for experimentation. For the next several decades, the planet was systematically terraformed and then de-terraformed, eventually transforming a planet with great potential into a desolate rock with zero atmosphere. Though Dr. Tayac was able to successfully reverse the terraforming process, his team was never able to weaponize the technology.

The problem was two-fold: size and time. The orbital platform needed to destabilize the planet's biosphere was of considerable size. It was impossible to imagine a scenario where the Navy would be able to safely maneuver such a platform into place over a hostile world under battle-like conditions. And if they ever did manage to move the platform into a suitable position, the destabilization process was not a quick one. By the time Dr. Tayac passed away, considerable strides had been made, but not enough to make the project feasible for actual use. After the doctor's death, the reins of Project Vespa were passed on and the work continued in the system that was by then commonly referred to among Navy personnel as Tayac. Despite generation after generation of Messers eager to see Vespa come to fruition, the hurdles were just too insurmountable. By 2750, Tayac I had become increasingly unstable from the experimentation and could no longer be terraformed, while interest for the project had dried up along with funding. Vespa was officially shut down and Tayac System all but shuttered.

It wasn't long afterwards that the political winds of the Empire shifted and toppled the Messers from power. In the upheaval that followed, the experiments of Dr. Tayac became public knowledge. Not only was it a shocking revelation of what the Messers had been truly capable of, but it put a significant strain on the still fragile peace treaty that had only just been negotiated with the Xi'an. As a sign of trust and as an assurance that the Empire of old was a thing of the past, Imperator Toi shared all of the Project Vespa research with the Xi'an government, swearing that the technology would never be pursued again.

"We shaved a full 6 hours off the process. An impressive achievement despite how much further we have to go before our endeavor proves itself useful. A very worthwhile endeavor I may add, as all our effort here is nothing compared to its potential to save our starmen's lives."

- Dr. Tayac, Project Vespa Progress Report, 06.03.2572

The Ark
Opened by the UEE in 2800, the Ark was built following the massacre of Garron II and the fall of the Messer regime. It was intended to be a repository for universal knowledge as well as a neutral ground for diplomatic discussions between species. Though it has been used infrequently for diplomatic purposes, the Ark's massive library contains a wealth of invaluable cultural and historical information.