Comm-Link:Galactic Guide - Odin

First discovered in 2532, Odin (marked on the initial transit logs as “Odom”) was one of the first star systems reached during mankind’s initial extrasolar expansion. A scant fifty millennia ago, a brief flicker in geological time, the system was home to multiple vibrant ecosystems similar to Earth or Terra. That all changed abruptly when Odin’s star collapsed into a white dwarf. The immediate trauma completely enveloped the system’s first planet and quickly boiled off the biospheres of the others, killing all native life. When Earth’s first explorers jumped to Odin, they found a system of icy rock worlds with uniformly foreboding exteriors.

The immediate thought was that the system could become a mining hub, but its lack of jump transit points and some unique stellar features quickly made it clear that such operations were infeasible. Thus, lacking a strategic position or a terraformable world, Odin was relegated to the saddest fate for a star system: weapons testing area. By the early 27th century, the demonic crags of Odin’s core worlds were quickly being flattened by experimental weaponry intended for sale to the UEE military.

Odin most recently became a cause celebre of the scientific community when a group of noted geobiologists came forward to point out that the government was allowing companies like Behring to wipe clean an otherwise well preserved fossil record that could tell the story of the life that came to evolve in the Odin system. While a grassroots “SAVE THE FOSSILS” movement initially gained some traction in popular culture, interest soon faded.

The Belt (Odin I)
The Odin I Asteroid Field, commonly called the Belt, is possibly the most interesting area of the system. The remnants of the system’s pre-catastrophe first planet, the Belt is a seemingly unending field of minerals. Ore located in the Belt runs the gamut from basic slough to valuable heavy metals, with extremely valuable (and distinctive) caches of gemstones being discovered more often than one would expect. The UEE formally bans mining in the Odin system, but garrisons no forces there and generally takes a blind eye to the practice. There are, however, bigger dangers to mining operations seeking to skirt the law and take advantage of the former world’s riches. The first is an electromagnetic phenomenon called arch charges.

The result of the exposed planetary core’s iron-rich content coming into contact with cast-off stellar remnants, arc charges are deadly to any ship unlucky enough to be caught in their embrace. So many have been destroyed over time that legitimate mining operations have given up entirely on petitioning the Senate for licenses to exploit the Odin system. Heavily shielded independent ships may fare better, but the best advice is to stay away.

And if the arc charges don’t get you, the pirates may. A warren of well-armed pirates, seemingly immune to the electromagnetic phenomenon, is believed to be based deep within the Belt. This group, whose organization and formal allegiance are unknown, has been involved in dozens of hit-and-run strikes against legitimate operations within a jump or two of Odin. The sum total of their effect on the countless black market gun runners and mining operations that attempt to wring a quick UEC out of the Belt is unknown.

Odin II (and Vili)
Odin II is ostensibly within the star’s green band, although the planet has only what little atmosphere it has naturally gathered in the last 50,000 years. Officially a UEE military operations base, Odin II is home to the occasional temporary “deep freeze” expedition. Scientists and military forces training for trans-polar combat operations pass through the world, but no one lives here permanently. Most of the surface of the planet has been curtained off for weapons testing operations, with robotic survey labs belonging to A&R, Behring and others dotting the equatorial planes.

However, the planet’s moon, Vili, is the most famous corporate weapons testing range in the system (and possibly the galaxy). Much of the surface is exclusively owned by Behring’s shadowy Applied Technology division, and a notable percent of munitions expended by man in the past decade have been launched against lifeless rock formations and artificially deposited synthe-peeps on Vili. BAT research laboratories are located deep beneath the surface of the moon, away from all varieties of prying eyes. Testing ranges and a variety of supporting factories (antimatter refineries, chemical compulsion units and the like) surround the few Human-occupied locations on the moon.

The one part of the moon, and indeed the star system at large, open to travelers is Raleigh Station, a snowy space base erected by the UEE to allow the government (and civilian contractors) to bring in supplies and to ferry out weapons projects after their test cycles. Raleigh Station is not the most welcoming place in the galaxy, but there is enough to keep a traveler busy. Standard bulk food and medical supplies are always in demand here, and pilots have reported finding occasional deals on discarded military-grade surplus.

Odin III & IV
The second planet in the Odin system, Odin III (natives are notoriously insistent that the Belt still be considered the first planet, to the point of influencing official star charts) is another insignificant, dead world. Although weapons testing is officially forbidden here, the surface of the planet has still been burnt to a cinder and irradiated beyond recognition. A famous photograph of the planet taken from orbit and used during the abandoned ecological campaign shows a massive, glowing delta-shaped blast impact cutting directly into the surface. Military sources formally deny that a weapon capable of causing such damage to a planet’s crust exists.

Odin IV is a gas giant and home to a UEE-sponsored hydrogen rendering station and fuel depot in geosynchronous orbit. While the station is crewed, the facilities for interacting with outsiders are wholly automated: a supplier drops off unrefined hydrogen and takes on fuel without ever encountering any of the occupants. Starship crews are actively discouraged from layovers on Odin IV, although the station has a limited number of poorly maintained rental habit-cubes. Fuel prices are notoriously inexpensive for this region of the galaxy, and it is sometimes even worthwhile to make the jump to Odin to refuel a larger ship.