Comm-Link:Galactic Guide - Hades System

"I had put my ship on automatic, bearing for Hades III, and then climbed down to the middeck. As I stepped toward the hold, I caught sight of something in the darkness. I couldn’t say it was even Human, but Humanoid at least. I had an immediate impression of a body with exposed musculature, covered in blue-hued veins. It turned to look right at me when my ship suddenly rocked. It was gone. It was a nanosecond of an encounter, but I was left with a terrible sense of presence. It was as though I’d seen something my mind couldn’t understand. The feeling never passed. I sold the ship when I got home; it didn’t feel like mine anymore.”"

- Eli Thorn, Navjumper

Hades is a lawless system that is technically classified as abandoned by UEE stellar cartography. A blue-white B9 IV star, Hades produces too little heat for a viable green band; while several planets survive in orbit, none has the heat to support life. In broad stellar terms (and in seeming contradiction to the age of other stars in the stellar neighborhood), Hades seems to be nearing the end of its life cycle.

Hades was first identified in 2515 by the Merry Crow, a tramp freighter. The discovery was not formally cataloged because the ship was carrying several hundred freight units of stolen fusion drives. Nineteen years later, Jake Tapps, the Crow’s navigator and sole surviving crew member, found himself penniless and planetbound. He sold the ships’ extensive logbooks to finance a SLAM habit and the Hades System was subsequently charted and officially registered by the Dynamo Corporation.

Interest in the system skyrocketed once Dynamo’s exploration ships conducted their initial survey. While the system was deemed still totally inappropriate for terraforming, they located significant evidence that all of the worlds were once home to an extinct spacefaring society. Decades of research have created an interesting picture of an advanced society that ultimately wiped itself out through internecine conflict. The majority of the surface of Hades’ three inner planets is pock-marked with impact craters, while the final, former planet in the system has literally been split in half through as-of-yet identified means. It was this grandiose level of destruction that gave the system its name.

While there are no facilities for refueling or ship maintenance in the Hades system, it is still part of an active spacelane. However, very few alter their courses to explore the inner system.

Most of those who are willing to traverse on to the planets are xenoarchaeologists and tomb raiders. Despite the widespread devastation, thousands of structures have been identified on Hades’ graveyard worlds, and many more are believed to exist underground. Countless artifacts are taken (or stolen) from these sites each year, and it is believed that there are a number of ongoing, formal ‘outlaw’ operations running to try to locate some of the technology that the Hadesians used to destroy themselves.

Hades I
The first planet in the system completely lacks any atmosphere. Scattered unnatural craters and ruins indicate that the Hadesians must have colonized Hades I in a limited capacity. Scientists have been unable to figure out whether it was always this way or whether the atmosphere was another victim of the war.

Hades II
Hades II retains something of an atmosphere, but it is a violent one. Environmental suits must be worn, and due to the amount of volcanic ash in what remains of the atmosphere, no one should ever be away from a breather. Sprawling Hadesian cities spider across the landscape, every single one of them dead and withering away in the unrelenting wind. The unstable nature of the ruins makes this surface a very precarious one to try and explore.

Deposits of Kherium, a mineral prized by the Xi’An for use in their armor plating, have been discovered on Hades II, although, due to the archaeological value of the system, no corporate mining campaign has ever been authorized.

Hades III
On the surface, Hades III matches I and II: it is a gruesome landscape of impact craters and shattered cities. The atmosphere is toxic, and only the best-equipped xenoarch teams should make landfall. Despite this, countless ruins have been documented over the years, perpetuating the belief in certain circles that there is still much remaining to discover in Hades.

Death and destruction is not limited to the surface of Hades III. At a Lagrange point high above the planet a more recent graveyard sits in orbit. Back in 2901, a Xi’An junker, smuggling a cargo of Osoians bound for slaughter and rendering, suffered engine troubles. As the crew struggled to restore power to the ship, the captive Osoians, normally docile creatures, escaped and proceeded to slaughter the crew, the crew of a rescue ship and ultimately each other.

Hades IV
Hades IV is commonly considered a ‘half planet,’ leading to the somewhat confusing ‘3.5 worlds’ listing in the formal UEE listing. While the entire planet still exists (and has not degenerated into a complete asteroid field) it does so in two distinct halves. It’s impossible to wholly comprehend the absolute horror of a weapon capable of destroying an entire planet, but it is difficult not to marvel at the spectacle of this desolation.

The Hadesians
There are as many theories about the Hadesians’ nature as there are stars in the sky. Every year, a fresh batch of university graduates descends on the system, hoping that they will be the ones to finally crack the mystery of this civilization, and every year, they go away in frustration. That doesn’t mean that the Hadesian are a complete mystery. Scientists have managed to roughly determine their physical dimensions and that their civil war was fought roughly 300,000 years ago. Based on skeletal and architectural evidence, Hadesians were roundish creatures with a bulky central body. Multiple thin appendages (a number that apparently varies from Hadesian to Hadesian) and a pair of long arms complete the figure.