Gayomart Protectorate, The
The Gayomart Protectorate |
System: | The Gayomart Protectorate |
Distance from Sol: | 3766 ly |
Primary: | Gayomart |
Type: | Stellarised Superjovian |
Region: | Far Canis Major Sector, Outer Volumes |
Planets: | a number of terrestrial class moons |
AI Overseers: | 83 Raylen ii9b |
Polity: | Gayomart Protectorate |
Affiliation: | None |
Local Government: | Partial Democracy under Raylenean supervision |
Population: | 473 billion sophonts |
Population Breakdown: | 43.6% aioid/virtual; 33.3% baseline/nearbaseline/tweak; 9.8% superior/tweak; 5.1% splice/provolve; 4.3% cyborg/bioborg/bionoid; 3.9% vec. |
Industry: | software, exotic matter and amat production, nanosystems and various artilectronic services. |
At the height of the great Version War, many sophonts were in fact unaffected by the conflict, but some individuals were worried by the events. In 4487, just a few years after the greatest loss of stargates in the entire war, the minor archailect 83 Raylen ii9b performed eir own analysis of the situation. E found the odds of a new 'dark age' too high for eir own preferences, and began consolidating eir resources.
Purchasing the most advanced and well-equipped starship e could find, 83 Raylen ii9b loaded the cargo bays with the materials for eir project and launched. The journey lasted 1500 years, from the frame of reference of Sol; however in ship's time the journey lasted less than eight hundred years.
At the edge of Terragen space, the Periphery, e found what e was looking for: a superjovian planet — not large enough to be a brown dwarf, but trailing several large moons. 83 Raylen ii9b created three artificial singularities, and set them orbiting the superjovian slightly below cloud level. The singularities acquired accretion discs, and produced heat and light, becoming Deep Well Industrial Zones and effectively stellifying the planet.
83 Raylen ii9b christened this new star-like object Gayomart.
E then began work on terraforming the largest moon, Inachos. The world had begun quite similarly to the moons Europa and Ganymede in Sol System, though it was denser. By the time 83 Raylen ii9b was finished, Inachos had an extensive sea on the sunward side, covered with numerous islands and several mini-continents. Unlike many worlds in similar conditions, Inachos' sunward side has a tolerable temperature, thanks to the archailect's interference.
The twilight belt is slightly cooler, and contains the bulk of the habitable land. A mixture of temperate climate and tundra, it ends with rocky shores toward the sunward side and glaciers toward the nightside. The nightside itself is also different from those of most tidally-locked worlds in that it is marginally habitable. Atmosphere is contained by various ultratech systems built by 83 Raylen ii9b, and heat and light are provided by other mechanisms.
Instead of building a large number of orbital habitats, 83 Raylen ii9b decided to built one, large, unit. The twilight belt is mirrored in space by the orbital ring - a megastructure that straddles the planet much like a ringworld would straddle a sun. The orbital ring maintains three orbital towers connecting to the planet, providing transport from groundside to space. Then entire planetary system - planet and ring - was angelnetted by the AI.
83 Raylen ii9b left the rest of the jovian system largely alone, keeping the other planets as materials reserves while e used up the various asteroid clusters co-orbiting with the moons. Currently there are three other major satellites - Kudai, Vithar, and Juok. There was originally a fifth moon (Qetesh), but it was disassembled for the archailect's construction projects.
Currently, the system operates as a semi-democracy for most matters that the lesser sophonts are concerned with, while 83 Raylen ii9b - now styling itself simply as the Raylen - controls the more important aspects. The government, calling itself the Gayomart Protectorate, has taken under its wing several nearby systems. In fact, the Raylen has managed to build several wormhole links between the various allied systems.
The Gayomart System itself is populated by some 473 billion sophonts. The major industries include software, exotic matter and amat production, nanosystems and various artilectronic services. Much of its imports are digital, though the Raylen has brought in some specialized ultratech (neutrino coolers, ISO parts and the like) from the Inner Sphere empires.
Recently, some worry has been raised in the system due to reports of a hostile presence in local space. As of 9954, two systems had already fallen victim to the fleet being styled the Daemons of the Trump (reference unknown, possibly ancient).
Text by James Ward
Initially published on 04 October 2001.