Still waiting on updates to The Hangar, or if they’ve rolled out I can’t see them and need to fix my browser. Last week I wrote up my home-brew rules for planetary conditions and how you might represent warfare on the various planets and moons throughout the solar system. This week, I’ve done a bit of my own fan fic on what might be happening on those worlds. Obviously, none of this is canon since Death Ray Designs is still working on their lore. But until the official releases, this’ll give you some ideas for how to set up some conflicts!

This week will cover the inner solar system and the Asteroid Belt. Next week we’ll cover Jupiter and beyond to the most remote and icy corners of the system!

Origin and Defender Perks are additional Perk categories for you to pick from when creating a Faction which are independent of Faction type (i.e. equally available to Authority, Corporate, and Freelancer forces). These are here as a way of introducing some flavor to a battle. If you’re doing an invasion of Mercury, it just makes sense that they should be able to task some of the Dyson Swarm to power Orbital Lasers.

Most of the new Perks are more limited versions of other existing Perks, noted in parenthesis what the limitations are. These can act as an alternate to one of the typically available Perks for your Faction or, if all players agree, an additional Perk slot that must be drawn from either the Defender or Origin categories. 

Origin Perks may only be selected by a force who is from that world. Defender Perks may only be selected by a force who is from the world they’re fighting on while they are defending that world. 

Many worlds possess a Defender Perk called “Local Garrison”. These are inspired by and based on the Outrageous Support Perk and provide a lesser version of an on-table support asset. Local Garrison units cannot contribute their tonnage toward your completion of objectives, but opponents can still count destruction of Local Garrisons as progress on their objectives. 

When this Perk lists equipment (like Jump Jets) which are heavier than 2 tons, it grants a 2-ton cost reduction of that item.

Atmosphere: Insubstantial
Gravity: Low
Radiation: Safe
Temperature: Extreme Heat (430°C), Extreme Cold
Special: Magnetic Storms, Meteor Showers, Quakes

Because of its location, Mercury became a major manufacturer of microelectronics and other advanced technology. It played a crucial role in the launch of the Dyson Swarm. Mercurian colonies were built under domes in the shadows of deep craters to access supplies of ice.

The coronal mass eruption that took out the Dyson Swarm hit Mercury hard, and not all of the colonies survived. Those that rebuilt became the wealthiest in the system. A ready supply of solar power established Mercury as an essential participant in intrasolar trade. 

The local slang for any terrain that gets full solar exposure. Encounters in the Wastes experience Extreme Heat at all times and can experience Magnetic Storms.

Both Craters and the Wastes at night experience the Extreme Cold condition. The Craters in Mercury’s northern and southern polar regions contain Mercury’s domed cities, both active and abandoned. Ruins buried under the ice entice scavengers seeking to lay a claim to their wealth.

Orbital Stockpiles (Orbital Laser): Mercury has redeployed a portion of the Dyson Swarm, selling solar power to other worlds. The transmitter mirrors also make excellent lasers.

Top-End Hardware (Ceramic Plating or Coolant Tanks): Mercurian HE-Vs are built to withstand exposure to Extreme Heat and mount laser-resistant armor.

Atmosphere: Average
Gravity: Normal
Radiation: Safe
Temperature: Temperate
Special: Corrosive Clouds, Floating Platforms

Venus’s surface remains an intolerable hellscape capable even of melting HE-Vs, but floating 50 to 60 kilometers above the surface exists a whole assortment of cities and industries. What started as a collection of gas mining and scientific research facilities has expanded, by necessity, into true cities in the clouds of Venus. Luckily, the Venusian atmosphere shielded these platforms from the worst of the solar event.

When the Dyson Swarm collapsed, many space stations and ships that depended on it for power found themselves in desperate straits. Many within the inner solar system evacuated for whichever gravity well they could reach first. Most made it to Earth. Those that attempted to reach Mercury rarely survived. The rest reached the industrial gas mining facilities on Venus. 

The refugees cannibalized their ships for materials, built out and expanded the existing facilities to add living space and atmospheric processing facilities. Today, those cities are major exporters of atmospheric gases to worlds throughout the entire system. Wars on Venus’s floating cities are rare, but control of the gas mining platforms remains highly profitable.

Local Garrison (LAS-Wing): LAS-Wings can scramble from nearly every platform on Venus, and those that don’t have their own can call for one from a neighboring platform.

Top-End Hardware (Jump Jets): Necessary to navigate platforms safely.

Atmosphere: Average
Gravity: Normal
Radiation: Safe
Temperature: Temperate
Special: Dust Storms, Lightning, Precipitation, Quakes, High Winds (18")

See the Terrestrial Operations sourcebook that doesn’t exist.

Has a chance of Dust Storms.

Combat during a hurricane includes Lightning, Precipitation (Rain), and High Winds (18”). 

Local Garrison (Bunker): Earth is the only planet in the system that doesn’t require domes or life support systems, and even after the collapse has the highest population of any world. Militias and garrisons are present everywhere, and even if they’re not one of your allies? They can be for a fee.

Strategic Energy Reserves: Despite the level to which Earth had become reliant on the Dyson Swarm, it still has the most varied access to energy production of any world in the system.

Atmosphere: Insubstantial
Gravity: Very Low
Radiation: Safe
Temperature: High Heat / Cold / Extreme Cold
Special: Meteor Showers, Quakes

With a short transit to Earth and plenty of readily available solar power, the Moon proved very resilient to the collapse of the Dyson Swarm. Although Lunar industry had become reliant on the swarm, that meant they had plenty of industrial capacity to adapt. Today the Moon is covered in solar panels made from regolith. 

Since before the Dyson Swarm was built, Luna acted as Earth’s shipyard and the place where much of the Earth’s unwanted and dirty industrial processes had been outsourced to. Prospector ships once trawled the Belt, using mass drivers to toss entire asteroids at receiver stations in orbit of the moon before being passed down to the surface for refinement. Whole craters on the Moon’s dark side have been filled with unrecoverable toxic byproducts of these processes.

Luna trades use of its shipyard for advanced electronics from Mercury and solar power for soil and food from Earth.

Anywhere in direct sunlight experiences High Heat while shadows experience Cold. Polar craters and the dark side of the moon experience Extreme Cold instead. Anywhere on the moon can experience Meteor Showers.

Outrageous Support (Mass Driver): Luna has a number of low-power mass drivers in orbit for shipping finished products to Earth, but they work just as well as defensive weapons.

Materiel Stockpiles: As one of the main shipyards, Luna is able to build armor and structure components far more efficiently than most worlds. 

Atmosphere: Thin
Gravity: Low
Radiation: Safe
Temperature: Temperate / Cold
Special: Dust Storms, Quakes

One of the most populous worlds in the solar system, before the collapse it served as the headquarters of most of the major corporations operating in space. A massive industry built up around the Martian terraforming project, constructing agricultural domes to wash Martian soil and pre-selling “seaside properties”.

When the Dyson Swarm fell apart, Mars lost all the power it needed to operate the soil washing industries and atmosphere generators. The dream of terraforming died, but those seaside properties stayed sold. Non-refundable. Now, the industries of Mars pivot towards war.

Cheaper to build on and export from than Earth, weapons built from Martian iron sell well throughout the solar system. Second, Martian soil grows a wide range of crops at competitive prices thanks to the lower escape velocity required for shipping. Agricultural and manufacturing facilities on Mars are fought over, sometimes even by rival Martian companies.

Mars can experience Temperate or Cold conditions depending on the season and latitude. Dust Storms can occur anywhere on Mars, but most frequently in the southern hemisphere.

Local Garrison (Light Vehicles): As one of the oldest colonies, and a center of military industry, Martian patrol groups are rarely far from a battle no matter how unexpected.

Adv. Hardpoint Design (Extra Plating or Heavy Plating): Martian military industries have a plethora of patented armor designs integrated into their HE-Vs

Spanning the space between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, the Asteroid Belt holds a wealth of icy, stoney, and metallic asteroids that have long been harvested by Belters for industry and trade. Lacking any gravitational bodies of note, massive O’Neill cylinders had to be positioned throughout the region. While most were of lesser dimensions and treated like the “oil rigs of space,” others became massive free-floating cities.

Atmosphere: Average
Gravity: Normal
Radiation: Safe
Temperature: Temperate
Special: None

Jewels of the outer system, Habitat Cylinders are the population centers of the Belt. Built to last, and containing far more luxuries and amenities than even planets like Mercury or Mars, habitat cylinders are some of the best places to live outside Earth. The typical design is of a cylinder with a 900m radius and length of 6km.

Built to Earth-like gravitational standards (at least originally), many have been “undercranked” to as low as 0.8g to save on power usage since the Dyson Swarm’s failure. Their placement in the system allows them to benefit from solar power for most of their energy needs, and their ability to mine and process raw materials allows them to cover any deficits via trade. 

Many outside forces mistake the self-sufficiency of habitat cylinders for energy wealth and surplus. Worse, they offer reliable base camps for striking out further into the outer solar system. Conflicts for control of these Belter cities, either for their resources or their strategic locations, have happened more than once. 

Atmosphere: Average
Gravity: Low
Radiation: Safe
Temperature: Temperate
Special: Small Cylinder

Mobile platforms, often used for on-site refinement of raw materials. Many of these were initially manufactured by Martian corporations to harvest asteroids, sending refined materials to Mars for terraforming and to Mercury to construct the Dyson Swarm. The smaller cylinders were built to a radius of 39m and length of 245 meters

Allegedly, these were built to operate at 0.3g for the comfort and safety of the Martian workers. In reality, that was the lowest the corporations could set the gravity before productivity faltered. Building the cylinders to those lower specifications also meant they could be smaller and easier to relocate. 

Since the collapse, many industrial cylinders have gone dark or been abandoned. And since no government or corporation has a full list of when and where they all went missing, many have been adopted by Freelancers to serve as mobile bases of operations. Similarly, others have been converted to pirate ports of call where raiders can put together crews and sell or trade their ill gotten gains. 

This O’Neill cylinder is built to the minimum possible size. The north and south edges of the map represent the top and bottom of the cylinder. The east and west sides of the map wrap around, so if a unit travels off the east side it moves to the west side.

Hope this gives people some fun ideas for their games! My favorite was definitely doing the math on a small cylinder and learning that it could absolutely loop around.

Many thanks to the Tough SF blog for being a tremendous resource in my research. Really great articles all around.

The Intrasolar Operations banner uses the following image:

Image title: As iau0601a but without annotations.
Credit/Provider: The International Astronomical Union/Martin Kornmesser
Short title: The new Solar System? [unannotated]
Date and time of data generation: 16:22, 16 August 2006