Forbidden Moon Background

Six light years northeast of Prenglar system lies the binary system, Xiu 55618. Originally explored and cataloged during the early days of the Age of Exploration immediatly following the First Sathar War, it was classed uninhabitable. Due to the uninhabbitable classification and the subsequent loss of the exploration vessel (with the route to Xiu 55618 being unpublished) the system was ingored for decades till a feighter misjumped enroute to Madderly's Star and brought back word that the earlier report on Xui 55618 may not be entirely accurate.

The freighter captain sold his data on Xui 55618 to recover lost time and money and the system recieved a second look by a private exploration service. This service re-did the survey and discovered several anomalies. Rather than make the jump route from Prenglar to Xiu 55618 public, they auctioned of the route charts to interested parties. Cassidine Development Corporation beat out Pan Galactic Corporation and established a research station in system and maintained the charted route as a company secret.

Ten days (GM's who rule void travel to be instantaneous should make this 4 days) ago the Space Fleet command recieved a medical emergency call from the CDC operation in Xiu 55618. Since the jump route was a secret, Space Fleet was unable to dispatch a vessel. CDC didn't want to release the route charts but their hands were tied by law in that the medical emergency call had been made and a duly commissioned representative of the UPF would be required to investigate. The CDC offices at Port Loren offered to provide an astrogator to plot the jump but space fleet regulations prohibited a civilian from doing this. In the end a Medical Services Organization, while technically a civilian servive, qualified as a government representative. A CDC astrogator was posted to the MSO rescue scout, Samaritan and the ship was dispatched to Xiu 55618.

In Xiu 55618 the crew of the MSO Samaritan discovered a primary star orbited by an asteroid belt, a ringed gas giant with a moon, another asteroid belt and a distant secondary star.

The CDC astrogator gave a 1 credit tour of the system, the asteroid belts had the original names of Inner and Outer. The gas giant was known as Capra and its one surviving moon was Tabulous. The distant companion star was Faindre.

Capra's moon posesses a thin toxic atmosphere and is the location of Science Station Alpha Romeo 47. On Tabulous' closest approach to Capra severe storms sweep the surface accompanied with lightning discharges. The safest place for living organisms is beneath the surface in the frozen tunnels of the science station. The safest place for grounded ships is a box canyon kilometers from the science station. The topography of the terrain around the canyon conveys protection from the storms and ships that are cabled to the grounding rod will not suffer from the lightning discharges.