Gold System

The primary is an orange-yellow star, slightly larger than Sol. It was originally named "Gold" for it's color but the name became doubly significant when large of amounts of elemental gold and other heavy metals were found in the Badlands.

1- The Badlands. The Badlands are a very dense, very large, very rich, asteroid belt extending almost from Gold's photosphere to approximately 130 million km (or 1.4 AU).

2- The planet Smackdown. Smackdown is a small (4200 km diameter), rocky planet that orbits at 98 million km from Gold. At a little over 1 AU, it is about 3/4 of the way out of the Badlands. Smackdown is constantly bombarded by the asteroids in its path and the relatively empty track of its orbit divides the asteroid belt into the Inner Badlands and the Outer Badlands.

3- The planet Cordelia. Cordelia orbits at approximately 410 million km (2.8 AU) from the primary. It is the largest and arguably the most beautiful of the three nearly equal sized but differently colored gas giants known as The Three Sisters. It is a banded, bright blue world with a diameter of 51,200 km. Ellis Station shares Cordelia's orbit.

4- The planet Regan. Regan orbits at 920 million km (6.2 AU). It is a pink/orange gas giant with a diameter of 47,600 km, making it the smallest of The Three Sisters.

5- The planet Goneril. Goneril orbits at 2.8 billion km (19 AU). It is a golden yellow gas giant with a diameter of 48,300 km.

6- The Midbelt. The Midbelt is a dense asteriod belt approximately 4.7 billion km (32 AU) from Gold. It is rich in heavy metals.

7- The Farbelt. The Farbelt is a loose asteroid belt approximately 6.1 billion km (41.5 AU) from Gold.

8- The Clouds. The Clouds are glowing gas clouds over 10 billion km (68 AU) from Gold. The glow has not been explained and is still under investigation.

There are many man-made structures in the system, mostly small and devoted to mining and research. Of the few large bases, the largest is Ellis Station. Ellis Station shares Cordelia's orbit at 2.8 AU, following 60 degrees (450 million km, 2.5 light minutes) to the rear. The Terran Navy Guardian Force based at Ellis Station is responsible for the overall security of the system.

Between the Midbelt and the Farbelt, Brassmonkey Deep Space Mining & Refining has established three stations called simply Brassmonkey1, 2 and 3. They are evenly spaced in the same orbit, 120 degrees apart, with approximately 10.5 billion km between them. Brassmonkey1 is a large station, approaching the size of Ellis Station. Brassmonkey Deep Space has hired private police forces for security in the immediate area of their stations.

Regan, Goneril and Cordelia are the names of King Lear's daughters in the Shakespearean tragedy of that name. The commander of the Terran Navy Explorer Force that mapped the system was Rear Admiral Edward Lear. Because of his name, he identified with the Shakespearean character to the point of naming is own daughters Regan, Goneril and Cordelia. He used his considerable influence to name the planets.

Smackdown was named by Marine Lt Rivka Bas-Yitzak, the first human officer to set foot on the planet.

Brassmonkey is an Alaskan Commonwealth corporation. Ellis Station, being a Terran Navy installation, is nominally multinational but, in fact, most of crew is North American. The still simmering tensions between the Alaskans and the North Americans occasionally lead to unpleasantness - especially in bars.

Historical Note: During the first decade of the Great Warming, many citizens of the newly-constituted United States of North America moved north - some to enjoy the more moderate climate but many more to exploit the remaining natural resources in that time of energy crisis. After increasing tensions between the original northern people and the southern newcomers finally boiled over into the 37-hour American Northern War, Alaska, Yukon, Northwest and many of the Arctic islands quit the United States of North America and created the Alaskan Commonwealth. Americans refer to Alaskans as "Quitters" and the Alaskans return the favor by calling the Americans "USers".

For reference, Earth orbits at 93 million miles or 149 million km (ie. 1 AU) from the system primary, which would put it in the outer edge of the Inner Badlands. Uranus' diameter is 51,100 km, the same as Cordelia. Goneril orbits at 2.8 billion km, Uranus at 2.9. Neptune is 4.5 billion km from Sol, which would put it just inside the Midbelt.