Skeren
Skeren is an extrasolar planet 169 LY from Earth and neighbours Helion, it orbits a K class star called Lumens.
Skeren’s year is 423 days long and a day lasts 32 hours, Skeren receives about the same amount of light as the Earth. There is an Earth like atmosphere. Three moons orbit Skeren counteracting each other’s tidal influence until a lunar alignment occurs this caused a tsunami like occurrence around once every 5 years. It has a mass of 6.2 Earth Masses and lies on the inner edge of the habitable zone.
Skeren was an ecological disaster in the waiting, the planets eco system hung on a knives edge and when mankind arrived, within 50 years the ecosystem began to collapse. Catastrophic planet wide deforestation occurred due to an industrial accident causing the once sensitive ecosystem to completely fail, the oceans dried, the forest disappeared and if it had not been due to the high mineral value of the planet it would have long since been abandoned however…
The Helion Republic acquired the planet and turned it into a penal colony/mining facility. Allowing the convicted criminals to serve hard labour in the mines to pay their debt back. However this didn’t quite work out as planned and a large number of the criminals fled into the wastes. The now escaped slaves have adapted to their desert home surprisingly well and a rather brutal culture that ravage across the landscape in brutal gangs preying on one another and scavenging resources.
Skeren is renowned for its dust storms, these massive storms swallows vast tracts of land and can blow from a few moment up to a week or so. Winds reach in excess of 200mph and static can cause electrical discharge inside of the storm.
No Ripgate is found in Skerens system, close proximity to Helion does away with this need.