Cluster: Nubian Expanse

System: Dakka †

Alkonost

World Type: Giant Ice

Richness: Moderate

Element Zero: None

Iridium: Poor

Platinum: Moderate

Palladium: Poor

Orbital Distance: 2.47 AU; Orbital Period: 3.9 Earth Years; Radius: 17,946 Km; Day Length: 18.8 Earth Hours.

Description: Alkonost is a standard ice giant with a methane-ammonia atmosphere. It has an unusually strong magnetic field, which is occasionally useful when ships need to discharge their drives.

Bannik

World Type: Desert

Richness: Rich

Element Zero: None

Iridium: Moderate

Platinum: Rich

Palladium: Rich

Orbital Distance: 0.73 AU; Orbital Period: 0.6 Earth Years; Radius: 7,963 Km; Day Length: 54.8 Earth Hours; Atmospheric Pressure: 65.4 Earth Atmospheres; Surface Temperature: 599 Celsius; Surface Gravity: 1.6 G.

Description: Bannik is a large, superterrestrial “hothouse” with a crushing carbon dioxide atmosphere. A high average density of over 7 grams per cubic centimeter indicates that Bannik is a mineralogical treasure trove.

If only there were some way to safely reach its seas of molten metal and lodes of radioactive elements. The planet’s mass is so great that trace amounts of helium and molecular hydrogen can be found in the atmosphere.

Gamayun

World Type: Giant Jovian

Richness: Poor

Element Zero: None

Iridium: Poor

Platinum: Moderate

Palladium: Poor

Orbital Distance: 5.19 AU; Orbital Period: 11.8 Earth Years; Radius: 50,875 Km; Day Length: 65.6 Earth Hours.

Description: Gamayun is a hydrogen-helium gas giant with six large, icy moons. The outermost one, Gigula, is of note for a well-preserved wreckage of an ancient starship that was recovered by a turian military surveyor.

Little information has been released to the public on the vessel, aside from a scholarly paper regarding how the internal layout suggests a horizontally oriented race.

Pragia

World Type: Garden

Richness: Not Minable

Element Zero: Not Minable

Iridium: Not Minable

Platinum: Not Minable

Palladium: Not Minable

Orbital Distance: 1.3 AU; Orbital Period: 1.5 Earth Years; Radius: 5,137 Km; Day Length: 29.6 Earth Hours; Atmospheric Pressure: 0.84 Earth Atmospheres; Surface Temperature: 54 Celsius; Surface Gravity: 0.87 G.

Description: The jungle-planet Pragia is overrun by choking hypergrowth caused by industrially mutated plant species.

This, combined with its relative isolation and lack of population, has made Pragia an occasional base of operations for drug runners, weapons smugglers, pirates, mercenaries, terrorists, and intelligence agents seeking secrecy.

Sustained habitation on Pragia is extremely difficult; mutant and even poisonous plant life can overgrow colonies in days instead of years.

Zirnitra

World Type: Ocean/Ice

Richness: Rich

Element Zero: None

Iridium: Poor

Platinum: Rich

Palladium: Moderate

Orbital Distance: 7.78 AU; Orbital Period: 21.8 Earth Years; Radius: 2,683 Km; Day Length: 44.9 Earth Hours; Atmospheric Pressure: Trace; Surface Temperature: -158 Celsius; Surface Gravity: 0.16 G.

Description: Cold, distant Zirnitra has an extremely low density and is thought to be mainly ice around a small rocky core. It has little to recommend it.

System: Kalabsha

Tefnut

World Type: Giant Jovian

Richness: Poor

Element Zero: None

Iridium: Poor

Platinum: Moderate

Palladium: Poor

Population: 33,810 spread across five space stations; Orbital Distance: 4.1 AU; Orbital Period: 8.3 Earth Years; Radius: 57,010 Km; Day Length: 8.8 Earth Hours.

Description: A hydrogen-helium gas giant, Tefnut is home to a helium-3 collection and the refueling facility nearest to the Nubian Expanse’s mass relay.

As such it is a major gateway to the Verge and Terminus Systems and has become famous for its hospitality industry.

Tefnut’s motto is known throughout the galaxy: “Like home, only better.”

Visitors here can stay at expansive resort stations, watch locally produced entertainment, buy mind-affecting substances not welcome in Citadel space, and rent companionship.

Resources are shipped in from Yamm at substantial discounts, allowing the small space stations to have surprising luxuries, such as edible arthropods and large amounts of fresh water.

Yamm

World Type: Post-Garden

Richness: Moderate

Element Zero: Moderate

Iridium: Moderate

Platinum: Moderate

Palladium: Moderate

Colony Founded: 2170 CE; Population: 488,504; Capital: New Karnak; Orbital Distance: 2.0 AU; Orbital Period: 2.8 Earth Years; Radius: 6,501 Km; Day Length: 69.6 Earth Hours; Atmospheric Pressure: 1.8 Earth Atmospheres; Surface Temperature: 34 Celsius (temperate zone); Surface Gravity: 1.1 G.

Description: With over 90 percent of its surface covered in oceans, Yamm is a habitable nitrogen-oxygen world, but its extremes can be quite hostile to sapient life.

The heat from its extremely long days reaches dangerous levels ranging from 24 Celsius at night to 53 in the afternoon in the temperate zones.

Hurricanes run unchecked across the oceans, with winds reaching up to 250 kilometers per hour.

While there are some arthropod-like animals, the predominant forms of life are various kinds of toxic algae blooms that stretch hundreds of kilometers across.

However, other biohydrocarbon algae blooms are suitable for use as biofuel, and farming the “green gold” forms the backbone of Yamm’s economy.

System: Qertassi

Norehsa

World Type: Giant Ice

Richness: Moderate

Element Zero: None

Iridium: Poor

Platinum: Moderate

Palladium: Poor

Orbital Distance: 6.17 AU; Orbital Period: 2.4 Earth Years; Radius: 42,214 Km; Day Length: 19.2 Earth Hours.

Description: Norehsa is an unremarkable methane-ammonia ice giant with a small family of icy moons.

It is likely that the Qertassi system had additional worlds earlier in its history, but these have been swallowed by the aging giant star. Qertassi is an elderly metal-poor Population II star broadly similar to Arcturus.