Resurgence - Abbeville
Abbeville - Window to the stars
Abbeville was a pleasant world on the edge of the Federated Suns. When Homefleet arrived they were nervously greeted but quickly welcomed with open arms. Shockingly, Abbeville had no idea the Republic had fallen. With such compassion came an explosion of tourism and economic prosperity. Planetary Governor Christianson eagerly met with General Lee and many of the Command Staff frequently over the weeks. After some discussion it was decided to build an Embassy on the world for an easy point to reach back from the Deep Periphery. To be Ambassadors, it seemed fitting that Kitsune Kurita’s granddaughter be the link between nations. She and her husband would remain on the world.
To ensure safety and supplement defenses, volunteers that were not enthusiastic about colonizing a new home formed a combined arms company that would stay behind. With the Draconis Combine so close in the Dragon’s Tongue for so long, the people of Abbeville were quite pleased to have the massive fleet, including Warships wrapped around it like a shield. Hundreds of shuttle trips per day brought civilians and military personnel alike to the surface. Young women flocked to the young men like in ancient Terran videos when soldiers would arrive somewhere on liberty. Liberty briefs were given constantly, the Officers wanted to keep new passengers in the form of pregnant mothers to a minimum.
It was a glorious few weeks of R&R after the horrors of Terra. But, as all good things do, they come to an end. Flashes began occurring at both the Zenith and Nadir jump points. The nearest Warship Black Vector began scrambling. In seconds the Captain was reaching out to General Lee....."
A Common motto is had by the populace of the peaceful world, "Window to the stars". Like many Periphery bordering worlds a number of telescope facilities exist on world to find lost and new worlds in the Periphery. Excitement fills the researchers in trying to seek out these rare treasures.
Looking at the planet itself many land masses have large forests. Great oceans separate the various land masses with many islands dotting across the waters. There are mountain ranges but, where they are not the largest in the Inner Sphere, the oceans are more than twice as deep as ancient Terra's. Many oceanographers clamor at a chance to explore the depths of the world. Of course, the cost to build equipment that can withstand the pressures of the ocean and more importantly keep the researchers alive is quite prohibitive.
This is where the exploration pays for itself. A bizarre, oyster like creature the size of most four person hovercars thrives in the oceans. Only with extreme rarity have they come to the surface. Far more active than the ones on Terra, they travel using pressurized water to push themselves through the water. In this process pearls the size of duffel bags are expelled. Researchers use these recovered pearls to sell and fund their equipment. The deeper they go, the larger the pearls seem to be that are left behind on the ocean floor. Ones that have been left behind for a period of time appear to have odd growths or a lumpiness that more recently left behind ones dont have yet.
Back on the planet's surface there are no deserts but, the ground is still frustrating to work with. A dense rockiness combined with burrowing mammals and large insects wreak havoc on foundations of structures if they are not supported by extremely thick foundations and further by rebar sunk into the rocky ground through the foundation. Research on the native plant life shows that roots are very thick and dense, almost like myomer muscles capable of pushing through the gaps of dirt between the large stones in the ground.
Fields of crops were originally in random patterns as early settlers could not find an economic way of pulling out all the rocks in the dirt. Over time, with the pollination of the field plants, new strains adapted to the environment. Corn, Sweet Potatoes, Carrots, and more vegetable crops began to have the larger roots that could dig into the ground. Over time, the process of separating and removing the rocks from the dirt became efficient enough that fields could be dug out to about two feet down and replaced with pure dirt.
The stones are then used in construction and ground down for other purposes and mineral extraction. This turned out to be fiscally beneficial for the farmers as they essentially sold the rocks in the field to the company removing them, covering the cost of the endeavor, who would in turn take them through the extraction process and sell the construction or mineral products for a profit.
Another phenomenon in this situation is that after a couple years, rocks seem to push their way to the surface in the fields, causing the farmers to deal with the extraction and dirt replacement process yet again. Still unsure of what is causing this, some have suggested that the usual mammal and large, backpack sized insects may be just pushing them up from further underground, research is underway. The only clues so far seem to be when a drilling crew cut into a large hole about ten meters underground that resembled a collapsed tunnel, there may be larger creatures below...