BARD PAPER: OPAL8615 | Home | Traveller | BARD | OPAL |
BARD PAPER: OPAL8615 | Home | Traveller | BARD | OPAL |
The original colony was a group of terraformers sent to convert the world into one more pleasant to colonisation, but the project was abandoned after the Psionic Suppressions, and the terraformers were abandoned to the tender mercies of their world. The leftover population had to become self-reliant, and eventually became quite disdainful of the Imperium. The isolationist population of Neopidan never depended upon Midway trade in the past, and the loss of the Imperium did not adversely affect them. The Collapse did shock them into action, and the world is strongly supportive of the military, Quarantine and antiviral procedures. The population abandoned its older settlements for an arcology built near the naval bases planetside facilities.
The world's main settlement and naval base down facilities are experimental structures constructed by a consortium of companies on Vincennes. Built of advanced TL-16 materials and biotech, these consist of seperate floating habitats that are constructed of interlocking concentric circles. In the intervening gaps, a "bioslime" is secreted by the organic structures that displace water and provide buoyancy. In case of a viral attack or severe weather, the slime can be reduced along some rings to allow the facilities to submerge until the danger passes.
Neopidan is the seventh of eleven moons around the gas giant Origen. The warm waters of the world gives the population the option to grow food in special floating greenhouses, which is preferable to the inedible local sealife, which is primarily primitive algae and sea fungus. High amounta of carbonaceous material exist in its mantle, and tectonic agitation will create infamous "Black Wells", undersea volcanos that spit this material into the ocean, often poisoning imported sea life. Toxins from these tides can persist for years until they settle out or are converted by local life, and these areas are posted against swimming or fishing. The world suffers severe weather patterns due to differential heating of the CO2 heavy atmosphere, and flight is not recommended in airships or airfoil aircraft of any kind.