Nancora

From Wikipedia of the Dark Brotherhood, an online Star Wars Club
Republic eraImperial eraNew Order era.
Nancora
Astrographical
Region:

Outer Rim Territories

Suns:

Nancora Major

Distance from Core:

1.36 AU

Orbital period:

451 Standard Days

Physical
Class:

Terrestrial

Diameter:

4.989 km

Atmosphere:

Type II (Terraformed)

Climates:
  • High: 122°F/50˚C
  • Low: -61°F/-52˚C
Gravity:

1.2 G

Primary Terrain:

Variable

Points of interest:
Societal
Primary language(s):

Basic

Population:

approx. 50,000 known

Major cities:
  • Faron City (ruin)
  • Axio City (ruin)
Major imports:

None

Major exports:
  • Advanced tech
  • AI engrams
  • Collective security protocols
Affiliation:

Contested

[ Source ]


Nancora Prime is a barren, terrestrial planet located in the Nancora system on the eastern edge of the Outer Rim. It was a small industrial planet with a surface scorched by a dying red star until the Twelfth Great Jedi War when it was decimated by the battle and orbital bombardment. Now it is a storm-wrecked planet of buried technology and undead machinery. It was once under the overall control of The Collective, who became the major government even as they turned its manufacturing capabilities to supplying its war fleets. When the Brotherhood forces drove the bulk of the Collective from the planet, no one was left on the planet until the Shroud Syndicate took possession in 44 ABY.

History

Nancora from orbit

Nancora, once a powerful industrial world, turned barren over the last several millennia as its sun slowly shifted into its red giant phase. Once, during the time of the Old Republic, it was a world full known for its natural resources. A world of industrial complexes, huge cities, soaring skyscrapers and a booming population. However, as the centuries went on its sun had expanded rapidly, pushing the habitable zone with it and vaporizing what little surface water there remained on the planet. Plant and animal life crumbled and civilization eventually with it, its cities left abandoned and crumbling. Warm breeze turned to dust storms and pleasant sunshine into unbearable heat. Once filled with beautiful cities, the surface turned into a wasteland, forcing those survivors that could to leave while others built shelters underground.

During the years preceding the Clone Wars, the population, despite all odds, started to grow as the survivors developed ways to travel the surface. It took decades, but eventually they managed to build again, building factories to manufacture weapons, armor, droids and supplies for the Confederation of Independent Systems. Its growth exploded during the Clone Wars and soon after the empire. Trade returned bringing in much-needed sustenance in exchange for labor and manufacture.

As the years went on, and the Empire’s grip waned, the power vacuum was filled by the large corporate sector. Off-world corporations, once working for the Empire and their massive war machine, began expanding their businesses and a cold and prolonged corporate war began which lasted for nearly a decade. In the end only one corporation remained, owning every factory and city on the planet. The Technocratic Guild made its breakthrough on Nancora during 18 ABY.

The planet and the Guild came under the influence of Rath Oligard some time after 29 ABY, and were coerced into joining his coalition bent upon destroying the Dark Jedi Brotherhood. This proved to be a major asset to the Liberation Front and Capital Enterprises, giving them a noted technological edge. Mass producing their forces, the Collective launched an assault on the Brotherhood while it was in the midst of its civil war, finishing the already crippled and nearly-destroyed flagship of the Iron Forces.

The Brotherhood was quick to respond, calling a truce between the Iron Throne and the Clans before launching an assault on Nancora. The Clans pressed a major attack, with Clan Odan-Urr breaking through the orbital defenses and besieging Axio City, with the others joining them in the attack from other vectors. They were able to press back the defending units and overwhelm the city, but learned that the Collective had managed to predict this and somehow launch an attack on every single Clan homeworld simultaneously. The attack succeeded in devastating the Yridia system, destroying Clan Tarentum in the process, but all other efforts failed. With the bulk of the fighting done, the Iron Throne committed its forces to the conflict.

Left in ruins by the attack, Nancora was effectively abandoned by the Collective. Withdrawing to more defensible territories, their previous stronghold was left to rust and its people to fend for themselves. A small fleet of Collective ships too damaged to regroup with the main armada eventually reclaimed the world, press-ganging its populace into slavery in an effort to repair their dreadnoughts. This was put to an end by House Hoth who, upon learning of the recovering ships, used a combination of infiltrators and long-range attacks to force a surrender.

Over time the rust settled and the atmospheric processors fell into disrepair, bringing with it the massive electrical storms that now ravage the planet. In 44 ABY, in the twilight of the Collective's empire, the Shroud Syndicate entered orbit in an attempt to set up a base of operation and scavenge and strip bare every piece of technology they could.

Geography and climate

Nancora’s geography is comprised mostly of barren deserts, ruined cities, mountains and deep depressions that were once large lakes and seas. Many of the mountain ranges are filled with miles upon miles of tunnels that dot their sides and stretch across the landscape — all places where, formerly, people had lived.

Light Communications

Due to the vacancy of the Collective, maintenance and upkeep on the atmosphere processors have since halted. Degradation caused the processors to go haywire, causing magnetic ion storms to cover the planet's surface. This results in usual communication to be ineffective. In order to communicate among the planet, many reported light-towers were constructed.

These towers consisted of a light atop the highest point, allowing Light communications across long distances.

Landmarks

The Nancorans eventually rebuilt their complexes and cities into five major centers: The main cities, Axio and Faron were large metropolises covering much of the planet's surface. Built around underground shelters over many years, they had grown beyond their meager limits and are clearly visible from space as large discs of concentric city blocks. A major railway system connected them across the barren wasteland. Much like the cities, there are three major fabrication complexes on the surface. Named 'Empusa', 'Chymera', and 'Hydra', these massive city-sized industrial complexes are split into fabrication blocks for many kinds of manufacturing facilities. Here the Nancorans used to manufacture and develop their weaponry, ships, equipment and supplies. Now all of the major cities and factories lie in ruins. Much of the vast rail systems are damaged and no life seems to remain on the surface.

The rest of the planet is still filled with the ruins of ancient cities, metallic skyscrapers protruding from dust dunes and the remains of starships wrecked in too many wars. These ‘badlands’ are deathtraps for most people, places where electrical dust storms play havoc on instruments, ships have trouble staying afloat and those lost often remain forgotten — it is also the place where the Technocratic elite trained and prepared for their missions, leaving much of their deadliest droids in their training camps.

Faron City

Faron City block

The ruins of Faron were one of the twin cities on Nancora alongside Axio, breaking up the planet's scarred surface with their presence. Originally existing in the form of underground shelters, the city was built up slowly, layer by layer, until it became a metropolis so large that it could be clearly seen from orbit. In order to maintain an organized infrastructure, the city itself is separated into districts based on the disc-like, concentric blocks that make up its design.

The outer district is the largest of these. Here, the buildings form alleys and streets that criss-cross as they either run straight towards the center of Faron or curve along its circumference. The complexes found here are almost mathematical in design. Towers built upon towers, they all link together like geometric puzzle pieces with harsh lines and angles in lieu of softer edges. Having to deal with the elements, the durasteel constructs appear weathered and worn, but maintain a bright coloring to reflect as much light as possible and reduce its thermal conversion. Much of this area was destroyed by orbital bombardment, and ravaged since by storms. Wherever the bombardment was fiercest now electro-crystals take space, built over time by sand, glass and lightning.

Industry thrived in Faron, and its districts embodied this. In the outer district, shops met with living centers and the lines between them blurred. An apartment cluster appeared much the same as a grand complex containing a myriad of speeders or other such technological constructions. Power relays, the key to keeping the city functioning in its entirely, were staggered along the streets and each level. Through redundancy, the system prevented the loss of a single relay from crippling it. The citizens flooded the district at ground level, marching with haste towards their destinations while the skylanes flickered with activity high above. All that is left of these fabled sights are the wrecks of speeders, the ruined streets and crystals growing from every building.

Tempest Crown Cantina

Amidst these ruins of buildings, one, previously used as a factory building, now revamped, and called the Tempest Crown Cantina. It is less of a Cantina, and more defensible fortress, and the of the Shroud Syndicate's base of operations on Nancora. Equipped with a vast variety of defenses. Beneath the cantina, underground, lay a fighting pit, where patrons may enter and fight or simply enjoy the entertainment.

The Badlands

The Badlands

To walk upon the surface of Nancora is to take a path akin to a death sentence. That is how it earned its moniker: the Badlands. The Nancora system's star scorched the earth long ago, leaving a barren, sun-bleached surface behind. Now the electro-storms ravage what remains and scour the land of anything living, yet much remains underground.

The soil remains as nothing but dust and left to the winds' mercy. But there is none, as electro dust storms can form without warning and charge across the wastelands as roaring behemoths. The only shelter to be found lies scattered in the form of ruins of a time long past.

Spires and wreckage claw up through the cracked surface, giving the appearance of a planet-spanning junkyard. It is there that the Technocratic Guild gathered much of their resources, repurposing what once was into materials for new fabrications. At the same time, the most dangerous of these ruinous death-traps show the signs of the Technocratic elite's rigorous training. With a central spire rising from beneath a mound of wreckage, old machinery and ruined droids pocket the landscape of rising dunes in circular clearings alongside the sand scraped remains of the battle that ended a decade ago.

Very few come to the Badlands of Nancora. Fewer still make out out again.

Axio Transit Station Cresh

Cresh station

On Nancora, the twin cities of Faron and Axio are connected via a single rail system. This direct line between them consisted of staggered transit stations that provided a means of access to the badlands and the resources buried within them. Axio Transit Station Cresh was one such stop for the trams. Named as such due to its closer proximity to Axio than Faron, Station Cresh maintained the same design as all the other stations along the route.

The rail system itself spanned four lines wide, double stacked to allow for maximum flow of transit. This resulted in eight active trams at any one time. Each side moved in the opposite direction of the other, meaning the fast moving trams could come rushing through at any time from either Faron, Axio, or both. The station itself consisted of lifts and walkways leading to the surface far beneath the platform. The main buildings present offered up supply stalls serving food, beverages, and equipment, sold at a premium to account for their necessity in the Badlands. What remained was a small security presence as the Technocratic Guild has an armed garrison at each of their stations.

As a major supply route between the cities, the transit stations saw a lot of traffic no matter the time. Station Cresh was one of the busiest, often seeing materials arriving from the lifts and being loaded onto the trams. The seeming small scale of the station could lend one to underestimating it, but its importance meant any disruption would be dealt with swiftly.

Cresh is now a barren wasteland open to the elements where only automated droids remain. The Shroud Syndicate has set up a communications light-tower in its ruins.

Factory "Empusa"

Empusa fabrication block

While not nearly as large as the twin cities on Nancora, the trio of factories that accompany them make a case to be called cities all their own. Empusa was the first of these industrial complexes, and the most notable. Its modular design lent itself to fabrication blocks entirely dedicated to specific needs. One section might have been focused on the mass-production of firearms and other weapons, while another produced vehicle after vehicle.

The largest of these fabrication blocks was also the most vulnerable, a cavernous bay resembling a dreadnought's hangar system with an opening leading directly to the land outside Empusa. It is here that fabricators lined the floor, producing ground assault vehicles along a series of conveyors. Supplies and materials were stacked along the walls, ready for delivery to the waiting automated arms.

This section was overseen by a series of control rooms and interconnected catwalks that formed a spider web suspended above the fabricators. Security was tight, each unit closed off to the others with ID locks at their entrances. Shield generators were built into the gaping maw of the fabricator bay, preventing the elements from entering the complex while allowing a staging area for the completed units.

Empusa, just like its sister complexes suffered the most from the battle, being prime strategic targets. What is left of their conveyor belts is still guarded by slaughterbots and other combat droids which have never shut down. Some of the systems could still be under engram control, still servicing nonexisting masters after all this time.