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Perihelion |
Mercury type world
located in a hinteregions Solar
Dominion protectorate. The planet orbits its sun at a distance some
two-thirds that of Mercury in the Sol system. Known for hosting a wild mechosystem of Garden World complexity. It
is believed that Perihelion started out as a neumann based mining
venture employing an experimental software/hardware design. The planet
was abandoned during the Version
War and its location was lost in the chaos. During the millennia
before contact was reestablished with the system the non-sentient
mining devices and swarms mutated in the high radiation environment of
the planet and diversified to fill virtually every possible ecological
niche.
Perihelion's mechosystem is based on 'trees' and 'plants' that absorb
sunlight and use it to power molecular mining of the soil in order to
grow. These plants in turn are fed upon by 'grazers' that use them as a
source of raw materials and energy to power their own growth and
replication. These are in turn a source of energy/materials for
'predators'. Due to the high mutation rate and rapid replication time
of the local lifeforms a startling number of survival strategies and
variants of species can be seen in only a short visit to the world.
To date no sapient level mechforms have developed on Perihelion but
local authorities are watching the planet closely and it is generally
felt that it is only a matter of time.
The world has been declared a protected reserve by the local government
and a mid-level khaki swarm protects it from unauthorized visitors.
Virtch tours and 'cybersafaris' to Perihelion's surface remain a
popular form of entertainment for sapients all over the Nexus, each of them hoping to be the one
to discover the first primitive Perihelionese.
