Ahiram

Ahiram is the third planet of the Byblos Planetary System within the Calypso Deeps. The only gas giant of the system, the planet and its 149 moons are host to several extractive industries despite the League of Nations quarantining the Byblos system.

Physical Characteristics

Ahiram is ringed gas giant with bands across its surface. Neither the planet nor its moons hold any particularly rich deposits, even when compared to the standards of the Calypso Deeps. However, the veins that do exist are considered easily accessible, which combined with no regulatory oversight means that several companies operate cheaply built mines around the planet.

Population

Around 35,000 people operate in orbit of Ahiram, across hundreds of surface and orbital stations and mines. Most that work here are migrants or without status taking advantage of lax hiring regulations to earn a wage to support families elsewhere, clear debts or create a new life for themselves. PMCs, like Alkor Solutions and the Ormus Group, are another significant career opportunity alongside local captain associations, Yol Arkadaşları being the most prominent example.

Points of Interest

Durast Mine

Durast Mine is the largest site of its kind in operation around Ahiram, doubling as a transshipment hub and orbital habitat. For a single rotation, Durast Mine offers workers the equivalent wage of a year’s service on freighters or stations elsewhere in the Deeps, in exchange for unskilled labour.

The Covenant

The Covenant of Byblos was a colony run by Far Sanctuary, a precursor to the Church of New Universalism. The site repurposed a League of Nations facility which had been abandoned just before the Second Scinfaxi War, located on a moonlet within Ahiram’s rings. In addition to the station, a League excavation site was also converted into a luxury biodome for the Sanctuary settlers, which together housed 3,500 people.

Rumours of a defense network saw the Covenant undisturbed well into the Dark Age, until this was found not to be the case by a crew of survivalists. Instead, the crew found signs of a bloody struggle and the mutilated bodies of the settlers piled into a tower within the biodome. Tales and supposed recordings of this encounter travelled out from Byblos via the first crossings of the Veiled Triangle. Today the site hosts a memorial to lives lost in the Deeps, located within the old enclosure, with visitors often choosing to leave behind an offering.

Contemporary Issues

Most traffic within Byblos is a subset of smuggler or tramp freighter, intending to move cargo undeclared through the Calypso Deeps utilising the Veiled Triangle. In addition to this, several mines and sites operating around Ahiram have been linked to laundering schemes, helping move goods and services past embargoes and onto to reputable customers in neighbouring states. Piracy is also a growing problem, with criminal groups taking advantage of the reduction in anti-piracy patrols in the region. Notable organisations of this kind include the Kara Yelken, Crown of Skulls, Dead Hands, Golden Moon, Red Bamboo and Sin Bandera amongst others. Pirates are also known to claim abandoned mines in Ahiram’s moons, utilising them as bases of operations or bait.

References

1. "Byblos Planetary System". Champlain Group.