Lithus Sector: Mov (05.00)

Mov (05.00)
A Hot (Type sdB) Blue-White Sub-Dwarf star, Mov is still listed as a Red Super-Giant star in many databases, as it has been for thousands of years. Something transformed Mov from one type of star to another in less than a hundred years and completely by-passing and over-writing the normal evolutionary processes. Whatever changed Mov, also stripped-away a vast amount of energy and material in an extremely short amount of time, leaving behind an intensely bright star degenerating into a White Dwarf, surrounded by a highly anomalous Planetary Nebula that is composed primarily of ice and dust. More than one astronomer has likened it to a spherical cloud of ice-fragments or a snow-storm, so to speak. This densely packed and highly symmetrical shell composed primarily of volatile ices surrounding Mov has also been compared to an artificially compressed Kuiper Belt. No one has claimed responsibility for the drastic and inexplicable restructuring of Mov.

What Is Currently Known...
Merellon Corp maintains an active and ongoing crowd-sourced observation project based within the Telajan (06.01) and Lithus (03.05) solar systems, and to a lesser extent within the Tregio Poly-system (00.03). [see Lithus Sector Map] So far all findings and data produced by this project have raised far more questions than anyone save the Orəq might have foreseen.

Mov used to host 27 planetary bodies, twenty of which were dwarf-planetoids. Originally the solar system lacked a true 'asteroid belt.' Instead it had a pair of massive debris clouds that primarily occupied the leading and trailing Trojan Points of Danasku (Mov VI), a Super-Jovian planet that may or may not have been a Brown Dwarf. The debris clouds were locked into an incredibly well-defined Lissajous Orbit and recordings of this amazingly elaborate debris-system are still being used to model complex orbits by AI and astronomers alike. But all that is so much history now. Danasku and the twinned debris clouds are gone, thought to be subsumed into the icy shell surrounding the drastically reconfigured Mov.

Currently there are no bodies larger than a dwarf-planet within 120 AU of Mov.

The Mechapublic Projected Security Cordon Authority at Mov (Coord.: 05.00) has maintained an ongoing monitoring station and forward Sci-Ops Base on a deep orbit at the periphery of the Mov system for the last four years. Two years ago they launched a probe to the Kazix system (02.01) for unknown reasons.

Recent Developments
Achernarian Investors have backed an exploratory mission to Mov composed primarily of Trippies and a trio of decommissioned AI that are in lock-down until the mission reaches Mov. The mission is publicly tasked with mapping and surveying the cloud of icy debris surrounding Mov as well as establishing a network of autonomous beacons that will facilitate further exploration and ongoing telemetry for a swarm of probes that are to be overseen by the AI. Rumors abound in respect to what the mission's private orders might be.

The Brass Council has announced their own expedition to Mov by way of Hypersail. The group, based in orbit around Kaaldu (03.04), intend to reach Mov three days before the Trippies. Their interest in Mov is undisclosed. Durango-Tangier, celebrated hero of the Ponesian Crisis and Special Spokesperson for the Brass Council has remained uncharacteristically reticent as to the nature of the expedition to Mov, which has caused a veritable hurricane of speculation and gossip.

Exactly 14 hours prior to the announcement of the Brass Council's impromptu expedition to Mov, a Big Dumb Object (BDO) estimated to be in excess of 10,000 miles in length was reported by a mid-level AI in the Astronomical Analysis & Assaying Office at Tregio (Coord.: 00.03). Follow-up efforts by the University of Kaaldu's Deep Time Photoarcheology Station currently in operation in an Unclaimed Region (Coord.: 02.03), confirmed the AA&AO report. The object, whatever it might be, is on a course that will take it directly into the Mov system. It remains unidentified at this time.

Immediate Repercussions and Subsequent Events
Someone operating under the cover of the Official Secrets Act in Kilanya Port-Town on PzIII in the Panj system (04.05) has been buying-up shares in so many contract security and paramilitary units that there has been a sort of informal and undeclared holiday in effect for the last six hours. Many are referring to it as the 'Lottery Virus' in commemoration of the centuries-old folktale of the mythical benevolent software package that crashed the economies of three worlds before it was eradicated*. Every Ship Captain within 1100AU of Panj have either gone to running dark or left the system under duress as their life support systems have crashed due to what the Authorities are describing as "...some malicious hacker's little escapade and desperate plea for attention..." Some of those ships carry ultra-hardened systems. News-crews, Stringers, Private Investigators and various Watchdogs have begun to trawl the regions surrounding Panj for any sign or signal from one of these ships in the hopes of getting an exclusive first-hand account.

The Mechapublic Projected Security Cordon Authority at Mov (Coord.: 05.00) went off-line one hour ago. There is no longer any signal coming from their Forward Sci-Ops Base. The official story is that it is just routine maintenance. A freelance datadelver operating from out the Lesser Griesalpen Commune on Lithus Prime (03.05) has released an unconfirmed vidloop consisting of 36 seconds displaying so far unidentified and badly out of focus, but heavily-armed humanoids(?) engaged in executing the 14 biocrew subcontractors attached to the Mechapublic at Mov. Attempts to suppress this footage have failed. It has gone viral.

The Hartley Bequest has been uncharacteristically silent on this matter so far, though their head of PR is scheduled to hold a sector-wide press conference in three hours...

Guide to Lithus Sector (Links)  |  Intro to Lithus Sector  |   Map of Lithus Sector

Rogue Space Resources

*There are those who believe that the Lottery Virus was never really 'eradicated,' but instead went dormant after having proved its point. They say it is waiting patiently, for the right conditions for it to reactivate. The next time it returns, it will not stop at just three worlds, or so it is claimed by those who whisper the anarchistic gospel that has built-up around the underground believers in this contraband software.