System Manual:Osiris

Osiris is a planet made completely of water. All research is conducted underwater in the planet's deep oceans, which can be as deep as 50,000 leagues. The planet houses the Imperial Underwater Research Facility (IURF), which specializes in high pressure studies in the ocean depths. Success at this station would mean access to such planets as Mon Calamri and a nearly unbeatable group of AquaTroopers. Floating cities were introduced to the planet as a way of harvesting natural resources and processing valuable chemicals.

Geography

Osiris is unique among the planets of the Emperor's Hammer in that it is covered entirely by water. The planet's only sentient life for many years was the staff of the research facility there, commonly known as the Imperial Underwater Research Facility (IURF). In recent years floating islands have been created with the use of small repulsorlifts to create a suitable foundation for a sentient population on the planet. The islands are also pontoons, engineered in orbit specifically for the purpose of supporting the islands should the reactors and/or repulsorlifts fail. The planet has moderately dense cloud coverage at most times owing to the simple fact that it is made up entirely of water. Weather only changes on the planet after volcanic eruptions below the ocean surface cause typhoons on some parts of the planet and spew gases into the atmosphere. Because of this, occasional patches of acid rain is common on some parts of the planet, especially those near the Nephthys Fault.

The unbroken, flat surface is utterly contrasted by the pitted and gnarled seabed many kilometers below. Submerged canyons and trenches plunge beyond the reach of all but the most advanced submersibles, great spires of rock and ridges jut into the dark waters above, all the result of the planet's constant seismic activity and repeated undersea eruptions from volcanoes and magma chambers.

Cities, Structures, and Demographics

The floating islands of Osiris, numbering ten (10) in all are divided into four (4) administrative provinces. The largest four islands make up the capitals of each respective province, with the largest, Horus, acting as the planetary capital. Each is in effect limited in size by the nature of its construction but settlement is not entirely limited to the kilometers wide constructs. Tending to be anchored in shallower waters, each city platform acts as a hub to smaller platforms and actual floating vessels. Osiris in particular sits at the centre of no fewer than 45 platforms; most of them dedicated shipyard and processing facilities to maintain the fishing fleets and the industrial vessels of the extraction flotillas.

The Sub aquatic Research Facility is also home to several hundred scientists and military officers working on the Aqua Trooper project in the high pressure environments below the surface. Large government grants and private funding for the research being done in the Facility has resulted in an extremely successful program with the largest aquatic research facility in the Empire.

The complex is one of the only on the world to actually have physical connections to the seabed, the towering spire rising from the bed of the Abydosian Shallows, a sloping expanse of reef and shallow water on the southern tropic. Guarded heavily and isolated, its value to the Emperor's Hammer is unquestionable and its research of the highest importance.

Economy

The planetary economy is focused on the sea. Chemical manufacturing is large industry on the planet and makes up approximately half of Osiris' exports. The extreme pressure in the depths of the ocean has resulted in large deposits of fossil fuels which, due to the mining techniques that have emerged as byproducts of military testing at the Underwater Research Facility, fuel the industry. The thousands of specifies of fish and mammals in the oceans of Osiris provide almost all of planet's other exports and fuel the booming fishing industry on planet. The typical city will support at least four separate fishing fleets, ranging in size from two to twenty vessels, seagoing trawlers using mile wide nets and harmonic vibration to locate and catch their cargoes. Returning to their docks and bases their cargoes are processed and split between internal sales and exports to the surrounding worlds.

The extraction of the chemical components and fossil fuels from the seabed is handled by dedicated flotillas of seagoing vessels, usually numbering at least a half-dozen tenders and a mobile drilling platform, its advanced technology and specialization allowing it to move from resource field to resource field, accessing even the deepest pockets of oil and gas. The tenders support and maintain their platform, assisting in the transport of the platform and the lightening of its cargo onto dedicated tankers, orbital freighters lifting the extracted materials, processed on the platform to a certain degree, to the orbital storage facilities that facilitate its export.

Though the fishing and chemical industries boom on Osiris, there is very little other industry. Because of this, many basic good, such as cleaning, hygiene, and non-aquatic food products must be imported. The planetary government is one of the largest clients of the various food industries on Sif. In addition, the majority of technology on Osiris is imported from other worlds, and there are luxuries, save those made of fish bones, that are not imported.