- M -
Maastricht – <FiE, WarH, JHRN> A star system conquered by PRH in 1886 P.D. Lost to MA sometime during First Havenite War and later re-conquered by RoH in WarH during Operation Thunderbolt.
MacGregor – <AoV> 1) A star system in PRH. It "lacked the enormous passive arrays which could pick up hyper transits light-days and even further out." The system "was fairly important to PRH. It had long served as a sentinel for Barnett's northeastern flank but it also boasted a robust economy. The system population was over two billion, and despite decades of bureaucratic management it was one of the few systems in PRH which continued to generate a positive revenue flow every year." Together with the Mylar, Owens, and Slocum MacGregor forms a little square cluster with Barnett at its center. 2) The settled planet in the MacGregor System.
Madeleine – <FS> A star system. Jessica Pheriss moved there with her family from Tasmania.
Madras – <IEH> A star system with a PRH base captured by MA between HAE and IEH then re-conquered by RoH in WarH.
Maiden Howe – <HAE> A garden planet with surplus of food for export.
Mainwaring – <SoF> A star system, TQ / SEM member.
Magyar – <HAE> A star system in the southern part of the Posnan Sector of SC.
Malagasy – <FiE, IEH> A star system in PRH in revolt against CoPS in FiE. There is one settled planet in the system.
Manitoban – <IEH> A star system. It was after the war between the Manitoban Republic and the Kersey Association that Section 27, Subsection 41, which removes the POW status from prisoners convicted by civilian courts before the outbreak of hostilities, was inserted into the Deneb Accords.
Mannerheim – <AAC, SftS, ToF, MoH, ART, SoF, CoG> A star system in SL 10 LY from Felix. The local System Defence Force is one of the most powerful in SL. Openly Mannerheim abhors the genetic slave trade, but in secret the ruling families are Mesan Alignment members, which in turn makes the SDF an adjunct of MAN. Poised by the Alignment to be a one of the founding members of the Renaissance Factor.
Manticore – <All> A binary star system unique in the known galaxy because there are three habitable worlds with a "remarkably human-compatible biosystem" in the system. Manticore is also one of the few systems associated with a wormhole junction - Manticore Wormhole Junction. The capital system of SKM / SEM. The two components of the system orbit a common center of gravity 333 LM from Manticore A, and 406 from Manticore B, with an apparen eccentricity of 12%, which results in the distance between the two stars to change from 650 to 827 LM [See 1)]. The Manticore System is approximately 512 LY from Sol. In absolute terms Manticore is one of the wealthiest systems in the explored galaxy, the third wealthiest star nation in a 500 LY sphere, and by far the wealthiest outside SL. Manticore's GSP is rising steadily, e.g. in 1900 P.D. it was equal to 78% of Sol's, only to exceed that comfortably by 1920 P.D. In per capita terms "not even the SL" can match SKM. This wealth is a consequence of a few factors, the primary of them being the existence of MWJ, and the related financial and shipbuilding industry, but wise long term politics also had a part in it. For example no one outside SL can match SKM's tech base output per man-hour, SKM's "universities challange those of Earth, and SKM's / SEM's merchant marine is the fourth largest in the galaxy.
Colonisation
The system was first confirmed to have planets in 562 P.D. by sir Frederick Clarke. Manticore was surveyed by Suffren a ship of Franchot et Fils based in Paris, France, Old Earth. Suffren’s crew had done FF’s usual professional job, and although all data was accompanied by the caution that it would be 650 years out of date when the colonists arrived, FF sold its rights in the Manticore System to the Manticore Colony, Ltd., (MC) for approximately 5.75 billion EuroDollars. The expedition to Manticore departed Old Earth on October 24, 775 P.D., aboard the sublight hibernation ship Jason. There were 93000 adults and 32000 minor children [See 2)], mostly Western Europeans, some from North American Federation, Caribbean and a small group of ethnic Ukrainians, aboard. Thanks to the Manticore Colony Trust, established by the departing colonists on Earth, "when Jason finally arrived in the Manticore System on March 21, 1416 P.D., her crew discovered a modest settlement on the planet Manticore, staffed by MCT personnel who also manned the four small Earth-built frigates that protected the system against claim-jumpers." It was thanks to the financial success of MCT "that Manticore found itself with a very favorable bank balance on Old Terra, and the frigates became the first units of the Manticoran System Navy. Moreover, the small MCT presence on Manticore included data banks and carefully selected and trained instructors assigned to update the colonists on the technical advances of the last six centuries."
The Plague and second wave of colonisation
The similarity of Manticore's and Earth's biosystems resulted in one of the few cases where a virus local to the foregin planet was able to cross over the gap between different biospheres and attack humans. The pathogen first appeared in 1464 P.D. [See 3)] but at that time was harmles enough not to raise any widespread response. It wasn't until the first of many mutations mixing local DNA with that of an existing human coronavirus struck with deadly force in 1480 P.D., that the threat was recognised. With a big existing pool of potential victims in humans, pigs and other farm animals the virus entered a period of rapid mutations overcoming the vaccines cultured to combat the previous strain. The virus struck with two more seriuos outbreaks in 1487 P.D. and 1489 P.D. and less deadly variants continued to appear from time to time until 1496 P.D. when a new multi-strain vaccine was introduced. As a consequence of the first outbreak the population of Manticoer fell by "over 60%", which threatened the survival of the young colony. To entice new settlers Manticore issued a policy of aided immigration in 1484 P.D. Unfortunaetly subsequent Plague outbreaks resulted in a 50% death rate ammong the new settlers. Only after the 1496 vaccine did the immigration rate pick up again. To safeguard their hold on political power from the newcomers the original colonists ammended the local constitution, creating the constitutional monarchy system that is in effect to this day. Roger Winton, the President and CEO of Manticore Colony, and later the Planetary Administrator, was crowned as Roger I on August 1, 1471 P.D. Simultaneously, the surviving “First Shareholders” and their descendants, who held title to vast tracts of land, acquired patents of nobility to go with their wealth and the hereditary aristocracy of Manticore was born. The new wave of immigrants arriving in the wake of the Plague comprised three distinct classes of citizens. Each immigrant received a land rights credit, the value of which precisely equaled the cost of a second-class passenger ticket from his planet of origin to Manticore. An immigrant whose resources exceeded the cost of his passage could invest the surplus, paying fifty percent of the “book” price for additional land. The most affluent immigrants thus became “Second Shareholders,” with estates which, in some cases, rivaled those of the original shareholders and entitled them to patents of nobility junior only to those of the existing aristocracy. Those immigrants who were able to retain their base land right or perhaps enlarge upon it slightly became “yeomen,” free landholders with voting rights beginning one Manticoran year (1.73 T-Years) after their arrival. Those who completely exhausted their land rights credit to buy passage to Manticore were known as “zero-balance” immigrants and did not become full citizens until such time as they had become well-enough established to pay taxes for five consecutive Manticoran years (8.7 T-Years).
Manticore A – <All -HotQ, FoD, FiE, IEH, WoH, AoV, CoW, CoS, SftS, JHRN, ToF, IFF, GNLH, FS, SoF, B, CoG> The primary component of the Manticore System, StC – G0; HL – 22; Mass - 1,12 of Sol. There are seven planets in orbit, among them two are habitable: Manticore A III – Manticore, and Manticore A IV – Sphinx. There are no asteroid belts in the system [See 4)].
Manticore (Manticore A III)– <All -JHRN> The first settled planet orbiting Manticore A; O – 11,5[See 5)]; D - 1,02 [See 6)]; G – 1,01; YL – 1,73; DL – 22,45 [See 7)]; AT – 5. The hydrosphere takes 76% of the surface. The planet is slightly less dense than Earth, with a lower percentage of metals, but still boasts considerable mineral wealth. The planet lies near the inner edge of Manticore A's liquid water zone. Average temperatures are close to Earth normal, but still on the warm side for habitable planets. "Manticore’s climatic zones and regions are comparable to Earth, but cover a larger temperate zone, due to favorable ocean currents and a lower axial tilt." Due to the fact that Manticore's single moon Thorson is much smaller than Earth’s moon, the tidal activity is neglible. "Internal processes make Manticore moderately tectonically active. Like all life in the Manticore Binary System, Manticore’s protein chirality is right-handed, making it digestible to humans. Manticoran life is similar enough to Terrestrial life that only minimal engineered adaptations were required for crops and livestock." Manticore was settled in 1416 P.D. (3518 A.D.) by "settlers primarily from Old Earth's western hemisphere", that "wanted to get away from a grossly overcrowded planet". The capital of the planet and at the same time SKM / SEM is the city of Landing, situated on the site of the landing of the colonization ship Jason. This places it in the northern hemisphere "less that 1500 kilometers above the equator", on the coast of Jason Bay "for all intents and purposes an inland sea" stretching "hundreds of kilometers" to the south [See 8)]. One of Landing's many impotrant facilities is "Bassingford Medical Centre, the huge (...) hospital complex" maintained by RMN. Jason Bay is linked with the Southern Ocean by Silver Gulf, an inlet at which mouth lies Saganami Island the home of RMN's Academy. This places it 26 degrees below the equator. The White Haven manor is placed in "northern latitudes." The planetay biosystem of Maticore is very similar to Earth's, using the same sugars and "pretty similar" amino acids. Thanks to that the colonisation of Manticore required little terraforming, which "amounted to introducing essential Terrestial food corps and carefully selected fauna". Major Manticoran on-planet industries are agriculture, aquaculture, mining, and a well-diversified industrial sector and R&D base, "in addition, the corporate headquarters of over 75% of the financial houses and banks involved in SKM’s enormous investment and banking industry are located in Landing." Population as of 1921 P.D. was approximately 1.5 billion. In orbit around it among other industrial constructions there was, until its destruction during operation Oyster Bay, HMSS Hephaestus.
Manticore B – <All -FoD, FiE, IEH, CoW, SotS, CoS, SoSag, JHRN, SftS, ToF, IFF, HTBu9, ART, GNLH, FS, SoF, B, CoG> The secondary component of the Manticore System, StC – G2; HL – 21,20; Mass - 0,92 of Sol. There are seven planets in orbit, among them one is habitable: Manticore B V – Gryphon [See 9)]. Manticore-B possesses also three extensive asteroid belts. During the First Havenite War there was a ban on non-Manticoran shipping entering Manticore-B space.
Manticore Wormhole Junction– <All -ABF, HTBu9, GNLH, FS, TW, ACtD> The existence of the junction was unknown at the time of the survey and subsequent auction of the colonisation rights for the Manticore System. As hyperphysics evolved, and the existence of wormhole bridges was confirmed Axelrod, a terran corporation, conducted a survey of all existing stellar data in search of junction markers. Sure that the Manticore Binary System was home to a multi-terminus junction, Axelrod contracterd the Volsung Mercenaries to take over the young colony. The nascent RMN managed to win the 1543 P.D. Battle of Manticore and also capture the ship carrying the files leading to the discovery of the junction. 42 years later, in 1585 P.D. the survey ship Pathfinder made the first succesful transit to Sigma Draconis, followed shortly by the exploration of Trevor’s Star and Hennesey. The Gregor terminus was surveyed by the Artemis in 1647 P.D. The Matapan terminus was surveyed next in 1796 P.D. After that came the discovery of Basilisk in 1865 P.D. The last terminus surveyed to date is Lynx Terminus surveyed by HMS Harvest Joy in 1919 P.D. With 7 known and explored termini MWJ is the biggest known wormhole junction in explored space (the next biggest junction has only 5). The nexus of MWJ is 412 LM from Manticore A and “over” 660 LM from Manticore B. The MWJ causes an effect between itself and Manticore A called a resonance zone [See 10)], it is a “volume of space between the Junction and Manticore A in which it is virtually impossible to translate between hyper-space and normal-space.” The resonance zone takes a “conical volume in hyper, with the wormhole at its apex and a base centered on the star and twice as wide as its hyper limit,” it is also as “much taller" than it is "broad"”. The mass involved in transit shuts down the terminus for a period of time proportional to the square of the mass involved, additionally each junction has the upper limit on the amount of mass in a single given transit. This limit for MWJ is "in the region of 200 million tons", if such mass would transit at a time it would shut the termius it used for "over 17 hours" . The nexus itself has a diameter of 1 light second, and any given terminus within it forms a sphere no more than three thousand kilometers across. The Gregor termini is the most distant from the Lynx Terminus termini within MWJ. Before the discovery of the Lynx Terminus termini "almost a third of all traffic" passing through MWJ used the Basilisk termini and overall MWJ was "the crossroads of 80% of the long haul commerce of its sector". Associated with the junction are "warehousing and transshipment stations, maintenance and refueling facilities, and financial offices" for many of the galaxy's leading financial institutions. MWJ is surrounded by a defensive perimeter composed of newly constructed forts, which altough smaller than their First Havenite War predecessors are much more powerfull and much less manpower intensive. The forts are primally LAC housing platforms and fire control stations for the multitude of pods deployed around the nexus. The traffic passing through MWJ is directed by ACS (Royal Manticoran Astro Control Service) from the space station HMSS DaGama.
Marian – <SoSag, SftS> A star system in TC, TQ / SEM member.
Marienbad – <EoH, ACtD> The settled planet in the Secour System, it orbits Secour A the main component of the system.
Mars (Sol IV) – <EoH, ART, SoF, B, CoG> A planet. In the early days of the diaspora colony ships were built in orbit above the planet. Today Mars' orbit is home to Hyperion One, a SLN space station.
Marsh – <HAE, WarH, AAC, SftS, HoS> A star system just outside SC, "not far off the least time route between" AE and Sachsen, StC – G6; HL – 19,36. There is a settled planet in the system called Sidemore, there are also two asteroid belts. The system is 15 LY from Sachsen, and “around” 400 LY from Haven. Before the Sidemore Republic signed a treaty with SKM giving RMN basing rights in the system it was hardly of any commercial importance in the region. This was caused by the poor connections it had with its neighbours as only a single weak grav wave serves the system and to make matters worse the local hyper-space conditions are "lousy". After the treaty was signed RMN built a naval station in the system. Siedmore Station grew quickly and in due process became fairly big, coordinating RMN's operations in southwestern SC. Thanks to that the system economy underwent a boom period.
Masada– <All -OBS, IEH, MtH, WoH, CoW, WarH, ABF, HTBu9, ART, FS, TW, ACtD> The settled planet in the Endicott system, O – 3,37[See 11)]; AT "over" 40. Altough far more habitable than Grayson, Masada's cool primary combined with an extreme AT produce a severe planetary climate that is generally on the cool side. The planet was settled by 50000 colonists from Grayson after a very nasty civil war. The colonists represented the Faithful, a reactionary splinter group of Grayson's original colonists. Their creed was even more extreme than the original Grayson one. The women on Masada are property, denied even basic literacy. After the SKM conquest the first occupation force were the Royal Manticoran Marines but they handed over controll to the Royal Army in 1907 P.D. The planetary population as of AoV is between five nad six billion. In 1922 P.D. Masada is SEM's protectorate.
Maslow – <IEH, HoS> 1) A star system deep in the Haven Quadrant, a staunch ally of the Republic of Haven. It followed Haven's example in internal politics, and passed its own Technical Conservation Act in 1815 P.D. The family of Vice Admiral James Adcock, CO of BuWeps, emigrated to SKM from Maslow in 1817 P.D. 2) The settled planet in the Maslow System.
Matagora – <MoH> A star system in SL, its ruling families are Mesan Alignment members, which in turn makes the local SDF an adjunct of MAN. Poised by the Alignment to be a one of the founding members of the Renaissance Factor.
Matapan – <WarH, JRMN, HoS> A planetless star system, StC - M4. One of the termini of MWJ leads there. Matapan is 472 LY from Manticore.
Mathias – <IEH> A star system with a PRH base guarding Barnett's southeastern flank. It was captured by MA at the same time as Trevor's Star, re-captured by RoH in WarH.
Maxwell – <MoH> A star system in SL, its ruling families are Mesan Alignment members, which in turn makes the local SDF an adjunct of MAN. Poised by the Alignment to be a one of the founding members of the Renaissance Factor.
Maya – <CoS, SoSag, SftS, ToF, MoH, ART, CoG> A star system in SL, the capital system of the smallish but highly industrialized and wealthy Maya Sector. It's “around” 55,5 LY from Erewhon. The settled planet in the system is Smoking Frog. The majority of Maya System's original colonists came from Kemal unhappy with the society they were leaving behind.
McIntosh – <SftS, MoH, SoF> A star system in SL, where Fleet Admiral Sandra Crandall was conducting SLN long range deployment excercises in SftS. McIntosh is 50+ LY from Meyers.
Medusa – <OBS, FoD, MtH, EoH, WoH, AoV, CoS, JHRN, IFF> The settled planet in the Basilisk System, O – 7; G – 0,85; YL ~ 0,66 [See 12)]; AT – “over 40”. The extreme AT and a cool primary produce "a climate more brutal" than Gryphon's. The flora is composed mostly of various kinds of moss, most species are hexapedal, and the role of birds is filled by "hugely out-sized insects". The evergrowing traffic flowing through Basilisk prompted heavy investment in orbital infrastructure. When the system was attacked by PRH forces during Operation Icarus all of it, including Medusa Gold One the newly built RMN Basilisk HQ, was destroyed. This was SKM's single greatest econimic loss of the war until then. As of WarH the infrastructure is being rebuilt rapidly, this time in a planned manner unlike the oryginal which grew along with the traffic passing through Basilisk.
Medusans
Medusa is the homeworld of Medusans, an intelligent species commonly called Stilties or Stilts. Altough hexapedal like Sphinx's Treecats, Stilts are trilaterally symmetrical, with three legs and three arms. A typical Medusan stands 2.3 meters tall, although they can settle to less than a third of that height on their unique, tripedal legs. Each arm ends in a six-fingered hand, of which three fingers form dominant graspers and three smaller fingers provide a remarkable ability to manipulate objects. Legs end in feet with three toes also capable of grasping objects. The top of a Medusan’s body case has three eyes, one over each of the arms, with three olfactory spiracles above the eyes. The mouth is under one of the three hip joints, the primary excretory apparatus is below the hip joint clockwise from the mouth, and the third hip joint protects the cloacal sex organs.
Medusan pregnancy is short, about a third of a local year, or nearly ninety T-Days. They typically give birth to fraternal twins, and subsequent maturation is rapid. Sexual maturity occurs at eight local years (five T-Years) and old age sets in at seventy local years (forty-eight T-years). Females are nearly impossible to distinguish from males unless they are preparing for mating.
Medusans communicate primarily by semaphoric body language, supplemented by vocalization through their spiracles, with scent changes for emphasis. A workable trade pidgin using two arms and exaggerated facial expressions and head motions has been in use since 1881 PD.
When discovered Stilts were "in the equivalent of the late Bronze Age (...) just learning how to forge decent iron and wretched steel" with a cultural structure composed of migrating tribes and a few city-states. While birthrates in the cities are much higher than among the nomads, a combination of high infant mortality rates and primitive notions of public health and sanitation have kept population relatively stable in the cities. Most Medusan public works are huge constructs of dressed stone and the buildings can reach impressive heights for a culture without counter-grav. Following contact with humans, Medusan agriculture has advanced by leaps and bounds, and output per hectare has increased dramatically with the introduction of fertilizers, crop rotation, and improved cultivation techniques, which is helping to fuel a modest population explosion among the city-based culture. One of the consequences of PRH's attempted takeover of the system is the aquisation of blackpowder firearms by Medusans.
Medusa is held by the Medusan people, and all human enclaves are on T-century leases. SKM has regulated contact with off-worlders much more tightly since the off-world-incited Mekoha Uprising in 1900 P.D. Following that incident and the First Battle of Basilisk, the Crown adopted an official policy under which Medusa may join the Star Kingdom as a member world or remain independent, following an eventual plebiscite. The creation of a coalition of city-states to act as the basis for a unified world government is a precondition for such a plebiscite, however, and it is uncertain if this will ever happen or if the Medusans even desire such an arrangement.
Megan – <HoS> A star system 8,4 LY from Manticore. The nascent Manticore System Navy, fought its first battle against the Free Brotherhood there less than 20 T-Years after Jason arrived at Manticore.
Melbourne – <WarH, CoG> A star system in SC.
Melchor – <CoW> A star system StC – G4; HL – 20,24. The system boasts three very large gas giants whose orbital spacing created four asteroid belts, and among its seven planets one – Arianna is settled.
Melungeon – <David Darke – MTH> A star system to the galactic south of SL. There is a settled planet in the system called Tellico. Melungeon is an occasional tourist destination for wealthy Manticorans.
Mendelschon – <ART, CoG> A star system less than four weeks travel by a merchant ship from Josephine and 700 LY from TC.
Mendoza – <SVW, FoD, JHRN> A star system with a PRH base where the Zanzibar Liberation Front had its bases. Conquered by MA in FoD later re-captured by RoH in WarH.
Merlin – <AAC> A gas giant in the Solon System. It is only a bit smaller than Jupiter and has 11 moons a couple of them “nearly” the size of Manticore. Merlin’s O is 40 LM outside the system HL. The massive planet has its own HL.
Mesa – <Linda Evans – WoH, Eric Flint – CoW, AoV, WarH, SotS, CoS, SoSag, AAC, SftS, ToF, MoH, ABF, ART, SoF, B> 1) A star system, StC – G2; HL – 21,20 LM; the system primary is "virtually identical to Sol". One of the secondary termini of the Visigoth Wormhole Junction leads there. It's "hundreds" LY from Sigma Draconis and "well over" a 1000 LY from Congo. Altough it's inside SL volume it isn't SL member. 2) The habitable planet in the Mesa System, O ~ 7,67 LM [See 13)]; G ~ 1 [See 14)]; AT – 9;. Mesa has slightly more land surface than Earth, and thanks to a close O and small AT, the planetary climate is warmer with smaller sesonal variations than Earth's. In fact it almost never snows on most of the planets surface. It was first surveyed in 1398 P.D. and named after a "high, tableland mesa near the center of" the largest continent where the survey camp was located. Mesa was settled in 1460 P.D. by the Detweiler Consortium under Leonard Detweiler when it relocated from Beowulf. The planet has "quite a nice climate" but it also posseses "a biosystem poorly suited to terrestrial physiology". Instead of terraforming Mesa Leonard Detweiler "mesaformed" the colonists through genetic engineering. As far as the galaxy ta lagre is aware, Mesa is "simply an outlaw world, home to ruthless and corrupt corporations from throught SL huge volume", the premier among them being MU which provides cloned and bio-engineered human slaves. Manpower is also the biggest of Mesa-based corporations, providing about 16% ot the government tax base. Despite not being SL member, Mesa has lucrative contacts inside it, which protect it and its corporations from SL's intervention. Mesa is also the galaxy's largest free-lance mercenary outfit centre. The command office of Albreht Detweiler, the head of the Mesan Alignment is on an island on the Mendel Ocean. The planetary and system capital is the city of Mendel, and Neue Rostoc a seccy district enjoys the honor of having the worst official murder rate in the city, the actual rate is a lot worse. Green Pines a high class residential area lies some distance from Mendel. The Gamma Center a top secret Mesan Alignment research centre was buried under the Suvorov Tower on the outskirts of Green Pines. This instalation, one of the three most important on Mesa, was destroyed along with the tower above when the preplaced nuclear charge was set off by Jack McBryde, when it became clear to him that his connection to Anton Zwilicki and Victor Cachat was found out. McBryde's act of sabotage included also the destruction of the Alignment database on Aubudon Ballrom. The Mesan week has seven days. Mesa has at least two moons[See 15)]
Planetary Population & Political System
30% of Mesa'a population are freeborn citizens, 60% genetic slaves and 10% "seccies" descendants of slaves freed early in the colony's history. Nowadays the manumission of "indentured servitude" is no longer possible under the Mesan constitution. The Mesan government is structured along the corporation lines, in which each free citizen owns voting stock. "The CEO of Mesa is elected by the General Board", which members are chosen by the free citizens and major system corporations. The corporation appoint members proportionally to their tax contribnutions. The balance of power is carefuly tilted to give the corporations a clear 2/3 majority of votes. The Board Members are either Manpower's direct representatives or are controlled by the corporation, which in turn ic controlled by the Alignment. The CEO's tenure of office is 10 T-Years.
Mesan Alignment
The Mesan Alignment is a secret organisation which rules Mesa's corporations from the shadows. It's true aims are unknown at present but some indications emerged in recent books. The Alignment was established by Leonard Detweiler after his banishment from Beowulf. Its aim was at first to uplift the human genome and establish a new race on humanity. In the six centuries since that it evolved into some kind of master plan to take over the galaxy. To this end the Alignment is shrouded in the onion stategy, where each member (knowingly or not) knows only that porion of the plan necessary to his role in the overall strategy. Among Aligment's most notable achievements are: the rise of the Legislaturist regime in RoH, the establishment of the Long Range Planing Board and its gene research hidden behind the slave trade, the derailing of the RoH - MA peace talks about to take place on Torch, probable inducement of SL - SKM war; the discovery of spider and streak drive. The Alignment built and maintains its own navy, and the Mesan Alignment Navy is completly separate from the Mesa System Navy. The majority ot this force resides in the Daruis System.
The Long Range Planing Board
The Long Range Planing Board is the Alignment body responsible for advancing the human genome. Most of its preliminary work and experiments were conducted on Manpower slaves berfore being introduced into the Mesan "lines" There are three known lines: alpha line which seems restricted to the inside circle of Alignment families, beta line and the gamma line, which seems to be optimalised for combat. Each line is greatly improved from the original human startpoint, enjoying for example significantly longer lifespans. When a "normal human" can expect to live for aroung three centuries with prolong, an "improved" Mesan should be abble to live at least a century longer.
Renaissance Factor
A planned coalition of eleven star systems taken over secretly by Alignment families that were carefuly emplaced over centuries. None of them has any detectable connections to Mesa. The RF is evisioned as a coalition against the chaos that will follow the collapse of SL. Not calling itself a star nation at first and also not including Mesa itself, it is planned to formaly secede from SL establishing a recognised nation. RF members are: Comstock, Denver, Mannerheim, Matagora, Maxwell, New Bombay, New Madagascar, New Orkney, Thrace, Vine [See 16)], Visigoth.
Meyerdahl – <IEH, MtH, CoW, AAC, MoH, ABF, FS, B, TW> A heavy gravity planet settled around Vth century P.D. by people gene-engineered for its environment. The Meyerdahl First Wave gene-manipulation was a generic modification designed for people colonising heavy gravity planets. It gave them muscle tissue that's about 25% more efficient than normal plus respiratory and circulatory system enhancement with the addition of skeletal reinforcements. In order to run all those modifications the body requires more energy which manifests itself in a metabolism that runs about 20% faster than a normal human's. The only problem posed by the modification is a block preventing regeneration in 80% of cases. Many of Meyerdahl's colonists were of German descent. The planet has a mild and warm climate. Richard and Marjorie Harrington relocated from Meyerdahl to Sphinx bringing with them their daughter Stephanie. The Harrington's were descendants of the Meyerdahl Beta mod, which gave them along the standard heavy-grav package an IQ enhancer. Attempted in the early years of gene manipulation and before the horrors of Earth's Final War put hold on further research, this particular attempt is one of the most successful ones. According to Alison Harrington's research the majority of it's recipients place in "the 95 percintile in general intelligence." At the time when the Harringtons departed to settle on Sphinx Meyerdahl's population had been "just over 6 billion".
Meyers – <SoSag, SftS, MoH, SoF> 1) A star system, StC - G0; HL - 22 LM; in V / SL, OFS protectorate. Meyers is the administrative center of the Madras Sector. It's 60 LY from Monica. There are two settled planets Meyers and Socrates, an asteroid belt called Truman Belt and a gas giant Damien in the system. 2) The settled planet in the Meyers System, O - 11 LM [See 17)]; the planetary capital is Pine Mountain. The city boasts a population of "well over " 2 million, a "more than merley" respectable one for a V planet. The planetary population is 3,6 billion.
Meyers One – <SoF> The primary freight handling platform in orbit around Meyers.
Mfecane – <CoS, ToF, CoG> A star system, OFS protectorate. There are two habitable heavy gravity planets in the system called Ndebele and Zulu. The extreme enviromental conditions of the Mfecane planets lead to them being called Mfecane Hell Worlds. The colonisation set out from Earth at about the same time as the Graysons, and Mfecane is closer to Earth than Grayson. The extreme local conditions and an over 1000 T-Years long period of isolation almost lead to a development of a local human sub-species. It is theorised that if the Mfecane planets remained isolated for 20 more generations the local variant of humanity would no longer be abble to interbreed with standard humans.
Micah – <IEH, ACtD> A star system with a PRH base, captured by MA in IEH then recaptured by RoH in WarH.
Midsummer – <EoH> A settled planet in PRH, a low-gravity world.
Minette – <SVW, FiE> A star system, MA member, StC – G3; HL – 20,68. There is a settled planet in the system called Everest. The system population was 1 billion in FiE. There are two asteroid belts in the system. The system is an important source of raw materials. It's 150 LY from Trevor’s Star. During the First Havenite War Minette served as an advanced picket covering Grendelsbane. The system was captured by forces under the command of Citizen Vice Admiral Esther McQueen in operation Stalking Horse with the intent of drawing allied forces from Yeltsin. The system was recaptured by MA forces under the command of High Admiral Wesley Matthews (GSN).
Minorca – <SVW, ACtD> A star system, MA member.
Mithra – <FiE, CoS> A star system in OL / SL. There is one settled planet in the system called Indus. The system population exceeds 30 billion.
Mischa's Star – <Timothy Zahn – IFF> A star system close to Irrlicht. The IAN Eule light cruiser and an Andermani freighter Krause Rosig, were attacked here by a SS manned Star Knight heavy cruiser in an attempt to involve AE in a war with SKM.
Mobius – <SoF> A nominally independent star system, twelve days from Meyers by dispatch boat, in reality an OFS client state until SEM intervention in 1922 P.D. The settled planet in the system is Mobius Beta. There is an asteroid belt in the system called Delta Belt. The system economy was controlled by Trifecta Corporation a SL transstellar. Mobius is 190 LY from Montana.
Mobius Beta (Mobius II) – <SoF> The settled planet in the Mobius System, O ~ 11,50 LM inside HL [See 18)]. The planetary capital is Landing.
Monica – <SoSag, AAC, SftS, ToF, MoH, ART, SoF, HoS, CoG> 1) A star system outside TC, StC – G3; HL – 20,68. The Eroica asteroid belt has a "rough" O of 19,5 LM. The Eroica Station an industrial complex is placed within the asteroid belt. Monica is 60 LY from Meyers and 270 LY from Lynx. Monica lies in the middle of a grav wave. 2) The settled planet in the Monica System, O – 9,5. It specializes in anonymity, bad civic engineering, provision of mercenaries and volunteers for OFS intervention battalions. The planetary capital is Estelle.
Montague – <WarH> A star system in RoH where Citizen General Adrian Carson's secession following the downfall of PRH was brought to an end by Admiral Lester Tourville.
Montana – <SoSag, AAC, SftS, ToF, MoH, SoF, HoS> 1) A star system in the TC, TQ / SEM member, StC – G1; HL – 21,56 [See 19)]. It's 120 LY from Split, 83 LY from Spindle and 210 LY from Mesa. There is an asteroid belt in the system. 2) The settled planet in the Montana System, O - “almost” 13. The planetary capital is Brewster. Montana's main export comodieties are beef and leatherwork, which ship as far as SL Shell worlds. This allows Montana to maintain a marginally favorable trade balance. Still it has to import heavy machinery and space craft from out-system. Altough a V planet Montana hac a netvork of navigation satelites in orbit. One of Montana's natural wonders is the New Missouri Gorge. The New Missouri River is the second largest river on the planet and it carved a path through the New Sapphire Mountains that is twice the size of Grand Canyon on Earth. The old Fahrenheit temperature scale is still in use on Montana.
Moon – <ART, B> The only natural satellite of Earth.
Morell – <JHRN> A star system in PRH, where two rebelions took place. The first one in 1880 P.D. was almost succesfull due to delays in communication between the system and Haven, but the second one in 1897 P.D. was quickly nipped in the bud by Capitain Henry Thurber commanding PNS Conquistador.
MQ-L-1792-46A – <HoS> see Lynx Terminus.
Mullins – <HoS> A star system on the far side of SL, 1680 LY from Basilisk. Mullins is associated with a wormhole bridge leading to Titania.
Mylar – <AoV> A star system in PRH. Together with Owens, MacGregor, and Slocum Mylar forms a little square cluster with Barnett at its center. Captured by MA during Operation Buttercup.
1) There are two sets of data that describe Manticore A & B's distance from their common center of gravity, one in JRMN and the other in HoS, I decided to use the one from HoS, as it's the newest and most canon material on Manticore A's astrography.
2) The number of colonists was changed in HoS from the 38000 adults and 13000 minor children given in MtH. I'm going with the newer data.
3) MtH gives the date 1454 P.D. and HoS indicates that the Plauge was active before 1464 P.D. when it "jumped" the quarantine to Sphinx. ABF and HTBu9 give the most detailed timeline of the Plauge's history availabele. Also MtH gives the duration of the Plague as "over 10 T-Years" but ABF and HTBu9 correct that to 26 T-Years. I decided to leave the ABF / HTBu9 version.
4) The asteroid belts of Manticore A pose a problem, the only time they are mentiond is in SVW during the acceptance trails of HMS Nike when she heads to exercise her armament in Beta Belt "the Navy's traditional gunnery exercise area". The existence of Beta Belt implies as least an Alpha Belt. The problem is that neither the map nor the system bodies list in JRMN and more importanty, neither does HoS indicate any presence of asteroid belts in the Manticore A sub-system. I decided to go with the data from HoS, as it's the newest and most canon material on Manticore A's astrography.
5) The glossary in ABF and TW gives the number 11,40 LM, the table listing the planets of Manticore A in JRMN 11,75 LM, and the Manticore A system map in HoS lists 11,5 LM. I'm going with the one from HoS, as it's the newest and most canon material on Manticore A's astrography.
5) There are two sets of data that describe Manticore's diameter, one in JRMN - 1,06, and the second one in HoS - 1,02. I decided to use the one from HoS, as it's newer and more canon.
7) Manticore's DL is a problem, the appendix from OBS gives its duration as 22,45 hours, but FoD in chapter 1 mentions it beeing "twenty-three-plus" hours long.
8) There is a problem here, according to OBS, Chapter 12 Landing is 1500 km north of the equator, but TW states that it is "almost on Manticore's equator". I'm leaving the data from OBS because it gives more details about the surrounding area e.g. Jason Bay.
9) There is a problem here, according to HotQ, HAE, JRMN and HoS Gryphon is the fifth planet orbiting Manticore B, but the Appendix (The one explaining the timekeeping of SKM) at the end of OBS, SVW and MtH place Gryphon in the fourth place. I decided to go with the data from HoS, as it's the newest and most canon material on Manticore B's astrography.
10) In OBS Chapter 5 there is mention of the existence of a similar resonance zone associated with Manticore B.
11) Masada's O is given in HotQ as "barely a quater that of Grayson's". Grayson's O - 13,5 LM. So Masada's orbit is:
O = 13,5 / 4 ≈ 3,37
12) Although Medusa's YL isn't given directly in any of the books, it can be calculated from HoS. There we get to know that a Medusan pregnancy is around 8 local years, which is equal to 5 T-Years, and that a Medusan is considered old when he reaches 70 local years, which equals to 48 T-Years. So: 5 / 8 ≈ 0,625; and 48 / 70 ≈ 0,686. Looking for middla ground between those two numbers I arrived at 0,66.
13) In ToF Chapter 49 we get to know that Mesa's O is "about 40 LS nearer to the primary than Earth to Sol. Earth's O – 150 000 000 km. So:
O = 150 000 000 000 [m] / 299 792 458 [m/s] ≈ 500,34 LS
O ≈ 500,34 - 40 ≈ 460,34 LS
O ≈ 460,34 / 60 ≈ 7,67 LM
14) In ToF Chapter 49 we get to know that Mesa's G is "almost identical" to Earth's.
15) In CoG Chapter 63 there is the following passage "... in the light of Mesa's larger moon", which implies the existence of a smaller moon, hence Mesa has at least two moons.
16) MoH gives two names for this system. First in Chapter 39 during Detweiler's meeting with RF rulers, Antony Polanski is the Line System President only to apperar in the character index as the Vine System President. This is obviously a typo but we will have to wait for more books to figure out which one is right, for now I'm going with the one from the character index.
17) The orbit of Meyers isn't given in SoF, but Tenth Fleet makes its alpha transition 0,5 million kilometers outside the HL "and just over" 11 LM from the planet. So:
HL = 22 LM - 11 LM = 11 LM = O
18) In SoF Chapter 30 the RMN force makes its hyper transition 0,5 LM outside the HL, which puts it 215,9 million kilometers from Mobius Beta. So:
0,5 LM * 60 LS = 30 LS * 299 792 458 [m/s] = 8 993 773 740 [m]
215 900 000 000 [m] - 8 993 773 740 [m] = 206 906 226 260 [m]
206 906 226 260 [m] / 299 792 458 [m/s] ≈ 690,16 LS
690,16 / 60 ≈ 11,50 LM
Hence Mobius Beta's O is ~ 11,50 LM inside the HL.
19)) There is a inconsistency in the information provided in SoSag. In Ch. 46 HMS Hexapuma crosses the Montana Alpha wall at 19,80 LM which according to the table from MtH makes the star a G5 class, but a few lines further it is put down as a G1. I decided on G1 because it makes more sense, otherwise Montana would be much further from a cooler primary than Earth is from the Sun, (Almost as far as Mars). Additionally in Ch. 10 there is the following: "...Montana's primary - also called Montana - was a bit cooler than Manticore-A." A G1 class star fits the description better than a G5.
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