Pendang update & why I'm being quiet

Message-Id: <9305181002.AA24547@soda.berkeley.edu>
To: tne-pocket@ocf.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: Pendang update & why I'm being quiet
Date: Tue, 18 May 1993 03:02:36 -0700
From: George William Herbert <gwh@soda.berkeley.edu>


Appended is the latest Pendang writeup.  It's evolved a lot,
in response to dsicussions here and info from Survival Margin.
Basically, Pendang is not quite as far along the path to 
regaining high-tech as it was in the previous version;
it's about a TL lower (8 avg) and considerably less operational
starships as of 001-1201 (about 7 total 8-).  They are even
more of the slow starter in this version.  They were impeded
a bit during the dark years by some Vampire fleet attacks.
They're mean, they're lean, and they just rediscovered the
joys of Jump Drives.  Iiiiiit's Pendang! [and it's way too late
and I just finished the first complete draft of a technical paper
I present a week from today ARGH sorry, but I've been busy]

Enjoy 8-)

-george

-----
INTRODUCTION
	This section shows you an important section of the Aoreriyya 
region in the New Era, the planet of Pendang (1231 Reavers Deep, UPP 
B8769B6-9  Hi  403 as of 001-1201).  Pendang has the highest surviving 
starfaring population, but is crippled by its being forced to rely on very low-
tech electronics and computers.  In the New Era, Pendang is a power to be 
reckoned with, though it is a second-rate power in Aoreriyya compared to 
planets that have recovered more electronics and computer capability.  It's 
inhabitants, known as Pendys, are commonly encountered throughout 
Aoreriyya.
 
Pendang Before the Imperial Rebellion
	The Pendang system was origionally colonized around -1950 
(Imperial calendar) by a band of assorted Solomani humans seeking a 
relatively lush and free world to settle.  The planet was named after the late 
wife of the expedition commander, Pendang Yee.
	They were attracted to Pendang due to its relatively good climate 
and excellent agricultural potential.  The planet was overgrown with native 
jungle, but if cleared (and held back) the soils were perfectly acceptable for 
earth-native plants, and several native species of plants are edible by humans.  
The planet's atmospheric taint is organic byproducts of decay from the jungle 
conditions. Relatively simple filters remove all but a slight lingering scent
of the taint.  Humans can actually breathe the raw atmosphere for many hours 
before they suffer significant ill effects.
	The population of Pendang slowly grew, as did its industrial 
capacity, for the next thousand years.  Around the year -1010, an Aslan clan 
seeking new land arrived in the Pendang system and tried to conquer 
Pendang.  While the people of Pendang had no starflight capacity, they did 
have spaceflight technology, and fought a vicious war in close orbit and on 
the ground.  The ihatei of the Khalyasyu' clan scored initial successes, but 
once Pendang's humans organized their resistance they defeated the Aslan, 
capturing many prisoners.  These prisoners quickly became a massive pain in 
the neck for the Pendang government.  After considerable soul-searching, 
they freed the prisoners of war and gave them the planet in an inner orbit 
around Pendang's star, a mostly water world with vicious weather (though 
tolerable temperature).  The Aslan were amazed that the Pendys were so 
magnanamous as to grant land to vanquished enemies.  By the time 
reinforcements from the Khalyasyu clan arrived, the prisoners of war 
requested permission to stay.  Their clan eventually relented, and they then 
pledged fealty to the government of Pendang.  Pendang's government 
encouraged the Aslan to fish and mine the world, which the Aslan named 
Steiraya, and trade with Pendang for industrial goods.  This relationship has 
been maintained ever since, and the presence of Aslan has helped keep 
Pendang's population open to the concept of aliens.  It also helped that the 
local fish in Pendang's oceans are inedible; the fish from Steiraya are 
considered a delicacy on Pendang.
	That was the situation until the year 831, when the neighboring 
planet of Marlheim, which had conquered two smaller worlds already, 
invaded Pendang.  Marlheims' strong Navy and Marines quickly took control 
of Pendang (even though nearly twice as many people lived on Pendang as 
Marlheim).  The new government (a Duke from Marlheim) was more 
opressive than the old government but the people's attitudes remained open.  
Pendang has remained the only world in the Grand Dutchy of Marlheim to 
avoid travel zone classification as an amber zone.  Culturally, if not 
governmentally, Pengang was a outward-looking, friendly planet.
 
Recent History through the Hard Times
	The government of Pendang, members of Marlheim's nobility, 
were not initially very close to the population.  By 1040, however, the 
situation had loosened up considerably, and the Duke of Pendang (Duke 
Johann IX) married the daughter of a prominent Pendy businessman.  His 
son, Duke Frederick IV, married a Marlheim native in 1065.  That  marriage 
was strained: Fredricks' wife Venna was a harsh, unfriendly woman, and the 
marriage had been political to begin with.
	Frederick's son, (later the Duke) Gunther Yee, was born in 1071.  He 
married a Pendy native schoolmate in 1090 over the strenuous objections of 
his elitist mother.  They immediately set out producing a new horde of heirs.  
When Duke Frederick IV died in a starship accident in 1093 Gunther Yee 
became Duke of Pendang.  He already had an infant son (Johann, named for 
his greatgrandfather) and shortly a daughter (Melissa).
	The Grand Duke of Marlheim had for a long time allowed Pendang 
a great deal of autonomy, as long as its industries churned out needed 
military goods, its shipyards produced vessels for the Grand Dutchy's navy, 
and its taxes came in on time.  Duke Gunther Yee set about opening up many 
of the restrictions that his predecessors had placed upon the populace, though 
his loyalties continued to lie with Marlheim.  The population was estatic, and 
Pendang went through a cultural and economic flowering from 1095 through 
1116.
	 As the chaos of the Rebellion and wars within the Imperium began 
to be felt throughout Aoreriyya, the Grand Duke of Marlheim decided that he 
was going to expand his borders somewhat, and ordered Pendang to shift to a 
wartime economy to help produce weapons to conquer new worlds.  The 
population of Pendang resisted the order; they didn't want to help attack 
other worlds.  They didn't want to reduce their standard of living either.  
Duke Gunther Yee went to Marlheim to plead their case with the Grand 
Duke.  He discovered that the palace politics of Marlheim had little relation
to external realities.  Even though Gunther Yee represented over half the 
population of the Grand Dutchy, his words fell upon deaf ears.  He returned 
deeply shaken in his faith in the Grand Dutchy's government.  Nonetheless, 
he obeyed his orders, and retooled the industries of Pendang.
	In 1118, Marlheim's Navy invaded the world at 1133 Reavers Deep, 
intending to press on with a campaign to eventually conquer Eakoi.  This 
move, in addition to a threat to Eakoi, was seen as a threat by the Unity of 
Harmony, whose border lies just trailing from Eakoi.  The Grand Duke of 
Marlheim ignored the Unity of Harmony's protests, but a covert diplomatic 
mission from the Unity of Harmony to Pendang was more profitable.  Duke 
Gunther Yee was by now thoroughly sick of his leaders in Marlheim.  With 
covert backing from the Unity of Harmony Duke Gunther Yee declared 
Pendang independent in 1119 and managed to take over about a third of the 
Marlheim Navy.
	The Marhleim Navy had been particularly strong in its use of the 
Battle Rider/Tender concept.  Among other things, it allowed the production 
of riders at Pendang (whose Starport of B could produce jump drives only 
with considerable effort).  One of the effects of this was that Pendang's main 
military force was tied to but a few large jump tenders it had captured.  
Fearful of Pendang going on the offensive, Marlheim's navy quickly 
concentrated its efforts on destroying them.  After a year of sharp battles, 
Pendang was left with no jump tenders but a strong insystem defense force of 
battleriders (and good repair facilities for them).  Its smaller starships
ranged out to the worlds of the Grand Dutchy, dropping special operations teams 
with equipment and supplies to forment rebellion against the Grand Dutchy, 
but it was incapable of fighting any strong force except in the Pendang system. 
Similarly, except for a naval base installation it still controlled on 
Pendang's moon, Marlheim made little headway towards recapturing the Pendang 
system.
	Pendang had started with less ships, but its population and 
shipyards gave it an advantage in industrial capacity that became stronger 
over the next four years.  While its ability to project power was stagnant, 
Pendangs' system defense capability increased strongly.  The Grand Duke 
refused to end the war, however, and futile attacks into the Pendang system 
continued.
	Finally, in 1124 the Grand Duke stopped playing by any sembalance 
of rules of civilized warfare and marshalled what remained of his navy into a 
massive nuclear strike against the Pendang starport and other military 
industries.  It was a measure of how far Marlheim had fallen that the attack 
barely succeeded to do any damage to the planet:  twenty nuclear missiles hit 
the planet, which nearly destroyed the shipyards at the starport but did no 
other damage.  In a stroke of bad luck, Duke Gunther Yee was in orbit on a 
ship that was destroyed during the attack.  His son, Johann Yee, immediately 
suceeded his father and announced that Pendang would extract revenge on 
Marlheim for this heinous attack and would use its military might to ensure 
peace in the subsector.  He also appealed to the Unity of Harmony for 
assistance.  However, their support for Pendang waned as they saw Pendang's 
new government swing towards the same agressiveness which caused the 
Unity of Harmony to act against Marlheim to start with.  The Unity of 
Harmony decided that the best way to safeguard their border was to let 
Marlheim and Pendang fight it out and weaken each other. 
	As the war ground on, the standard of living both of Pendang and 
the Grand Dutchy dropped, and Pendang slowly sank to roughly TL8, though 
it still operated a lot of TL10 hardware from before the war.  By 1127, the war 
had ground both sides down further still, and the populace's faith in Duke 
Johann Yee started to crack.  He ceded power to a council of lower nobles on 
225-1127, about eight years into the war.  They proved no better at governing 
than he was, however, and the populace was still unsatisfied.  Fortunately, 
things were falling apart faster on Marlheim than Pendang, and the intensity 
of the war never built up again after the 1124 strike.
 
The Virus
	The situation remained stable if bleak from 1127 through 1131, with 
occational raids from Marlheim making life difficult in the Pendang system.  
Then, with no warning, in mid-1131 disaster struck Pendang (as it did the rest 
of the known galaxy).  The Virus, the computer-inhabiting lifeform/weapon 
Lucan had loosed as a final terror weapon, arrived at Pendang on 91-1131 and 
lay dormant for a month and a half.  The specific strain (as described in New 
Era terms) was a variant 2D or Reproducing Doomslayer which had decided 
that Humaniti was evil and must be cleansed from the cosmos.  It slowly and 
quietly spread throughout the Pendang computer networks.  Then, with no 
warning, at 7:41 AM on 132-1131 all the computer networks and starship 
computers went berzerk.  At 7:42:04 AM one of the defense satellites main 
computers popped open all its airlock doors with built-in scuttling explosives, 
killing the on-board crew.  Once the virus in its computer was sure the crew 
was dead, it fired all missiles on board at targets in space and on the ground. 
Most of the missiles did little damage, but about one hundred hit highly 
populated areas.  Over 930 million people died.  The rest of the defense 
station crews shut down their computers (in more than one case using hand 
weapons) and took their weapons systems offline; the one bases' 
bombardment was to be the only major incident of weapons being fired.  
About three hundred assorted naval vessels turned vampire and left the 
planet; most of the rest the rest either self destructed or were scuttled by 
their crews or by accident.
	By noon, the planet had ground to a halt.  All vehicles and 
computer networks were either shut down or acting erratic or hostile.  Most 
technological worlds subjected to that level of disruption in the virus's 
attack suffered population implosions.  Pengang had a technological lucky break.
	A grav vehicle mechanic, working on a grav-based truck that had 
been taken over by the virus before it was powered off, discovered something 
interesting: the vehicle's computer core was intact, though its memory had 
been corrupted.  When he disconnected all communications and transponder 
hardware from the computer core and installed fresh uninfected memory, the 
computer came back to life operating normally.  The computer was one 
manufactured by Xin Industries using Gallium Arsenide chips instead of 
Silicon.  Unlike conventional silicon computers, the virus had been unable to 
leave "eggs" or infection spores behind in the Gallium Arsenide-based 
computers.  While it's programming had taken over and subverted the 
programming on the GaAs-based computers, the chips survived intact and 
with new, uninfected memory and programs they could be brought back to 
life.
	As word spread that some computers might still operate, hope 
flared, and soon communities were uniting to try and rebuild those 
computers that could be saved and restore transportation, communications, 
and power to the planet.
	The discovery wasn't the salvation of Pendang, however, but a 
gentle cushion to the fall.  Less than one in twenty computers in inventory 
were of safe models.  When efforts were mounted to restart production, the 
authorities were dismayed to realize that the Virus had forseen this tactic and 
had targeted Xin Industries' factories and orbital GaAs wafer facility in the 
nuclear attack.  There were no factories left to restart, and almost no 
technicians who knew how to rebuild the factories.
	Once communications were restarted, the council of nobles tried to 
coordinate recovery efforts, but with transportation still disabled and 
industry ground to a halt the planet sunk into anarchy.  Islands of
civilization with working technologies were surrounded by large zones of 
lawlessness and despair.  By 1135, the population had dropped to 3.3 billion 
(from 5.1 billion before the war), there was no government for 90% of the 
planets population, and the prevailing new-construction technology level was
only TL 5.
	Only barely did Pendang hold on to any civilization and technology; 
the buffer or cushion that the few safe computers allowed, of 
communications and transportation and some essential industry, saved 
Pendang from the fate that befell tens of thousands of other worlds: it's 
population mostly survived.  But the road to recovery wouldn't be easy for 
Pendang.
 
Recovery
	In 1132, in the northern metropolis of Cardwell, Melissa Yee (the 
daughter of Duke Gunther Yee) had established a stronghold of civilization 
after losing contact with her older brother when the Virus struck (he was 
never seen alive after that day).
	She recognized that the people needed to be fed.  When the few 
remaining vehicles which were pressed into food-transport service started to 
break down, nearby areas of jungle were cleared and the people immediately 
started farming, producing enough food to support the quarter-billion people 
living in the massive city.  She kept essential electricity flowing, though not 
as much as before the virus, and enforced the laws and kept people's living 
conditions healthy.  She also began reviving use of Canals for long-distance 
surface transportation.  Melissa Yee was strong and ruthless, and the people 
under her thrived.  Melissa realized that the surviving Xin computers were 
not going to last forever, and began a program to rebuild the technological 
infrastructure around TL 5 computers which could be built at that point, 
based mostly on vaccum tube technology.
	In early 1133, over 100 of the vampire ships that had fled during the 
initial infection returned from the outer system intent upon finishing the 
job.  Melissa's meager naval resources (ten heavy system defense boats) and 
ground-based missiles finally forced them away, though both sides were 
nearly annhilated.
	In 1134, Melissa married one of her technical experts, and shortly 
bore the first of what were to be five children, her daughter Ella.  Melissa 
smoothly orchestrated news of her marriage and child's birth, using it to help 
lever confidence in the rebirth into her people.
	By 1136 the situation in Cardwell was stablized, and Melissa began 
restoring services to the areas surrounding it.  Few people resisted her 
advance; she brought reliable food, order, and safety where she expanded her 
power base.  She expanded slowly and sensibly, only as fast as her resources 
allowed stable control.  
	In 1137 another Vampire Ship raid hit the planet.  This time, while 
space-based defenses were relatively weak, ground based missile batteries 
were able to hold their own and destroyed most of the Vampire ships before 
the Vampires finally withdrew.
	It took eight years, but by late 1142 the last populated areas of 
Pendang were brought under Melissa's power.  The population had stabilized 
at 3.1 billion.
	Once basic human needs were restored unformly across the planet, 
Melissa concentrated on a massive reconstruction program to build 
replacement (albeit much lower tech) computers in the factories, power 
plants, and in vehicles.  In 1143, the prototype orbital factory for Gallium 
Arsenide chipmaking was destroyed in a Vampire ship sneak attack, but the 
TL 5 computer manufacturing went well.  This slow technological 
turnaround took until 1145 to show any signs of progress.
	A coalition of government officials eventually requested that 
Melissa assume her late father's and brother's title in 1146.  At 7:45 AM on 
132-1146, fifteen years nearly to the minute from the Virus's attack, Dutchess 
Melissa Yee assumed the throne of Pendang.  At that point, the population 
had grown back to 3.2 billion people and the general tech level had recovered 
slighly to TL 6 (except in computer technology).
	For the next fifteen years, most of the efforts of the Pendang 
population were spent on shoring up their technology and industrial base.  
Infrequent vampire raids kept Pendang on its toes, but did relatively little 
damage.  Some fusion generators that had been built at TL10 were still 
running, as units were cannibalized and high-tech parts replaced with low-
tech substitutes, but the situation wasn't really stable until a mixed-spectrum 
of technical solutions allowed Pendang to claim a peak tech level of TL8 in 
1170, but still stuck with TL6 computers.  Dutchess Melissa even approved a 
limited exploration of outer space again, using rebuilt small craft.  The first 
exploration was a quick survey of the remaining orbital bases.  The second 
was a quick survey of Pendang's moon, which revealed little , but when the 
first expedition back to Steiraya found the Aslan in good shape, hope for the 
future soared.  Soon limited trading between the two worlds commenced 
with a dedicated transport.  In 1173, two incidents damped the Pendys 
enthusiasm for a return to space.  First, one of the transports on the Steiraya 
run suffered an engine failure and was stranded in deep space for several 
weeks.  By the time a rescue vessel found it, its crew had died.  At a time 
when less than 10 small craft comprised the entire Pendang navy, this 
incident had a significant emotional impact.
	The second, and much more severe, incident was started when an 
exploratory team in the ruins of the Marlheim Navy base on Pendang's 
moon accidentally turned one of the base's main computers back on while 
testing some power connections.  The computer, which had been thoroughly 
infected by the Virus, immediately utilized what was left of its internal 
defenses to kill the explorers, and tried to launch a massive missile attack 
upon Pendang.
	Fortunately for the inhabitants of Pendang, the missiles hadn't been 
run through annual inspections and maintenance for 30 years, and even 
those that launched properly still lacked explosive power.  The Tritium in 
their thermonuclear warheads had decayed into helium, rendering the 
warheads mostly duds (and the remaining warheads merely 25 kiloton or so).
	Still, the 200 missiles that did function and hit targets did 
significant amounts of damage.  About another 200 million people died that day
and in the aftermath.
	The first bombardment nearly collapsed Pendang's civilization.  
The second barely scratched what was now a very tough society.  It only took 
six months for a counterstrike to wipe all traces of the base from Pendang's 
moon; while the dead were long missed, the industry and population 
absorbed their losses and rebuilt in five years.  By 1180, Pendang was back 
where it had been when it reentered space.
	However, the tragic consequences of the earlier explorations 
dampened the curiosity of the Pendang people and leaders.  Dutchess Melissa 
refused to authorize any further activities in space except in Pendang orbit 
and to the Aslan on Steiraya.  From 1180 onwards, Pendang concentrated on a 
economic rebirth, regaining some of the quality of life that had so well served 
its inhabitants a half century ago.
	Dutchess Melissa died in 1182 at the age of 89.  Her daughter Ella 
assumed the tile of Dutchess at the age of 45, and is still the Dutchess today
(as of 1201).  Dutchess Ella continued Melissa's program of economic growth and
industrial progress.  By the year 1201, Pendang's factories could again produce 
some TL 9 items and systems, though the average is still TL 8 and computer 
manufacture is still tragically crippled at TL 6.
 
Pendang Rediscovers Starflight
	In the year 1197, Dutchess Ella approved a limited program for 
Pendang to start rebuilding some starships that were decaying around the old 
starport site, to investegate the situation beyond the Pendang system proper.  
Ella and her advisors agreed that the likely situation was that nearly everyone 
had died or fallen back to the stone age; the Virus was very destructive.  
In no particular hurry, by 1200 they were preforming test flights and had just
done a calibration jump insystem (to Steiraya) when an unidentified starship 
appeared in the sky above Pendang.  Pendang was too late; the rest of the 
universe had come back to see them first.
 
THE NEW ERA
	Once Pendang was aware of other planets status, a number of 
different movements arose among the Pendang leadership.
	The most aggressive of them recalled the words of the late Duke 
Johan Yee's statements about Pendang becoming a power within the 
subsector and urged a massive return to space.  Some, recalling the horrors 
inflicted by the second bombardment, argued for interdiction of all offplanet 
contact for the safety of Pendang.  Many moderates wanted to explore slowly, 
but saw more pressing needs on Pendang for funds (it is still regaining 
technology and the standard of living its inhabitants lost after 1120 and 1131).  
	The factions quickly polarized much of the upper government.  
Industry, realizing the benefits of wartime production and the markets and 
resources of conquered worlds, fell in line behind the radical expansionists in 
clamoring for a fleet.  Religous organizations, which counted about half the 
population among their flock, split between moderate and xenophobic 
movements.  Most of the population as individuals had moderate 
sentiments.
	Dutchess Ella probably would have established a firm moderate 
position had not one of the religious organizations nearly started a rebellion.
The Kergorite Church, a strong religous faction whose leader, Jonah Kergor, 
had gained most of his support by proclaiming the second bombardment "Just 
and fair punishment by God for our aspirations in the stars", proclaimed that 
anything but total isolation was heretical and started uprisings in several 
major cities to replace the nobility with an isolationistic religous 
dictatorship.  The Kergorites failed, but the upheaval that they caused led 
Dutchess Ella to focus on healing the social wounds that had let the 
Kergorites gain a significant following, trying to focus on a long-term 
solution to the near rebelion.  She announced that the government would follow
an officially moderate policy, with trapings of isolationist sentiments.  
In reality she allowed the expansionists considerable autonomy over industrial
policy and outsystem relations, so that she could concentrate on social and 
internal political issues.  The one real check on the expansionists was 
actually the existing military.  With nearly fourty million men under arms 
and an immense political and budgetary block, the Army was reluctant to cede
much funding for naval procurements.  While Pendang's planetary defenses are 
formidable after years of Vampire attack, its shipyards have been able to 
rebuild only two 1000-ton starships and five smaller ones, and industrial 
buildup for mass production is moving slowly.
	The Pendang Navy is led by officers handpicked by the expansionist 
faction.  As a result, the navy is aggressive and domineering towards outside 
powers.  It does still suffer from the not insignificant disadvantage of TL 6 
computers, which is a significant moderating influence.  So far during the 
New Era, Pendang has been unable to procure high-tech computers from 
other sources.
 
Encounters Outside Pendang
	There are two major ways to encounter citizens of Pendang in 
Aoreriya.  Pendang's seven (as of 001-1201) starships are often seen in other 
systems in the Aoreriya core regions.  These encounters are often unfriendly 
if not hostile; Pendang's naval officers are nearly uniformly from the 
Expansionist political camp.
	More commonly, however, are encounters with individuals, 
mostly of the moderate faction.  In sharp contrast to naval crews, the 
moderates are curious and as a rule friendly, trying to explore the quadrant or 
trade with the inhabitants of other worlds in peace.

Naval Encounters: The probabilities of encountering Pendang Naval ships 
are listed in the starship encounter section elsewhere in this suppliment.  In 
general, these starships are merely on "show the flag" type missions: they are 
there to project Pendang's presence, explore, or trade.
	The most common exploratory vessel is the "Indimidator" class 
thousand-ton vessel, of which two are currently operational.  They have a 
total crew of 54, plus 26 troops.  On exploratory missions, the 26 troops are 
usually two 8 person heavy infantry squads, a two person command team, 
and one eight person contact team.  Standard procedure is to embark an 8 ton 
grav carrier in cargo space in the ships boat, and for the ship itself to 
stand off in high orbit, while the ships boat flies to low orbit (with eight
troops on board) and the grav carrier, with the contact team in it, lands.
This way, the ships safety is not impaired, but rescues are usually possible.
	If Naval crews are encountered on shore leave, they tend to be 
aggressive but politically pretty neutral.  Pendy Naval Officers, on the other 
hand, are both agressive and expansionistic.  They will treat other 
governments with disdain (but enough respect to avoid being expelled).  
Their service schools train them that way.

Individual Encounters:  Any normal encounter may be with a Pendang 
citizen.  In this case, the initial encounter reaction roll may serve as a 
guideline of how moderate the individual is; the better the reaction, the more 
moderate, but the worse the more expansionistic.  Most Pendys encountered 
offplanet are pretty moderate.  The moderate majority are comfortable with 
offworlders, interested in aliens (many have met Aslan from Pendang or 
Steiraya in the Pendang system), especially the relatively exotic Droyne.  They 
are clearly envious of high tech computer hardware, but due to the export 
restrictions are generally unable to aquire any.  Many of these people are 
Pendang's nobles and industrial leaders.


PENDANG: THE PLANET
	Pendang orbits its star (Lumio, an F2 V star) at a distance of xxx AU.  
60% of its surface is oceans, mostly in the northern and southern polar 
regions.  It has no axial tilt of note, but does have a slightly eccentric 
orbit (0.015).  The average temperature ranges from 20 C in winter to 24 C in 
summer; it is not unknown to be hotter than 35 C at midday in the equatorial 
regions where much of the populace is.  Humans tend to cluster near bodies 
of water that help regulate daily temperature swings.  One result of the warm 
temperature and high hydrographic percentage is frequent afternoon rain 
near large bodies of water, even though "weather" (storms, heavy winds) is 
minimal.  Imagine a planetsized rainforest.  Pendang has no icecaps, and only 
very very rarely does the temperature on the surface drop below 0 C.
	Pendang is a large world, about 13,000 km in diameter. The surface 
of Pendang is remarkably flat; while it has little weather to speak of 
(thus slow erosion), Pendang hasn't been geologically active for at least 
hundreds of millions of years.  The biggest chain of hills is due to a recent
(million year ago) asteroid impact.  The surface of Pendang is wet and hot 
but not overwhelmingly so.  It is reminiscent of a tropical rainforests in 
the Amazon of earth.  Pendangs' native plant life is hardy and well adapted 
to the hot weather.  Bacteria that recycle dead vegitation produce waste 
gases that are nauseating and mildly toxic to humans; this is the source of 
the atmospheric taint.  At sea, away from the jungles, humans can live and 
work without filter masks, but on the land nearly everywhere is jungle and
requires filtered air.  All buildings are equipped with filtration systems, 
and simple and cheap (and recyclable) filters are available to the population.
In case of emergency, humans can breathe unfiltered air for several hours
with little ill effect besides increasing discomfort.  After 1D6+3 hours, 
a character will begin to get nauseous and ill (1D3 temporary reduction in 
Dex and End) and after 2D6+6 hours will be incapacitated.  After another
2D6+6 hours a character will die of atmospheric poisoning.  The treatment is 
simply to provide filtered air and let the character regain strength 
(1 to 2 days if incapacitated).
	The surface flatness of Pendang has led to its use as a transportation 
method: shallow canals have been dug between all major cities, and most 
cargo is transported by water (a lot cheaper than via Grav vehicle).  
	The current technology level components of Pendang are:
	Pers Mil: 	9
	Hvy Mil:	9
	Computers: 	6
	Cmp. Intrfc.:	7
	Commo:		7
	Environ:	8
	Medical:	8
	Transport:	8
	Space:		9
	Energy:		9
One important note is that while TL 9 production is now state of the art, the 
majority of installed equipment is TL 8 or TL 7.  Pendang has only regained 
TL 9 in the last few years.  TL 9 consumer goods are a highly prized 
commodity at this point.  And due to the computer embargo, nearly all 
electronics remain TL 5, with the limit on new-manufacture of TL 6.  The 
major exception is that the Pendang engineers have determined how to 
manufacture bulky Electronic Linked control panel units (effectively TL 8, but 
0.05 Kl instead of 0.01) and Heads-up Displays.  Some very few high-tech 
starship-sized computers also exist, probably around 10 combined surviving 
Xin models and imported models aquired quietly.  Details are sketchy.
	Persistent rumors hold that the Pengang government has been 
building high-tech computers for years but that they have a continual virus 
reinfection problem and have never been able to deploy any of these systems.
 
Pendang: The People and Government
	The current population of Pendang is 3.613 billion people, at an 
average Tech Level of 8 (though TL 9 manufacturing is beginning to 
reappear).  The population is nearly entirely human: a small population of 
Aslan exists on Pendang and about as many live on Steiraya (about 12,000 
evenly divided between the two worlds).  The government is a non-
charismatic leader (Dutchess Ella doesn't have the presence of her mother), 
though a significant bureacracy exists.  About half of the population is 
affiliated with a religous organization of some sort; more than a dozen major 
organizations exist on Pendang.  Few in the general populace are politically 
active, as the nobles manage most policy.  There are strong pools of generally 
moderate and generally isolationist sentiment, however.
	The government is still in a state of upheaval following the recent 
Kergorite rebellion.  Dutchess Ella and most of the government and 
population are following introspective policies as a result of the rebellion
and turmoil.  Elements of resistance are still present in the countryside, 
but for the most part the unrest is over.
	Dutchess Ella has four children.  Janet, the oldest at 32, is a rising 
star in the Pendang Navy.  William (28) is active within the government, 
primarily on social and economic issues.  Darren (23) is in college studying 
Art.  Deidre (18) has been running around enjoying herself, with little idea of 
what she wants out of life.
 
THE PENDANG SYSTEM
	The other planet of interest in the Pendang system is Steiraya, in 
orbit 2 of Lumio (the Pendang system's star).  There is an additional small 
mining colony on Kvhord, the vaccum world in orbit 4, but it is rarely visited 
by outsiders.

Steiraya: This is a small, mostly water world, with truly scary weather.  
"Calm" periods are when the wind is only 30 kph and the waves 2 meters 
high.  During storms (about 15% of the time, roll 6+ on 1D6 for a storm to 
occur any given day, DM +1 in polar regions), winds pick up to up to 200 kph 
and waves have been known to top 20 meters.  
	Buildings on Steiraya are built to survive the weather; they tend to 
be built as well as military bunkers are on other worlds, with better drainage 
(and at least 20 meters above sea level...).  During Vampire raids, the 
Steirayans merely went indoors and shut off radios and other things likely to 
attract attention.
	Paying attention to weather prediction and always bringing survival 
gear are facts of life.  On roads between villages, rarely do you go more than 
five kilometers between storm shelters (with room for several vehicles).    A 
few heavily armoured (and heavy) vehicles are able to withstand most storm 
winds and move about: the local starport has two of these transport vehicles, 
and eight more are scattered around the planet.  Even armoured and ballasted 
down, every couple of years one of these vehicles is flipped over and 
damaged in a storm.
	Compensating for the hazardous weather are great fishing grounds.  
Aquatic life is vibrant, and considered tasty by both Aslan and Human.
	Most of the population (6300 Aslan) is engaged in activities related 
to fishing in the oceans of Steiraya; about 500 people work in industrial jobs, 
including a local iron mine and steel smelter operation and a submarine yard.   
The fishermen (and women) are hardy folks.  They fish from submarines, 
working on the surface but escaping storms by riding them out deeper in the 
ocean.  The traditional Aslan concept of "land" has different meaning here; 
the inhabitants of Steiraya prize their fishing grounds territory, not on-land 
property.  Some fishing grounds, designated as "Clan Property", are allowed 
to visitors from Pendang for "sportfishing" (for fees of up to Cr100 + sub 
rental cost of about that much, per day).
	Although they have adopted Pendang as their "clan", they have a 
fully functional small clan structure (led by a council of elder respected 
fishermen, for the most part) and are effectively independent of Pendang.  
They still honor their long-ago pledge of fealty to Pendang, but Pendang's 
view of the relationship is more close trading partners than conquered clan, 
so they only rarely take any advantage of the situation.

Kvhord: This world has supported small iron and nickel mines for most of 
the last thousand years.  Kvhord is not self-sufficient, relying on imported 
food from Pendang.  When the virus hit Pendang, the miners on Kvhord 
were lucky enough to have two small spacecraft with Xin Industries main 
computers, and were able to evacuate the population of 400 back to Pendang 
over two months, with little loss of life.   The current (as of 1201) 
inhabitants, only 100 workers, were sent to reopen the mines by an 
expansionist noble, who bought the mining rights in 1199.  While visitors are 
not prohibited, there are no facilities to support them, and the mines are
private property and offlimits.

Other Worlds:  Helios, the small (230 km) world in orbit 1, has an 8-person 
solar observatory run by the University of Cardwell.  The rest of the worlds 
are uninhabited.
 
	SYSTEM DESCRIPTION, PENDANG SYSTEM
Orbit	Name	Description	Notes
Primary	Lumios	F2 V
0	Spek	Y-S00000-0
1	Helios	Y-S00167-7	Solar Observatory
2	Steiraya	H-658379-9	Pop 6300 Aslan
3	Pendang	B-8769B6-A	Pop 3.6 billion
 
4	Kvhord	H-401218-8	Mining, pop 250
5		Y-230000-0
6		LGG
7		LGG
8		SGG
 
 
THE PENDANG NAVY
	Pendang has rediscovered interstellar flight relatively recently, and 
has a technological disadvantage that is significantly hindering its progress 
(low-tech computers and control systems).  The largest ship they can 
manufacture around a Computer Mod/1 is a 1000 ton destroyer, fondly (and 
somewhat inaccurately) named the "Intimidator" class.  It was quickly 
adopted as the "standard" Pendang Navy ship (the best they can locally 
manufacture) and put into volume production.  The ship is a 4-G, Jump-1 
vessel with an endurance of 68 days with no jumps, 54 days with one jump, 
40 days with two jumps, and 26 days with three jumps (which leaves only 
five days of operations after the third sequential jump).  It is armed with two 
laser and six missile turrets, two sandcaster turrets for defense, no hull 
armour, and a clunky and failure prone triple redundant TL 5 Model 1 
computer array.  It is equipped with one 30-ton small craft and has a 10 ton 
cargo bay on board.  The crew is 18 officers and 36 ratings, and 26 troops are 
carried.    From the exterior, it's streamlined box configuration makes it look 
menacingly clunky, and those who have toured its interior report on a 
striking difference between the TL 10 power plant and the TL 5 computer core.
	Pendang currently (001-1201) has two operational Intimidators, with 
one more fitting out (will be operational during the first quarter of 1201) and 
three more under construction, due to be completed before 1203.
	Unknown to the general populace of the area, each Intimidator also 
has an operational Computer Mod/4fib (old Xin Industries computer), 
though these are now pretty unreliable with age.  The TL 5 and 6 Mod/1 
computers were installed to ensure flightworthiness even if the salvaged 
computers fail.  

-end-