Ahnvees Rylelga

Ahnvees Rylelga is one of the colony systems of the Ancient Alintean Empire, prior to their defeat at the hands of the Ancient Vahran and their subsequent enslavement by the Heil. The loss of Ahnvees Rylelga during the war placed the Vahran adjacent to the critical Oritseal Amiliurnus system which, once lost, sounded the death knell for the Ancient Alinteans. Ahnvees Rylelga still exists today, but under a different name. Humans know it as Gliese 581, HO Lib or HIP 74995, and have just begun discovering the planets in the system.

Ahnvees Rylelga is an M2V red star approximately twenty light years from Sol. Although not visible with the unaided eye, it is close enough to see with a decent telescope or a pair of binoculars at Right Ascension 15h 19m 26.8250s and Declination -07* 43' 20.209", in the constellation Libra. It is incredibly small when juxtaposed with the Sun, at only 0.29 Solar Radii and possessing a mass just under a third of the Sun's (0.31). However, being an M-Class Star, it is stable and long-lasting despite its size, which is what drew humans to it in the first place searching for life.

Planets
Ahnvees Rylelga possesses six planets and a myriad of moons, most of which still bear the scars from the First Galactic War. The most prominent of these is Eidan, although others in the system are noteworthy as well.

ZEUR
The first planet in the system, Zeur is a scorchingly hot terrestrial world with a diameter of 5,941 kilometers. Zeur orbits extremely close to Ahnvees Rylelga with an average orbital distance of 0.284533 Astronomical Units from the star. It makes a complete pass in 0.84 Earth Years and has a day length of 26.14 hours.

Back when the Ahnvees Rylelga System was inhabited, Zeur served little purpose to the system's occupants because of its high surface temperature and close proximity to the star. It did see some use as a military staging ground for testing high-capacity shields and antimatter-based weaponry, and the modern Alintean railguns were invented in the hot labs at the Asujil Research Complex.

SUNTRAL
The largest planet in the system, Suntral reigns as king of the planets and as the sole gas giant in the system. A brilliant blue specimen 22,863.456 kilometers across, Suntral swings around Ahnvees Rylelga every 0.400256 Earth Years. It also holds the record for the longest day in the system, revolving at a leisurely pace of 2339.096064 hours: a day length equivalent to 97.462336 Earth Days.

Due to its nature as a gas giant, Suntral itself was uninhabited. It's sole moon, however, was another matter entirely. Yadiel is the first celestial body with liquid water, and was the primary science world of the Ancient Alinteans. Much of the credit for modern understanding of Dark Space and the Old Race runes is given to the researchers who lived and worked there in the fringe science labs.

Yadiel's orbit around Suntral is as leisurely as its parent. The  moon orbits every 21.825 Earth Years, but is tidally locked to the planet. Orbiting Suntral also gave Yadiel the ability to find shadowed cover behind the gas giant, cooling the planet enough for liquid water and even an atmosphere to take hold. With a radius of 1,124 kilometers, Yadiel was more than large enough to accomodate an ecosystem as well. Yadiel's ecosystem was still budding at the time of occupation, and was a topic of great study among the Alinteans and the Zetans. During the war, sadly, Yadiel's ecosystem was all but destroyed.

AMNAS
A desert world with a radius of 3,810 kilometers, Amnas was the primary staging ground for military exercises in the system. Sparsely inhabited by a mixture of desert scrub and insects, it was ideal for testing everything from prototype railguns to the forerunners to the modern AG-series rifles used in modern-day Alintean military operations. It orbits Ahnvees Rylelga every 0.18 Earth Years at a distance of 0.072993 AU, and seems to follow the trend set by Suntral in having an extremely long day: 788.4 hours (32.85 Earth Days). Amnas is also the second planet in the system to posess liquid water, although not in the same amounts as other bodies like Yadiel or Eidan.

EIDAN
The primary colony world of the Ahnvees Rylelga system, Eidan was a joint-colony effort put in place by the Alinteans, Ragans and Zetans. Carefully tended to by all three, it had evolved into a garden world ripe for habitation and growth, and was inhabited by a cooperative union of its parent races. Truly a paradise, Eidan supported a population of approximately four billion at its peak just before the war. Mining on the planet's surface had revealed large deposits of iskindite, which the Alinteans and Zetans made use of in starships, as well as underlying veins of gold, silver and several oil wells. Eidan's small size (3,783 km) was a point of some contention, however, as it forced its numerous inhabitants to crowd together in large cities across the planet's surface. Eidan's year is 0.03 Earth Years, or approximately eleven days, making it a very quick terrestrial world as it spins around Ahnvees Rylelga at a distance of 0.14601 AU. Its day is comparable to Earth's however, at 22.5 hours.

Eidan was one of the greatest catastrophes during the war, as the assaults on its inhabited moons and on its surface caused the deaths of approximately ten billion Alinteans, Zetans and Ragans. Miribet, Eidan's primary moon and the larger of the two at 1124 km in radius, had been colonized and was one of the next bodies in line to be terraformed like its sister, Artesia (the smaller at 1102 km). Artesia had been colonized and terraformed over a period of several hundred years, and had become a second Eidan, complete with lush continents and deep, vibrant oceans. Both moons supported populations of almost three billion souls.

Miribet, the closer of the two moons, revolved every 28.321 hours and made its way around Eidan every 4.825 years, maintaining an average distance of 254,931 kilometers from the planetary surface. Artesia, the further, had been intentionally stabilized by the Ragans and held steady at an average distance of 378,912 kilometers. Due to the Ragans' tampering, it had become tidally locked to Eidan, but still revolved in a slow orbit of 18.689018 Earth Years.

During the war, Artesia was the first major calamity and the greatest next to the fall of Eidan. A Vahran Supercarrier collided with the planet, liquefying a third of the surface and plunging many of Artesia's cities into the molten mantle. The debris that flew into orbit was inevitably hurled down on Eidan, causing further loss of life. To this day, much of Artesia's surface continues to roil and steam with exposed magma, the wound never having completely healed. Miribet was the second body to fall completely beneath Vahran control, and now resembles Venus with its dried-out orange crust and thick, swirling clouds. Eidan held out slightly longer, but suffered the same fate.

ASUNAR
Once a terraformed garden world on par with Eidan, the Vahran managed to completely destroy Asunar's surface more thoroughly than any superweapon could have ever hoped. Dried-up seabeds are lined with oily residue which still clings even after billions of years - a testament to the insidious nature of Zetan coolant systems. Asunar's once vibrant forests have all burned to ash, revealing the reddish soil and magma deposits beneath. Once a proud colony and the first terraformed world in the system, nothing remains of that legacy but dust and echoes on a dead planet's surface.

Asunar's orbit around Ahnvees Rylelga is far longer than any planet thus far - 42.6 Earth Years - but its day is definitely not the longest. Asunar rotates completely once every 154 hours, exposing all sides of its charred corpse to the watchful eye of its parent star from a distance of 0.21847 AU. It's sole moon, Aladaliel, watches over its decaying parent like a despondent child. Once the relay center for the system, some of the old equipment still remains, weathering the test of time as only Alintean technology can. However, the oceans have long since dried up on the small (874 km) desert moon, and the icecaps have enlarged to fill some of the void. Aladaliel was the second body to be invaded, right after Mysentia, but managed to hold off long enough to watch the rest of the system fall. Aladaliel orbits Asunar from 184,792 km away, and is tidally locked to its parent. Its year is the equivalent of 3.259 Earth Years, making it one of the more average moons in the system.

INHEAL
Once thought to be a second gas giant due to its robust atmosphere, Inheal is actually a super-terrestrial world with a radius of 22,356 km - the second largest object in the system and only slightly smaller than Suntral. It is the furthest planet in the system, orbiting Ahnvees Rylelga at a distance of 0.758 AU and making a complete pass every 6.2398 years. Inheal has the second longest day in the system as well, coming in just behind its sister, Suntral, with a day length of 1047.509404 hours (the equivalent of 43.646225167 Earth Days). The surface of Inheal is tolerable, but far from habitable, and it was one of the other candidates for terraforming before the war arrived at its doorstep. Due to this, its volcanic surface was never tamed, and continues to bolster the thick Venusian clouds which obscure the surface.

Inheal's first moon, Mysentia, was the site of the first attack by the Vahran during the Eidan conflict, and the second world to fall completely beneath Vahran control. Impacts by Vahran ships ultimately awakened Mysentia's dormant volcanos - a feat which is still evident to this day. Mysentia's day - a mere 19.3 hours - never seems to darken because of the constant glow of magma. Even on its 21.825 year orbit, the only tiime it falls into true darkness is when it is eclipsed by Inheal. And even from a distance of 245,781 km, it fits well withiin its parent planet's shadow.

Inheal's second moon, Amon, escaped largely unnoticed during the war - mostly because it was never a high value target for either side. It is the smallest object in the system at only 820 km across, and revolves around Inheal every 10.6156 years. Amon's comparatively short day - 51.27 hours - puts it at the low and relatively uninteresting end of the system's objects and, as a result, it was never colonized. A few scattered mining outposts were set up, but were quickly abandoned once Amon's few resources were depleted. Perhaps because of its low value, during the war neither side paid it much attention. As a result, it was an excellent site for regrouping and evacuating civilians.

