INNOCENCE AND IMMORALITY

The Kellog System is known throughout the UEE as the home to both innocence and immorality. Centered around a G-type main sequence yellow dwarf, the system’s two inhabited planets stand in stark contrast to each other: Kellog II, Xis, is heavily guarded to protect the new species developing there, while Kellog VI, QuarterDeck, is heavily guarded to ensure the hardened criminals imprisoned there can’t escape.

Credit for Kellog’s discovery goes to navjumper Patek Coen, who uncovered the system in 2811. Unfortunately, Coen’s dream of living in a system he discovered never came to pass once initial surveys revealed that Kellog II was brimming with sapient life. Kellog quickly received protection under the Fair Chance Act and seemed destined to be a haven for researchers and scientists from throughout the Empire. However, that wound up not being the case; in less than five years, two jumps into Vanduul space were found.

The UEE knew Kellog needed an alert system to warn of Vanduul incursions. Increases in Navy personnel and standard proximity sensors were considered until Senator Daniela Agren (U-Idris) suggested another unusual option: converting Kellog VI into a prison planet. Senator Agren argued that such a facility would not only solve security concerns, but would do so for fewer credits and have many other additional benefits. With the heavy guard presence such an outpost would need, the prison could serve as a tripwire against Vanduul attacks while also isolating the Empire’s worst criminals. Still, Agren’s masterstroke in the plans for QuarterDeck was including a revenue-generating antimatter facility to be staffed by prisoners.

The Senate approved Agren’s plan, which has turned Kellog into the busiest Fair Chance Act system. Today, Army spacecraft patrol Xis, while antimatter haulers and bounty hunters frequently visit QuarterDeck. All this activity has converted the system from an isolated frontier to an integral part of the UEE.

KELLOG I

Kellog I is a terrestrial planet located so close to the system’s sun that its surface is lava. If there’s anything of value underneath the molten rocks, Humanity has not yet found a way to reach it.

XIS (KELLOG II)

Xis is the system’s picturesque protected planet. Dotted with deep, multi-canopied jungles and a biodiversity that rivals any other part of the discovered galaxy, Xis is the reason the Kellog System achieved recognition under the Fair Chance Act. Its warm seas are home to a wide variety of creatures, while its dense rainforests play host to millions of insects, primates and most famously, Flo-Pets.

Few can forget the Flo-Pet craze of the early 30th century that saw the rich and powerful desperate to collect and breed the unusual creatures. Since the first few were captured by an intrepid smuggler who thought they might be an easily bred, compact protein source (further study has succinctly established that Flo-Pets are not edible), there was initially a move by the government to outlaw ownership of the creatures. Many, worried that their pet would get them in trouble with the law, set their Flo-Pet free, which has resulted in significant populations of feral Flo-Pets on many worlds. In the end however, the creature’s popularity was such that any attempt at a ban proved all but impossible.

Since the Flo-Pet debacle, the UEE has remained vigilant about protecting Xis from unwanted visitors, particularly protecting a primitive hominid-like species known as the Orms. Populating the planet’s northern polar region, the Orms have, in the past hundred years, begun to develop more complex social interaction schema and extremely primitive tool use.

KELLOG III

Kellog III is a typical smog planet with a thick atmosphere unfit for Human habitation. Even so, there are rumors that the planet’s atmosphere provides cover to crews staging jailbreaks from QuarterDeck.

KELLOG IV

Surveys of this super-Earth suggest it could possess copious resources. Much to the dismay of the mining corporations, Kellog IV’s proximity to both a developing world and a prison planet has made UEE authorities refuse to authorize any mining permits. There have been some suggestions that the prisoner population in the system could be used as a cheap workforce, if legal and environmental concerns could be sorted.

KELLOG V

With its rocky core and expansive atmosphere, Kellog V is technically not a smog planet or a gas giant, but rather a gas dwarf, one of only a few such planets in the UEE.

QUARTERDECK (KELLOG VI)

Kellog VI is home to the UEE’s massive QuarterDeck Prison, a maximum security penal facility that houses hundreds of thousands of hardened criminals. Orbiting well past the green band, the planet’s conditions were meant to make escape from QuarterDeck almost impossible. Unfortunately it has not stopped prisoners from orchestrating successful escapes, usually aided by associatess on the outside.

QuarterDeck features a full-process antimatter refinery, which means the resource is more readily available here than in most places in the UEE. Antimatter processing is an incredibly dangerous operation and results in the deaths of prisoners, but the plant finds itself in no shortage of workers since reduced sentences are given to those who volunteer to work in the refinery.

The UEE has also developed a system by which wanted criminals can be delivered directly to QuarterDeck by properly bonded bounty hunters. JusticeStar station sits at the planet’s closest Lagrange point, allowing processing, trial and sentencing to take place swiftly and efficiently. Booking officers on JusticeStar have been known to pay a premium for wanted criminals, reflecting the reduced cost to the UEE that comes with having prisoners delivered directly to the system.

HEARD IN THE WIND

“Flo-Pets adapted swiftly to sewers around the Empire. Much like their home world of Xis, the underbellies of Human cities are wet, humid and teeming with microscopic life that Flo-Pets find delicious.”
– Garret Bedi, Anthology of Unexpected Adaptation, 2921

“My proposal to decommission QuarterDeck’s antimatter facility is motivated by several factors. First, its current conditions are well below the standard mandated of privately run operations. Second, there’s a growing concern that the military is too dependent on the antimatter produced there. A recent report by the SSA stated that loss of antimatter production on QuarterDeck, whether due to cataclysmic event or Vanduul invasion, would severely disrupt the military. Fellow Senators, our military becoming dependent on antimatter produced in a system with two connections to Vanduul space is too dangerous a situation to continue.”
– Senator Ghata Veras (C-Lo-Corel Sys), Senate session 2943-11-18