Hata

But this has only an indirect impact on Hata. See; to be honest, Hata is a bad stepping stone to Metium to begin with, and the Republic needs to figure out some way to "pacify" it. Settled many generations ago by Carinan ogres and Oerk hulks, Hata went feral during the Dark Ages, before the Revanchists claimed the system. The two races have been locked in bitter, tribal style warfare for generations now, and raiding, slavery, torture, rape, cannibalism and more are everyday facts of life for them. They tend to have little patience for the weak little Republic troops, who can barely even walk comfortably in the high gravity environment of Hata, although they do respect their war machines' ability to deal death effectively. However, the Revanchists have trouble deploying on Hata, because of the aforementioned issue. Caught in a bitter catch-22, the Revanchists need Miroon (or some other stepping stone) to fully pacify Hata and bring it to bear so that their mining operations can supply systems to the north, but they need Hata pacified before they can afford to stick their necks out and make a play for the conquest of one of those worlds. Carthen Colony republic governor Abembo Gama doesn't yet know how to deal with this catch-22, but it frustrates him immensely, and he tends to take it out on the natives of Hata by ordering petty strikes against them, which harden their resistance to being quietly assimilated into the Republic. The management of Hata is a debacle and major problem with the governor's rule, and his failure to control the situation is starting be noticed by Revanchist superiors. With his position on the line, Gama is getting desperate, and those who are paying attention are worried that he'll try an increasingly desperate gamble to resolve the situation.

It is possible that other mineral wealth exists in the system. Hata is an unusual triple star system, and the main star around which Hata rotates is a simple red dwarf. Two hotter white stars also belong to the system, but all three are in sufficiently distant relationships with each other that stable planetary systems exist for all of them. In fact, all three have asteroid belts (the two white stars even have two each) as well as several rocky, airless (or so it's believed) worlds, and numerous gas giants, some with rocky and/or icy moons. These subsystems within the Hata system remained relatively unsurveyed, however, and it's not really known what (if any) potential mineral wealth can be found therein.

There is another settlement of sorts in the system, however—a high flying floating city that has gravity generators allowing Earth-standard gravitic performance within the city itself. It moves slowly (usually, although it is capable of higher speed) and does not keep a very high elevation most of the time; less than 1,000 feet, although sometimes it rises up to over 15,000 for rapid travel. This is a psionic knight monastery, and it is a unique order; the Order of Saint Simon the Martyr. It does not train many psionic knights, but it steadfastly proclaims its political neutrality and refuses to align itself with the Revanchists. This is now another source of potential conflict; the Simonians that often accompany Revanchist military units are not happy with this order, and hate any competition within their claimed space.