Planet Malta

The fifth sleeper ship, the Hispania, launched at the same time as its sister ships and broke through the Coalition blockade in the Sol system. Unfortunately, a saboteur from the Coalition had secreted themselves onboard and destroyed the engines just as the vessel arrived in the Sirius sector. The passengers awakened from their cryogenic sleep to discover the engines destroyed and the ship drifting towards an unknown star system. After numerous arguments between the various factions onboard, half of the colonists on the Hispania decided to take the escape pods to continue the journey, while the remaining half coaxed the damaged vessel onwards to its eventual destination in the Omicron Alpha system, arriving some time in the year 41 A.S. Upon their arrival, the crew discovered a planet capable of supporting human life in orbit of the primary star. The Hispania's passengers named the planet Malta -- a harsh place of acidic oceans, gray skies, and vast plains covered in a species of tall, thin, orange grass. Taking the escape pods, they left the wreck of the Hispania in orbit of the planet and began to make a home for themselves on Malta.

Eventually the Outcasts -- as they came to think of themselves -- began a limited exploration of their home system. As pilots wandered farther and farther afield in search of resources, many became seriously ill. Upon planet fall, the crews mysteriously recovered. The Doctors were baffled. After making a number of genetic scans of critically ill pilots, the doctors made a startling discovery. Their genetic code had been altered considerably. The Outcast human DNA was found to contain strands identical to that of the orange grasses that covered the planet -- from which the drug Cardamine was derived. Trace amounts were present in everything on the planet, from the air the Outcasts breathed, to the water they drank. Once pilots made lengthier journeys away from Malta, their bodies went into shock, followed by death.

The Outcasts were now truly separated from the rest of humanity -- changed so that they could never expand beyond the planet on which they had landed. They needed the Cardamine now, like air, food or water. But with the origin of the sickness solved, they could at least compensate by carrying supplies of Cardamine with them and resume their exploration of their surrounding systems. When they finally encountered the rest of the Houses in the seventh century, a new strategy emerged. The Outcasts would deliver the poison that would rot the other Houses from the inside out and grow rich from the profits of their trade.

Malta's population at the last planetary census in 816 A.S. stood at roughly 215 million, with an estimated two million other Outcasts spread across Sirius in various capacities. There is still a reasonable Catholic following on Malta, lovingly preserved by the Spaniards and Italians on the original Hispania and present ever since the first settlements were established. The planet's crust is largely devoid of usable metallic elements, with a few notable exceptions, namely at the heart of her largest continent, and highly unusual deposits of metallic Copper on the ocean floor. Most of its land mass is covered in prairies with natural, low-grade Cardamine grass; large plantations with heavily bred and modified strains (to the point where purple veins riddle the surface of the grass, which has thickened so much that it's more of a stalk than grass proper). Malta's architecture is a largely low-hung and flat, one-story affair in the rural areas; cities are an expression of extremes, built almost entirely in the rare hilly regions of the planet. There is little at ground-level, except starports; most structures are built both deep into the ground and into massive towers that reach towards the sky, yet constructed yet again as to mimic the textures of the ground. The oceans-relatively shallow due to the planet's high granite content-are largely devoid of salt; they appear to hold a slightly green tint from the surface.

These days the Outcasts conduct a lucrative drug-smuggling operation using the network of Jump Holes to escape detection and transport their product into the heart of the House systems. They remain relatively few in number; a crash in the birth rate seems to have been another side effect of their genetic modification. Cryer Pharmaceuticals were originally supposed to have been covertly working on a way to solve the sterility issues amongst the Outcasts, although it later transpired that this was merely a cover for their continued efforts to obtain Cardamine samples and create a synthetic version of the drug that would be approved as a legal medication within Liberty. Due to the threat that this research poses to the Outcasts' source of income, Atka Research Station has come under repeated attacks by Outcast raiding parties in recent years, and the Outcasts always destroy any Cryer transports encountered throughout Sirius without mercy.

In 786 A.S. the Outcasts, with the influx of Corsairs from the recently discovered Gamma Jump Hole, erected a massive minefield one system over, and Cardamine trade in that direction was diverted through the Sigma systems instead. The Ruling Council of Dons ordered an immediate surge in resources to the newly constructed shipyards at Corsica to complete the fortress section above the shipyards and voted unanimously to double the state-provided budget of the largely self-funded Navy. Requiem-class Dreadnoughts began appearing in the field, and production of the new Reconquista-class Battleship was ordered into full swing. Valetta shipyard was constructed in orbit in 816 A.S., for the purpose of increased production of Sabres and Falcattas, and the opening production run of the new Tridente-class Gunboat. Since the recent discovery of Gallia and jump holes leading directly to the new House in Outcast territory, additional military build-ups have further been announced, and many Dons are extremely worried about the shift in the balance of power that this new House represents in Sirius.

Missions Offered

 * Outcasts: $250,000 to $450,000 range