View source for Comm-Link:Galactic Guide - Kallis System

This Galactic Guide originally appeared in [[Jump Point (magazine)|Jump Point]] 5.2

A whirling mass of potential, the recently discovered [[Kallis system]] has excited scientists and researchers the Empire over by offering them a rare opportunity: to witness the formation of a stellar system first hand.

Kallis was first visited in 2921 through its jump point connection with [[Oso system|Oso]], and initial ICC scans of the system revealed a G-class main sequence star anchoring nine protoplanets in various stages of development. Officially, the system’s discovery is credited to [[OB Station Chimera]], the main research facility in Oso, but many still persist that it should be rightly attributed to former [[PFC Gabby Rifon]].

Part of the [[Army]] security force detailed under the [[Fair Chance Act]] to protect Oso II from poachers, smugglers, and other trespassers, Rifon served as a long-range scan technician tasked with sweeping the system for errant ships. According to later interviews, Gabby was often “bored as hell” looking for ships hours at a time. Instead she would shrug off her duties and adjust the scan station to search for spatial anomalies. It was during one such unauthorized session that Gabby excitedly noted faint indications of a [[jump point]]. Informing her commanding officer of the discovery brought to light the fact that Gabby had been “wasting” hours during her shift. A week before the first ship would traverse the Oso-Kallis jump point, Gabby was dishonorably discharged for improper use of Army resources.

Almost immediately, it was clear that Kallis (meaning “beloved” in a Martian dialect) was a system to be cherished. Once again, Humanity was getting a chance to witness the birth of a solar system firsthand, and scientists around the Empire pledged to not let the opportunity be squandered as it had been in [[Gurzil system|Gurzil]].

When Gurzil, a system still in its accretion phase, was discovered in 2539, scientific access was cut short due to security concerns. Upon the arrival of [[Xi’an]] ships in 2542, Gurzil was drafted into the [[UPE]]’s recently created [[Perry Line]] and set aside to protect Humanity’s borders. For the next several centuries, the system was off-limits to everyone but military forces.

Upon the dissolution of the Perry Line, the scientific community hoped that Gurzil would fall under the protection of the Fair Chance Act. However, various industries lobbied that centuries of military intervention had already damaged the system past its original scientific value and that it would better serve the credit-strapped Empire harvested of its valuable resources. In the end, the [[Senate]] voted against applying the Fair Chance Act to Gurzil and decided to allow both research and restricted mining in the system.

The scientific community was strongly motivated to make Kallis a different story.

Within a month of the first scan report from Kallis being released, a bill was introduced on the Senate floor to place the system under the protection of the Fair Chance Act and, this time around, thanks to the pristine status of the system as well as a much more favorable [[Transitionalist]]-controlled chamber, the vote passed. The system at once became off-limits to commercial development and general traffic. From that point on, Kallis would be a sanctuary for research and discovery.

Under the guidance of a joint Army and [[Imperial Science and Technology Foundation]] governing body, the past two decades have already greatly expanded our knowledge and understanding of the universe around us. Undoubtedly, this is just the start of a trend that will continue for decades to come as research continues in Kallis around the clock and new generations of scientists eagerly await their turn to study nature’s mysteries first hand.

A loose fusion of recently merged planetary embryos, this small developing protoplanet has an aggressively eccentric orbit that has many researchers speculating whether it will break apart before it can establish itself.