Hifari
IV
System: Hifari A
Sector: Niflheim-Lumilar Independent Economic Zone
Usually simply known as Hifari, this is a cold, barren planet in a binary star system that the Lumilari have converted into an interstellar prison.
The planet is a barren rock perpetually covered in water vapor fog. The surface air is not breathable by any known life forms. However, the dense water vapor in the atmosphere causes a greenhouse effect that keeps it relatively warm.
The planet is valued for its rich deposits of gold, platinum, beryl and uranium. The LCH decided they could make the most of the planet by turning it into a penal colony where other races could send their criminals, whom the Lumilari would look after (for a reasonable fee). In turn, the prisoners mine the valuable deposits for the Lumilari.
Unlike stereotypical portrayals of prison planets that haunt tri-vid media, Hifari prison is clean, safe and follows strict mining safety rules. Prisoners who rehabilitate and learn valuable skills are offered a position in LCH or one of its subsidiaries...often as a member of its expansive mercenary division. The jailers have no personal animus toward the prisoners, nor are they instructed to punish the prisoners unless they get out of line. This has led to “Club Hifari” jokes among some convicts who often joke that “it was so nice I wanted to go back” when they get another sentence there.
In reality, the work is hard, the hours are long, but the prisoners are taught marketable skills and treated well. Extremely violent offenders are simply isolated and subjected to intense tedium and boredom and given the toughest and dirtiest jobs. There are rumors that the most violent and corrupted are sold to the Fahreen as slaves once there sentence is up, maintaining the prison’s reputation as an excellent rehabilitation system, but these rumors are unconfirmed.
Hifari sits in a binary star system, with two main sequence stars circling each other at about the distance of one light month apart (about 90 times the distance between Pluto and the Sun at its furthest point).
Population: 200,000 prisoners and 25,000 staff.
Controlling Species: Lumilari
Diameter: 7,781 miles (12,522 km)
Atmosphere: Uninhabitable, with very low oxygen, high carbon dioxide, water vapor, nitrogen and hydrogen. Air pressure is about two-thirds that of Earth.
Gravity: 0.7 G
Calendar: 61 hours per day, 518 days per year.
Satellites: None.
Defense Assets: Two frigates and six pinnaces of various types are usually assigned to the planet and star system. There is also a wing of Starblade fighters stationed on planet…far from the prison itself.
