Epiphany
System: Seraph
Sector: Hyperion
A lush, dense world covered in towering jungles, massive plains and thousands of lakes and cave systems, Epiphany is one of the legendary Fortress Worlds of The Line. Its main defenses are a squadron of a dozen Cerberus Mobile Defense Platforms, six of which orbit the planet and the rest prowl the star system, looking for alien invaders. Epiphany is an important source of petrochemicals and medicines for the rest of the sector. While oil is almost never used for fuel anymore, petroleum is vital in manufacturing many substances, such as advanced alloys and plastics. It is also still useful as a lubricant. The planet is a Mecca of biodiversity, with an ecosphere as rich as any world on record. Among all those billions of species of plant and animal life are numerous organic compounds useful in medicine and chemistry.
Epiphany is a hard world to live on. While technically a "garden world" with very Earth-like attributes, it is hot, humid and filled with dangerous creatures, many of which are human. The planet is the second-largest penal colony in human territory, and the destination for "three strike" criminals that are deemed incorrigible even by the harsh standards of the Colonies of the Line. The facilities are work camps, with the brutal, creature-filled jungle often serving as the most intimidating prison walls. The mortality rate is high and in truth it technically has one of the highest escape rates of any prison in Hyperion Sector. But this appears to be by design.
Inquisitors, Psychoborgs and their Soothers, and special forces units are often deployed to Epiphany on long-term training exercises that revolve around very convenient prison escapes. No one seems worried about the prisoners free and roaming the planet and the only time an alarm is truly raised is when an inmate manages to snag a ship and get off the surface.
One of the plans of the Colonies of the Line is that if there is a massive invasion, Epiphany, centrally located, will be used as a sponge to soak an enemy offensive and bleed them out in a long campaign over a world that's not that vital.
The non-prison population of the planet generally lives in cities on the plains or actually in the lakes. One of the features unique to Epiphany is several Sky Cities which have actually been landed in the planet's lakes for use as city-sized oil rigs. One of these is the capitol, Avalon, which is generally the only city most visitors, especially aliens, are likely to see. Outside of Avalon, citizens of Epiphany are insular, private and suspicious of strangers, which is a natural trait to have when you live on a planet with gangs of escaped convicts looking for a way off-world before the Inquisition catches up with them.
Population: 40 million, 5 million of whom are prisoners.
Controlling Clan: Ares-Draconis
Diameter: 9,155 miles (14,733 km)
Atmosphere: Earth-like, slightly higher carbon dioxide and air pressure and humidity are high on average.
Gravity: 1.15 G
Calendar: 19.5 hour days, 313 days per year.
Satellites: One moon, Solomon, and six Cerberus Mobile Defense platforms.
Defense Assets: Epiphany has 12 Cerberus Defense Platforms as a defensive perimeter. These are massive military space stations that are designed to be able to change positions at will, like mobile fortresses that can provide a planet with full coverage. They contain as many fighters as a fleet carrier, and are armed with massive weaponry designed to cripple and turn away invasion fleets. The Colonies of the Line have augmented them to be more mobile than originally intended, and are in the process of making them into super-battleships or space control vessels. In addition the system has a battle fleet in attendance, planetary anti-siege cannons in every city, and a standing army of 5 million, plus every citizen on the planet is trained to somehow participate in the planet's defense. Even the children are trained to run ammo supplies and messages between military posts.
