Homeworld:Pollor

Pollor

Role: Gas Giant
Circumference: 217,590 miles
Population: 140,000
Orbital Path: Second
Rotational Period (days): 5.24
Orbital Period (days): 1,546
Primary Function: Gas Mining
Retention Index: 3

The difference between the Castus colony and the Pollor colony is night and day. ECCO, along with all the corporations that have held the rights to Pollor, have gone to great lengths and significant additional expense to make the colony a pleasant environment in which to work – at least, as pleasant as any orbital platform hovering over a violent gas giant in an alien solar system can be. To that end, only eight of the facilities orbiting Pollor were built as gas extraction and refining stations – though that is all those eight facilities do. The remaining six were constructed purely as housing areas for the colony’s workforce, complete with multipleschools, entertainment areas and independent shops owned and operated, generally, by the spouses of ECCO employees. Visitors often remark that each of the six housing facilities at the colony has the feel of a small town on Earth.

Like the Castus colony, ECCO employees at the Pollor colony have the option of signing on for one to three year stints, a practice that has been in place since the colony began. However, about half the workforce on the colony have chosen to remain there full time. As odd as it may seem, Pollor has become their home.

History

Just as with Castus (see above), the Federation opted to forego the time and expense of creating its own facilities around Pollor and auctioned the planet off to the private sector. In this case, it was bought by Mull & Preston, a newly formed partnering of two corporations. Pollor has technically changed hands several times throughout the years. It has never been sold; rather, the owners have become part of increasingly large consortiums of corporations. Currently, this immense partnership is known as the Expanded Consortium of Civilian Operators (ECCO), first formed in 2269.

Unlike the Castian Corporation’s Castus colony, the ECCO facilities around Pollor have had an uneventful and very profitable history. There are a total of 14 orbital platforms surrounding the gas giant, hosting a population of 140,000, most of whom are employees of ECCO. ECCO has experienced many of the same problems as the Castian Corporation regarding the quality of the gasses mined from the planet, though the harvest from Pollor does contain fewer impurities and is generally considered to be superior to Castus’ production line. Some of this may be merely perception, furthered by ECCO’s aggressive advertising and lobbying campaigns but Pollor does turn out a solid, inexpensive gas array used primarily for starships and other production equipment. For this reason and others, ECCO is the proud holder of 14 military contracts with SICON, a number the consortium of businesses back on Earth love to quote during their yearly meetings with the Castian Corporation to set policy for the Barnard’s Star system.

Laws and Government

ECCO has the same dispensation the Castian Corporation does, allowing its private security force to bear arms and enforce the law. However, with the Barnard’s Star system governor, Felix Devereaux, maintaining his residence and office at the Pollor colony, ECCO’s security force is enhanced by the addition of an actual police force. All crimes committed anywhere in the system are tried at this colony, though the actual punishment – a flogging for example – is carried out at the colony on which the crime was committed.

Economy

The Pollor colony’s revenue is, like the Castus colony, almost entirely derived from gas mining, though there is a substantial additional income from rental of space on the colony’s orbital facilities. Even the governor’s offices are rented from the corporation by the Federation.

Without the constant price gouging the Castian Corporation inflicts on its employees, workers at the Pollor facility tend to be slightly better off financially than those at Castus. None of them will become rich through working here, but for most, it is a pleasant if modest life.