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Valkyrie is the moon of Biesel, and the third exoplanet to be settled in the system of Tau Ceti. As an independent member-state in the Republic of Biesel, Valkyrie has managed to cement itself as a major player within the Republican economy. Despite being outperformed in terms of raw industrial production by Biesel and New Gibson, its strategic location within its star system has enabled the planet to become a hub for trade and commerce.

The Flag of Valkyrie, representing both inhabited and uninhabited planets within Tau Ceti. The largest orb is Valkyrie, whilst the red orbs represent Biesel, New Gibson and Reade.

History

The first bases on the moon of Biesel were established in 2152, and a year later, the moon was christened Valkyrie. Geological analysis revealed rich deposits of silicate and hydrogen, and in the later 2150s, resource extraction and ore refinement facilities began to be established alongside the research bases on the surface.

Planning oversights, however, meant that miners and researchers had to reside together in bases while equipment and rigs were transported to the moon’s surface. Over a period of twenty years, both long working periods on the moon’s surface (with limited trips back to Biesel) and the blossoming of romantic relationships and eventually, plans to start families, between workers necessitated the expansion of living facilities. Construction and manufacturing became a constant on the moon, and over time, corporate operations would begin to expand their equipment on Valkyrie, beginning to establish bases, offices, and even tiny neighborhoods and company towns. Compared to the development of Biesel, Valkyrian development was haphazard and poorly-planned; residents would go through frequent mild shortages while the expanding Biesellite government tried to encourage new settlers to the frigid, dusty moon.

New buildings were built on top of and connecting to old ones; the base where humanity first touched down on the moon, Surtr, had new wings, sections, and routes built from it to mining facilities and outposts. The planet’s gradually-expanding cityscape became labyrinthine and difficult to navigate at the best of times. In 2184, Biesel’s Planetary Development Council stepped in to better oversee Valkyrie’s expansion, but by then the foundations of the planet’s cityscape had already been set. As resource extraction operations continued on the planet, development began underneath the surface of the planet as well. Over time, these underground neighborhoods would come to be abandoned after most of the mineral veins dried up, and became a hotbed for criminal organizations and hideouts.

The next century-and-a-half would see many shipbuilding and shipping warehouses constructed on Valkyrie, leading it to become Biesel’s supply and shipping gateway. The Helios Manufacturing Site was constructed by Hephaestus on the planet’s surface over the year of 2324, but the most significant growth in the moon’s economy would be NanoTrasen purchasing the rights to construct the Hyperion Data Nexus in 2418. After the discovery of phoron, this was the first facility in which the properties of the element were first researched at length, and it was here the medicine of dexalin was first synthesized and put through human trials.

After the newfound independence of the Republic of Biesel in 2452, the governing body of Valkyrie, the Council of Valkyrian Affairs, organized a referendum to declare itself a separate state from Biesel itself. This referendum passed, and since then the newly-founded Commonwealth of Valkyrie has become a recognized planet within Tau Ceti.

Environment

Valkyrie is slightly larger than Earth’s moon Luna, though unlike Luna it is not tidally locked to Biesel and has a rotational period of approximately 16 hours. It does not hold an atmosphere, though studies of rock deposits suggest that Valkyrie might once have had oceans of liquid nitrogen. Valkyrie takes 2.5 weeks to rotate Biesel in its entirety.

Much of Valkyrie’s landscape is covered in residential areas, factories, industrial plants, and shipyards. The area that is not remains uncolonised mostly because of rock formations, craters, and deep faults from space debris impact over millennia, though this has not stopped some resource extraction operations from being established over craters and canyons, the better to unearth rare minerals.

Owing to the vacuum, most residential areas in Valkyrie were originally developed as massive bases partially dug into the ground, with their own isolated atmospheric system. More recent constructions on the moon's surface, such as the Hyperion Data Nexus, are constructed under habitation domes similar to ones on Luna. Hard lines between districts are difficult to draw because of the close clustering of buildings, and so the corporate-owned bases become the most distinct Valkyrian landmarks.

Culture

Valkyrie is home to the largest trade infrastructure in the Republic of Biesel, with the moon being surrounded by a ring of orbital stations that handle what is generally regarded as the heaviest space traffic in human space. Most ships doing business in Tau Ceti will stop at least once on the moon, usually for repairs or refit.

The crowded streets, tunnels, and residences, plus its status as a port, means Valkyrie is a melting pot of peoples and cultures. Nearly half of Valkyrie’s population is a first-generation migrant to the moon, and those who have lived in Valkyrie all their life are typically the children or grandchildren of immigrants. Offworlder Humans are very common, and Valkyrie possesses a small community of Sadar, or Scarab Fleet exiles. Owing to their EVA experience, offworlder humans are highly sought out for work in the mines or in the moon’s orbit. Pan-speciesism and pan-culturalism is a point of pride for many Valkyrians, though secluded communities or isolated populations of aliens or migrant humans are common. Gaining residency in Valkyrie is regarded as even laxer than the rest of the Republic, with the sheer amount of comings and goings rendering it impossible for everyone to be tracked. As a result, the local government has adopted a very open policy with immigrants, nearly to the point of settler rights. If a person lives on the moon and is willing to vouch for them, they are almost always granted residency.

While most on Valkyrie live relatively comfortable lives, Biesel’s corporate leanings permeate the moon at its core. Basic subsidized healthcare consists of emergency care and regular physicals; beyond that, dental and psychiatric services, plus any specialized disability care, are usually gated behind employment with the megacorporations. A lack of subsidized care for those with permanent disabilities means that many workers caught in industrial accidents find themselves continuing to work with their choice of corporation, as assistance from the Commonwealth is simply not an option.

Architecture on Valkyrie is brutalist, squat, and squarish. Habitation domes and residential blocks are usually built on top of old structures; construction is a constant on the planet, as old buildings are constantly recycled, reinforced, and rebuilt.

Uniquely, due to extremely limited space within many residences, many Valkyrians do not often cook their own food. While actual restaurants in Valkyrie are priced similarly to restaurants elsewhere in the Spur, street vendors sell their meals cheap and en-masse, making them a far more accessible option for the average industrial worker. Mushrooms, potatoes, and other root vegetables feature prominently in Valkyrian cuisine, owing to them requiring limited light and being very easy to grow and multiply. Curries, soups, and stews are common dishes; usually these are served with bannock, a type of easily-kneaded frybread, to soak up the broth.

Despite the cloistered and heavily urbanized nature of the habitation domes, hydroponics facilities are quite expansive. Crops that require more specific conditions to grow are usually gated in Getmore buildings, but community gardens or colonization-era facilities that became overgrown are equally as prominent. Street vendors will usually subsidize meal costs if a customer brings them produce to cook with, thus ensuring that a healthy cycle of growing, farming, and cooking exists on the planet.

The Valkyrian Dream

After Moghes’ Contact War, Hephaestus Industries began to finance departures of Unathi from the ruined planet, sending them to Valkyrie so long as they agreed to work for the company. This push brought thousands of Unathi, Hegemonic and Traditionalist alike, to the moon, where they developed small communities and lived and worked in Hephaestus-built living facilities. Some would eventually return to Moghes, but most continued to build a life for themselves on the moon, establishing aquaculture facilities to have access to cheaper fish and meats key to Unathi sustenance. Hephaestus has come to increasingly rely on Valkyrie's Unathi population to maintain its ports, factories, and refinement plants, and for the Unathi that rise to managerial positions in these factories, their Valkyrian Dream is truly fulfilled.

This is the largest Unathi community in Tau Ceti, and Sinta from all walks of life and faiths can be found here. Sk'akh churches and Th'akh shrines can be found here, though the Aut'akh and Si'akh faiths are not present, with the former preferring the company of their own kind and the latter largely being relegated to Moghes. As such, the culture is an odd melting pot from across Moghes, with food, music, faith and tradition from nearly everywhere melding together into a culture that is unique to Valkyrie, but an unquestionably Sinta one.

The Unathi of Valkyrie are, to many, a model community - hard workers, diligent in their duties and ambitious in the pursuit of a better life for themselves and their kin. Others, however, resent them for their Hephaestus ties, or how they tend to look down on less well-off groups of Unathi in the Republic. To many of the Unathi living in poverty in Mendell City, or in the depths of the Below, these Valkyrian Unathi are nothing but obedient lapdogs, happy to trade the Hegemon's boot on their neck for that of Joseph Dorn or Titanius Aeson.

Hive K’lax, owing to its close relationship with the Izweski Nation and Hephaestus Industries alike, also has a presence on the moon. Many K’laxan Vaurcae consider Valkyrie a significantly better place to live than Mendell City, though quarters are still cramped and planetary regulations are extremely strict on where k’ois is grown. Queen Leto has also settled some of her brood’s best xenoarchaeologists on Valkyrie out of a belief that the phoron deposits in Tau Ceti somehow traveled from Sedantis. Queen Vedhra, in partnership with Hephaestus, has managed to position some of her own inside government office jobs, as well as general employment in the Exchange Terminal. Queenless Zo'ra, initially disembarking from Titan Prime, have also ekked out a living in the shadows of the streets, and many eventually descend to the lawless criminal underground of the city, lacking other employment prospects.

Crime

Valkyrie’s status as a hub of interstellar trade means that it is also a hotbed for organized crime and smuggling. Most of the criminal activity on Valkyrie is perpetuated far beneath its surface habitation domes, in abandoned mining tunnels beneath the more livable parts of the city. Slums and shantytowns have begun to be propped up in the “Below”, as residents call the area, and many who are fired from their megacorporate jobs often end up in the lawless depths, where few questions are asked and illicit businesses can make enough money to survive their next day.

For Unathi that struggle to live up to the Hephaestus expectation of the Valkyrian Dream, the Below is often their last resort. Guwan and Gawgaryn that have jumped ship from Moghes tend to find their way to the depths, continuing the criminal activity out of a lack of options. While a few of them may be able to forge a decent life with one of Valkyrie's organized crime syndicates - most commonly the Jhakal - most eke out a desperate existence working as muscle for one of the many gangs of the Below. Followers of the Aut'akh faith are not uncommon in the Below, as the desperate Sinta living there are prime targets for recruitment to one of the communes in Tau Ceti.

Queenless K’laxan and Zo’rane Vaurcae, along with Tajara, are particularly valuable and common Below owing to their supreme night vision. Warriors are usually drug runners and bodyguards, while Workers synthesize drugs to sell, manage credits, and assist their gyne with delivering messages and establishing relations between other crime cells.

In recent years, the Unathi noble clan known as the Jhakal Syndicate has seized a great deal of power on the docks of Valkyrie, taking their cut from smugglers and traders alike, and gradually securing their influence. The Jhakal are one of the more influential criminal organizations of Valkyrie, with well-established ties in both civil and corporate authorities - in large part due to the cunning of their leader, the Lady Islek Jhakal. From the docks of the Exchange Terminal to the depths of the Below, the clan has business in nearly every corner of the moon - and though Valkyrie may be ruled by a council, much of the Below's population has come to believe that it also has a queen as a result.

Economics

Naturally, the largest port in Tau Ceti primarily makes its money through shipping, handling, and being a safe port for ships passing between Sol, the Coalition of Colonies, and the Nralakk Federation. Orion Express has a primary base of operations in the Exchange Terminal, and most of the goods and wares coming through the port will generally be under Orion's purview. Hephaestus mining and cargo vessels stop in Valkyrie to drop off and process their ore haul, and the rest of the megacorporations usually have a manufacturing facility somewhere on the surface of the planet, being able to quickly assemble their goods and send them elsewhere.

Much of the shipping warehouses of the Exchange Terminal are bordered by hotels, restaurants, and bars designed to cater to the cargo workers who have shipped into port. These facilities usually play host to a variety of workers from different origins, and even if Tau Ceti Basic is unspoken by a visitor, someone with a good understanding of just about any language is usually close at hand. Linguistics and cultural knowledge are a common unifying requirement for career applications across Valkyrie; it is not uncommon for a young, inexperienced person to gain a job simply because they speak another language.

Despite the government of the moon publicly making efforts to clamp down on crime on the surface and in the Below, it is a poorly-kept secret that much of the flow of trade and goods on Valkyrie is assisted greatly by the presence of organized criminal syndicates. Shell companies and tax shelters pop up frequently, with many gangs and syndicates using them to smuggle drugs, launder money, or skirt the regulations on imports. Despite this, the money that enters Valkyrie due to illegal activity is undeniable, and the Valkyrie Security Department has been known to turn a blind eye to larger-scale operations that do not directly harm civilians or disrupt the public peace.

Major Districts

Valkyrie Exchange Terminal: The Valkyrie Exchange Terminal, colloquially referred to as “the Exter”, is not so much a cargo terminal as it is a small city dug into an equatorial trench spanning a tenth of the moon’s surface. The Terminal contains the largest shipping infrastructure on Valkyrie; everything needed for the transport of goods, from the launch infrastructure, warehouses, and boarding areas are present within the Terminal. In addition, the Tau Ceti Armed Forces maintains its shipyards within the terminal. The TCAF assists in the operation and enforcement of the Terminal's Air Traffic Control, which is responsible not only for incoming and outgoing vessels but also for tracking ships and stations within the moon's orbit with satellites. It serves as the closest thing the planet has to a capital city, with the moon’s government conducting its business from the massive Brynhildr City Dome overlooking the Terminal.

“Green Zone”: At the northern rim of the Exter is a hydroponics bay, long-overgrown with hardy vines, Biesellite plants, and thousands of crops of mushrooms, potatoes, and other produce suited to grow in a humid zone that has been almost entirely renovated by the efforts of an ever-changing group of Valkyrian gardeners. Originally a botany research bay for the moon’s original colonists, as Valkyrie’s population expanded it became necessary to find a suitable place to grow produce. Surtr base’s original research bay had long been forgotten about, but as a corporate stranglehold began to close around food prices, a group of enterprising botanists explored to find the ruined bay and turn it into something new. Nowadays, the Green Zone is a sprawling, free-for-all community garden, though it is unofficial law to plant something in return if you take. The Green Zone’s accessibility to the Valkyrian community, however, has not precluded it from being used by criminal elements; gangs from the Below use more secluded parts of the Zone to grow reishi, ambrosia, cocaine, and opium, synthesizing them to sell across the Spur.

Helios Manufacturing Zone: Located within one of the deepest trenches on Valkyrie, Helios is a megapolis centered around Hephaestus’ primary manufactory within the Republic of Biesel. Although it has had significant growth since its inception following a brief bidding war during the 2320s, its importance was only realized after the discovery of rich quantities of palladium, titanium, and aluminum. As opposed to setting up routes to transport resources outside of Tau Ceti, Hephaestus began building the first of many factories that would refine these metals and ultimately be used to build spacecraft. The Helios Manufacturing Site continued to expand greatly after its unveiling and now encompasses almost a sixth of Valkyrie.

Hyperion Data Nexus: The area in which the Nexus lies, as opposed to the other corporate outposts around Valkyrie, was privately purchased by NanoTrasen after it discovered Phoron in 2418 and was used to start Nanotrasen's first laboratories for researching the crystal. It was only after the megacorporation achieved dominance on the crystal that the Nexus began expanding across the Valkyrian plains, with the establishment of a shipyard along the ridges marking an end to the plain on which the outpost occupied. Research and development remains a significant component of some laboratories, but a large portion has been replaced by mining or refinery apparatus.

Mach-Rassvet Research Anchorage: The Mach-Rassvet Research Anchorage is one of the more recent developments located on Valkyrie and was opened in 2445 after a brief auction in which Zavodskoi Interstellar (previously Necropolis Industries) acquired the rights to the territory. Initially meant to be a genetics research facility, Zavodskoi Interstellar’s retraction from the field of genetics instead prompted the development of a ConTec Facility that primarily focused on positronic research and development manufacturing. Almost two decades after it was founded, the Mach Rassvet Research Anchorage is still producing the majority of the components necessary to construct integrated positronic chassis in Biesel. These assets continue to sustain the income of Zavodskoi Interstellar.

Hades: The only named settlement in the “Below”, the network of former mining tunnels underneath Valkyrie, Hades is a sprawling slum consisting of the poorest of Valkyrie, along with the criminal elements who make their operations beneath the relative notice of the Valkyrie Security Department. Made out of old mining facilities and hollowed-out sections in tunnels, Hades’ main claim to fame is its Night Market; a bimonthly occasion where stolen goods from incoming ships, or even legally acquired ones, can be bought and sold for much lower prices than they would on a conventional market. Everything from exotic foods, weapons, the latest Le Soleil Royal fashion, or the newest Confiance watch can be found at the Night Market, and it attracts even law-abiding Valkyrians looking to slum it in a more dangerous locale. Quite famously, the relative start of the Below and the entrance to Hades typically contains one or more homemade signs reading ABANDON ALL HOPE, YE WHO ENTER HERE. If one is taken down or destroyed for some reason, someone will usually replace it.