White Sands

Charted in 2395 by the Aion Corporation, it was leased to Ter Threporox Cybernetics as a site for their research facilities. TTC liked the remoteness of the system and the how Aion would be responsible for providing security.

TTC used the system to test out cutting edge, and often illegal, cybernetics research. Procedures and methods that would be considered inhumane and immoral were done without oversight or interference.

Aion Co. had also leased the planet out to Whitestar Inc, a private security firm that also ran prison facilities. Whitestar and TTC had a mutually beneficial arrrangement where test subjects were often provided by Whitestar, while the later got to have any new weapons tech. When the Unrest era began, White Sands was mostly uneffected except for the influx of more political prisoners. Whitestar's facilities expanded and soon several prison megaplexes dotted the planet. It wasn't until the Uprising, when White Sands existence became more well known that they began to experience unrest. On several occasions, prison riots broke out. They were always quickly put down. Rioters were never taken alive.

The system was pulled into the NSR at the end of the Uprising with very little conflict. Most of the prisons had been abandoned after Whitestar had fallen into financial trouble from all the fighting throughout the colonies. When the extent of the experiments that TTC was conducting was revealed, their entire Board of Directors was arrested and executed.

White Sands has scattered settlements across the large continents on its surface. There are large plateaus with steep sides leading to the planetwide ocean. The surface of the plateaus is dry and inhospitable, covered with a white sand that can cause blindness to the unprotected eye.

On the small strips of land between the cliffs and the ocean, plants in the shape of giant grey geodesic domes thrive. There, bands small crustaceans, the Gabhagi, gather. They have formed a symbiotic relationship with a form of megafauna called the Neman. The Neman is a large blueish isopod that can rival a battlemech in size. The Neman protect the Gabhagi, from another form of megafauna. A large creature that appears to be a relative of sharks from Earth.

The NSR maintains a Battlemech training facility modeled after the SLDF Gunslinger program.