Lore:The Drift

The Cosmatic Drift is a fairly large, loosely defined sector of space off in a secluded corner of the Milky Way galaxy. The sector's prime defining feature is the super massive uniquely anomalous Fissure in the center of it.

Composition

The sector is compromised of a handful of stars, the planets orbiting those stars, and the belt of asteroids and wreckage circling the Fissure, as well as the hundreds of space stations and planetary facilities set up in The Drift.

In the tightest orbit around the Fissure, below the debris belt, is an area unsuited to habitation due to high interference from the Fissure. However, research ships and probes will usually travel here to collect data from the Fissure.

The debris belt itself is a large fixation of mining and salvage facilities. Most are in orbit alongside the debris, though some have been directly built into larger debris that has been course corrected for a longer term orbit.

Just outside the debris belt is where many research facilities are found, orbiting the Fissure closely enough for study, but far enough away where they won't have to worry about getting struck by bits of debris.

In the furthest orbits are habitation stations, far enough away that much of the Fissure's interference won't affect the occupants too much.

And - beyond all that - are the stars and planets. Most anything out here is reserved for habitation and mining, but some research outposts can still be found.

Government

During the early stages of colonization, a sector government was formed to avoid a megacorporation taking complete control over the sector. It is mostly compromised of representatives from various research organizations in a council-like structure. Their main goal is to keep everyone in the sector safe and updated on Fissure happenings, while also providing and maintaining public infrastructure and services like most any other government. One of their other important jobs is to set safety standards for interacting directly with the Fissure, and ensure that any research company can get their footing in the sector without being pushed out by competition.

In terms of control, the local government has actually maintained its control well and avoided extreme lobbying, but megacorporations like NanoTrasen are always looking for ways to circumvent them. In fact, some sections of the sector are directly owned and controlled by megacorporations, especially NanoTrasen, even as the sector government still controls a majority of the space.

History

Originally, The Drift was a barely defined sector that simply went by its scientific title, KT-338. The area was deemed undesirable, with uninhabitable planets and very few rare resources. The only humanoid colonization were some rogue planets that were home to a few mining settlements, all run by small corporations, and a couple space stations that served as habitation for the workers and transport relays for monthly supplies.

This all changed with the abrupt appearance of The Fissure. When the Fissure appeared, it consumed one of the planets and sent out a large scale interference wave that resulted in the frying of every electronic device in the sector. Life support on both the planetary facilities and space stations ceased and nearly every staff member died within days of the incident. The mental state of the surviving personnel was extremely damaged, many corpses were found with wounds inflicted by other humanoids or themselves. In some cases bodies were found in the middle of removing their own life support equipment. The damaged psychological state of the survivors is now theorized to have most likely been a direct effect of the interference wave.

Due to the electrical damage, nearly all recorded data from the inhabitants was lost; the only history that was recovered being fragments gleaned from shellshocked survivors or paper recordings that were occasionally kept by the staff. However nothing useful was found in these records.

It took two weeks for a ship to be sent out to investigate the radio silence from the colony. After that, news of the Fissure quickly spread around the galaxy and many research focused organizations took an immediate interest, recolonizing the sector to perform their work, and of course, NanoTrasen was one of the first to mobilize. With time, many mining and salvaging corporations also took an interest after it was discovered the Fissure regularly ejects asteroids containing rare minerals and all sorts of wreckage.