Sabratha

Sabratha is a largely dead world whose surface was once almost entirely covered by ocean. Today only seven percent of the surface holds water, confined to shallow salt seas in the temperate zones. The remaining ninety-three percent is desert: vast expanses of ocher sand, white salt pans, pale white dunes, and white ice caps at the poles. The salt deserts appear mottled white and brown from orbit, patched with the saline blue of the vestigial seas and mountain ranges.

Gravity on Sabratha is lower than most settled worlds, roughly seventy percent of standard. Its days last approximately eighteen standard hours, and its local year runs to approximately six standard years. About half of the local year constitutes a windy season, during which storm fronts move down from the equatorial regions and are funneled through the Salt Gates between the continental regions of Victorialand and Prince Cyrusland.

Sabratha has a moon, which served as an anchorage point for the Cielcin worldship Rugubur during the assault on the planet. The gravitational influence of the worldship in orbit caused repeated planet quakes felt on the surface during the engagement.

Sabratha has a strong magnetic field that traps radio transmissions, causing them to propagate along the magnetized ionosphere rather than passing through it. Field teams communicate by signal flare rather than radio. The magnetic field also generates intense dry thunderstorms originating in equatorial regions; lightning strikes produce fulgurite embedded in the desert sands. During the battle with the Watcher Ushara, the strong ionosphere and magnetic field prevented Ushara from escaping the planet into space. The atmosphere is dry and bears arsenic-bearing compounds. The copper arsenite present in local building stone becomes toxic when wet. The Colonial Office is actively refining the atmosphere using carbon extracted from the planetary crust.

Sabratha's ancient ocean supported enormous life. Fossilized sea serpents known as pseudocarids and filter-feeders, some reaching three kilometers in length, are preserved in the sedimentary rock and exposed by erosion. The species Cetoscolides sabrathis is the best known of these, with a skeleton found near the landing field outside Williamtown. In the ancient past the seas also harbored large whale-like creatures. Microscopic plankton-analogues still survive in the remaining salt seas and continue to produce oxygen. The surviving apex predator is the tataxus, a six-legged armored creature roughly the size of a badger that hunts across the desert surface.

Sabratha's total population stood at fewer than fifty thousand at the time of the assault -- significantly smaller than worlds such as Dakara, from which twenty million people were taken in a Cielcin raid. The colony relied on fiber-optic hardlines for reliable communication in place of radio, which the ionosphere rendered impractical.

The Cielcin assault on Sabratha devastated the colony. Thousands of Sabrathans were taken captive aboard the Cielcin worldship Rugubur during the attack. Much of Williamtown was destroyed, and word of the world became scarce in the wider universe afterward. Following the battle, evacuation of the planet was recommended. The HAPSIS men who survived the Sabratha operation later served aboard the vessel Demiurge.

Sabratha was governed by a governor-general seated in the colony of Williamtown. During the Monumental operation and subsequent Cielcin assault, this post was held by Genseric Hulle, who also commanded the planet's Orbital Defense Force (ODF). The ODF engaged the Cielcin worldship Rugubur in orbit during the assault. Ghoshal's forces and the bulk cruiser Gadelica were part of the Sabrathan ODF.

The HAPSIS operation on Sabratha, codenamed Monumental, was authorized by the Emperor and conducted in secrecy. The dig ran for approximately three years before being compromised. The operation was betrayed by a construct produced by Minoan sorcery that had embedded itself as an aide to HAPSIS Director Sir Friedrich Oberlin. This construct called down Cielcin forces in the dig's third year, awakened the Watcher Ushara, and then fled. Sir Friedrich Oberlin died at Sabratha during the attack. The Holy Terran Chantry maintained a monitoring interest in the Cetorum Mensa plateau and was known to respond when Imperial officers asked too many questions about it. After the assault, the Emperor ordered the Phanamhara site annihilated with antimatter bombs.

The Cielcin worldship Rugubur anchored at Sabratha's moon during the assault. The wreck of the Watcher Ushara was strewn in fragments across more than a mile of the camp and landing field following the battle. The Imperial vessel Troglita was destroyed in orbit during the attack. At the Battle of Sabratha, a small number of Cielcin under the captain Ramanthanu swore fealty to Hadrian.

**Phanamhara**: A Vaiartu city buried beneath the Mare Silentii desert at forty degrees south latitude, in the vicinity of the Cetorum Mensa plateau. The site was the objective of the HAPSIS Monumental operation and contains structures built by the ancient Vaiartu civilization. Following the Cielcin assault, the site was ordered annihilated with antimatter bombs by the Emperor.

**Cetorum Mensa** (also called the Whalemont): A plateau or mesa rising above the Mare Silentii desert, adjacent to the Phanamhara site. The name derives from the ancient whale-like creatures whose fossils are embedded throughout the local sedimentary rock. The Holy Terran Chantry maintained a monitoring interest in this location. The Watcher Ushara lived within the mountain near the Whalemont on the Ocean of Silence.

**Mare Silentii** (Ocean of Silence): The vast desert region of the southern hemisphere at forty degrees south latitude, encompassing the Phanamhara site and surrounding terrain of dunes, salt flats, and escarpments.

**Cave of Fishes**: A shallow cave in the leeward face of a cliff northwest of the Phanamhara camp, whose walls are lined with fossilized sea creatures.

**Williamtown**: The principal colony and administrative center of Sabratha, serving as the seat of the governor-general and home to the Lord Hood Grand Medica. Much of Williamtown was destroyed during the Cielcin assault.

**Markov Station**: A climate research station located in upper Victorialand, more than three thousand miles northwest of the Phanamhara site.