System Specs:

  • Stellar Mass:  1.72 Sol Masses
  • Stellar Class:  F
  • Luminosity:  N/A Sol
  • Planets:  1
  • Moons:  0
  • Asteroid Belts:  1
  • Asteroids:  0
  • Objects:  1

Arinlarkan is a small system with a single barely-habitable planet and an asteroid belt orbiting far too close to its star. It is considered an out-of-the-way backwater, mostly traveled by people fleeing from something and hoping to make it to the cluster’s mass relay. Its sole untamed planet is rich in resources particularly platinum.

 

Planets Directory:

  1. asteroid belt
  2. MSV Strontium Mule
  3. Utha

 

MSV Strontium Mule

DERELICT SHIP DETECTED:

Derelict ship, registered MSV Strontium Mule, visibly damaged from weapons fire. Ship is not responding to hails despite life signs aboard. Transmissions using known Blue Suns encryption detected. Airlocks are sealed, but the ship can be boarded through an emergency hatch in the cargo hold.

Mass Effect 2
The Strontium Mule is a freighter commanded by Captain Jarrett Barnes. It is composed of three decks, with the cargo hold at the bottom, the engine room, med bay and maintenance bay in the middle, and the bridge, crew quarters, and secure cargo compartment at the top. The bridge and cargo hold are in the fore section while the rest are in the aft section. The crew quarters and med bay are in the port side while the maintenance bay and secure cargo compartment are in the starboard side.

The Mule’s crew answered a distress signal which turned out to be a Blue Suns trap, and they initially escaped albeit with heavy damage to the ship. Two weeks later the Suns managed to capture the ship, which had sustained damage to its FTL drives and comm arrays. The crew were rounded up and killed, mostly in their own quarters, one in the med bay, and one in the bridge who could be assumed is Captain Barnes himself as the corpses were rendered unrecognizable. Before his capture by the Suns and demise Captain Barnes composed a final log explaining what happened to them, also including the encrypted authorization codes to the ship’s most valuable cargo. The Suns’ Captain Vorhess retrieved the codes in the ship’s black box, and set to work decrypting it in anticipation of its big payout.

If Commander Shepard follows through on a trail leading to the ship, the Blue Suns attempt to ambush the squad as they enter but die trying. The Suns realize who they’re dealing with, leading to a schism between the mercenaries, as Sergeant Boortis and his team refuse to reinforce Captain Vorhess on the bridge when Shepard comes in guns blazing. The plan to reduce the number of payout beneficiaries and deal with Shepard fails as Boortis and his goons are also killed in short order, leaving the assets of the ship in the Commander’s hands.

 

Utha:

  • Orbital Distance:  4.0 AU
  • Orbital Period:  6.1 Earth-years
  • Keplerian Ratio:  1.72
  • Radius:  6,050 km
  • Day Length:  49.4 Earth-hours
  • Atmospheric Pressure:  1.2 atm
  • Surface Temp:  40 °C
  • Surface Gravity:  0.8 g
  • Mass:  0.714 Earth-masses

Punished with UV and gamma radiation from the Class F Star it orbits, Utha is no one’s first choice for a planet to land on. Covered in seawater, Utha has a hydrosphere and ozone layer similar to Earth’s, but that simply isn’t enough to ward off the life-killing radiation. Its nitrogen-rich, oxygen-poor atmosphere goes unchanged by the few proteins that have managed to form in the ocean depths.

Utha, however, has served as a way station for slaves escaping their batarian masters. What little land it has is tectonically stable, and its considerable radiation belt and electrical storms grant cover from many common types of sensors. Fleeing ships typically hide on Utha long enough to discharge their drive cores and stock up on deuterium before trying to make it to the cluster’s mass relay.