james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
An otherwise unremarkable star (Groombridge 1680, maybe?) noteworthy for two things:

1: It happens to have an unusually large number of handwavium jump points, which means at first glance it looks strategic.

2: It's a superflare star.

The first means an interstellar state convinces itself that the jump points should be secured and developed. The second means craft transiting the system need very impressive shielding lest they get fried by a superflare [1] . In practice, it means the system is almost useless except for small, heavily shielded ships--robot ships preferred!--and as a communications hub. A lot of money was wasted before the state gave up on their grand plans for the system.

(The project went ahead because the proposal cherry-picked a range of years when the star was unusually quiescent)

1: Or they have to be fast enough to get from one jump point to another with only a small chance of destruction but space is big, ships slow, and nobody actually builds ships that can pull that off.

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james_davis_nicoll

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