Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
2404 Standard Edition

Inhabited Planets of Significance
Galactic Core Sectors
Weisman Sector

SOLARIS VII

Class: M
Surface gravity: 1.02 G
Primary star: Solaris
Moons: None
Capital: Silesia
Spaceport facilities: Federation, cost Low, quality High

Solaris VII was colonized in 2005, during the first wave of colonization from Earth. The colony was a joint venture between the United Nations of Earth and the planet's first alien contact race, the Salusians, who had essentially sponsored Earth onto the galactic scene at First Contact in 1999. It achieved peaceful political independence as part of its 75th anniversary celebration in 2080.

During the early colony period, the Wedge Defense Force established a Destroid training and testing facility on Solaris VII, just outsidethe city of Montenegro. Over time, citizens of Montenegro developed the habit of gathering on the hilltops overlooking the WDF Destroid range to watch the test runs, gunnery exercises, and mock combats. Within a few years, an enterprising television producer in Silesia had heard of this pastime and had one of those ideas which would change the face of civilization, or at least its veneer.

Today, Solaris VII is known throughout the galaxy by the planet's Chamber of Commerce tag-name, The Combat Capital of the Galaxy. Destroid Battlesport (also known, depending on the cultural background of the speaker, as MechWar, Robodueling, Mobile Fighting, and Mecha Battle Gaming) is very popular throughout the Core Sectors and the Outer Rim alike, and Solaris VII is where it began.

This pre-eminence in the world of Battlesport is obvious even today. There are quite a few worlds in the galaxy which have a facility rated Class A by the Galactic Destroid Battlesport Federation - the Royal Salusian MechWar Center in Cheltopolis comes to mind, as does the New Avalon Battledrome - but Solaris VII has six, one in each of the planet's major cities. Battlesport on Solaris VII has been compared to ice hockey in Old Canada; there are several arenas in
every city and appreciably-sized town and every young boy and girl on the planet seems to want to be the next Martina Steiner. Any TV you find in a public place on Solaris will be tuned to the Solaris Broadcasting Corporation; when no matches are occurring, SBC shows archive copies of classic ones. Live or canned, all of them will be narrated by retired Medium Class champion Duncan Fischer, the Voice of Solaris.

The six big cities on Solaris each reflect, culturally, the background of the original colonist groups. Four of these were from Earth and two from Salusia, and each, though all six settlements have grown into modern, cosmopolitan cities, has left a permanent stamp on the cultural background hum of the cities they began.

Silesia

The capital of Solaris VII, Silesia was once the main settlement of the German Sector, on the planet's original colonization map. The German influence remains in the local dialect, architecture, food, and street names, but Silesia is the most changed, most cosmopolitan of the cities of Solaris today. With a population of 11 million and the planet's main spaceport, Silesia is much like any other leading city of the Inner Sphere at first glance, except with somewhat more garish advertisements. (Most of Solaris has adopted such a ruthlessly commercial attitude toward its entertainment-and-tourism-based economy that the planet is often mistaken for a Corellian colony by the uninitiated.)

Steiner Memorial Coliseum

Silesia's Class A Battlesport facility, the Coliseum is named after Martina Steiner (2174-2191), the greatest champion Solaris VII has ever known. It is one of the only open-air arenas at the highest level of the sport, and thus one of the few in which warriors must take the weather conditions into account, since the scheduled battles go on rain or shine. The heavy-grade deflector system and holographic magnification and projection equipment common to the spectator stands in arenas throughout the galaxy were pioneered at the Coliseum.

The Coliseum is a departure from Silesia's mostly Germanic style. It is deliberately designed to resemble a romanticized version of a Roman colosseum, with its sand-covered stone-block floor and high-arched vaulted walls. Triumphal arches, columns, and reflecting pools are scattered around its interior, but the terrain is mostly flat, allowing for combat at its most basic and fastest-paced. By far the most prestigious arena on Solaris and perhaps in all of Battlesport, the Coliseum is the venue for the annual Solaris VII Unlimited Grand Championship battle.

Montenegro

Settled mostly by Eastern Europeans, Montenegro (population 9.3 million) is a place of mystery, intrigue, dark alleys and backroom dealing. It enjoys a reputation as a crossroads of galactic espionage, and many a spy film has been set against its backdrop of Battlesport, shadowy canals, and heavy industry.

The Factory

The Factory is the smallest of Solaris's four Class A arenas, and it feels it. Fully enclosed with a ceiling that looks lower than it is, the Factory is a gloomy, claustrophobic place which is designed to resemble a ruined, abandoned industrial complex. With its huge, rusting pieces of machinery, its pits, and its burned-out building shells, the arena is jam-packed with hiding places, elevation level changes, and obstacles to keep the fights moving. Strategy and guile work better in the Factory than straight-ahead speed and firepower - which is just the way things work in Montenegro itself.

Cathay

Cathay's settlers were mostly from Hong Kong and mainland China, and their city of seven million reflects that; it is the most densely populated place on Solaris, with tall buildings, very narrow streets, and lots of sidewalk markets. The best food on Solaris is to be found in Cathay, as well as some of the finest... er... alternative entertainment.

The Jungle

Cathay's arena is an indoor one, but it features a holographic environment system which makes it seem like outdoors. Its primary feature is a hilly, serpent-shaped island surrounded entirely by a moat. Parts of the island are unnavigable by Destroids without jump capability, rewarding pilots whose units are geared toward airmobility - but it is not unusual for entire matches to take place with the whole field wading around in the moat, taking advantage of the enhanced cooling this tactic offers.

Kobe

Kobe was settled mostly by Japanese colonists from the same population wave which provided the seed colonists for New Japan, Tomodachi, and the other worlds in the Greater Galactic Co-Prosperity Sphere, as well as Ishiyama on the Far Rim. Kobe is where most of Solaris's financial business gets done; it is hope to the Solaris VII Stock Exchange and securities markets.

Cybertropolis

Cybertropolis is a "replica" arena - one which duplicates a stylized version of some other well-known locale. Relatively uncommon in Class A arenas (there are no such off Solaris), this is a popular gimmick in lower-level arenas, especially commercial ones; but Cybertropolis is a replica arena with a twist. The location the arena duplicates is a segment of the city of Iacon on Cybertron. Fighting in Cybertropolis requires a considerable mental shift on the part of most MechWarriors, since all the structures - doors, walls, stairs, and so forth - are scaled for Transformers, and therefore Destroids, rather than people. This makes the complexion of urban fighting completely different, and a lot of human pilots have trouble adjusting. For one thing, many of the features of the arena, such as the doors, obstacles, and environmental tricks, are designed to be unforgiving or even useless to machines without hands! When Transformers visit Solaris, which has happened, they almost always select Cybertropolis as their home arena.

Arconia

The Salusian capital of Solaris, Arconia, named for the ruling family of Salusia, is today a city of eight million, three-quarters of them of Salusian descent. If you want shyam on Solaris, you go to Arconia for it. The same applies to grey-market cutting-edge Destroid equipment, since it is well-known but constantly denied that both the WDF Armory and ExoSalusia Heavy Industries have official departments whose job is to "leak" the latest gear into the Solaris circuit via the chopshops of Arconia.

Mount Aisan

Named for the mountain which houses the headquarters of the Imperial Salusian Guards, Salusia's most elite military regiment, Mount Aisan is the biggest arena on Solaris. Inside its massive durasteel walls, it actually contains two small mountains, one of them a 1/100-scale replica of the arena's namesake, the other of Mount-Imperial, where the Palace-Imperial is. In addition to furious high-speed battles up and down the ridges and valleys, the two-peak structure allows the arena to be configured for one of the most popular variants on the game of Battlesport, Capture the Flag. Battles at Mount Aisan tend to see the use of more firepower than at any other arena on the planet, since the simulated mountain environment makes the combatants' heat sinks function at about 150% efficiency.

Tamor

Tamor is Solaris's other Salusian city, and was settled mostly by people from Salusia's southern continent, Vindar. The Destroids of Tamor are known throughout the sport as some of the best-maintained and most cunningly modified of all Battlesport machines; many of the best Destroid mechanics in the galaxy are of Vindari extraction. The people of Vindar have an affinity for big machines which is unmatched by any other Salusian subrace; it is nearly as famous a trait as their mind-scorchingly spicy cuisine.

The Pit of Despair

Tamor's Class A arena is one of the strangest in Battlesport. It is, as its name suggests, a great pit in the ground. All the fighting takes place below ground level, with the audience arranged above the surface around the edge of the pit. The pit itself is designed and decorate to resemble a lurid pseudo-medieval concept of the underworld of the damned. A lake of fire, a river of "blood", a razor-edged twenty-ton pendulum, and other hideous instruments of infernal torture create a constantly changing battlefield in which every warrior must be constantly on his guard - because in the Pit of Despair, if your opponents don't get you, there's a chance the arena itself might!

Other Things to Do

"What else is there to do on Solaris VII besides Battlesport?" is a common question; and the answer, if you expand "Battlesport" to include observing Battlesport, participating in Battlesport, betting on Battlesport, dealing in or working on equipment used in Battlesport, or watching advertisements for products which sponsor participants in Battlesport, is "Not much, really." Solaris VII is a one-trick pony and the Chamber of Commerce is well aware of it.

On the other hand, people don't go to Solaris to do anything but Battlesport. If they want to do something else, they go to some other world, because, as everybody knows, Solaris VII is The Combat Capital of the Galaxy®!

Martina Steiner is regarded by the people of Solaris VII and
Battlesport fans everywhere as the greatest champion the sport
ever saw. She is practically a saint to Battlesport hopefuls;
common is the rookie pilot on Solaris and elsewhere whose cockpit
has a picture or a small figurine of the Queen of Hearts in it.

Steiner came out of nowhere in 2190 and won every match she
entered, blasting her way from Light to Assault in the minimum number
of matches possible and ending the season the undisputed champion of
all the Standard Destroid weight classes in all six Class A arenas.
Petite, beautiful, and, when not in combat, affable, Steiner won hearts
as easily as she won Battlesport matches, and in a sport of deep rivalries
and long-standing grudges, she ended the season with neither a defeat nor
a personal enemy - the latter an incredible achievement in its own right.

Dubbed "the Queen of Hearts" by the Solaris press for her winning ways and
lovable disposition, Steiner then capped her season by winning the Unlimited
Grand Championship, defeating eleven opponents whose units weighed an average
of 80 tons at the controls of her favorite mount, a 45-ton ExoSalusia
Shadow Cat named Old Reliable.

Two months after the end of the 2190 Battlesport Championship season
(Battlesport is always going on Solaris, but the big-league circuit
runs from April to November), Solaris was invaded by Kilrathi
religious forces as part of a semi-regular ritual of conquest honoring
Sivar, the Kilrathi god of battle. For the next five months, the
Combat Capital of the Galaxy was a literal battleground as the
fanatical Kilrathi basically tried to kill everybody on the planet.
The Battlesport pilots banded together, supplementing the planet's
small defense force until the Wedge Defense Force could arrive, and
from their ranks a clear leader emerged: Martina Steiner.

In the end, Steiner met the High Priestess of the Kilrathi invasion
force in single combat on the morning of June 11, 2191, in the Silesia
Coliseum. It took Martina Steiner and Old Reliable more than an hour
to destroy the hundred-ton Drakkhai-class machine of High Priestess
Khraala Chakhriar, and by the end of that time, though the little
'Mech was still on its feet, there wasn't a whole lot left of it.

With her victory secured by the timely arrival of the WDF, Martina
Steiner shut down her much-battered Shadow Cat, dismounted,
saluted the leader of the WDF detachment which had arrived to relieve
her, and, before the horrified eyes of the hundred thousand spectators
who had gathered to watch the duel, died from blood loss and internal
injuries incurred early in the fight.

A post-mortem examination showed that Steiner could have been saved
had she fled (which, with Old Reliable's great speed advantage
and jump capability, she could easily have done); but her champion's
spirit wouldn't allow her to abandon the field of honor. To do so
would have been to dishonor not only herself, but the Coliseum, Solaris,
and Battlesport itself - as well as open Solaris up to even greater
levels of Kilrathi brutality, as the offended Sivar cultists would
surely have doubled their efforts and their ferocity had a contest of
honor been abandoned thus.

That sacrifice and the spirit it embodies made Steiner's legend even
greater and more enduring. MechWarriors, Destroid jocks, Roboduelists,
even Veritech pilots revere her for her commitment to duty and honor as
much as for her legendary skills behind the controls.

Old Reliable was meticulously repaired by Steiner's crew chief and
placed on display at the main entrance to the renamed Martina Steiner
Memorial Coliseum. It stands there yet today, carefully and lovingly
maintained by the Coliseum staff. It's said that a pilot could strap in
and take the old Shadow Cat into battle at a moment's notice today -
not that anyone would ever take such liberties with the most cherished
relic of the Queen of Hearts.

The resulting mental image of him and Haywire commentating together nearly broke me. Thanks Gryph!

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter
My LiveJournal
"Muspelheim awaits you. I count the days. You should count them too."

...
ALL RIGHT!!

The concept of several Autobots absolutely whipping a group of normal mech pilots amuses me somewhat.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter
My LiveJournal
"Muspelheim awaits you. I count the days. You should count them too."