Melancthon

General Information

• Appeared in: Gehenna's Gate
• In Mission(s): "Raise Thy Sword" (Entanglement Edition only)
• In System: Ross 128
• Bitmap(s) used: Planet_Ross128
  
  

Melancthon is a terrestrial planet in Ross 128, used by the GTA as a military outpost of minor importance. Its primary role was communication array support due to a large network of six comm facilities spread between the poles (2) and equidistant locations across the equator (4). Said network was built as per a specific pattern known in the Galactic Terran Alliance as OCTCON or Octahedron Configuration. Moreso, the planet was at least partially screened from solar radiation thanks to an iron-rich core and a thin atmosphere, both deemed due to an ancestral collision with a planetoid christened by researchers as Deucalion. Though peripheral from the perspective of the GTA, Melancthon also housed several industries for ore extraction, both from the surface of the planet itself and regolith carried over by winds. It was also a well-known theater of engagement between GTA and PVE forces in the system.

The planet was gaining importance and strategic value as the GTA was coming to the conclusion that Ross 128 was safely connected to at least another system, later found to be Laramis. It would have been the ideal communication relay between the newly discovered systems and the rest of GTA space, but the Great War effectively disrupted these plans. In addition to that, and showing an atypical strategy, Shivan forces bombarded and destroyed the OCTCON network, causing communications with Terran expeditionary forces in Laramis and beyond to be severed for no less than a full month.

The name of this celestial body was chosen via a poll posted by a SerRes team member on social media. Melancthon got 57% of the votes while the second option, Deucalion, got 43%; the latter was ultimately used for the ancestral planetoid Melancthon collided with eons before FreeSpace. Though Melancthon and its numerous variants are common as last names, its appearance in SR is a tribute to a celestial body from the Colony Wars series.