Desert by Ben Outram via Flickr
The planet Villia is a tan sphere in orbit around a young, yellow star. From space, it looks like a desert planet, dotted by small, blackish seas, and swirling with wispy white cloud banks. However, the serene appearance hides the forbidding nature of this place.
The surface is a seemingly-barren wasteland, a hellish landscape shaped by eons of high winds, volcanic activity, and relentless daily temperature swings from freezing to exceeding 80C (176F). Water is scarce, and tends to be jealously guarded.
Structures on Villia must be built to withstand large temperature differentials, and the ceaseless windstorms they cause. What appear, from orbit, to be huge banks of wispy clouds, are in fact continent-sized dust storms carrying millions of tons of silicate, metal, and alkali salt dust. Being caught in one, even in a modern hazard suit, reduces one’s lifespan to a matter of hours.
The noxious atmosphere is unbreathable by humans. With the ever-present dust, however, the necessary mechanical breathing equipment tends to fail within a matter of hours without maintenance. This makes life on Villia an unending fight against a planet seeming trying to scour its inhabitants away.
Population
Why does such a place have inhabitants? Simply put: mining. Villia is comprised of an extremely high proportion of metals, the density of which explains a surface gravity far above average for its size. This composition also causes the planet’s uncommonly strong magnetic field, which is why it can sustain life at all.
Though originally colonized by freehold miners, Villia has since been bought out by Damma Corp, and it is now a company planet through and through. While it is nominally ruled by a representative democracy, the government is wholly captive to the company that comprises the entire economy. In addition to the entire mining operation, Damma Corp owns all other commerce, from the media, to the stores, to most of the transport on and off planet. They also control law enforcement, and maintain strict control over non-employee access to the world.
The vast majority of the world’s hundred million inhabitants are employees or their families. Most of those are miners, followed by support staff and management. The miners of Villa are a tough lot, trained to survive in that hellish environment. They are almost unanimously in debt to the company, thanks to low wages, and high living costs. Villia law prevents the departure of anyone with outstanding debts, which essentially places the miners in perpetual servitude.
Native Life
Lifeforms on this planet tend to be large in order to preserve internal temperatures, with slow metabolisms to survive the nutrient poor environment. Many have thick hides or armored plates to withstand the erosive wind. They thrive variously by reactions using the planet’s unique chemistry, by deriving energy from the temperature swings, or by predation. Mobile fauna usually makes their homes within the ubiquitous caverns and stress fractures riddling the planet’s crust.
Slime Piles
Slime Piles, to use the least offensive name, are slightly photosynthetic colonial lifeforms comprised of cooperating single celled organisms. Most are harmless if left alone, but toxic if eaten, or, in some cases, even touched. Ugly as they are, Slime Piles are likely the most common form of life on Villia, and make up the base of the planetary food chain.
Tankbug
This vehicle sized animal looks something like a giant beetle, which, despite the name and appearance, is closer to a reptile. It survives primarily by grazing on Slime Piles. Though slow moving and usually docile, Tankbugs can be highly dangerous if provoked.
Sawtooth
This fearsome animal looks something like a preying mantis. They average 2-3m (6-10ft) in length, but the largest can exceed 5m (16ft). Its stature can be deceiving, however, since its odd physiology allows it to elongate to almost double its normal length. Its malleable structure also allows the Sawtooth to fit into unbelievably small places.
It is exclusively an ambush hunter, laying wait inside stress fractures or thermal vents. When prey wanders by its hideout, the Sawtooth’s normally deliberate pace explodes into a frenzied attack. The animal springs forward on its powerful legs, further enhancing its reach by elongating its body, then uses its long clawed arms to grab its prey before injecting a venom with its mandibles. It will then retreat to wait for its victim to be immobilized, before dragging it back into its den. Understandably, the Sawtooth is one of the most feared creatures on Villia.
Lepakko
While officially known as a “Lepakko”, this animal is more colloquially known as a “Devil” or “Shrieker”. They are furry, four-winged animals, whose wingspans can exceed 5 m (16 ft). An array of air bags on the back allows the Lepakko to control their buoyancy, providing the ability to soar for extended periods in complete silence. While they can’t hover, they can perform extremely slow descents.
They are primarily nocturnal pack hunters, using a combination of night vision and rudimentary echolocation to locate prey. Just before the strike, the Lepakko emits a piercing scream, intended to make their target to briefly freeze. Each of their wings end in a clawed hand, with which they grasp their victims, finishing them off with their rows of serrated teeth.
