Jeda II

Jeda II is a minor colony world on the border between the United Stellar Confederacy and the Ro Seedi Expanse.

The System
Jeda is a Class M2 star that marks the boundry between the United Stellar Confederacy and the Ro Seedi Expanse. It is rather large for a Class M star, but very dim and cool, with a system of 13 planets and two asteroid belts. Radioactive solar flare activity is high within the system.

With the exception of Jeda II, all planets in the Jeda system are either Type II Mercurial or Type VIII Plutonian worlds. Jeda IV has two small moons, but the others are singular bodies in space. Asteroids can be found between the orbits of Jeda II and III, and again between Jeda IX and X.

There is considerable mineral wealth in the Jeda system, but much of it resides within the cobalt-iron cores of the various planets. This, coupled with the upredictable solar activity, has made prospecting in the system unpaletable.

Planetary Characteristics
Jeda II is only 83% as large as Earth, with roughly .85G surface gravity and an atmosphere 32% thinner. Much of the land mass of the planet is a high rocky steppe. Near the coastal regions the elevation drops some 600 m to a wet lowland jungle. Due to the nature of Jeda II's crust, erosion along the costal region often takes the form of a network of stone archways, caverns, and sinkholes, a unique landscape found nowhere else in the galaxy.

Virtually all of the rainfall on Jeda is naturally contained by the high cliff walls of the coast, resulting in a lowland climate resembling a tropical rain forest on Earth (over 70% humidity and daily showers) and a fairly arid highland one (15% humidity and very little rainfall). The highland areas support a rich array of grasses and some native insect-like lifeforms.

History
Jeda II was home to a djachian research station between 2551 and 2572 PC. The station was abandoned after Jeda II was ceded to the United Stellar Confederacy. The planet remained uninhabited until 2704 PC, when a group of homesteaders founded Mariposa colony on the coastal highlands region.

Mariposa remains the only colony in the system. It has a Class DC starport suitable for orbital shuttles, and supports itself through ranching and farming with little contact with the galaxy at large.