Longueil is the second most populous planet in the Perseus Sector of the Perseus Quadrant. It is a member of the New Commonwealth of the Galaxy.
Longueil is located in the same star system as the planet Gander, which occupies the next orbit out. They share a common cultural ancestry, and are similar in climate and geography.
Geography[]
There are five continental land-masses on Longueil.
- Laurent
- Brossard
- Chevron
- Bonaventure
- Mirabel
Dry land and ice covers 36.2% of the planet’s surface. There are four large oceans. The climate varies from arctic to subtropical. It is notably more mountainous than Gander. Compared to the Solar Standard, Longueil’s rotation period is 29.3 hours and its orbital cycle is 351 local days.
Longueil has two moons, Beatrice and Alicia.
Population[]
As of Solar Year 7380, 2,200,000,000 people lived on Longueil, about.
The planet is divided into 36 provinces, each of which has a degree of autonomy under the planet’s combined central government located in the capital city of Mount Royale.
The largest city on the planet is Montserrat, in Bonaventure province, with a population of 13,000,000 in the city and surrounding suburbs.
The Longueil System[]
The Longueil System is designated 28 047 Vulpeculus. It is a trinary system consisting of a G3 class sun and two K4 type suns which orbit the primary sun at distances too great to gravitationally influence or contribute significantly to Longueil’s climate. They are visible in the night sky as bright stars and are called simply K1 and K2 by the inhabitants.
Two gas giants in the outer system, Norquay and Birkenhead are in close orbital proximity and pass as close as 13,000 kilometers to each other every 157 Longueil years, during which time they are briefly connected by a turbulent atmospheric chain. This interaction has given rise to simple microbial life-forms that live in the outer atmosphere of both planets. The moons of these gas giants are rich in Thorium, which is harvested for fuel. Rare metals are also extracted from these moons and from larger asteroids which are relatively abundant in the outer system. The atmosphere of Birkenhead is rich in hydrogen and helium isotopes, which have been harvested for spaceship fuel for hundreds of years.
There are three small, uninhabitable planets on orbits interior to Longueil, consisting of the double planets Arethusa and Haiduk which swing around a common gravitational vertex, and Black Forge, the planet closest to 28 047 Vulpecula’s primary sun.
History[]
According to planetary history and some fragmentary records, Longueil was surveyed for colonization sometime between Solar Year 3880 and 3900. It was subsequently explored and mapped by the Surveyor ship Gander and named for Gander's captain, Choapas Longuieil. Its continents were likewise named for his senior officers.
The presence of two habitable worlds made it a prime settlement opportunity for the combines of the Old Commonwealth. A Consortium called Harper, Deshanais and Leblanc based on Atlas Colony won the rights to colonize both worlds at auction and rapidly built up settlements there with the intention of dominating commerce in the Vulpecula sector. A major population center was established at Montserrat, where a large incubation facility was built for growing humans from fertilized embryos for increasing the populations of their other holdings in the Vulpecula sector.
Owing to their relatively early colonization and the investment made in them by their sponsors, Gander and its sister colony Longueil were two of the most advanced colonies in the sector when the Old Commonwealth collapsed in the 53rd Solar Century. As with most worlds in the Perseus Quadrant, Gander and Longueil went into a period of decline. On Longueil, there was a anti-technology rebellion, common among worlds not attacked by Tarmigans where the belief spread that by eschewing technology, the inhabitants would avoid annihilation. This put the planet into a dark age that persisted for four centuries. (Gander did not follow its sister colony's lead in this regard.) Longueil had largely recovered by the time the Pathfinder Ship Ark Royal Arrived in the 73rd Solar Century.
The Gander-Longueil system was among the first worlds attacked during the Second Aurelian War. Both worlds suffered major damage and the Aurelians were able to establish a beachhead on Longueil. The Aurelian fleet established an orbital presence over both worlds. By threatening to annihilate the worlds from orbit, the Aurelians effectively neutralized the Gander-Longueil system for most of the war. The system was liberated by a joint New Galactic Commonwealth/Free Worlds Alliance fleet in Solar Year 7312.
Galactic Relations[]
Longueil is a member of the New Commonwealth of the Galaxy, where it qualifies as a ‘Major World’ (A world with an advanced civilization and a population exceeding one billion souls). It maintains good relations with the Free Worlds Alliance.