New Sierra

''Note: X and Y are coordinates (light years on XY plane) relative to Terra at (0, 0)

Political Affiliation

 * 3095 - Deep Periphery

Planetary History
The world known as New Sierra was colonized in the late twenty-sixth century by settlers from the southern regions of North America on Terra. The population of New Sierra grew to approximately three billion people by the late twenty-eighth century, at which point a conflict broke out among the population that led to a global thermonuclear war. In a chilling example of what could have resulted on Terra if the wars of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries had continued unchecked, the widespread use of salted nuclear weapons by those fighting led to a mass extinction event. Not only did New Sierra suffer a nuclear winter, significant damage was done to the ozone layer and the planetary topsoil layer, while oceanic ecosystems were destroyed.

Explorers from Interstellar Expeditions (IE) became aware of the existence of New Sierra after a brief man made radio pattern from the system was detected by radio astronomy teams in the Rover system in 3012. The first IE team to reach New Sierra - which was located approximately 125 light-years spinward and rimward of Waini Point - found itself under attack from automated kill-sats equipped with rudimentary laser systems and nuclear weapons. IE continued to study the planet using surveys conducted from a remote distance, identifying those large structures on the surface and those orbiting satellites that had survived the conflict; the teams confirmed that any survivors must be located in one of the few remaining population centers located deep under mountain chains. By 3095 IE had made a number of attempts to contact those on the planet, but all of the efforts had either received no reply or had resulted in either space-based or ground-based weapon systems attempting to lock onto the ship attempting to communicate.