Usse

"Usse... Hell incarnate. To understand the ankoran, you must understand their roots - and evolving on this hellhole is no easy feat. Whereas the jewel of Alcanti represents the ideals, passions, self-opinion, power and majesty of the draknisi all upon a single world, Usse and the ankoran are nothing close to it. The ankoran were forged from a crucible of horror - beware these jungles, and beware the wrath of those who were borne of it. You’d be surprised what they’re capable of."

- Octandra Caveras, commenting on the ankoran and their homeworld.

Usse (Emerald Cradle in Ankorta), also known as the World of Giants and as the Deathworld of Carina, is a terrestrial ‘sub-Earth’ planet found in the Carina Nebula. Renowned for its lush, and extreme, overgrowth, an abundance of megafauna, and striking ring system, the planet has become a well-known and regarding, though extraordinarily deadly world amongst the many millions of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Being the homeworld of the ankoran species, and the capital world of the Ankoran Covenant, Usse is the religious, economic, and political heartland of the ankoran-centric theocratic empire, and one of the most heavily defended planets in ankoran-occupied space, if not the galaxy. Many of such defences originate with the alien precursor species who arrived at Usse and uplifted the ankoran millennia ago. A vast shield network, one such example of precursor technology, protects the ankoran homeworld from any attempted orbital bombing, being maintained through its own enigmatic devices.

Geography
Perhaps the most striking feature of Usse’s geography, beyond its deceptive appearance as mono-biome, is its lack of oceans or seas. In substitute, Usse has developed a series of 8 great saltwater lakes, visible from orbit due to their sheer size and volume, which houses most of Usse’s marine life. These great lakes are then interconnected by a series of vast, natural waterways composed of immense rivers, sprawling swamps, and vast marshes. Despite the apparently limited water supply, the planet’s hydrosphere remains stable; most of the world’s water instead being found in the air rather than seas.

Without oceans or seas, Usse’s landscape forms one continuous landmass, regions divided only by mountainous peaks, or changes in biome, though neither method division is easily spotted from orbit; Usse’s mountains are utterly buried in foliage, concealed so heavily by tree and bush that even from the sky it is difficult to pinpoint their locations.

A variety of micro-climates exist across Usse, typically within deep valleys surrounded by mountains, where the dense, global vegetation cover and winds cannot reach. Many of these regions are atypically cooler than other areas of the planet and are where most Covenant cities can be found. Such microclimates have been vital to the development of ankoran civilisation, and the greatest ankoran empires of Usse’s pre-spaceflight history were governed from cities situated within these tiny, protected regions.

Atmosphere
The Ussian atmosphere comprises 54.09% nitrogen, 40.89% oxygen, 4.91% methane, 0.06% carbon dioxide, while other trace gasses make up the remaining 0.05% of the local atmosphere. The Ussian atmosphere is extremely humid, with an average humidity of 8%. Air composition, temperature, and atmospheric pressure vary with altitude, and air suitable for use in photosynthesis by terrestrial plants and breathing of terrestrial animals is found only in the Ussian troposphere.

The extreme oxygen content of Usse’s atmosphere, combined with its heavy humidity, leads to a scenario in which wildfires on Usse, though rare due to its sheer humidity, are extremely ferocious when they do occur. The sheer abundance of oxygen and fuel (in the form of the never-ending Ussian overgrowth) allows wildfires to burn very hotly for long periods of time, effectively rendering significant chunks of the planet inhospitable while they burn.

Usse has an abnormally thick ozone layer; Ozone is formed from dioxygen by the action of ultraviolet light (UV radiation) and electrical discharges within a planet’s atmosphere. Kuvura, Usse’s parent star, is considered to blame for this atmospheric anomaly, due to a higher output of ultraviolet light.

Biosphere
"Usse is a wild place. An untamed place. It stirs the blood and makes one feel… alive. Mad, even. ...Then, it kills you."

Usse is a world renowned for its abundance of megafauna and megaflora. With the indigenous, two-meter tall ankoran being the smallest macroscopic extant land animal on the planet, the notion that “bigger is better” appears to have been wholly adopted by evolution on Usse. A variety of immense animals, both predator and prey, have evolved to fill the niches of Usse’s food web, and many are highly aggressive. Though the largest of these megafauna specimens are herbivorous, there are still plentiful examples of predators capable of swallowing an ankoran whole - a fate deeply feared by the native population, and unfortunately common for those foolish enough to venture into the deep jungles, swamps, and forests alone.

Flora on Usse tends to take on a green hue, similar to that of numerous autotrophs across the universe. As a comparatively humid planet with rich soil, thick vegetation coats almost all available terrain, with only cities and oceans being outside the seemingly endless jungle. The jungles, marshes, and forests of Usse are treated in native society as a semi-sentient entity; a soup of hateful, hungering consciousness composed from the ferocity of its native life and climate. Although this is not scientifically true, the true danger of the various biomes that comprise Usse’s ecology does not discourage the notion in any way.

Carnivorous plants, toxic fruits, thorn-laden vines, and other terrible floras coat the surface of Usse; and the animals that eat them are just as deadly when angered. Devouring sane minds, the jungles and marshes of Usse oppress with their claustrophobic atmospheres and breed fetid decay and disease which likewise drive the unprepared mad. For these reasons, Ussian cities bar their citizens from leaving, except through the highly controlled inter-city transport networks; and even then there are deaths.

Perhaps the deadliest of the native species on Usse, however, are the ankoran; whose incredible intelligence - given to them by alien interlopers - allowed them to become the truly dominant life form… in the few, densely urbanised cities which they have come to inhabit.

Ring System
Usse boasts an impressive ring system, formed of silicate and carbonaceous rock, which is believed to have formed when an Ussian satellite fell within Usse’s Roche limit, at which point the satellite was ripped apart by gravitational forces. Extending from 3,500 km to 7,300 km away from Usse’s equator, with a 540 km gap between the inner and outer ring bands, known as the Katiana Division. A further halo of dust particles extends to 9000 km out from the equator.

Dating of Usse’s rings places them at only 2 million years old, considerably younger than might be expected for such an extensive and stable ring system; ancient cave paintings on Usse lacked the depictions of a stellar ring as seen from the surface of the planet, though instead included references to a “sphere of day” and “sphere of night”, believed to refer to Usse’s stellar parent, and the moon which was broken into the present-day Ussian ring respectively. Based on current depletion rates, the rings of Usse are expected to disappear in around 300 million years.

The extensive ring system of Usse proved instrumental in the early development of physics in ankoran society, though proved extremely difficult to navigate early unmanned probes through.

Tourism
Tourism generates an estimated 10% of all wealth on Usse primarily through a mixture of pilgrims and sightseers visiting the holy world. As one of the Ankoran Covenant's leading tourism destinations, the planet is home to an array of famous tourist attractions.

As the ankoran homeworld, tourists flock to major historical, religious, and scenic locals. The planet is popular for the traditional forms of architecture not often visible on other ankoran planets. Most tourists visit Usse to see the Ussian Rings, considered one of the natural wonders of the Milky Way. Others arrive as pilgrims to worship in the great temples of the fortress-cities or witness the Ussian terrain from the skies.

Approximately 204 million credits arrive on Usse from tourists and pilgrims each year.

Culture
Usse's population are extraordinarily devout, even compared to the populations of other religiously-significant planets within Covenant space. Serving as the political nexus of the Carina Nebula, and the slow-beating heart of the Ankoran Covenant, the elite of Usse's population is wealthier than the combined populations of some planets. Many indulge in luxuries, leisure and amenities from across Covenant space. Due to the small area of space in which cities can realistically be constructed, cities on Usse are extremely dense.

Ussian cities are all surrounded by immense security measure to prevent citizens from leaving or local wildlife entering. Usse's jungles are home to many vicious predators many times the size of, and who prey upon, the ankoran, thus necessitating the precautions. The walls stand several stories tall and are known to be as thick as a typical skyscraper. No main entries to the jungles are present, and what methods can be used to leave on foot are not accessible to civilians. Beyond the walls, gun emplacements and security bunkers litter the surface, dissuading approaching predators with significant gunfire.