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About 150 light-years rimwards from Terra is an ordinary yellow star; the agricultural world Noxus Beta circles in the habitable zone. A small, rocky planet orbits the sun much further in.

Noxus Beta is 8000 kilometers in diameter, with a surface gravity of 0.45 G. About half of the world is covered by oceans of warm, salty water. There is a single, small moon orbiting the world. A couple of automated beacons, a small orbital station, and a network of weather and communications satellites orbit the planet as well. The single gunboat, normally docked at the orbital station, is the only local defense against spacecraft.

Local life forms had risen to about the level of complicated amino acids when the first settlements were placed here, 2,000 years ago. With some terraforming encouragement, the atmosphere is now a standard oxygen-nitrogen mixture, capable of supporting human life. Average daytime temperatures are about 20 degrees Centigrade.

An enormous, ancient meteor crater is still visible, just above the equator; it is about 5,000 kilometers in diameter. Erosion has created several breaks in the crater wall, allowing the 'regular' seas to flow into the crater. The seas elsewhere on the planet have a few deep chasms, but within the crater the water is a nearly uniform 150 meters deep. The weather is mild, and the seas are placid.

[When the meteor struck Noxus Beta, several hundred thousand years ago, the initial impact removed crust and outer magma to a depth of 800 kilometers; the planet was scorched by waves of heat, and much of the (previously thick) atmosphere was blown off. Molten material flowed back into the crater, forming a relatively smooth surface, now the seafloor of the huge crater.]

Temporary ice caps cover the poles in winter, only a few hundred kilometers in diameter.

The land area of Noxus Beta is generally smooth; volcanic activity on this world is unknown, and no significant tectonic drift is occuring. Erosion has smoothed off what mountain ranges remained from long ago.

A single city (Nox Port) houses nearly a quarter of the human and ara-human inhabitants, on an island about a thousand kilometers long in the northern temperate zone. The only spaceport is located beside this city. A few hundred thousand persons live on Noxus Beta, almost all employees of the Noxus Beta Corporation, which in turn owns the entire planet. Ownership of the NBC is divided among a few of the non-royal noble houses of the Principality; it has been in charge of the planet for hundreds of years. There isn't much to NBC besides this planet, and an office on Aravan.

Much of the land and water area of Noxus Beta is under automated cultivation, for vegetable and animal foodstuffs. Small towns, called ag-camps, dot the landscape (or mounted on floating platforms in the seas). Enormous numbers of robots, automated harvesters, vaporators, sensor platforms, and trans-bots do much of the work. NBC's employees install, operate and maintain the equipment.

The society on Noxus Beta is very tranquil, and perhaps considered dull by some. There are certainly festivals, holidays, scandals, crimes, and such; but in comparison with other worlds, life here has few surprises.

Unsurprisingly, the more rebellious youth of Noxus Beta tend to leave their home world for an exciting, dangerous life among the stars. "If there's a bright center to the universe, you're on the planet that it's farthest from."