Planet Toulouse

Planet Toulouse
Owner	none - destroyed
Location	4D, Roussillon Border Worlds
Technical information
Population	220,000
Docking	destroyed
Terrain	Terrestrial (once)
Diameter	10,620 km
Mass	5.68 x 10e24 kg
Temperature	-17°C to 40°C
Escape velocity	11.21 km/sec

The Planet that was later named Toulouse was discovered by an Independent Miners Guild exploration expedition in 814 A.S. The planet was codenamed T115-C1 and immediately attracted the attention of Guild officials. The Planet had gravity and temperature ranges suitable for human colonization. The presence of poisonous gases in the atmosphere was a problem, but this could be fixed by introducing oxygen-producing plants and setting up atmospheric filters Planetside.

814 AS was also the year when the war between Kusari and Bretonia started. The IMG had to invest all its resources to secure its holdings in the Tau systems, and did not have enough manpower to develop Tau-115 further. The situation changed in 817 AS when the Council, a powerful and wealthy faction from Gallia, reached for IMG help in finding a new home for their Languedoc population. Having no way to reach their brethren in other Gallic systems, the Council Refugees had to establish their new home in some desolate region of Sirius.

Toulouse, located in a system that the IMG labeled Tau-115 (later renamed Roussillon by the Council), was the best choice for the part of the Council that was isolated from their brethren. Council manpower and money, along with IMG knowledge and technology were poured in to make the planet suitable for settlement in a matter of months. The location of the system, as well as the planet itself, was initially not revealed to any other groups, which allowed the Council time to establish a formidable defense at the known entry points into the system.

The IMG retained the right to settle their own people on the Planet at a later time. Since the relations between the two factions are friendly at this point, it is possible that Toulouse could become a prosperous independent world with population of both Gallic and Sirius origin. Currently, Toulouse houses a population of 220.000 divided over four settlements on a single continent, consisting mostly of Council Refugees from Languedoc and a large amount of non-aligned Quillan Refugees who did not want to stay under Gallic Crown rule. This number is still increasing. The IMG has a sizeable terraforming and scientific presence on the planet, their work being supplied and financed by the Council. The atmosphere is not currently suitable for human breathing, and breathing masks are a necessity outdoors. However, the ongoing efforts to clear the atmosphere from HCN and COCl2 are making progress, and in some parts of the Planet humans are now safe to stay outdoors without a mask for up to three hours.

When it became apparent that the invading Montmorency battlegroup could not be stopped, the Council reached an agreement with the Syndicated Minarchy of Provence to evacuate colonists and personnel to Marseille, an evacuation which intensified following the destruction of Perpignan Spaceport. Committed to a policy of scorched earth, the Council obliterated all four settlements with nuclear weapons only an hour before the Royal Navy achieved orbital supremacy. Trapped on the surface after the the docking ring was incapacitated by demolition charges, it is unclear precisely how many lives were lost in the detonations, but it is likely that any secrets lost to the detonations are unlikely to be scrounged up anytime soon.

Token and rudimentary efforts are underway by the Enclave to clean up both the fallout and some of the poisonous gases in the atmosphere, using ecological-repair information provided by EFL Oil & Machinery before the Crown’s fall. Still, nearly all of the settlers fleeing the Confederation elect to touch down on the verdant Planet Bordeaux instead, and the future viability of Toulouse once again harboring colonists is in doubt.