Pecos
| Pecos | |
 | |
| Owner | Crayter Republic / Independent Miners Guild |
| Location | 6G, Coronado Independent Systems |
| Technical information | |
| Population | unknown |
| Docking | Yes |
| Terrain | Frozen |
| Diameter | 6,723 km |
| Mass | 4.90 x 10e24 kg |
| Temperature | -64°C to 4°C |
| Escape velocity | 7.27 km/sec |
Pecos is a large moon composed of rock and ice, caught in a 37-year cycle of freezing and thawing as its orbit around Salina brings it closer and then further away from the sun. The Independent Miners Guild (IMG) established a small mining colony in 802 A.S., not long before Barrier Gate was finished. The IMG discovered large deposits of frozen heavy water deep within the icy crust, which the miners extract for refining into Deuterium, a critical component of H-Fuel and other fusion-reactor fuels. Pecos possesses a breathable but dangerously thin atmosphere, and long-term settlement is only possible thanks to the use of geothermal energy to keep the otherwise-frigid air around various settlements at a tolerable temperature.
In 817 AS, after their defeat at the hands of the Gallic invasion fleets entering Tau-44, the Crayter Republic resettled a large part of their civilian population on Pecos. However, the Planet is entirely unsuitable for agriculture, and the large refugee population was sustained by a constant, highly-expensive supply of Food and other Goods from off-world. Prior to the Crayterian arrival on the planet, there were rarely more than a few hundred people onboard Pecos at any time, but the refugee population briefly boosted the population of Pecos well above the four million mark (though official censuses at the time were poorly-conducted, and reported much lower numbers) for some time.
Despite Pecos's brief population surge, the colonization of Planet Yuma is now well underway, and the majority of the Crayterian refugees have been relocated to settlements there; now, Pecos's population hovers around three-hundred sixty thousand, and will likely continue to drop as time goes on.
Pecos currently contain the following colonies:
