System: Apple 88
Atmosphere: Airless
Temperature: Burning
Biosphere: None
Population: A few tens of thousands
Tech Level: TL4+
RED COLONY
Description: Forged in the center of a planet a billion years dead, Red Colony is a prison of the highest order. Setting foot on the surface of the savage rock, even the best vac-suit of the new age wouldn't last more than a few minutes. Radiation scours the surface of the planet eighty-eight times a second as the pulsar, Apple 88 (a distortion of its thousand year old astronomical name, Apollo N-88) spins, blasting a broad spectrum beam across the galaxy.
Since its inception over 700 years ago, the prison, called Hell by its inmates has experienced thousands of escape attempts, all of which (until this past January) have be thwarted by isolation and the certain death that awaits on the rocky surface of the lifeless world. An artificial intelligence, designed and constructed specifically for this nightmare prison, controls every aspect of life for the tens of thousands of inmates typically occupying the cells of Hell.
Six month guard duty rotations are either a ticket to early retirement with a fat bank account or punishment for some misdeed or perceived slight against a spiteful higher up. Most guards that come to Hell are either born with a cruel streak or develop one in short order and inmates either learn to survive by whatever means necessary, or are never heard from again.
Since before the Silence, those in control have used Red Colony as a dumping grounds for their unwanted. Some rather notorious criminals have ended up there. Havor Fell, a pre-Scream slaver, ended up there. Shem-vo Ornd, the "butcher" of Gudrunn's District A, lived in Hell for 3 decades before dying of old age. The most "artfully" daring killer in sector history, Aryn de Arc, also ended up at Red Colony. She was known for displaying her victims for all to see, though it would often be days before anyone realized the new "art installation" was actually a corpse. All these and hundreds of thousands more have been sentenced to Hell and most have died there.
Other than the prison, literally nothing of any value exists in the system. The sector government maintains a supply route to keep the staff alive and (mostly) fully manned. All other travel to the Apple 88 system is forbidden.