Berenike

A former trading hub and mining colony on the Centaurine frontier on the border with the Veil of Marinus, site of a major battle in the Cielcin Wars.
- Tor Paulos of Colchis, Demon in White

Primarachate: Centaurus

Province: Unknown

Known Prefectures:

Deira

Locations of Interest:

Deira: The capital and primary settlement on Berenike, a multi-tiered city built into the five-mile-deep chasm of the Valles Merguli. Massive in scale, with layers of terraces, towers, bridges, and bunkers, the city clings to valley walls and shelters beneath the defense of the Storm Wall. Deira houses the planetary government, wealthy residential quarters, and industrial districts, and it serves as the center of Berenike's Legionary defenses.

Iselia: Coastal town, about a hundred miles south of the city of Deira, down wher the Mergo River empties into the sea. Site of a Berenike Orbital Defense Force air base.

Ondu Station: A massive orbital platform in synchronous orbit above the capital city Deira on the planet Berenike. The cylindrical and spire-ringed structure serves as the primary hub for the Orbital Defense Fleet and a critical reservoir of antihydrogen fuel.

Storm Wall: An immense, mile-high fortification spanning hundreds of miles along the windward edge of the Valles Merguli on the planet Berenike. Constructed to shield the capital city Deira from Berenike’s catastrophic coriolis storms. Engineered off-world at staggering expense by the Wong-Hopper Consortium, the Wall includes bunkers, command posts, and the Legion’s headquarters within its barbican. It is the primary defensive structure on the planet and a marvel of human engineering, appearing to some as a natural feature due to its scale. One of the gates is known as the Whitechapel Gate.

Valles Merguli: Also known as the Valley of the Diver. A vast, tectonic chasm on the planet Berenike spanning hundreds of miles and reaching depths of over five miles. It forms the natural foundation and windbreak for the capital city of Deira. On its leeward (western) side are the terraces of the lower city and the governor’s palaces, while the windward (eastern) side hosts the Storm Wall and upper industrial zones. The valley's geography is central to the planet’s protection from Berenike’s lethal storms.

The planet Berenike was first colonized by the Sollan Empire in ISD 13112 with the assistance of the Wong-Hopper Consortium. A tectonically dead world dominated by flatlands and shallow, algae-rich seas, the planet was an important mining colony and transit hub during the early phases of Sollan expansion into the Veil of Marinus, as well as a base of Legion operations during the wars of annexation between the empire and various freeholder territories. Due to its lack of mountains, enormous coriolis storms whip up around the equatorial regions, with winds reaching an excess of two hundred miles per hour quite regularly, forcing the planet’s settlements to be either underground or—in the case of Deira, the planet’s only major city—built into the planet’s largest canyon, the Valles Merguli. The so-called Valley of the Diver follows the track of the Mergo River from its headwaters down to the sea.

Berenike was never given over to a nobile house and remains a holding of the Solar Throne, and as such is ruled by a governor-general appointed by the Imperial Council. It fell from prominence after the conquest of Marinus shifted Imperial focus in the region, but remains a well-trafficked port on the route from the inner empire to the frontier.

Also see the Battle of Berenike.