JUMP TO... TERRAFORMING AND ITS CHALLENGES | HYPERBIOMES | FLORA AND FAUNA | MOCE | AQUILA
TERRAFORMING AND ITS CHALLENGES
As noted in other entries, the moon Nirvana is the product of aberrant terraforming due to apparent interaction between Frühjahr technology at the moon’s core and the early TORT-15 terraforming units. As such, it is unique in human space as an example of how those technologies interact, and a hotbed of genetic experimentation and evolution largely outside human control.
HYPERBIOMES
One of the most notable quirks of Nirvana are its “hyperbiomes,” areas where a terraforming unit seemed to fixate on a specific feature or biome type, taking the landscape, flora, or fauna to incredible extremes. Known hyperbiomes include:
The Samin Rainforest: a Miyawaki-density rainforest planting where all the plants, rather than competing with each other for nutrients and light, grew at an accelerated rate simultaneously, resulting in a near-impassable area of jungle approximately 345,000km2.
TORT-15-U4’s Wine Marsh: a fen overrun with 236 distinct species of grape including multiple novel genetic splices. The plants produce at a prodigious rate, thus there is a constant layer of rotting grapes in the fen producing a miasma of gases.
TORT-15-U11’s Superdeep Inland Sea: a 6km across body of water estimated to be at least 2,310km deep. Life has been detected as far down as instruments can measure, none of it recognizable.
NIRVANA FLORA AND FAUNA
The ubiquitousness of rare, previously extinct, and mutated flora and fauna makes it difficult to generalize about the colony’s life. Most pertinent to Garvock-2 are the common plants which can be found in the Samin Rainforest, besides its variety of jungle trees. The dim forest floor contains pockets of light filtered through the canopy which allow for the growth of understory plants. The majority of these plants, despite their visual variety, are carnivorous. It is unknown whether this was an intentional planting, or if carnivorous plants were the most fit to survive between the dense trees due to their ability to supplement their nutrients with prey. Aside from these, a wide variety of mosses, lichens, parasitic orchids, and slime molds thrive in the upper branches.
Inside settlements the growth of strange plant life has to be carefully managed. There are three teams in Garvock-2 dedicated just to training plants away from structures or cutting them back for biomass. In disused areas of the settlement structures are quickly overrun, turning “urban blight” into breath-taking pocket parks or natural playgrounds for children. There’s a thriving topiary and bonsai scene, the bonsai often executed with full-size trees which can be trained into fantastic shapes in short time periods. One of the first tools a young teenager receives is a machete.
The malfunctioning terraformers have also created strange mutated fauna and megafauna from their genetic memory banks, as well as specialized adaptations among conventional wildlife, which can be dangerous to the unprepared. Of particular note are the many colonies of monkeys which navigate the canopy, and the oddly docile mutated babirusa that Garvock-2 has domesticated to aid in overgrowth management.
MOCE
Moce is a self-camouflaging moss that takes on the color and texture of the surface it grows over. It achieves this effect by leaching matter from the surface it grows on, leading to eventual deterioration. The bane of Garvock-2, Moce is legally classified as a biohazard which any spacefaring vessel exiting Nirvana has to be screened for. While Moce grown on the outside of a hull will eventually die and peel off in vacuum, it can badly damage ablative shielding, and any Moce hidden in a ship’s interior is only waiting for its chance to spread.
While it originated in a damaged TORT-15 terraformer on Nirvana, it seems to abhor most surfaces there, especially wood and bioplastics. It seeks out petroplastics, artificial fibers, and aluminum alloys, meaning that most off-world technology does not last long on Nirvana unless specially engineered or carefully protected. Moce is single-handedly responsible for a recent and major technological regression in the colony.
AQUILA
It is worth singling out the Aquila flower for its specific impact on Nirvana as a colony. From its initial export, demand for the flower was extremely high. Aquila resembles a daylily and grows from bulbs, but has an effect in foods and beverages similar to butterfly pea flower. Its strange coloring and tell-tale glow indicate its status as a genetic splice of the unknown crop tended by the Observer in Garvock-2. It grows readily over the hills around Sukarno, which used to house seasonal workers from Garvock-2 for the harvest season due to the yields.
As a cash crop for a colony that operates on barter, its utility was limited beyond local use, and has been almost totally eliminated due to the virulence of Moce on off-world imports purchased with credits. Sukarno still grows a moderate crop every year, but it’s a small percentage of previous plantings. In Garvock-2, small patches are cultivated for recreational and ritual use, particularly around households of the Frühjahr-touched.