Pilton

Iota Gamma IV

Mike Ballway

Larry Garfield

Revision History
Revision 1 12 April 2003

Approved by Librarian Mike Rouse-Deane


Table of Contents

Abstract
Overview

Abstract

Environment

Class M

Primary Species

Human

Natural Satelites

None

Artificial Satelites

Outpost 45

Affiliation

United Federation of Planets

Entry Type

Custom

Overview

Pilton is a colony world settled some time ago by humans. The people of Pilton are generally isolationist, preferring local interaction to full participation in the interstellar Federation. Pilton is small enough to not to merit full membership in the Federation, though it is something akin to a "territory" or "possession."

The planet itself has one major landmass and many outlying islands in a very large ocean. The islands are uninhabited. The continent is in the northern hemisphere and has three coasts -- south, east, and west. Coastal land is arable but as one moves toward the interior, it becomes more mountainous and 2000km inland the mountains peak. On the other side of this half-ring of mountains, in the central and north-central interior of the continent, is desolate land -- desert in the center, tundra in the north-center.

The livable land consists primarily of farms and villages -- with one major city, Piltopolis, in a central location on the arable crescent. Government and culture (such as it is) are concentrated on Piltopolis, as is, to a certain extent, business. Most business is local, though; Piltonians can be very regional about which coast they live on or even which district they reside in. There is not much travel on-planet; there is almost no travel off-planet, except for business and trade, and the occasional delegation to Earth for governmental reasons.

Pilton is like any other of a hundred minor colony worlds in the Federation. The centralized government and its Starfleet have no interest in micromanaging or even meddling in the business of such an unimportant body politic. Strategically, however, Pilton has recently become a major dot on military maps. It occupies a forward position on the Federation-Flarn border, serving as the UFP's -- and thus Fleet Two's -- furthest outpost toward the Flarn interior. The Flarn Regime is an alien empire abutting Fleet Two's patrol zone, with whom the Federation has had a brief but rocky past.

The Federation has two bases in the Pilton area: P-Base (a slang name) is a top-secret installation on Pilton itself, within the inland desert, which was the subject of the recent Piltonian Insurrection. Outpost 45, newly constructed in stationary Pilton orbit, was built to serve as a refueling, refit, and command base for future Federation activities in this sector (i.e., possible campaigns of defense against Flarn aggression), and to keep an eye on the Flarn -- while at the same time letting them know that we're keeping an eye on them. Following its construction, which coincided with the Insurrection, it was given the auxiliary mission of keeping tabs on the revolutionary elements on the planet itself, and serving as a permanent Starfleet presence on a planet that has only two major Starfleet presences of note -- the top-secret base (the existence of which isn't even known to most people, and the true nature of which is shrouded from all) and a recruiting station.

"P-Base" is in fact an environmental research station. In 2365, it was set up by Starfleet as a location to test possible terraforming methods to convert Class Y planets into habitable environments. Because the chemical agents used are highly toxic and usable as chemical weapons, the station was placed on the then-backwoods Pilton colony and kept under tight security. Outside of the highest branches of the Pilton government, no one on the planet is aware of its purpose, and few are aware of its existence.

While Pilton as a planet isn't all that spectacular, nor are their people all that important in the galactic grand scheme of things, Pilton as a strategic base and bulwark against Flarn aggression is perhaps the Federation's best chance at getting a forewarning of Flarn attack and mustering a defense. The continued existence of Outpost 45 is of paramount importance to the security of this entire sector of the Alpha Quadrant.