Adrianna was the location of the first known Plague artefact to be discovered. Sometimes it's also referred to as Adriana.
About
The first known Plague artefact to be discovered was located on the world of Adriana, a considerable distance from the Soto sector and many years after the conclusion of that war. The violence that quickly followed its unearthing by a survey team investigating suspected alien architecture, sparked mass civil disorder and rioting and an attempted exodus that was only stopped by the intervention of forces aboard the Enforcer Wyvern Deucalion.
The lessons of Soto had been clear. Not only was the Plague a pathogen of unprecedented virulence and lethality, the panic it inspired could also tear apart a sector just as quickly. Once the presence of the Plague was visually confirmed, the Council of Seven did the only thing they could and ordered that it be contained at all costs. As well as the eradication of all lifeforms on Adriana, including the destruction of any ship attempting to leave the surface, the planet’s data was wiped from NavComp databanks and all records of its very existence removed from official GCPS logs.
The disappearance of an entire planet from recorded space was no easy task and involved considerable expense and influence, both political and physical. But as Council-member Severin Roth remarked in his diary, one of the few surviving documents known to make reference to Adriana, ‘History may judge us as monsters, but what choice did we have? Let those people out of that place and risk the security of the entire GCPS? No. We left them there and we let them die because we knew that just one of those ‘things’ could destroy everything we had built if we let it get out.’
Adriana was the first artefact-related outbreak of the Plague, but it was far from the last and outbreaks of the Plague since Soto are far more common than most citizens of the GCPS know. This is largely due to the effectiveness of the Containment Protocols that were developed and codified in the wake of Adriana. Any confirmed sighting of the infection, typically by Enforcer Pathfinder operators, results in the rapid isolation of affected planets. Travel to and from these worlds is immediately prohibited by blockade and the digital scrubbing of NavComp data, stranding any ships already in system as well as personnel on the infected planets. Variant protocols have since been developed for other ‘biohazards’ such as Veer-myn or Z’zor infestation, but the end result is always the same - the complete isolation of the infected until they are no longer a viable infectious source. That is to say, dead.
The Fall of Adriana and the Exodus Massacre
Years passed, and the threat of the dead worlds was forgotten. When sudden outbreaks of rioting and looting were reported on Adriana, one of the more well-developed planets in the Frontier, no one in the Core took notice; after all, it was something for the local security patrols to deal with. Then video streams started arriving, showing terrified colonists being hunted down and killed by brutish thugs clad in torn rags and the skins of their fellow men. These butchers were accompanied by strange, giant mutant creatures that bounded through the burning streets, hunting for prey like pack animals. From the comfort of their booths in the watch stations of Corporation Central, intelligence operatives watched as the beasts fell upon helpless citizens half a galaxy away.
It was a contagion, likely the same one that had caused untold death on so many worlds. It had to be contained. This news reached the Enforcer Wyvern Deucalion just in time. Fixed in a geostationary orbit around Adriana, the cruiser registered a ship dusting off from New Brunnen Starport. It was only a small commercial vessel, but it showed close to two dozen life signs – far more than would normally have been expected for a ship of its size to carry. Deucalion ordered it to arrest its ascent, but nothing came back across the comms net. Only pausing momentarily to confirm orders with Corporation Central, the warship opened fire, atomising the smaller ship in seconds.
Across the planet, more craft were beginning to dust off. It was a mass exodus. There was no way of knowing which of them held innocent civilians trying to escape the horrors, but it didn’t matter. The orders were clear. Enforcer ships spread out to form a cordon around the planet, and nothing was allowed to leave. It is estimated that almost a fifth of the world’s population was massacred in the skies before the starports were targeted from orbit, preventing any further ships from leaving.
The ships stayed in position for an entire month as Corporation Central debated what to do. There were calls to carpetbomb Adriana from orbit, but this was refuted by representatives from some of the larger Corporations. A Lu-Fan spokesperson gave an impassioned speech, making the case that while the creatures on the planet had rampaged through the populace, they had left structures mostly intact. Many of those structures represented a significant credit value, and in some cases several years of investment. Certainly, they were off-limits for now, but once the contagion died down, there was nothing to say they couldn’t be reclaimed. They refused to budge on the issue, and eventually the decision was passed up to the Council of Seven. A simple response was returned: Contain outbreak. Preserve Infrastructure.
Adriana was completely quarantined, the first victim of what is now known as Containment Protocol. It was stripped from NavCorp records, removed from logs, and references to it in official and commercial documentation were amended. This was seen as a significant risk, but sure enough no one stepped forward to question the disappearance of an entire planet. Either no one noticed, or – more likely, according to the Sphere’s many conspiracy theorists – dissenters were silenced before they could make their voices heard. This was so effective that it became a codified practice, and was used in years to come as a response to a variety of scenarios from outbreaks of contagion to hostile alien incursions.
Gallery
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Adrianna Map -
Adrianna Planet
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