[b]Astrographical Survey Data: Tanshin System[/b]

Star: [b]Yellow Main Sequence[/b]
An unremarkable star like billions of others - right up until the point when a long range Aotrs probe entered within 8 Light Days of the system. After that distance was reached a flood of confusing data emerged from the star. More strangely still, from within the Tanshin system, a number of stars only seen through long range scanners appear to have changed colour. Some power has been altering stars of all classifications, with the result that they burn with a distinctive purple hue. The changed light from these stars has not yet reached the home systems of the Aotrs. Tanshin still burns yellow, but the flood of strange stellar radiation from the star indicates that the same force may be acting on it too.

The system is a low magic zone.

[b]Tanshin I[/b]
Toxic World
Intense heat, oceans of both salt water and sulphuric acid, heavy metal deposits including massive stores of uranium, hyperium and other advanced metals. Radioactive thunderstorms, cyclone winds render it uninviting in the extreme, but bioscans indicate that the planet is nevertheless thick with life. Whatever survives on a rock as desolate as Tanshin I will no doubt add to the planet's hostility.

Long range scans have identified numerous garbled and ancient distress beacons. The presence of orbital contaminants suggests that numerous starships were destroyed in or around this world over eight hundred years ago.

[b]Tanshin II[/b]
HPE-B Class World
It is possible that Tanshin II might surprise you. Worlds with bioreadings like this are sometimes strange garden utopias, perfectly designed to nurture benevolent lifeforms. Far more likely, though, the planet is a green hell. 

Notably, the system is home to numerous titanic bioforms - semimobile entities the size of large islands. Two major branches can be identified at this distance: Sedentary land creatures who operate like migratory mountain ranges, and predatory oceanic monsters that emerge in packs to consume huge swathes of the rainforest that has grown near the shoreline. The saving grace is that the planet is only 40% oceanic, putting a solid 30% of the world outside of range of the destructive ocean predators. Tanshin II has a single rocky moon, with several archaeological sites visible from long range scanners.

[b]Tanshin III[/b]
Gas Giant, Stellar Rings

Tanshin III is a typical gas giant; solid core, hydrogen-helium mix atmosphere, and vast stellar rings of billions of asteroids. Numerous larger moonlets can be observed, with Tanshin IV being by far the largest.

Tanshin III is unusually close to the star for a gas giant with an unstable orbit. Over the course of millions of years its orbit will degrade such that it collides with the sun, a detonation that will likely be catastrophic for the entire system. In the meantime its gravity is potent enough to affect the tide on Tanshin II in a similar way to the planet's own moon.

[b]Tanshin IV[/b]
Tidally Locked Ice-Ocean Moon

Tanshin IV is a water based moon of Tanshin III. The bright side perpetually faces the sun in an eternal day only broken when it eclipses Tanshin III, and the temperature on the surface is warm enough to keep it liquid. The dark side is a single massive polar ice cap covering half the planet. Tanshin IV has signs of ancient civilization upon it - the decrepit remains of old stellar elevators and asteroid mining bases, some of which might be able to be repurposed. Notably, long range surveying scans detect vast quantities of subterranian oil.

[b]The Prize[/b]
Tanshin is a resource rich system, with one colonizable planet and numerous locations of archaeological value, primarily around Tanshin IV. However the system is both distant from Aotrs space and lacks any sort of ready-made population base, meaning it's utility as an expansion region is limited. The archaeological sites are interesting but it is unlikely that they will contain technology surpassing the Aotrs' own.

The prize, then, is Tanshin I. The distress beacons are of interest, as is the fact that it seems that a major fleet action occurred in the planet's orbit. Accordingly, Command has dispatched a small reconnaissance force to determine if the system is worth further investigation. 

The secondary objective is to determine what is happening to the system's star. The field of purple stars is of concern; a civilization or power that is capable of performing stellar engineering on such a scale is not to be taken lightly.

It is time, then, for an Aotrs Commander to take the field.