The Colonial Fleet

Humans arrived on Rogue Planet in spaceships, intent on colonising. However, they were not expecting to end up here. A colonial fleet of 20 ships set off from the Solar System intent on reaching a distant start system via Warpspace, the usual method of travelling faster than light. Except that Warpspace is not fully understood by humans, and there are dangers and anomalies in Warpspace that were not anticipated. The fleet flew what can best be described as a Warp storm, where warpspace becomes turbulent and difficult to navigate safely. The spaceships survived but their warp engines were seriously damaged, forcing the fleet to drop back into normal space, far from any star system. But they were close enough to Rogue Planet for the captains to decide to stop there long enough to make repairs. The spaceships landed with varying degrees of success. Two were destroyed as their landing processes failed (probably a consequence of the Warp storm) and they fell to the ground. Two have just gone missing, Another five ships survived but with some damage, while the rest landed safely. They all came down in a 1000km diameter region, so at least compared to the rest of the planet they are relatively clustered. 

It was soon afterwards that the engineers trying to fix the spaceships realised that their dilithium crystals, used to fuel their warp engines, had become unusable - somehow polluted by the Warp storm. Unless they could find more dilithium they would be stuck on Rogue Planet. Although some of the humans are still searching for the fabled dilithium, others are resigned to their fate and are accepting they are stuck here for the long term. These humans have been stuck here for nearly 100 Earth years and now there are second, third and fourth generation colonists who have only known Rogue Planet. . 

The 20 spaceships, named after old cities from back on Earth were:

1. Alberkirky - damaged on landing, current population 650
2. Ankorage - current population 11,000 (the largest human colony on Rogue Planet)
3. Bultimore - current population 1000
4. Chicargo - current population 2100
5. Denvva - current population 1700
6. Detroyt - current population 2500
7. Hoostun - damaged on landing, current population 900
8. Indinapolis - current population 5000
9. LasVaygus - current population 2000
10. Miammi - destroyed on impact, no survivors
11. Milworrkee - damaged on landing, some evacuated to Ankorage, but 500 current population
12. NewOrleens - fate unknown, no contact since landing
13. NewYawk - destroyed on impact, no survivors
14. Norfok - landed intact but population evacuated to Indinapolis after life support systems began to fail
15. Pitsburg - current population 2100
16. SaltLayk - current population 3000
17. Sakramentoe - current population 2600
18. Santababra - damaged on landing, current population 1000
19. Seeyatle - fate unknown, no contact since landing. 
20. Tuusson - badly damaged on landing, survivors evacuated to Ankorage

Of those with current populations, the landing spaceships are the hub but colonies have generally expanded downward into the caves, with the original ships acting as headquarters and technological centre, often still providing energy from the ships' fusion generators, The caves offer extra space for living, agriculture and industry, as well as opportunities for mining useful minerals. 

Art by Trevor Webb