Uncle Ingvar the Rose Gold Star

Ingvar's 5-planet system is dominated by the gas giant Secluda-2, around which orbits a rocky satellite the humans named Dust. Enormously dense for its little size, Dust teems with life & activity despite a thin, acidic oxygen atmosphere. Colicky Ingvar has been shrieking out solar flares of late, disrupting electronics coldward out to the Colloid Belt, and completely enveloping Dust.

History of Dust

First, Dust was a barren rock, surface pounded to regolith over millennia. Comet impactors brought forth algae, crustaceans, mineral fish, and coralite trees. Insects evolved, and the arachnids taught themselves to use tools and tell stories. Kith Mogul was founded.

This benthic paradise was so beloved by alien visitors that they altered their own DNA to live there. Merfolk civilization rose and fell, leaving behind bespoke life-forms, vast ruins, and ominous myths. All the while, the arachnid monarchy wove their bloodlines with great patience.

Humans arrived from far-off Earth in the late stages of its galactic expansion, to study Dust's gravity and exploit its exotic minerals. They drove the feeble merfolk up into the mountains, and the cautious arachnids down into their tunnel-city. These Founders fed Dust into a shredder to make themselves richer, and to learn what makes it tick.

But one day, the Earth went quiet, and ceased shipping supplies. One by one, the other colonies dropped off of the deep wave bands. Dusters had to learn to live with the world they had conquered, with its remnants and their ghosts. The Founders had to bury their secrets to survive. Eventually, Space Truckers made Dust City a rest stop on their grand highway, without which human life here would not have survived.

Finally, the Solari Cooperationists reached out their long arms and swept Ingvar into a lukewarm embrace. Dusters were invited to join the "Helpful Habitat" program, which dispensed "rewards" in exchange for "cooperation". In the end, six solar habitat domes were dropped on Dust, and nearly 6,000 Dusters of all dimension were shipped off to colonize some other star system.

Next thing you knew, rosey ol' uncle Ingvar burped up a flare that disabled most of the Solari fleet in-system, leaving them prey to the ruthless Neamo Paleto, whose twin-fuel engines propelled them into the power vacuum. It's not just the Solari that were harmed either - nearly all interstellar craft in the system were sent into uncontrolled spin. And to make matters even worse, the robots on Dust's surface have gone completely insane!

The Cooperationists will return following relativity delays, eviscerate the Truckers who don't flee, and neuter Ingvar. Meanwhile, Dust is under pressure - societal collapse on the surface threatens to crack through to a psychic maelstrom that's been bubbling up within for centuries.