Whanga¸ whenua (a place to belong)
Recent History
At the end of the Solomani Rim war many Terran native cultures became disillusioned with the united "one size fits all" approach of the Terran Confederation. It seemed to some that the old day of a homogenous Anglo Saxon style hierarchy was appearing once again¸ relegating ancient and still thriving cultures to the back seat. It was during this post war period that many of these peoples left to join the Imperial military as a way of finding fame and fortune amongst the star¸ the Imperials seemed to respect and celebrate different cultures.
It was shortly after that the Imperial Marine Corps formed a wholly Maori battalion recruited on Terra and surrounding world and lead by Lt Colonel Apirana Turupa Ngata IV. After svereal years of training and minor skirmishes the battalion as part of the 231st Marine Division took part in retaking the planet Sarpedon from a Solomani incursion and it was here that the battalion earned its Imperial Unit Citation and Nagata his knighthood.
As part of the Knighthood Nagata was granted a fiefdom in the Spinward Marches that included two plantes in the Whanga system and so the dream of a new Maori home world was hatched.
Over the past five years there has been two expeditions permanently based on Whanga and one based on its near neighbor Kirikiriroa. The plan is to begin the process of terraforming either or both planets and settle them with Maori peoples. Currently the teams on Whanga are studying how to cap the two large volcanoes that are spewing gases into the atmosphere and giving it a tainted rating while Kirikiriroa has a thin atmosphere¸ less land and a less forgiving climate.
The Surface of WhangaOrbiting a gas giant means that Whanga receives light from two sources so when the planet obits behind Hokianga the gas giant it is completely dark but when it comes around the other side it receives direct light from the star and reflected light from the gas giant giving an odd dark then twilight¸ then daylight cycle. For people on the surface it translates as approximately twelve hours of dark¸ twelve of twilight and twelve of daylight. The most spectacular aspect is the green and red banding of the gas giant which takes up a massive part of the sky during twilight.