Silence
The colony that never said farewell
An intact Far Reach colony whose 180,000 inhabitants vanished without bodies, an evacuation record, or a final transmission.
Overview
The Record
Silence preserves a colony built for roughly 180,000 people and occupied by none. Residences, workshops, public halls, and sealed agricultural chambers remain largely intact. The arrangement of personal effects and working systems suggests an orderly but rapid departure rather than gradual decline.
No confirmed bodies, final transmission, evacuation roster, or surviving account explains where the colonists went. Automated lighting still follows the old civic day, and pressure systems continue to maintain parts of the settlement, but authorized teams have found no evidence of a hidden or continuing population.
Every familiar explanation remains unsupported. The inhabitants may have departed, died elsewhere, been removed, or encountered something not represented in the surviving records; no available evidence establishes any of those conclusions. Edrane coordinates investigations without claiming the moon, and each functioning system is preserved because changing it may erase the distinction between what the colonists left and what later visitors caused.
Political Relationships
Standing
Standing at a Glance
- Civilization Status
- Abandoned
- Heraldic Standing
- No Unified Mark
No current sovereign authority is recognized on Silence. Edrane issues route warnings and coordinates most authorized investigations, but does not claim the moon or govern it as territory. The colony’s original civic marks remain visible and are preserved as evidence rather than treated as current heraldry.
Physical Characteristics
Ground and Sky
- Diameter1,240 km
- Mass0.000501426 Earth masses
- Gravity0.05 g
Silence has a thin nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere that is only marginally breathable for short periods in low basins. Automated systems still keep parts of the abandoned colony sealed and pressurized. Survey teams must verify each compartment independently and cannot assume that functioning air indicates recent habitation.
Orbit and Time
Path Around Oranth
- Orbital Order805
- Orbital Radius14,050,000 km
- Orbital Period196.451 days
- Rotation27.2 hours
- Inclination6.3 degrees
- Eccentricity0.021
Silence rotates every 27.2 standard hours. Automated settlement lighting still follows the colony’s former twenty-four-hour civic schedule, so inhabited-looking windows brighten and dim out of step with the exterior day despite the absence of residents.
Culture
The Twofold
Visitors associate Silence with Gloam because the colony preserves evidence of ordinary lives while concealing what ended them. That interpretation belongs to memorial and survey practice. No measured Twofold effect has been accepted as the cause of the disappearance.
Travel
Travel Notes
Entry is restricted to authorized survey and recovery teams coordinated through Edrane. Register the compartments and systems to be examined before entry. Do not activate, remove, reset, or alter functioning colony equipment without approval; an apparently minor change may destroy evidence or disable pressure support elsewhere.