Surajkund

Introduction
Vega V or Surajkund as it was christened, was a United Earth colony world founded as an extra-solar colony in 2110 C.E. It's desert climate is harsh however it has given rise to one of the most culturally unique colonies in Human history.

Star Geography
The star of Vega is only about a tenth of the age of Sol, but since it is 2.1 times as massive its expected lifetime is also one tenth of that; both stars are at present approaching the midpoint of their life expectancies. Vega has an unusually low abundance of the elements with a higher atomic number than that of helium. Vega is also is a variable star that varies slightly in magnitude in a periodic manner.

It's rotation is rapid with a velocity of 274 km/s at the equator. This causes the equator to bulge outward because of centrifugal effects, and, as a result, there is a variation of temperature across the star's photosphere that reaches a maximum at the poles.

Vega is surrounded with a circumstellar disk of dust. This dust is the result of collisions between objects in an orbiting debris disk, which is analogous to the Kuiper Belt in the Sol-system. Stars that display an infrared excess because of dust emission are termed Vega-like stars because of this.

Due to its size, Vega's habitable zone for M-class planets exists almost 4-times that of Sol, meaning that its only habitable world of Surajkund orbits at a distance of 4.6 AU's but still is a baked desert. Due to Vega's rapid rotation, Surajkund can complete an orbit in only 1.8-years even if the distance it travels is almost four times that of Earth.

Vega is orbited by seven planets:
 * Vega I
 * Vega II
 * Vega II
 * Vega IV
 * Vega V (Surajkund)
 * Vega VI
 * Vega VII

Planetary Geography and Climate
Surajkund is not a particular large world when compared to Earth, at only 15,742 km in diameter, however due to the intensity of Vega's lumonsity and temperature, it receives significantly more heat and light while being almost four times the distances from it's star than Earth is from Sol. Because of this Surajkund's ambient temperature is generally around 30.8 °C and has a 29.2 hour long rotation.

Surajkund is thought to be one of the oldest planets in known space and is not actually native to the Vega solar system. At present the planet itself is over 4.7-billion years old, meaning that it was fully formed even when Earth was still dust and Vega hadn't even formed yet. Many scientists have theorized that Surajkund could have actually been an exo-planet drifting free in interstellar space before it was captured by Vega at an estimated 230-million years ago. In its past, Surajkund was much more hostile from its desert appearance today, due it part that it used to occupy an orbit of 2.9 AUs from its star. Today it is over 4.6 AUs away, just enough to cool its surface to allow liquid water to exist but short enough that nothing beyond basic flora have evolved to occupy the land.

Surajkund is only covered by 30% water and nearly all bodies have a high salinity. Much of this water is undrinkable by unmodified Humans due to the high levels of lead present but it also gives Surajkund's waters their trademark silver tint.

Mount Ghaznvi is the largest and only known active volcano on Surajkund. While no eruption has occurred during the entire history of colonized Surajkund, the fact any eruption could decimate half a hemisphere with ash caused the founders of Peacock Lake to relocate the city location to the opposite side of the planet, even though the surrounding Aravalli Plains hold some of the richest agricultural grounds ever discovered.

History
Colonized in 2110 by the Third Exodus Fleet, the bulk of the colony’s original population was from Sino-Federation states of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan on Earth, causing a cultural skew towards Muslim and Hindu trends and traditions that continues to this day. Led by the colony ship UES Jawaharlal Nehru under Captain Karim Azimi, the fleet of 32 ships completed the five-year, 25-light year transit to Vega V where they delivered the first 10-million colonists on April 9th to the eastern coast of planet's largest inland ocean, the Karzai Sea. Azimi became the first Prime Minister of the newly christened Surajkund and the newly founded capital colony of Peacock Lake.

The colony was named after Surajkund, an ancient reservoir in India of the 10th century. Because of this many of its landmarks take names from locations that surround the original Surajkund reservoir, the capital city of Peacock Lake is merely another name for modern day Surajkund on Earth.

Battle of Vega
Read More: Battle of Vega

On August 4, 2153, Surajkund became the site of the Battle of Vega, between the United Earth Starfleet cruiser UES Enterprise and the Xindi auxiliary cruiser XSS Gurr'vak after the former attempted to annex the colony for its high lead deposits, a necessary material for Xindi-Reptilian ship building. Four Surajkund Defense Brigade frigates harassed the Gurr'vak for three-hours before finally retreating when the UES Enterprise intervened. After a protracted two-hour battle the Gurr'vak was damaged just enough to push it into the atmosphere of Surajkund, destroying the vessel with all hands. This was the first 'official' combat of the Xindi Conflict.

Armed Forces

 * Surajkund Defense Brigade

Society and Culture
Surakund society is largely hierarchical, emphasising cultural etiquettes and traditional Islamic-Hindu values that govern personal and political life.

Traditional Surajkund dress for both men and women is the Shalwar Kameez; trousers and shirts are also popular. To best identify individuals against the gray, orange colors native to Surajkund's green and blue are the most common colors worn.

Namaste is a common spoken greeting or salutation, though becoming considered old-fashioned by younger generations born after Surajkund's colonization. Namaskar is considered a slightly more formal version than Namaste but both express deep respect. It is commonly used in diplomacy and formal government interactions. Taken literally, it means "I bow to you".

Hindi is the most spoken language on Surajkund, followed by Punjabi and then Tamil.

Galactic Location
Surajkund is the fifth planet of the Vega-system, located 25-light years from Sol. Due to its close promixity to Denobula, the two worlds share close trade relations.

Provinces and Cities

 * Peacock Lake

Points of Interest

 * Mount Ghaznvi
 * Karzai Sea