Project NODE
Project NODE (New Orceron Discovery Expedition) was an extensive space exploration initiative, instituted by United Orcs government on Orceron.
The goal of Project NODE was to launch a fleet of explorer starships to scour around the numerous star systems in the Orbeus cluster for a new planet suitable for colonization.
The mission became priority one for the entire United Orcs following the Great Cataclysm of Orceron and the foundation of the Home Fleet. Emergency resolution 900RS-088 decreed all possible resources were to be allocated towards finding a new home colony, as the conditions of the refugees grew worse daily aboard the cramped starships of the Home Fleet, resources were dwindling, and the complete collapse of Orceronian civilization seemed imminent.
The Fleet
In an unprecedented show of Orceronian engineering skill, several starships were taken apart and their drive systems modified to allow for fast scouting runs of candidate systems. In addition to these fast scout runners, a larger science vessel was hastily assembled by combining the systems of several smaller civilian starships. This vessel was named NODE-1 and it was designated the flagship of the fleet. Work had barely finished when the band of starships, now known as the NODE Fleet, left the makeshift shipyards.
The Search
Discovery of Aldaain
For almost two years, the NODE Fleet systematically explored, observed, scanned and recorded from system to system in the Orbeus cluster. Widespread demoralization was already setting in as NODE-1 finally reported a possible candidate in the Orbeus 6 system, on the opposite side of the Orbeus Core. Provisionally code named "planet number 3758220", although not perfect, the world had sufficient surface gravity and an atmosphere that could be turned breathable with proper work. This planet would eventually be known as Aldaain.
