Duwalla System
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The Duwalla System is a large planetary system that is centred on a G-type star that is roughly 1.8 Solar masses. Together with the three neighboring star systems that comprise its stellar cluster, they form the treaty designated "Duwallan Regional Economic Activity Zone".
The Duwalla System itself is home to two terrestrial planetoids. One, the second from the host star, is in the habitable zone and home to the Dergans, a species of short bipedal sentients that vaguely resemble 4-5 foot tall humanoid pigs. The second is a habitable moon that orbits the fifth planet, and is home to the Formicans, a species of large sentient ants. The Formican and Dergan worlds both show signs of at some point in the distant past being influenced and subjugated by the Vezda. Both places still have ruins, myths and scriptures that speak of the terrifying evil the Vezda represent.
Basic Information
The system lies near the edge of the Shackleton Expanse, close to the Romulan Free State boundary, in a star cluster that is abundantly rich in resources like dilithium, deuterium, latinum, selenium, and tritanium. The Formicans have a fleet of roughly fifty warp 5-capable colony ships they are using to colonize a planet in one of the neighboring systems. The Dergans are on the verge of becoming a warp-capable species and operate a few dozen spherical sublight speed ‘pods’ to travel around the system.
Habitable Worlds
Derganix
The Dergans live on the second planet from the Duwallan star. An M-class world with an average daytime temperature of about 24 degrees and a nighttime temperature of 10 degrees. The planet has 0.9G of Earth, though it is slightly larger. The planet is 12% less dense by volume. 55% of the world's surface is covered by lightly salinated oceans and large freshwater lakes. The Dergans are a species of hoofed, highly intelligent, bipedal, 4-5 foot tall hogs or swine. They achieved orbital flights with the use of high-powered cyclotronic slingshots that send vessels and probes into space, and then those vessels and probes sustain themselves through low-powered impulse drives that were inspired by the inventor's own flatulence.
Formica
The Formicans homeworld is a large moon that orbits a ‘big Saturn’ type planet. The moon is able to sustain life due to its molten outer core, tidal warming from the planet it orbits, and a steady stream of icy bodies that almost continually bombard the planet. The icy bodies are ejected matter from another moon made almost entirely of frozen water and liquid nitrogen. Formica intersects the orbital path of the other ice moon once during each 57-day orbit around its parent planet. The Formicans live and work in a vast mantle that is honeycombed with endless caverns, tunnels and seams in the rock. The only flora that grows are several varieties of moss and mushrooms. There are several species of eels, shrimp, mollusks and sea cucumbers that thrive in subterranean basins that collect the water that pummels the planet's surface in the form of precipitation that ranges in size from snowflakes to large metre-wide ice balls. An M-class atmosphere only hugs the moon up to a height of around 200 metres. It's thin but breathable on the surface, and is most comfortable for humanoid species only in the tunnels.
The Great Intrastellar Conflict
About 55 years prior to 2402, a few years after encountering each other, the two nativd sentient species fought a bitter, short, and sharp war. The Formicans gained the upper hand through better coordination and superior numbers, but the Dergans would eventually earn a stalemate when the Formican fleet moved into orbit, and were decisively repelled after the Dergans deployed over a dozen mass drivers capable of launching projectiles that were easily able to destroy the Formican vessels. An armistice was signed in 2347 after a large number of Formican vessels were crippled or destroyed while in orbit above Derganix.
Ferengi Traditionalists
After a nearly 12 year-long journey around Romulan space, a group known as the Consortium of Ferengi Traditionalists stumbled upon a warp dampening field that barred their way. They saw a star system on sensors that looked promising, with signs of two technologically advanced species, and an abundance of valuable resources. They limped along at warp 2 for about three weeks before reaching Duwalla. The Ferengi quickly wowed both species in the system and secured the rights to build trading stations in orbit above both planets. While also claiming vast mining concessions on a dilithium-rich moon and in the outer solar system, they secured their hold. They quickly began ingratiating themselves into both societies through means ranging from diplomatic outreach to intimidation and indentured servitude. And while the Formicans have built architectural wonders with the replicator technology and have advanced into a warp-capable species of highly motivated, telepathic, dutiful and patriotic capitalists, the Dergans devolved into a gluttonous mob of pleasure-seeking drug addicts. In the 5.5 years since the Ferengi arrived, the Dergan economy had contracted by nearly 30%, and now resembles a near-failed welfare state, where entrepreneurship is only pursued in the sales and service industries, and innovation is nearly stagnant.
The Consortium of Ferengi Traditionalists had introduced both species to the wonders of personal replicators, as they had brought 3 industrial ones with them on the long trip, and began building a business mining dilithium and deuterium.
Recent History
A group of Starfleet vessels, including the USS Blythe, USS Culver City, USS Santa Monica and USS Soval operated for a time in and around the system in late 2402. They were able to eventually negotiate a series of bilateral agreements that opened the system for trade and further diplomacy, and also limited the more deleterious effects of the Ferengi interference. The USS Blythe was severely damaged after suffering a crash landing on the surface of Derganix after being struck by a Breen Energy Dissipator weapon that had been mounted on a Ferengi shuttle.
The one exception to the agreed openness was the Dergans, who requested to be allowed to progress and evolve naturally without any outside interference in their culture for a period of at least five years, and became a Federation protectorate with that in mind.