System: Les Halles

Only a narrow band of Les Halles supports human life comfortably; massive ice sheets engulf much of the planet and leave only twenty percent of its surface water in liquid form, mostly in the equatorial Auverne Sea. Even where ice does not dominate the single pseudo-continent of Orléans, the harsh and rocky landscape requires considerable effort to clear and make suitable for farming. The planet’s strategic location, however, has made control of it a major issue for the League and the neighboring Capellan Confederation, from both a military and a commercial point of view. Whether in Marik or Liao hands, Les Halles has served as a key trading port, its starport-cities surrounded by vast warehouse districts and equally extensive bazaars. As with Kalidasa on the Lyran border, the government closely monitors such trade, but it is widely acknowledged that almost everything available in the Inner Sphere can be bought on Les Halles, either legally or via the extensive black market.

A relatively small number of goods are produced on-world, with trans-shipment and reselling the focus of the planetary economy. The mining and refining of spacecraft fuel is Les Halles’ principal heavy industry, though the past decade has seen the establishment of an orbital repair complex designed to serve as a hybrid maintenance facility and cargo way-station. On the planet itself, vast expanses of hotels, bars, bordellos and restaurants service the largely transient population of the port cities. Only in more isolated districts and in the capital of Beauborg does the permanent population dominate, residing in settlements dug into the planetary crust to protect them from the harsh weather.

Most settlements on Les Halles are built around an atrium, a large open central area off of which commercial and residential districts lie. All that varies is the scale of construction — a house may have rooms stemming from a central subterranean courtyard (complete with reinforced-glass roof), while a town may comprise a series of interlinked cathedral-like atria.

[3039] In mid-August 3039 the Fifth Marik Militia pushed back a Liao probe against Les Halles, widely believed to be a response to the Ninth Marik Militia’s raid on Capella in July. The CCAF attack was half-hearted and failed to inflict any significant damage on the Militia or the market world’s infrastructure.

There are no functional factories located on this planet.