Typhon

The outermost planet in the system, a massive gas giant owned by the corporatists. Research on the system’s gravity dynamics suggests that Typhon is an extra-solar world. It was at one point a rogue celestial body and it eventually landed in New Athens. Modeling suggests it entered the system a few million years ago, siphoned some mass off Athena, collected some asteroids, and eventually settled into its current orbit.

It’s a one in trillions chance that this all played out as well as it did. A minor course deviation at almost any point, any small nudges, would have had Typhon collide with Athena instead of orbit it.

That said, Typhon is a massive resource and a popular destination for many companies. The utterly immense mass has provided steady income for over a century to gas haulers. Methane, hydrogen, and more are easily extracted from Typhon’s gaseous body. Even better, it’s right near the slinger. A ship from outside the system can arrive, tank up, and be gone in the same day. It’s been remarkably successful and almost reliably safe for businesses.

For most of the year, Typhon is near the slinger, though their orbits are not perfect. There are gaps when a pirate could make an intercept. That said, this is reserved for the more daring pirates. It takes a careful plan to rush in and get the target. At least, so the marketing says. The pirates would say raids are far more common, but the corporatists are afraid of such news getting out.