A Firefly World

Note

: Houston was named for survey captain who discovered it, not for any historical references to Earth That Was.

Houston is a very rare world, it has its own primative ecosystem before the teams got to it. This ecosystem would not "easily" support humans lacking much water, so it was altered. The native ecosystem was destroyed and the planet changed to Earthform standards.

However, the ancient ecosystem has a legacy.

Oil.

Houston is one of the few worlds of the Rim that produces proper oil. This is limitedly used for fuel, it is mostly used for lubrication. Spacedrives need lubrication to keep their wheels turning. Houston is the only cheap source of lube in the Rim.

Well Tallow is often used to lube things, but that is not always cheap and in the long run not good for the machine.

The planet is fairly dry. The four continents are quite large. If you time it right, with some cold weather, you could walk across the planet hopscotching across the continents. There is mostly grass here. The scrubby trees dot the landscape where there is water. The rabbits are the only wild creatures out there, and they are hunted down by ranchers and their dogs (and occasionally smushed by cattle).

The Oil Ranchers are doing quiet well. Even sectioning off parts of their lands for Oil Rigs, there is still enough land to raise quite a number of heads.

Houston has one grand city and many towns spread about it. Most people live in and around each Oil Ranches’ main Haciendas. They function much like private towns.

Houston was a Browncoat stronghold. However those days are done. Houstonians will talk about freedom and such, but really they are just focused on getting their businesses back in order. A legacy of the war, the planet is now dotted with many "forts". These forts are alliance postings. From there, bored alliance soldiers keep an eye on the locals.