San Kora

San Kora is a small planet in the San Cio System. First colonized in 2215 by the Covenant, it is known for its ocean, which is rich in Tritium and Deuterium.

Geography and Climate
San Kora is the second planet from its star, San Cio. It has only one small continent, Borrir, which highly resembles Australia rotated 90° counter-clockwise, and is located at the equator of San Kora. The continent is largely tropical, and before being colonized, had 85% of its surface covered by thick rainforest. To the north is a small mountain range, with the tallest mountain being 1,500 meters tall. Throughout the rest of the planet's surface, there are a number of small archipelagos, the largest running up and down the western coast of Borrir. These archipelagos range from just half a dozen small islands to almost one hundred. Around one third of these are miniscule volcanic islands, and the rest are either covered in rainforest or temparate forest, depending on their distance from the equator. The freshwater oceans of the planet are extremely deep in many places, with some areas as low as 44,000 feet below sea level and the Gooric Trench reaches 61,000 feet below sea level. Due to this extreme depths, the vast ocean is extremely rich in deuterium and tritium, making the planet a prime target of colonization

Pre-War
The colony was first surveyed in 2409 by a small Covenant surveyor craft. The craft found that the planet was flourishing with life on its main continent, with a recorded 5,000 unique animal and plant life forms on the main continent. The continent was then named Borrir, which when translated, means lively. The planet was then planted with a beacon and was to be colonized. However, the Covenant economy was in an interstellar depression due to a famine on the Covenant's primary agricultural system, in which massive solar storms greatly damaged crops and artificial atmosphere on the moons of Joyous Reverence a gas giant. These moons, 22 in all, generated 9% of all food for the inner Covenant planets, including a fraction of Doisac and Eayn. Forty-three years passed before the planet was colonized in 2452 by 150 Unggoy, 200 Huragok, and 115 Yan'me on Borrir's eastern coast. They began a small farming settlement, and once sufficient crop sources were produced, the colony became independant for the most part.

In 2473, another 300 colonists were transported to an archipelago 500 km east-southeast, where they created a settlement generating most of its food and funds from fishing. Four years later, a third trip was made to the planet, this time with materials to construct a space elevator and an additional 1,000 colonists to the orginal settlement, now named Borrir City. The planet's first oceanic harvesting platform 25 km off the coast of the second settlement, now named Port Cien. The floating platform, stabilized by large metal wires connected to the sea floor, began harvesting deuterium for civillian craft and tritium for warships and higher-end civillian craft. Construction on the San Kora Spaceport began in 2483. At that time, the second Harvesting platform along with the third and fourth settlements were founded in a remote archipelago 3,000 km due west of Borrir. In 2484 construction began on two refueling stations in orbit for larger civillian craft and warships, and a third in Port Cien for lighter craft, and in 2487, the SK Spaceport was finished. With over 12,000 immigrants per year coming to San Kora, the capital of Borrir City flourished, and in 2495, a metal mine was established in the northern mountains of Borrir.

At the turn of the century, the first military factory was built in Borrir City, producing Ghosts, early models of Wraiths, Spectres, and Shadows in small numbers. The first Covenant military installation was established in 2501, housing 1,000 Sangheili soldiers, 1,200 Yan'me, and 2,500 Unggoy on the outskirts of Borrir City. The planet continued to flourish, and by 2508 had a population of over 1,200,000, forty-three harvesting platforms, twenty-seven settlements, and 2 orbital defense stations, each equipped with two pulse laser turrets, three plasma turrets, and four plasma torpedo barrels. In addition to these defenses, there were two Frigates in orbit. Until the beginning of the war, San Kora began to stabilize, with immigration having slowed to barely any income. Then in 2515, additional soldiers were assigned to the planet, the total military presence consisting of 10,000 Sangheili, 7,500 Jiralhanae, 25,000 Unggoy, 15,000 Yan'me, and 1,000 Mgalekgolo soldiers.