Austan V is the most populous world in the Austan system and subsequently serves as the system's capital and clearing house. In recent years, attention from several investors has helped transform the world from a relatively minor exporter of gasses to a regional leader in the refining of vapors for the production of fuel as well as for other industrial and military purposes. The expansion of the industry has snowballed into exponential population growth and accompanying growth in all the industries needed to sustain and entertain new residents of all social strata. This planet's growth is nearly single-handedly responsible for making the Austan system the fourth most populous system in the sector, double the size of its closest competitor. However burgeoning the gas refinement industry may be, the construction spurred by it is by far the planet's top industry, followed by the import-export market, which is growing at just the same rate as the mining itself.

Austan V is the largest planet in the Austan system, narrowly edging out Austan I, and its effect on the system is just as outsized. She and her half-sized terrestrial sister world, Austan III, jockey back and forth at different parts of their respective orbits for the distinction of being the most distant object from the system's sun. Its outlying location and enormous gravitational pull serve to keep asteroids, comets, and meteors from slipping further into the system, thus keeping the region safer for colonization and development. It is theorized that the attraction and gradual absorption of smaller celestial objects is one of the major contributors to the planet's current variety of rare gasses.