Human colonies

Under the administrations of the United Nations Federation and New Soviet Union, humanity has surveyed and colonized over three hundred worlds across a portion of the Orion Arm of the Milky Way galaxy over 600 years of superluminal travel via hyperspace. The planets under the jurisdictions of the UNF and New USSR, together with humanity's homeworld, are collectively referred to as "Earth and Her Colonies". Human space is divided into three regions: the Sol system itself, the Inner Colonies, and the Outer Colonies.

History

Interplanetary age

The concept of space colonization was born out of the need to expand human habitation needs caused by overpopulation on Earth to alleviate the consumption of Earth's resources by conducting planetary mining on other worlds, and to better understand the universe as human civilization expanded. Various approaches were suggested to achieve this, such as colonization efforts of Mars, building facilities on orbiting asteroids and creating artificial platforms. The expansion throughout Sol and beyond was a rapid venture due to the unexpected discovery of advanced terraforming technology that was anonymously handed to the United States government.

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Planetary War on Terror (2075 - Present)

The Continued War on Terror, also known as the Planetary War on Terrorism and UNF/Arabic Republic War, is an ongoing interplanetary military campaign launched by the United Nations Federation following the events of the First Nuclear War. The targets of the campaign are primarily Islamist groups located throughout the world, with the most prominent groups being the Arabic Republic, the Unified Taliban, and the various franchise groups of former organizations. Much like the Globel War on Terror from the early 21th century, the naming of the campaign uses a metaphor of war to refer to a variety of actions that do not constitute a specific war as traditionally defined. UNF president Dominique Nieves first used the term "planetary war on terrorism" on May 21, 2075, and then "planetary war on terror" a few weeks later in a formal speech to the Colonial Administration Council. While it was never used as a formal designation of UNF operations in interplanetary government documentation, a Planetary War on Terrorism Service Medal was issued.

Expansion beyond Sol system

The breakthrough of the Ward Translight Engine in 2092 ushered in a new era of human extension into the stars. This revolutionary technology allowed for faster-than-light travel, allowing humanity to expand their reach to beyond the confines of the Sol system and begin the colonization of other planets.
Half a century later, the United Nations Federation dispatched its first line of colony ships—led by the iconic Terra Nova—to initiate the expansive colonization effort of human habitation, providing desperately needed relief from the overcrowding of Earth and its off-world colonies throughout the Sol system.
To manage the governance of the extrasolar colonies, as well as ensure their safety and security from pirates and other threats, the UNF established the Colonial Administration Council. This all-encompassing body was tasked with the responsibility of overseeing the entire colonial infrastructure, from the selection of suitable planets to the allocation of resources and personnel for the on-going colonization efforts.
The UNF also implemented United Space Command Armed Forces along the borders of the colonies, to provide protection to the ever-growing population of human beings living throughout the inhabited planets of the universe. The coming of the Ward Translight Engine saw a dramatic transformation of the human race, from localized inhabitants of a single planet to a fully-fledged space-spanning species.

Colonial Era

As faster-than-light travel was still new and highly expensive, potential colonists were subjected to rigorous physical and mental testing to determine their suitability for the extrasolar colonization programs. As such, the colonists who formed the basis for the 130 first-wave colonies settled before 2240 formed humanity's elite; these worlds would later be known as the Inner Colonies. Earth and the Inner Colonies soon became the political and economic basis of the USC as humanity began expanding to the Outer Colonies. For humanity at large, this was a time of unparalleled prosperity and optimism which has later come to be referred to as the "Golden Age" of human colonization, a period which would eventually come to a violent end in the early years of the 28th century.

By the time the settlement of the Outer Colonies began, many of the initial difficulties of interstellar travel had been alleviated; by extension, the selection criteria for the colonists became far more lax, resulting in the populace of the Outer Colonies being far more varied than that of the prestigious Inner Colonies.

Government and politics

While the United Nations Federation and New Soviet Union are technically confederations of equal, independently-governed worlds, this is not true in practice; the interests of Earth and the Inner Colonies weigh more heavily in both the government's decision-making than those of the Outer Colonies. This has led to tensions and even civil war between the USC and the outer settlements, which many of the Inner Colonies rely on for their foodstuffs and resources.

Scale

As of 2588, human-controlled space encompassed around 300 colonized sites, including planets, moons, asteroids and various other outposts. The colonies ranged from heavily-populated and economically, politically and strategically significant worlds to struggling pioneer outposts which could barely sustain 10,000 colonists. Some worlds were terraformed to greater degrees than others depending on the local conditions and presence of indigenous life. Many of the colonies were firmly under the influence of the UNF with some seeking to secede from humanity's empire. The worlds are generally divided among the stable Inner Colonies and the more numerous and restless Outer Colonies, and are highly diverse in terms of culture; some worlds have their foundations in the cultural heritage of a single to multiple Earth nations, while others have more varied population bases.

The Inner Colonies encompassed a region of space in at least a 10.5 light-year three-dimensional radius from Earth. Beyond that were the Outer Colonies. Other colonies were established even further - Washington, at 59 light-years; and Trichi, the most distant known colony, which lay in the Tau3 Eridani System, 86.7 light-years from Earth. Despite its relatively short distance from Earth, at approximately 16 light-years, New Earth was considered the furthest Outer Colony in 2725, at six weeks of hyperspace travel away from Trichi and two months away from Harmony. Despite its relative scale, humanity's empire takes up only a minuscule portion of the Milky Way galaxy itself, all human-colonized systems existing within a bubble of 100 light-years around Sol in contrast to the overall scale of the galaxy which is 100,000 light-years in diameter. However, humans often use the word "galaxy" in colloquial speech when describing humanity's sphere of influence.

List of known colonies

Sol Colonies

Sol System

Venus

Earth

Luna

Mars

Deimos

Phobos

Europa

Io

Titan

Ganymede

Enceladus

Pluto

Sol Early Warning Station

Inner Colonies

Alpha Centauri System

Warden System

Davon Omega

Harmony

Nova

Eurest

Armstrong System

Armstrong 1

Armstrong 2

Tania

Beki Corda

Nel System

Mehines

Aliv

Leo Beta System

Punov

Hegomia

Eanides

Aphrodite Omega System

Neo Atlantis

New Athens

Knossos

Heraklion

Outer Colonies

Vera System

Aurora

Makarovich

Lera

Arcadia

Putin Alpha

Rina System

New Earth

Eurodance

Star Cross 9

Torchfire

Neo England System

York

New London

Walesshire

Israeli system

New Jerusalem

Canaanite

Alderamin System

Endurance

Wikure

Alderamin Prime

Tau3 Eridani

Sandurance

Eridani Alpha

Trichi

Queti

Andrew Washington System

Burka

Washington

Knight Operations Training Station

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