Carria

"They... they're all gone. The Angels took them." - Statement from a survivor of the First Carrian Rapture

Carria is a remote desert planet in the Southern Frontier of the galaxy. Falling within the territory of the Tacai People’s Federation, the planet is mostly barren desert save for intermittent cities and mining outposts.

History

Carria was first discovered by GAIA (Galactic Aerospace Industry Association), a subsidiary of Galactic Aerospace, which used mercenaries from GAMA (Galactic Aerospace Military Analysis) and pirates to mine the planet using slave labor. The megacorporation used its political influence to keep exploration fleets away from the planet, but eventually, it was discovered by a Tacai fleet. During the ensuing battle, the GAMA mercenaries executed both the pirates and the slaves before fleeing, pinning the entire incident on a neighboring country called Arkhia. This led to a bloody war between Taca and Arkhia, which Galactic Aerospace profited greatly from. The planet was slowly scouted over the years and eventually colonized when Taca realized the value of the minerals present. Scouts made note of violent creatures they named “Sand Angels” due to their graceful, almost surreal movement. The creatures feared light and could even be injured by sunlight, but were incredibly fast and dangerous to those in the dark. However, they primarily hunted in the planet’s subterranean caves at the time, and only rarely ventured onto the surface. Scouts also discovered the existence of many ancient ruins and tunnels, as well as the skeletons of mysterious creatures, leading them to designate it as a lost victim of the ancient Great Galactic War. Mining operations, run by GAIA, started within the caves soon after the first outposts were established. The aggressive and careless tactics used in the mines drove the Sand Angels to the surface, leading to the colony’s devastation in an event known as the Carrian Rapture. Later colonization efforts, led and funded entirely by Galactic Aerospace, used UV lights to keep the Sand Angels away and created illuminated pipelines to and from major mining sites. More remote mines used aircraft to transport workers and supplies instead.
Enslaved androids were often used in these mines, a practice that was legal at the time under Tacai law. However, near the end of the Corporate Era, the Tacai Senate scheduled a vote on the subject of android rights and the difference between droids and androids. The vote, if passed, would also declare androids sentient and heavily restrict droid production, placing it under government supervision, which would also greatly weaken the many corporations using androids. Public sentiment was against the vote by a narrow margin, and it was expected to fail. Sensing this, the ALM (Android Liberation Movement) and its paramilitary wing, the ALA (Android Liberation Army), sought to incite an android uprising on Carria to draw attention to the matter. Months before the vote was scheduled to take place and with the aid of sympathetic GAIA employees, the ALA placed organic saboteurs in the capital city and mining outposts. Androids also infiltrated the mines using advanced firewall software to hide their core programs from mandatory memory wipes. While infiltrating the mines, the ALA members discovered that not only were androids being used as laborers, but that organics had also been enslaved within the secretive lower levels of the mines. Many of these slaves were “treasonous” former employees of Galactic Aerospace, along with several captured ALM and ALA members. Meanwhile, off-planet, the ALA began the long process of faking a government inspection. An inspection was scheduled for the week of the vote, but Galactic Aerospace had long bribed officials and pushed the inspections to convenient dates. By painting a Courier-class patrol frigate and its escorts in government colors and falsifying its transponder signal to match that of the Tacai government, the ALA could surprise corporate officials and put an untouchable communications ship in orbit, thus stopping Galactic Aerospace from isolating Carria and hiding the uprising.
A week before the vote, the ALA launched its attack, seizing the capital city’s power station and most of the mines, taking many workers hostage in the process. They demanded that Galactic Aerospace release all androids at work in their facilities galaxywide, or else they would cut the city’s power and leave it to the Sand Angels. They did not expect that Galactic Aerospace would acquiesce to their demands, however, instead simply planning to use the attack to draw attention to their cause and damage the corporation, before escaping with the liberated slaves when the fake inspection arrived.
As expected, Galactic Aerospace disabled Carria’s communications satellites, cutting it off from the rest of the galaxy and locking down the planet to ensure that news of the uprising didn’t spread. During this time, GAPB (Galactic Aerospace Public Broadcast) began prepping a cover story that claimed the ALA was executing workers and had already rigged the power station to blow. The ALA, meanwhile, was busy dismantling mining equipment and hacking security systems. A day later, Galactic Aerospace deployed elite GAMA mercenaries to retake the power station and mining facilities. Corporate armies such as these were illegal, but GAMA was publically designated as a security consultant group and had avoided government scrutiny. The special forces mercs soon attacked the defenders with chemical weapons, primarily harming the hostages in the process, before storming in and killing most of the remaining ALA fighters. Luckily, the ALA’s Courier-class patrol frigate, TFRS Delayed Reaction, was finally prepped and arrived just in time to download the security footage transmitted by the few remaining survivors, most of whom were holed up in control rooms and deep in the mines. This footage clearly exposed GAMA’s role as a paramilitary used to enforce Galactic Aerospace’s power and their use of illegal weapons, as well as showing that the ALA had not harmed the hostages in any way and that GAIA had been using organic slaves in their mining projects. A text file explaining the situation and providing context was also attached.
In an audacious and desperate move that surprised even the ALA, Galactic Aerospace quickly dispatched its only locally available warships, the anti-piracy frigate GA CDS Jeres Edelson and the light cruiser GA CDS Calli Halen, to destroy Delayed Reaction and prevent it from exposing their crimes. They also scrambled to disable all local subspace beacons and relays, making it difficult to leave or broadcast out of the system. Calli Halen then deployed its starfighters to attack Delayed Reaction, as the Courier-class patrol frigate was currently out of range, but Delayed Reaction was already preparing to drop into subspace, as its crew had precalculated their escape route and had no need of subspace beacons. A single bout of laser fire was exchanged between the starfighters and the frigate before Delayed Reaction dropped out of the system, taking with it Galactic Aerospace’s last chance at plugging the leak. As the GAMA mercs captured the last remaining ALA fighters, corporate facilities across the galaxy began to destroy their archives in a last-ditch effort at covering up their crimes.
Soon, however, the leak went public, and a wave of outrage spread across the galaxy. Not only had Galactic Aerospace used slave labor, employed a private army, used illegal weapons, and killed civilians, but they had also not informed the Tacai government of the unfolding ALA operation on Carria. Corporate management of civilian colonies was allowed with the caveat that the corporation had to supply regular and accurate updates as to the situation in the colony, or else they would risk dissolution. Tacai police raided countless Galactic Aerospace buildings, often having to cancel in-progress file deletions and recover partial data. While much was lost, what remained, including the fake cover story and Galactic Aerospace’s involvement in the earlier Tacai-Arkhian War, was more than enough for the Tacai government to seize all Galactic Aerospace assets within their borders, though this only constituted roughly 15% of the megacorporation’s territory. This appalling level of corporate overreach also led the Tacai government to call an immediate emergency meeting of the Galactic Security Council.
With the Galactic Aerospace corporation having led the charge against android rights, the exposure of their crimes led to the vote on android sentience passing handily. The injustices revealed during the First Battle of Carria would go on to become a rallying cry for the anti-corporate movement and would spark a series of events leading to the Second Galactic War.

Type

Planet