Colonies

The Process of Colonization in the Diaspora

Union does not run a state-backed colonization program, but does provide resources for Metropolitans to embark upon legal, well-provisioned missions and partnerships. In the Diaspora, the specifics of colonization differ from world to world, but in general terms, most ventures follow a similar pattern.
First, a group forms a colonial venture: a temporary association that pools Manna and licenses to petition the owner of the destination system for a colony charter. In most cases, this is Union, as few other states have the resources to survey and flag habitable worlds. Not all of those involved in the colonial venture will themselves become colonists.
Once the colonial venture has secured a charter, its members lobby local (or intergalactic, depending on proximity) colony-construction firms for the supplies, infrastructure, and materiel that they can’t supply themselves. Colony-construction firms offer tiered packages in exchange for a cut of the potential colony’s raw resource output. These packages typically feature an administrative NHP, a genetic variance library, a license for a basic printer, and a colony ship packed with prefabricated habitation pods, heavy drones, medical benches, pan-biome seed libraries, and other necessary colonial infrastructure.
Once all resources are secured, the colony ship launches. These ships can be anywhere from hundreds of meters to a kilometer in length, with the vast majority of that space devoted to prefabricated supplies. Its crew will be the first settlers of the new colony world: a small team of engineers, scientists, and specialists numbering in the dozens.

The Stages of Establishing a Colonial Settlement

With assistance from the colony’s NHP administrator and its attendant drones and subalterns, the colonists make planetfall and begin the long work of establishing a colony footprint. In the meantime, the colony’s first native-born generation is incubated, birthed, tended, and raised by the NHP and assigned natal and educational carers.
Fifteen to twenty years after landfall, the first generation reaches population-viable levels (usually in the thousands, though occasionally larger) and select members of the original landfall team take formal control of the colony’s development from the NHP administrator. The new generation begins working to improve the colony and explore their world, expanding the colony footprint and beginning work on new sites.
Concurrently, an additional first generation (“generation 1.5”) is grown from separate reserve genetic material. This population comes of age a year or two at most from the first, providing some genetic variance and further establishing a stable, viable population.
Assuming all variables remain nominal, the colonial settlement is considered at this point to be securely established. Further development occurs organically.