Sol
| Star System | |
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| Sol | |
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Official Name Sol Colloquial Names: Cradle of Humanity Government Type: Federal member of the Commonwealth Population: Incredibly dense in Aerostats and Arcologies Economic Strength: Industrial and Agricultural backbone of Commonwealth Military Strength: N/A Political Importance: Member of the "Big Five" |
The birthplace of humanity, the world where NanoTrasen and numerous other Trans-Stellar Megacorporations make their headquarters, where the Sol-Procyon Commonwealth is legislated from. As one of the founders of the Commonwealth, with the immense wealth and influence that brings, trying to become a permanent resident of Sol is a highly privileged opportunity if not already born to a local.
It is a thoroughly exploited system - asteroid bases, deprecated space stations litter the belts as consequences of Humanity’s history before they discovered phoron. Although part of the Big Five - seen as one of the first places to most likely reach post-scarcity within the near future - these habitats out in the rings and the lower levels of Earth’s Arcologies still remind of the inequalities that dominate the Commonwealth Culture.
Beyond its undeniable cultural significance, Earth and Venus make Sol a veritable powerhouse - producing immense amounts of biomatter to feed the growing sprawl of humanity, while Mars and the jovian planets create materials ranging from the relatively mundane to the exceedingly exotic.
The Inner System
The inner system is so called by the fact it is separated by the asteroid belt in the relative middle of the system and it is the place where most of Sol's people reside - primarily on Venus, Mars and Earth itself. Furthermore, it is, through the asteroid belt and kill-sat network, incredibly fortified and the last stand of the Commonwealth - only a sustained siege or outright overwhelming assault could ever hop to breach into the inner system unbidden.
Sol 1 - Mercury
Mercury itself isn't as important as the facilities upon it, dug deep into its crust. For one, the planet is constantly baked in horrific radiation of the sun, while the day-night variation is randing from extremely frigid cold to burning hot. No, no permanent human habitation exists on Mercury. What does exist, however, are facilities to fashion, repair and direct drones.
Millions of them. Billions of them. Their design is relatively simple, a solar panel, a battery, some ion thrusters and an AI just clever enough to avoid collissions with obstacles and other drones, all programmed to flit and expose the solar panel to the sun, filling the battery and unloading this charge into a SMES barge nearby. This makes Mercury the home of the Dyson Swam of Sol, unique to the solar system for now.
Sol 2 - Venus
While theoretically possible to geoengineer Venus, when it was first colonized, people did not consider plans that take decades to come into fruition - a hungry Humanity was deadset to litter the stars right here and now - and thus, the Venus today is geologically speaking the Venus of yesterday still.
However, that does not mean it is not strewn with human development and habitation. Massive aerostats and near-orbital habitats litter the upper atmosphere of this formerly desolate world, now filtered and churned for the near limitless supplies of atmospheric nitrogen, sulphuric acid and other trace elements its hothouse composition can provide. From this fertilizers and more are produced en masse and fed into the spires and domes of agricultural development. Venus, ironically enough for its geological hostility, has become the breadbasket of the core systems, providing massive amounts of food and raw material to print meat and other animal products on demand.
Thus, the planet has become a rather technocratic and high quality of life sort of planet - engineers, agriculturalists and genetic technicians live together with shipping magnates and foodstuff conglomerates in one of the most vibrant communities in the inner system, with dense population centers and almost rural seeming outskirts of agricomplex aerostats.
Sol 3 - Earth
If you look in the right places, one can get a glimpse of an Earth that was. Decaying urban sprawls with cracked asphalt roads, who long do not serve for humans anymore. Nature has reclaimed these places and they serve only as reminder of a more bitter past - an in the days of today, a tourish attraction.
No, this kind of Earth is no more.
Today, people live in arcologies, of ultra-dense, self-sufficient spires that scrape the very heavens humans once aspired to and thought just out of reach. And with this shift from concentrating Humanity into these glittering towers of yet to be matched artifice of other colonies, came the abandomnet of the previously so common urban and sub-urban sprawls. Some of these still remain, as aforementioned, but many were simply recycled and scrapped. Heavy industries followed quickly after, to the asteroid belt and the kuiper belt, Mars or in orbital facilities. Combined with ongoing engineering projects to stabilize the decaying biosphere of Earth, it led to an ecological renaissance, leaving Earth's surface blooming with verdancy once more.
As part and parcel of these policies, land ownership is tightly regulated - population density outside arcologies is quite low, mostly concentrated on agricultural and forestry industries to produce extremely sought after exports of heritage and cultural exports. A genuine Brie from France is a luxury product anywhere outside the core systems.
Nation-states as a concept are regarded as quaint and obsolete, since arcologies have consolidated the population of entire countries inside of them, leaving to a sense of 'belonging' to particular arcologies supplanting nationalism - although it probably helps most arcologies and arcology unions still follow old continental and sub-continental demarcations. For example, the United Arcologies still compete with the Council of European Megaplexes in cultural, economic and scientific matters.
Earth as a whole is represented by appointed councillors in the Commonwealth's government apparatus and in the Solar government as large, although not in absolute majority - Mars has long eclipsed Mars in total population.
An so, Earth is the cultural and historical heart of Humanity. A place of luxury for corporate elites and intellectuals, of immumerable urban masses of office workers and technicians, of ignored and unsung masses of synthetics, AIs and low-income workers who underpin the maintenance for clean air and logistics running... No other polity truly embodies as stark as Earth the divide within the Commonwealth - of class, of income, of cultural aphelion and calcification of society.
Sol 4 - Mars
Once a promised paradise, a second Earth - much like Venus, Martian terraforming fizzled out. This time - not due to its impossibility, but the consequences of greed and oppression. Twice did Mars revolt, and twice did its brains and brawn dwindle and fade. Twice were its dreams of paradise crushed, and recovery has never come.
Halbach satellites still ensure Mars is livable - granting Him a magnetosphere to shield from the fury of Sol, and within particularly industrious craters - illusions of the world that could have been echo from the past. Magnificent biodomes span from cliff to cliff over Hellas, Isidis and more. Below the rusted surface, busy hands toil at industry.
Although driven out, although Mars is now likewise a lynchpin of the Commonwealth - traces of the Ares Confederation still remain. A pride in labour. A pride in innovation, in challenging the impossible - a willingness to dream big and to keep at it across generations! Some of Humanity’s best universities thus make themselves home upon the Martian surface, offering more than competitive education for those who can make their cut.
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