SOL SYSTEM
DESCRIPTION:
Often called “The Original Solar System” and "Humanity's Cradle" by other alien races, Sol is the home system of the Earth Empire. Consisting of eight planets and numerous dwarf planets, the Sol System is the most heavily populated and heavily defended system in the Earth Empire territory.
Earth, headquarters of the Earth Empire, as seen from its moon, Luna.
MERCURY
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Class: Terrestrial
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Moons: None
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One Day: ~ 176 Earth Days
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One Year: ~ 88 Earth Days
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Diameter: 4,879 km
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Colonization Date: April 27, 2527
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Population: 87,500
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Capital: Caloris Basin City
Mercury is the first planet from Sol, and is the smallest planet in the Sol System.
Mercury was first colonized in 2527 by LunarCell Corporation; after numerous successful breakthroughs in solar power technology, LunarCell would go on to revolutionize the solar power industry on extraterrestrial planets, following in the footsteps of its progenitor company Tesla Corporation many centuries prior.
LunarCell's primary ideas regarding colonization of Mercury involved creating hundreds of solar farms all across its surface; as the planet closest to the sun, it seemed the most logical option at the time. The first terrestrial base on Mercury was built inside the Caloris Basin, one of the largest craters in the Sol System; thousands of solar panels on the outside of the Basin would power the base successfully for over an Earth decade before LunarCell expanded its operations across the planet. Over the decades, the planetary bases would number in the hundreds, and eventually the thousands; the planet soon became a powerhouse of energy in its own right – so much so that it would create over 300% of the energy it needed from all the solar farming. This provided LunarCell with an opportunity: by farming so much excess energy, LunarCell transformed Mercury into the largest manufacturing plant of solar batteries in the entire Earth Empire. In fact, even today, more than 60% of the entire Empire's solar batteries are still produced on Mercury, and are sold to both Empiret Military and civilian personnel alike.
VENUS
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Class: Terrestrial
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Moons: None
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One Day: ~ 117 Earth Days
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One Year: ~ 225 Earth Days
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Diameter: 12,104 km
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Colonization Date: January 6, 2302
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Population: ~ 10 billion
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Capital: Skadi Mons City
Venus, often dubbed “the twin of Earth,” is the second planet in the Sol System; however, it did not always have the charm and beauty of her sister.
Venus was initially colonized in 2402; however, preliminary attempts at terraforming the planet's surface initially resulted in disaster, primarily because of its hostile environment. Venus, before planet seeding measures were enacted, had an atmosphere of acidic vapor mixed with extremely lethal amounts of carbon dioxide.
In the infancy of Venusian colonization, the planet was used as a criminal punishment center for former terrorists of World War 3 – and later, the Interplanetary Wars. The former terrorists were forced to endure barbaric conditions while mining the planet of raw materials. However, so great were the number of inmates arriving that the Coalition of United Powers – the governing body of Earth at the time, and one of the progenitor powers to the Earth Empire – decreed that a network of generation ships be built in orbit of the planet to house the inmates in cryo-stasis; when some of the inmates would eventually die off, the civilian ships would then offload new criminals to the planet until the populations of all ships were run dry and all such criminals served their life sentences.
In the year 2701, as the Earth Empire was hitting its stride in intergalactic politics, these prison ships were outfitted with Apex Drives, and were re-purposed and destined for other prison facilities in neighboring solar systems. One such vessel, the Morning Star, was destined to stay in Venusian orbit due to a last minute decision by the prison systems based there. However, an apparent malfunction in the ship's computers caused the ship to engage its Apex Drive at its top speed and sent it far into the outer reaches of colonized space; the Earth Empire was unable to track the ship as it fled. This incident would later come back to haunt the fledgling Earth Empire some almost two thousand years later, as the descendants of the people from the Morning Star would eventually return to colonized space, seeking revenge as the Morningstar Pirates.
In the aftermath of this incident, Venus was colonized and terraformed to more closely resemble Earth, complete with grasslands and oceans, and most of its prison facilities were subsequently dismantled. It is now close to becoming the third most populous stellar body in the Sol System.
EARTH
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Class: Terrestrial
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Moons: 1
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One Day: 24 Hours
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One Year: 365.25 Earth Days
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Diameter: 12,742 km
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Colonization Date: Not Available
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Population: ~ 13.5 billion
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Capital: London
Earth, the third planet from Sol, is the home planet and headquarters of the eponymous Earth Empire; its importance to humankind and to the Empire as a whole cannot be overstated.
Earth has suffered much during its tenure with humankind; however, for all its failures, humankind has seen much success, especially in the past couple thousand years. After the breakout of World War 3 in the 2170's, humanity's world leaders decided to enact the Coalition of United Powers, a successor state to the United Nations. Not long after this, the full colonization of the terrestrial planets Mars, Venus, and Mercury proceeded under its care. The Coalition would begin building massive shipyards on all four terrestrial planets, and space travel for both military and civilian use would soon become commonplace between all four inner planets.
However, during the colonization of Jupiter and Saturn, the colonists felt that their needs were not being met quickly enough to house the growing populations there; as the CUP tried to meet their demands, a terrorist group called the Jupiter's Wrath, led by charismatic scientist and tactician Xel Iridanius, suddenly – and violently – took over the colonies of Jupiter and Saturn, including their starfleets, and declared open war on the Coalition of United Powers. This culminated into the Interplanetary War, in which the four inner planets fought against two gas giants and their moons.
The Interplanetary War lasted 20 years and caused substantial damage to both the Jupiter's Wrath and the Coalition of United Powers. In April 2632, the Interplanetary Wars were declared over, and the remaining terrorists, including Xel, surrendered willingly. The Coalition would eventually reform itself into the Earth Empire about 68 years later in November of 2700, having made first contact with the Vas Numan species of Alpha Centauri shortly beforehand.
Since making first contact, the Empire – and by extension, the Earth itself – has expanded into a massive, interracial and interplanetary community. The Vas Numan would help the people of Earth eliminate poverty, disease, war, and overpopulation, and the humans would help the Vas Numan with renewable, clean energy sources and the co-creation and evolution of the Apex Drive.
Earth continues to be a sprawling metropolis, housing a population of almost 14 billion humans, aliens, and inter-bred hybrid species alike.
MARS
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Class: Terrestrial
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Moons: 2
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One Day: 24 Hours 40 Minutes
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One Year: ~ 687 Earth Days
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Diameter: 6,779 km
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Colonization Date: Unknown, between 2000-2100
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Population: ~ 8 billion
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Capital: Space City One
Mars is the fourth planet from Sol, and was the first planet colonized by humans beyond Earth. It is unclear when the exact date of colonization began, but historic estimates place the date between 2000 and 2100 CE.
Even long prior to its colonization, Mars was referred to as “The Red Planet” because its surface was covered by fine red micro-dust. It is widely accepted that Mars was once a world that could sustain life millions of years ago, even before humans had set foot on her surface; this theory was further supported in 2015 CE, when flowing water was detected in one of the martian craters by NASA's Curiosity rover.
The first city ever implemented on Mars was named Space City One. Initial colonization efforts were made difficult due to the planet's micro-dust; however, thanks to the advent of modern terraformin technologies, people can now breathe on Mars as efficiently as they can on Earth. Measures are being researched to develop the planet to further resemble Earth's environment, but it is unknown when they will be implemented, as predictions indicate that the planet's entire ecosystem would need to be restructured in this process.
Today, Mars is currently used as the largest shipyard in the Earth Empire; it also serves as the headquarters of Kinemar Spaceflight, one of the leading manufacturers of starships in the galaxy.
JUPITER
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Class: Jovian
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Moons: 69
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One Day: ~10 Earth Hours
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One Year: ~ 12 Earth Years
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Diameter: 139,822 km
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Colonization Date: April 24, 2506
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Population: ~ 25 billion (Moons)
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Capital: Galileo, Ganymede
Jupiter is the largest planet in the Sol System and the fifth from Sol itself; it is a gas planet that holds 69 moons within its gravitational field. Jupiter's most defining feature is its Great Red Spot; it is a giant storm that has been raging on the planet's surface for over 2,700 years.
As the planet's surface is made of hydrogen and helium, the planet itself is not colonized; rather, its network of moons are. Jupiter itself is mined for hydrogen and helium used to power starship reactors.
Jupiter's moons were colonized as scientific research bases for weapons testing and experimental FTL travel prototypes in 2506, shortly before LunarCell began its work on Mercury. The first moon colonized was Ganymede, soon followed by Europa in 2507, then Callisto in 2512, and eventually Io in 2515. However, the planet's colonization – and by extension, Saturn's colonization as well – was not initially an easy task.
For the first almost 100 years, the outer planets were nowhere near as well supplied as the rest of the Sol System, as the development of Mercury had soon taken precedence shortly after the colonization of the four Galilean Moons. Eventually the colonists on the Jovian planets became so desperate for supplies that in 2592, a Ganymedian scientist, Xel Iridanius, took an unofficial lead over the Jovian Colonies, and tried to keep them bound together. However, by 2612 CE, the colonies had become so dissatisfied in their desperate need for supplies that they ended up staging a hostile takeover, effectively severing ties with the Coalition of United Powers, and founding the terrorist group named Jupiter's Wrath. This sparked the Interplanetary War, which lasted until 2362 and ended at the Battle of Ganymede.
Shortly after the reunification of the inner and outer planets, the Coalition of United Powers reformed itself into the Earth Empire and made first contact with the Vas Numan species before colonizing the rest of the Sol System. Jupiter would later supply the new Empire with hydrogen and helium for starship fuel, weapons research and development, and an innumerable amount of technological advancements relating to dwarf planet colonization. Jupiter continues to produce weapons research and starship fuel for civilian use, and houses the headquarters of Empiret Research and Development; the moon of Europa houses a shipyard that has existed during its colonization, and, while it was once used to supply the Jupiter's Wrath with its starfleet, it now supplies the Earth Empire and various civilian groups with ships ranging from fighters to destroyer-class ships.
SATURN
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Class: Jovian
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Moons: 62
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One Day: ~11 Earth Hours
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One Year: ~ 30 Earth Years
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Diameter: 116,464 km
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Colonization Date: August 16, 2531
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Population: ~ 23 billion (Moons)
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Capital: Icarus, Titan
Saturn is the second largest planet in the Sol System, and the sixth from the sun. Its primary defining feature is its massive, beautiful ring system, consisting of an innumerable amount of shepherd moons.
Saturn, like its neighboring Jupiter, is a gas planet comprised of hydrogen and helium. Like Jupiter, it was colonized in the 2500's, and, like Jupiter, its moons were used as a base for the organization known as Jupiter's Wrath.
However, while Jupiter was primarily focused on weapons research during the Interplanetary War, Saturn and its moons were used primarily as a front for both shipbuilding and research involving medicine and hydroponics in interstellar space. The moons Titan and Rhea became especially famous for providing food and medical supplies to the Jupiter's Wrath, and later, the Earth Empire – so much so that the two moons are now considered the medical capitals of the Earth Empire. On the other hand, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Enceladus served as shipbuilding bases for the Jupiter's Wrath, providing them with ships as large as those of the dreadnaught-class; these shipyards survived the Interplanetary War into the 43rd Century, and are now used to support the Earth Empire.
Due to the planet's famous ring system, the locals of Saturn are sometimes lovingly referred to as "Ringheads."
URANUS
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Class: Jovian
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Moons: 27
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One Day: ~17 Earth Hours
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One Year: ~ 84.3 Earth Years
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Diameter: 50,724 km
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Colonization Date: October 3, 2710
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Population: ~ 4.8 billion (Moons)
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Capital: Nokomura, Titania
Uranus is the 7th planet from Sol. It is considered an “ice giant,” in that it contains more elements of water, ammonia, and methane than Jupiter and Saturn.
Compared to the rest of the Sol System, Uranus is sparsely populated; however, since its colonization, Uranus has supplied the Earth Empire with vast amounts of water thanks to a network of recycling space stations orbiting the planet. The Uranian Recycling System is now known to create water for an innumerable amount of planets in the entire Empire – in fact, so much excess water is manufactured on Uranus and its moons that the Uranian Recycling System has been known to frequently assist other solar systems in need.
A common joke among humans – one that was made many centuries even before the planet's colonization – goes, “Uranus is full of water.” However, the massive impact that Uranus has had on humanitarian efforts cannot be overstated. The Uranian Recycling System is headquartered on the moon of Miranda, while the capital moon of Titania balances civilian population centers, shipbuilding, and industrial manufacturing facilities.
Uranus also houses recreational retreats on the moon of Oberon, complete with educational shows where sea creatures are kept in aquariums and sometimes taught to do tricks for entertainment purposes; it should be noted that these shows are also watched with the utmost scrutiny by animal rights activists, and anyone found torturing sea creatures involved in these events is often immediately sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole.
NEPTUNE
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Class: Jovian
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Moons: 13
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One Day: ~16 Earth Hours
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One Year: ~ 165 Earth Years
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Diameter: 49,244 km
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Colonization Date: October 3, 2781
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Population: ~ 1.4 billion (Moons)
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Capital: Lassell, Triton
Neptune is the 8th and outermost planet in the Sol System. Like Uranus, Neptune is classified as an ice giant, and also has a huge recycling system in its orbit. While the Neptunian Recycling System is not as sophisticated as the URS, Neptune still provides a supply of water that has proven to be more than adequate for both military and commercial use.
In the early days of colonization on Neptune, a meteor unexpectedly slammed into its moon Naiad, causing it, in turn, to slam into Despina; both of these moons were completely destroyed, their debris falling into a ring system around the ice giant, and wiping out over 2500 colonists. This initial disaster has made many newcomers very wary of living and working on Neptune; however, no such radical astronomical events have occurred since this.