Known Space

As time has passed, a number of colonies and local governments have emerged on the planets in the known space around Sol. Some are managed by a state, while others are independent - without mentioning an astronomical amount of private, small, and criminal places, be they stations, colonies or starbases tucked into asteroid belts.

Known Space, sometimes also referred to as "Greater Sol" by globalists or "the colonies" by capitalists, encompasses a number of star systems that are generally considered to be under the jurisdiction of human governments or corporations.

Epsilon Eridani, home of the Kosidian Cosmocracy, is the outlier, an awkward neighbor that neither the humans nor the Kosidians, due to a number of circumstances, never noticed until their respective space colonization periods.

Major Colonies

Barnard's Star

Also named Terra Secunda, Barnard's Star B is the only planet in the system that is habitable, and the rest of the system has mostly been left for mining, sporadic expeditions and constant hopeful scans by explorers and settlers. Barnard's Star B was speculated to be a "super-earth" by scientists in the 21st century, and space rush-era unmanned expeditions discovered a planet on the verge of evolution into a habitable one. Via the usage of nuclear explosions, enormous icy areas were thawed out, triggering the vital greenhouse effect. Just recently, the first organic plant forms were found, confirming that the planet would eventually turn into a fully habitable one. Terra Secunda is occupied by a number of major population centers:

Sojourner-2, an old deep space exploration vessel converted into a station in orbit of Terra Secunda,
Tachyon Rider, an independent station with a wide elliptical orbit around the planet, the first contact point between the Skrell territories and Sol,
Rotstadt-auf-Barnard, a German colony and the homebase for the Federation in the system,
Tee-Wall, a spontaneous colony formed by engineers and scientists aboard the first terraforming machine, named Terraforming Walker 1, from which the colony takes its name,
Éire sa Spás, literally Ireland in Space, a colony formed by Irish explorers as a joke, which now features the largest spaceport on the planet,
Free Barnard Colony, an independent base created by a group of varied nationals. Together with FBC, a few colonies have began to declare independence and work alone, as the planet becomes more welcoming to agriculture.

Proxima Centauri

Much like the previous, Proxima Centauri B is the only habitable planet, usually just named Proxima. Given the star's unstable nature, habitats on Proxima are mostly underground (save for the occasional lunatic), though the caves and water present on the planet have given Proxima the image of an "underwater oasis" planet. Indeed, some luxury colonies have been built, though the planet mostly remains a mining post. The largest colony on Proxima is Hephaestus' mining station Demeter's Vengeance, named after the mother of Persephone. CEO William Steele named it as such since one of the local pathfinders stated "this planet is a hellhole." With a population of roughly a million residents, Demeter's Vengeance features a space elevator for loading and unloading of cargo and passengers, called the Lance given its shape and the aesthetic of the station.

Tau Ceti

Tau Ceti is the prime expansionist push into the north of known space, and with the abundance of planets, has garnered a great interest from governments and companies. So far, only a few colonies have been formed, mostly basic habitats or unmanned mining posts. What Tau Ceti lacks in planetary population, it makes up for in orbit. Every planet features at least three major stations, and Tau Ceti F is currently the target of the largest engineering project in history, the Tau Ceti Planetary Transformation Initiative: thousands of stations orbit the planet, directing sunlight towards it, firing drills to free underground ice deposits, focusing laser energy towards the ice caps. The project is managed by American and Coalition officials and the support of Elyra and Hephaestus.

Gliese 876

Gliese 876 is largely uninhabited, if not for the colony ship Alportanto de Lumo, a Coalition ship currently landed on Gliese 876 C, named Dua Hejmo, Second Home. An attempt to establish a Coalition colony and to fight the overpopulation crisis, Alportanto de Lumo landed on the planet, and established a makeshift colony. A particularly fierce storm just a year into the settlement toppled the ship on its side, causing the death of a quarter of the colonists and prompting a response from the United Nations for the first time in history. Since the intervention of the UNS Gofannon and the UNS Svarog, Dua Hejmo has survived and has since become the secondary capital of the Coalition government, housing upwards of 4 million residents.

Minor Colonies

Most systems, such as Sirius, Alpha Centauri and Eta Cassiopeia simply do not have habitable planets, if any planets at all. As such, most civilization centers take the form of orbital habitats and deep space colonies manned by scientist and explorers. Despite this, these systems still have life in them: as cargo shipping routes and passenger routes form between major systems, especially at the entry and exit points - where FTL travel is cheapest - small clusters of stations form, reminiscent of remote towns and filled with fuel stations, restaurants, motels and accommodations. Every system in known space is inhabited, even if only by a few hundred residents.

Life finds a way even in the depth of cold space.

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