Human colonies

Under the administration of the Unified Earth Government, humanity has surveyed and colonized a vast number of worlds across the Orion Arm of the Milky Way galaxy over 200 years of superluminal travel via slipstream space, following nearly three centuries of expansion across the Sol system. The planets under the jurisdiction of the UEG, together with humanity's homeworld, are collectively referred to as "Earth and Her Colonies". As of 2490, a total of 800 colonies had been established, many of them firmly under the influence of the UEG with some seeking to secede from humanity's empire. The worlds are generally divided among the stable Inner Colonies and the more numerous and restless Outer Colonies, and are highly diverse in terms of culture; some worlds have their foundations in the cultural heritage of a single Earth nation, while others have more varied population bases.

At its peak, human-controlled space encompassed hundreds of star systems and planets, moons and planetoids settled by colonists, some terraformed to greater degrees than others depending on the local conditions and presence of indigenous life. The colonies ranged from heavily-populated and economically, politically and strategically significant worlds to struggling pioneer outposts which could barely sustain 10,000 colonists. The Inner Colonies encompassed a region of space in at least a 10.5 light-year three-dimensional radius from Earth. Beyond that were the Outer Colonies. Other colonies were established even further - Coral, at 42 light-years; and Madrigal, which lay in the 23 Librae system, 83.7 light-years from Earth. Harvest was considered the furthest Outer Colony in 2525, at six weeks of Slipspace travel away from Madrigal and two months from Reach.

While the Unified Earth Government is technically a confederation of equal, independently-governed worlds, this is not true in practice; the interests of Earth and the Inner Colonies weigh far more heavily in the government's decision-making than those of the Outer Colonies. This has led to tensions and even civil war between the UNSC and the outer settlements, which many of the Inner Colonies relied on for their foodstuffs and resources.

History

Prehistory

Main article: Prehistoric human civilization

Over 110,000 years ago, humanity was an advanced, spacefaring race, and had colonized thousands of worlds across the Orion Arm of the galaxy. However, after being exhausted by the parasitic Flood and eventually suffering a disastrous defeat against the Forerunners in the human-Forerunner wars, the Forerunners forcibly regressed humanity to a Tier 7 species and all traces of this advanced civilization were erased.

Interplanetary age

Main article: Early history of the UNSC

The concept of space colonization was born out of the need to expand human habitation outside of Earth to prevent overpopulation, to alleviate the consumption of Earth's resources by conducting planetary mining on other worlds, and to better understand the universe as human civilization expanded. Various approaches were suggested to achieve this, such as colonization efforts of the Moon and Mars, building facilities on orbiting asteroids and creating artificial platforms.

The first recorded success of human colonization in the modern age was made in the later half of the 21st century, more specifically in 2080. The Moon and Mars saw humanity's first expansion, followed by a number of asteroids and the natural satellites orbiting Jupiter. The rapid pace of interplanetary colonization was driven by commercial interests more than the efforts on the part of national governments: Earth bio- and nanotechnology corporations sought to conduct scientific research unhindered by Earth's international law as well as its gravity. Mars, in particular, quickly became an important hub of leading-edge science and industry, and would continue to be so for hundreds of years, particularly in the area of spaceship manufacturing. Advancements in terraforming technologies transformed many of the formerly inhospitable planets and moons of the Solar System into worlds capable of sustaining life.

Despite these successes, the efforts did not solve Earth's overpopulation issue. It eventually led to political unrest, contributing to the formation of political movements promising independence from the national governments on Earth and the perceived oppression by the United Nations. Operating across the colonized worlds and orbital platforms of the Sol system, the Frieden movement and the Koslovics were the most prominent of these rebel factions. Beginning with a Frieden attack on the United Nations Colonial Advisors in the Jovian Moons and the subsequent UN response, battles were fought over the colony worlds—as well as Earth itself—from 2160 to 2170, culminating in a UN victory in the Interplanetary War. The outcome of the space wars led to the establishment of the Unified Earth Government as a centralized governing body tasked to ensure Earth's influence over the colony worlds and a powerful, united military force known as the United Nations Space Command.

Expansion beyond Sol system

Dr. Wallace Fujikawa (left), and Dr. Tobias Fleming Shaw (right) are co-creators of the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine.

The technological innovation of the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine in 2291 sprung the human civilization into the space-faring age, allowing them to travel beyond Sol system. Half a century later, the UEG constructed its first line of colony ships - led by Odyssey - to initiate the expansion of human habitation, relieving the growing pressure of overpopulation on Earth and the off-world colonies across the Sol system. To manage governance in the extrasolar colonies as well as to ensure their security from pirates and other threats, the UEG established the Colonial Administration Authority and the Colonial Military Administration in 2310. Two centuries later, both bodies would be marginalized—the latter due to widespread insurgent sympathies in its ranks—and eventually absorbed into the UNSC's emergency military government in 2525.

Golden Age

A near-accurate star map of several human-colonized systems.

Main articles: Inner Colonies, Outer Colonies

As faster-than-light travel was still new and highly expensive, potential colonists were subjected to rigorous physical and mental testing to determine their suitability for the extrasolar colonization programs. As such, the colonists who formed the basis for the 210 first-wave colonies settled before 2390 formed humanity's elite; these worlds would later be known as the Inner Colonies. Earth and the Inner Colonies soon became the political and economic basis of the UNSC as humanity began expanding to the Outer Colonies. For humanity at large, this was a time of unparalleled prosperity and optimism which has later come to be referred to as the "Golden Age" of human colonization, a period which would eventually come to a violent end in the later years of the 25th century.

By the time the settlement of the Outer Colonies began, many of the initial difficulties of interstellar travel had been alleviated; by extension, the selection criteria for the colonists became far more lax, resulting in the populace of the Outer Colonies being far more varied than that of the prestigious Inner Colonies.

Colonial expansion continued and by 2490, UEG colonial space encompassed over 800 worlds in the Orion Arm. The success of colonization of the Outer Colonies made the Inner Colonies the primary stronghold, both military and economic, though they relied heavily on raw materials supplied by the Outer Colonies. During this period, the planet Reach (orbiting Epsilon Eridani, right on Earth's metaphorical doorstep) became the UNSC's primary naval yard and training academy. Reach was a major producer of warships and colony vessels, as well as a training ground for covert operatives and Special Forces.

Insurrection

Main article: Insurrection

The Inner Colonies' reliance on the Outer Colonies prompted the Unified Earth Government to maintain its hold over the Outer Colonies, but it inevitably began to lose its ability to do so as the Outer Colonies eventually surrounded the core worlds and far surpassed them in number. The overbearing influence of the Earth government, enforced by the UNSC and, initially, the Colonial Military Administration, led to a growing secessionist sentiment among Outer Colony citizens. The more radical elements of this movement took up arms against the UNSC, sparking a series of brushfire wars—collectively known as the Insurrection—in the late 2490's.

The Covenant War

Main article: Human-Covenant War

On April 20, 2525, contact with the Outer Colony, Harvest, was lost. After failing to re-establish contact with Harvest, the Colonial Military Administration sent a scout ship, the Argo, to investigate. Contact with the Argo was subsequently lost after the ship arrived in the Harvest system, plunging humanity into a deadly war with an alien hegemony known as the Covenant. Harvest was bombarded from orbit in a process which would come to be known as glassing, marking the beginning of a 28-year war with the Covenant. During the war, hundreds of human colonies were destroyed and billions of human civilians and military personnel were killed by the Covenant.

Post-war

Following the conclusion of the war, an extensive reconstruction process began in order to rebuild humanity's shattered colonial empire. By 2589, glassed colonies like Reach had been re-terraformed to some degree and open for re-settlement. However, the absence of the Covenant threat also marked a resurgence in rebel activity, with worlds including Venezia rejecting Earth's offers of cooperation, accusing the UNSC of abandoning them during the war. The UEG and Sangheili both administrated Joint Occupation Zones where the Shadow of Intent participated in combined anti-piracy operations with UNSC forces between May 6th and June 1st. In early 2558, the region experienced in upsurge in Jiralhanae raids due to the Jiralhanae's dwindling resources.

List of known colonies

Inner Colonies Epsilon Eridani system Reach - Glassed in 2552, reterraforming underway by 2589 Circumstance - Unknown status, likely glassed Tribute - Attacked in 2552, partially glassed, under UEG control by 2558 Beta Gabriel - Unknown status, likely glassed Tantalus - Unknown status, likely glassed Sol system Earth - Under UEG control Luna - Under UEG control Mars - Under UEG control Jovian Moons - Under UEG control Callisto Ganymede Europa Io Pluto - Under UEG control Ectanus 45 system Chi Rho - Unknown status Actium - Glassed in May 2545 Minister - Still held New Carthage - Under UEG control Skopje - Glassed in 2547 Outer Colonies 23 Librae system Madrigal - Glassed in 2528 26 Draconis system Levosia - Unknown status Charybdis system Charybdis IX - Glassed Chi Ceti system Chi Ceti IV - Attacked by the Covenant in 2525; still held by UEG/UNSC Cygnus system Cygnus - Under UEG control New Jerusalem - Glassed in 2552 Eridanus system Eridanus II - Glassed in 2530, resettled by 2557 Epsilon Indi system Harvest - Glassed in 2525, recaptured by UNSC in 2531 Escala system Escala III - Under UEG control Groombridge 1830 system Groombridge-1830 - Unsuccessfully attacked by the Covenant Groombridge 34 system Station Delphi - Unknown status Lambda Aurigae system Roost - Unknown status Procyon system Arcadia - Glassed in 2549 Dwarka - Glassed Green Hills - Glassed in 2525 Hat Yai - Glassed in 2528 or 2529 Sansar - Glassed Second Base - Glassed in 2525 Sedra - Still held Talitsa - Insurrectionist-controlled as of 2558

Other/unspecified 111 Tauri system Victoria - Unknown status Beta Hydri system Beta Hydri VI - Unknown status Brunel system New Llanelli - Glassed in 2546 CE-2-1239 Coral - Attacked in 2552, most likely glassed Circinius system Circinius IV - Glassed in 2526 Draetheus system Draetheus V - Destroyed in 2554 Erebus system Erebus VII - Unknown status Hellespont system Troy - Glassed in 2537 Harmony - Glassed in 2537 Hydra system - Unknown status Lambda Serpentis system Jericho VII - Glassed in 2535 Leonis Minoris system - Three colonies, two glassed in 2537 Luyten 726-8 system Luyten Paris system Paris IV - Glassed Qab system Venezia - Insurrectionist-controlled as of 2553 Sigma Octanus system Sigma Octanus IV - Unsuccessfully attacked by the Covenant in 2552 Zeta Doradus system Onyx - Disintegrated, slipspace-based core still intact Algolis - Attacked, unknown status Alluvion - Glassed between 2542 and 2543 Andesia - Unknown status Ariel - Unknown status Asmara - Glassed sometime between 2525 and 2529 Asphodel - Unknown status Atlas Moons - Still held Ballast - Unsuccessfully attacked by the Covenant Biko - Glassed in 2525 Bliss - Glassed in 2526 Boundary - Unknown status Cascade - Still held Concord - Still held Cote d'Azure - Glassed Criterion - Attacked, unknown status Crystal - Unknown status Cyrus VII - Unknown status Draco III - Glassed Emerald Cove - Abandoned in 2542 Eirene - Glassed Endymion - Glassed Far Isle - Unknown status Forseti - Still held Fumirole - Attacked, unknown status Gilgamesh - Unknown status Hellas - Unknown status Herschel - Unknown status Imber - Attacked, unknown status Juneou - Unknown status Kholo - Glassed Lenapi - Still held Lodestone - Unknown status Lostwithiel - Glassed Mamore - Still held Meridian - Glassed Miridem - Attacked, most likely glassed New Constantinople - Unknown status New Harmony - Unsuccessfully attacked by the Covenant Oasis VI - Unknown status Oban - Still held Paradise Falls - Unknown status Partition - Still held Reynes - Glassed Ruthersburg - Unknown status Sargasso - Attacked, unknown status Terceira - Still held Terra Nova - Unknown status Verent - Unknown status Verge - Attacked, strip-mined by the Covenant for helium-3

External link

• Space colonization on Wikipedia