Human colonies



Under the administration of the Unified Earth Government, humanity has surveyed and colonized several hundred worlds across a portion of 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". Human space is divided into three regions: the Sol system itself, the Inner Colonies, and the Outer Colonies.

Prehistory
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
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
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. In 2362 CE, 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 Authority 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.

Domus Diaspora
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 colonies in the Orion Arm, including planets, moons, asteroids, mining facilities, and relay stations. 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
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 Authority, 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 2490s.



The 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 Authority sent a scout ship, the, 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. The conflict would see the near-annihilation of the Outer Colonies by the mid-2530s, with the Covenant flooding into the Inner Colonies until they destroyed humanity's military stronghold of Reach in 2552. At that point, humanity only had a few dozen colonies remaining in total. The Inner Colonies narrowly avoided annihilation before the UNSC finally achieved victory against the Covenant in the same year, but communication and unity among Earth's surviving colonies had been utterly compromised amidst the galaxy-wide devastation.



Post-war
Following the conclusion of the war, an extensive reconstruction process began in order to rebuild humanity's shattered colonial empire. With hundreds of worlds having been razed by the Covenant, numerous advanced pioneer groups were comissioned by the UEG to begin surveying and charting new potential habitable worlds, such as Eudemon. In addition to new worlds, colonists began returning to previously-glassed worlds to begin the extensive process of "de-glassing"; digging up the glass to prepare the planet for re-terraforming. Several large corporations including Liang-Dortmund and BXR were involved in these efforts, employing large scale mining machinery and thousands of people - by the time the reconstruction process is done, the corporations will own land rights to entire planets. The vitrified soil and other minerals on the surface of glassed worlds also proved to be a valuable source of revenue for these corporations, though questions remained about the ethical status of digging up and selling the glassed remains of entire cities and their occupants.

By 2559, a number of former-colony worlds were involved in such de-glassing elements including Bliss and Meridian. Biko was also at least partially re-settled, and a number of settlers returned to Reach by to begin the process of restoring their homeworld. By 2589, Reach had been re-terraformed to some degree and open for re-settlement.

The absence of the Covenant threat in the post-war era also marked a resurgence in insurrectionist and secessionist 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 6 and June 1. In early 2558, the region experienced in upsurge in Jiralhanae raids due to the Jiralhanae's dwindling resources.

Government and politics
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 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.

Various organizations exist to provide military defense for the colonies. The Colonial Military Authority was created to act as a unified security force for the colonies but was eventually sidelined due to widespread corruption. The CMA's role was taken over by the United Nations Space Command, which many colonists resent due to its perceived draconian influence. Some colonies maintain their own territorial defense forces, including Sedra's Colonial Guard, as well as the Gao Republic's military. Anti-UNSC sentiments are not uncommon among these organizations, some of which—such as the Venezian militia—are openly secessionist. The UNSC also operated its own Colonial Militia program to train colonial citizens to deal with emergencies as well as local rebellion.

Many colonies are named after locations on Earth, while others receive more descriptive or abstract names. Some worlds are only known by their astronomical designation, with the name of the star the world orbits followed by a numeric designation most often rendered in Roman numerals. On some colony worlds such as New Jerusalem, the capital city shares its name with the planet, as it is common for a colony's initial population center to be considered synonymous with the colony itself. The Earth Survey Catalog also exists to document various extrasolar planets, assigning them identification codes.

Scale
As of 2490, human-controlled space encompassed around 800 colonized sites, including planets, moons, asteroids and various other outposts. The colonies ranged from heavily-populated and economically, politically and strategically significant worlds to struggling pioneer outposts which could barely sustain 10,000 colonists. Some worlds were terraformed to greater degrees than others depending on the local conditions and presence of indigenous life. Many of the colonies were 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. After the Human-Covenant War, some worlds became even more heterogeneous with the emigration of former Covenant client species to the human sphere.

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, the most distant known colony, which lay in the 23 Librae system, 83.7 light-years from Earth. Despite its relatively short distance from Earth, at approximately 12 lightyears, Harvest was considered the furthest Outer Colony in 2525, at six weeks of Slipspace travel away from Madrigal and two months from Reach. Despite its relative scale, humanity's empire takes up only a minuscule portion of the Milky Way galaxy itself, all human-colonized systems existing within a bubble of 100 light-years around Sol in contrast to the overall scale of the galaxy which is 100,000 light-years in diameter. However, humans often use the word "galaxy" in colloquial speech when describing humanity's sphere of influence.

The following is a list of all populated star systems in human space with a known stellar location, categorized in relation to how distant they are from Sol in light-years:


 * Sol system: 0
 * Luyten 726-8 system: 8.7
 * Epsilon Eridani system: 10.5
 * Lacaille 9352 system: 10.74
 * Procyon system: 11.46
 * Groombridge 34 system: 11.7
 * Tau Ceti system: 11.9
 * Epsilon Indi system: 12
 * Eridanus system: ~20-30
 * XI Boötis A system: 21.8
 * Beta Hydri system: 24.4
 * Groombridge 1830: 29.7
 * Gamma Pavonis system: 30.1
 * Zeta Doradus system: 38
 * Lambda Serpentis system: 38.3
 * Lambda Aurigae system: 41.2
 * CE-2-1239 system: 42
 * Alpha Aurigae system: 42.2
 * Theta Ursae Majoris system: 45
 * 18 Scorpii system: 45.7
 * 26 Draconis system: 46
 * 111 Tauri: 47
 * Psi Serpentis system: 47.8
 * Alpha Corvi system: 49
 * 51 Pegasi system: 50
 * Kolaqoa system: ~69 (58 light-years from the Epsilon Eridani system)
 * Chi Ceti system: 76.93
 * 23 Librae system: 85
 * Algol system: 92.8
 * Cygnus system: <93 (24 light-years from the Kolaqoa system)
 * Cordoba system: exact value unknown (8.7 light-years from the Shaps system)
 * Shaps system: exact value unknown (8.7 light-years from the Cordoba system)

Pre-Human-Forerunner war

 * Charum Hakkor system
 * Ben Nauk
 * Sothra Hakkor
 * Charum Hakkor
 * Faun Hakkor
 * Wolf-faced planet

Sol colonies

 * Sol system
 * Mercury - Small, barren world with antimatter production and solar research facilities
 * Luna - Atmosphere devoid moon of Earth, settled early on
 * Mars - First colonized world, Earth-like
 * Jovian Moons - Moons of the gas giant Jupiter
 * Callisto - Home to UNSC bases
 * Ganymede - Largest Jovian moon, populated
 * Europa - Terraformed and colonized moon
 * Io - Unstable moon with a large colony
 * Ixion - Under Created control
 * Castellaneta - Space station in orbit of gas giant Saturn
 * Titan - Industrial colony
 * Pluto - Diminutive planetoid, with orbiting space stations
 * Shaw Institute Facility

Inner Colonies

 * 18 Scorpii system
 * Falaknuma - Under UEG control as of 2535
 * Carthage system
 * New Carthage - Home to hostile, unexplored wilds
 * Ectanus 45 system
 * Chi Rho - Separates the Inner and Colonies; formerly Earth-like surface
 * Eiro - Tidally locked moon; equator supports a human colony
 * Epsilon Eridani system
 * Reach - First extrasolar colony, site of infamous Fall of Reach
 * Circumstance - Famed for universities and courts
 * Tribute - Strong industrial colony with large population
 * Beta Gabriel - Watery world with outdoor resorts
 * Tantalus - Status Unknown, likely glassed
 * Erem system
 * Actium - Strong, densely populated world
 * Groombridge 34 system
 * Station Delphi - Seemingly abandoned in 2528
 * Hellespont system
 * Troy - Glassed in 2552
 * Harmony - Glassed in 2552
 * Kennewick system
 * Ballast - Unsuccessfully attacked by the Covenant, under UEG control as of 2552
 * Luyten 726-8 system
 * Luyten - Strong, densely populated world
 * Macedon system
 * Skopje - Highly developed and famed bikepaths that sprawled across island continents
 * Maquis system
 * Gannick 22 - Large population center; once had hostile environment
 * Rampart system
 * Miridem - Strong, densely populated world
 * Salisbury system
 * Imber - Attacked during the Covenant War
 * Sigma Octanus system
 * Sigma Octanus IV - Unsuccessfully attacked by the Covenant in 2552, under UEG control
 * Visper system
 * Oban - Mountainous world
 * Xiuquan system
 * Minister - "Tough" world, with little known about it even among the UNSC

Outer Colonies

 * Alabaster system
 * Concord - At confluence of multiple slipspace routes and habitable band along equator home
 * Alpha Aurigae system
 * Capella - Unsuccessfully attacked by the Covenant in 2526
 * Alpha Corvi system
 * Alpha Corvi II - Earth-like surface with water and islands
 * 23 Librae system
 * Madrigal - Glassed in 2528
 * 26 Draconis system
 * Levosia - Contested between UEG and insurrectionists as of 2494
 * Bhaakto system
 * Alluvion - Moderately tropical environment
 * Cavalier system
 * Terceira - Ocean world
 * CE-2-1239
 * Coral - Attacked in 2552, most likely glassed
 * Charybdis system
 * Charybdis IX - Glassed
 * Chi Ceti system
 * Chi Ceti IV - Reddish world, with small human colony
 * Chosolor system
 * Dwarka - Glassed
 * Circinius system
 * Circinius IV - Glassed in 2526
 * Coramir system
 * Verent - Glassed
 * Cordoba system
 * Gao - Lush jungle planet, with secessionist leanings
 * Cygnus system
 * Cygnus - Under UEG control following the Covenant War
 * New Jerusalem - Glassed in 2552
 * Draco system
 * Draco III - Attacked in 2545, resettled in 2554, under UEG control
 * Desdoron system
 * Desdoron V - Under UEG control as of 2554
 * Elduros system
 * Aleria - Impoverished world with worsening climate change
 * Eridanus system
 * Eridanus II - Mostly rural, climate controlled world
 * Epsilon Indi system
 * Harvest - Former agriculture world; first planet to glassed by the Covenant
 * Escala system
 * Escala III - Under UEG control as of 2558
 * Faelith system
 * Bliss - Glassed in 2526; resettled by 2558
 * Groombridge 1830 system
 * Groombridge-1830 - Unsuccessfully attacked by the Covenant in 2530
 * Handan system
 * Cascade - One of the richest and most urbanized planets following the Covenant War
 * Helice-12 system
 * Sonata - Agriculture world
 * Hestia system
 * Meridian - Habitable, planet-moon of the gas giant Hestia V
 * Holdhorne system
 * Carrow - Single landmass occupies much of the planets surface, resides in a Joint Occupation Zone
 * Husten system
 * Asmara - Glassed in 2529
 * Idgras system
 * Green Hills - Glassed in 2525
 * Igdras system
 * Etalan - Impoverished world with nomadic peoples
 * Itar 1168 system
 * Binterall - Barren, but populated world, disloyal to the UEG
 * Kolaqoa system
 * Biko - Terraformed world
 * Lambda Aurigae system
 * Roost - Under UEG control as of 2501
 * Orrichon system
 * Sedra - Semi-autonomous world that was not attacked by the Covenant
 * Procyon system
 * Arcadia - Popular tourist destination, famed for it's lush jungles and forests
 * Orso system
 * Venezia - Largely unexplored independent world
 * Naryn system
 * Minab - Glassed in 2550
 * Qusdar system
 * Mesra - Mountainous with dense jungles and exotic life
 * Rogaland system
 * Losing Hand - Largely a fishing colony on the border of the Outer Colonies
 * Songkhia system
 * Hat Yai - Glassed in 2528 or 2529
 * Stidian system
 * Second Base - Glassed in 2525
 * Sverdlovsk system
 * Komoya - Moon of gas giant Vitalyevna, known as the junkyard of the Via Casilina Trade Route
 * Talitsa - Moon of gas giant Vitalyevna with strong anti-centralization feelings
 * Sweorice system
 * Sansar - Glassed
 * Thia system
 * Ruthersburg - Glassed, resettled and under UEG control by 2558
 * Tisiphone system
 * Barugi - Ravaged by disease, quarantined by UEG in 2541
 * Nephis - Orbiting gas giant Hephestes, forming a flux tube with it
 * Verdun system
 * Cleyell - Glassed in 2556
 * Zeruiah system
 * Amasa - Glassed in 2526

Other/unspecified

 * 111 Tauri system
 * Victoria - Contact lost in around late 2531, attacked 2532
 * Alcides system
 * Neos Atlantis - World between inner and outer colonies with toxic atmosphere
 * Algol system
 * Algolis - Attacked in 2549, abandoned
 * Alpha Imura system
 * Emerald Cove - Known for sublime beauty; sandy beaches, azure oceans, and an archipelagic environment. Untouched by the Covenant
 * Beta Hydri system
 * Beta Hydri VI - Under UEG control as of 2533
 * Brunel system
 * New Llanelli - Glassed in 2546
 * Cassidy-Cybele system
 * Cassidy III - Under Created control as of 2558
 * Draetheus system
 * Draetheus V - Destroyed in 2554
 * Erebus system
 * Erebus VII - Abandoned in 2557
 * Hydra system - Lawless
 * Laika system
 * Laika III - Emergence site of a Guardian in 2558
 * Lambda Serpentis system
 * Jericho VII - Glassed in 2535
 * Eremus - Moon of Jericho VII
 * Leonis Minoris system - Three colonies, two glassed in 2537
 * Paris system
 * Paris IV - Glassed in 2549
 * Persia system
 * Persia IX - Under UEG control as of 2524
 * Redstow system
 * Redstow VI - Glassed in 2552
 * Tanuab system
 * Tanuab III - Under UEG control as of 2553
 * Ursa system
 * Ursa IV - Emergence site of a Guardian in 2558
 * Zehar system
 * Zehar VI - The site of a UNSC base.
 * Zeta Doradus system
 * Onyx - Disintegrated in 2552
 * Sarcophagus - Replaced Onyx in 2553; under UEG and Swords of Sanghelios control contested by the Servants of the Abiding Truth in 2558.
 * Adelaide - Attacked by Guardian in 2558
 * Andesia - Wealthy, highly populated and almost completely self-sufficient but still in UEG sphere. Untouched by the Covenant
 * Ariel - Attacked in 2552; unknown status
 * Asphodel - Under UEG control as of 2552
 * Atlas Moons - Besieged by the Covenant during the war
 * Barrier - Attacked by the Covenant in 2552, under UEG control as of 2558
 * Bomogin - Unknown status
 * Bounty - Glassed in 2548
 * Boundary - Under UEG control as of c. 2510, attacked by the Covenant in 2539
 * Bhuj - Under UEG control as of 2517
 * Camber - Major manufacturing center for UNSC Navy fleet materials
 * Conrad's Point - Attacked by a Guardian in 2558
 * Cote d'Azure - Glassed
 * Criterion - Attacked by the Covenant in 2552, unknown status
 * Crystal - Unknown status
 * Cyrus VII - Unknown status
 * Eirene - Glassed
 * Endymion - Glassed
 * Erdenet - Under UEG control as of 2558
 * Estuary - Glassed
 * Eudemon - Under UEG control following the Covenant War
 * Far Isle - Razed by nuclear weapons in 2492
 * Forseti - Under UEG control following the Covenant War
 * Fumirole - Glassed by the Covenant in 2552
 * Gilgamesh - Lawless
 * Greydowns - Glassed
 * Harrow - Attacked by the Banished in the Battle of Harrow.
 * Hardscrabble - Under UEG control as of 2545
 * Heavensward - Unknown status
 * Hellas - Glassed in 2541
 * Herschel - Glassed in 2539
 * Iota - Glassed in 2549
 * Jastolo - Under UEG control as of 2553
 * Juneou - Under UEG control as of 2552
 * Kholo - Glassed
 * Kroedis II - Glassed
 * Lagolim - Attacked by the Banished.
 * Lenapi - Under UEG control following the Covenant War
 * Lodestone - Under UEG control as of 2526
 * Lostwithiel - Glassed
 * Mamore - Under UEG control
 * Mesa - Glassed
 * Mindiria - Unknown status
 * New Caracas - Under UEG control as of c. 2554
 * New Constantinople - Glassed by the Covenant in 2537
 * New Harmony - Unsuccessfully attacked by the Covenant in 2537, glassed in 2538
 * Newsaka - Untouched by the Covenant
 * Nouveau Montreal - Under UEG control as of 2553
 * Oasis VI - Attacked in 2552
 * Palghanar - Attacked by Banished before late 2559
 * Paradise Falls - Under UEG control as of 2489, glassed in 2533
 * Partition - Jungle world found and settled by ship wrecked crew of
 * Passage - Untouched by the Covenant
 * Queen Anne VI - Attacked by Guardian in 2558
 * Reynes - Glassed in 2548
 * Sargasso - Lush with vegetation and water
 * Seaford - Attacked by the Bulwark of Bone prior to late 2559
 * Sundown - Tropical, water rich world with unusual tilt leading to a sunset like sky during day time. Untouched by the Covenant
 * Terra Nova - Unknown status
 * Verge - Attacked, strip-mined by the Covenant for helium-3
 * Vodin - Attacked in 2532; still habitable
 * Vuryonos - Attacked by the Bulwark of Bone prior to late 2559