by Max Barry

Latest Forum Topics

Advertisement

The Interstellar Confederacy of
Stellar Colonies
Inoffensive Centrist Democracy

Overview Factbook Dispatches Policies People Government Economy Rank Trend Cards

4

U2 Sol System & Timeline

Main TACEZ Dispatch
Time Frame

2116 CE

General Timeline

(2049 in U2 corresponds to 4220 in U0)


TAMDEZ Period

2026 CE - 2049 CE

    - The Confederate vessel CSS Kuyloice initiates first contact with Earth (U2) in 2026 several years after arriving in U2, interference in a war on the surface sparks a conflict between the vessel and the planet's inhabitants.

    - Immediately following the Initial Skirmish*, the inhabitants of Earth (U2) form the TAMDEZ Alliance to form a unified front against the Confederacy.

    *Confederate term for the aforementioned first contact conflict

    - [TAMDEZ Shenanigans]


Second Solar Expansion Period

2040s CE

    - All contact is lost with the U0 Confederacy* and the CMS Sonoma (U2 Task Force** flagship) in 2049 on what would become known as Cutoff Day for unknown reasons.

    * Post-Cutoff-Day term for the Confederacy within U0

    ** Small fleet of Confederate vessels stationed in that universe

    - Ceres is declared the new Confederate homeworld in 2049, with most Confederates in U2 migrating there.

    - Establishment of Philomelus Colony, Cererian Military Complex, and Plutus Spaceport in 2049.

    - The U2 Task Force is reorganized into the Cererian Confederate Navy.

2050s CE

    - The Confederate government on Ceres preemptively claims Pallas, Vesta, and Hygeia in 2051 in order to secure additional territory beyond the dwarf planet. Although settlement begins soon after the annexations, their populations will not significantly increase until emigration from Ceres ramps up during the late 2070s and 2080s as the dwarf planet hosts the birth of a native generation from the Confederate settlers.

    - In the aftermath of Cutoff Day and with no threat apparent from the Multiverse in the form of the Imperial Confluence or otherwise, TAMDEZ is officially dissolved in 2053. To prevent instability in the power vacuum created by these three factors, a series of treaties are signed amongst the post-TAMDEZ countries and the Cererian Confederacy*.

    * Official name adopted by the Confederate rump government on Ceres.

    - 2053 Lunar Treaty signed by the post-TAMDEZ countries for the purpose of dividing up the territory of Luna between the participant states. With the Confederacy focused more on the Asteroid Belt at this time and not significantly present in the Earth-Luna System, they were not a signatory to the treaty and merely observed the proceedings.

    - 2055 Martian Treaty signed by the Confederacy and post-TAMDEZ countries, intended to decide the status of Mars. As opposed to the Lunar Treaty, which marked out tracts of territory for annexation, Mars was declared an open territory off-limits to territorial claims by any specific nation, with settlements explicitly not being an extension of the country which formed it. To fill the void of government, each signatory nation would participate in a jointly-run planetary government to govern the planet.

    - 2057 Jovian Treaty signed by the Confederacy and post-TAMDEZ countries. Although its main aim was to install joint ownership of the Jovian System in a similar manner to the previous Martian Treaty, it includes other details such as environmental protections for Europa and regulations for fusion fuel scooping from Jupiter and the other gas giants.

    - 2057 Venusian Treaty signed by the Confederacy and post-TAMDEZ countries, modeled extensively on the Martian Treaty. Despite the terms of this treaty, minimal interest and investment in Venus will result in the Treaty government having little effective control of the planet, leaving it in an anarchic limbo until the Third Invasion.

    - Proposals regarding similar treaties for Mercury and the Asteroid Belt are stalled throughout the decade by resistance from Aivintis and Confederacy, eventually resulting in the former being annexed by Aivintis and the latter being nearly entirely dominated by the Confederacy due to the treaties not being enacted.

2060s CE

    - Annexations of Dione and Iapetus announced by the Cererian government in 2066. Although settlements are established early in the next year, the populations of the two moons will not begin to significantly increase until the 2080s.

    - The announced annexation of two Saturnian moons by the Confederacy triggers a heliopolitical crisis, with it flagrantly violating a proposed Saturnian treaty which had been stalled in development for nearly eight years. Due to the annexation not being challenged and becoming more or less recognized, the Saturnian Treaty is killed in development, harming the potential of further treaties for Uranus and Neptune*.

    * The Aivintian annexation of Triton in the future further harms the potential for more treaties of this kind, leaving the Saturnian, Uranian, and Neptunian moons, along with the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud, open to claims up to the present.

    - The 2064 Titanian Treaty is signed by the Confederacy and post-TAMDEZ countries. Although it was impossible for a system-wide Saturnian treaty to be enacted, concerns over a single power claiming the highly strategic Titan were able to push through a treaty regulating claims on the moon. Although initially planned to be modeled similarly to the joint ownership treaties made previously, pressure from several countries wishing to directly annex plots for computing and industrial activity changed it to be similar to the 2053 Lunar Treaty, with Titan being carved up into territorial plots for annexation.

    - The 2064 Jovian Worlds Treaty is signed by the Confederacy and post-TAMDEZ countries. Although prospects were dim for joint treaties of the Saturnian and ice giant systems, the wave of indigitation from the failure of joint treaties for Mercury and the Saturn System culminated in the signing of this treaty, which was modeled closely off the 2057 Jovian Treaty, detailing joint ownership of the four Jovian planets. The 2057 Jovian Treaty is updated to conform with it.

    - Having begun during the 2050s, corporate and national mining of asteroids begins to significantly increase in the form of the Asteroid Boom as Confederate operations expand and TAMDEZ-based corporations trickle in and become major players alongside the Confederates over the course of the 2060s.

    - Significant expansion in activity throughout the Jovian System marks the beginning of the Jovian Boom in the late 2060s, with extensive development of outposts, mining, and fusion fuels scooping as Terrestrial corporations and countries began setting up operations in the Jovian System alongside the Confederacy. The boom was triggered most prominently by the latter due to Terrestrial countries hoping to become self-sufficient in terms of fusion fuels and cease their reliance upon Confederate suppliers.

2070s CE

    - In 2073, Philomelus Colony is officially recategorized as Philomelus City.

    - The Jovian Boom continues into this decade as extensive settlement begins throughout the Jovian System, centering mostly upon Ganymede and Callisto. With most of the Confederate emigration driven by the emergence of the first Cererian-born generation moving from elsewhere in the Asteroid Belt, Iapetus, and Dione, the majority of the Jovian settlers are from the post-TAMDEZ countries.

    - Although a general Saturnian System treaty was shelved, the 2077 Ring Preservation Treaty, an environmental treaty for protecting the rings of Saturn, is signed by the Confederacy and post-TAMDEZ countries.

    - The Saturnian Boom begins in the late 2070s and carries over into the next decade. Most of this activity takes place on Titan as the Titanian Treaty members begin establishing facilities in the territories parceled out to them by it, but there is other activity throughout the system such as resource mining, fusion fuels scooping, and more which is both in service to the activity on Titan and unrelated. Although a great deal of this activity is nationally driven, much of the assets involved are corporate.

2080s CE

    - The 2084 Plutonian Treaty is signed by the Confederacy and post-TAMDEZ countries. Modeled off the 2055 Martian Treaty, it established joint ownership of Pluto, Charon, and the other moons in the Plutonian System. It is simultaneously praised by advocates of joint treaties for fully protecting at least one Outer planetary system from claim and mocked by those against such treaties as being a minimally placating gesture towards those advocates.

    - As the first Cererian-born generation aged into young adulthood, emigrants from the dwarf planet filter into Confederate territories throughout the Asteroid Belt and upon Iapetus and Dione, boosting their populations and laying the foundation for the development of cultures and societies amongst them with identities beyond mere extensions of Ceres.

    - In 2089, a tourist facility is established along the Verona Rupes cliffs on the Uranian moon of Miranda alongside a growth in fusion fuel scooping operations on the ice giant.

2090s CE

    - Although an ongoing process since extensive settlement began in the 2070s, this decade is when the Jovian colonies fully develop identities fully independent from Earth and Ceres. As part of this, political control of the system is increasingly centered upon Ganymede as opposed to the former two worlds, although de jure authority still rested with the Treaty government. As a similar process of localized identity formation and cultural independence occurred on Mars, heliopolitical experts begin speculating about the emergence of Mars and the Jovian System as emerging nationstates fully independent from the control of Earth and Ceres.

    - Settlement and mining activity begins increasing as the Kuiper Boom begins to take shape over the course of the 2090s, with most of the settlement centered upon Pluto and Charon. Although the population of the Plutonian System would remain miniscule right up to the Third Invasion, heliopolitical experts also added it as a potential new nationstate alongside Mars and the Jovian moons.

2100s CE

2110-2113 CE


TACEZ Period

2113 CE

2114 CE

    - The Siege of Triton occurs, an attempted invasion of the moon by the Imperial Confluence which was successfully repelled by Aivintian forces with assistance from the Confederate vessel Aulio.

    - In the aftermath of the centralized government vanishing without a designated successor, three distinct Confederate authorities form and briefly compete for legitimacy, eventually agreeing to merge into an official Cererian government in exile which is referred to as the Foundational Government.

Sol
Affiliation: TACEZ (Mixed)
Lying at the center of the Solar System is Sol, the hub which everything in the system revolves around. Officially classified as a G2 V type star, it is a yellow dwarf which is 4.6 billion years old with a surface temperature of nearly 6,000 K. Clearly since it is a star, there are no direct outposts on or within, despite still be utilized. Orbital installations built and operated by a variety of organizations englobe Sol, with purposes such as solar power generation, laser sail pushers, solar weather observations, and more. Limited experiments for extracting matter via starlifting have been carried out, but asteroid mining is still more economically feasible despite the former being a larger potential source of material.

Mercury
Affiliation: TACEZ (Aivintis)

Mercury is a silicate/iron planet, with an abnormally large nickel/iron core which makes up approximately 85% of the planet's volume. Due to the core being so massive, the planet's gravitational field is nearly the strength of Mars (0.37 g) despite being only a fraction (70%) of the size. Due to the planet's composition and proximity to Sol, it is a center of mining, solar power generation, and solar panel construction. Although Mercury alone is a larger source of metals than the entire Asteroid Belt, its large mass has restricted most of the material mined from it by the Aivintian government and corporations to be used for constructing facilities on and near the planet.

LinkMain Article for Mercury

Venus
De Jure Affiliation: TACEZ (Joint)
De Facto Affiliation: Assorted Organizations
Venus is a silicate/iron planet with a surface gravity of approximately 0.9 g. Among all of the planets, it has been the most changed by the frenetic activity in the Solar System over the last hundred years. For billions of years, it had been a world of crushing carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid rains, with organisms known to exist in the atmosphere and suspected ones beneath the surface. In the late 2030s however, a conflict around the planet had culminated in it nearly being blown apart in an energetic event termed the Venusian Blast, although the majority of the debris was pulled back onto the core and remnant mantle of the planet. Most of the material which did not fall back was left in a halo surrounding the planet and its orbit, with a small amount dispersing further throughout the system and beyond.

Despite Venus surviving this event, albeit barely, everything about it was radically altered. Even sixty years following the Blast in 2100 CE, the surface was still largely molten with the heat from it continually boiling off gases evaporating above the surface. Perhaps the most melancholy part of the Venusian Blast was the extinction of its sparse but ancient aerial ecosystem, with the only survivors clinging to life in small preserves and labs. The Cererian Confederates have vague plans to take advantage of Venus's more malleable condition in order to terraform it, although it is still far too hostile for extensive settlement. Due to the extreme uninhabitability of the surface and the dangerous conditions of the Venusian Halo simultaneously decreasing outside interest in the planet and increasing the complexity of their work, the joint treaty government has very little real authority. This has allowed criminal and rogue elements from elsewhere in the system to use Venus as a base for evading outside authority, and although there has been concern and periodic attempts at curbing such activity, it has largely been left alone to occur.

Earth
Affiliation: TACEZ (Talitoa, Aivintis, Euricanis, & Zukchiva)
Aside from the Confederates on Ceres, Earth is the origin world for every Human in the Solar System and the largest center of economic and political power. A silicate/iron world with a nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere and extensive surface oceans, it possesses the most complex known ecosystem in the Solar System and is the standard by which many other worlds are compared, including its surface gravity of 1.0 g. When compared to the slightly older Earth which was present in U0, the biological evolution of each has been subtly different, yielding a different set of plants and animals which overlap with but are not identical with the organisms from U0 Earth, one overlap being Humans. Most of the biological differences exist within the area occupied by the nation of Talitoa, with one example being the well-known Ginga fruit.

Although battered by extensive conflict, including both the First and Second Invasions by the Imperial Confluence in the early 21st century CE, over sixty years of calm prosperity have resulted in the planet becoming highly developed and peaceful compared to the past, although not without its problems. From everything known about the Imperial Confluence, Earth appears to be the central target for conquest, with other worlds only mattering to in terms of threat, meaning Earth-based defense plans have a larger emphasis on atmospheric and surface combat than elsewhere.

A common Confederate slang word for an inhabitant of Earth is 'Terry', derived from the defunct word 'Terrestrial'.


Luna
Affiliation: TACEZ (Talitoa, Aivintis, Euricanis, & Zukchiva)
A silicate/iron moon with a surface gravity of 0.16 g, Luna is the only natural satellite of Earth, theorized to have formed from a collision between Earth and a Mars-sized planet more than four billion years ago. Divided up amongst the countries of Earth via the 2053 Luna Treaty, the moon has been extensively colonized and subsumed into the countries which annexed portions of its surface. Due to the lower surface gravity and almost nonexistent atmosphere, Luna is a major center of mining and industrial activity which would be difficult or dangerous to carry out on a habitable world such as Earth. Before gas giant fusion fuel scooping become economically feasible for Terrestrial countries in the early 2060s CE, Luna was their only non-Confederate source of Helium-3 used in fusion reactors, and still remains a major source of that specific fuel.

Luna is used as a stepping stone between Earth and the rest of the system due to it simultaneously being Terrestrial territory and having a lifestyle similar to what would be experienced throughout the latter. The Confederacy in particular recommends its citizens to temporarily stay on Luna if moving to Earth for an extended period, due to the immersion in Terrestrial culture within a vaguely familiar environment.


Mars
Affiliation: TACEZ (Joint)
A silicate/iron planet with an unusually iron oxide-rich crust and a surface gravity of 0.37 g, Mars is commonly thought of as the most Earthlike planet in the Solar System other than Earth. Although it vaguely resembles the planet in many ways with a similar day/night cycle, seasonal variations, and polar ice caps, it is far too different for it to be as easily colonized as it appears. The lower surface gravity and thinner atmosphere present challenges, but the presence of toxic perchlorate compounds in the surface dusts are perhaps the greatest. The perchlorates force Humans on the planet to aggressively segregate their populated cities from the surface with extensive layers of scrubbing, sterilization, and shielding procedures to prevent the bleach-like oxidizing compounds from contaminating their air, water, and food. The surface dusts are so dangerous to Humans that Confederate convention, carried over from U0, officially classifies Mars as a mildly toxic world. Amongst the Martian population, there is significant enough support for the formation of an independent Martian state to challenge the status quo established by the 2053 treaty, although it is not the predominant opinion.

The planet is orbited by two natural satellites, Phobos and Deimos. Both moons are colonized and lightly populated, used as orbital stations by the Martians for spacecraft docking, planetary defense, storage, and mining resources used for purposes such as fuel and construction, although these resources are very limited due to the small size of the moons.

In 2113 CE, Zukchiva was granted a special exemption by the Martian Treaty government to temporarily claim the crash site of the RZS Our People's Pride on the planet, a vessel of theirs which crashed during the First Invasion, for the purposes of excavating the wreckage of the ship.


Asteroid Belt
Affiliation: TACEZ (Mixed)
Although the total mass of the Asteroid Belt is merely 3% of Luna's, the larger bodies of the region have been highly influential in the colonization of the Solar System. Beginning in the early 2050s with the Confederate declaration of Ceres as its homeworld, the Confederates were initially the only power in the region. Although focused mostly on Ceres itself, they established outposts on other large asteroids throughout the Asteroid Belt such as Vesta, Hygiea, and Pallas, setting themselves up as the entrenched dominant power in the region once the post-TAMDEZ countries on Earth began independently sending expeditions into the region during the late 2060s CE. Although the economic importance of the Asteroid Belt has waned with extensive colonization of the Jovian moon systems in the late 2070s and the widespread mining amongst the Kuiper Belt during the early 2090s CE, it is still an important region within the system.

Ceres
Affiliation: Imperial Confluence (Occupied)
Ceres is a silicate/ice/iron dwarf planet with a surface gravity of 0.03 g within the Asteroid Belt. Comprising between a quarter and a third of its mass, Ceres is the center of the Asteroid Belt in a physical sense as well as a political and economic one following the Confederate declaration of it as their homeworld, with it being a major center of economic activity and travel across the Solar System. Although Earth is the main center of heliopolitical and economic activity in the system, Ceres retains a sizable amount of technology and knowledge from the highly advanced Confederacy, although it still lacks the infrastructure to exploit much of it. This has resulted in the remnant Confederates falling back to the same general level of technology as the post-TAMDEZ countries, albeit a few exceptions.

In 2114, the Second Battle of Ceres resulted in a Confederate defeat and Confluent victory, marking the beginning of the Cererian Occupation.

Main Article for Ceres

Vesta
Affiliation: TACEZ (Confederacy)
Vesta is a silicate/iron asteroid with a surface gravity of 0.02 g within the Asteroid Belt and the second largest there in both mass and volume. Claimed by the Confederacy in 2051, settlement began immediately but did not significantly increase until the 2080s, when immigration from Ceres boosted population growth by a large amount. In the 2090s, a small military outpost was expanded into a smaller cousin of the Cererian Military Complex to service military vessels docked there, housing less-equipped but vaguely similar facilities such as weapons storage, shipyards, etc. Unlike the CMC, little independent research was conducted at the Vesta Military Outpost prior to the 2110s.

In 2114, the VMO and Vesta as a whole was thrust into the center of Confederate affairs after the Second Battle of Ceres resulted in the dwarf planet being occupied by the Imperial Confluence, forcing the Confederate military to transfer its headquarters to the asteroid. It reorganized itself into a military regime considering itself the successor government to Philomelus, competing briefly with the Iapetian government and an Earth-based government in exile organized by the Confederate TACEZ delegation for legitimacy before the three were merged into an official Cererian government in exile as the Foundational Government.

Jupiter
Affiliation: TACEZ (Joint)
Jupiter is a gas giant planet orbited by over 70 moons. It is the largest planet in the Solar System, with its mass twice that of the other known planets combined and its barycenter with Sol being more than a solar radius from the star. Beginning in the late 2030s with the Confederacy and ramping up significantly during the 2060s with the inclusion of the post-TAMDEZ countries, fusion fuels scooping from the upper atmosphere became a major industry of the Jovian System. Although the gravity, magnetic field, and storms of the planet are intense, the scooping systems usually operate at a high enough altitude for these to be minimal issues.

An interesting development observed from the 2090s onwards is the ongoing centralization and consolidation of Jovian authority towards Ganymede as opposed to Earth or Ceres. Although Ganymede had always been the center of political control in the Jovian system due to its higher population, it and the rest of the moons had always been subordinate to Earth and Ceres since the establishment of the colonies. Although long suspected of being a possibility, heliopolitical scientists theorize that the 22nd century will bring about the further development of a collective national identity for the Jovian System moons independent of the Terrestrial and Cererian countries which had spawned it, comparable to the ancient United States of America from U0, especially if Earth and Ceres were distracted from their joint governing of the system. However, the population of the Jovian System and defensive capacity independent from Terrestrial and Cererian control are still too meager for supporting a fully independent nation.


Io
Affiliation: TACEZ (Joint)
Io is a silicate/iron moon of Jupiter with a surface gravity of 0.18 g, and the innermost Galilean moon. Ravaged by tidal forces from its orbit about the highly massive Jupiter, the surface is dominated by volcanic eruptions releasing flows and aerial plumes of sulfur-rich lava across the surface and into space, with the plumes having formed a cloud of plasma called the Io Torus enveloping the moon's orbit. Due to the dangerous conditions and instability of the surface, the Ionian population has always been extremely limited, with the bulk of the surface activity being automated industry and mining. Although studies have been carried out regarding the extraction of energy from the flux tube linking Io to Jupiter, none of it as of yet has been put into practice. With its population so low, usually temporary, and deeply involved with the activity across its dangerous surface, the moon's cultural perception from elsewhere is generally that of a risky industrial frontier, when compared to the more scientifically-oriented Europa or the generally urban Ganymede and Callisto.

Europa
Affiliation: TACEZ (Joint)
Europa is an ice/silicate/iron moon of Jupiter with a surface gravity of 0.13 g, and the second Galilean moon. An ocean world wreathed in a thick shifting layer of ice, settlment of the surface is more difficult due to the higher radiation and less stable surface than the outer two Galilean moons, with many of the people living there directly involved in scientific studies of the subsurface ocean. Although less complex than the ecosystems within Earth's oceans, the Europan sealife was interesting enough for Europan environmental protections to be included in the 2057 Jovian Treaty, among which was regulated settlement of the moon. This along with the less friendly surface conditions are part of what keeps the population of Europa lower than would be expected because of Ganymede and Callisto, filling the role of the quieter little sibling next to the competing larger ones. The cultural perception of Europa from elsewhere is similar to that of the Antarctic research stations from a century before on Earth (U2).

Ganymede
Affiliation: TACEZ (Joint)
Ganymede is an ice/silicate/iron moon of Jupiter with a surface gravity of 0.14 g, and the third Galilean moon. The largest moon in the Jovian System which also had low radiation levels due to a natural magnetosphere, it is the most heavily populated world in the Jovian System. With it being the site of the first settlements, it is generally the cultural center for the Jovian moons, although each is still broadly independent from unfettered Ganymedean influence due to all the moons still being under the Treaty government. With it being the most heavily populated and the third Galilean moon, Ganymede often styles itself as the 'Earth' of the Jovian System (despite it not being the actual third Jovian moon). Quite naturally, with it being the most to gain from it, Ganymede is the center for most political movements advocating for an independent Jovian state, whether it be a federal state for all the Jovian moons, independence for moons with separate governments (usually focused on Ganymede of course), or even a centralized Ganymedean state centered on that moon directly ruling the rest of the Jovian System. Although independence in general is still far from feasible, the federal state concept is generally the most popular among supporters of independence, with the smaller 'Ganymedean Empire' movement generating a certain amount of political and cultural friction between Ganymede and Callisto.

Callisto
Affiliation: TACEZ (Joint)
Callisto is an ice/silicate/iron moon of Jupiter with a surface gravity of 0.12 g, and the fourth Galilean moon. It is the second most heavily populated moon of the Jovian System, settled nearly concurrently with its larger neighbor. Although Ganymede carries more political clout in the Jovian System - still beneath the joint Treaty government of course - Callisto has cultural pride in remaining mostly free of Ganymedean influence, with the political and cultural tug-of-war between them being the most important heliopolitical relationship within the Jovian System. Despite this cultural spirit, the Callistoan government acknowledges that it is ultimately subordinate to Ganymede, and that any Jovian System-wide government independent of outside control would almost certainly be housed there. When compared to Ganymede, Callisto is more content with the Treaty government, considering it generally operates rather well and that both are equally controlled by it.

Saturn
Affiliation: TACEZ (Joint)
Saturn is a gas giant planet with over eighty moons. The second largest planet in the inner Solar System, it is mostly known for having an extensive and mostly stable ring system. Although visited earlier, it wasn't until the late 2070s and 2080s that extensive outposts and industrial operations are set up in the system. One early industry which began was ice mining, which was a major threat to the Cererian near-monopoly on the ice market due to their ice-rich mantle. As a strategy for defending their monopoly, they began throwing their heliopolitical weight behind environmentalist organizations which were protesting the Saturnian ice mining since it would eventually destroy the rings. Finally in 2077, pressure from Ceres and the environmentalists is enough to push through the Ring Preservation Treaty, which bans mining of any kind from the rings of Saturn or the shepherd moons (although there is a provision for a certain amount of ice collection per year, mostly for emergency use).

Enceladus
Affiliation: TACEZ (?)
Enceladus is an ice/silicate moon of Saturn with a surface gravity of 0.01 g. Merely 252 kilometers in radius and mostly composed of ice, the moon is barely massive enough to pull itself into a rough sphere. With visible jets of saline water continually jetting out into space, it was long suspected that it possessed a subsurface ocean before it was confirmed.

Tethys
Affiliation: TACEZ (?)
Tethys is an ice/silicate moon of Saturn with a surface gravity of 0.01 g. With the lowest density of all the Solar System's major moons, it is composed almost entirely of ices and only a small amount of rock, explaining how the gravity is so low for its size.

Dione
Affiliation: TACEZ (Confederate)
Dione is an ice/silicate moon of Saturn with a surface gravity of 0.02 g. In many ways, it is like a larger version of its inner companion, Enceladus, similarly possessing a subsurface ocean, although it is not as geologically active. This lesser amount of geological activity, along with its greater mass, is why it was selected for annexation instead of Enceladus. In 2066, Dione along with Iapetus was annexed by the Confederate government on Ceres, precipitating a diplomatic crisis which ultimately upended plans for a joint ownership Saturnian System treaty. Following annexation, the Confederacy did not plan to significantly settle Dione, with their main intent being to conduct scientific surveys of the subsurface ocean in a similar manner that the Jovian Treaty government does on Europa. However, the surprising total lack of native life (unlike in U0) led to a change in attitude regarding the moon, and the Confederacy opened up Dione to settlement. Rotating habitation modules similar to those of Philomelus City on Ceres were dug into the surface. Experiments with introducing marine life into the ocean made Dione into a Saturnian center of research relating to Terrestrial and Europan sealife, with studies made of their evolutionary history and bodies in order to create a hybrid ecosystem within the Dione ocean. There is also a smaller research project underway comparing surveys and other studies of the moon with records of Dione (U0) to determine the reason behind one having native life and the other having none.

Rhea
Affiliation: TACEZ (?)
Rhea is an ice/silicate moon of Saturn with a surface gravity of 0.03 g, and the second largest Saturnian moon. Unlike several other moons orbiting Saturn, Rhea does not possess a significant subsurface ocean, although it does have liquid water pockets beneath the surface. Although the Confederacy had originally planned to annex Rhea and Iapetus, a combination of pressure for selecting a moon with a subsurface ocean and the thought that choosing a less massive moon would go over better with other countries led to Rhea being rejected in favor of Dione.

Titan
Affiliation: TACEZ (Mixed)
Titan is an ice/silicate/iron moon of Saturn with a surface gravity of 0.14 g, and 96% of the mass orbiting Saturn is contained within it. Titan is the only moon in the Solar System with an analogue environment to Earth, although the frigid temperature has introduced significant differences. The moon's atmosphere is primarily nitrogen with a small amount of methane, and the surface bodies of liquid are composed of liquid methane and ethane. The methane and ethane cycles through the Titanian environment in a similar manner to how water cycles through the Terrestrial environment, with methane and ethane rain. Water is an analogue for rock on Titan, with much of the crust composed of granite-hard water ice, cryovolcanoes erupting water from a liquid water mantle. Due to the frigid surface conditions, made worse by sunlight-reflecting haze in the atmosphere and the dense cold atmosphere, Human settlement on Titan is extremely difficult and has a significant impact on the surrounding environment simply because of the heat. In a way, Humans colonizing Titan is similar to molten life forms with lava blood colonizing Earth.

Although Human colonization of Titan is too difficult to be feasible, the surface environment of Titan offered an incredible alternative opportunity. Due to the dense atmosphere, twice the density of Earth's, being so frigid, it is an extremely efficient heat sink. Although this is exactly what makes Human colonization so difficult, they are perfect conditions for operating computers at an efficiency far higher than elsewhere in the system. Because of this, Titan essentially serves as a massive computing and industrial site for the rest of the system with only limited Human oversight on the surface, with tracts of the surface annexed by the signatories of the 2064 Titanian Treaty.


Iapetus
Affiliation: TACEZ (Confederacy)
Iapetus is an ice/silicate moon of Saturn with a surface gravity of 0.02 g, and mostly composed of ices with only a small amount of rock. Unusually, the moon is has two anomalies compared to other moons in the system. First, it has a two-tone coloration comparable to a yin-yang symbol, with the leading hemisphere and portions of the equator dark in color and the trailing hemisphere along with portions of the poles being brightly colored. The reason behind the contrast is its long day/night cycle, with the leading hemisphere having originally been slightly darker and the long days forcing the sublimation and freezing of the ices onto the night side, making it brighter and more reflective. As this process continued, it accelerated until nearly all the ices on the less icy and reflective side were deposited onto the more icy and reflective side, producing the contrast seen today. The second anomaly is an equatorial ridge running along a large portion of the equator. When annexed by the Confederacy in 2066, settlement soon began of Iapetus. Dug into the equatorial ridge, rotating Cererian-type habitation modules were constructed for the Iaputian population to live within. To preserve the natural contrast of the moon, environmental laws were enacted upon annexation to limit settlement to the ridge, with the rest of the moon closed off to most Human activity.

Following the Second Battle of Ceres and the start of the Cererian Occupation, the government of Iapetus briefly declared itself as the successor government to Philomelus and competed with Earth- and Vesta-based claimants before it formed a new Cererian government in exile with them.


Uranus
Affiliation: TACEZ (Joint)

Uranus is the first of the two ice giants in the Solar Systems, with a methane-influenced bluish-green atmosphere. With sparse rings and a scattering of tiny moons, the planetary system is only noteworthy for its unusual tilt, easier conditions for gas scooping than the other three gas giants, and Mirandan cliffs, making the Uranian System an easy target for a joint ownership treaty. Aside from a scooping operation extracting gases from Uranus, a tourist center along the Verona Rupes cliff on Miranda, and a small scattering of outposts on other moons, little of interest happens in the Uranian System. However, helioeconomic experts predict that the gas scooping operation on Uranus will become increasingly important to the fusion fuels market despite the further distance from the settled Inner System due to the far easier conditions, and will likely become dominant in the coming decades. This could serve to vitalize the Uranian economy and turn it into an important economic hub.

The common Cererian pronunciation for Uranus is You-Ron-Iss.

Miranda
Affiliation: TACEZ (?)
Miranda is an ice/silicate moon of Uranus with a surface gravity of 0.008 g. With evidence of an unusually active geological past for its size, Miranda has drawn interest from other parts of the Solar System to the Uranian System, although mostly for a single geological detail. The only outposts on Miranda are along its famous Verona Rupes, renowned as the tallest known cliff in the Solar System at twenty kilometers. Despite Miranda being so distant from population centers in the Solar System, the demand for visiting the moon's cliffs are high enough for well-equipped tourism facilities to have been built along the cliff, offering views and guided tours of the cliffs. With the gravity being so low, climbing the cliff is relatively less risky when equipped with jets capable of stopping unwanted momentum, although the vast scale of the cliff (20 kilometers in height) when coupled with the extremely low gravity has offered a unique attraction for tourists. The Verona Rupes Cliff Drop is a controlled fall from the top of the cliff to the base, allowing tourists to go to the bottom and view the walls from the cliff's floor.

Neptune
Affiliation: TACEZ (Joint)
Neptune is the second and more massive of the two ice giants in the Solar System, with a methane-tinged blue atmosphere. Although nearly as featureless as Uranus, Neptune possesses more visible weather phenomena in its atmosphere in the form of white ammonia clouds and dark storm systems, along with extremely powerful wind currents (2100 kph) circulating around the planet which make gas scooping far more difficult than Uranus. Although it is mostly similar to Uranus in having mostly small moons, the retrograde-orbiting Triton, likely a captured dwarf planet, utterly dominates the Neptunian moons in mass (99%), similar to Titan amongst the Saturnian moons. If it weren't for Triton, the Neptunian System would be very similar to the Uranian System in terms of population, but the Aivintian presence alone on the moon outnumbers the total population in the Uranian System.

Triton
Affiliation: TACEZ (Aivintis)
Triton is an ice/silicate/iron moon of Neptune with a surface gravity of 0.07 g. With it containing all but a whisker of the mass orbiting Neptune, along with its retrograde orbit, Triton is thought to have been a freely orbiting dwarf planet similar to Pluto before being captured by Neptune, disrupting the Neptunian System and likely ejecting a number of moons. Tidal interactions with the rest of the Neptunian System are gradually decaying Triton's orbit, with the moon predicted to spiral into Neptune's Roche Limit and be destroyed in approximately 3.6 billion years without intervention. Due to the absence of a joint ownership treaty for the Neptunian System aside from the planet itself, Triton was open to any party to come in, and thus was claimed by the Aivintian State Research Agency for scientific study and resource extraction. A calm and relatively uneventful world for decades after Aivintis claimed it, Triton was abruptly thrust into the center of heliopolitical affairs in 2113 after an incursion by a Confluent agent onto the moon, initiating the third conflict between U2 and the Imperial Confluence, directly resulting in the formation of TACEZ.

Following the reemergence of the Imperial Confluence as a threat and the establishment of TACEZ to oppose it, the Joint TACEZ Research Program was formed to pool the resources of the constituent members to produce technology to fight the Confluence. Due to this, an attack which would come to be called the Siege of Triton occurred, during which Aivintian forces with assistance from the Confederate vessel Auilo repelled an attempted invasion of the moon.


Kuiper Belt
Affiliation: TACEZ (Mixed)
The Kuiper Belt is a large disk of cometary nuclei and dwarf planets, albeit with a total estimated mass of approximately 10% of Earth. With Human activity in the Kuiper Belt having only really began in the 2090s, when mining and settlement of the region truly started, activity in the region is still extremely sparse compared to the inner Solar System.

Pluto
Affiliation: TACEZ (Joint)
The larger of the two worlds in the binary dwarf planet system, Pluto is sometimes treated as the primary and the smaller Charon as the moon, although the Confederacy officially classifies them as a binary system (although officially regarding to it as the Plutonian System despite this). Pluto is an ice/silicate dwarf planet with a surface gravity of 0.06 g. Although small, Pluto has an appreciable amount of geological activity, including cryovolcanic and tectonic. Unlike other objects in the Kuiper Belt, Pluto possesses a thin but somewhat notable atmosphere, which waxes and wanes in thickness depending on its distance from Sol and exposure of its polar ice caps via axial tilt. With the Plutonian System being the largest in the Kuiper Belt, it is the center of Human activity and settlement in the region much like Ceres in the Asteroid Belt. Like the other worlds under joint ownership treaties, the 2084 Plutonian Treaty created a Treaty government responsible for governing the worlds in the Plutonian System. Amongst the other settlements on Pluto, Talitoa maintains a sensor array on the surface for monitoring signals across the Solar System. Few live on the other four worlds in the Plutonian System, mostly being sites for defensive emplacements, mining operations, and orbital stations much like the Martian moons.

With both Pluto and Charon tidally locked to each other, it provides unique conditions allowing the easy construction for a kind of space bridge linking both worlds, with the shallower gravity wells and shorter distance in fact making it easier to build than a Terrestrial space elevator. Despite plans for such a bridge however, the settlements on each world are not developed enough for it to be easily feasible yet.

Charon
Affiliation: TACEZ (Joint)
Charon is an ice/silicate moon/binary companion of Pluto, with a surface gravity of 0.03 g. When compared to the already sparsely populated Pluto, Charon is even less so. While Pluto does have cities, albeit small, settlements on Charon are usually tiny hamlet-like colonies centered around mining or other small-scale operations, many of them mobile. Like Pluto, the population center of Charon is at the point on the surface where Pluto is at the zenith, surrounding the site for the Charon endpoint of the planned Bridge.

Eris
Affiliation:
Eris is an ice/silicate dwarf planet, with a surface gravity of 0.08 g. Although larger than Pluto, its far-flung position beyond the main Kuiper Belt from the inner system has left it bereft of permanent settlement, with only two scientific expeditions having visited the distant world. Its two moons, Ponos and Dysnomia, have allowed remote observations of its mass and density to be performed, which is fortunate considering the lack of interest for further onsite studies after the mysterious loss of the single probe which was present in the Eridian System.


Oort Cloud
Affiliation: TACEZ (Mixed)
The Oort Cloud is a vast region enclosing the entire Solar System, extending from past the Kuiper Belt to over a light year from Sol. Although the total mass of the Oort Cloud is unknown, it is estimated to lie between five to eight Earth masses, mostly in the form of cometary nuclei. It is incredibly sparse, with the average distance between each nuclei comparable to the width of the inner Solar System. Since it is so enormous and recently scouted, Human activity in the Oort Cloud is very limited, with only the inner fringes having even been visited, much less settled and developed.

The Interstellar Confederacy of Stellar Colonies

Report