Meridian

Meridian, also known as Hestia Vη ("Hestia Five-Eta"), is the seventh moon of and a former human located in the . Known for its abnormal gravitational circumstances and the revolutionary technology solutions used to stabilize it, Meridian was a vibrant world with mature autonomous industries, a sizable new-settler population, and an active tourism industry. During the colonial , and the used the colonial moon as a multi-purpose fuel depot and operations base. Despite ongoing conflicts with local rebels, the planet became a general trade hotspot leading to a permanent UNSC security presence sustained by the .
The discovered the colony in leading to a periodic invasion and fighting over three years until when Meridian was glassed. After the ended, the planet was auctioned off to for terraforming and recolonization but was abandoned in during the following the emergence of a local from below the moon's surface.
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==UEG Colony Record==
===Rogue Core Theory===
Fragments of evidenceFellow SpaceBattles and Halo Fanon fanfiction writer Quirel/ suggested further narrative explanations toward the Rogue Core Theory. favoring the Rogue Core Theory have piled on over centuries, leading to the theory's popular adoption and acceptance. An unusual, elliptical orbit around Hestia V strongly points towards an extrasolar capture and origin. Meridian's unusually low tectonic activity and the recorded gravitational anomalies suggest something amiss with the colony's overall creation and interior; research has remained ongoing over the years into the potential side effects, dangers presented by the poorly-understood gravitational phenomenon. Meridian's deep crust is composed almost entirely of sedimentary rock, particularly Accretite: composite elements common in meteorites and space dust. This sedimentary layer is believed to extend miles below Meridian's surface and astro-geologists can only imagine what lies at the moon's core.
In short, it is one of Meridian's biggest mysteries and responsible for producing further questions, inspiring theories and tall tales of what secrets the colony world hides beneath its depths. As ONI investigations into Forerunner technology mature, another theory suggests Meridian might be a smaller "," used to collate raw materials on a massive scale for building famous Forerunner megastructures. Meridian is somewhat smaller than the known reformer-moon designated "" orbiting the planet . At least one well-known cosmic horror film in the twenty-fifth century was inspired by the Rogue Core theory and potential connections to ancient aliens, focusing on colonial folklore of a "hibernating" Dyson sphere but was scathed by the Meridian scientific community.Roland Emmerich's Moonfall
==History==
===Pre-Halo History===
Many of the discovered anomalies detected in Meridian's contemporary history would ultimately start with intervention centuries before the or the firing of the . Some recovered information from penetration of the and Forerunner data terminals by the revealed hints that Meridian was some form of waystation in the Forerunner era and called Pridarea Libatoa. A Guardian Custode berthing installation was installed for policing the nearby lower civilizational orders, and more than a few Forerunners claimed the moon as home over the millennia. During the Forerunner-Flood war, the moon served a yet unknown purpose but played a role in the defense strategy and with later post- efforts. It remains unclear if Meridian was an artificial planetoid such as a or the result of more natural origins.
===Colonization===
Prospected almost two centuries before its colonization, Meridian was first detected after the initial discovery of Hestia V and other planets orbiting around their star. Upon detecting unusual gravitational readings coming off Hestia V, a half-decade long investigative study was done on the irregular gas giant with subsequent theories generated to explain away the initial confusion. Gradually, moons were discovered in orbit around Hestia V, receiving subsequent Greek letters per astronomical naming conventions. The seventh moon proved to be the biggest boon and the source of the initial data anomaly, designated Hestia Vη.
Described as the "hyper-dense mystery of Hestia," Hestia Vη became the subject of much scientific research and popular culture interest, even spawning fictional tales in multiple media mediums. With the actualization of at the , probes arrived to uncover the secrets of the hyper-dense moon of Hestia V. Initial data taken a century earlier only further confirmed the oddities of Hestia Vη, leaving the astronomical community further confounded. The leading scientific theory, accepted by the majority of the public and science community, was Hestia Vη started as the core of a sizable gas giant in an unknown star system before being flung from its orbit in a major stellar event, leading to a gradual loss of its thick atmosphere and spending an unknown transit period as an exoplanet. It arrived in the Hestia system at some later point, eventually settling in the Hestia V gravity well and forever contorting the gas giant's gravitational signature. The "Rogue Core" theory became part of Meridian's accepted history.
Hestia Vη was entirely overlooked during initial prospection for colonization targets due to its irregular gravity signature concerning Hestia V and only later considered by a foolhardy French-based colonial corporation who claimed the deed for cheap. Prospective probe missions detected further anomalous gravitational and tectonic activity that discouraged other corporations from pursuing a permanent landing, particularly signs of shifting gravity states in random sections of the planet. These anomalies only piled on the strange hyper-dense nature of the moon. Most believed the colonization of Hestia Vη was impractical, even cursed, but with its 1.1 standard-Earth gravity, it was viewed as the best colonization option in the Hestia system. Initial terraforming fleets with an engineering skeleton crew were deployed in the 2300s and began to establish a biosphere into an Earth-like state with a superocean and a single supercontinent. To ensure stable gravitational phenomenon would continue even in the face of natural disasters for the early colonial boomtowns, large subterranean based on late- colonial infrastructure were constructed beneath the first colonial development sites to ensure a stable Earth-like gravity for colonial life.
In , 139 colony ferries left Earth orbit with 70,003 mostly-French colonists aboard and arrived on Hestia Vη by late . Because Hestia Vη was part of the second-wave colonization efforts targeting ongoing UEG Outer Colonial development, the medium-size charter company could not afford and permanently-beach like in the early relying on to bolster colonial infrastructure development. Parking themselves along the equatorial coastlines, the colonists established their first major settlement, , and renamed their moon to "Meridian." Initially, Avignon's residents elected a colonial development board with oversight from a independent advisor and a French aerospace-and-colonial development firm, hired by the charter corporation.
However, outside advice and oversight were quickly dismissed and Meridian colonists debated among themselves the economic and industrial future of their colony world. Frustrated by sore memories of French overurbanization or governmental controls over industrial and nature preserve-zoning, the political parties: and emerged along political lines of structured and free-reign infrastructure development to the colony's continental interior. The debate was settled a few years later as gradual material scans of the continental interior, particularly the central , revealed rich mineral deposits, particular in rare earth elements (REE) and deep-space materials considered advantageous to the heavy industrial and spacefaring industries. The free-reign-driven Prospector Party earned greater public support, acquiring a strong democratic majority in local elections, and successfully marginalized Steward political efforts through economic and legislative forces.
*: Industrialists and radicalized individualists galvanized by "more of the same" bureaucratic limits on early colonial infrastructure development upon arriving on Meridian, wished to develop Meridian's colonial resources with little to no oversight bodies of governance. After the "Mathon confirmation," the Prospectors became the dominant political bloc on Meridian.
*: Ecological conservatives and some industrialists disgruntled with French overurbanization on Earth, sought to limit industrial and urban development with views ranging from government-managed development grants to outright closure of the continental interior as a permanent nature preserve. After losing the early political battles, Stewards became the ideological base for Meridian's local Insurrectionist movement.
===Insurrection===
The local Meridian insurrection movement predated the larger by almost 30 years, beginning as the "" led by the Stewards in .
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