Iron Worlds

The Iron Worlds were planets designated for the confinement and containment of criminals in the age of the first Galactic Commonwealth. There were six so-designated worlds, two in the Orion Quadrant and four in the Centaurus Quadrant. The Iron Worlds were set up as places where violent criminals could be isolated for the protection of peaceful worlds. 
== List of Iron Worlds ==
•	Yronstone
•	Yronwode
•	Yronhold
•	Yrongard 
•	Yronblack
•	Yronstadt
== History ==
In the Scorpio Sector, there was a world called Iron Box. It was a world with a toxic atmosphere and a partially molten surface. The Scorpion Empire built several city-sized prison complexes, which were mainly used to house rebels and opponents of the regime. The planet's toxic environment was as much a deterrent to escape as the armed robo-guards. In the years following the fall of the Scorpion Empire, Iron Box was "rehabilitated" and used as the Super Maximum Prison for the Galactic Commonwealth. 
During the Seventh Crusade, the Dark Lord Amaranth "liberated" Iron Box prison and unleashed millions of hardened, violent criminals on the worlds of the Commonwealth in order to spread chaos. The Criminals were given ships loaded with weapons and directed to wreak havoc on targeted worlds. But that's another story. 
In the Thousand Year Peace that followed the Approximately Thousand Year Crusade, humanity's view on crime, rehabilitation, and incarceration changed. Whereas criminals had previously been subjected to "neural reprogramming," reformers protested that such treatments deprived them of their humanity and amounted to "torture." Some worlds, especially Pacifica and Vesta, abandoned the concept of crime and punishment entirely. 
This led to a rise in violent crime across many worlds. 
The Great Council of the Galactic Commonwealth implemented the Iron Worlds concept as a solution. The worlds would be places of exile and containment, but not punishment. There would be no cells and no guards, but the planets would be equipped with systems that made escape impossible. 
The six planets chosen were all Terra Beta class; habitable without terraforming, but not hospitable. They built settlements on the surface of these worlds sufficient for ten million people on each. The settlements included all the necessary facilities for industrial production and distribution to function as a city, with modest quarters and business districts. Those sentenced to iron worlds would have the means to achieve self-sufficiency, but it would require hard work and social organization. 
On all six worlds, non-criminal volunteers (mostly religiousadherents) also settled to assist the exiles, accepting that they could never leave any world once they arrived. Orbital stations monitored the worlds, but the planetary containment systems were so effect that no one ever escaped
Category:Worlds