Coalition Interstellar Starway System

The Coalition Interstellar Starway System, or CISS (also called the Star Highways and Coalition Starways) is an integrated network of transportation lanes and routes that connect the various member star systems of the Coalition of Congressional Republics together into a singular system. Although these transportation lanes can run through multiple different member republics and administrative zones of the Coalition, they are all considered to be de jure Coalition government territory due to the placed importance on maintaining safe, secure trade and transport networks that connect the Frontier and the Periphery to the Core star systems.
Member republics are charged with maintaining the safety of these lanes within the confines of their respective star systems (such as their individual interplanetary transport networks) and within a few light years of the lanes' termini, in addition to maintaining terminus infrastructure such as directly owned orbital space stations, harbors, anchorages, and colonies. However, the Coalition government (or corporate contractors) handle the bulk of security and surveillance of routes under the CISS system, with a majority of the space forces of the Coalition Forces Authority often being used in patrol of these routes and their termini.
== History ==
The CISS was founded during the boom of Coalition colonial expansion due to the Tomorrow Initiative and the subsequent phenomenon known as the Planet Rush, which lasted from the 2080s to the 2200s. Placed under the control of the Department of Transportation, the CISS was constructed through the employment of astrography that allowed the charting of routes that balanced short travel times and fuel cost with that of strategic route prioritization between systems that were major trade, production, manufacturing, or service nodes.
As of the modern era, the CISS is still considered to be an evolving network; the opening of the Grand Port of Polaris in 2650 under the control of the Astoria Mercantile Group has created a massive congregative trade node in the northern areas of the Periphery, with several routes opening or being expanded and tweaked to meet its novel commercial value.
Category:Work in progress