Hope Springs

was once hailed as the beginning of a brave new era for humanity's expansion, a co-operatively owned planet managed by a colonial corporation and owned in part by the colonists themselves. After fifty years of corporate exploitation and environmental neglect, the once bountiful planet is now a world close to death, where life clings stubbornly following almost total environmental collapse. With millions abandoning the world, and millions more dying, its quickly gone from one of the most prosperous outer colonies to a ghost town. 
==History==
===Discovery===
The planet of Hope Springs was initially discovered by the Orphean exploration missions in 2399. Originally discovered by a remote probe, its original passing scan was promising enough to require a follow up survey. Over the next five years, Hope Springs was subjected to five follow up surveys, of varying intensity, before being green-lit as a "tier green" colonisation project. This indicated was highly supportive for human life, and required little to no terraforming for habitation. A lush planet with earth like seasons, it had moderate changes in temperature from steamy summers to mild winters, and extensive forests. Most notably, the planet had a number of supercontinents with extensive giant freshwater lakes, and a few external saltwater seas. 
The initial surveys were highly promising, with extensive mineral wealth and potential farm land, but tempered by sombre environmental concerns. A cost-effectiveness survey was performed, and between the delicate conservation measures, and the distance from established slipspace routes, it was not deemed financially viable for the large scale colonisation efforts required to make it profitable. This resulted in the colony being passed up for by the UEG for colonisation. 
===Colonisation===
The first colonists were independents, establishing small, self-sufficient communities, desiring peace and quiet for simple agrarian life. Mainly descended from Finnish Lutherians, they established several small decentralized communities around Meri Sininen (Blue Sea) and Vihreä Sininen (Green Sea), most with a population under a thousand, though the largest had a population of ten thousand. These small communities lived in largely self-sufficient ways, with limited trade and infrastructure. They survived off fishing, limited farming, and clean energy. 
These colonies were established between 2415-2422, but due to the less than legal manner, these colonies and their decentralized politics were not recognized as a legal government, and their name for the planet, Karelia, was not accepted. The planet, legally, remained unnamed and uncolonised, which opened it to abuse. 
===Gold Rush===
The Colonial Settlement Co-operative was, on the surface, a co-operative organisation that settled colonies and established enterprises with corporate backing, but remained co-operatively owned by the colonists themselves. You would first need to pay in to the co-op and they in turn would, gather funding to establish a colony as a corporately owned enterprise, the corporation being owned by the colonists. With the funding debts repaid, the colonists would then own the colony, and the businesses on there, and nominate their own board members to administer the colony and its economy. The truth was, that CS Co-op was effectively a pyramid scheme, operated by a conglomerate of corporations that sought to rapidly exploit planets for significant financial gain. Initially, they would handsomely pay co-operative members, as part of their reward for breaking ground on the colony, but this was paid in from the fund of new co-operative members buying in. By then applying debts with astronomical interest that would quickly snowball, they effectively locked colonists into indentured servitude.
CS co-op had performed several independent surveys in 2415 and decided the colony was ripe for colonisation, and would be the perfect for their exploitive business practices. With the earlier colonists, now referring to themselves as Karelians, having no legal ability to stop them, CS Co-op assembled colonial mission. The planet's extensive arable land and mineral value attracted both corporate backers and co-operative buy-ins, with almost a million co-operative colonists lined up to colonise what was now known as Hope Springs. The Karelian colonists were now outnumbered 12-1. 
The first colony vessels arrived on 2429, with the intent of establishing the first major colony, and break ground ahead of following waves of colonists. Approached by the Karelians, they were dismissed as trespassers by the co-ops, but they did happily take their maps. As most of the co-ops were English-speaking colonists from the Inner Colonies, the place names named in Finnish became tautological, with Meri Sininen Sea (Blue sea sea). The colonists quickly developed the capital of Hope Springs city, with establishment of the colony's main power plant, and infrastructure in two years, and by the third year they had started establishment of the first orbital elevator. More co-ops were flooding in by the day, and the establishment of the space port and orbital elevator only increased the flow. Karelians looked on with disbelief as they quickly cleared their beloved woodlands for vast tracts of farming, and began great strip mining efforts. While most Karelian settlements were some distance from the Co-Op settlements, they could see the clouds on the horizon. Karelians attempt to peacefully establish concordance with the Co-Ops, but Co-Ops rebuffed every attempt, some even ending in violence. Requests for an agreement to recognise Karelian domains were outright rejected. But so far, neither side had come into conflict, yet. 
Both groups came to openly disdain one another, with the locals referring to the CS co-operative colonists as Co-Ops, or sometimes as Tunks (Short for 'tunkeilija', Finnish for 'Intruder'). In turn, the Co-Ops would refer to them as Karelians, but as Trespassers in the pejorative. Due to the distances involved, conflicts were few, but that would be upset by the arrival of a third group. In order to maximise profits CS Co-Op used a group of itinerant workers referred to as 'Co-Op associate'. They had no ownership in the co-operative, and were paid directly by corporate backers. They had no permanent settlement rights but would stay until the job was done and no more profit was to be had. This group was known as 'Lanths', relating to them primarily working in rare earth element mining, though this wasn't always the case. The Karelians knew them as Vaeltajat (Finnish for 'Itinerants'), or just Vaels, intentionally drawing on the English homophone 'vile'. They would earn this nickname well enough. 
===Golden Years===
The colony of Hope Springs was well established by 2435, with Hope Springs City housing hundreds of thousands, and more settlements established in short time. Many were growing towards north eastern shore of Vihreä Sininen Sea, opposite to the Karelian communities there. the Co-Ops established large farm lands, clearing forests, plains, and steppes to use, and built factories, and refineries, along with both surface and subsurface mines. One of Hope Spring's most valuable resources was its multitude of rare-earth elements, but some of the most valuable lodes was under Karelian land. These remained undisturbed. Co-ops viewed the Karelians as trespassers on their rightful land, and tried intimidation but rarely resorted to violence. 
The structure of the co-op colony was a nominated board of directors for the board of Good Springs, but this board in turn was required to report to a representative Colonial Settlement's backers. Effectively the nominated board were powerless, compared to the actual corporate board. They appeased the nominated board to keep them operating, but as they slowed their operations ran up against the Karelians. At this point, the corporate board announced the introduction of the Co-Op associates. The Co-operative members buy in for a right to co-operatively own the colony itself, giving them land rights and income from the colony itself, but this requires a buy-in. this locked out the co-operatives to usually middle-class who are looking to travel away from more populated Inner Colonies for a fresh start, with promise of a profit. But Associates are itinerant workers, with no land rights, who often manager their own work directly under the Corporate Board, rather than as part of the Co-Op board. While the Co-Op members come from somewhat affluent backgrounds, Associates are any worker willing to answer the call. With no permanent settlement rights, they are posted up and paid in hand until they choose to leave. some also possess independence in their work so long as they bring in a profit. These Associates were not subjected to any background checks, so they could comne from potential any background, but these lax checking processes meant they were often criminals who were unable to find work elsewhere. This would become the Corporate Board's tool against the Karelians. 
In 2449, the lower than anticipated profit from the colony prompted the corporate board to increase their over-site, and diversify the portfolio of the colony. They expanded the mining operation, they began mining of it's satellite, Penelope. They cleared more and more land for farming, and began using tributary rivers for vast irrigation projects, established more industrial capacity. They also began more unsavoury activities, establishing the Alton Lab, a biochem weapons facility of one of the backers, BMQ Biotechnics. They also established a Uranium enrichment facility belonging to Atomics Solutions, in a closed settlement. On a corporate owned colony, neither was required to follow the stringent protections placed by the UEG, and both operated in a dangerous manner that would each cause disaster. Fracking operations, and dangerous unregulated mining was rampant. The establishment of a massive oil rig on Vihreä Sininen would be part of the growing expansion. 
The final years of the 'Golden Years' were marred by the start of ethnic cleansing. With the Co-Ops unable to shift the Karelians with intimidation, it fell to the Lanths to move them with violence. Settlements were torched, families slaughtered, to clear them for industrial use. Karelian settlements on the interior of the primary continent were razed or destroyed, and hundreds were killed. The surviving Karelians, angered and embittered, retreated to the shores of Meri Sininen, removed from their farm lands. The forced marches would kill more still. The Lanth gangs that attacked and evicted the Karelians were vicious, many engaging in depravities that the Corporate Board could not care about. With the Corporate Board exerting its power, the industry across Hope Springs expanded further and further. What would follow would be fifty years of human caused disasters that turned the lush world into a tomb. 
===Meri Sininen Sea Disaster===
The Meri Sininen Sea was a vital place for the local Karelians, who used the vast freshwater lake to support them, with fishing, and using it in a constrained manner to support irrigation projects to their farms, and with the arrival of the Co-Ops they'd also started using it to make caviar they could trade with their neighbours, to try and keep terms well. However, the largest of Meri Sininen Sea's tributaries was the site of a massive irrigation project for the growing farming projects of the Co-Ops and the 'Vaels', as the CS Associates became known to the Karelians. At first, its effects were subtle, with the low tide being an inch or two lower that normal, but then it grew worse as more tributaries were choked by Co-Op water projects, reducing raging rivers to trickling streams. The water receded by two metres a year, as the water naturally evaporated off the lake, but was not refilled from the tributaries. 
As it receded, it left once coastal towns stranded far from shore, and fishing vessels were left rotting in what was now a desert. While the sea was freshwater, it had a low level of salinity, and as the sea rapidly receded, it's salinity levels became much more concentrated, becoming a toxic nightmare that killed the freshwater fish within it. As it retreated further, it left deposits of salt flats and pesticides washed in from the farms up stream as a loose particulate dust, which could blow into toxic dust storms of lethal nature. The sea fragmented at first, becoming three smaller seas, then two, then only one, and a fifth of the size of the original. Pathetically small, the sea was now a toxic mass, where nothing survived. The towns around it went from lush coast settlements to salt encrusted desert towns. Vegetation died en-masse, forest and steppe replaced by desert. Further, as the lake came close to drying up, the weather system began to go berserk. Once, they had humid summers and mild winters, but now as the desertification took hold the temperature could vary from as high as 55C to -42C at any time of the year. The once gentle sea breezes were now violent storms that battered the surviving settlements. The towns were further choked by clouds of toxic dust, pesticides poisoning the body and salt stinging the eyes and throat. Cancer rates increased tenfold, lung conditions shot up. 
The Karelians who could fled, leaving behind their rapidly dying homes. They moved to lakes further afield, settled in the last few years, further from the Co-Op settlements. For the Co-Ops, the death of the Meri Sininen Sea was an unfortunate accident, a lesson to learn, some even more callous celebrated its demise, viewing the lake as functionally useless when that water could feed their crops. But the Meri Sininen Sea was a canary in the mine, and with its death it signalled that Hope Springs was dying. As one lake died, others followed, causing a runaway disaster the Co-Ops could not stop, and Corporate simply didn't care about. Of the 40 super-giant freshwater lakes in the Co-Op area of influence, each would begin to reduce massively in size over the coming years, with most being reduced to a fraction of their original size, and some disappearing entirely. By 2467, Meri Sininen Sea disappeared, finally drying up, and was replaced by the Meri Desert, a cruel and unfortunate name.
===The Twin Disasters of Crystal Rivers===
Crystal Rivers was a valley settled north of the capital of Hope Springs City. Originally settled by a few small Karelian villages, these had been joined by a larger Co-Op settlement on the river that handled refinery work for some of the surrounding mines. But further up the river was what Corporate had designated as "conservation area 12" which was not to be disturbed. This was a cover for Atomics Solutions closed city, which functioned as worker housing and amenities for their nuclear weapons facility. Here, nuclear material was shipped in from other mines, refined, and enriched for use in nuclear weapons, or for nuclear reactors. Originally, the site disposed of its nuclear waste through a corporate sanctioned method by placing it into containment tanks for later disposal. This was already in breach of the directives of the UEG Nuclear Energy Organization (UEG NEO), but without government over-site, this secretive facility was free to do as it pleased. But, when the containment became full, they simply dumped excess waste directly into the Crystal River. 
Even in a fast moving river, dumping nuclear waste directly into it would be disastrous, but Crystal River was slow, often pooling into swamps or wetlands. This let much of the nuclear waste settle and irradiate the surroundings. The Co-Op and Karelian communities were never warned, with all of them exposed to life-changing Sievert doses, causing massive increases in cancer, health issues, fertility problems, and birth defects, and other health conditions. The local land effectively died, and the rivers no longer had bountiful fish. Irrigated crops failed, leaving the communities dependent on the river at a loss. Assured that their was no issue, the Karelians packed up and left, but the Co-Op communities remained, trusting the party line. 
But Conservation Area 12 had another disaster waiting. The waste storage tanks were poorly cared for, and left to rot in the dumping site. Each container contained super-hot material fresh from use, which required extensive cooling systems. One such cooling system failed, but was not replaced or repaired. As heat built in the containment unit, so did pressure, eventually resulting in a catastrophic explosion. The containment facility was cratered, and ejected a mass of radioactive material into the air as a cloud of dust. With CA12 not affected by the disaster directly, work continued. No alarm was raised beyond a local one for CA12 workers. The radioactive cloud floated across the northern territories, affecting several settlements. The growing weather system failure helped to spread the cloud further than anticipated. 
As settlements began to encounter a choking radioactive smog, pressure came to corporate. They responded by accusing the Karelians of unlicensed reactor usage, while also packing up CA12 and evacuating with any usable materiel. While inquisitive Co-Ops entered the grounds of CA12, their reports were largely ignored by the Co-Op board. However, the accusation leveraged against the Karelians had consequences, as angry Co-Ops burned down two Karelian villages in the area. Several towns were hastily abandoned, resulting in the northern reaches being considered unusable and off limits. Ultimately, Atomics Solutions got out of Hope Springs without anybody even realising they were there, and only after polluting the environment to almost unusable levels. AS made no attempted clean up and left much of the radioactive waste as dumped. 
===The Dust Bowl Begins===
===Supercell Storms===
When the UEG originally completed its extensive surveys of what became Hope Springs, it found that while rich in resources, the planet's weather system was very carefully balanced by Föhn Winds from the mountain ridges and balanced by the super freshwater lakes. Water would evaporate off the lakes, becoming rain clouds, and rain onto the high mountains, creating a cycle that allowed for lush vegetation to grow, and for the freshwater seas to form, and maintain themselves. In this way, seas like Meri Sininen acted as moderators, ensuring the weather remained mild, that rain continued to drop, and temperature variations remained moderate, even across seasons. however, as these important lakes began to reduce in size, or drain entirely, their ability to moderate the weather began to fail. As water went into plumbing and irrigation, it went into the ground water rather than into system of rivers and lakes. Whats more, Co-Op reservoirs and damns kept more water out of this cycle. 
As the weather moderators were disrupted, or ceased to exist, so the weather grew out of control. At first it was just high winds, and temperature fluctuations, but this generated into enormous supercell storms that began to ravage the colonies. With almost no precipitation, these dry, deadly storms brought with them super-fast winds, and relentless barrages of lightning. They hammered the colony, as temperatures fluctuated from freezing to boiling with almost no pattern. Buildings were torn apart, people launched into the air, and repeated lightning strikes starting forest fires and damage colonial structures. 
This was only the tip of the iceberg. As the storms ripped through dead lakes like Meri Sininen, it picked up the salt deposits, the deposited pesticides that sunk into the dust, and the radioactive dust the CA12 disaster dumped into the air. Loose dirt dug up from mining operations, and the erosion of soil from irresponsible farming, created vast dust storms, blotting out the sun, and choking the longs. The high speed abrasive winds eroded wood and metal, and even strapped exposed skin away. Such storms were a death sentence to those outside without protection, and became more and more frequent. The first storm lashed the Meri Desert in 2462, and they increased to at least one supercell storm a year. It increased to two a year, then three a year, until 2470, when the planet was wracked by no less than fifteen supercell storms that year, each originating from a desert left behind after a vanished lake. Wind and water power-plants ceased to be usable, and solar power plants failed, increasing colonial reliance on nuclear power-plants.
===Dropping Water Levels===
===Vihreä Sininen Oil Disaster===
===Pleasant Hills Tectonic Failure===
===The Collapse and Exodus===
===Fairbank-Wayfarer Collision===
===Lab 9 Activities===
===Penelope Mining Disaster===
===Corporate Withdrawal===
===Ascalon Failure Event===
===Clinging to life===
===A second start===