Deep Space Colonies

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The concept of the colonies that was sold to the general public was one of an off-world paradise. While some planets did eventually become just that, they are the product of the blood, sweat, and tears of generations of colonists.

TERRAFORMING: Terraforming began at home in the 2010s, repairing the earth’s ecosystem from the ravages of war and pollution. The next step was the Moon, where localized areas were pressurized and transformed. Mars soon followed. While global warming was arrested as soon as the processors took effect, it still took decades to make the Earth whole again. In a move to acclimate people to the idea of life amongst the stars, Sir Peter Weyland offered incentives to move off-world and colonize the solar system while the Earth healed. The strategy was successful, and soon colonies were popping up as far away as Saturn. Within a decade of the inception of the FTL drive, Weyland Industries had set up an Atmospheric Processing Plant (APP) on an extrasolar world, and it wasn't long before people were eager to colonize there as well. In the 21st Century, terraforming helped humanity to settle the stars. The costly process was exacting and only performed on planets that had near earth conditions, thus prompting the planet to help sustain itself once the expensive terraforming was complete.

When the Yutani Corporation merged with Weyland Corp at the start of the 22nd Century, terraforming was deemed unprofitable and put to rest. Instead, W-Y astronomers searched the heavens for planets that could support human life on their own. Colony missions like the Affiance and the ill-fated Covenant were sent off to start life on newly discovered Earth-like planets. Without the enormous economic strain that the Weyland Corporation had endured in their efforts to transform entire worlds, Weyland-Yutani prospered. The new model wouldn’t last. As more and more people relocated to the existing off-world colonies, populations on these worlds soared and resources again diminished. Soon, the supply of habitable worlds was outweighed by demand.

BUILDING BETTER WORLDS: Over the next fifty years, more and more resources were found on barren worlds along the shifting Frontier, prompting Weyland-Yutani to resurrect terraforming and create a new fast and dirty form of atmospheric processing. Recycling a hundred-year-old ad campaign, Weyland-Yutani again boasted they were “building better worlds.” The claim was and still is debatable. Colloquially called a “Shake and Bake” colony, an Atmospheric Processor (AP) is introduced to a planet or moon to scrub its atmosphere without the safety standards of the original Weyland APPs. Essentially giant fusion reactors, these completely automated W-Y APs still require constant monitoring and maintenance, and colonies are often set up on worlds for the sole purpose of servicing them. Weyland-Yutani has deployed APPs across the Frontier, creating colonies on any world that might have exploitable resources.

Terraforming can be a misnomer. It can take decades to transform a planet’s ecology, and it doesn't always hold. Most of the worlds undergoing the process will never become earth-like. They are barren, desolate, and alien places that the processors can only alter enough for man to survive on without a pressure suit. Some of these worlds even require APs to constantly run in order to maintain a suitable atmosphere, making the processor a prime target for enemy powers and insurgents. Some planets or planetoids that are rich in mineral resources are simply unable to even begin to support the terraforming process. In those cases, pressurized facilities are built on the surface to house laborers and their families. Because of this, colonies can be built in nearly any environment. Ocean, jungle, desert, arctic, and barren worlds are all common.