Project Ahuiateteo

**Project Ahuiateteo** was a crash program started by Mexican Vacuum Command in the 2080s that produced Mexico's five Super-Orbitals. From 2097 to 2112, the project was under the direction of Major General Edwin Jaso, who would later be promoted and given command of the stations themselves. The project was named Ahuiateteo after the five Aztec gods of excess and pleasure, and employed one of the most successful media disinformation campaigns in history to convince the public that these habitats would be extravagant tourist destinations to disguise the true intent of the project. Project Ahuiateteo began modestly in 2087, but grew to the point that it caused Mexico to achieve near-full employment and cost nearly US$650 billion (over US$1.2 trillion in 2140). Over 90 percent of the cost was for building the actual stations, with only 10% toward military R&D efforts.

The Ahuiateteo Orbitals, often called the Ahuiateteo Fortresses, served as the backbone of Mexico's space economy and forces. From these stations Mexico was able to construct a space fleet at parity with the United States and defend its operations on Mercury.

## History

Mexican policy think-tanks worked in secret during the 2080s to draft a plan for creating a credible counter to US power in Space. US power in Earth-Luna space was seen as unassailable, and the US had enforced a policy of military dominance since the end of World War III. Mexican defense policy analysts argued that the only way Mexico could credibly counter the US in space was to build several military defense platforms in the Earth-Solar Lagrangian points, and use them as platforms to launch an expanded space force.

The project would be taken over by Vacuum Command veteran Edwin Jaso in 2097, who began funneling money through AEM research grants to several industrial mining operations to capture a series of asteroids to serve as fortified platforms to deploy and command Mexico's military forces in Space. Mexico had a respectable space mining industry, but were completely dependent on US controlled space elevators for space access. Dummy companies were set up to finance the development of these asteroids for the military under the guise of civilian space colonies. Covert organizations like the Sunlight Manufacturing Company were established under a civilian guise in order to build combat drones for space warfare. According to statistics at the time, the massive Mexican space-armament policy almost led to full employment during the 2090s, with industrial production briefly outpacing that of the Earth-Luna sphere of the United States in 2099. The re-armament began a sudden change in fortune for many corporations in Mexico, who's recovery had been sluggish by most estimates.

For ten years Project Ahuiateteo was conducted in total secrecy, with most observers convinced it was yet another ambitious vanity project by an upstart power. The US military had virtually no assets positioned at Earth-Solar Lagragian orbit beyond asteroid collision early warning satellites, and thus Mexican engineers and robots were able to work without interruption. By 2112 Mexico had five habitats completed and over a million of its citizens began flocking to these resorts with Vacuum Command recruits and their families slipping into the population. After a series of shakedown tests, Mexican President Miguel Caso publicly disclosed that these platforms, while indeed home to thousands of civilian families, included a sizable military garrison, and to demonstrate their capabilities a single kinetic strike from one of the Earth-Luna Orbitals was carried out on a small island in the South Pacific. While the yield of the impact was impressive, 2 killotonnes, the distance terrified the American public and escalated the Mexican-American Cold War.

Mexico then used these heavily armed platforms to build and maintain a larger and more nimble space force, deploying a few thousand drones and attack satellites upon their debut, and training its in-space commandos from this position. The threat of planetary bombardment and the political fallout that would come from killing hundreds of thousands of civilians forced the US to accept these orbitals as a reality for a quarter century.

## Fate

Mexico's orbitals were all captured or depressurized during the Third Mexican-American War by the Colonial fleet.