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(A674ABC-B, pop=30b, city, green [Earth] farmland, blue forest, grassland, steppe) {Spanish, English}
Esperanza is a gas giant moon in the Epsilon Indi system. It was colonised many centuries ago, in the second wave of sub-light exploration from Earth. The primary is called "Faith".
It was here that humanity had its first encounter with aliens. Esperanza lies at the end of a branch off the Main that was claimed by the Xa Imperium. Three years after first-fall, the colonists were amazed to detect a vast spherical alien craft entering orbit. The haughty Xa made it clear that humans were welcome to live on their world, but that they would be expected to pay tribute in proportion to their population. The stunned colonists had little choice but to acquiesce. Esperanzans became citizens of the Xa Imperium, learned to make their own jump-1 drives, and were eventually allowed some access to other Xa worlds.
The jump-drive designs were transmitted back to Earth, where the initial delight soon turned to frustration when it became obvious that only a handful of Core worlds were accessible from humanity's home world.
It was many years later that the Esperanzans discovered that they shared the planet with yet more intelligent aliens. The "Batwings" were a shy, telepathic race, with somewhat insectoid bodies. They lived in vast underground burrows, and shunned all contact with humans. Unfortunately for them, the Batwings both resembled Earthly "devils" and possessed inexplicable "magic" powers. Religious zealots grew to hate and fear them. The "New Puritan" religious movement arose, and began a series of pogroms against the Batwings, and their human sympathisers. Eventually the Batwings were exterminated, but not before they had passed on the secrets of telepathy to many of their human friends. The Puritans' violent campaigns continued, and drove these "human witches" to the edge of extinction.
Not satisfied with waging war in their homeland, the New Puritans also embarked on a violent revolution against their Xa masters. A series of bloody campaigns established first their independence, and then increasingly large territories along the branch that has become known as the "Human Corridor". Xa and other alien populations were uprooted, and replaced by human colonies, under the sway of the "Esperanzan Commonwealth".
Earth's invention of the Jump-1+ drive, about a century ago allowed Earth to join forces with the Commonwealth, and launch the "5th Xa War". Together, they drove the Xa entirely out of the Corridor, and captured the world of Xa-Arrack - now renamed "Gateway". In the "6th Xa War", the Commonwealth allied with the Long Republic, and finally broke the back of the Xa Navy. Allied fleets penetrated deep into the heart of the Imperium, and razed all of their shipbuilding yards. To date, the Xa have shown no signs of recovering from this blow. The Imperium is a shadow of its former self.
17 years ago, the "witches" emerged from the shadows. Long laid plans were put into effect, and the Puritans were swept from power almost overnight. A secret group of human telepaths seized power and declared "Year Zero". The Commonwealth was revealed to be a hollowed-out state, the "Illuminati" had infiltrated almost every level of government. Puritan zealots were executed en masse. Only a handful made it to the safety of Earth, or of the Commonwealth's distant colonies. Many of those have now been hunted down as the telepaths have consolidated their grip on power, and subsequently moved to subvert and conquer Earth itself.
There still a handful of Puritan colonies. Chief amongst them is New America, where a Commonwealth task force was recently beaten back, with the aid of Fteirle mercenaries.
Procyon is also host to a small Puritan population.
The Commonwealth Navy is headquartered on Esperanza, with a major forward base at Casseopeia (1315), where most heavy squadrons are based. A light squadron is on constant patrol at Gateway (1414), performing customs inspections, and watching out for incursions from beyond. Light squadrons also patrol the entire Corridor - each system is visited at least every 2 weeks. Landing craft check in at each inhabited world every month or so.
A heavy squadron is always tasked with patrolling the Rimward Main (beyond Nebelwelt - 1216). Populated systems between Lashdi (0919) & <rimward> (0917) can expect a visit every six months or so. The Rimward squadron's job is to fly the flag, and try to suppress piracy.
Almost half of the entire Navy is now based at Earth (1719) - this has severely depleted the defences at Cassiopeia.
All ships are constructed at Esperanza. The typical design is a 1-2000t missile frigate, with light (streamlined) & heavy (armoured planetoids) variants. Roughly 1/3 of the fleet is equipped with J1+ drives, while the remainder are battle riders.
The Commonwealth Navy has about 3,000 frigates, and 500 associated tenders, tankers, landing craft, and "hard kill" battleships. A typical squadron has 11 frigates, and a larger command ship, which is usually armed with a variety of weapons, and carries a contingent of Commonwealth Marines. A Fleet consists of about 800 squadrons, with associated support vessels. The CN has three fleets - based at Cassiopeia, Esperanza, and Earth. There are about 200,000 fighting men, and ten times that number of support staff.
There are "Bastion networks" of defensive battle stations at Esperanza and Cassiopeia. Gateway has a lower profile network of mines and battle stations guarding the incoming jump points. The worlds of Esperanza and Cassiopeia also have substantial planetary defence networks - mostly missile based.
Commonwealth Navy personnel are predominantly male. Ratings wear mustard yellow jumpsuits, while officers wear red. Ships and uniforms are emblasoned with the CN sigil - three golden raised fists against a black background. Every unit is assigned a telepath officer, who uses his powers to assist operations, and also ensures that the crew remain loyal.
The Combine (Spanish: La Union) is a state-sponsored mercantile venture, that exists to project Esperanzan power far beyond the Commonwealth. Read about it here.
The Combine operates scout bases which function as an information gathering, and early warning network. There are scout bases across a swathe of the Rimward Main, at Turad (0815), Suakan (0916), Delta Pavonis (1118), Altair (1218), Ostracon (1219), and 671 Lyrae (1220).
New America (1530), the Combine's most distant outpost, has resisted the esper takeover. The New American puritans are less radical than their Esperanzan brothers & sisters, but their freer thinking spirit meant they rejected repeated attempts by the Combine leadership to introduce telepath officers.
(B765547-9 pop=300k, dark green poisonous forests, jungle, desert) {German, Spanish}
Bessel was colonised via sub-light directly from Earth, although early explorers from Esperanza surveyed the planet before the colony ship "Marinus Van Der Lubbe" arrived. The planet has a lush vegetation that is highly poisonous to human and Xa alike. The Imperium had only a small landing field located in one of the planet's deserts.
When the colonists arrived, they decided to embark on an ambitious programme of forest clearance and soil sterilization. While this approach has been successful, the colony has grown painfully slowly.
Today, a small communist government rules the planet by popular consent. They maintain a small but capable starport that is a common stop-over for traffic heading out from Esperanza. Bessel is a member of the loose "Commonwealth" that was established by Esperanza during the struggle to drive the Xa out of Corridor. Besselers are terrified of an Esperanzan take-over. The Next Step party is growing in popularity, but so far the Communist party has managed to hold on to power.
(C532243-6 pop=200) {Spanish}
The Commonwealth maintains a starport on Mirfaq as a service to shipping. There is no other convenient source of propellant in the system, so J1 ships are forced to use the starport. Many of the starport personnel are secretly telepathic agents. They skim the thoughts of travellers and feed the information back to Esperanza's intelligence service.
Processing fuel from the planet's shallow seas is the one main industry. There is a small archaeological team studying Xa ruins.
(C597523-6, pop=800k, dark green forests, mountains, jungle)
Nebelwelt is a third planet in the Gliese 892 system. Formerly called Xa-Gol, the Xa inhabitants were evacuated as part of the armistice settlement that concluded the 3rd Xa War. Humans from Bessel (1417) established the new colony, that they called "Nebelwelt" (Mist-World).
The world has lush vegetation, a dense atmosphere and wide oceans. The atmosphere is often filled with fog or mist. There are many flying creatures, some of which are quite hostile.
Today, Nebelwelt is a sleepy agricultural world. Commonwealth forces have seized control of the starport, which is an important stopover for Jump-1+ craft en route to Teowahaha (1017). Year Zero has not yet made much difference in the rural outback. The jungle-choked ruins of the abandoned Xa towns are shunned by the Nebelwelters, but are a minor tourist attraction for visitors from the starport.
(Terrain: hell-hole with thick, corrosive atm. Acid rain.)
For a century, Cassiopeia was the Commonwealth's frontline against the "Xa threat". The system was captured during the 3rd Xa war, giving the humans a beachhead only one jump from the bastion at Xa-Arrack (Gateway - 1414). Despite the hostile conditions, great effort was put into expanding the colony - which had been a modest Xa mining base. Trade florished and Cassiopeia became a crucial stop-over on the Corridor - the last human colony before alien space. At its peak, its hiring halls rivaled those on Junction (0712).
After Xa-Arrack itself was captured during the 5th Xa war, Cassiopeia remained the Commonwealth's military "backstop". Naval squadrons are stationed here, ready to strike back at any Xa encroachment on Gateway.
Much trade still comes along the Corridor, but the J1+ drive has enabled many human ships to bypass it altogether. That's undermined Cassiopeia's importance, and lead to a catastophic recession. Today Cassiopeia is wracked by unemployment, crime and falling population and living standards. Recruiters for semi-legal indentured labour services have offices in all major settlements. Rubbish chokes the streets, acid leaks in from outside, and squatters have their choice of empty apartments.
A low level communist insurgency is fighting the Commonwealth's local government. They call themselves the Brothers of Andromeda - making them metaphorically the "sons" of Cassiopeia. They have assassinated some local officials, and hacked into infrastructure systems, disrupting power supplies and transit systems. An affiliated trades union (same name) has organised a number of highly successful strikes. The organisation has been proscribed by the colonial authorities, but they have made little progress towards catching the "terrorists". Large numbers of union leaders have been detained, though. With outside support & funding, this group has the potential to be a major thorn in the side of the Commonwealth.
(C000697-7 pop=8m)
Voy used to be a backwater. A few prospectors would come here, seeking out magnetic monopoles or beryllium crystals, but few stayed permanently. That all changed when the J1+ drive was introduced. Suddenly Voy was only two weeks from Gateway (1414) and the system became a major transit stopover.
The starport is extensive, but basic. At its core is an ancient Xa military base, built into a large asteroid. Major industries are deuterium extraction & haulage from the system's three gas giants, and He3 gathering/processing from the asteroids. The Commonwealth navy has an observation hub here - it collects intelligence data from all through the Xa Imperium and the Long Republic. Several secret projects are also rumoured to be based here.
(C8B068A-5 pop=9m)
Formerly called Xa-Arrack, this planet lies in the Gliese 33 system. Gateway is a hot desert world with a thick corrosive atmosphere that orbits only 0.3AU from its star.
For centuries Xa-Arrack was a fortress, built up by the Xa Imperium as their last line of defence against the Esperanzan Commonwealth. The Xa wished above all to keep humanity bottled up in Corridor, preventing them from accessing the Main. Eventually Xa-Arrack fell, and the human "genie" escaped its bottle. The Esperanzans renamed the world "Gateway", and used it as a springboard from which to launch further attacks on the Xa.
Today, Gateway is a highly controlled frontier world. The Xa lie only one parsec away on Xa-Maxin (1514), and the Long Republic's nearest world, Vorposten (1413) is also only a parsec away. Traders from both directions use Gateway as a meeting point, and marketplace. There is a vibrant, if closely controlled, merchant quarter. This is the most exotic place most humans of the Core worlds will ever see. Goods from up and down the Main are available to buy. There are aliens from a dozen species living here, and stranger visitors regularly pass through.
Gateway's jump point to Xa-Maxin (1514) has a huge wheel-shaped space station, called "Gateway Prime". Prime is owned and run the the Combine. It is a permanent home to over 200,000 beings. Law level on the station is 10. There is a small Fteirle promise-house here.
The jump points to Voorposten & Cassiopeia have less impressive "truck stop" style stations.