Industria Planitia: Planting the Flag on the Red Planet
Since the earliest days of manned spaceflight, it has been the dream of many nations to create a thriving community somewhere beyond the reaches of Earth, and the great science fiction writers have often written of great colonies, or even civilizations, on the various celestial bodies of our Solar System. Now, technology has caught up to fantasy to make such dreams real. Though it was not the first to do so, the Underwood Industrial Empire is among those who have been successful in the quest to expand its borders beyond the cradle of humanity with the establishment of a colony in Elysium, an equatorial volcanic region in the eastern hemisphere of the planet Mars.
That colony is known as Industria Planitia, or "Plains of Industry" - and it was immediately admitted into the U.I.E. as its sixteenth city-state, on equal footing with Underwood City and the other terrestrial city-states.
Like most offworld settlements, Industria Planitia began solely with automation, with robot vehicles and prefabricated structures. But they had to be built first - and to that end, a fleet of rockets was ordered by the U.I.E. Navy, which controls all "vessels" - from the seafaring ships built at New Providence Shipyards, to the massive zeppelins that fly around Underwood City and Illuminopolis, to the rockets that launch into orbit. Three facilities have been constructed with the express intention of servicing the rockets and paving the way for Industria Planitia: The Alan B. Shepard Launch Base in Amesport (the first rocket launch facility built in the U.I.E.), the Imperial Center Launch Base in Underwood City, and most recently the Blackstone Launch Base in Illuminopolis. The shipyards in New Providence were altered to construct three long-range rockets - UIEV Trailblazer (based in Amesport), UIEV Perseverance (based in Underwood City), and UIEV Hyperion (based in Illuminopolis) - to make the journey. Although the Perseverance was completed first, delays in testing prevented its launch, and the design flaws found in it led to it being the second of the three to be launched.
Thus the aptly named Trailblazer would be the first to land on Mars, launching from Amesport carrying the remote-controlled vehicles and prefabricated materials necessary for constructing a colony on the surface. Among the cargo was the first bio-dome to be built for prospective colonists, refined from the bulky prototype designs erected in the New Holbrook neighborhood of Underwood City prior to the ship's launch. Upon entering Martian orbit, the Trailblazer released a series of survey satellites to pinpoint an ideal landing site before the automated systems brought the ship and its cargo in for a landing.
The first and oldest of the domes built on the surface, thus dubbed "Imperial Landing", was built in a shaded ridge not far from the Trailblazer's original landing site. As it was to be - for a time - the only habitation in the colony until more resources could be brought from Earth, the dome was also accompanied by a number of prefabricated structures to be set up both inside and outside the dome, as well as an army of worker drones that would construct and maintain the colony's structures and collect and store what resources they found - or created - in the colony itself. It featured what the planners dubbed to be the basic necessities for the single dome: Housing units for the colonists, hydroponic farms to grow food, an infirmary, a security station, a diner, and a grocery store. A prefab water-reclamation spire was placed in the center, in order to ensure a steady supply of the precious fluid for the colonists and the hydroponic farms.
Outside the dome, the necessities to generate its life-support were added - a MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-situ Resource Utilization Experiment) generator to create oxygen inside the dome, vaporators to collect what moisture could be found in the atmosphere, and tanks to collect additional water and oxygen in the event of mechanical failure. A series of pipes connects the various structures outside the dome, giving it a slightly cluttered look. The colony also came with a number of Stirling generators to create power, and power cables to connect the various structures to the power grid, and a control hub and recharging stations for the colony's drones.
As time went on, the colony began to grow by leaps and bounds. A great biodome was established on the ridge above Imperial Landing, and became known simply as "the Capital", a great clear dome (compared to the "star-marked" domes of the remainder of the colony) that is described as "a little slice of Earth". The center arcology spire, at the summit of which is the office of the Governor-General of the colony, is surrounded by a great rocky park, and a sort of "moat" on the edges of the dome near the airlocks provides a kind of "riverside" feeling. The landscape is based somewhat on - and uses soil and water from - the banks of the Skytrail River in Underwood City. As it was the "center" of the colony, a landing pad was set right outside the Capital on the spot where the Trailblazer originally landed; an obelisk nearby also memorializes the spot.
Spurred by the inventive minds and research facilities of the colony as it grew, Industria Planitia became more and more self-sustaining, eventually developing greater technology than was available (or viable) on Earth. The first major project to be completed was the Industria Elysium Observatory, set up just outside the Capital, with far greater range and accuracy than any of the U.I.E.'s observatories back on Earth. To speed up supply runs without having to brave the atmosphere (especially during the periodic dust storms or meteor showers), a great space elevator links the surface to a point in orbit. Another landmark was the colony's main power plant, creating what was essentially their own miniature sun through the power of fusion, providing the colony with an almost inexhaustable source of power - provided there was enough water to maintain the cooling systems and regular maintenance by the worker drones. The power plant - with the Stirling generators as backup - also provides energy for the colony's Meteor Defense System (MDS) laser batteries, which can blast incoming falling objects out of the sky before they damage the colony.
Within the nearby "Elysium Oasis" dome are a series of larger farms, more open than the "stacked" hydroponic gardens, and giving a real sense of "working the land".
As it was named for industry, and founded by an empire built on it, a number of factories for extracting the concrete and metal resources on Mars (to lower the dependence on cargo runs from Earth) were set up on the surface as well. The largest were near the Industria Major, Industria Minor, and Industria Minimus domes on the eastern edge of the colony - two concrete extractors (one of them quite large), and a deep core (mohole) mine that brings up metals, including rare metals that fuel the colony's economy when it is shipped back to Earth. The widening area of the colony also required the construction of hubs for a series of automated shuttles to rapidly carry cargo from one end of the colony to the other at greater speed than was possible with relying on the sturdy but slow worker drones.
The colony's population has risen to more than five hundred souls - barely enough to be considered a village, let alone a city-state in its own right. However, the colony's self-sufficiency, considerable industrial and economic output, and the very fact it is the only U.I.E. settlement on Mars (for the moment) led Grand Admiral Underwood and a majority of other officials, many of them from the scientific and academic community in Illuminopolis, to dismiss concerns about "overambitious shanty-towns" disrupting the balance of power. (The fact that the majority of the population also came from the other fifteen city-states is another factor.) For the Grand Admiral, Industria Planitia represented more than just the U.I.E. planting the flag on its little portion of the Red Planet - it represented the future of the Underwood Industrial Empire itself.
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