[galonrever]

Hey everyone, I've been doing a little searching but am struggling to find much of an answer. How many GTVA colonies existed during the events of FreeSpace 2?

I know there are obviously civilians, as we all escorted a lot of civies as Alpha 1 in the main campaign, and I know there's at least one inhabited colony in Deneb (Cygnus Prime, Vasudan colony), but I'm struggling to find references to many more.

It seems a little presumptuous to assume that every Terran or Vasudan system had habitable planets in it - surely there would be some, like in Capella, Beta Aquilae or Deneb, but others would likely only have orbital installations, mining platforms, resource extraction or other operations in them...

I imagine some planets had minor terraforming or city domes or something.

Basically, I was wondering if there were any other references to systems with habitable planets in them - I'm trying to get a better overview of the GTVA's setup for a potential piece of writing (or maybe a campaign, if I find the time and energy). I'm working on the fleet Order of Battle, and want to make something that makes sense within the game world.

I know there are a few theories out there, and the likes of the Blue Planet team have developed fairly robust rosters for their campaigns and fleets (of which, my story may link to if I get permission). Just trying to see what people think the GTVA population/planet situation was like in 2367 - thought it might be pretty interesting if they only had one or two planets each and the rest of their people were scattered to the stars... would give more meaning to 'the lost generation' 

[Iain Baker]

Good question, I had been thinking this myself. If there were relatively few systems with properly inhabited worlds then the loss of Capella would have been a massive blow. If it was more like the Elite Dangerous universe with hundreds of such worlds it would be more a case, 'bad but not disastrous'. If it were like the Dune universe with about a million such planets then it would be a case of 'meh' (So long as it wasn't Arrakis if course ;-)

[Nyctaeus]

Capella has at least one habitable planet and it's actually visible in High Noon - the green one with large aglomeration area visible from orbit. Another one is present in Polaris - the Neo-Terra itself, proclaimed by NTF as new homeworld of terran race. Aldebaran become new capital world of Vasudan Empire after bombardment of Vasuda, so it's likely to have a habitable planet and vasudans presumbly colonized it long before Great War. Altair IV [or V] is habitable by vasudan standards, but it wasn't colonized before Great War. I assume that PVN colonized it too after Vasuda Prime was destroyed, also to study Ancient ruins.

I guess that worlds which declared independence after colonial part of GTA collaped - Luyten, Adhara and Regulus have their home planets respectively. Larger political bodies need a planets to sustain. It's is possible that some of them were purely based on installations however. Delta Serpentis follow the same scenario with GTA itself.

I was thinking about this for little alternate-story scenario I have in mind. I guess habitable planets are relatively common in terran and vasudan space, and many of them are inhabited both by terrans and vasudans, including Cygnus Prime. During T-V War, various systems were contested or changed affiliation several times, so terran colonies existed in PVN space and vasudan colonists lived in GTA space too.

[Colt]

I think it's also safe to assume that Antares and Sirius both have at least 1 major colony, given their runs for independence as well (Reconstruction era and NTF Rebellion respectively).

Also for your Fleet ORBAT, check this out if you have not already. https://wiki.hard-light.net/index.php/FREDZone_Fleet_Organization It's speculative and non-canon, but it's still pretty neat.

[Nightmare]

The Aeolus was produced by the RNI shipyards orbiting Laramis II.

[galonrever]

Thanks, Colt - I was looking for that ORBAT, but hadn't found it yet

Nightmare, I'd also thought of the Aeolus and Laramis, but Laramis II wouldn't necessarily have to be colonised/habitable to have a shipyard in orbit. It could be a rocky world or have a dense ring rich with minerals from a broken up moon or something.

I'm not saying it wan't colonised, just that we don't know whether it was or wasn't

[Colonol Dekker]

No more in capella


I like to think there are some in polaris where the iceni was thrown together.

[Nightmare]

Interesting point. I did actually not consider it, as most industries on current Earth are not necessary near the places where the raw materials are extracted, so I thought that you'd find only mining stations there and the shipbuilding occuring closer to civilisation.
Although - you could have an Arcadia or something similar instead of a planetary colony.