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Theia is an inhabited system on the borders of the Sol Central Government known primarily for being the headquarters of the Third Fleet. Located strategically at the gateway closest to several key frontier systems, Theia became known early on as a strategic chokepoint worth defending. Today, military and civilian personnel alike call the Theia system home and work tirelessly to maintain it as the Fortress of Sol.
History
In the early days of the Terran Commonwealth, expansion efforts were mostly focused on finding habitable planets to export Earth’s excess population to. Because of this, Theia was considered to be of little strategic value when it was first visited in 2138 by Commonwealth Explorers, but a gateway was built to serve as a springboard for further systems like Copernicus and Gamma Cephei. The Commonwealth briefly set up a hydrogen extraction operation on the system's gas giants, but it and its colonists were abandoned at the outbreak of the Commonwealth Civil War.
Left to its own devices, the system was unprepared for the arrival of a small pirate fleet made up of Ares Confederation holdouts at the end of the war. These warlords claimed the system as their own from 2228 to 2232, before the newly formed Sol Central Government dispatched the Third Fleet under Admiral Monica Halvarstrand into the system, recapturing Theia as a gateway to further expansion and solidifying itself in the popular consciousness as the first ever victory of the Solar Fleet.
The fight for Theia soon proved worthwhile as the Phoron star Erebus was discovered in the Nyx system, and the corporate quest for Phoron brought corporations like NanoTrasen, Hephaestus Industries, and SAARE into the Theia system in droves as a springboard for frontier expansion operations.
In 2266, a Vox raiding fleet entered the system and was defeated by Third Fleet ships garrisoned in orbit. This marked the first time the Solar Fleet had decisively beaten a direct Vox incursion, further cementing Theia’s role as the pride of the fleet and causing the Solar Senate to commission the construction of Sol Fleet Base Halvarstrand, a new headquarters for the Third.
Theia remained a prosperous logistics hub and military installation for decades following, and a launchpad for any public or private venture aimed at curbing frontier piracy. Since the foundation of the Frontier Alliance in 2311, Theia has only emboldened its militarization and defensive measures.
System
The Theia system is centered around a white dwarf star of the same name, and while rich in astral bodies, notably lacks any habitable planets. Three massive asteroid belts dominate the system, and the unstable orbits of these belts make long-term habitation a challenge.
The closest thing Theia has to its own Earth is Vera, a Venus-like planet with an incredibly volatile and noxious atmosphere located in the inner belt. The massive roving storms on Vera's surface and constant bombardment with meteors originating on the belt have made any attempts at surface habitation a net loss.
The system is also host to three gas giants: Romeo, Juliet, and Mercutio. Romeo and Juliet – also sometimes called ‘the Lovers’ – share an anomalous binary orbit with each other, the only documented case of this happening anywhere in known human space. This makes it a hot spot for researchers who want to test the strange physics resultant from such a peculiar stable orbit. Mercutio is on the edge of the system, past the third belt, and is known for its deep blue color and thin, icy ring.
Theia’s population centers are contained within orbital space stations that surround the system's important infrastructure. These range wildly in quality, from military base housing to corporate luxury condos.
Government
As an inhabited system with no planets or surface settlements, Theia is uniquely positioned as far as Sol member states go. Its strategic position as a military installation and logistics hub means that the federal government pays special attention to the politics in the Theia system.
Officially referred to as the Theia Sector Municipality, the government of Theia is a duumvirate in which power is shared between an elected representative known as the Prime Minister and the Sector Governor, a military office appointed to someone of the rank of Commodore by the admiralty of the Third Fleet. While this joint power is largely accepted by the people of the Theia system, a significant population of people being subject to unelected rule is a subject of controversy – the Fleet has maintained that this office is a vital instrument of national security, however.
The office of Sector Governor is currently occupied by Commodore-Governor Emilia Price, who has come under fire in recent months for nationalizing some of the system's logistics infrastructure in an effort to better prepare the Fleet for potential conflict with the Frontier Alliance. Prime Minister Emmanuel Noktobu, a member of the Solarians for Freedom and Rights party, has been unsuccessfully trying to introduce legislation to limit the powers of the Sector Governor.
Lacking a planetary body, Theia is not represented in the Solar Senate. Theia does send five representatives to the Solar Assembly, however, two of which are appointed by the Sector Governor.
Economics
Much of Theia’s gross domestic product stems from services rather than goods. While considerable amounts of hydrogen, water ice, and nickel-iron are produced in-system, Theia primarily functions as a logistics and administrative hub for other systems. The majority of the system's population not working directly for the Fleet is employed in warehouses, administrative stations, spaceports, and customs offices.
Theia makes a considerable chunk of its revenue from tariffs placed on goods coming through their space towards the core. While these fees are considered steep, it's more economically viable than having to go around and find another gateway if you’re coming from Nyx, Castor, or any other resource-rich frontier system. Large corporations have avoided paying the bulk of these tariffs by opting to subsidize the Theian government directly.
Culture
Theia is considered to be a conservative stronghold within the Sol Central Government. Though its population is smaller and more spread out than most Sol-aligned systems, Theia has a culture of pervasive nationalism and civic duty. By and large, citizens of the system consider themselves citizens of Sol first rather than identifying culturally with their system or their local culture.
The majority of Theia's population lives in or around the in-system military base. Families of active duty Fleet personnel – as well as those of the people who work in and around SFB Halvarstrand – live all around the system, both in private and government-subsidized orbital housing.
Corporate residents of the system are fewer, but still make up a considerable chunk of its population. Oftentimes, corporate employees travel without families and live in-system on a much more temporary basis. For specialists, executives, and management types, luxurious space stations are available for residence, with many on-station amenities such as casinos, shopping complexes, and integrated gardens.
Corporate Ties
Sol’s corporations have a long and vested interest in the Theia system. Theia is considered a gateway to the frontier, and all corporations that have ambitions beyond the borders of Sol have some kind of presence in-system.
SAARE maintains an office in the outer asteroid belt, and uses it to lease escort fleets to ships headed out for the frontier. Despite the efforts of the Fleet, piracy is still a problem for ships leaving from and returning to Sol’s jurisdiction, and this problem has only increased since the advent of the Frontier Alliance. Wealthier ventures, be they colony expeditions, shipping contracts, or mining prospects, often find the easiest way to ensure their safety is with private security due to the Fleet being slower to act and too overwhelmed to focus on small, individual trips.
NanoTrasen also maintains an office inside the Theia Gateway Complex due to the system's proximity to the Nyx system, one of NanoTrasen's most valuable assets. Most traffic to and from Nyx uses this gate, so NanoTrasen has a vested interest in employing personnel to monitor the flow of commerce and streamline the gateway translation process.
Hephaestus Industries has several ties with various locations in the Theia System, both in their involvement with the Jerome Experimental Power Laboratory and in their collaborative ship repair yards surrounding SFB Halvarstrand.
Notable Locations
Halvarstrand SFB
Halvarstrand SFB – sometimes called Fort Halvarstrand, but most often just referred to as ‘The Fortress’ – is the largest orbital defense platform in Sol Central Government space. Equal parts defense infrastructure and Fleet logistics complex, the Fortress is considered the most iconic and prestigious Fleet base.
The Fortress is surrounded by ten large defensive platforms containing experimental long-range mass drivers. Similar to the cannons on Yari-Class destroyers, each of these massive weapons is crewed around the clock to keep both pirates and Vox incursions at bay.
The outer ring of the Fortress is lined with hangars for strike craft, both active duty and experimental. Many prospective pilots from the Fleet are sent to the Fortress for flight training because of the wide variety of available strike craft to train on. Every Third Fleet pilot spends at least a few months at the Fortress, ensuring that these craft are always ready to respond to threats at a moment's notice.
The interior ring of the Fortress is a sprawling complex of munitions depots, material warehouses, dry docks, and shipyards used to maintain the vessels of the Third. Fleet engineers and civilian contractors alike work to ensure these facilities run efficiently, and Third Fleet vessels are often coming in and out whenever they are between assignments.
The Fortress is built around a central spire, which acts as a communications and administration hub for Third Fleet vessels. Massive computers, servers, and data storage hubs are surrounded by offices and monitoring stations that government officials and officers of the Third make their base of operations.
Jerome Experimental Power Laboratory
In the far orbit of the Lovers is a heavily-armed complex of civilian research facilities known as the Jerome Experimental Power Laboratory. What started as a shuttle bay and refueling depot during the days of the Terran Commonwealth was repurposed after the Gaia Conflict to be a state of the art research facility.
While originally designed to research exotic materials such as Supermatter and Phoron, the Jerome Experimental Power Laboratory primarily focuses on developing new means of vacuum propulsion for military vessels. The Fleet is rumored to maintain R&D facilities for several classified projects here, including the infamous Rockfish-Class stealth craft.
Despite its inexorable ties to the Solar Fleet and being overseen by the System Governor, the Jerome Experimental Power Laboratory is entirely staffed by civilians, with the property being leased to Hephaestus Industries since the 2290s. Employees of the site are heavily-vetted, and require extensive background checks by the OII to even set foot on the well-defended station.
McGowan Institute
Established in 2254 by retired Commodore William J. McGowan, the McGowan Institute of Interstellar Warfare was focused primarily on studying and expanding upon military knowledge gained and lost during the Commonwealth Civil War and the Commonwealth's subsequent collapse. The McGowan Institute is highly regarded as an educational institution, with a cutthroat admissions process and a heavily-vetted staff that make it one of the top producers of officers for the uniformed services of the Sol Central Government.
Initially a small campus, the McGowan Institute received a federal grant to rebuild after its campus was partially destroyed by the Vox raid of 2266, and has since been an institution to rival any other of Sol’s prestigious universities. Many of Sol’s most famous military leaders attended the McGowan Institute, including Admiral Diwali and Colonel Montgomery of the Gaia Conflict.
Among ensigns, cadets, and junior lieutenants across all branches of service, those from the McGowan Institute are coveted by commanding officers due to the school's internal culture of hard work and dedication to the Sol Code of Uniform Justice. Graduates from the McGowan Institute often receive their commissions the same day as their diplomas, and have a fancy ceremony in which they wear a special parade dress uniform in glistening white.
Crime
Piracy has always been the number one crime plaguing the Theia system, and is inexorably tied to its history. Even with such a heavy Third Fleet presence, smugglers still regularly attempt to pass through the system's edges and surrounding stars as a shortcut from the wealthy frontier to the core of humanity. This is one of the factors that has given the Third Fleet its reputation and experience, and their constant vigilance for pirates has kept Theia one of the most policed systems in all of Sol.