Ariadna

Ariadna is a nation derived from the survivors of the first outerworld colony mission; Project Dawn. The colony ship was manned by a diverse crew of Russians, Americans, Brits and French and they were to be the first expeditionary pioneers to explore a new world.

History

The planet Dawn was located after the accidental discovery of a wormhole that connected Earth’s solar system with another. For the first time in human history a way was found to traverse the unfathomable distances between star systems. To benefit from this rare moment NASA, the European Space Agency and the Russian Cosmonautic Agency joined forces to create Project Dawn. Together they sent the first probe, Lapérouse, into the wormhole to gather data from the star system on the other side. The results of that survey convinced them to start building the first colony ship called Ariadna.

During construction two other probes were sent that found out the fourth planet in the system was suitable for human life, terraforming and colonization. The planet was named Dawn, Aube or Pассвет. This new intel caused a media storm and a second ship was constructed; Aurora-Dawn.

The expeditionary forces were drafted from the Russian, European and American areas. In addition to a flight crew and a scientific team a military force was established as well. Americans and Anglo-French crew were chosen for the military forces and Cossacks for the border control and law enforcement personnel.

Citizens were invited to sign on as well, causing whole families to be selected if they were skilled in engineering or construction. DNA samples were also taken to safeguard the genetic variety of the pioneer forces.

Surveys showed the conditions on Dawn were difficult and people anticipated arduous conditions for the pioneers.

The voyage to Dawn would enfold as follows; Ariadna would fly through the wormhole with their crew in cryogenic sleep. After landing on the surface of the planet, the military forces would establish a perimeter around the ships and explore the area. Once the area was declared safe, the settlers would wake up and starting building the first settlement.

A New Dawn

During the settling phase the pioneers would build the necessary installations and colonize the planet. The settlers started out in the Mirror Sea area, a place protected by mountain ranges. The first explorers mapped the planet and some natural resources were located nearby. The Planet was ready for the new inhabitants.

Meanwhile the Aurora was finished and left Earth, containing more colonists, resources, equipment and supplies. Unfortunately the Aurora never arrived. The wormhole collapsed during the journey of the Aurora and the ship was lost forever, leaving Ariadna completely isolated from the rest of the Human Sphere. For the ill-equipped Ariadnans, the collapse of the wormhole went unnoticed.

The Ariadna landed on Dawn and it would function as a temporary shelter for all the awaking settlers.More and more living, research and support modules were build around the ship. This area eventually gained the name of мать or Matr.

The area around Ariadna grew bigger as more military missions were undertaken to gather natural resources and explore lands. The Cossacks took it upon themselves to defend the main settlement, while other military units established other settlements in the area around мать and further away.

Hostilities

The natives of Dawn were encountered quickly afterwards, and, at first, these so called Antipodes were just considered  little more than wild animals. Most of their settlements were destroyed by the military forces of Ariadna.

Several native settlements became more and more resistant to  the presence of the pioneers and this led to an all-out attack on one of the American divisions, which suffered heavy loses in the process.

Meanwhile, the Aurora’s delay was finally noticed by the Ariadnans and their morale fell. It looked like Earth had abandoned them.

The Schism of Ariadna

Because of the loss of any contact with Earth and the increasingly hostile situation with the natives, the Ariadnans had to reconsider their politics. Nationalists within each of the groups started voicing out their concerns. Some of them wanted to stay culturally pure, as it would have created a better collaboration and work performance. This dissident sentiment and the following problems split the Ariadnans into different camps, each based around a particular ethnic group. The East-Europeans remained in Matr, founding the nation of Rodina.

The Americans left for the Wall, a fortified settlement they had established during the war with the native antipodes. The English and Scottish left for the the area of Caledonia, which was close to the prosperous mines. The French established the city of Marriannebourg, which became a natural junction between Rodina and the prosperous mines in the north.

This redistribution of resources, supplies and materials led to the Depression, a time of scarcity. Still under siege by various Antipode tribes, the Cossacks kept true to their original task; defending the Ariadnans. They established a large area of control, guarding the borders of Ariadnan territory and keeping an eye on the surrounding areas, as well as defending the settlements against Antipode incursions. Their power, combined with the low morale of the Ariadnans as it finally became clear that the Aurora wasn’t going to show up, made the Cossacks the mightiest faction on Ariadna. They created the foundations for a radical military state.

The Depression only came to an end after all the different nations let go of their independent policies and started to share a wider collaborative attitude. While some old sentiment remained with the Caledonians and Americans, they too recognized the need for an alliance with all the nations in Ariadna, although they would easily turn their back on the newfound alliance.

The Consolidation Phase and the Separatist Wars

The Consolidation Phase was an era of relative stability and industrial and economic growth. The mining of Teseum, a highly dense but light metal, was the reason for this. Even though the Ariadnans had no access to technology to process the metal, they knew its value  and mined it in large quantities.

Severe storms erupted on the surface of the planet and temperature drops pushed the native Antipodes south to warmer Ariadnan territories. Memories of the war between previous generations was still fresh for both parties and the Antipodes started what is now called the Second Antipode Offensive. This was more like an all-out war, and tribes allied together to fight of the humans and to contest their territory.

Battles were hard and bloody and both sides suffered severe casualties. The Offensive had one positive side effect; the Ariadnans allied together to fend of the attacks, making the different parties forget about politics and focus on military and humanitarian aid. The large population of refugees mixed with populations from other nations and separatists ideas were put on hold.

The Antipode Offensive also led to the birth of Dogfaces; hybrid Human-Antipodes. Pregnant women that were bitten by the doglike Antipodes would bear mutated children that shared genetic features of both races. These Dogfaces were considered second class citizens, and although they were intelligent and loving people, they formed their own group within the Ariadnan society, shunned by the rest.

At the end of the Consolidation Phase, the Cossack nation imposed heavy taxes on Ariadnan citizens, leading to the Separatist Wars. While the Cossacks defended their ideals for Ariadnan unity and progress the other nations fought for their independence and freedom. The following civil war was an atrocious and deadly one where all parties fought without any consideration for lives or property. Because of their isolationist and separatist views the French, Caledonians and Americans were no match for the Cossacks, as the different nations fought as easily against the Cossacks as against each other. The end result was the Federal State of Ariadna, where all the different nations were linked to Rodina, without losing their liberties and rights.

Reestablished contact with Earth

20 years after the Separatist Wars, both PanOceania and Yu Jing discovered the planet of Dawn, which the Ariadnans had begun to consider their own. The resentment towards Earth, that in the eyes of the Ariadnans had abandoned them, led them to not receive these newcomers well.

Both PanOceania and Yu Jing quickly settled lands on Ariadna, mining the valuable Teseum from the planet. Only the intervention of O-12 helped to calm Ariadnan tempers. Ariadna was voted as an independent nation by the nations of Yu Jing, HaqqIslam and the Nomads, while PanOceania tried to force their claim on Dawn because most of Europe and America were now a part of PanOceania.

During the Concilium, both PanOceania and Yu Jing pushed hard to establish their permanent installations and bigger companies started to claim lands on Ariadna, all fighting each other in the process as PanOceania and Yu Jing sold the same lands to different parties.

The Megacorporations enrolled mercenary forces to defend their properties and interests from the Ariadnans, whom they saw as merely an obstacle on the way to profit. This led to the Ariadnan Commercial Conflicts, which became an “every man for himself” conflict. Skirmishes between regular troops, corporate forces, mercenaries, guerillas and militias were fought on the streets and the Ariadnan wilderness. Knowing the terrain gave the local troops a distinctive advantage over the off-worlders. Before the situation got out of hand, the O-12 intervened again restricting the interests of PanOceania and Yu Jing on Arianda, leading to the Exclusion Zones.

O-12 forced Ariadna to establish a more welcoming attitude towards the rest of the Human Sphere, allowing Ariadna to become one of the biggest commercial communities in the entire Sphere because of their large amounts of Teseum resources. On the other hand, the rest of the Sphere was eager the enter the Ariadnan market with new products and technologies. Still there is an impasse between the expansionist attitudes of the great powers and the distrustful Ariadnans and as long as that impasse isn’t resolved Ariadna will remain a powder keg.