Jupiter

Posted by: Tio Silencio, Firewall Proxy

Understanding the Jovian system means understanding its size, gravity, power, and impact. It is home to the Jovian Republic, with the largest and strongest military presence among transumanity. Much like Jupiter itself, the Republic’s sheer might is both a measuring stick and a force that tugs on every corner of the system.

The Angry God

Jupiter’s size surprises the first-time visitor, especially if you’re one of the lucky few who experiences approaching by spacecraft. It’s 11 times the diameter of Earth but its day lasts slightly less than ten hours. Its colorful bands, ranging from white to brown to yellow, are beautiful from a distance but hide churning winds and storms unrivaled in the rest of the Solar System. These clouds are mostly hydrogen and helium with a few heavier trace elements; Jupiter lacks the mass to become a star, but not the composition.

A faint ring system circles close to the planet, along with over 70 natural satellites, from tiny moonlets to worlds larger than Mercury. Jupiter’s immense magnetosphere hangs over our system like a shroud. It washes the Galilean moons, especially Io, with radiation levels so high that unshielded exposure kills within hours if not minutes.

Jovian Life

Life in the Republic is a crucible that forges steel — or grinds a person to dust. The Fall taught us that transhumanity’s follies should not be repeated. The Seventeen-Minute War, the military conflict that left the Jovian system a smoking ruin, taught us that old-Earth power structures would dominate us without concern for our own well-being. And the Consortium takeover of the inner system, along with the autonomist seizure of the rimward system, taught us that we were the last hope for transhumanity’s survival.

We understand suffering. We know the need for protection, whether from our host planet’s radiation belts, the TITANs, or the insipid mistakes of the children around us. Life in the Republic is regimented, authoritarian, and safe if you follow the rules. Nowhere else in the Solar System can make this claim.

The Republic does not control every habitat and settlement in the Jovian system. Europa and Callisto remain steadfastly independent, and there are many smaller habs the Republic considers too inconsequential to bother with. Still, access to these areas by physical means is strictly regulated, especially for Republic citizens.

Jovian Settlements

Posted by: Zoe Elizabeth, Firewall Proxy

Seventy million transhumans live within Jupiter’s influence. Carving out settlements here is challenging, especially considering the Junta’s bioconservative policies restricting radiation-hardened morphs. The closer to the planet one gets, the harder it becomes to shield a hab against radiation. On larger moons, stations are buried far underground. Smaller moonlets are hollowed out into Reagan cylinders, spun for gravity, using their natural rock as buffers. It’s not without reason that the rest of transhumanity considers them unsafe, unstable, and worthless, unless you’re trying to pack a bunch of people into one place and keep them under control. In other words — perfect for the Junta.

Solano (Amalthea)

Solano is considered the nicest of the Reagan cylinders. It’s a government and hypercorp research lab with a focus on military tech. Access is strictly controlled by patrol ships and killsats. Despite the high levels of security, there have been a handful of terrorist attacks on Solano. The Junta places the blame firmly on the Autonomist Alliance and anarchist factions in the Jovian system. Whether this is true, hawks within the Republic consider it a casus belli.

Europa

No briefing on Europa does it justice; the moon is best experienced firsthand. Yes, there is native life under the ice. It evolved there for billions of years, completely independent of life on Earth. Scientists have been studying this life since before the Fall, and it was from those original science colonies that the Europan Parliament grew, an independent democracy entirely apart from the Junta. Europa is a minor state compared to the Republic or the Consortium. It is perfectly content to exist unmolested, though it maintains a minor protective militia.

Europa sits deep within Jupiter’s magnetosphere; apart from a few surface structures, everyone lives in massive bubble warrens carved into the ice dozens of kilometers below the surface. Conamara is the only major surface habitat; it acts as the elevator head for goods shipped to and from the oceans below. Tens of thousands of Europans have fully embraced life in the cold, dense, saltwater oceans, sleeved in heavily modified biomorphs and synthmorphs.

Europan culture is unique. Education and the sciences are highly valued, and Europa has the highest rate of advanced degrees in the Solar System. Undersea life has given rise to new sports, from races to aquatic orienteering.

Ganymede

Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System — larger than Mercury — and the largest population center in the Republic. Everything on or near Ganymede is a member or protectorate of the Republic. The moon is tidally locked, and while it isn’t as far inside the magnetosphere as Io or Europa, an unprotected morph on the surface takes lethal doses of radiation in less than an hour. Most of its settlements are deep underground, buried in a honeycomb of caverns and tunnels that cut through the entire moon. A few dot the surface, existing to service those deeper.

The Castle is the Junta’s information and data repository. It’s an open secret that this is where the Junta surveils its citizens. Non-AI data analysts comb through mesh traffic, entertainment feeds, security data, surveillance chatter, the latest XPorn, love letters, and primary school art projects. Everything is tagged, classified, and filed, censored where appropriate, and routed to the correct authorities. Entry is limited to a single shuttle on a single route: other ships are destroyed by killsat.

Several habitats orbit Ganymede; the Holy See (or New Vatican) is the home of the Roman Catholic Church in exile. It’s a Reagan cylinder upgraded to the point of opulence and houses many of the artifacts the Church has rescued from Earth. It serves as school for biblical scholarship, a museum, and the de facto heart of postFall Christianity.

Liberty

Liberty is the capital and largest city in the Jovian Republic. It’s a mix of deep factories and farms churning out the materials to keep the Republic running, a government town where lobbyists and moralists compete for time with the Senate, and an authoritarian police state. People here wake up, go to work, come home, and keep their heads down.

Venture far enough into the outer tunnels and deep chambers of Liberty and the Junta’s control recedes. These are, remarkably, some of the poorest and most dangerous slums in the Solar System. Some areas are such a crime-ridden free-for-all that security forces refuse to enter; the Junta simply acts like the people there don’t exist.

Liberty Station hangs in geosynchronous orbit over the city. A space elevator was planned to connect the two, but the project was abandoned when resources were redirected. The station is the main shipyard for the Junta; the Space Force keeps a quarter of its fleet here at any time, and the spiderweb-like arms and legs jutting out from the original asteroid supply hundreds of ships in various stages of construction or refit.

Callisto

Callisto is the farthest Galilean moon from Jupiter and the farthest from the Junta’s clutches. It’s a crater-pocked wasteland with little going for it except its distance from Jupiter’s radiation belts. Several city-states dot Callisto. The Republic claims them as protectorates, but the city-states see themselves as independent.

Hyoden

Prior to the Fall, Hyoden was a backwater with poor supplies and a massive labor shortage. The settlement accepted more than a million refugees who found the Jovian Republic’s policies distasteful or restrictive. In exchange for a synthetic morph, these transhumans were expected to perform three years of military service and help build the settlement. The powerful military city-state that grew from this is independent, cosmopolitan, and proud. AGIs, uplifts, and autonomists are welcomed here; citizenship is open to anyone who serves in the military.

Hyoden’s embrace of technological advancements give it a distinct advantage over the Republic. This makes Hyoden an increasing threat in the Junta’s eyes, but so far the city’s layers of missiles, killsats, and turrets have kept the Republic at bay.

The Jovian Trojans

Posted by: Hohmann Kontakt, Sentinel

The Trojan (and Greek) asteroids chug happily along at the Sol-Jupiter L4 and L5 points. Most of the residents here are autonomists who want to be away from the Republic but also want a little sunlight. Sprinkle in a few brinkers doing their own thing. Most of ‘em are perfectly fine and safe. Most. The sparseness and proximity to the inner system makes this region an ideal hiding spot for pirates and worse kinds of criminals too. Wander too far out of your element and your skull is going to be decorating someone’s control console. That’s why you need to be prepared.

Pirates

Their Trojans an excellent base from which to launch pirate raids. Several of the most notorious pirates to plague the system, like Margarita Shun and Reboot_Ex, keep hideouts here. They prey on loosely-guarded Republic shipping or automated hypercorp freighters returning sunward. Carbon reaver gangs prefer to hit isolated mining ouposts, grabbing the goods before they're shipped out. Pirates use sophisticated hit-and-fade tactics to cover their tracks. Some deploy top-of-the-line synthmorphs and ship weaponry, but most are more devious than well armed.

Locus

Locus is the largest cluster habitat ever created, spanning a jaw-dropping eleven-kilometer sphere with thousands of modules docked to its wings and spurs. At the center of the cluster floats the Amoeba, a giant sculpture that reshapes itself and changes colors.

There is no government or police; tasks are performed by various collectives and a volunteer militia responds to threats and anti-social behavior. The “economy” is based on open nanofab access, gifting, and rep favors, with the occasional barter.

Locus features everything from artist collectives to arms dealers and mining cooperatives. The Kanigawa Farms feeds the station’s inhabitants. The Pill Box is a massive drug lab and party module, where you can experience the latest petals and substances that didn't exist yesterday. Rooktown is a cultural focal point for neo-corvids and mercurial activism. Various maker spaces and hack labs work closely with Exarchia, another Trojan hab that is a nexus for autonomist hacktivism.

Boister’s Armory, an anti-TITAN research facility, doubles as station security, firing upon any would-be attacker. They work with other collectives for mutual defense of the cluster. Twice the Consortium has attacked Locus, and twice Locus has repelled its would-be oppressors.