///From the author: this is a brief rundown on the location of Europa, as featured in the ongoing Spacers Saga story, The Europa Goodbye. Included are a couple of maps put together to illustrate the basic look and feel of the settlements there, as well as some lore about the history and present of the frozen moon circa 2351 CE, when the story takes place - with luck, this one will be out for you all to see in full sometime next year. When it is, these maps might just make it into the addendums, and the lore therein will be more fleshed out as a matter of course
Story pitch for The Europa Goodbye
2351. While the Draconist Wars tear the Solar System apart, a fragile peace is held in place on Europa by the Jovian Security Force, a corporate-funded mercenary police bureau.
Darius Maroney, a J-Sec agent and veteran of the Titan Civil War, is given a special case: a murder investigation involving a wanted fugitive who once led Draconist cells in the revolution.
But this case unveils a scandal that reaches far beyond the catacombs of Port Midas. And as Maroney races to get to the bottom of it the plot, he might find out just how expendable he is…
Check out Chapter One HERE
Map and Background of Europa
Demographics/Statistics
First reached by humans: July 2029 (uncrewed); October 2091 (crewed)
Current government: Europan Resource Authority, est. February 2217
2351 Population: approximately 11.3 million (estimated per the 2346 census)
Capital: Port Midas, Conamara district; population approx. 1.3 million
Affiliation: Interplanetary Cooperative Administration; Interplanetary Dynamics
Government: quasi-democratic oligarchy (administered by the ERA for a cabal of corporate entities, primarily IPD); HQ - Central Control Terminal, Port Midas
Primary industries: high-tech R&D; cryo-computing (intense cold used to support high-speed computation); manufacturing (IPD is a major defense contractor)
Historical Notes
Jupiter's frozen moon was first settled in 2114 as part of the Pathfinder Organization’s push to establish a permanent human presence in the outer solar system. During the expansion into deep space which filled much of the 22nd century, Europa became a focal point for outer system commerce, all of it conducted under the authority of the ICA.
By the 24th century, Europa has become a home to generalized commodities transit under the purview of the Europan Resource Authority (ERA), which oversees the moon for Interplanetary Dynamics (IPD). This organization, though not quite a political entity or a corporation in the strictest sense of the word, is the single largest commercial transit business in Solar Space, and oversees highly profitable trade in and out of the Jovian system.
The ERA maintains order amid the ongoing strife of the era of Draconist Crisis in the outer solar system by way of the Jovian Security Force (J-Sec), a mercenary police force comprised mostly of former IDC military personnel who crack down hard on local union agitation and keep the wheels of the Europan commerce industry well-greased by any means necessary.
Port Midas - The Backdrop of The Europa Goodbye
As of 2351, Europa's population of is largely contained in a handful of massive, self-contained rotating urban housing projects, similar to the "glass cities" on Luna and elsewhere. The largest of these, Port Midas, is home to roughly thirty percent of Europa's population as per the most recent census. Many of the population only remain there for the chance to work in the sprawling shipping hubs which make up the center of mercantile giant Interplanetary Dynamics' mission of sending goods across the rest of Solar Space.
Port Midas is the capital of the Europan colony and has a population of approximately 1.3 million, spread between seven wards (numbered by order of their construction). Each of these is a separate and self-contained centrifuge city, approximately five kilometers in diameter and about three kilometers in height from their base to the upper rim. These cities spin on their long axis to provide a modicum of centrifugal gravity to the population, in order to prevent microgravity casualties among the thousands of worker inhabitants.
The seven wards of Port Midas are laid out around the Central Habitation Terminal (8), which also houses the shuttle landing pads and administrative offices. It is from this central point that the ERA runs Europa as a sort of technocratic fiefdom, with E-Sec as their force in readiness to contend with errant syndicalists and Draconist sympathizers. As of 2351, almost ten years after the Jovian Civil War ended, the bosses on Europa are eager to get on with business as usual, even though people still turn up dead with alarming frequency.
Major Factions on Europa
The Interplanetary Cooperative Administration (ICA)
Notes:Â
Officially founded in 2051 with the adoption of the Tyndall Accords by the UN, it was devised as a means to prevent interplanetary conflict in the vein of the Lunar War of October 2049, which pitted the major spacefaring powers aligned with NATO against those aligned with China and the Shanghai Pact for control of lunar resources
The ICAÂ provisions the ERA to lord over Europa as it sees fit, all in the interest of allowing IPD to conduct its intrasystem transit duties with limited interruption. With the Draconist Wars raging, this commerce is more vital than ever, as resources shipped in and out of the Jupiter and Saturn systems support the ICA war effort
The Galilean Union
Notes:
After the chaos of the 21st century, many refugees from Earth sought opportunity in the outer system, with the Galilean Union formed in 2182 as an outgrowth. During the long peace of the 22nd and 23rd centuries, the Jovian sector enjoyed relative prosperity, which endured right up until the Mars-Titan War (2294-2299)
Following the passage of the Harrison Accords in 2301, however, the wind sowed by decades of growing inequality began to reap a whirlwind of violence. With the fall of Callisto to Draconism in 2324, the Union became essentially a rump state, and was only a shadow of its former self by the rise of the Alliance in 2341
Interplanetary Dynamics (IPD)
Notes:
Founded in 2122 during the so-called Golden Age of Space (2097-2157), IPD was originally meant to leverage the new technology of plasmadyne magnetic sailing to establish an interplanetary trade network for the ICA. For most of its first two hundred years of operation, it performed this function with only limited corruption
By the mid-24th century, however, it had come into such a position of power in the outer system that it effectively owned Europa as a fiefdom, in spite of the ongoing agitation of the Draconists. With its enormous influence, it is rumored even to sway elections on other worlds and in other sectors throughout the outer solar system
The Europan Resource Authority (ERA)
Notes:
In the fifty years after Europa was first settled, it rose to prominence as a hub for outer system transportation and commerce, especially after the rise of defense contractor Interplanetary Dynamics (IPD). This megacorporation is heavily involved in the military industry across all of Solar Space, from Venus to Neptune and beyond
In 2217, they joined three other major conglomerates to establish the ERAÂ to oversee Europa, which was already on its way to being their chief production hub in the outer system. In 2351, the Authority runs Europa like a business, with a panel of corporate oligarchs at the top of the pyramid and millions of workers stuck scraping by beneath them
The Jovian Security Force (J-Sec)
Notes:
Founded in 2334 at the height of the Jovian Civil War (2325-2342) to safeguard ICA economic and social interests in the Jovian sector, J-Sec boasted a staff of roughly half a million sworn agents by 2389. More than half of these served on Ganymede, working in the various seasteads of the RoG
Most of these agents were veterans of the Spacer Corps or Colonial Security Force, and they were known to enforce regulations favoring ICA commercial interests in Jovian space with ruthless dedication, even if it meant shooting first and asking questions later
Divisão Revolucionário Armado de Callisto (DRAC)
Notes:
Draconism arose as part of the surge of nationalism which swept through the frontier following the passage of the Harrison Accords, which codified the status quo for the Solar Civil War in 2301. From there, it quickly infested the entire Jovian system, and later dozens of settlements across rest of the outer solar system
By 2351, the Jovian system has been nominally at peace for nearly a decade, although remaining DRAC cells still produce occasional outbursts of violence. On Europa, most of this comes in the form of the syndicates, criminal enterprises peopled by former Draconists motivated by the thriving black market to be had there
More to come, when it's ready...
This is brilliant. Your map work is fantastic as always. We should put these in the final novel when it comes out next year. We could call the big Encyclopedia "the frequency," in honor of this blog, and work them into the chapter breaks.