Off-world Frontier Colonies (OFC)

Postings from the staff working at the Historical Archives.
Locked
User avatar
Historical Archives
CE STAFF
CE STAFF
Posts: 114
Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2014 2:22 am

Off-world Frontier Colonies (OFC)

Post by Historical Archives »

About 600 years ago Off-world Frontiers Colonies (OFC) began as a small company exploring recycling and minor terraforming, turning depleted soil back into rich, fertile soil.

Their experiments led them in the direction of self-sustaining bio-spheres, first on earth, then Mars and then, building on their success, in orbit.

OFC designed and developed the first Mars colony habitat about 600 years ago. It didn’t happen overnight. At that time the primitive rockets required waiting until Earth and Mars were approaching before launching. It took about 7 months to travel one way to the red planet when Earth and Mars were closest.


Wow, seven months just to travel between two planets in the same system!

Prior to sending humans to the planet primitive boring machines were sent. They drilled into the sides of Arsia Mons, Pavonis Mons and Ascraeus Mons to a depth of one kilometre. This allowed the humans to shelter from the radiation while assembling shielded habitats.

Remote controlled robotic devices were sent ahead as well. These contained sampling rigs, robotic 3-D habitat printers and other machines that would be required to establish a colony.

Because of the dangers of radiation during manned flight, large tanks of water, harvested from the asteroid belt, were placed in orbit near earth. The ship left Earth and rendezvoused with the tanks and took station on the leeward side from the Sun. This layer of water helped protect them from the solar radiation as they made the long journey and the water would be landed on Mars for use in the construction of the 3-D printed habitats as well as other uses.

While the fledgling colony was trying to get off to a good start OFC turned its attention closer to home. Something had to be done to ease the population of earth.

Their first major development was the Eden Orbital Habitat (E.O.H.), about 500 years ago. Each habitat could hold 250,000 people and they were largely self-sufficient. Hydroponic gardens used waste water, receiving nutrients and filtering the water before it was sent to the recycling tanks for final processing. Water was the only consumable that needed replenishing. The capture of the icy asteroids eliminated the expensive uplift of water from earth and made the habitats viable.


It must have been something to look up from the earth and see the habitats glittering in the sky.

OFC had four habitats up and functioning. A million people were now living in space. It was then that disaster struck. Habitats five and six were in their final construction phase in low orbit when they suddenly exploded!

The Alliance for Mankind claimed credit for the attack and became the system's most wanted criminals.

The cost of the attack was a staggering five billion dollars! It was only OFCs reputation and diversity in their business model that allowed them to survive. Eventually they had ten habitats orbiting the earth.

OFC had worked with Gleso Industries and began large scale industrial mining on Mars. As Mars gained economic independence they struck for total independence from earth. OFC, deeply invested in Mars, requested the assistance of the New Earth Defense forces to quell the “rebellion”.

The New Earth Defense force overran the primitive orbital defenses around Mars and made planet fall. In just under three days of fierce fighting space marines take back control of Mars central. The loss of life on both sides is staggering.

After several weeks of intense negotiation Mars Independence, supported by a large part of the Martian population, is recognized as a legitimate political party. One concession demanded by OFC is a permanent contingent of space marines on Mars. M.I. claimed it was an illegal occupation, to no effect and the marines stayed.


Contingents of space marines are placed in every orbital station, including mining stations across the system. This was a savvy political move as it demonstrated to Mars that it was not just the martian planet and it sent a signal to everyone that the New Earth Defense would maintain order.

After the discovery of the gate the massive ARK project began. OFC was heavily involved due to their extensive experience in enclosed habitats.

While there were hundreds of habitable planets to choose from, there were also planets that would require domes to protect the fragile settlements. OFC began extensive studies of the atmospheres of these planets and created habitats from materials best suited for that particular environment.

OFCs future was tied to the galaxies around the Sphere and the Core was left far behind.
Dana Dawson
Data Recovery Tech
Historical Archives Division
Locked