House Salus resumes terraforming projects
03 Jan 2023Salus News Network
House Salus retakes all systems colonised by the late Arch-Duke Ferdinand of Salus, in an effort to resume stalled terraforming projects.“It is my honour to announce that the Salus Imperial Society has reclaimed all systems that my late father Ferdinand colonised so many decades ago. We vow to restart all terraforming efforts in these systems to create more habitable space for the future of humanity and the Empire.”
The Arch-Duchess underlined in her speech today that the goal of House Salus is to restart the terraforming projects on a number of planetary bodies, which were settled by the late Arch-Duke Ferdinand of Salus. At the time it was tradition within the House to hand these terraforming projects over to local factions. This allowed House Salus to concentrate on finding, and settling new terraformable planets, but also helped to establish a local community in the newly settled systems who would be united by working for a common purpose.
But Danial Shields, the governor for House Salus’ systems, affirmed the dire state of the terraforming projects:
“However most of these local factions, instead of advancing the terraforming projects, used the resources left behind to accumulate short-term profits. All but one planet has not yet started terraforming, and the remainder were abandoned in the survey stage. Production lines were used for profit instead of making vital machinery, survey equipment, and surface installations required for turning these planets into habitable earth-like worlds. We have a lot of catching up to do.”
The planet Danial Shields mentioned is HIP 6182 B4, which is - at the moment of publishing this article - the only planet currently undergoing the terraforming process. The system also contains an earth-like world, but environmental restrictions require that the earth-like world is properly studied and surveyed before considering it for human settlement:
HIP 8722 A4 is a beautiful ringed water world prime for terraforming. But before human settlers can be sent down to settle the planet, the scientific survey of the oceans needs to be completed. Efforts have reignited under House Salus’ rule, as the head of the Science Directorate in HIP 8722, Jeniffer Halsten, told the News Network:
“It was intended for HIP 8722 A4 to become the fish-basket for the newly colonised frontier, but the Bunbudo Group kept slashing the research budget. Diving expeditions were no longer possible at all, and every survey drone we sent took months to replace on the tight budget. All of that money went to bonuses for their executives. Under House Salus’ rule, the funding increased significantly again, and we are now finally able to send teams down to study the wild-life up close. And we are even planning on building a permanent research base on the ocean’s seabed.”
The Salus Imperial Society recently took over HR 358, which contained two terraformable planets. The planets A6 and A7 have massive amounts of frozen water locked beneath their surface. Once the frozen water was released they’d start a water cycle, leading to rivers and even oceans. A prospect that Jennifer Halsten welcomed:
“We could use algae and plankton from HIP 8722 A4 to colonise those newly formed lakes and oceans. They will help with saturating the atmosphere with oxygen, slowly pushing the atmospheres to be friendly towards land-based microorganisms. And once you have those, you have fertile soil for plants, who then can further transform the atmosphere to be breathable by humans.”
While the work to terraform these planets will span a generation, it is exactly for future generations that House Salus undertakes this work. Our children and their grandchildren will harvest grains from the soil of HR 358 A6, go fishing in the vast oceans of HIP 8722 A4, or herd cattle up and down the snowy mountains of HIP 6182 B4. We are expanding the future of humanity, and the Empire. Until the stars fade.