New to Colonia?

Location and Travel.

The Colonia region is within the Eol Prou sector approximately 22,000 LY from Sol, near the border of the Inner Scutum-Centaurus Arm with the Odin's Hold region of the galactic core. The most prominent feature is the nebula, which is over 50 LY across, and sits within a dense cluster of B-class stars.

A set of 6 surface resupply outposts and a newer set of 3 orbital stations break the journey from Sol into easier and shorter stages, and the neutron highways are well mapped.

The populated region now consists of 21 systems and is approximately 100 LY in diameter. Visitors are recommended to take some time to look around - the entire region can be visited in a few days - and get their bearings.

Trading.

Compared with the Sol region, High-Tech and Service economies are much more common. On the other hand, there are not yet any Terraforming economies - the settlement is small enough not to need the extra living space yet. Colony economies are also very rare - in general, Tourism economies have taken their place.

None of the systems have a high population so supply and demand levels for goods are generally low - however, many of the outlying systems also have low traffic levels, so surpluses and deficits can build up.

Decent profits can be made on relatively short journeys for those who know where to look, and prioritise less serviced markets. The additional profits enabled in the Sol bubble through the policies of particular Powers are of course not available, but the strong Colonia economy makes this less necessary.

There is only one rare good - Jaques Quinentian Stills - and the radius of the Colonia region is too small for sales to be profitable anywhere locally. It's worth picking some up if you plan a side trip to Kashyapa or Polo Harbour, though.

Exploration.

In the early days of Colonia cartographics services were rare. Nowadays, a wide range of stations provide these services - for historical reasons, the Colonia Hub surface base in Colonia and the Colonia Dream Coriolis in Ratraii do not, and nor do most stations in the specialist hydroponics hub of Kinesi.

The Colonia region is near to numerous larger and planetary nebula in the Festival Grounds area, and is just above a large neutron field. As a well-equipped settlement with a reasonably central position, it makes an excellent base for expeditions to most of the galaxy.

Lagrange clouds are common around the nebula, including species of umbrella mollusc. The Holloway Biosciences Institute has begun a research programme, and will gladly pay for samples collected using Research Limpets.

Combat.

Bounty hunters are always required in the region, as pirates look for easy pickings around navigation beacons and at resource extraction sites, while mercenaries can find regular work in the minor conflicts between partner organisations. There are also many installations and megaships in the region, including some Unauthorised Installations, which occasionally require defending.

Some local criminals may have travelled here to escape a bounty in the Federation, Alliance, or Empire. There are no local offices for these superpowers, so you will either need to save them for a trip back to the Sol region, or employ an Interstellar Factor to do this for you.

Piracy and Espionage.

A large number of megaships are maintained by the Council for logistics purposes, both to transport cargo within Colonia, and to maintain the Highway stations towards Sol.

These ships carry rare cargoes and localised cargoes which are sometimes in great demand in the region either on the conventional markets or for tech brokers.

There are also a very large number of installations, used by the Council to provide facilities separate to the primary orbital stations. The cargo holds and data transmitters of these are also vulnerable to pirates.

The usual opportunities for pirates to intercept courier ships are also available, and traders should provide for suitable escorts.

Obviously, the Council does not condone this activity, and interference with these facilities is strictly prohibited.

Missions.

With so many partner organisations running the Colonia region, there's always work available for independent pilots-for-hire, especially those who take the time to establish their name locally. Mostly the requirements up here are very similar to those in the Sol region, but those running passenger liners should note that:

• Local Tour VIP passenger requests are not on offer.
• A large number of long-range passenger requests to visit tourist sites in the Sol region are available, and a bit of forward planning may allow a profitable grand tour to be set up. These requests do tend to crowd out the more usual long-range exploration surveys, however.

Tourism systems are sometimes good places to look for one-way trips back to the Sol region, either for passengers or their postcards. Thursday mornings, just after a few unfortunates have missed the regular cruiser services, are the best time for these.

In general, partner organisations in the denser parts of the region around Colonia itself will offer a wider range of assignments, due to the higher diplomatic complexity of their position.

Mining.

The briefness of human occupation of the region means that all mineral reserves are classified as Pristine in quality. The majority of inhabited systems have some mining opportunities, though relatively few have metallic asteroids. Mining options are shown for inhabited systems in the system catalogue, though experienced miners may find better opportunities in nearby uninhabited systems.

A strong local economy is generally favourable to the selling of gemstones mined from asteroid cores, though prices can vary rapidly over a few days with local demands, and the best prices may require some patience.

Outfitting and Shipyards.

With the construction of the Colonia Applied Research facility, the region is capable of producing almost all outfitting components, though availability will depend somewhat on local stock levels and economic situations. As the region is independent of the superpowers, the ships produced by these are not generally available.

Long-range shipping of items from the Sol region is possible, but due to the low demand, high distance, and excessive insurance requirements, this is exceedingly expensive - generally over 30% more than the items cost themselves! In general it's better to buy locally wherever possible, even if this may occasionally mean using a slightly less effective component.

Drake-class Carriers can be purchased from the capital shipyards at Jaques station, and auxiliary shipyards capable of refits are in the Asura, Deriso, Luchtaine, Ratraii and Tir systems.

Engineering.

Colonia has full engineering options locally for both ship and infantry equipment, and with the permission of a Sol region engineer, remote workshops are available and can be used to supplement local provision. Exclusive blueprints are available for the Shield Cell Bank, Interdictor, Life Support and Fuel Scoop modules.

The Council has convinced a number of technology and material brokers that the region is worth setting up operations in, and these are based as follows:

• Data: Colonia Dream, Ratraii.
• Raw: TolaGarf's Junkyard, Kojeara.
• Manufactured: Foster Terminal, Coeus.
• Human Tech: Bolden's Enterprise, Tir.
• Guardian Tech: Jaques Station, Colonia.

In addition to conventional sources of engineering materials, some installations have satellites which can be scanned for data, and miscellaneous manufactured materials (as well as some cargoes required by the Tech Brokers) can be found in the debris around the wrecked bulk carrier in Luchtaine or in its cargo holds. Recovery of salvage from this ship is authorised by the Council.

Note that the local ship equipment engineers require a referral from a Sol region engineer, which must be obtained before departure. The materials required to pay tech brokers - especially the Guardian broker - may also be difficult or impossible to obtain locally. Normal engineering materials may all be obtained locally.

Factions and Politics

The settlement of Colonia has led to an extremely unusual distribution of factions. Major differences from the Sol bubble include:

• All factions are Independent. There are no superpowers in the region.
• There is a very strong bias towards the 'Cooperative' faction type, which is rare in the Sol bubble. Some government types are unique to Colonia.
• Each system has one or occasionally two home factions. Other factions have expanded there to fill the remaining space. Retreats are therefore more common.
• The Colonia Council faction has been placed as an initial (non-native) faction in most systems, and while it has since Retreated from many of these it still retains a substantial presence.
• Over half of the factions are player-founded, mostly through the Colonia Expansion Initiative. While the Sol bubble has approximately one player faction for every 10 systems, here the ratio is one player faction for every two systems.
• Systems have low NPC population levels but often relatively high player population levels, which allows for rapid changes in influence levels.
• The area does not fall within any Powerplay bubbles and it is in practice impossible for any power in the Sol bubble to accumulate enough CC to expand here, though Sirius and Kumo representatives are present in a minor role.

Two of the systems - Colonia and Ratraii - are restricted. Factions may not expand into those systems, and factions already present may not fight for control of assets.

Criminals will be transported to the Odin's Crag detention facility in Eol Prou LW-L c8-127. This also covers the Kashyapa highway system, with Polo Harbour marking the start of the Gandharvi jurisdiction.

Tourism points of interest.

There are several dockable megaships, asteroid bases and ring-embedded stations.

Magellan is one of the few inhabited systems with a neutron star primary.

A large number of installations, mobile megaships and other sites are present in the region, including the famous umbrella molluscs, and the Holloway experimental habitats.

A rare glowing green gas giant - only the fourth to ever be discovered - can be found in Eol Prou KW-L c8-32.

The infamous World of Death (Spoihaae XE-X d2-9), a landable body which passes through the cone of a white dwarf, is around 600 LY away.

The Colonia Highway.

To provide resupply facilities for ships travelling between Colonia and Sol, two sets of stations have been set up. A large fleet of support ships travels between Colonia and these stations on a 12-week cycle, to ensure that they remain well-stocked and to rotate crew.

The first set, consisting of six mostly-automated surface bases, was constructed in late 3302 with the assistance of Latugara PLC to provide accommodation and rest for freighter crews supplying the early settlement.

These facilities - Polo Harbour, Gagarin Gate, Sacaqawea Space Port, Eagle's Landing, Amundsen Terminal and Hillary Depot - are generally positioned in or near nebulae on the route between the two regions, and have very basic facilities. They are directly administered by the Colonia Council.

A second set of stations, in the Kashyapa, Gandharvi and Rohini systems, was constructed in late 3303 by the Kamadhenu Chapterhouse of Inquisition, to provide support for the Blue Star Line freight and passenger service. These systems each contain a large Orbis starport and a secondary outpost, near Earth-like Worlds surveyed by Chapterhouse officials.

These systems - while strongly backed by Imperial interests and run under traditional Imperial Patronage governments - are at least nominally independent of the Empire, and much more dependent in the short-term on Colonia-based resupply. The Colonia Council maintains offices in the systems for diplomatic purposes.

In 3307, a large fleet of megaships was constructed through the Colonia Bridge project to provide a much denser resupply route and connect up most of the existing nine systems, supplemented by more substantial stations at key points along the route.