Survey

It is the determination of this expedition that the third terrestrial planet of Uni-Stellar System 501 is unsuitable for continued consideration by the Inter-Stellar Expansion Corps.

Following considerable investigation and the loss of several expedition personnel, Terrestrial Planet (TP) 3-501 is officially recorded as inhospitable. Although the Indigenous population lacks sufficient industry, space experience, or military capacity to meaningfully challenge the Expansion, the threat posed by the planet itself is beyond current Corps ability to overcome.

Despite TP 3-501’s enviable position in the habitable zone of its single star, orbiting at 149.6 million kilometers, the planet is inhospitable in the extreme. Beginning with its gravitational pull, TP 3-501 boasts a pull of 9.807 meters per second squared, putting it at the extreme end of Federation comfort. This gravity would limit colonization efforts in the extreme, as a tiny percentage of Federation Citizens would be able to undergo the necessary modifications to enable even short term habitation.

Following on from the planet’s gravitational concerns, the climate would prove a nearly insurmountable challenge to any colonization effort. Ranging from more than fifty degrees below the freezing point of water to more than fifty degrees above it, the temperature of this planet would prove difficult for any colonist to overcome. Additionally, despite the conquest of the planet’s surface by its Indigenous intelligent species, large swaths of territory remain unpopulated due to their inhospitable nature.

Not unlike Federation planets, there are places where the Indigenous population cannot live, including the southernmost continent, which is completely uninhabited – excepting some species of dedicatedly evolved non-intelligent animals. Further, many regions within what the Indigenous population considers the habitable zones are likewise uninhabited or else sparsely inhabited. The greatest concentration of these peoples even in such regions is always around major trade arteries.

Considering the Federation would be able to negate any pre-ascension limitations on trade, one could argue that such population concentrations are unnecessary. However, it is critical to consider not only the unreasonable gravity of the planet, in addition to the unpredictable climate, but also the presence of insurmountable pestilence. The Indigenous population is largely immune to the myriad diseases present on the planet, but even they remain susceptible to the worst of the options present in the environment.

After generations of deadly trial and error, the Indigenous intelligent species has achieved an immunity to the majority of the biological terrors of their home planet. Such is not overly impressive, all civilizations achieve this height, but few do so with so many such obstacles. Limited genetic surveys conducted on a statistically significant portion of the population indicated that no fewer than 15 times, the entire species barely survived the onset of major plagues. In point of fact, over the span of barely one hundred local years, more than 90 million people, nearly 90% of two continent’s populations, died simply due to the accidental introduction of foreign ailments.

Finally, we must mention the last two points against the development of colonial interests on TP 3-501; hostile life and predators.

These last two notes are the foundation of our argument against further expansion. On their own, the predators are not truly significant enough to warrant such caution on the part of the Federation. Wildlife is simple enough to control, if only one has the will to see it done. However, despite the relative advancement of the Indigenous population, it is not the case that they have yet managed to contain these threats in their entirety.

On no other planet surveyed by the Colonial Survey Corps has such advancement been paired with such limited dictatorial control of their environment. The population remains subject to the privations of the climate, conditions made worse not better by their continued development and expansion, with storms capable of destroying entire urban settlements considered normal in many parts of the globe. But these terrors pale in comparison to the population’s genetic fear of the planet’s wildlife.

Despite the fact that their civilization has evolved far beyond the point where average citizens would generally need to fear being stalked by predators, the Indigenous Human peoples still have this fear in their hearts. None are fully comfortable outside of their developed environments, with even those who choose to live in the untamed regions constantly on the watch for dangers of every description. It is crucial to understand that not only carnivores or omnivores produce this fear. Some herbivores, especially the echoes of megafauna on the long continents separated by oceans from the contiguous supercontinent represent some of the greatest dangers to the planet’s population.

In this manner, Federation Citizens would need to internalize specific messaging that runs counter to what most citizens are taught when young. These animals are not domesticated, not tamed, and extremely dangerous. Weighing in excess of 600 kilograms these megafauna were once nearly extinct due to the expansion of Indigenous settlement on the continent. However, they have since become protected and are even being carefully re-introduced to their native environments as a part of the population’s desire to correct some of the environmental damage done by the pace of their development.

This is the last and most significant point. As stated earlier, the Federation would face minimal difficulty in taking the planet. However, holding it would likely prove impossible given the environmental hazards and without violation of Expansion Restriction 42 – the total extermination of the Indigenous population.

War on the scale of a civilization is not unheard of for the Indigenous population of TP 3-501. In the past two hundred local years, the planet has withstood wars, genocides, ethnic cleansing, and government lead purges which have killed tens of millions of individuals. These actions have likewise seen the destruction of centuries-old imperial institutions, and frequent rises in instability which impacts the entire planet.

Devastation like that is what the Indigenous population is willing to do to itself. When predators were mentioned earlier, it was not the carnivores alluded to. Those fall under ‘hostile life’ as the Indigenous population is the predator worth mentioning. Having evolved their way to the top of the local ecology millennia ago, they lacked any natural predators and thus any checks on their expansion apart from other groups of their own species.

Uncommon this is not, according to the histories of other species with which the Federation has had contact. However, what is nearly unique is the frequency and severity of these conflicts. In the previous century, the Indigenous population entered the nuclear age, and for a long time by their standards, the planet was relatively peaceful. This peace was earned in two main ways, firstly the nuclear weapons were used twice on major population centres, and secondly other powers scrambled to develop their own, thus ensuring they could not be conquered.

It is now the case that humanity holds in its hands the nuclear capabilities to end not only their own presence on the planet, but also all life as it is currently understood several thousand times over. The use of these devices over population centres is especially concerning. Being able to exterminate life at such a level is not abnormal on the Inter-Stellar stage, however, it is almost unheard of to be willing to do so. And even less common to actively challenge another to do so.

For these reasons, it is recommended that TP 3-501 be struck from the lists of potential planets for colonization. The flora, fauna, climate, disease ecology, and Indigenous population are considered too risky when combined, though any one might be handled through proper application of Federation Resources.

Additionally, it is recommended that TP 3-501 be quarantined until such time as their civilization is sufficiently peaceful as to be integrated into the modern Inter-Stellar Order. It is imperative that the Federation make clear the dangers of this planet and its population to the political community.

-For the Eyes of the Survey Corps Secretary General Only-

As stated in the above report, this survey recommends consideration of the Federation’s violating Expansion Restriction 42. If the Indigenous population of TP 3-501 is permitted to expand their civilization into the rest of the galaxy, there is the risk of wars of extermination being waged on planetary scales.

The Indigenous population represents a clear and future danger to the Federation if their social development does not alter drastically in the following few centuries. Should they ever reach technological parody with us, this survey believes that we are unlikely to win the ensuing war.

Fin.

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This story was written for the Mother Nature Unofficial Challenge currently being hosted by the excellent Liam Storm. (which is an awesome name by the way) Please go, join in the chaos! And while you're there, check out some of his other amazing work including: