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'One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind' - Neil Armstrong (first words on The Moon)
The third planet of the Solar System, Earth, was the birthplace of mankind. It is ironic that the planet that gave birth to so many inhabited planets is now uninhabitable.
The Earth (also known as Sol-3 or Terra) was once a habitable world, with an amazing variety of environments and different forms of life. However, even before The Impact, its biosphere had been damaged by polution and global warming - animals and plants were becoming extinct at an accelerating rate.
The Asteroid that struck Earth on September the 5th, 2216 AD (or 0 AI) caused mass extinction across the globe. The centre of Mexico, where the Meteorite struck, was instantly vaporised. The USA and most of Central America were blasted with supersonic ball bearings made from molten rock, and a cloud of molten rock dust was thrown up into the upper atmosphere.
Earthquakes, twice as large as any previously recorded, circled The World for weeks, demolishing buildings, bridges, power lines and dams. Tsunamis struck the Caribbean Islands, Japan, the west coast of Europe and Africa and bounced back to strike both coasts of America.
Of those people who knew about the coming impact and were in shelters, three quarters were buried alive as tunnels into those shelters collapsed.
Within a few days the dust thrown up during The Impact circled the Earth, blotting out the sun - the dust stayed in the sky for months. A large amount of plant life died from lack of light. When the dust came down, about half of it was caught in rain clouds, the chemicals contained in the dust caused months of acid rain, killing off most of the rest of the plant life.
The life that remains on Earth is the sort of life that can live close to a volcano or in a hot spring. Hardy insects such as the cockroach and acid resistant plants are all that is left. The ancient soil on Earth is covered in most parts by the Impact Layer - A 5 centimetre layer of very loose dust. As this dust layer is loose it is almost impossible to clear an area to cultivate plants as dust blows from one area to another like sand dunes.
In what were cities, large quantities of dead bodies, chemical spills from factories, and in some cases leaking radioactive power plants, mean that anyone visiting Earth must now wear NBC protective clothing. In some areas the contamination can not be seen until the Impact Layer is removed.
The acid rain, caused by the impact dust, also affected rivers and oceans. Most river banks and coastlines have a quantity of corroded fish on them, sometimes covered by a "beach" of impact dust.
Although a long time has passed since The Impact, the parts of Earth's eco-system that recycled dead plants and animals were themselves damaged, and have not been able to re-establish themselves in many areas. While technically possible, reterraforming the Earth would be very expensive. In urban or industrial areas decontamination treatment would cost many times more than starting from scratch with one of the unpopulated planets. As most of Earth's accessible resorces have already been used, and the planet can not be used for farming for many decades, it is unlikely that anyone will pay for Earth to be cleaned up in the near future.
Earth's natural satellite The Moon (also known as Sol-3a or Luna) was not directly affected by the Impact but the bases there were in decline by the time the last Ramjets had left the Solar System. With financial cuts at the very end of the colonisation period, Earth cut back on the spare parts sent up into space. Many spacers (especially those building starships) started to break into disused lunar bases, to loot parts and computer components, Earth would no longer supply.
With over 300 years of disuse, the remaining moon bases have no power, no heat and are mostly depressurised.
Several space stations were built in low and high Earth orbit during its period of space expansion. The last of these was the L-5 station, a city in space, that followed behind Earth in the same orbit. Many of the sleeper ships that colonised the stars were built here.
The L-5 Station is no longer in Earth's orbit. Some historians claim it had a Ramjet fitted, was converted to a sleeper ship but no one knows for sure.
Mercury (aka Sol-1) is an uninhabitable world. Earth's space nations never built bases here. Although today's wormhole technology would make bases safer, their is no economical reason for anyone to build here.
Venus (aka Sol-2) is an deadly terristrial planet. Its high surface pressure and corrosive atmosphere make it impossible to land on this planet.
Mars (aka Sol-4 or The Red Planet) is an uninhabitable world. The biospheres on Mars were a wonder of scientific work. By manufacturing air and soil humans covered Mars with bubbles of life. However that life was dependant on mankind for its survival. When people were needed to go to the stars, most of the 'Martians' signed up. Anyone capable of terraforming small bubbles on Mars could do much more, on a world with a near Earth atmosphere. Further more the news coming back from space probe after space probe was that habitable planets were plentiful and terraforming was almost unnecessary. Mars was a victim of the success of colonisation and eventually was closed down due to lack of personell.
Although Mars was left with the computers running the heating most of the power supplies on Mars have now failed. Anyone visiting the Martian domes would be greeted by cold breathable air containing frozen dead plants.
Jupiter (aka Sol-5) is a deadly gas giant with a powerful magnetic field. Its gravity and surface pressure make it impossible to land on this planet. However, its atmosphere contains many chemicals desirable to early space civilisation.
Jupiter's upper atmosphere was targetted by scoop ships that flew through its upper atmosphere extracting gases. The scoop ships were pre-wormhole technology ships with no forcefields, to protect them from Jupiter's magnetic field, and no contra-grav thrusters, to pull them away from the grip of Jupiter's gravity. Any elecrical or mechanical failure on the ships meant almost certain death to the crews.
The Jovian Moons were the most difficult places that mankind ever built bases. The lack of sunlight, deadly radiation from Jupiter and low gravity meant that the bases were even more dependent upon their human masters than the Martian and Luna bases.
Valhalla Base located in a crater on Callisto was abandoned following an explosive decompression in 2149, that destroyed the electronic circuits in a third of the base. Half the survivors of the disaster moved to Galileo Regio Base on Ganymeade which was short of personnel (the other half joined a ramjet ship that went to colonise the second planet in the DM+71 482 System).
Galileo Regio Base itself was fully functioning when it was abandoned in 2181. With no more ramjets to fuel, the demand for chemicals the Ganymeadean's were scooping out of the jovian atmosphere was gone. The last two supply ships sent to the base removed the personnel and brought them back to the L-5 Station.
There are no native military personnel left in the Solar System. Because Earth was never a unified planet its nations had individual military forces, but the space capable nations are believed to have cut their off-Earth military forces long before The Impact. Some international military organisations existed at one point, but the Bush Wars put so much demand on nations that most of them pulled out of these organisations long before The Impact. In the unlikely event that a spaceship was found in the Solar System, the pre-wormhole technology would make it virtually useless except as a museum curiosity.
There are no native police personnel left in the Solar System. Because Earth was never a unified world its nations had individual police forces. Its international police force was called Interpol. The chaos of the Bush Wars are believed to have put so much demand on Interpol that it was unable to combat international crime. Earth's police are believed to have had little involvement in space, with space communities setting up their own police forces. In the unlikely event that police equipment was found on Earth, the pre-wormhole technology would make it virtually useless except as a museum curiosity.
There are no native intelligence forces left in the Solar System. Because Earth was never a unified planet its nations had individual intellegence forces. The Bush Wars are believed to have placed a heavy burden on the intelligence services. However, their secretive nature means that nothing is known of the last few years of Earth's intelligence services.
The Centaur Intelligence Agency (CIA), Eridani Republic Department of Intelligence (ERDOI) and Combine Intelligence Service are believed to monitor the Solar System.
The Solar System never had its own national anthem (although individual nations did).
For information on outside interest in Sol/Earth read the power bloc stategic intentions.