HOD
Role: Agricultural twin of Hesperus
Circumference: 7,590 miles
Population: 150,000
Orbital Path: Fifth (Very close worlds, orbits nearly overlap for half the year)
Rotational Period (Days): 0.92
Orbital Period (Days): 429
Primary Function: Mining and agriculture
Retention Index: 3
Virtually every one of Hod's inhabitants is involved on one of the two main industries of the planet, either farming of mining. The planet is incredibly rich in iron ore, with perhaps the deepest veins discovered. It is particularly telling that after almost a century of mining, these mines still show no sign of playing out.
Most of the poduction of Hods mines and farms is destined for a very short trip across interplanetary space to the colony on Hesperus, where the minerals go to feed the forges and shipyards and the food goes to feed the workforce. The people of Hod know they live in the shadow of Hesperus and they are well aware that their sister colony is considered more vital than their own. of course, the people of Hesperus know that as well, a fact that has led to an often unfriendly rivalry between the two colonies.
Usually, this rivalry is played out in competition. Both colonies have a number of popular sports franchises and games between Hesperus and Hod teams are always played out in front of sell-out crowds. Gvoerenor Burke, like all the governors before him, knows from hard experience that it is neessary to have a highly visable and well-armed police presence at such games, which is still only enough to keep conflicts between fans from either side under control. It does little for Hod's sense of being second rate that their teams lose almost every match with teams drawn from the much larger population of Hesperus.
Of course, Hesperus and Hod manifest their rivalry in other ways as well, some petty, some less so. For example, Fleet ships bearing data cores full of FedNet programming stop at Hesperus at least once a week and the Hesperus colony is responsible for broadcasting the transmissions to Hod, as well as the Hesperus colonists. After an upset by the Hod fieldball team three years ago, the Hesperus colonists hacked into the FedNet broadcast, stripping out every language option from the transmission with the exception of Tagalog, which not a single soul on Hod was fluent in. In retaliation, Hod begain witholding food shipments, a tactic that lasted only two days before Governor Burke stepped in to correct the problem.
Though this deeply ingrained rivalry makes it difficult for them to see, the people of Hod are very similar to the people of Hesperus, both in background and in economic status.
History
The history of Hod is inextricably tied to it's older sibling, the colony on Hesperus. After the food riots on Hesperus in 2242, the government of the UCF concluded that if this great experiment in interstellar colonisation was to succeed, there would have to be a more reliable and secure supply line for these far-flung colonies. Fortunately, plans to establish an agricultural colony on Hod had been on the table for several years at that point, and the Federation was able to move these plans to the top of it's colonisation priority list. By 2246, the first foundations of the settlement were being laid in the arable soil of Hod.
Before the arrival of humanity, there was little life of any kind on Hod, mostly microbes and other small organisms. The most highly evolved form of life there was a kind of dark red fungus that is still found nearly everywhere on the planet's surface. The news that any kind of alien life, coming so soon after the attack that destroyed the Reynolds at Hesperus, made the job of recruiting colonists for the new installation on Hod much more difficult at first. Dismayed at the prospect of funding a colony with no colonists, the UCF government began offering increased financial incentives to any citizen or civilian willing to relocate to Hod with his family. With the fears of invasion slowly subsiding in the absence of any further attacks an the temptation of the government's financial incentive programme, colonists slowly begain to trickle to Hod.
Hod also marked the UCF's first foray into interstellar environmental configuration. Though the soil of Hod was deemed suitable to growing Earth crops, the planet itself lacked the environment in which they could prosper. Thus, for the first few years of the colony's existence, Hod supported itself almost entirely through it's mining efforts. Crops were grown within enormous atmospheric domes beneath artificial light, while the surface of the planet was readied for the day humans would be able to leave the domes and breathe freely under the alien sky.
Though the planet is still marked by particularly violent weather, especially on the Western continent where the majority of the agricultural concerns are located, Hod is now a fully self sustaining ecosystem well within the limits of human (and plant) Tolerance.
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