My thanks to Roger Sanger, the copyright holder, for granting me permission to host this article on my web site.  To quote him, "I was looking for a new home for DGP's 2300 AD articles, and naturally I picked the best fan sites on the Web for that purpose.  Kudos to Pentapod's World!  Enjoy!" - Kevin Clark - January 24th, 2000.

Mankind's expansion to the stars was facilitated by the timely discovery of the stutterwarp drive, a mechanism that propels a ship at faster-than-light velocities by allowing it to perform a great number of micro-warps per second.  In most cases, a vessel outfitted with stutterwarp can travel 7.7 light-years before it builds up a critical amount of energy which must be discharged in a gravity well.  By virtue of the fact that many stars are separated by a figure in excess of this 7.7 light-year distance, the physics of the universe has acted to shape the interstellar transportation routes used by stutterwarp starships.  The routes break into three distinct "arms" of explored space: the American Arm, the Chinese Arm, and the French Arm.

The six colonies ( on five worlds) and six outposts of the American Arm have been settled almost exclusively by the nations of America and Australia.  Filling a corridor of space stretching some 32 light-years distant from Earth in the general direction of the constellation Lyra, the arm shares the same path as the Chinese Arm on the initial stretch, from Earth to the outposts at Broward.  It is not until one reaches Clarkesstar that the worlds of the American Arm become mutually exclusive to those of the Chinese Arm.  As one travels along the arm, it divides itself into two sub-arms; each dominated exclusively by one nation or the other.

What follows is a short summary of each of the systems which comprise the American Arm.  ( More detailed information on the colony worlds of the arm can be found in the Colonial Atlas.)

CLARKESSTAR: This system is the site of the only significant installation in the American Arm which is not administered by the Americans or Australians.  A small asteroidal chunk is the site of DeVilbiss Station: an astronomical research facility run by the British government.  The station maintains a permanent staff of about 1,500 persons and operates a dish in cooperation with the ISBIP ( Inter-System Baseline Interferometry Program) survey.

During expansion into the arm, some of the station's facilities were leased by the American government to support their probe missions into the new territory.

KING: This oversized "terrestrial" planet is the first of the colony worlds encountered as one travels along the arm.  With a diameter of just over 30,000 km, King lies in the first orbit of the K-class star DM+2 3312.  The planet's great mass gives it a crushing surface gravity of 3.08 gees.  The planet is also quite tectonically active, enough so that, although the atmosphere contains a breathable mix of oxygen and nitrogen, it is tainted with fatal sulfur compounds.  In addition, the world's considerable axial tilt creates an unpredictable and often violent climate.  Regardless of the seemingly inhospitable nature of the world, it is home to both the American colony of New Columbia and the Australian colony of Huntsland.

Under ordinary circumstances, neither nation would have considered putting the effort and financial support into solving the problems of establishing a colony in such a harsh environment, but King proved to bear one of the richest deposits of tantalum yet discovered by man.  Today it serves as the primary tantalum supply for both nations and produces a small, salable surplus besides.  America's place at the cutting edge of warship design is due, in part, to King's reliable tantalum supply; as is Trilon's success in the field of starship development.

The habitation of King is made possible via two products of genetic engineering: DNAMs ( DNA modifiers) which enhance selected body systems to better deal with the abusive characteristics of the planet's surface, and AFSs ( Atmospheric Filter Symbiota); an organism designed to live in the human lung and filter out the deadly sulfur compounds.

Orbiting about King is its 4,500 km diameter moon, Abernathy.  Extensive American and Australian space force bases are placed here in order to safe-guard the nations' tantalum interests.  Lying further out in the system, the gas giant of Borlaug is home to a diversity of "air borne" Jovian life forms.  An orbital research station ( BISJX) has been set up in order to study the giant's ecology in greater detail.

NEW MELBOURNE: The tiny desert world of New Melbourne serves as a kind of trade nexus for commodities travelling between the sub-arms and in and out of the arm proper.  The jointly sponsored base on the planet's surface houses a large array of warehouses, corporate and otherwise.  The entire surface facility is either domed or subterranean, since New Melbourne has only a trace CO2 atmosphere.

HERMES: The yellow-orange subgiant component of the Mu Herculis trinary system serves as the primary of the first colony along the American Sub-Arm.  Hermes is one of the coldest planets yet colonized by man and most of the planet's population of two million is concentrated in a narrow temperate band circling the equator.

The indigenous life of Hermes has its base in dextro-amino acids and is, therefore, indigestable by humans.  Some of the population's nutritional requirements are imported from off-world, but the environment suitably supports terrestrial crops enough to meet many of the colony's food demands.  Indeed, Hermes began as an agricultural colony, but shifted its focus to industrial pursuits once the more distant world of Ellis proved its greater ability to meet the agricultural demands of the arm.

Recent years have seen a certain amount of political tension rising between the government of Hermes and the powers of the extensive industrial sector.  Hermes is currently a U.S.  dependency, but the government and some factions within the population have been pushing for Hermes to follow in Ellis' footsteps by petitioning for statehood.  This has met with all but violent opposition from the colony's industry, as such legislation could bring on stricter control over industrial growth and practices on Hermes.  It is uncertain where the escalating tensions will lead.

VEGA: The American Space Force base at Vega Far Station 5 serves as a coordination center for exploration activities in the Beta Aquilae cluster.  The station, built on a large asteroid inclined 40 degrees to the massive star's protoplanetary disk, is also used as a containment and quarantine facility for returning exploration crews and planetary samples.

RED SPECK: The small American way station in this system, Far Station 6, was built on a small moon orbitting one of an unusual pair of binary gas giants in the outer system.  The facility is staffed on a rotating basis and engages in study of the unusual binary planetary system.

ELLIS: The pride of America's colonial efforts, Ellis serves as the breadbasket for most of the worlds in the American Arm.  It is a 12,850 km diameter world, the closest of a family of three planets in orbit about the red dwarf star AC+48 1595 89.  Ellis's planetary radiation belts are unusually strong.  As a result, it is hazardous for ships not build to withstand high radiation environments to undertake any manner of orbital activities.  Most incoming vessels dock at the system's main port at Boise, a large asteroid in the trailing trojan point of the second world.  From here, specially shielded shuttles run regular service to Ellis's surface.

When Ellis was first surveyed in 2220, it was found to be a garden world in decline, with large, growing stretches of desert choking off a scattered family of land-locked seas.  A remarkable reclamation program, spearheaded by the Alberta Farmer's Cooperative, halted and slowly reversed the downhill slide of the world's ecosystem.  Not long after the first settlements were established, the colony began to produce a surplus of food.

Today, the population of Ellis is clustered about the perimeters of many of the planet's seas.  Irrigation networks spread out like a web from these pockets of civilization, nurturing the growing farmlands adjacent.  There is still much desert area on the planet's surface, so many towns are protected by giant artificial wind breaks to protect them from the tremendous winds generated in the vast, flat, barren zones.  Most towns are linked into a planetwide microwave communication network.

Thus far, Ellis is the only extraterrestrial colony which has been granted statehood by the United States.  This was done in 2276, during America's quinticentennial celebration.

The moon of Carlton, orbiting the system's second world, is used as a training base for the USMC.  Here the Corps gains practice in operations undertaken in low-gravity, non-terrestrial environments.

ROSS 863: Though the extensive halo of asteroids and cometary debris here was once the focal point of support operations for the Australian colonial operations, its facilities have since dwindled to nearly nil.  The Ross 863 outpost is an asteroidal nugget; its activities center primarily around the operation of the ISPIB dish nestled in its side.  There is still an operational refinery insystem, reducing cometary materials to usable forms.  Recently, OMS-6 Richard Trevithick has taken up station in the system and is engaged in activities under the Trilon Corporation.

BOTANY BAY: The third of nine planets circling the K7 star of DM+33 2777, Botany Bay is the site of the first solely Australian colonial effort.  The planet's surface is unusually smooth, exhibiting maximum surface elevation extremes of only a couple of kilometers.  Ninety percent of the world's surface is covered by a shallow, muddy ocean.  Land masses are restricted to a scattering of fairly small islands, which display wide tidal flats as the land gradually creeps to elevations above the mean sea level.

All the islands yet surveyed on Botany Bay are surrounded by a broad tidal ecology.  It is primarily composed of spreading foliage which is as much at home in water as on land.  This thick foliage continues to fill the waters for miles off shore, teeming with a diversity of life.  Travelling inward, toward higher ground, the tidal "interface" ecology gradually gives way to veldt, composed of an array of the native "looping" plants.  These plants reproduce by arching their hardy trunks back into the ground, which makes them a nuisance for travel by foot.

One of the most interesting aspects of Botany Bay's ecology is its wheeled animals.  Secreted, organic wheels are the standard mode of locomotion for indigenous animals in the veldt.  This gives the creatures an appearance somewhat like an organic unicycle, and makes them capable of considerable speeds on open ground.  Visual recordings of these creatures in motion have proven a profitable sales item in the core.

Australia's first colonial effort was concentrated on an island in the southern hemisphere, but resulted in an embarrassing failure due to poor pre-colonial planning.  Two decades later, the Australians launched another colonial effort on Botany Bay; this time focusing on Darwin Island in the northern hemisphere.  With better planning and a focus on industrial pursuits, rather than the agricultural goals of the first colony, the Darwin colony prospered.

Today, the colony's major city is the port of New Cairns, which sports a cleared harbor area ( built up by the Royal Australian Engineering Corps) and a spaceplane port.  Light to medium industry serves as the colony's primary financial base.  Civilization has just begun to spread to some of Darwin's neighboring islands.  Only now are surveys being made of the rest of the planet's ecology and geography.  Expedition ships regularly cruise out of New Cairn's harbor, bound for the many unexplored islands.

KINGSLAND: Like a green, brown, and white striped marble, Kingsland's three major environment types show with crystal clarity through the world's virtually cloudless atmosphere.  Glaciers, covering roughly a sixth of the planet's surface, extend down from the poles until the rugged tundra takes over.  The tundra eventually gives way to the more temperate equatorial regions.  Free-standing water exists in limited quantities in this zone, with most of the surface water being tied up by the glaciers.

Zeta Herculis A-IV was named Kingsland by the Australians who made it their home.  Life on Kingsland is typified by a rural existance, with the only population concentration of note being the town of Hogan.  The tundra and equatorial regions are dotted by plantations called "sixgoat stations" which raise and nourish sixgoats, a native herbivore, for meat and skins.  Sixgoats have been described as looking like "big, shaggy, land-shrimp".

Much civilized land in the equatorial zone has been put to agricultural use.  The farmers of these homesteads often barter with the nearby sixgoat stations.  Cross country travel is usually achieved by means of "rock-buggies"; large-wheeled vehicles with very high ground clearance.  Few vehicles in human space take as much abuse as a Kingslander rock-buggy.

Many of the planet's human inhabitants have made their homes in the trunks of dead "flat trees".  These enormous plants have a symbiot which inhabits the trunk, but dies when the rest of the plant dies, leaving a spacious cavity in the trunk which, with some minor carpentry, makes for a convenient home.

A low level terraforming operation is in effect in the glacial regions.  By genetically increasing the productivity of a native plant named the "bunyip's hat", it is hoped that more of the glacier's frozen water can be liberated for use by the rest of the ecosystem.

AMERICAN ARM CHRONOLOGY

2172: America constructs outpost in Broward system and announces commitment to explore in the direction of what will become the American Arm.

2187: Foundation of British outpost in the Clarkesstar system.

2189: American Space Force ( ASF) and the Royal Australian Space Navy ( RASN) lease British facilities at Clarkesstar for exploration support.

2190: First flyby of DM+2 3312 ( King's system) by ASF/RASN probe missions.

2192: ASF/RASN set up outpost on the surface of King.  First human DNAMs ( DNA modifiers) created by American and Canadian researchers.

2194: Establishment of America's colony of New Columbia on King.

2196: Australians construct colony of Huntsland on King and outpost on New Melbourne.

2199: Americans build facilities on New Melbourne.

2201: Construction begins on Australia's outpost/support facilities.

2202: ASF survey vessel Carolina Dream lost on preliminary mission to the Mu Herculis system.  Follow-up mission finds no trace of the ship but discovers the garden world of Hermes.

2212: Australians establish a colony on Cook Island in Botany Bay's southern hemisphere.

2214: First Australian colony on Botany Bay fails.

2215: Start of American agricultural colony on Hermes.  Colonists of King initiate the Tantalum Strike of 2215 to protest forced immigration of criminals to work King's mines.

2217: American government folds to demands of King's colonists.  Tantalum Strike ends.  Glacier world of Kingsland ( Zeta Herculis A-4) colonized by Australia.

2220: ASF probes perform first surveys of AC+48 1595-4 ( Ellis's system) and find a garden world with a deteriorating ecology.

2223: Australia makes second attempt to put a colony on Botany Bay.  Darwin Island is chosen as the site.

2224: Work begins on ASF's Vega Far Station 5.

2225: ASF Far Station 6 in Red Speck system becomes fully operational.

2229: America, with assistance from the Alberta Farmers' Cooperative, begins colony on Ellis and starts programs to halt the planet's ecological decline.

2241: Discovery of ecosystem in Borlaug's ( DM+3 3312-3) upper atmosphere.

2245: Ellis begins producing agricultural surplus.  Beginning of Hermes's depression.

2250: Beginning of Botany Bay's industrial boom.

2257: The Mule Corporation rolls out its first vehicle, marking the beginning of Hermes's industrial revolution.

2261: America celebrates Shepard Day and 300 years of space travel.

2276: American Quinticentennial.  The American government grants statehood to Ellis.  Arizona's remaining land becomes part of the state of New Mexico, and Arizona's name is stricken from the roll of states.  Ellis takes its vacant place, making it the "new" forty-eighth state ( out of fifty total).

2299: Discovery of brown dwarf ISO 417 by ISBIP survey.

2300: Opening of Acey-Acey bridge to Beta Aquilae cluster.

The present.

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