Tycho Colony (WW3 Era)

Tycho Colony
British Overseas Territory
Official Name	Tycho Colony
Primary Language	English
Motto	TBD
Area	22,700 Square Kilometers
Politics
Owner	United Kingdom
Governing Body	Governor and Council of Ministers
Government Type	Dependency under a Constitutional Monarchy
Head of State	Queen Elizabeth II
Head of Government	Governor Natalie Bass
History
Established	1984 (construction began in 1980)
Demographics
Population	22,485

The Tycho Colony is the United Kingdom's primary facility on Luna. Located in the southern hemisphere of Luna's near side, it always has line of sight to Earth.

History

Tycho Colony was originally founded as a Helium-3 extraction facility for the British Commonwealth.

Layout

Old Colony

When someone refers to the 'Old Colony' what they are actually referring to is the first round of subterranean habitats built into Tycho Crater's central mountain peak. Historically, this is actually the second colony, as the first was the original exploration base that remains near the spaceport. The Old Colony consists of a 6-level underground facility, with 2 levels above ground level and 3 below ground.

A rough map of the Old Colony can be found [[1]].

Level 2

All of level 2 is very upscale, with plenty of screens on the walls displaying exterior views of the colony area, real plants, and flowing water installations.

• Quadrant Zero - Located at the center of Level 2, Quadrant Zero contains the colony's government leadership offices and the governor's residence.
• Quadrant A - Quadrant A contains consulates of other governments, the management offices for the Colony-owned resourcing operations, and more resident-focused government offices.
• Quadrant B - Quadrant B contains upscale housing. Unlike all other areas of the colony, all housing in Sector B is fully-equipped with cooking facilities. Average rent here is well over 10,000 GBP per month, while the cost of buying an apartment outright is currently over 2 million GBP and rising every year due to the inability to add new residences.
• Quadrant C - Quadrant C contains high-class eateries, upscale shops, and financial services catering to the wealth bracket that can live in Level 2.
• Quadrant D - Quadrant D contains the Four Seasons Tycho resort and Lunar Rosewood luxury hotel. Costs for suites at these hotels start at 30,000 GBP per night.

Level 1

Level 1 is catered to the upper-middle-class, with flowing water installations, exterior view screens, and everything that corporate management would need.

• Quadrant A - Quadrant A contains corporate offices, eateries, and remote work facilities. Corporations with offices in this quadrant include Solar Dynamics, Yang Enterprises, and Yang Enterprises Astroconstruction. Tycho General Hospital is also located here.
  • Scene Descriptors: Capitalist, Corporate, Secure, Upscale, White-Collar
• Quadrant B - Quadrant B contains upper-middle-class housing, services catering to the residents of those apartments, and eateries for the residents.
  • Scene Descriptors: Residential, Suburban
• Quadrant C - Quadrant C is entirely corporate offices. Corporations with offices here include Metapharma, Mondessa Ltd, and Pizzuto Industries.
• Quadrant D - Quadrant D is an entertainment district, containing theaters, movie theaters, a casino, and several multipurpose sports arenas.
  • Finnegan's - Located in Quadrant D, Finnegan's is an Irish pub and gambling establishment. One of the regulars there is Dónal "Iron Neck" Coughlin, who was sent to the colony as a young man and has chosen to remain there since.
  • Keiko's
  • Marriott Tycho
  • Navvie's
  • O'Brian's House of Suffering
  • The Broken Promise - Named in jest, run by someone who said the would swear off the alcohol when they moved up here. Job lost after Thatcher's Folly, name refers to that. Owner is teetotaler.
  • The Dark Side - A Casino/Concert Hall owned by David Gilmour. "See you at the Dark Side" are common advertising slogans used by this place.
  • The Red-Eyed Rabbit
  • The Shifty Spanner

Ground Level

The Ground Level of the Colony is where industrial activities take place. MetaPharma and Mondessa have extensive facilities here and are the two largest occupants of this level. Solar Dynamics has a production facility here, used for rapid prototyping of equipment to be tested out at their R&D Facility on the crater rim. Access to the ground floor from the exterior is accomplished via 4 vehicle airlocks, large enough to accommodate even the largest lunar crawler. In addition to these, there are smaller personnel airlocks, and a dedicated surface-level railway to the spaceport facilities.

Sublevel 1

Sublevel 1 is not divided up into quadrants like the upper levels, and is instead a large grid array of reconfigurable areas. Its primary occupants are food courts, industrial facilities, the aquaponics facility for the colony, and telepresence work facilities. Additionally, there are avionics maintenance facilities here used by the spaceport. Sublevel 1 currently has 16 sectors.

• Applied Tactical Services) (Sector 7) - Holding prime real estate near one of the heavy lifts, Applied Tactical Services has a service depot here for maintaining their ground vehicles.
• Bravo's (Sector 1) - Karaoke bar
• British Army and Army Reserve Armory (Sector 10) - The local training grounds and storage depot for the Army and Army Reserve are located here. The size is far larger than needed for storing equipment for the local garrison, however all this extra room means that is has some of the finest athletic training facilities on the colony.
• Easyhotel Tycho (Sector 1) - A 135-room budget hotel located in sector 1, this is Easyhotel's first foray into offworld hospitality.
• K's Kebabs (Sector 1) - While K's has an extensive presence in food courts across the Colony, their original location is located in Sector 1.
• The Laughing Dog (Sector 5) - British Pub
• The Space Bar (Sector 1) - Bar (white collar)
• Tycho Aerospace (Sectors 5 and 6) - Holder of some prime real estate near one of the heavy lifts, Tycho Aerospace is a local corporation specializing in avionics and engine maintenance for spacecraft. The Sublevel 1 facilities are primarily avionics-related, most of the engine work takes place on the ground level.

Sublevel 2

Sublevel 2 is divided into a vast grid containing the colony's original resident housing, resident services, and eateries. Each grid section is referred to as a sector, and there are 24 sectors. Residences here tend to not have full kitchens, only a few of them do and they command premium prices. There are communal areas on each floor with exterior view screens, along with ones dedicated to showing views from Earth instead.

• Temple Beth Israel - The only organized synagogue at Tycho. Rabbi Jennifer Strohkirch presides over the small congregation here.
• The Cross Keys - This is the Order of the New Golden Dawn's temple at the Tycho Colony, disguised as a Scottish pub. To anyone not in the know it simply appears to be a Scottish pub. To those in the know, it is a place to trade rumors, exchange magical secrets, and obtain needed supplies to practice their arts.

Sublevel 3

By far the most expansive level, sublevel 3 is dedicated entirely to maintenance facilities, piping, power lines, and all the behind the scenes things that keep everything above it functioning. It is a tangled maze of crawlspaces, pipes, treatment vats, transformers, and a nightmarish array of more than 30 years of replaced-in-place-and-bypassed hardware. Consequently, Sublevel 3 is also home to the Colony's criminal underground, with illegal operations scattered all over the Escheresque floor.

• The Crater - "When you're here, you've hit rock bottom, so there's only one way to go," says the sign on the door low-class betting establishment and probable front for the mob.
• The Node - One of the few 'on the level' businesses in Sublevel 3, The Node is a nightclub built into the space left behind when the old aquaponics facility was moved two levels up. A dimly-lit, cyberpunk-themed club, this place is known for its strong drinks, high-speed data connections, and status as the premier hacker hangout at the Colony. The Node's owner is a mystery, whoever it is had significant pull to claim this space for their use as it had been originally slated to be turned into water reclamation facilities.

Colony Expansion

The Colony Expansion began life as a landing facility for the cancelled Iron Arrow super-heavy lift rockets. Acres upon acres of regolith were excavated away and replaced with tens of meters thick lunarcrete slabs sitting atop pilings driven deep into the regolith. All of this was situated a sizable distance away from the central colony for safety purposes. Control facilities were located underground, as were transportation tunnels with rail links to the colony. However, with the cancellation of the Iron Arrow, the construction workers were essentially left stranded at the colony, which was having a housing crisis. Sensing an opportunity, Zhong Yang, an investment banker from Hong Kong, stepped in to form a new construction company with the intent of converting the landing pads into a new housing complex. The tunneling hardware used to construct the original colony was rebuilt, and a grid layout of underground housing blocks was carved out in and underneath the lunarcrete slabs. In the early 2000s, surface domes began to be constructed for recreational and agricultural use. The Colony Expansion has turned into the new housing area of the colony, with continual plans to add additional domes and deeper layers of residences.

At present there are currently 6 surface domes, and a 5-layer-deep grid of housing tunnels. Scattered throughout the housing tunnels are resident services, food courts, and entertainment facilities.

• Tycho Valley Vineyards - A vineyard that began planting in 2013, the vineyards are scheduled to bottle their first batch of wine in 2016.

Exterior Facilities

The exterior facilities of the Colony are those that are at the surface level and separate from the Old Colony and the Colony Expansion. These are primarily greenhouses for food production, solar power facilities, communications arrays, and the spaceport. Pizzuto Industries has a construction facility here, supplying 'handcrafted' (as much of a claim as that can be) spacecraft for the rich and powerful.

Colonial Enclaves

The Colonial Enclaves are several small, privately-owned facilities within the Tycho Colony's jurisdiction that are technically separate from the colony infrastructure.

• A few privately-owned residential compounds
• Solar Dynamics R&D Facility
• Yang Enterprises Astroconstruction Test Yard

Governance

Political System

Governor: The governor is appointed by the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom and serves at their leisure, acting in the role of head of state for the Colony and the direct representative of the British Crown. They are the highest authority in the Colony, however much of the day-to-day business is handled by elected officials. Their primary duty is to appoint (and possibly recall) the Premier from the members of the Colony Assembly, and to nominate the ministers that advise the Premier. The current Governor is Her Excellency Dame Natalie Bass, who was appointed in 2010.

Cabinet: The four ministers are appointed by the Governor and approved by the Colony Assembly. The Ministers form the Cabinet, who's role is to advise the Premier and oversee daily operations of the Colony. Both the Assembly or the Governor can choose to recall a minister, but there is otherwise no term limit on how long a minister can serve.

• Minister of Economic Development and Finance Esmé Zhao
• Minister of Infrastructure and Development Planning Douglass Cook
• Minister of Communications and Security William Dayton Forest
• Attorney General Cheryl McFee

Colony Assembly (Next Election - 2016): The Colony Assembly consists of 11 representatives, 9 of which are chosen by popular vote in a ranked-choice voting system in each area of the colony, and 2 appointed by collective decision of the corporations who maintain offices at the colony. Representatives serve 4-year terms and are limited to 1 term. Campaign season is limited to 4 weeks, and voting is done electronically.

• Premier (Head of Government) Marianne Ó Riain (Sublevel 2)
• Member of the House Max Ó Sluaghadháin (Level 2)
• Member of the House Florence Traviss (Level 1)
• Member of the House August Whitehead (Sublevel 2)
• Member of the House Song Xinyi (New Colony)
• Member of the House Liu Qiang (New Colony)
• Member of the House Tsui Bai (New Colony)
• Member of the House Gruffydd Cadwallader (New Colony)
• Member of the House Donnchadh Mac Dhubhshìth (Enclaves)
• Member of the House Erik Thomassen (Corporate - BHP-Glencore)
• Member of the House Kamiya Taro (Corporate - Wolf Brigade)

Defence

There is a small contingent of the British Army stationed at the colony. The Royal Air Force maintains a small contingent of patrol spacecraft as well. There is a single recruiting office, however it is not common for residents of the colony to sign up for military service proper. It is more common for residents of the colony to serve in the Army Reserve, Royal Auxiliary Air Force, or the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve - fully 40% of the colony population have been affiliated with one of these two organizations at one point in time.

Around the crater rim there are sensor platforms monitoring traffic in the area, these are protected by remote-control defense turrets. The entire area has a contingent of patrol drones on duty at any given time.

Applied Tactical Services and the Wolf Brigade are not responsible for the defense of the colony proper, however several of the colonial enclaves have contracts with them for security leading both PMCs to have a presence at the colony.

The British Commonwealth is a signatory to the 1967 Rescue Agreement, and as such there is a rescue craft on standby at all times. This orbit-capable vehicle is kept ready to launch within 5 minutes notice, with a crew on alert.

Population

Demographics

The first wave of immigration happened during colony construction itself, when the British Government began an experimental effort of offering deportation (and effectively temporary exile) to 'politically disruptive elements' during the Troubles. As part of plea bargains, these people were offered a choice between prison and construction labor on the moon (with training included). Many people who violated minor laws during the Troubles were subjected to this choice as well, leading to a sizable amount of non-criminal-elements winding up on the Colony as well. When construction was finished, a sizable amount of these workers chose to stay behind when it was found that they would have been charged for the return trip.

The second wave of immigration occurred in the early 1990s when the British Government gave amnesty to any of the inhabitants from the soon-to-demolished Kowloon Walled City that signed up to travel to the Colony to act as construction workers for the new heavy lift landing facilities. These heavy lift rockets were supposed to take these supposedly-temporary workers home after the pad was completed, but the Iron Arrow super-heavy lift rocket (also known as the Thatcher's Thousand-Ton Travesty for the fact that it was supposed to launch 1000 tons to the moon) was cancelled in the mid-1990s. Left with no practical way to get home and a useless super-heavy landing complex, the workers began to stage an occupation of the facility and issued a list of demands, which started with better housing. They were negotiated out of most of their demands (such as free rides back to Earth), but the demand for better housing was met with a counter-offer - "Okay, but you have to build it yourself." The workers were going to reject this demand when a financier from Hong Kong sensed an opportunity. Zhong Yang, a Chinese expat living in Hong Kong, stepped in to negotiate on behalf of the workers, and in the process laid the groundwork for what would become Yang Enterprises's core business, Yang Enterprises Astroconstruction.

Religion

While the Luna Colony is technically a part of the Diocese of Space, the majority of the residents of the colony are not members of the Anglican faith. As a melting pot of three distinct cultures (British, Irish, and Chinese) the colony is highly diverse in its religious practices.

Worship Facilities

• Cathedral of Holy Trinity (Anglican) (Old Colony - Level 2)
• Hindu Temple Society of Tycho (New Colony - )
• Islamic Center of Tycho (New Colony - )
• Temple Beth Israel (Old Colony - Sublevel 2)
• Tin Hau Temple (Taoism) (New Colony - )
• St Joseph of Cupertino Catholic Church (Roman Catholic) (Old Colony - Level 2)
• Tycho Gurdwara (New Colony - )
• Tycho Meditation Centre (Buddhism) (New Colony - )

Languages

English is the primary and official language of the colony. There are sizable populations in the colony speaking Irish and Hong Kong Cantonese as well.

Education

While there exist local schools for K-12 education, post-secondary and graduate education is done via teleeducation. There exist local trade schools for locally-relevant professions, and there are apprenticeship programs as well.

Culture

Cuisine

The abundance of locally-grown produce sourced from the colony's extensive (and ever-expanding) greenhouses and agricultural domes and has led to a diverse and innovative food culture. Combined with the cultural melting pot nature of the colony, the restaurants at Tycho are renowned for being some of the highest-quality and most innovative on Luna - and this includes both high-class and and everyday-fare eateries. Most residents do not have fully-equipped kitchens in their residences, as they are high-power-draw appliances so they cost a premium to own and operate - most people just have refrigerators, low-power microwaves (usually with a low-power convection oven mode), and tea kettles. Consequently, there is a diverse array of food-court style eateries in the living areas of the colony, many of them subsidized by the colony government. Every food court is guaranteed to have at least one place serving British pub fare, another serving Irish pub fare, and a Cantonese restaurant. Other cuisines from across the British Commonwealth are also common.

Furthermore, there are several breweries in operation at the colony, however due to the low gravity and lower-than-earth-normal atmospheric pressure the beverages that are produced locally are made with a lower carbonation threshold in order to keep things from getting too messy. Additionally, there is one distillery in operation, and a winery is due to produce its first bottle of wine in 2016 after planting grapes in 2013.

Notable People

The Right Honorable, The Viscount of Luna Darian Goodwin Watson Sanderson, Viscount Sanderson of Luna. Life Peer in the House of Lords.

Economy

Exports

The primary export of the colony is Helium-3. Additional exports include prefabricated buildings, pharmaceuticals, produce, semiconductors, spacecraft, and space station modules.

Resourcing Operations

The Tycho Colony was originally founded for the purposes of Helium-3 extraction, and that remains its primary business. Lunar regolith is rich (proverbially speaking) in helium-3 reactor fuel, and it is the primary export of the Colony, accounting for fully 60% of the colony's resource output. The regolith is also rich in oxygen, however most of the oxygen that is produced is consumed locally or set aside for emergency use - there is little commercial value in selling the oxygen since it is so prevalent and is effectively a waste byproduct of helium-3 extraction.

Other elements extracted in the colony's regolith refineries include aluminum, calcium, cobalt, iron, nickel, silicon, thorium, titanium, uranium. Rare-earth element extraction is not a primary goal, however rare-earths are produced from regolith in relatively small amounts. Furthermore there remains sizable production capacity for Lunarcrete from the colony construction days, however due to the fact that it is uneconomical to produce it for export this production capacity remains idle unless needed.

Resourcing operations consist of the colony-run resourcing operation (~40% of output) and several private corporations (Mondessa Ltd (25%), BHP-Glencore (15%), Nova Lunar (10%), Rio Tinto (5%), and Solar Dynamics (5%)).

Telecommunications

• Intra-Colony - The entire Colony is wired up for data links, with telecommunications being paid for as part of ones' residence taxes. Higher tiers of service are available for purchase, offering additional programming channels, priority access to bandwidth, and dedicated secured data links for private and business use. Wireless is included, and the colony's wireless coverage covers the entire area of the colony both inside and out (effectively the entire Tycho crater). Enclaves and exterior buildings are connected via line of sight V-band links for further locations, and dedicated subterranean data lines for closer ones. Data lines can be run to any non-hardwired location for a cost.
• Inter-Colony - There are dedicated K_a links to the nearest colonies, done via relay towers along the route. These links route to the American Fra Mauro Colony, Chinese Tsiolkovskiy Crater Research Institution, and Russian Shackelton Crater Resource Operation.
• Orbital and Earth - Communications to orbital assets are done via an array of X, S, and K_u band antennas capable of operating on all current frequencies in use. Colony to Earth communications use a separate antenna array located on the crater rim and connected via subterranean fiber lines. These antennas are kept away from living areas due to the high power of the transmissions, and are considered a danger zone. Additionally there are several optical data laser links available for use for direct secure connections, however access to these is offered at a premium charge by the colony government as these are primarily intended for government communications.
• Interplanetary - Communications to the United Martian Colonies are provided via MarsLink, operating UHF and X band links via their orbital relay satellite constellation and Lagrange relay stations.

Transportation

Intra-colony transportation happens via elevators and rail links. The Old Colony is linked to the Colony Expansion via subterranean rail links. Exterior facilities are connected via subterranean rail links and walking tunnels. The colony has rovers available for rent to reach destinations within the colony territory - they are programmed to not be able to leave the territory without an override code. For longer duration trips, there are private rental corporations offering rovers outfitted for further journeys, as well as low-altitude spacecraft.

Orbital lift vehicle transfers to Gagarin Station happen multiple times per day via British Spaceways, as well as private charters. The Colony spaceport is capable of handling any vehicle currently in service, though only two super-heavy pads remain after the rest were converted into subterranean housing.

What Hides In The Shadows

The Tycho Colony was not immune to the activities of the Shadow Wars behind the scenes of World War 3.

Order of the New Golden Dawn

A revived version of the turn of the 20th century Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn cabal, the New Golden Dawn is one of the two primary mage organizations in the United Kingdom. A secular organization, it is no longer truly a cabal and more of a collection of mages of varying traditions who assist each other with maintaining the concealment of magic from the general public. Black Magic, Druidism, Traditional Witchcraft, and Wiccan Spellcasting are the primary traditions it represents, with occasional other ones showing up.

At the Tycho Colony there exists a small branch temple of the Order, disguised as a tavern on Sublevel 1 of the Old Colony. The Cross Keys is open to all, though to anyone not in the know it simply appears to be a Scottish pub. To those in the know, it is a place to trade rumors, exchange magical secrets, and obtain needed supplies to practice their arts.

Servorum Domini

The Catholic Church's secret mage organization maintains a small presence here, usually no more than one member at any given time stationed at the cathedral.