Luna- “a.k.a the Moon, or Terra Secundus.”
Surface: Lifeless Moon
Atmospheric conditions: N/A
Gravity: Provided by centrifugal engines running through Lunar core
Population: Two hundred million (roughly)
Affiliation: Terra
Military presence: Four million active and reserves
Main export: Helium-3, platinum, and regolith
Major landmark: Lunar Shipyards

Settled in the year 2017, Luna is the longest settled off-planet world among the Republic, and looks the part. By the present day, Luna is almost entirely covered in hab-blocs, factories, mines, or combinations of all three. What started as a scientific outpost turned, rather quickly, into the repository of all Terra’s manufacturing waste, and soon become its very source. Terra proclaimed, in 2080 AD, that Earth was a protected treasure, and extreme measures would be put in place to ensure the long-lasting preservation of humanity’s homeworld. This would be the beginning of Terra’s Core World laws, and the exodus to the forming colonies on Mars and Venus’ upper atmosphere.

By 2101, Luna held the entirety of Terra’s manufacturing might, and dozens of gantries floated in the space around the shining rock. People who did not wish to go to Mars, but still wished to work the manufacturing fields they knew so well, settled there, where the Core laws were not as strictly enforced (during that time.) The population of Luna boomed, and as the present day, Luna’s population of miners, manufactory technicians, and Fleet cadets rivals that of Terra’s own inhabitants. Lunar citizens are technically Terran citizens, and as such are given the GUIDE-class implant suites upon birth, and are entitled to the same Safety Net benefits.

Luna is also the hub of Terra’s defense. Lunar Shipyards boasts, at all times, at least twenty ships in drydock, construction, or routine maintenance. Since the start of the Seraph War, production has begun to pick up, mostly in frigate and cruiser construction, or building new ordinance to ship to the fleet. On the moon’s dark side, large swathes of land were turned into heavy railgun emplacements, torpedo launch silos, and massive communication and scanning arrays. These stationary defense bases are linked closely to Terra’s many orbital platforms- the Terran Defensive Division makes up a good portion of Luna’s inhabitants.

A large portion of Trade participants came from Luna; supplies and technologies pioneered on the Moon were sent through the portal, and an embassy was quickly formed in the Moon’s main capital of First Landing. Though the Lunar Princess was not often on the planetoid, her Lunar Guard formed a training and research center there in the first few months after the Battle of Equus, open to visitation by Lunar citizen, scientist, and soldier alike.

Unfortunately, at least for the Terrans, there is a powerful call in recent years for full Lunar independence from Terra; mostly by the younger generations, who believe that Terra has long taken advantage of Lunar prosperity and power, while giving little back to their home-moon beyond stringent birth control and social laws. Whether or not this continues in the light of the Equestrian acceptance into the Republic and the onset of the Seraph War remains to be seen, but Terran and Lunar relations, like many colonies, are strained at the moment…

Author's Notes:

Another article, whoo! :D