Nouveau Montreal

Nouveau Montreal is a prominent UNSC-aligned colony world. The world has recently gained notoriety due its importance as a trade hub at the human end of the Pleiades Corridor.

Initial Colonization
The Avalon System was first surveyed by the Auriga Expeditions in 2419. Though the system was notable for the Earth-analog world, with an accessible asteroid belt between Nouveau Montreal and Avalon IV, its distance from the Inner Colonies meant that its settlement was delayed in favor of closer alternatives.

The first colony ships reached Nouveau Montreal in 2437, as slipspace technology improved and the mapping of the Perseus Way now made it viable to reach deep into the Cepheus-Auriga Quadrant. Initial colonization consisted of a largely-Quebecois population, with other Francophones arriving in succeeding waves from both Earth and Inner Colonies. The majority of early settlement was along the habitable southern coast of Nouveau Montreal’s supercontinent. This effort was pushed by Nebulex Extraction and Refining, a Luyten-based corporation that has been a dominating force in the Quadrant since the early 2400s. Nebulex had made claims on the system, under the belief the system was far more resource rich than it truly was. When the mining efforts weren’t showing the expected returns, interest began to die for continuing the colonization of the world.

Corporate cash flow slowly stopped, and the colony's growth stagnated as its ruling corporate council saw their work now as a burden, and saw many members believed being on the council was now detrimental to their careers. Any further interest in colonization was killed by the new push to colonize the Asgard Stratum, diverting resources away from the Clavain Sector. The system only saw minor development in the outer system, with a refueling depot built in orbit of the gas-giant Avalon IV, along with some mining outposts in the nearby asteroid belt.

Unrest and Nebluex’s Fall
The colony continued under corporate rule for 31 years, and unrest began mounting as Nebulex’s promises for terraforming of the planet and extensive development were broken and the colony was left to stagnate. This was compounded by how little of the wealth that Nebulex mined from the system was reinvested back into Montreal's infrastructure. Attempts to reinforce the security force only caused more unrest.

As a result, in 2468, when a new round of protests occurred, Nebulex proposed negotiations between the colonial parties and themselves to hammer out an agreement to form a colonial government, one independent of Nebulex. The corporation gambled that they could use the split between the various opposition groups to maintain their large claims on the world and control of the system’s asteroid belt. In this, they were partially correct. The colonial parties failed to consolidate and often argued between each other. Regardless, they still managed to maintain a united front that blocked the corporate-friendly government Nebulex’s negotiators were pushing.

After that, the talks stalled, which only served to infuriate the populace more. Protests persisted throughout September of 2470, when Nebulex miners went on a sit-down strike. Gideon Toussaint, Nouveau Montreal's Director of Operations, finally lost his cool and gave the order for corporate security to raid the mines and arrest the miners. Numerous miners were killed in the conflicts, and unrest spread throughout all the major cities, taxing corporate security. The colonial parties insisted that they withdraw from the colony and let it choose its own government without Nebulex's assistance. Toussaint declined to. As the rioting intensified, a siege of the corporate district in Foix, capital city, was launched. Toussaint realized the tide had gone against him and asked Nebulex HQ for reinforcements to put an end to the revolt.

In order to calm their stockholders, Nebulex's corporate headquarters covered up the uprising and dispatched a wave of reinforcements. The guerillas had spread throughout the hot and muggy foothills that ran parallel to the southern coast of the supercontinent, but the private military corporations (PMCs) they hired were able to put down the uprising in the big towns. The CAA eventually learned about Nebulex's illegal activities at Nouveau Montreal, and they assembled a task group to take down the corporation's army.

After they arrived in July of 2471, the CMA discovered the amount of force they brought was far more than what was necessary. Most of the PMCs had outright surrendered to the CMA or began deserting, morale was poor due to the ongoing guerilla war. The news of the CMA's arrival broke whatever remained of their desire to fight. In the aftermath, the corporate leadership of Nouveau Montreal was arrested due the abuses they laid on the colony in suppressing the revolt. Investigations into Nebulex would destroy the company as several other unethical and shady practices were discovered. The corporation never recovered from this blow and dissolved four years later.

The Kalou Regime
In the aftermath of Nebulex’s collapse, the CMA began to set up a new government. Choosing a fellow CMA officer and native of the world, Arianne Kalou as governor. In her new role as colonial governor, Kalou was expected to assist in reconstruction and to work with local political organizations to set up a new government. Initial progress was good, with the reconstruction programs proving popular. The establishment of a gendarmerie helped restore order to the colony and a native police force was naturally very popular. This rapid progress convinced the CMA taskforce to depart the system so they could deal with more pressing matters. Kalou was retained though the elections of 2472, reasoning it was her job to provide stability while the colony rebuilt itself in the wake of Nebulex's exit. This was welcomed by both the parties and populace.

However, Kalou started to exhibit a tendency toward authoritarianism, which alienated her off from the parties and the parliament. Due to her charisma and ability to pressure parliament into passing popular economic policies, she maintained a high level of popularity outside of the political elite. She had, however, begun to support cronyism and fraud in the background to benefit herself and her allies. The situation came to a head in 2479 when it was discovered through leaks that she had kept a large portion of the proceeds from the sale of Nebulex's holdings in 2475. The colony was outraged by this, and things got worse when she disbanded parliament to stop them from removing her.

Efforts to appeal to the CAA were unsuccessful, and the few inspectors assigned to the isolated colony were frequently bought off. There were increasingly large and frustrated protests, but Kalou seemed unaffected by them. However, they had an impact on the Gendarmerie, who were frequently the ones to put an end to these demonstrations. Many people, many of whom shared the same political inclinations as the protestors, felt uncomfortable about being ordered to arrest and occasionally fight their own compatriots. To prevent a protracted civil war, a coalition of different opposition parties plotted to depose Kalou by employing sympathetic Gendarmerie forces to detain her.

The plot was discovered by Kalou on October 9th of 2481, and she ordered the disarming of the units of disloyal units on the 11th, this kicked off the Battle of Foix. The coup had to be launched now or risk being crushed before it began. The plotters had a numerical advantage in the capital and were able to lock down the city before she could react. Although loyalist and rebel forces were forced to fight, there was extreme reluctance to fight. Consequently, firefights were brief with one side surrendering or retreating before a prolonged fight could begin. Opposition forces were quick to gain the upper hand, with loyalist units almost universally having poor morale. Additionally, civilian paramilitaries who had fought against Nebulex's security forces in the past helped opposition forces. Throughout the second day, numerous loyalist Gendarmeries swapped sides or deserted. Only a small number of gendarmes were left to guard the government district by the third day. At this point, many of the loyalist forces were die-hards and included CMA soldiers who had been left behind to support Kalou. They held the area under attack for about a day and a half before being forced to surrender after Kalou was apprehended while attempting to escape.

With the end of Kalou came the challenges of setting up a new government and securing the rest of the colony. The most important task, however, was to make sure the CMA did not put them down as rebels, as Kalou had requested their intervention before she was captured. As such the parliament turned to the UNSC for protection. While not interested in the world itself, the UNSC viewed this as an opportunity to expand its reach into the Clavain Sector and the Cepheus-Auriga Quadrant. As a result, they agreed to assist in “peacekeeping” operations. The CMA task force, which had been tied up in other duties, arrived only to find a UNSC force already in the system. After a tense stand-off, the CMA force left the system, and the UNSC went to work on refurbishing the refueling station on Avalon IV to be used for their ships. Along with leaving behind a small army and aerospace garrison to deter any attempts by the CMA retaking the system.

Recovery
From here on Nouveau Montreal began to fade back into relative obscurity. Something that would be a blessing for the colony. As it would be able to avoid the worst excesses of the UNSC and CMA during Insurrection and lead to its survival during the Human-Covenant War.

Topography
An Earth-analog terrestrial world Nouveau Montreal orbits an F9V-class star. With an orbit of 1.4 astronomical units, Nouveau Montreal is located on the inner half of the habitable zone for a star of this type, making it significantly warmer than Earth. There is little in the way of polar ice caps, and its equatorial band is effectively uninhabitable to human life. The planet is not dry, but is instead fairly wet. Most of the extra water is converted into vapor, particularly at higher latitudes where the temperature is hotter. Terraforming efforts have been focused on trying to cool the planet and bring down the water vapor. Ideally into lakes and rivers in the continental interior. Although sporadic over the years, efforts have been successful in improving the habitability of the world and especially the interior. The planet still stradles the line between levels I and II of the Habitability rating

Nouveau Montreal is a young world, and a younger world than its level of life would suggest. The world should only be comprised of single celled and perhaps a handful of simple multicellular organisms, yet it boasts a complex biosphere. Indeed, examples of native life have been found on the sea floor, and have confirmed the theories that Nouveau Montreal life should be more primitive than actually is. This makes it one of the clearest examples of out-of-place biota, and the interaction between the native organisms and the species previously seeded or introduced by humans have fascinated scientists.

Due to its young age, the planet is tectonically active. The planet has three main continents, one of which is a supercontinent that takes up 77% of the land surface area and 21% of the planet's surface. The other two continents are located close to this landmass, and geologists suspect that these have recently (geologically-speaking) broken off from it. This is corroborated by the fact the main supercontinent currently has numerous rift valleys, with the breakup of the supercontinent expected to occur over the next several tens of million years. The activity causes a large amount of earthquakes and tsunamis to occur, with the majority of the population being forced to live on the southern coast of the supercontinent, where there is relatively little tectonic activity. That this region is fairly temperate by the standards of the planet, with a Mediterranean-style climate, has only made it more attractive for settlers.

As planet's population has grown, either though natural growth or from refugees, the interior of the supercontinent and the northern two continents have also been settled. While less hospitable than previously settled regions, climate control and light terraforming has improved these conditions.