Siberia Prime

Siberia Prime, formerly Vozmozhnosti (Russian: Opportunity) was a former UEG colony.

Origins
The colonization of Siberia Prime was driven by pressures and organizations that had been started as far back as before the Interplanetary Wars, with the establishment of the Design Bureaus. Commonly misunderstood as corporate entities (though many are backed by Earth's megacorporations), these are in fact self-contained governments that build and manage space stations. They are run by experts, often with an appointed executive, and promotion within the DB is driven by accreditation and political influence. Self-representation for the station inhabitants is minimal, as the political structure is predicated on the idea that self-determination and liberty are corrosive to long-term survival in space. This is possibly the most enduring legacy of the Friedens.

In the aftermath of the Interplanetary Wars, the Design Bureaus agreed to form a secret cartel that handed effective control of the Sol Belt and the Jovian Moons to them. Their downfall began following the invention of the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine and the beginning of interstellar colonization. As the decades progressed, many of the Belt's best and brightest no longer wished to bind themselves to the limited opportunities found in the Belt, and many departed to Earth in hopes of being picked to board extrasolar colony ships. This eventually brought about the Belter Exodus of the late-24th century, whose widespread emigration brought about by the Odyssey Fleet colony ships led to a massive recession in the Belt and Jovian Moons. Many of the long-standing cartel members forced into bankruptcy, and it became clear to the few that remained that they would continue to struggle as colonial endeavors only grew more ambitious.

It was clear something needed to be done. In the 2380s, the surviving Design Bureaus attended a summit where they decided to purchase colonization rights and run their own extrasolar colony. The planet Vozmozhnosti in the Yaytsa system was selected due to cheap investment and terraforming prospects. However, the costly requirements in manpower for early colonial ventures was high, and it could not be met by sourcing from the Belt exclusively. At around the same time, East Europe - specifically Ukraine and Russia - were going through their own economic woes, but for different reasons. Though people were staying in place, and labor unions were as strong as ever, industry was moving off-world, driven by market forces and government regulation. There were far too many people, and far too few jobs, and were prepared to work for little and ask no questions. This was a situation the executives of the Design Bureaus exploited, striking a deal with the labor unions that they hoped would minimize unrest among the population, enough to get their work done.

Over the following years, millions of people were flown out from Eastern Europe to the Jovian Moons. With their labor force acquired, all the Design Bureaus needed to do were build the colony ships. Four starship pens, decommissioned space stations that were bought cheaply because no one else wanted them, were refitted for the task, using the very prospective colonists they recruited. Although the stations required engines, their hulls were strong enough that only minimal reinforcement was needed to survive slipspace transitions, and they had the industrial equipment to build infrastructure from scratch.

Golden Decades and Decade From Hell
"It'll happen one sunny day."

- Siberian proverb. Once an optimistic pining for the future, contemporary usage has degraded to roughly "It'll be a cold day in hell when it happens."

The colonial fleet arrived at Vozmozhnosti in 2393, after almost a two year journey. Despite the crushing reveal that the planet was one locked in an ice age, caused by a cataclysmic series of asteroid strikes 800,000 years ago, there was still a sense of optimism among the colonists. Between 2398 and 2426, progress moved quickly - habitats and terraforming were built at a blinding pace, and there was work and shelter for everyone. In fact, many historians looked back on this period as a golden age for Siberia Prime.

In spite of this rose-tinted outlook, however, issues were already brewing in the background. Though a bicameral and representative government, one theoretically disconnected from the Design Bureaus was already in the process of forming, certain measures were taken to limit its power. Only a body of bureaucrats had the ability to propose legislation, and much political power was held at the municipal level, where the Design Bureaus had great influence. Worse were the living conditions of the general population, who teetered above the poverty line for UEG space. Labor unions changed with the times, with the old, corporate-sympathetic representatives being voted out and replaced with those who were from the general workforce, not the Design Bureau managerial positions. The union bosses and functionaries made efforts to limit the power of the new representatives.

After the "Golden Decades" comes the "Decade of Hell", which began in 2428. Several well-publicized collapses stirred up calls for independent reviews of arcology construction, with many questioning the competence of the Design Bureau engineers. Worse, the intricate subway, sewer, and power systems that the eleven cities were built upon turned out to be ideal breeding grounds for rats. The infrastructure simply did not work, even though the experts insisted that the "Arcology is fine!" Later, the wages of the workforce froze yet the price of goods only continued to grow. Imported meat and fruit, once staple meals, could only be purchased by the planet's wealthy. Price controls were later implemented in many cities, though this was only a solution to a symptom, not the root problems on the planet.

Terraforming civil war (Decision War)
<!--
 * Cool. I didn't know that this was a feature.
 * Planet appears to be locked in an ice age by a cataclysmic series of asteroid strikes 800,000 years ago.
 * First decade of colonization is regarded in hindsight as a golden age in spite of political strife. Habitats and terraforming equipment are erected at a blinding pace, and there is work and shelter for everybody.
 * Government is bicameral and representative, but only a body of bureaucrats (Theoretically unconnected to the DBs) has the ability to propose legislation. Much political power is also held at the municipal level, where the design bureaus have great influence.
 * Labor unions are going through a populist revolution. Old union reps, who are indistinguishable from the managerial class that they are supposed to do battle with, get voted down and replaced by "Grease monkeys and ice truckers". Union bosses and functionaries do their best to limit the power of freshmen representatives.
 * After the "Golden Decade" comes the "Decade of Hell". Design Bureaus that mastered the construction of space habitats turn out to be less-than-competent at designing terrestrial arcologies. Several well-publicized collapses stir up calls for independent reviews of arcology construction, a deadly insult to the DB expert class. Worse, the intricate subway, sewer, and power systems that the eleven cities were built upon turn out to be ideal breeding grounds for rats. The infrastructure does not work, even though the experts insist that "Arcology is fine!"
 * In year fifteen, stagflation hits. Wages for the working class remain stagnant, but the cost of consumer goods steadily increases. Off-world luxuries like meat and fruit disappear from the dinner table. Many cities respond to the crisis with price controls.
 * Labor unions agitate for change. They organize donation drives and rallies to boost membership, promising to fight for the worker. Union organizations make loud calls for change, and then deal down at the bargaining table. The unrest is used as a bargaining chip to extract concessions from the Design Bureaus, which are institutionally hostile toward populist movements, but the workers are unhappy with the results. Some of the policies that do pass only make the economic conditions worse, forming a definitive anti-union faction in the electorate.
 * The unrest steadily escalates into strikes and clashes with municipal security forces. The new generation of union reps draws censure from the union bosses with calls for further import of colonists to be halted until progress in terraforming and arcology construction can be achieved.
 * The Meyer Documents are leaked in 2412. Internal communications indicated that the Design Bureaus, at least in the third quarter of 2401, had boosted the transport of new colonists from Eastern Europe in order to suppress wage growth.
 * "The Long Night in the Wilds", also known as "The Blizzard from Hell". As distrust in the Design Bureaus and the Unions increases, more and more citizens resort to hacktivism. Internal government servers are hacked, communications are broken open. Chatter phones and electronic advertisements are subverted in order to broadcast incriminating information.
 * A number of other documents and taped candid conversations are leaked or hacked in the span of three weeks. Some are stripped of context, others are fabricated entirely, but the biggest bombshell is proven to be legitimate. In spite of repeated denials, internal documents show that the Design Bureaus were deliberately importing far more colonists than the economy could absorb, in order to saturate the labor market. They were deliberately driving down wages and the bargaining leverage of workers. Certain union bosses knew that the Vozmozhnosti government was doing this, but stayed silent because the low wages and influx of new workers would be ideal for recruitment. A new epithet for the unions, "The beast that fucks itself", was coined. Many of the young union reps walk out of the union halls in protest. Violence breaks out between unionized and non-unionized workers.
 * Shit hits the fan:
 * The governor of the colony calls an emergency meeting of the parliament. Many reforms are proposed, but there is too much disagreement for any one voice to dominate. Ultimately, the parliament passes a motion for a referendum to be presented to the people, who themselves would make key decisions on the restructuring of the colony.
 * As the referendum is being drafted, Timofey Belorov, an atmospheric scientist working for the Design Bureaus, leaks a seven-gigabyte document. Contained in that document is reams of test data proving that the solar radiation from Yatsya, the local star, was 8% lower than it had been a million years ago when Vozmozhnosti was a temperate planet. Complex modeling proved that the planet could not be restored without nearly two orders of magnitude more effort put into terraforming, including the construction of orbital mirrors. Yet more documents showed that the key discoveries were made in 2399, and suppressed for fourteen years, as the results would have shown the whole terraforming process to be futile.
 * The Vozmozhnosti Parliament, already on the cusp of releasing the referendum, pauses and takes three more days to re-draft it. Riots break out, and eight million citizens apply for transportation off the planet.
 * A fight breaks out behind closed doors. The measure that many parliamentarians ask for, and tens of millions of citizens demand, is an end to the terraforming process. Instead, all that capital should go toward securing another colony and evacuating the population. A few brave voices point out that there is not nearly enough capital to secure a temperate colony and transportation for sixty million colonists, not on top of the debt that the Vozmozhnosti project has already incurred.
 * The design bureaus get the final say, quashing any possibility of mass resettlement. When the Referendum finally lands on September 10th, 2434, all of the radical reforms anticipated by the people were replaced by banal adjustments to the existing government. The evacuation was merely a proposed moratorium on further colonists, as well as a resettlement of vulnerable persons. The biggest change came in the first question, which proposed renaming the colony. Of the seven million who bothered to vote, the majority wrote in a vote for Siberia Prime, a name which would stick through the coming civil wars.
 * Riots spill out into the streets. Each of the eleven cities sees street fighting between unionist, anti-unionist, and municipal security forces. The situation only continues to escalate.
 * Over the next few weeks, violence will continue to escalate. Several parliamentarians and union bosses are assassinated, while many Design Bureau officials retreat to Zelenyygorod. Pochvennaya Gavan, Metrograd, and New Petersburg, three of the major cities in relative proximity to each other, organize a provisional government.
 * Colonists win, government leaders either killed, forced into exile, or quietly retired.
 * Metrograd, Petrol Basin, Stalnoye Razrastaniye-->

Continuation War (Koslovic Containment)
<!-- -The colony was founded on an iceball that quickly proved to be immune to standard terafforming operations, but this information was suppressed. -The colony failed suddenly and violently due to institutional collapse. The institutions that the colonists brought with them (Design and Operation Bureaus from the Jovian moons, labor unions from Russia) were corrupt and failed to adapt to completely new conditions on the colony. These institutions were solely interested in advancing their own power, so they couldn't resolve the problems that the population had. Then came the revelation that "Twenty years of terraforming efforts have been as useless as digging a hole and pouring the dirt back in, and these bastards knew it!" All hell broke loose. -The civil war stabilized around three factions: the design bureaus, the "New Labor" faction, and a third group that votes "No" to both. The war is briefly turned into a four-way war when a Koslovic ("with Siberian characteristics") revolution breaks out in some isolated cities. The revolution eventually grinds out a victory in these cities, but is unable to push out of the western basin and is not as interested in exporting the revolution as older Koslovic movements were, so it consolidates it's holdings. -The larger civil war eventually resolves with either the New Labor faction or the third faction victorious. It is led by a triad. A lawyer named Gunther Haertz, an artillery captain named Peter Simonov, and a third guy I haven't thought of. This triad is smart enough to know that rebuilding this colony is going to require balancing the interests of the former factions. It's also going to take a heavy hand to maintain order, but they are convinced that a bleak present with hopes of a better future is preferable to risking another civil war. -So the resulting colony, through the 2400s, is about as pleasant a place to live as 1970's Yugoslavia, maybe. Most people are dancing around what the rest of the UEG considers the poverty line, and speaking one's mind is hazardous enough to be considered an extreme sport. -The Koslovic state goes isolationist to prevent memetic or ideological contamination from the capitalist colony. Not much news of the outside world comes in, very little comes out except for propaganda radio broadcasts and the occasional refugee. -It is known that the Koslovic state is working on an AI, which has everyone who remembers the Interplanetary Wars on edge. -Koslovic AI tend to be a little twitchy. Normal AI researchers are trying to recreate human intelligence in an AI and accelerate it. The Koslovics denounce this as "Cybernetics", a way to recreate Human minds with false consciousness that will sustain the economic-cultural hegemonic order and (Twenty pages of Koslovic dogma that only gets more abstruse.) The Koslovics want to create an AI with an activated consciousness that will organize the transition to a classless society. Most of the time, they get a paperclip maximizer. -This actually retards adoption of AI automation in the broader Siberian colony. Mostly, standardization between the Arcologies is so poor that installing a Superintendent network is very difficult, but everyone also sees AU automation as an attack vector for the Koslovics. -Border skirmishes between the two states happens over the latter half of the 25th century, and both spin up their domestic arms industry. Siberia Prime is able to export more military hardware, so it can fund a bigger arms industry and defense force, the threat of which forces the Koslovics to turtle and break off the skirmishes. -The the war breaks out. Siberia Prime signs contracts with the UEG to produce war supplies, the capital investments of which are used to bootstrap the arms industry and lift the population out of the poverty line. This brings about twenty years of prosperity before the Covenant come around. -->

Topography and Climate
In spite of its current snowball status, Siberia Prime was once a temperate planet. Beneath its ice sheets lie layers of ash and plant residue, and primitive life still swims in its seas. The cause for the glaciation is not well-understood. Ice cores taken from Siberia Prime and Siberia Secundus hint that the local star, Yaytsa, once shone more brightly. The ash layers, on the other hand, are rich with meteorite fragments, even though there are few large asteroids left in the Yaytsa system. A sustained cataclysmic impact event, theorized to have happened 800,000 years ago, could have darkened Siberia Prime's skies long enough to settle into a permanent nuclear winter.

Prior to colonization, Siberia Prime's climate was cold but placid. The Siberians undertook an ambitious geoforming project with orbital mirrors and upwelling warm water from lower levels of the oceans. Though the project was expected to take only three generations to produce shirtsleeve weather, the planet warmed an average of only two degrees Celsius over the course of 150 years. Instead, wild storm systems formed throughout the middle latitudes, rising and waning in sync with the day-night cycle.

Government
""You've never heard of General Peter Simonov? You should have. The rumor is, this guy's only lost his temper three times in his life, and each time the colony wound up with a new government."

- Lieutenant Morgan Jameson, ONI Liason

Siberia Prime has passed through three distinct governments since it emerged from the Decision War, but a lone figure connected all three. Peter Izmashi Simonov was a police officer, and when the municipal security forces were re-organized into a military, he became an artillery captain. The security forces were very loyal to the design bureaus, but that loyalty waned as a quick victory wasn't won, and the war dragged on. In 2538, Simonov launched a coup against the design bureaus and quickly captured all of New Petrograd. Several thousand members of the design bureaus' upper management were forced to resign and flee the colony. With complete control over the military and the putative civil government, the Colonel was able to bring the other two to the bargaining table.

The second government of Siberia Prime was a power-sharing agreement between the leaders of the three surviving factions. Simonov retained control of the military, while Pavel Medved was the self-appointed leader of the unions. Both were subordinate to Ivan Kalinin, the leader of the anti-Unionist faction, who was charged with establishing a civilian government. While such a government was established, it was always 'a process underway', and the promised elections never came about.

Medved and Simonov deeply disliked each other, and neither fully trusted the other. Simonov proposed the arrangement where both would be subordinated to Kalinin largely as a measure to keep Medved from gaining more power, and it was only skillful diplomacy from Kalinin and Simonov's wife that made the idea a reality.

The power-sharing agreement lasted for eleven years, and ended abruptly after Kalinin died suddenly from a case of Koskin's Lung. Kalinin's civilian subordinates immediately jockeyed to replace him, and Pavel Medved tried to push his own man as a replacement. In the preceding years, union workers had established themselves as first-class citizens, while Simonov's soldiers were forbidden from returning to their jobs as policemen, and were subjected to one round after another of budget cuts. Medved had more cards to play and much better political acumen than Simonov, and was a sure bet to win the reshuffling of the political order until negotiations grew so tense that he lost his temper and backhanded Simonov's wife.

Simonov drew his pistol and shot Medved dead.

Strengths

 * 1) Ingrained Resilience: Siberians are no strangers to expensive struggles that span generations. Struggles against the Covenant, against their homeworld's climate, even against each other. Their culture prizes adaptability and long-term dedication.
 * 2) Friends In Low Places the Siberian government has always had connections with the criminal underworld, connections that only got stronger after the fall of Siberia Prime. Many soldiers and state security personnel left the service of their government to work as mercenaries and criminal enforcers, though few cut ties completely. Siberia Prime's relationship with ONI is similarly complicated.
 * 3) Gunsmiths The planet's bloody history and proximity to the Outer Colonies meant that Siberia Prime developed the largest arms industry outside of SolCore. Although some designs were licensed or copied from Earth and Martian corporations, many more were homegrown. Siberia Prime's relative independence from Earth meant that its arsenal was perfect to export to one or both sides of the UNSC/CMA's proxy wars.

Weaknesses

 * 1) Cat's In The Cradle: Siberia Prime had the most comprehensive, successful evacuation plan of any major colony. The particulars of this evacuation plan meant that the vast majority of the evacuees were minors unaccompanied by their parents. The demographics of the Siberian survivors skews younger, and a generation is coming to age that is disaffected with their government and disconnected from the culture that produced them.
 * 2) Tarnished Legitimacy: The government of Siberia Prime staked its future on successfully repelling a Covenant invasion, an act that was supposed to turn the tide of the war. After the failure and exile, the GIE has lost the loyalty of its military and its citizenry, and is struggling to reassert its power.
 * 3) Bad Reputation Siberia Prime called in all its favors early in the war, and its behavior throughout the war burned through whatever goodwill was left over. As far as the UNSC is concerned, Siberians are only looking out for number one, and cannot be expected to honor the spirit of a contract. The Covenant, on the other hand, are not happy about being on the receiving end of chemical weapons.