Terraforming

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Overview

A reformation process in which a planetary body is converted into a given environment, ranging from inhabitable to any specific species with a complete self-sustaining biosphere, to barren rock suitable for extreme-scale mining.

Seeding Process

Seed-complex reformation, commonly called seedbombing is not the single comical bomb dropped from on-high that the nickname implies. It is a highly technical process with a customized plan for each planet's unique circumstances.

Biologists, geologists, spatial engineers, virologists and geneticists and many other fields all play part in the creation of a genetic soup that is seeded across a planet, and the lab-grown lifeforms that follow it. Bacteria and algae help convert soil and atmospheric gases, before the artificially-designed flora and fauna is implanted to build and continue a new ecosystem. Less suitable locations can require the import of water and basic compounds from comets or the creation of an artificial magnetosphere in orbit. This process can take as little as a few years when done perfectly on a moon, to decades for larger planets with complex atmospheres and binary suns. Due to the complexity involved setbacks are common, and terraforming taking a century or failing completely is not unheard of. Stripping a planet down to resource-baring bedrock is a far more guaranteed process, but the destruction of a world in such a way is usually reserved for those completely out of a star's habitable zone. The reformation must be carefully observed and directed, and Onia is still dotted with the long-abandoned ruins of the terraformers' outposts.

It's a persistent rumor that archeological digs on some planets in Federation space imply that some colonies were home to native intelligent life before being reformed. Many consider it nothing more than an unfounded rumor, and the Federation consistently denies these accusations of mass genocide.

Onia

With the rapid expansion along the area that would become the White Belt, Onia's terraforming process began within weeks of explorers first setting foot on the planet. Performed by the Galactic Coalition's Department of Exploration, this process was completed in less than ten years. Onia is considered an almost perfect example of a terraformed world, with the vast majority of alien life successfully replaced by a Terran biosphere. The planet's higher oxygen level was deemed minor enough to not perform the delicate process of lowering it to match Earth levels. The only off-nominal incident was the unexpected reaction of some native and imported fauna, blossoming to extreme size within generations and flourishing in their new habitat, increasing the planet's hostility far above the desired level. While a cause for concern, the demand for W-1 meant that colonization went ahead as scheduled, leaving this new wildlife the norm. A century later, Onia is still dotted with the long-abandoned ruins of the terraformers' observation outposts. Due to the circumstances of its terraforming and with the war over, the White Belt Survey Corps has taken an interest to determine whether a new round of terraforming is required.