Sirona (Groombridge 1618 b)

Sirona, officially known as Groombridge 1618 b, is a small colony in the Groombridge System, the first and only planet in the system, with the object formally suspected to be a gas giant in orbit around Groombridge 1618 in the early 21st century proven to be nonexistent. It is notable for the large number of resources that have uses within the medicinal industry, leading to the planet's development as a industrial world focused on the production of drugs and other medical supplies, leading to it being a target during the Insurrection and proving quite useful during the. Additionally, while not visible from the surface, a large number of Forerunner structures sat beneath the surface.

Sirona was one of the few UNSC controlled planets to escape the war still under UNSC control, with the refraining from glassing the surface. While the reasons they didn't do so are largely unclear, the large resistance put up by the and  forces in the system played a part, as well as the Covenant realizing that they only needed to blockade the planet to restrict UNSC access to the medical supplies and facilities offered by Sirona and gain control of the Forerunner ruins, an action that required far fewer ships than glassing. With the other battles that were raged in the four years of the Siege of Sirona, many UNSC historians believe that the Covenant had believed this to be the best course of action and had deployed fleets that could have enabled the glassing of the planet to other engagements.

Due to being a target in the, the Human-Covenant war, and several post war conflicts, Sirona is one of the most war scarred planets that has never left the control of the UNSC. The largest contributor to the war damages on the planet was the 4 year long Siege of Sirona, which started in 2544 and ended only due to the diversion of the Covenant forces still in orbit of the planet to the Battle of Meridian in 2548.

Etymology
In Celtic mythology, Sirona was the goddess of healing, primarily worshiped in East Central Gaul and along the Danubian limes. Particularly, she was worshiped by the Treveri. Sirona's attributes were snakes and eggs. Groombridge 1618 b received the name Sirona due to the large number of Celtic descendants, specifically Gaelic, within the original colonists as well as the large number of medicinal products produced by the planet.

The Forerunners
The Forerunners maintained a strong presence on Sirona during the height of their ecumene, notably as a medical world, where the Lifeworkers researched advances in medicine and, eventually, where flood specimens were studied during the Forerunner-Flood war. As such, many of the structures were built underground to contain potential outbreaks more easily. As such, many ruins of Forerunner civilization are present under the surface of the planet, though these were not discovered until many years into the Human-Covent war in 2540.

With the activation of the Halo array in 97,445 BCE, the Forerunner presence on the planet and all Flood specimens were destroyed. Following the event, no sentient life was reseeded on the planet, leaving only plants and non-sentient animal life to populate the world for the next 100 thousand years.

Colonization
Following its discovery in 2147, and the Interplanetary Wars in the 2160's, Groombridge 1618 b was among the potential list of planets to colonize. However, it was not until the colonization of Reach by the Odyssey in 2362, which sparked the first wave of human extra-solar expansion, that ships were sent to the Groombridge system. These ships, containing mainly settlers from Gaelic regions of the UN, landed on Groombridge 1618 b in 2368.

Post-Colonization
As the atmosphere and landscape of Sirona was already compatible with human biology, no terraforming efforts were needed, allowing for the colony to develop even quicker than many of the other Inner Colonies, surpassing even colonies that had been established one or two years prior in industrial advancement.

Research of the plants, minerals, and other resources located on the planet led to the discovery of the many medical uses for the planet's resources, leading to a large medical industry developing on the colony. Within the first decade of Groombridge 1618 b's colonization, several hospitals, industrial centers, and medical research facilities had popped up, establishing the planet as a medicinal center of the Inner Colonies. This medical focus combined with the heritage of the colonists led to the name Sirona being adopted by the inhabitants.

Increasing development of the planet carried on peacefully through the years between the colonization of Sirona and the Insurrection, leading to a few large cities. However, most of this development was in the form of large agricultural or mining facilities, enabling the colonists to harvest the required raw resources for the medical industry on the planet, or gleaming medical research facilities, with a large majority of the population living in suburban settings, rather then the cities themselves. As such, the cities remained relatively small, with the research facilities in the center, surrounded by suburban living, which itself was surrounded by farms, mines, and industrial production buildings. Overall, this format was developed over the entirety of the planet, excluding the capital city, which housed the government, military, and interstellar trade and travel headquarters, as well as many urban living facilities, as the island on which the capital was located prevented the massive sprawl of suburban living the large mainland mass provided for the rest of the colony.

Topography
Orbiting around a dimmer star than the sun, Sirona is much closer to the planet than Earth is, yet still feels to have approximately the same climate. In fact, it was so similar, that very little terraforming had to be done to the colony, and humans could even survive, if not thrive, on the planet before any was done. This shocking similarity doesn't just stop with the habitability of the planet, but also in its size, though less so, with a radius that is only approximately 1,000 km less than Earths, and about 2,000 km greater than Mars's. Its surface gravity is similarly much less than Earth's, yet not much so, only about 2 m/s^2 under.

The world of Sirona is very rich in both minerals and plant life that are used for medical supplies and drugs, as well as fertile soil for agriculture. Additionally, most of the land is joined in one large mass, bordered by a large ocean with a few small to medium sized islands within this sea. This land mass sees a wide variety of landscapes, from jungles along the equator, to rolling hills and grasslands, dry savannas and deserts, and lush deciduous and evergreen forests among the more moderate latitudes, and skyward reaching mountains, frigid boreal forests, and frozen tundra wastelands along the more severe latitudes. In orbit, Sirona has but one natural satellite. This cratered moon's relatively large size in comparison to the planet, about 6% of the planet's mass, five times more than the 1.2% shown by Earth's moon, providing very large tidal forces on the planet's one large ocean.

Ecology
Sirona is heavily vegetated, more so than Earth, with large portions of the land masses of the planet being covered in forests and jungles. Several species of the many trees, shrubs, and flowers of the planet offer medicinal properties. Additionally, the vegetation on the planet is quite sturdy, due to the high amounts of winds on the planet, resulting from the larger amounts of unequal heating experienced on the planet due to the land masses and ocean being more distinctly separated, with only one large occurrence of each.

Sirona's fauna are plentiful, with most of the species living within the jungle, and relatively few living towards the more polar climates, much like on Earth. Additionally, many species of maritime animals also exist, populating the planet's large ocean. Additionally, several species of fauna from Earth are present on the world, including dogs, cats, farm animals, and several species of birds.

Many of the species on Sirona were killed off to dangerously low numbers or even extinction due to both over-hunting, industrial habitat destruction, and the large amount of warfare that the planet saw, which heavily scarred the planet.

Government and Society
Sirona was one of the most important worlds for the development of medical supplies and training for medical professionals throughout the UNSC. Several of the most prestigious medical schools were located on this world, as well as buildings for several medical companies, such as. Large amounts of the agriculture and mining on the world focused on growing and harvesting and extracting the required plants, chemicals, and raw materials for the creation of the medical supplies and equipment produced on the planet. As such, it relied heavily on other colonies for their food products and other necessities. Most cities on the planet's, excluding the capital city, which had housing for the government officials that worked in the city, had relatively few residential centers, as the urban community was reserved for medical schools, corporate buildings, research centers, hospitals, and other similar structures relating to the economy of Sirona.

Most of Sirona's original settlers originated from areas with heavy Celtic influence. As such, the colony has large Celtic influence itself, even present in its common name, Sirona. As such, the most popular languages, besides English, were all Celtic languages. Even when other colonists settled on the planet, the Celtic influences remained strong, and are still noticeable on the colony.

Sirona had is own government, present in the capital city of the planet. However, it was overseen by the and later the UNSC and  following the absorption of the CAA. Sirona itself never joined the Insurrection, with no rebel groups from the local populace, it was subject to a few attacks from groups such as the due to the medical supplies present on the planet.

Defenses
Though Earth was the UNSC's cultural, political, and commercial center of the UNSC, and Reach was the military center, Sirona was the medical center of the human colonies. As such, it was still afforded an extensive defensive grid. Though not as advanced or possessing as many large vessels as Reach's or Earth's, it still held a large fleet of frigates and destroyers.

The Groombridge Defense Fleet was made up of anywhere from 70 to 90 warships at a time. Additionally, there were 10 semi-mobile orbital "Super-MAC". Finally, 5 were held in orbit above the planet. On the surface, a large detachment of UNSC Marines were permanently stationed to supplement the Army and forces present on the planet. It held one of the largest complements of Air Force personnel and assets out of all of Humanity's colonies.
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