User:K4/Thermopylae Colony

"Welcome to Thermopylae, the hellhole of the UNSC."

- 141 on Thermopylae's weather conditions

Thermopylae, more commonly known as Thermopylae Colony, is the birthplace of SPARTAN-141 and is also one of the Forerunner's Shield Worlds. It's atmosphere is of questionable composition and is also the site of several attempts from Covenant soldiers to overthrow or, failing that, glass. However, Thermopylae Colony has stood the test of time thouought the Human-Covenant War.

History
First discovered in 2356 when humanity's search for Earth-like planets began to find odder and odder planets, it was almost passed up for colonization due to the amount of Bidon, a highly poisonous Noble gas, in the atmosphere. However, after successful tests, the UNSC was able to produce a resistance to the gas to colonists. However, some terraforming needed to be done, as the planet was not quite up to specs with Earth-norm physical attributes. In 2359, an unknown anomaly caused some terraforming machines to malfunction, at which time their fusion powerplants began acting as magnets for the Bidon. Highly charged ions in the fusion reactors combined with the Bidon and began forming large deposits of Deponsamotine, an even deadlier gas that Bidon. This gas spread quickly thouought the atmosphere and caused the planet's magnetic field to undergo some type of flash-polarization, causing the planet to become almost impossible to land on. Unable to retrive the terraforming machines and unable to save anyone on the planet, the UNSC abondoned Thermopylae for several decades. During that time, the atmosphere returned to normal, as nature balenced it out. Once again, the planet was close to earth-norm conditions. However, the Deponsamotine and the Bidon had attracted all kinds of stray ions when the planets magnetic field polarised, causeing massive ion storms to sweep the planet at random intervals. The UNSC had begun developing more advanced EMP protecion development, which later was repurposd for Thermopylae;s colonizaton.