User:Imperial Misanthrope/Platform

"It’s not Reach, but it’s home, you know. At least this frozen rock is worth something"

- Human Marine stationed on Echo Station 2 on the Northern Hemisphere, 2567CE

Platform is the name of a Human Colony world claimed after the end of the Human-Covenant War. The planet was located in the Orion Constellation in the Gamma Orionis system, and was formerly a military outpost until it was discovered to possess numerous traces of rare and useful metals used in the construction of both human and Covenant style warships.

Characteristics
Platform is a habitable world that is slightly colder in average temperature than Earth. It is a glacial planet in most areas; however there are numerous “forests” of cold resistant plants located on numerous areas of the tundra. The planet is climate wise mostly stable, however the twilight areas are susceptible to sudden weather changes, and the deep shadow of the planet is somewhere in the vicinity of -120C at any given time.

Unbeknownst to the first settlers, there is a large deposit of valuable minerals in ore form below the surface of the poles, many of which are used to build both human and Covenant style warships.

The planet is considered habitable by humans, and is home to several cities and a large military base.

The planet is orbited by three satellite moons named Citadel, Bastion, and Sentinel. Two of these, Sentinel and Citadel, have military and research bases, where as Bastion has a vibrant metropolis and two embassies from the ISE and the EMG.

The Planet is slightly further away from its sun than the Earth is to Sol, and travels elliptically in orbit around it. Every one of its years, it goes through a period of additional cold, closing down mining operations in affected areas for around about 3 months, where as the opposite hemisphere is able to continue work.

History
Platform was discovered in 2496CE by human forces before the first meeting of the Covenant. Back then it was named with the code B-24 instead of having a name like all significant planets. It is approximately 240 Light years away from the Earth, and orbits the star Bellatrix.

The Human-Covenant War
During the Human-Covenant War, the planet was never found by Covenant forces because of its evacuation in 2531CE to provide aid to the Epsilon Eridani system. These forces would be used and destroyed in the Battle of Reach years later. Since then the planet was abandoned, never found by the Covenant and basically forgotten about by Humanity. However, in 2558CE, the planet was retaken for the Human Empire.

The New Human Empire
In 2558CE, the planet was found again, and repopulated for small scale military research. However, the twilight area of the planet closest to the outpost was being excavated for signs of previous life on the planet. Instead of fossils and remains, they discovered incredible amounts of valuable ores that contained minerals used in the crafting of armour and frames for human and Covenant style warships.



Circa 2564CE, the planet was turned into a large military stronghold, much like Reach once was, with its own military bases upon three different sections of the planet, ship yard in orbit, three orbital research stations, and 98 Orbital Defence Platforms. Platform also sported its own defence fleet, lead by Admiral Geoffrey Whitcomb, the commanding officer of FLEETCOM Sector 7.

The planet exported fortunes worth of substances for use in the UNSC, with much of it being sold to other powers such as the Imperium of the Sangheili Empire and the Eayn Mercenary Guild. This made the planet extremely necessary to the Human Empire, making it a prime target for its enemies.

The First Battle of Platform


The First Battle of Platform was a primarily naval engagement that took place during the First Remnant Wars. The Covenant Remnant intended to take humanity out of the equation, at least for a time, in their goals for reassertion of the Covenant Empire. For this purpose, they directed a force of two well sized Fleets to attack and destroy the planet, crippling Humanity’s ability to wage effective warfare against the Remnant. Apart from the Earth, Platform became one of the largest and most important ship yards and military bases humanity possessed, and without it the Earth would be unable to coordinate forces effectively between itself and the borders of its territory.

In an unfortunate oversight, the Remnant Intelligent failed to report the visitation by an ISE escort Fleet that had business on the surface. As a result, the Remnant Fleet exited Slipspace into a menagerie of Human and Sangheili vessels that were none to pleased to see the appearance of the Remnant ships. Underestimating the size and strength of the forces present over the planet, the Remnant managed to inflict heavy damage early in the battle, but quickly lost the advantage and the remaining forces were forced to retreat.

The Remnant in the meantime had managed to break through and land a carrier and a Cruiser on the surface, instigating a ground invasion. As fortune again favoured humanity, the southern hemisphere where they had landed was experiencing its winter that occurred every two years, and forced the humans approximately 1 month ago to seal their base in order to wait it out. This meant that the Remnant forces had no means in which to invade the base, and found it hard to conduct battle strategies in the sub-zero temperatures. Before the two ships decided to simply bombard the base, it pulled back its army, and was ordered to retreat by the remains of the Fleet still in space. Instigating the same manoeuvre as the Prophet of Regret had during the First Battle of Earth, the Carrier entered Slipspace some 3 kilometres above the surface, taking several mountains and nearby tall landscape features with it.

Foreign Interests
Both the Imperium of the Sangheili Empire and the Eayn Mercenary Guild have interests on the planet.

The ISE purchases numerous materials and minerals from the planet in order to aid in the powering of its leading military. This includes metals for its ships and various weapons and vehicles, numerous types of gasses used in ionization to for the plasma in many of the ISE’s weaponry, and to a lesser extent, Tritium gas used to power plasma cores and Slipspace drives.

The EMG takes an interest for more or less the same reasons as the ISE, however because the EMG usually purchases or is paid with ships, they don’t require the materials for ship production as much as the ISE. The majority of their purchases go into the manufacturing and powering of their various weapons, and fueling the ships they possess.

Both powers exchange or pay for the materials via a pair of embassies located on the moon of Bastion.