(This is tentative. We have never been very specific about just where Hale's Moon was located. Though always referred to as a Moon, there was never any reference to a primary that it was orbiting. In fact, there has been some question as to whether Hale's was around Georgia or Kalidasa. Ultimately, we settled on Kalidasa, though 'fixing' its position in the Kalidasa system here may not be permanent. The only things that have been consistent is that it was, back in the day, a fairly efficient and short flight to Blackburne (in spite of Blackburne being in Georgia) and later being very close to MacLaran's Drift. Can we have it both ways? Well, no. But it's a game, and sometimes you just let things slide.)
Hale's Moon is located in the trailing Lagrange point (L5) of the Penglai protostar in its orbit around Kalidasa. Technically, it is not a moon, but a Dwarf Planet, as it has no primary of its own. While not the smallest body subjected to Gravitational Compression Terraforming, it was one of very few positioned in a Lagrange point. Hale's Moon shares it's general orbital vicinity with a fair number of smaller bodies, some of which have impacted. Crossing velocities between the Lagrange point bodies are relatively low, however, so impacts are usually much less severe than they would be under other circumstances.
Being borderline for the process, the terraforming was only marginally successful. Historical records are scarce, but it is believed by some that this project was an experiment to test the lower limits of the gravitational compression process. Hale's Moon is habitable, but has a vey low humidity due to the low incidence of water in the terraformed substrate. The world is too dry to grow any meaningful crops and only supports low grade surface scrub.
The body is relatively rich in a broad range of ores, which led to Weyland Yutani setting up a mining operation to exploit the moon's mineral resources. The mining operation was moderately successful, though conditions made it difficult to turn enough profit to justify continued investment. In a last ditch attempt to streamline operations, Weyland Yutani deployed KM series mechanoids to augment the existing mining force.
The end of the Unification War brought a substantial decrease in orders from the Alliance military, which led Weyland Yutani to abandon their operations on Hale's Moon. In evacuating, they left the KM series mechanoids behind, along with a small population of miners who chose to stay on and try and eke out an existence on the moon. Legally, the corporate assets, including the mining machines, were left to the colony.
With a steady population of only a couple hundred people, down from the several thousand originally employed, the colony settled into a meager, if independent, existence. The colony was located far from any of the main trade lanes and the largely unmarked rocks in nearby space made it an unacceptable hazard for Alliance cruisers. Because of this isolation the colony became a popular waypoint for smugglers and the occasional pirate, providing much needed coin for the colony.
At one point, the Alliance showed an unusual interest in the colony which has continued to the present time. It is surmised that a Hardliner faction within the Alliance used Hale's Moon, as well as several other remote colonies, to test prototypes of weaponized von Neumann machines that had originally been developed as mining machines during, and shortly after, the Unification War. The presence of these machines is not broadly known and, like the previous Reaver threat, is categorically denied by the Alliance.
During the height of Alliance interference on the colony, the residents convened to elect a Mayor who would serve as nominal head of government and head of state for the colony. This was presented as an effort to give some legitimacy to the existing Town Council in the eyes of the regional Alliance government, though in many respects was an effort to reduce fallout from Alliance combat operations on Hale's Moon.
Under the Mayorial government, and with the reclaiming of the IAV Sun Tzu from Loyalist influence, a reasonably civil arrangement was reached with the local Alliance command and the situation on the colony improved dramatically. The mines were reopened as a cooperative between the colonists and the remaining KM series mechanoids, one of which had passed all relevant requirements to be declared Sentient, which provided a steady, if not large, income to the colony. The docking facilities were improved both for transshipment and for spacecraft maintenance, and the colony's population started to increase.
During this period, Blue Sun Corporation opened a small Regional Headquarters facility on property leased from the colonial government. The Headquarters was, in essence, the personal offices and private lab of one of Blue Sun's executives. As such, it was able to operate with very few personnel, several of whom were hired from the colony's small pool of residents. Details of the negotiations between Hale's local government and Blue Sun's management have never been made public, but the lease and charter under which Blue Sun operates is favorable to the colony.
Kawanishi Heavy Industries, Limited, of Ariel, later deployed a modular maintenance facility in a high orbit over Hale's Moon. The charter with the colonial government is similar to the one granted Blue Sun and is largely favorable to the colony, with fully 50% of the orbital's workforce being sourced from the colony's residents.
Eventually, the leader of the mechanicals took the other, non-sentient, members of the "Replicant order" with "him" to Caliban, the lone moon of the planet Miranda in the Blue Sun system. With the mechanical's departure, the mining operations reverted to the colonists who continued to run them, albeit less efficiently. Eventually the installation on Caliban was destroyed by the Alliance, forcing an evacuation. The order was offered a partition of the land leased by Blue Sun and used it to establish the Destiny enclave. The Enclave is operated autonomously from the settlement's main government, but is still subject to some oversight by the Colonial Government.
Approximately a year ago, the main colony on Blackburne, who had had a long standing friendly relationship with the colonists on Hale's Moon, suffered a devastating Reaver attack. Most of the colonists at the downport abandoned their homes, or fled into Blackburne's extensive wastelands, to escape the carnage. A substantial number of the former Blackburne colonists resettled on Hale's Moon, going so far as to recreate their town bar "Firefly's."
Conditions and the economy on Hale's Moon continued to improve, though not entirely without incident. While Reaver attacks became less and less frequent, and encounters with the von Neumann machines stopped almost entirely, infrequent landings by Raiders and at lease one rogue Alliance unit continued.
A situation involving an unprecedented crime wave, mostly perpetrated by transient visitors, while most of the local Sheriff's department was unavailable off-world, coincidental with an impact incident with another L5 rock wrecking a building in town, prompted the local Alliance command to institute martial law until the Colonial Government could restore some form of order.
Currently the local government is 'in suspension', serving as advisors to the Liaison officer assigned to coordinate the "intervention." For reasons not openly known, the Liaison assigned to Hale's Moon is a former Alliance Officer now working for the Department of State: a Diplomat rather than a Soldier.
After what seemed, to the colonists at least, an unreasonably long time, the Alliance finally lifted Martial Law, allowing the colony to return to self governance. However, within a few months a series of severe tremors started to affect the moon. While a geological survey team was unable to determine the root cause of the problem, it soon became obvious what was going on: Hale's Moon was experiencing a Terraforming disaster known as a Core Rebound.
Like other small bodies in the 34 Tauri system, Hale's Moon had undergone gravity compression to deflate the rocky body's mass into a much smaller volume. This compression increased the moon's density considerably, and it's surface gravity to within Earth normal. However, the body that became Hale's Moon was dangerously close to the lower limit for employing the technique, resulting in an inherent instability. While some of the early records mentioned the possibility of a core instability and possible rebound, it was never confirmed until the process started. By which time it was too late. Hale's Moon was doomed.
The eventual core rebound completely demolished the structure of the moon, leaving what amounted to a cloud of rocky rubble in the orbital region where the moon had been. Fortunately, the colonists had sufficient warning to evacuate the colony in time with many of them resettling on nearby worlds. Of the remainder, some chose to shift to rock mining, operating using the same techniques used by rock miners in the Oroborus. Others have migrated to a newly opened colony world known as Dragon's Egg - not to be confused with the similarly named object orbiting Blue Sun.
Whether the Dragon's Egg colony or the rock mining operation succeed are open questions, and will be the subject of separate documentation.
Like other small bodies in the 34 Tauri system, Hale's Moon had undergone gravity compression to deflate the rocky body's mass into a much smaller volume. This compression increased the moon's density considerably, and it's surface gravity to within Earth normal. However, the body that became Hale's Moon was dangerously close to the lower limit for employing the technique, resulting in an inherent instability. While some of the early records mentioned the possibility of a core instability and possible rebound, it was never confirmed until the process started. By which time it was too late. Hale's Moon was doomed.
The eventual core rebound completely demolished the structure of the moon, leaving what amounted to a cloud of rocky rubble in the orbital region where the moon had been. Fortunately, the colonists had sufficient warning to evacuate the colony in time with many of them resettling on nearby worlds. Of the remainder, some chose to shift to rock mining, operating using the same techniques used by rock miners in the Oroborus. Others have migrated to a newly opened colony world known as Dragon's Egg - not to be confused with the similarly named object orbiting Blue Sun.
Whether the Dragon's Egg colony or the rock mining operation succeed are open questions, and will be the subject of separate documentation.
