Horizon

From FABT

Horizon
Horizon.jpg
Star, position:

Iera, III

Location:

Iera / Shadow Sea / Milky Way Galaxy

Gravity:

0.7 G

Diameter:

5,402 km

Day length:

37.8 Earth hours

Year length:

500 Earth days

Atmosphere:

1.68 atm

Temperature:

13 °C

Adjective:

Horizonian

Population:
Species:

Prothean
Salarian
Rachni
Krogan
Human

Societal approximation:

Mixed/democratic

Affiliation:

Prothean Empire (75400 BCE - 60100 BCE)
Salarian Union (19 BCE - 11 CE)
First Rachni Collective (11 CE - 48 CE)
Tuchankan Empire (48 CE - 764 CE)
Systems Alliance (2168 CE - 2187 CE)
Union of Secessionist Colonies (2187 CE - 2190 CE)
Systems Coalition (2190 CE - present)
Galactic Dominion
Unified Republics of the Milky Way

Technological tier:

Tier VII

Capital:

Discovery

 
"I've had enough of this planet."
Commander Shepard following the Battle of Horizon in 2186 CE.

Horizon (known as Gregor Flecan III to the protheans) is the third planet of the Iera system in the Shadow Sea cluster. Colonized by the Prothean Empire at the height of their power and named "Gregor Flecan III", Horizon was one of many prothean colonies that fell to the Reapers early in their invasion of the galaxy. In 19 BCE, the planet would be rediscovered by the Salarian Union and colonized, named "Horizon" by its inhabitants and would be situated on the eastern most edge of the Salarian Union's territory. During the First Rachni War, Horizon was home to a series of battles between Union and rachni forces, first in 1 CE to 2 CE, then again in 3 CE to 4 CE, followed by its brief capture by the rachni, before they then surrendered it when they retreated back through Relay 627: in 11 CE, the rachni returned and quickly captured the system again, including Horizon, building hundreds of subterranean hives across the planet. The First Rachni Collective would hold the planet until 48 CE during the Fourth Rachni War, when the planet was finally recaptured by the Tuchankan Empire, who purged the planet of its massive rachni population and hives, but subsequently held onto it after the Rachni Wars were over, where it became a krogan colony. After the Krogan Rebellions, Horizon would remain uncolonized for a millennia until the arrival of the Systems Alliance on the galactic scene, with Horizon being colonized during the third-wave colonization initiative that began in 2165 CE, with Horizon settled by Alliance colonists in 2168 CE.

During Alliance colonization, several colonies were established, with one large colony quickly developing into a city known as Discovery, which became Horizon's capital. Horizon was one of many third-wave human colonies looking to distance itself from the Alliance, with its government largely operating with full autonomy while its citizens didn't consider themselves part of the Alliance: as the planet's economy expanded and its population developed, Horizon inevitably found itself becoming more and more involved in the Alliance, who wished to protect the planet from exterior influences and the resource wealth the planet could provide, despite protests from its citizens wanting independence. In late 2183 CE, with an unknown force beginning to abduct entire human colonies without leaving a trace, the Alliance began an outreach program to third-wave colonies, with an interest in deploying token military forces to these planets to build up and train their colonial guard detachments, and in 2184 CE, the Horizon Colonial Guard was formed, with the 88th Expeditionary Company under Staff Commander Kaidan Alenko deployed to Colony Grandeur to not only help train it, but also help build the GARDIAN defense batteries in order to fend off a possible abduction. While Horizon's colonists objected to this, the Alliance's fears were proven right with a Collector abduction of Colony Grandeur on Horizon in 2185 CE, with half of the colony abducted, along with much of the marine company sent to train their colonial guard, prior to the sudden intervention of Cerberus, who fought off the Collector assault. The attack shook Horizon's citizens, who finally began to agree to a larger Alliance military presence and, slowly but surely, Horizon was brought closer into the fold as a proper Alliance colony. Prior to the Reaper War, Cerberus covertly built a secret lab on Horizon, using one of their shell corporations, Murdoch Foundation, to build a massive refugee facility ontop of it in order to lure desperate refugees to the facility called Sanctuary where they could be used for experiments conducted for the purposes of learning more about Reaper indoctrination and huskification and how to harness it for themselves. Thousands upon thousands of refugees would fall victim to this trap until the Reapers learned of the project and attacked Horizon in force to shut Sanctuary down for good, resulting in a battle where Cerberus forces were overwhelmed and much of the facility abandoned and evacuated. Arriving mostly in the aftermath of the battle, the Normandy Squad and Miranda Lawson raided the facility, learning its true purpose and killing the project director, before exposing Sanctuary to the rest of the galaxy.

Following the Reaper War, Sanctuary was sealed off by the Alliance military and heavily classified, with the rest of Horizon joining the short-lived Union of Secessionist Colonies prior to the formation of the Systems Coalition in 2191 CE, prompting the USC to dissolve. Sanctuary would be largely dismantled and cleared out, but the Cerberus labs were kept intact and repurposed for use by Prometheus, who used the template of what Cerberus had learned about indoctrination and huskification to continue their own research, eventually finding a way to block indoctrination signals as well as create a device capable of simulating the signals Reapers used to indoctrinate victims. Known as Prometheus MEDUSA facility, it was subject to deliberate demolition and self-sabotage after the Dominion Civil War as a result of Operation Saturnalia. As for the rest of Horizon, the planet only continued to grow under the Coalition, and while the Collector attack had stifled much of its colonial growth prior to the Reaper War, worsened only by the atrocities discovered at Sanctuary that continued after the war, it flourished under the Coalition, turning into a rich agricultural powerhouse for supplying the rest of the Coalition and continues to enjoy a booming economy to this very day, despite its dark past.

History[edit | edit source]

Pre-Human Settlement[edit | edit source]