Planet New Berlin

New Berlin is, much like the huge contrast between rich and poor in Rheinland, a planet of extremes. Each day and night on the planet lasts for nearly a standard year, with the night side plunged into a frigid, bitter winter with temperatures as low as -35°C in the equatorial regions, and the day side having a slightly more temperate summer where the temperature just about climbs above the freezing point of water. Despite the extremely hostile environment, the planet is very close to the abundant natural resources of the Walker Nebula, so the crew of the sleeper ship Rheinland chose to land on New Berlin in 3 A.S., making it the capital of Rheinland.

The colony grew quickly, with deep space industry the primary concern of the fledgling government. The Aachenfeld and Harzfeld asteroid fields quickly became the focal points of huge mining enterprises, stripping asteroids of raw materials to fuel the orbital industrial platform that would eventually become known as the Ring. Food shortages became a huge problem in the formative years, due to New Berlin's climate being largely unsuited to crop growing outside of the huge hydroponics farms that were constructed across the surface, although population control measures introduced by the first Emperor managed to make the situation slightly more tolerable. The planet's population as of the 816 A.S. planetary census was just over 1.3 billion people, making it one of the more populated planets in the Sirius sector, despite the harsh climate conditions.

Rheinland's military and economic power continued to grow exponentially over the centuries until the Empress Jessika Leicht, pressured heavily by Kruger Minerals and ill-advised by the Imperial Navy's high command, declared war on the Gas Miners Guild in a surprise attack on Sigma 13 in 589 A.S. The war lasted for eighty years, going from strength to strength until, with the economy crumbling around them, the Imperial high command ordered an all-out last ditch attempt to take Sigma 13. This resulted in the Battle of the Yanagi Cloud in 668 A.S., which ended in the complete destruction of the entire Rheinland Imperial Navy.

With its military might shattered and the economy in ruins, the then-Emperor Albrecht Friedmann was forced to sign a peace treaty in 669 A.S. with the GMG, acknowledging the sovereignty of the Gas Miners Guild over all of the Sigma systems. This final, humiliating act became the trigger for the Popular Revolution, which began on Von Rohe's Day in Dresden in 672 A.S., and quickly spread to the rest of Rheinland. Within five months, Emperor Friedmann had been deposed and a coalition government installed. Many promises of a glorious future for all Rheinland went unfulfilled in the chaos that followed the uprising, leaving many who had fought in the revolution with a bitter taste in their mouths.

Rheinland, and in particular the New Berlin system itself, struggled for over a century to pull itself out of the economic slump left by the aftermath of the Eighty Years War, even more so after the Nomad War ended in 801 A.S. With the ascension of Kanzler Rheinhardt in 814 A.S., however, the economy took a major upswing, including the discovery of additional diamond fields in the Dresden system, increasing farming productivity on the planet Stuttgart and the military armaments industries in Munich gaining ground. As a result, goods and passengers have been flowing in from all corners of Sirius, and planet New Berlin is once again enjoying something of an economic and social renaissance.

Missions Offered

 * Rheinland Federal Police: $45,000 to $65,000 range