Ganymede

Ganymede was the largest natural satellite of Jupiter and of the Sol System, settled as a colony under EarthGov and home to a chapter of the Church of Unitology. Its decline in the 26th century, and the secret Red Marker placed beneath its capital, made it a stage for the Church's growing power.

Colonization#

In the 2300s, EarthGov launched a campaign to settle the Sol System and build off-world resource colonies that could relieve Earth's overpopulation and resource shortage. These settlements were largely run by corporations partnered with EarthGov, with Pan-Planetary Prospecting placed in charge of Ganymede. The first settlers were told they would eventually live on the surface, but it soon became clear that the atmospheric domes and radiation shielding needed to survive Jupiter's radiation were generations away and would never be finished in their lifetimes.

The realization that they would never leave the underground threw the original colonists into turmoil. Many lost hope, while others joined a growing chapter of the Church of Unitology, and these religious settlers came into conflict with the colonial security forces led by Chief Pioneer Moreno. Construction continued regardless, and generations later the domes and surface cities were finally built, first at the capital of Marius Landing and then at Enki Catena and Galileo Reach. At Enki Catena a massive cathedral was raised as the headquarters of the moon's Unitologists.

Decline#

By the 2500s Ganymede was in decline. Many of its people believed EarthGov had abandoned the colony's government and population, having turned its attention to the wealthier moons of Saturn and the planet cracking industry centered on Titan Station. Even after the discrediting of planet cracking that followed the USG Ishimura disaster in 2508, the Saturnine moons held the interest of investors, and people left Ganymede in greater numbers than ever.

A more immediate fear was the energy needed to keep the radiation shielding running. Rumors spread that the underground generators would soon fail and leave the cities exposed to Jupiter's radiation. In desperation, the colonial government secretly obtained a Red Marker from EarthGov, newly produced by its Marker replication project following the capture of Isaac Clarke after the Aegis VII incident. The artifact was buried deep beneath Marius Landing as a seemingly limitless power source, replacing the generators and keeping the shields alive.

The Marker and the outbreak#

The Marker's dementia-inducing signal gradually took hold of the population above it, and crazed citizens began to fill the colony's hospitals. The Church of Unitology became aware of the artifact and quietly replaced the personnel running the facility until, by 2510 or 2511, it had effectively cut off the colonial government and occupied the site, with the parliament informed it would have its way in all things concerning the Marker.

As cases of Marker dementia rose, the situation broke. Riots erupted in the streets of Enki Catena against the failing government, and the colonial police gunned down protesters, escalating the violence. As citizens fled toward the Enki Catena spaceport, Necromorphs escaped from the underground tunnels where the colony had been dumping its dead, attacking the crowds and causing a shuttle, the Vespucci, to crash. Amid the chaos the journalist Emmeline Ayuba was captured by Unitologists and taken to the Marker facility beneath Marius Landing; in an effort to indoctrinate her, they briefly diverted the Marker's signal to let her commune with it, dropping the radiation shields and exposing many who had not taken shelter.

Aftermath#

In the wake of the riots, the outbreak and the shield failure, the Church of Unitology, now in full control of the Red Marker, offered aid to the injured and gained considerable public support. It opened a new oncology ward in the medical facility beside the Enki Catena Cathedral, ostensibly to treat radiation exposure, but presumably also to continue its experiments with the Necromorphs toward a Convergence event on Ganymede. Within a year, Emmeline Ayuba herself had become a prominent member of the Church and a leading candidate in the colonial parliamentary election, as the Church moved to make Ganymede a base for its wider campaign against EarthGov.