Bekenstein

Bekenstein was an early human colony, the recipient of the first wave of Earth's colonization efforts, founded with the goal of becoming humanity's off-planet manufacturing base. After early struggles it found prosperity by producing high quality luxury goods that flowed directly to nearby markets through the Citadel, earning it the nickname of the humans' Illium: a place of new money tycoons and quiet inequality. Late in the Reaper War it was destroyed from orbit.

Founding and purpose#

Bekenstein received the first wave of Earth's colonization efforts, and its founders set out with a decidedly less agrarian plan than that of pastoral colonies such as Eden Prime. The mission of Bekenstein's first colony was to become Earth's off-planet manufacturing base, a way of ingratiating humanity into galactic culture by producing the goods that the wider galaxy needed.

Prosperity and reputation#

For its first generation the colony met with only mixed success. Bekenstein then leapfrogged its competition by shifting to the production of high quality luxury goods, which traveled straight to nearby markets through the Citadel. The strategy made the world wealthy and gave it a distinctive character: Bekenstein came to be known as the humans' Illium, a place where new money tycoons flaunted their fortunes and the have-nots were rarely spoken of.

Destruction in the Reaper War#

Late in the war with the Reapers, Bekenstein was attacked and destroyed because of its industrial infrastructure, despite the fact that its factories produced only commercial items rather than weapons of war. Instead of landing ground forces to harvest the world's organic population, as they did elsewhere, the Reapers chose to bombard Bekenstein from orbit, ending its prosperity in a single assault.