New Cascadia
Humanity’s first exoplanet colony, established on Tau Ceti IV (Argolis) by the UESC Marathon mission; the colony thrived for decades, then collapsed under an alien attack, a novel contagion, and the emergence of a planetary Anomaly — leaving only ruins by the present day of 2893.
What the source establishes — canon
Founding and colonization sequence
New Cascadia was the destination of the UESC Marathon, which launched from Sol in 2472 carrying 30,000 colonists and was built over 64 years beginning in 2408 — its hull raised using the moon Deimos as a materials source.1
The site was selected using orbital satellite data (atmospheric, soil, seismic, water, impact-event) gathered by CETI series probes after arrival.2 Tau Ceti IV is described as a G-class main series star system, 11.9 light-years from Sol, with the colony site chosen because it already had green plants, oxygen, drinkable water, and a stable temperate climate before humans landed.3
Before civilian colonists were woken, scientists, researchers, and infrastructure personnel were deployed first to establish the Outpost — the forward operating base and humanity’s initial home on the planet.4 The Outpost’s Pinwheel structure was deployed from the Marathon and served as a launch point for atmospheric, geologic, and microbial surveys.4 Automated pre-fabricated structures were then deployed and positioned for the colony.5
Captain Clemente di Roxas wrote the colonization protocol aboard the Marathon.5 It specified that four years after arrival, the first wave of citizen colonists would emerge from cryosleep and spend two years aboard the Marathon studying and preparing before descending to the surface; then successive waves followed the same cycle.5 If everything went as planned, the colony was expected to become a thriving reality in less than 15 years after achieving orbit.5
Welcome recordings made for newly-woken colonists were provided by Bernard Strauss (the Marathon’s science director) and General Davic Reed (UESC Operations Security Command), asking colonists to shed old identities and embrace citizenship of Tau Ceti.67
Colonists from Earth and Mars populated the mission.8 Colonists underwent orientation, received routine medical check-ins, and were assigned housing quadrants and work details.7 A syndrome called Planetary Relocation Disorder (PRD), described as “ship shock” or “weeping sickness,” affected roughly one in six interplanetary migrants.9
The colony’s governance and structure
New Cascadia’s governance structure included: Governor, Lt. Governor, Judge, Head of Security, and a Council of Aldermen with both elected community representatives and corporate representatives (Traxus, NuCaloric, and CyberAcme).5 The colony’s planet (Tau Ceti IV) is also referred to as Argolis in official UESC documents.10
General Reed reported that early colonization was a “resounding success” — colonization sequencing was on pace, security was streamlined, and local threats were minimal.11 His later log #2783 confirmed the second wave of colonists had cleared reintegration protocols with fewer post-cryo complications than the first.12
The Rhea Suite colony AI
The colony was supported by eight “Strong” colony AI manufactured by Traxus OffWorld Industries (Series Traxus X-A, 64 RB logic core, inception date 2461), operating under the family suite name Rhea:13
| AI | Role | Zone/Location |
|---|---|---|
| Arthur | Colony Command, Oversight (head of suite) | Hearth (Central Living Complex) |
| Lilith | Command Support, Community Relations | Hearth |
| Joy | Community Outreach | Hearth (later); Marathon (early years) |
| Bastion | Colony Infrastructure Development and Expansion | Javelin (first to surface) |
| Icarus | Astromapping, Communications/Connectivity, Transportation | Aboard Marathon; comm/transport systems |
| Gabriel | Medical and Emergency Services | Colony-wide (later Hearth) |
| Darius | Agricultural Systems, Sustainability | AgHub sites |
| Naraah | Aquatics, Water Management | Anchor / Abyss |
Bastion was the first colony AI relocated to the surface, with his new home at Javelin — described as “the seed from which the rest of the colony will grow.”5 Darius and Naraah followed to Anchor and Abyss respectively, then Darius transitioned between AgHub sites.5 Arthur and Gabriel transferred to Hearth, the Central Living Complex at the heart of the colony.5 Lilith and Joy remained aboard the Marathon for several years, responsible for waking colonists and preparing them for surface life.5
Security Officer Yabara confirmed in an end-of-cycle report that the full suite of colony AI came online under Arthur and Lilith’s guidance, with Dr. Strauss’s direction and Sci-Sec monitoring.14
Zones and geography
The colony map as known from the Runners’ Guide includes the following named Zones and Regions:
- Outpost (Colony Outskirts; dryland expanse): forward operating base for initial colonization; humanity’s first home on Tau Ceti IV; regions include Pinwheel, Orientation, Dormitories, Processing, Airfield.4
- Dire Marsh (Colony Farming Sector; marshland): agricultural research hub; collaboration between Colony Science Command and NuCaloric Agricultural; regions include Complex, AI Uplink, Bio-Research, Greenhouse, Algae Ponds, Maintenance, Quarantine.15 The Anomaly is located in Dire Marsh’s West-Central Region.15
- Javelin (Bastion’s zone): colony infrastructure seat; the first colony AI site on-surface, the seed from which the colony grew.5
- Hearth (Central Living Complex): administrative and community heart of the colony; Arthur and Gabriel’s home base; also where Lilith and Joy were eventually to reside.5
Daily life and culture
The colony developed a distinct culture. Communal eulogies for colonists lost to cryogenic hazards became a hallmark of New Cascadia’s culture, led by Joy.16 Town halls and public educational presentations were more common during the initial period of colonization.17
The colony observed a holiday called Landing Day, celebrating the anniversary of humanity’s achievement in colonizing Tau Ceti IV.[^psa-holiday] A genre of fairy tale books circulated in the colony — notably “The Severed Twins” — that appeared to critique power structures and corporate/government authority, and were described as “popular and subversive.”1819
Food in the colony was a mix of NuCaloric-synthesized products and locally adapted resources. Tick milk — protein derived from native arthropod waste, processed by genetically modified bacteria — became a dietary staple.20 Native Tau Ceti species were genetically modified for colony use: the Horticultural Morale Initiative, run by Darius, distributed modified native bonsai trees to every colonist’s hab unit.21 Community potlucks were organized.22 Food synthesis equipment was adapted from NuCaloric’s official protocols to fit Tau Ceti’s different agricultural conditions.23
Felini units — synthetic robotic companions modeled on cats, engineered by Sekiguchi Genetics prior to the mission launch — were distributed to colonists, though their manufacture on-site using original 2472 neural specs proved problematic; colonists adapted the designs.2425
Tau Ceti IV’s ecology: prior to and during early colonization, ticks (described as mega-Cetoniinae native arthropods, under a meter in size) were present in large numbers; avian species (skracs) were varied and vocal but posed no initial threat; the planet had no native scavengers for human waste, no native land mammals, and a temperate, humid, warm-summer climate.2627
The attack, the Anomaly, and collapse
A major attack on New Cascadia occurred during the colony era. The event is heavily redacted in surviving UESC documents.2829 What is established:
- The attack involved an extraterrestrial combatant — specimens of which had built-in immolation mechanics, typically disintegrating when fatally wounded; one full specimen (ref. #26072794.5) was recovered for dissection, described as “extremely advanced, a combination of natural and synthetic elements.”3029
- The UESC came to Tau Ceti with reduced military capacity, having assessed the threat risk as “extremely unlikely.”28 Captain Orion’s post-colony investigation log stated that even a fully outfitted fleet would have struggled.31
- General Reed issued a Notice of Security Protocol Activation immediately after, assuming full command of planetary and ship-based operations.32 The notice confirmed the Marathon was “lost to us as a vessel” and that its family suite of AI had been lost or damaged.32
- A UESC-directed cover-up followed: messaging was strategically controlled, classified documents were sealed, and trauma rehabilitation and “targeted reframing campaigns” were launched.2832
The Anomaly appeared on New Cascadia after the attack.33 It manifested as a ground fissure growing larger over time, located in Dire Marsh’s West-Central Region, emitting unknown radiation.34 Effects documented in the colony era include: equipment degradation, wildlife disruption, hallucinations (residents described being drawn to the Anomaly with no memory of how they got there, hallucinations of family members making promises or threats), AI malfunction (including the failure and eventual forced shutdown of Darius’s systems).3536 The Anomaly appeared to create a time dilation effect and affected AI architectures “in unpredictable ways, leading to anything from extreme malfunction to dramatic system improvements.”33
The colony simultaneously suffered from a novel contagion spreading through food production systems. Dr. Clarissa Song, the principal agronomist, recorded early evidence of the contagion in the algae ponds, including filament worms and fungal growths that resisted all countermeasures.37 President Luca Caruso addressed colonists during the height of quarantine: emergency food stockpiles were estimated at three years’ supply; research teams worked for a cure; evacuation via landing craft relaunching to the Marathon was discussed as a contingency.38
Colony leadership debated how to allocate resources between containing the contagion and investigating the Anomaly. Dr. Valentin Cole argued the two were linked; President Caruso and General Reed prioritized the contagion.34 President Caruso ultimately declared a state of emergency, disbanded all Anomaly taskforces, and imposed a strict curfew.35 The Anomaly investigation was hampered by the limitations of colony technology and by AI malfunction — researchers had to work manually without AI support.39
Reed’s personal logs document the escalating crisis: log #7839 records him in emotional distress after an unnamed catastrophic event; log #11622 records the novel illness outbreak and the activation of “other protocols” if containment failed; log #11841 reflects remorse and exhaustion.404142
A survivor identified as “Jasper” recorded a post-collapse log: “Weird energy fields erupt across the planet’s surface. Crops get sick. People get sick. Crops die. People die, some because of the contagion, others because…” The log breaks off. Jasper survived alone in the wilderness, living off native birds and bugs.8
The 2893 ruins — present day
UESC Captain Orion’s status report from the present-day (present in the game’s timeline, which UESC documents seal until 20 April 2894) establishes the colony’s current state:43
- Colonist status: No survivors found. Quantity of human remains does not match population records even accounting for natural decay.
- Colony AI status: Excluding automatic subroutines, all colony AI is nonfunctional, dormant, or otherwise inaccessible; records indicate severe malfunction across the entire suite.
- UESC Marathon: Remains in orbit; investigations stalled by repeated incidents.
- Corporate interference: Several corporations have remote presence in the system and are asserting legal salvage rights.
- Runner interference: Unaffiliated Runners have arrived for unauthorized salvage operations; UESC deterrence has failed.
The UESC has declared New Cascadia a restricted location; all operations remain classified.43 UESC science teams are actively investigating the Anomaly, which has increased in size but entered a “period of stability.”33 Colony-era technology, while outdated, is being repurposed by present UESC scientists as a foundation for Anomaly research.44
A fringe group engaged in “religious worship” of the Anomaly was documented during the colony era, suspected of possessing anomalous remnants.29 Present-day Runners have reported seeing apparent apparitions near the Anomaly — figures with bioluminescent static in place of faces, and damaged shells observed shifting positions at night.45
Sol-based UESC had been drafting plans (Project: Goliath) for a rescue/investigation mission since at least 2795, anticipating scenarios including rampancy, MIDA insurgency, and worst-case “nuke and pave” contingencies.104647
CMDR Bethany R. Montenegro-Sankara of the Unified Earth Space Security Council, writing from the Strauss Archology on Earth on 19 July 2797, laid out the rescue mission’s contingency reasoning: if the communications disruption had also forced the colony to abandon its Primary Colonization Target, the mission should expect they “moved on to one of the candidates from the list Icarus surely compiled during the known duration of their time in the Tau Ceti system.” Montenegro-Sankara noted a gap in Sol’s own records: “neither Arthur nor colony leadership ever supplied us with such a list,” making New Cascadia itself the likely place any Secondary Colonization Target data would be recovered.48 Her letter also restated Sol’s position regardless of the colony’s fate: “everything attached to it should still be considered UESC property.”48
A cryo-vault message addressed directly to the player reflects on the totality of what has been uncovered by that point in the archive: “The scope of this lost place ~ New Cascadia. The Marathon. It stretches far and wide — internally, through systems more vast than they dared imagine, and beyond, out amongst the black where things they never considered were waiting to introduce themselves.”49
A Hazard Capsule collectible found in the ruins is described as “a sealed container housing a material deemed dangerous by the New Cascadia colonists” — its data-port contents largely inaccessible due to corrosion, but noted for potential use in “power generation, weaponry, demolition.” The colonists’ decision to seal the material away, rather than use or dispose of it outright, is not otherwise explained in the pack.50
Present-day UESC supply logistics. In the current Runner-vs-UESC conflict, the UESC periodically air-drops resupply pallets into the colony ruins via a “PAD-to-SUPPLY vessel link” that is visible and audible for some distance, alerting both nearby UESC forces and rival Runners to the drop’s location and turning the pallet into a contested target. The Runners’ Guide frames this as a high-risk, high-reward opportunity: “SUPPLY DROPS tend to reward the daring,” but a Runner lingering too close to the pallet risks being “crisped” by the delivery vessel’s boosters on takeoff.51
Cross-corpus appearances
| Volume | Map / Section | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Tau Ceti IV Colonization | Cryo Archive · Collectibles | Full colonization protocol; zones; AI placement; cryosleep sequencing |
| Tau Ceti IV Colony AI | Cryo Archive · Collectibles | Rhea Suite specs; each AI’s role; di Roxas commentary |
| UESC Marathon Overview | Cryo Archive · Collectibles | Population (30,000); AI complement list |
| Our Cosmic Home | Dire Marsh · Collectibles | Pre-landing environment; founding sequence; Marathon visible in orbit |
| Mission to the Stars | Dire Marsh · Collectibles | Marathon construction (2408–2472); Deimos; launch |
| Report from Orbital Satellites | Perimeter · Collectibles | Site selection data; temperate climate; debris disk anomaly |
| Outpost Overview | Outpost · Orientation | Outpost as initial colony foothold; zones and function |
| Dire Marsh Overview | Dire Marsh · Orientation | Dire Marsh as agricultural hub; Anomaly described; current Runner activity |
| Welcome Message: Strauss | Outpost · Collectibles | Strauss’s welcome message to colonists |
| Welcome Message: Reed | Outpost · Collectibles | Reed’s welcome; orientation procedures; PAST safety acronym |
| Personal Log: General Reed (×5) | Outpost · Collectibles | Colonization progress; second-wave arrivals; crisis logs; remorse |
| Broadcast: Caruso | NuCaloric · Contracts | Presidential address on contagion; three-year food supply; evacuation discussed |
| Council Meeting Recording | Traxus · Contracts | Leadership debate on Anomaly vs. contagion priority |
| Colony Announcement | Traxus · Contracts | State of emergency; Anomaly taskforces disbanded; colonist hallucinations |
| Agricultural Inspection | NuCaloric · Contracts | Dr. Song’s early log on contagion; filament worms; 30% food deficit |
| Maintenance Logs: Darius | NuCaloric · Contracts | Darius’s anomalous shutdown; corrupted log text |
| Tau Ceti Status Report | Traxus · Contracts | Present-day colony status; no survivors; AI nonfunctional; corporate/Runner interference |
| UESC Report: Anomaly | Traxus · Contracts | Anomaly’s post-attack origin; time dilation; M. Diaz aging incident |
| [REDACTED] Post-Mortem, 1 & 2 | MIDA · Contracts | Attack classified details; cover-up directives; anomalous material |
| Personal Log: Captain Orion | MIDA · Contracts | Post-attack investigation; staggering casualty lists |
| Security Protocol Activation | Dire Marsh Night · Collectibles | Reed assumes full command; Marathon lost; cover-up formalized |
| Field Observations 346, 371, 379, 401, 22716 | Dire Marsh Night · Collectibles | UESC present-day Anomaly research; colony tech reuse; night phenomena |
| Post-Apocalyptic Log (Jasper) | Dire Marsh · Collectibles | Survivor account; crops/people dying; sense of being “set up” |
| Project Goliath (A, B, E) | UESC Intercepts | Sol-side rescue/mission planning; AI decommission planning; MIDA concerns |
| UESC Letter (Montenegro-Sankara) | UESC Intercepts | Sol-side concern about colony status; secondary colonization targets considered |
| Security Report: Lt. Yabara | Outpost · Collectibles | Colony AI coming online under Arthur/Lilith with Strauss’s direction |
| Planetary Relocation Disorder | Outpost · Collectibles | PRD affects 1 in 6; symptoms; treatment options |
| UESC Letter (Montenegro-Sankara), full text | UESC Intercepts · Letters | Icarus’s Secondary Colonization Target list; Arthur/leadership never relayed it to Sol; UESC property claim |
| Cryo-vault message (“lost place”) | Cryo Archive · Cryo-Vault | Reflective framing of New Cascadia/Marathon’s scale as archive is uncovered |
| Hazard Capsule | Loot · Salvage | Sealed dangerous material the colonists themselves flagged and contained |
| Supply Drop | Activities · New Cascadia Colony | UESC resupply mechanic; contested by Runners; boosters hazard on takeoff |
| Eulogy Broadcast | Cryo Archive · Collectibles | Joy’s cryosleep eulogy; communal grief as cultural practice |
Source-silent / open questions
- The specific identity of the attacking extraterrestrial species is source-silent: all names, origins, and descriptions beyond “extremely advanced, a combination of natural and synthetic elements” are redacted or unspecified in the pack.
- The exact date of the attack (“event of 0307” is mentioned but no year is given in surviving records) is source-silent.
- The full nature of the contagion — what it was, whether a cure was ever found — is source-silent. The pack only documents its onset and the colony’s failed containment efforts.
- The Anomaly’s origin is explicitly source-silent: the UESC research database returned 132 results with no consensus, and the UESC’s own investigation confirms “theory regarding the Anomaly’s connection to [REDACTED] remains unconfirmed.”5233
- The ultimate fates of individual colony AI — whether any survived, were taken offline, or were transformed by Anomaly exposure — are source-silent beyond the status report’s blanket “nonfunctional, dormant, or otherwise inaccessible.”43
- The population figure of 30,000 refers to the Marathon’s launch complement; the final operational colony population is not specified, nor is the number of colonist waves that were fully completed.
- What happened after Caruso declared the state of emergency is not narrated in full; the surviving logs trail off into fragments.
- The nature and fate of the “secondary colonization targets” that Icarus was tasked to identify is source-silent.
Cross-references
Rhea Suite · Arthur · Darius · The Anomaly · Tau Ceti IV · NuCaloric · New Cascadia and the Anomaly · UESC Marathon · Bastion · Lilith · Gabriel · Icarus (colony AI) · Joy (AI) · Naraah · Bernard Strauss · Luca Caruso · Davic Reed · Valentin Cole · Durandal · Leela · Tycho · CyberAcme · Traxus · MIDA
Where it appears in the vault
Arachne, Arjun Dasari, Arthur, Bastion, Bernhard Strauss, Captain Orion, Cerberus, Clarissa Song, CyberAcme, Darius, Davic Reed, Dire Marsh, Felini, Gabriel, Gus Moraine, Icarus (colony AI), Jasper, Joy, Lilith, Luca Caruso, MIDA, Mari Hassan, Naraah, New Cascadia and the Anomaly, Novel Contagion, NuCaloric, Project Goliath, Rhea Suite, Sekiguchi Genetics, Skrac, Solemn Vigil, Talv (Mr. Alva), Tau Ceti IV, The Anomaly, Tobias Luttero, Traxus, Traxus IV, UESC Marathon, Valentin Cole
Mirror pages
The local 1:1 pages this hub’s citations resolve to — the twin’s own ground truth.
- mida · contracts
- nucaloric · contracts
- traxus · contracts
- loot · salvage
- activities · new-cascadia-colony
- cryo-archive · collectibles
- cryo-archive · cryo-vault
- dire-marsh-night · collectibles
- dire-marsh · collectibles
- dire-marsh · orientation
- outpost · collectibles
- outpost · orientation
- perimeter · collectibles
- threats · flora-and-fauna
- uesc · letters
- uesc · memoranda
Sources
Every factual claim above is cited to primary Marathon source material — see Sources below. Cross-corpus connections and interpretation are the vault’s own; where the games are silent, this page says so.
Footnotes
-
Tau Ceti IV Colonization · src ↗ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11
-
[[Leela/Marathon 2026/outpost/Specimen, Ref. -26072794.5|Specimen, Ref. #26072794.5]] · src ↗ ↩
-
[[Leela/Marathon 2026/dire-marsh-night/Field Observation -[371.6-]|Field Observation [371.6]]] · src ↗ ↩
-
[[Leela/Marathon 2026/dire-marsh-night/Field Observation -[379.4-]|Field Observation [379.4]]] · src ↗ ↩