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| Governor | Cyrenios | |||||||
| Population | 102,305 (as of 2010) | |||||||
| Established | circa 1130 | |||||||
The Orestes Settlement is a submerged settlement located in the upper atmosphere of Uranus. It also acts as the regional capital of the overall Spartan Uranus colony. The settlement is named after the legendary Spartan King Orestes.
Structure of the City[]
Orestes is within Uranus' upper atmosphere as going any farther would cause Orestes to collapse due to the extreme pressure found within lower Uranus. Each building in the city has radiation proof walls to ensure the safety of the Spartans present on the settlement. Water purification plants are found in the southern portion of the settlement to clear out the water collected from Uranus' mantle. The city itself gets all of its power of Uranus' strong winds and much like the other gas giants, never faces issues such as power shortages due to the abundance of wind power found on Uranus. Due to its abundance in energy and water, Orestes has acted as the supplier of many of the other submersible colonies within Uranus as well as the many moon colonies on Uranus. The city also remains the biggest producer of Helium products in the entire Spartan Empire. The city itself is completely suspended in air and is pushed along by the heavy winds of Uranus. In the event of an emergency, the city is able to active its rockets and evacuate from the upper atmosphere of Uranus. Orestes' floating city model would be used for later settlements in other gas giants such as Heraclid City on Jupiter.
History of Orestes[]
Location of Orestes within Uranus' atmosphere (red dot)
Orestes was constructed as the first successful settlement on the gas giant Uranus not including the settlement of Uranus' moons or rings. The Spartan government attempted to send submerged settlements on three separate occasions which all failed. Uranus' 90 degree rotation and the high pressure of gas giants made submersible settlements harder. After staying afloat for 10 earth-years, Orestes was declared a success and was officially inaugurated as a territory of Sparta in 1130. Initially Orestes attracted many scientists who wished to gain a better understanding of Uranus and how its atmosphere functions. By the 1300s settlement to Orestes had mostly shifted from scientists towards people living on Uranus' moons and those who wanted a more direct source of water. By 1503, the colony began diversifying its production capabilities towards helium and efforts were started to attempt to reach Uranus' core. All of the efforts to reach the core of Uranus failed as its pressure was too strong. The farthest any mission went was into the upper mantle before being crushed by the intense pressure of Uranus.
Life in the City[]
View of the sun from the upper atmosphere of Uranus
Due to its location in the upper atmosphere, sometimes the sun and Uranus' rings can be seen during certain portions of the planet's rotation, but for the most part the view is obstructed by Uranus' blue methane atmosphere. Orestes operates much like the rest of the Spartan Empire does: with a strong emphasis on militarism. Children are still sent off to the nearby military base to begin training at the age of six. Due to the lack of enemies to fight, the Spartan Government uses robots as an obstacle for the young Spartans to fight against. While the Spartan men go into the military, the Spartan women on Orestes are trained to be scientists and researchers as they tend the energy plants and water purification plants present in Orestes. Unlike other territories and colonies within the Sparta Empire, the Orestes settlement remains one of the only territories in the Spartan Empire that does not kill its babies with birth defects. Many of these defective children are used as traders who ship the resources produced on Uranus to other parts of the empire.
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Sounds of the winds of Uranus
Orestes is also the quietest place in the Spartan Empire as data found in a 2003 experiment. With the loud winds of Uranus pounding against the city, a lot of the city except for the outskirts have soundproof barriers to curb the loud noises of the gas giant.