EXOHUMAN NUTRITION IN THE BETA AGE

When the colony ship Last Frontier crash-landed on VOI 700 D, its hydroponic farms and cultured-meat bioreactors were destroyed or damaged beyond repair — and Earth seeds and seedlings failed to thrive under the planet’s tidal-locked light cycle. Facing potential famine, the Free State of Settlers pivoted to two primary nutrition hubs by mid-2626: Hope, the agricultural granary, and Arla Town, a short-lived fishing port on Lake Arla (alongside the provisional Fisherpoint on Lake Orlanda). Together, these centers — and the surrounding wild harvests — fed the fledgling ExoHuman population through ingenuity, local adaptation, and sheer frontier grit.

• Hope (4 000 residents): grain farms,vranches, fruit orchards, private groceries
• Arla Town (~500 residents): Funkenberg Fish Factory, docks, smokehouses (2626–2629)
• Fisherpoint (~90 settlers): provisional fishing camp on Lake Orlanda (destroyed 2628)

• Zelor Grain – a blue-hued staple, rich in amino acids, quinoa-like in flavor
• Lunor Wheat – silver-tinted, high-yield, ideal for bread and pastries
• Rizon Barley – tough, used in porridges and early brewing experiments
• Helik Oats – golden flakes for cereals or stew thickeners
• Tandora Fruit – golden, mango-orange flavor, eaten fresh or juiced
• Mirel Leaf – sweet spinach analog for salads and sautés
• Bilax Root – nutty tuber, ground into flour or stewed
• Nulberry – tangy violet berry, for jams, desserts, and snacks

Alongside staple grains, roots, and fruits, settlers in Hope also adopted a small selection of native spices and herbs to enrich otherwise monotonous meals. These ingredients, already central to the diets of the Native Tribes, were quickly adapted into ExoHuman cooking:

• Virel Spice – a bright green powder adding citrus-like freshness and sweetness, especially in drinks and salads.
• Tanish Seed – small silvery seeds with a smoky, cumin-like aroma, roasted and ground into bread doughs or marinades.
• Qular Herb – a dark blue, rosemary-like sprig with a sharp, resinous flavor, used in stews and roasted vegetables.
• Zanix Pepper – red elongated pods combining sweet and spicy notes, dried and ground into hot sauces and curries.

These herbs and spices not only diversified the early Beta Age diet but also helped mask the sometimes harsh flavors of unrefined grains, dried meats, and experimental recipes guided by GAIA at the Last Frontier University in New Kourou. Their adoption symbolized both cultural exchange and pragmatic adaptation, bringing familiar complexity to otherwise alien meals.

• Hoos – hoofed grazers bred on ranches in the Hope region for meat, hides, and draft work.
• Moka – flightless bird (chicken analogue) raised in settlement pens for eggs and lean white meat.

• Arlian Sunfish – Resilient, schooling fish native to Lake Arla.
• Skyweaver – silvery river eels caught by hand-net crews along the Arla and Orlanda waterways.
• Silverscale Glider – sleek, surface-skimming fish species native to the faster-moving currents of the Arla River, the Orlanda River and the Tijonara River
• Misttail Crabs – hardy crustaceans harvested from riverbanks and delta shallows.
• Quorra Crabs - semi-aquatic quadruped organism, native to the freshwater ecosystems of Lake Tijonara and Lake Arla

• Odo – massive bison-like herbivores of the Tijonara Steppe, valued for rich meat and durable hides; hunted in organized drives.
• Bluestrike Heron – tall, electric-blue wetland predators, pursued by specialist trackers for their prized feathers and flank meat.

To organize this rapid shift, the Land Allocation Office awarded each adult settler 65 ha of Hope-region land — conditional on a ten-year cultivation pledge — via public lotteries held every third Thursday. Despite heavy reliance on Manual Labor Bots and Seeding Drones (scarce after the crash), many tasks fell to ExoHumans themselves: bots maintained irrigation and processed slaughterhouse carcasses, while human crews rowed fishing skiffs and hand-harvested crops.

Nutrition ran on private grocery stores and weekly barter fairs. Hope’s millers, fishers from Arla Town, and pottery vendors traded staples, fresh catches, and crafted wares under open-air market tents like the New Kourou Food Market.

In addition, there was a widespread network of so called Frontier Quickdraws. Frontier Quickdraws were purely mechanical vending machines operated by the Frontier Supply Company, They provided settlers with essential goods — personal care items, snacks, beverages, and chew meats — without requiring staffed shops.

Driven by New Frontier pragmatism, the Beta Age diet balanced high-tech aspirations with hands-on adaptability. Rations fluctuated with harvests and bot reliability; each meal was a testament to ExoHuman resilience.

Early farms struggled with soil depletion, pest outbreaks, and light-cycle mismatch until agronomists dialed in planting schedules. Cultured-meat research resumed slowly as power grids never really stabilized. Tomorrow’s innovations aim to engineer native-flora bioreactors and restore hydroponics under custom-tuned light arrays, ultimately diversifying the ExoHuman diet beyond frontier grains and game.

• Beta Age
• Free State of Settlers
• Human Settlement Plan
• Hope Region
• Arla Town
• Fisherpoint
• Facility of Hope Mills Inc.
• Frontier Quickdraw Network
• Exohuman Nutrition in the Gamma Age