The exohuman Beta Age (2625 – 2631) on VOI 700 D was defined by a sudden collapse of Alpha Age energy infrastructure, a scramble to stretch remaining resources, and escalating conflicts over every watt.

• Crash Impact (2625): The Last Frontier crash destroyed ~60 % of fusion reactors, solar arrays, and wind turbines; only cryo-vault QFBs (≈40 % of total) remained usable.
• Energy Crisis: Settlers rationed Quantum Fusion Batteries for life support, medical facilities, industrial production and Service Bots — never enough to re-enable full-flux infrastructure.
• Political Fallout: Territorial disputes over new solar farms, wind corridors, hydro sites, and mining claims fueled the Great War (Mar 2629 – Jan 2631).

In the immediate aftermath of the 2625 crash, exohumans’ only truly reliable power came from the Quantum Fusion Batteries rescued intact from the Last Frontier’s cryo-vaults — roughly 40 % of the original stock. The New Kourou Robotics Syndicate monopolized QFB maintenance and distribution, controlling access to Service Bot power cells. Together with the NKRS, the Free State of Settlers built Quantum Fusion Recalibration Stations in every major settlement (except Arla Town): Tier-1 nodes in Hope and New Kourou, and Tier-2 nodes in Firetown and Morningstar.

During the Great War, Guarding Troopers and the Volunteer Army of Man supplemented fixed infrastructure with mobile charging units. While QFBs remained scarce, they were never so strictly rationed that civilian use was outright forbidden — medical and military applications always took first cut.

After the crash, most solar efforts shifted to rooftop photovoltaic arrays in Morningstar, Arla Town, Hope, and New Kourou, plus canopy-style panels atop key Relay Stations of the Shortwave Radio Network. In late 2626 exohumans broke ground on the Solar Park in the Tijonara Region on the Desert Side — an ambitious 100 MW macro-farm — but dust storms, supply-chain delays, and panel fouling slowed progress, and the Great War (2629–2631) ultimately halted construction at roughly 20 % completion. By day, rooftop and canopy panels trickled clean DC into nearby Trick-1 and Tier-2 Trickle ERNs (or into microbial-cell backups when nodes dipped offline), but in the Habitual Belt’s perpetual twilight output ran ~40 % below ideal. Solar became ubiquitous by necessity, yet it never scaled high enough to break the broader rationing regime.

The Atrana Ridge Wind Farm — fifteen turbines lining the mountain crest — represented the Beta Age’s most ambitious wind project, feeding a dedicated Tier-2 ERN that kept local outposts humming. Closer to settlement centers, five compact turbines in Morningstar supplemented rooftop solar, though together they met barely a fifth of the town’s peak power draw. Steep slopes, rocky foundations, and seasonal lulls in wind made further expansion costly and technically fraught. After the Great War and the Peace Treaty of 2631 barred exohumans from operating energy facilities outside their settlement walls in the Habitual Belt, the Atrana Ridge Wind Farm was decommissioned and fully deconstructed in 2632.

In 2626 the Geothermal Power Plant nearby Firetown became the Exohumans’ single most powerful energy installation on VOI 700 D, harnessing volcanic steam of the Ralar Volcano beneath the Ralar Region on the Dark Side to provide both district heating and continuous baseload electricity. Its 10 MW turbines fed directly into Firetown’s Tier-1 Energy Redistribution Node (ERN), making it the largest-capacity power source of the Beta Age.

Engineers broke ground on a sixty-megawatt Arla Dam along the Arla River nearby Arla Town in mid-2628, mapping out transmission corridors to feed tiered ERNs downstream. By June 2629 the structure stood sixty percent complete, but clashes over water rights — and full-scale skirmishes as the Great War erupted — halted construction entirely. With turbines never installed, the dam remains a hollow shell and a stark reminder of Beta Age ambitions cut short.

Fossil fuels were never part of the original Human Settlement Plan; when most planned Alpha Age energy resources proved unusable post-crash, exohumans turned to prospecting local coal and crude deposits. Geological surveys in the Hope Region — and later in the Tropical Forest Region around New Kourou — identified small seams and pockets that could be mined. By late 2627, field teams had set up rudimentary extraction sites and on-site refineries to produce diesel, while parallel labs experimented with microbial fuel cells — living bio-reactors converting agricultural waste into electricity.

In the Tropical Forest, the Honga Tribe repeatedly sabotaged early mine works — seeing any coal extraction as desecration of their sacred soil — so that project was abandoned well before the Great War. In contrast, a modest coal mine did take hold in the Hope Region, supplying diesel generators for frontier camps like Fisherpoint despite the high cost of fuel transport. During the height of the Great War (by mid-2630), microbial cells were pressed into service to power relief loads at key Relay Stations, though they never achieved the uptime needed to fully replace fossil backups.

Deployment Overview

Energy Cycle

The Human Settlement Plan envisioned an antimatter-driven fusion reactor to underpin a true, self-sustaining grid. Unfortunately, the 2625 crash (Day Zero) obliterated core reactor assemblies and antimatter containment banks, and all salvage attempts by late 2626 proved futile.

The pursuit of energy expansion played a major role in escalating tensions with the Native Tribes, ultimately leading to war.

• Solar & Wind Power Expansion: Exohumans sought to build large-scale solar and wind farms in Native-controlled lands, leading to resistance.
• Pipeline Routes: Plans to extend power lines from Firetown to the Habitual Belt or from a future Solar Park on the Desert Side to the Habitual Belt were blocked by Native opposition.

• Entrepreneurs backed by the Free State of Settlers sought to claim control over energy-rich zones, intensifying conflict.
• The Guarding Troopers were deployed to protect exohuman settlements and secure energy resources by force.

• The Arla River Dam was left unfinished due to armed skirmishes.
• Mining operations in the Tropical Forest were abandoned as Native forces attacked resource extraction sites.
• Settlements suffered blackouts as key infrastructure was sabotaged.

The Beta Age was a period of desperation, adaptation, and escalating conflict as exohumans struggled to replace lost technology and power their settlements.

• Surviving QFBs provided a temporary solution but were unsustainable.
• Solar and wind energy faced geographic and political challenges.
• Geothermal energy was reliable but isolated to Firetown.
• The race for fossil fuels and hydroelectric power further exacerbated tensions, leading to full-scale war.

By the end of the Beta Age, exohumans found themselves defeated, forced to surrender their territorial claims and energy expansion projects, marking the beginning of the Gamma Age.

• The Beta Age
• Human Settlement Plan (HSP)
• Quantum Fusion Batteries (QFBs)
• Geothermal Power Plant nearby Firetown
• Free State of Settlers
• Great War
• Peace Treaty

The Ages of the Exohuman history:

• Alpha Age
• Beta Age
• Gamma Age