Antarctica123
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| Flag of Antarctica123 | |
| Motto: "We love penguins" | |
| Antarctica & surrounding islands, Greenland | |
| Region | Antarctica |
|---|---|
| Capital | Antarctica City |
| Official Language(s) | English |
| Leader | President Robert Jonas |
| Population | 7.777 billion |
| Currency | Polar Ice Dollar |
| NS Sunset XML | |
Overview
Founded June 23, 2003
The United Continent of Antarctica123 is a massive, economically powerful nation, notable for its barren, inhospitable landscape. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 7.777 billion are rabid consumers, partly through choice and partly because the government tells them to and dissenters tend to vanish from their homes at night.
It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, corrupt, pro-business government stops and the rest of society begins, but it devotes most of its attentions to Defense, with areas such as Religion & Spirituality and the Environment receiving almost no funds by comparison. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 31%. A powerhouse of a private sector is led by the Automobile Manufacturing industry, followed by Arms Manufacturing (Antarcticorp) and Uranium Mining.
A crusade against barbaric religious practices has begun, the government helps teach children how to kill a man from six paces, ethnic minorities are often refused admission to some of the nation's best schools, and scenic mountain valleys are flooded with water as damming projects get underway. Crime is moderate. Antarctica123's national animal is the Emperor Penguin, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its currency is the Polar Ice Dollar.
Landscape
Antarctica123 is a massive, cold, windy mountainous ice desert. No one would expect that over 7 billion people could survive there in that environment with permanently frozen soil, no rain and temperatures below freezing year round. But there are really 4 different climates in Antarctica123. The natural climate is indeed too harsh to support life, but the Antarcticans have created artifical climates. The first and most common is the dome environment. Here temperatures average between 75F in the summer year and 58F in the sunless winter. The second is the underground portions of cities. There, temperatures hover around 68 degrees year round, due to geothermal heating. The last is in the underwater dome, New Atlantis. Despite being beneath the waves and receiving very diffused sunlight even in summer it is kept at 85 degrees in the summer, and 75 in the winter. This is because in addition to a small greenhouse effect from the sun, the city is heated by geothermal energy as well.
Wildlife
The penguin population in Antarctica123 is simply ridiculous. Even with the invading species of polar bear, penguin communities have continued to flourish, in no small way due to human intervention. Despite penguin meat being a staple of Antarticans' diets, most species of wild penguin remain protected. Instead thousands of penguin ranches dot the country side. Livestock penguins are fed with farmed fish until they fatten and are then harvested, butchered and sent along the nation's transportation network in open train cars. There is no need to refrigerate the carcasses in transit due to the sub-zero temperatures of the ice desert. Due to the near total ban on hunting of wild penguins, Polar Bears are popular prey for enthusiastic Antarctican hunters. Parties launch expeditions out on the ice in snow mobiles and return with 500lb or more of bear meat, enough to feed an entire neighborhood for a month. Bearskins are almost as common as cotton for clothing and dominate interior design as well. Walrus, seal and fish make up the rest of the Antarctian diet, and the rest is farmed within the domed cities or imported by ship.
Cities
A typical city in Antarctica123, with underground levels shown
Much of Antarctica's population lives in one of the 6 great dome cities, the domed underwater city "New Atlantis" or in and around the 70 smaller domed cities, some of which have been linked to form communities larger than even the great dome cities. The insides of these cities are magnificent gardens, lakes, farms and forests. You would never know you were in Antarctica from the interior of the cities. Most of the smaller domed cities have are nested within a giant, solid building and have substantial underground structures. Semi-covered highways and subways allow for rapid mass transit between cities via buses, car-carrying trains and roadways. Most roads lead to Antarctica City, the site of the world's largest transparent geodesic dome, and Antartica123's largest and most populous city. Antarctica City was the most expensive project in history until the under water city, New Atlantis' construction costs topped it years later. Even New Atlantis' huge price tag would be overtaken by the ozone layer-repairing smokestack which was built at the South Pole.
Infrastructure
Antarctica123 is loaded with manufacturing plants, mining operations, ore processing facilities, foundries and other heavy industrial buildings. In 2005 an international project to create a a "stovepipe" which would reach the upper atmosphere and repair the ozone hole was created. The ozone tower project was completed in 2006, but restoring the ozone layer to its proper density took several more months. Now that the ozone hole has been repaired, the "Stovepipe" can began the 25 year project that will convert it into a space-elevator.
Military
The Military of Antarctica123 is focused on ground security and air defense, with the only real offensive arm being the Navy. The standard Assault Rifle for both the Army and the Navy is the M-7 7.62mm Assault rifle, M-48B and M-240J are the primary machine guns employed. The army has been intent on changing primary assault rifle caliber to an intermediate round for quite some time. The smaller scale intermediate rounds -such as 5.56mmNATO- would not be effective against the imported rabid Antarctic Polar Bear population that plague army encampments. Because of this smaller rounds were never adopted. Antarcticorp is slowly developing a convertible assault rifle which will fire an intermediate round in the 6.5mm range and then convert to fire a .~50 caliber round of the same length. In the meantime, Antarctica123 has been perusing the international weapons markets for a stopgap weapon. Static defenses account for 80% of the Army's assets, while the few armored units have been making wide use of the ST-280 "Arctic Fox" snow vehicle and its many variants, although some other vehicles are employed such as modifications the Stryker family of light armored vehicles. The Navy employs battle groups centered around Ultra-Class Battlecarriers and Norad class Battleships in it's 3 surface fleets, and a variety of submarines, both nuclear and non-nuclear in its subsurface warfare division. The Army and the Navy each have their own air wings and the space command operates separately from the other 2 services. The space command could be considered an Air Force since it does operate aircraft, ballistic missiles and anti-missile defenses.
