Pacifica

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Pacifica
ArcoLogo Pacifica.png
Logo; officially symbolising balance
Arcology
Government: Unitary Presidential Republic
President: Lindsee Carmikkel
Demonym: Pacifican
Colours: Commonwealth standard:
        
Geography
Located: Southeastern Australia
Planet: Earth
System: Solar system
Demographics
Population: ~140,221,000
[Source]
Like Burke and Wills, this Australian arcology stands as a testament to the Aussie spirit of mateship, self-sacrifice, and pioneering.

–Prime Minister Robert Finley on the announcement of Pacifica Program's plan to construct an arcology


Pacifica is one of the arcologies of the Commonwealth of Earth, and is regarded as the political successor of the former nation of Australia.

History[edit | edit source]

Pacifica's origins lay within the the Pacifica Program, a climate crisis cooperative founded by the Australian domed cities of Canberra, Toowoomba, and New Melbourne (located between old Melbourne, Ballarat and Bendigo) and the Aotearoa domed city project on New Zealand's north island, all of which had swelled in size during the large inland-bound population shifts away from overwhelmingly coastal population centres of both countries. The program was also posited, primarily for good PR, as a relocation effort for pacific islanders devastated by rising sea levels, with its doors also left open to southeast asians, particularly Indonesians, whose own domed Java City and Sumatran Space Elevator groaned under the stress of their enormous number of applicants.

Following the news of the success of the Shimizu Mega-City Pyramid in Tokyo, and in response to similar efforts by the other world powers, the Australian government allocated funding for the Pacifica Program to build its own arcology west of the Blue Mountains and the ruins of Sydney and Wollongong. Criticism surfaced the moment the project was announced, with many deriding it as symptomatic of the Australian Government's overconfident reliance on the profits of deep-earth and lunar mining, and indeed for decades construction continued at a snail's pace, with many Australians feeling content with their lots in their domed cities.

A significant boom occured in the wake of the explosion of solar mining after the 2200's following advancements in VASIMR technology, with Australia's advanced and developed mining industry allowing it to stake a minor claim in the Main Belt, at first entirely off the back of Chinese and American space programs. With this boom, and the eventual concretising of an Australian-run space mining program - operated from the Sumatran Space Elevator - the large number of industrial materials needed for the arcology were sourced from Australian-mined asteroids, with this direct space-to-arco approach becoming the keystone of a nationalistic drive by the Australian Government in an attempt to unify its anxious populace, with a common buzzphrase being "Mined by Australians, Built by Australians".

The key push needed to fully realise an Australian arcology came with the support of the American arcology of Liberty Central. With its stake in global arcology projects finalised with the construction of Malija and Zion, Liberty Central at last looked to its ancient ally across the Pacific, allocating the funding and sharing the technologies necessary to fully equip this skeletal arcology for a post climate disaster world. While optimists in the Australian media monopoly hailed this as the fruit of the long alliance between Australia and the former United States (typified by ANZUS), more realistic political assessments put this aid down as a Centralian attempt to solidify its political presence in southeast asia.

This alliance continued with the demolition of Liberty Central and the rise of New Manhattan as the leading world arcology, weathering the establishment of the Commonwealth of Earth and the Great Interstellar War, and remained only until until the Xin Xiwang coup of 3989, with a hefty Xin Xiwangese buyout shifting the arcology's allegiance to China.

Government[edit | edit source]

Pacifica is a de-facto mining-conglomerate-controlled autocracy thinly veiled by a multi-party democratic system, with Pacifican companies being a key player in mining operations across the Solar system. Pacifica shares many ideals with its former long-held ally of New Manhattan, with an ANZAC mythos of self-sacrifice lodged deep within the attitudes of Pacifican respectable society.