Coalition Dyson Spheres

During its First Golden Age, the Coalition of Intelligent Organisms initiated a massive industrial project: the construction of a network of 16 Dyson Spheres at various locations within the Coalition core zones. Capable of housing trillions upon trillions of inhabitants and possessing unmatched industrial capacity, the Coalition Dyson Spheres are some of the greatest industrial feats accomplished by any civilization in the Milky Way Galaxy.

Construction
Constructing their Dyson Spheres was no easy task for the Coalition. Each sphere took over a century to complete, though many of them were being constructed simultaneously across Coalition space. To minimize construction costs and time, 15 out of the 16 Dyson Spheres were built around small red dwarf stars. Common, stable stars who’s long lifespans make them excellent candidates for stellar engineering. The largest Dyson Sphere ever made by the Coalition was built around Earth’s very own Sun, which served as the capital of the Coalition of Intelligent Organisms for the rest of their history following its creation. All Coalition Dyson Spheres are built out of various sections, which are assembled in titanic orbital foundries built inside hollowed-out planets. Dyson Sphere sections come in various sizes, but they all use the same structural base for interlinking with each other. This means that Dyson Sphere sections can be easily removed from a complete Dyson Sphere and replaced/transferred, making the spheres highly adaptive and customizable. Most sphere sections come in three different types: residential, industrial and commercial. A sphere section's type determines the facilities and structures located on that section. Residential sections are largely comprised of various housing complexes, food production/storage and leisure facilities. Industrial sections include a variety of manufacturing complexes, including orbital drydocks in which spacecraft can be produced. Finally, commercial sections include shopping districts, economic facilities and trade ports. These sections all possess the necessary infrastructure to maintain themselves independently of other sections, so they can be rearranged on the surface of a sphere at will. The gaps in between sections contain the transportation networks used by both people and machines to move around the sphere.

Once a sphere section is complete, it is brought to the construction site via massive transportation barges. Dyson Sphere sections are placed into a careful, extremely close orbit around their star, stabilized by construction ships. Gradually, more and more sections are interlinked with each other, forming a composite sphere around the entire surface of the star. Dyson Spheres can be inhabited even before they are completed, as unfinished sections are kept in a stable orbit and already have all of the necessary infrastructure to support life. Often, colonists are encouraged to migrate to Dyson Spheres even as they are under construction, as emerging populations on unfinished Dyson Spheres can aid the construction process and highlight infrastructural problems in the sphere that engineers may not have noticed. Inhabiting spheres that are still under construction, however, can be dangerous, especially if the construction process is not properly maintained. During the early years of Dyson Sphere construction, it was not unheard of for entire sphere sections to accidentally become decoupled from the rest of the structure, plummeting into the star below and killing millions in the process. Even the most minor faults could trigger catastrophes such as these, so naturally, the early years of Dyson Sphere construction were very tense.

The greatest obstacle faced by the Coalition during these construction projects were, in fact, not the inherent hazards of stellar engineering, but the acquisition of the necessary resources to complete Dyson Spheres. Economic booms during the First Coalition Golden Age had given the government plenty of funds to work with, which they could now manage more effectively with the construction of MIDAS and development of the TIIRNET. The Coalition financed the construction of the Dyson Spheres largely on its own, but most of the actual industrial capacity used to build sphere sections came from corporations. In an effort to promote corporate involvement in the project, the Coalition promised to license the use of a sphere’s industrial, commercial and residential facilities for free to any corporations that aided in the construction process. If a corporation privately oversaw the construction of a sphere section, they were automatically guaranteed full usage of that section’s facilities at no extra cost, though the government could still exercise control over any part of a Dyson Sphere if it wanted to. It is worth noting that the actual extent to which most corporations made use of Dyson Sphere facilities was much lower than originally expected, as their total industrial capacity vastly outweighed the manufacturing requirements of even the largest corporate entities. The KONAR corporation is one of the only corporate entities that ever made considerable usage of Dyson Sphere facilities, though this was mostly during wartime, when the demand for KONAR military supplies was greater. Likewise, a majority of the space on most Coalition Dyson Spheres remained government property for a large portion of their history.

When a network of sphere sections completely encapsulates a star, a Dyson Sphere is presumed to be complete. However, this is rarely the case. As Coalition technology improved, Dyson Spheres were regularly upgraded, a process made more efficient by their composite design. Shortly after many of them were completed, the invention of SolBores forced sphere engineers to adjust the design of their constructions so as to incorporate the new technology, and SolBores quickly became a staple of Dyson Sphere design. By anchoring a sphere into its respective star, SolBores made Dyson Spheres more stable, and, combined with atomic transmutation, could also supply them with all of the raw materials they needed to be self-sufficient. Their proximity to the centers of Coalition government and economics, as well as their connection to corporate entities, ensured that Dyson Spheres and their inhabitants would directly benefit from most technological breakthroughs in the Coalition, a privilege not available to more remote colonies outside of the Coalition core zones.

Operation and Inhabitation
Life on Coalition Dyson Spheres is something many people agree must be acclimated to over a long period of time. Those that come from smaller colonies on the surface of planets are often overwhelmed by the sheer scale of everything on a sphere, and even more so by the notion that it was all the product of a civilization they live in. The tremendous size of the ports scattered across the surface of Dyson Spheres, designed to accommodate even the largest Coalition vessels, are the first indication to any traveler that Dyson Spheres, and their inhabitants, operate by an entirely different set of rules. Containing trillions upon trillions of inhabitants, Dyson Spheres are some of the most heavily-maintained structures in the entire Coalition of Intelligent Organisms, kept alive by vast interconnected networks of automated maintenance drones, repair crews, energy grids and supply chains, all managed by powerful AI systems. The level of automation found on Dyson Spheres is much greater than anywhere else in the Coalition, but even with all of this beneficial technology, Dyson Spheres are still considerably inefficient, mostly due to their age and size. As time went on, more and more facilities were built up from the base sections comprising each sphere, and though infrastructure networks did their best to keep up, they weren’t entirely successful in maintaining the whole of every Dyson Sphere. During the Coalition Dark Age, bureaucratic inefficiencies caused records concerning the layout of Dyson Spheres to be lost, resulting in the abandonment of many of their bottommost sections. Whenever Dyson Spheres grew outward another level due to natural infrastructural upgrades and expansion, most of its inhabitants moved upward within sphere sections, leaving behind the facilities below. This process wasn’t regulated in any way, however, so naturally, there were plenty of people that were left behind. Rumors concerning these “sphere barbarians” are frequently passed among those living in the lower parts of active Dyson Sphere sections, and hint at the existence of entire communities of people still living in the abandoned, forgotten parts of Dyson Spheres. Though largely swept under the rug by the Coalition government, there is a considerable amount of evidence in support of these rumors. Some speculate the total populations of these barbarians may number in the trillions per sphere, but without access to the automated infrastructure of the active sphere sections, it is unlikely much contact can be made with them.

Many who are unfamiliar with life on Dyson Spheres consider their inhabitants gifted with an incredible luxury. To be near the centers of Coalition economic activity, serviced by automated infrastructure and completely protected from marauding interstellar forces, are privileges those living on border colonies cannot afford. However, life on a Dyson Sphere is not always as enjoyable as one might think. Beneath the towering residential complexes and leisure centers that house a sphere’s wealthier residents, innumerable masses of impoverished, disenfranchised workers toil constantly to maintain the sphere’s infrastructural networks and ensure their own livelihoods. A Dyson Sphere’s population is enormous, but only a small percentage of this population is capable of living in luxurious accommodations. The wealthy and influential minority wield significant control over the majority, managing a rigid social caste system based upon somebody’s position on a sphere. There is a considerable divide between the rich upper sphere dwellers and poor lower sphere dwellers, and naturally, this has caused quite a bit of social unrest to form on spheres. Though their presence is greater on spheres than anywhere else in the Coalition, the Coalition Galactic Police still struggle to maintain perfect order on spheres. Since their funding is backed by the government and its wealthy patrons, the GP primarily focus on ensuring the upper sphere dwellers are safe, leaving the lower sphere dwellers to fend for themselves. Often, to keep themselves, their families or their property safe, people will rely more on mercenaries or private military companies than the GP, meaning every Dyson Sphere is really an invisible battleground occupied by numerous militarized factions, all trying desperately to survive among the chaos of the sphere. The Coalition government itself has never been concerned with fixing the glaringly obvious socioeconomic problems on their Dyson Spheres, and even during the societal reformations of the Second Coalition Golden Age, they remained turbulent, violent locations.