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Laconis
Star Type (Recharge Time): F4V (175 hours)
Position in System: 4
Time to Jump Point: 16.10 days
Number of Satellites: 2 (Messenia, Arcadia)
Surface Gravity: 1.02
Atm. Pressure: Standard (Breathable)
Equatorial Temperature: 19° C (Cool)
Surface Water: 82 percent
Recharging Station: Nadir
HPG Class: B
Highest Native Life: Amphibian
Population: 32,600,000
Socio-Industrial Levels: C-B-A-A-C
   Technological Sophistication: Moderately advanced
   Industrial Development: Heavily industrialized
   Raw Material Dependence: Fully self-sufficient
   Industrial Output: High output
   Agricultural Dependence: Modest agriculture
Defending Forces: 8th Confederation Reserve Cavalry, Laconis Home Guard
Land Masses (Capital City): East Mani, Elafonisos, Eurotas, Monemuasia, Pellana (Sparta)
Importance: Industrial

Laconis was first catalogued by Taurian surveyors from the Ministry of Trade and Colonization in the early 27th century, shortly after the end of the reconstruction period that had followed the bloody Reunification War. While promising in many respects, initial analysis showed that Laconis' water was too toxic to sustain a significant long-term human presence. Due to this, it was flagged by the Ministry as unsuitable and more or less forgotten for over two decades. However, with the innovation in 2622 of the Jamerson-Ulikov water purifier, otherwise marginal worlds like Laconis suddenly became viable targets for colonization. In 2626, the planet's first colony was founded, mostly by Taurians from the Greek-speaking world of Megaris in the Hyades Cluster. Called Sparta, it lay in the warmer equatorial region of Pellana, along the coast of the Myrtoan Sea. The sprawling mountain range that covered most of Pellana, named the Pentadaktylos (the Five Fingers) by the locals, had four sizable interstitial glacial valleys between its “fingers”; Sparta began in one of these and over time expanded to fill all four. These expansions required great tunnels to be blasted through the Fingers so that transit systems and rail lines could link the valleys directly and relieve the strain Sparta's growth had caused on the fledgling colony's bluewater transport infrastructure.

It was during the excavation of one of these tunnels that an enormous vein of boron was discovered. A critical component in modern BattleMech armor, chemically uncombined boron was rarely found naturally occurring outside of asteroids (even now, nearly half a millennium later, competing theories about geological and cosmological processes that allowed such rich deposits to form with such purity cause vigorous debates in astrogeological circles). Savvy businessmen quickly exploited this by forming the Taurus Majoris Mining corporation, which used Star League economic recovery grants to rapidly build an enormous network of advanced boron mines that fed into a massive armor production complex in the Caeadas Valley. Combined with a complete removal of immigration restrictions, Laconis saw an explosion in its population as the lure of high-paying mining and manufacturing work brought hundreds of new colonists every day. By the turn of the century, over five million people claimed Laconis as their home.

The SLDF's 35th Infantry Division called the planet home for much of the 28th century, stationed there to fend off the pirate raids that the TMM complexes inevitably drew. While the relationship between the garrison and the planet's populace was often as tense as on any other Taurian world, the Thirty-fifth gained a positive reputation in 2759 when Major General Mila Vandroogenbroeck allowed the division's combat assets and support personnel to be used by the planetary government to help rebuild the capital city after a strong hurricane destroyed the majority of the infrastructure there (the fact that the Nineteenth Army was dependent on the uninterrupted output of the TMM armor factories was no doubt as much a factor as the public relations boost). This greatly improved Laconis' relationship with the Star League's bureaucracy, and it was not one of the worlds that seceded during the Periphery Uprising of 2765 (or the Freedom War, as it is known in Taurian textbooks). As a result, it was completely bypassed by the SLDF's reprisals and spared the damage that most other central Taurian worlds suffered from the fighting.

The mass economic downturn that followed the fall of the Star League and the early Succession Wars largely bypassed Laconis; its economic strength lay in a resource that was in greater demand than ever. Taurus Majoris Mining used these years to expand their operations, building mobile refinery stations throughout Taurian space. By the 31st century, it was the largest commercial extractor and refiner of ores in the Concordat. The TDF, by then highly invested in the safety of the armor factories, regularly rotated the battalions of the Red Chasseurs through the system. Other than the occasional pirate or Davion raid, almost always handily fended off by the Chasseurs, relatively little of note happened on Laconis until 3114.

Daoshen Liao, the newly-minted Chancellor of the Capellan Confederation, was still furious over the Sarna Armistice that had concluded the Capellan Crusades. Looking to assuage his wounded pride over his defeat by the Republic, Daoshen chose to lash out at his erstwhile allies, taking advantage of the Concordat's lingering weakness in the wake of the Jihad to snap up a few valuable worlds. A rapid offensive by Sung's Rangers and the Seventh Confederation Reserve Cavalry captured Laconis, along with Brisbane and Bromhead, catching the defending TDF forces completely off guard. The battalion of Red Chasseurs on Laconis when Sung's Rangers struck was crushed in less than a month, and the planetary government capitulated to the Confederation immediately thereafter. To ease the transition, Daoshen had the majority shareholders of Taurus Majoris Mining inducted into the Sheng nobility and Laconis paired with Brisbane in a new warren, rather than forcing it under the thumb of neighboring Rollis, as many Laconiki had feared. Both the heads of TMM and much of the populace, while not exactly welcoming of the Capellan takeover, had grown tired of the incompetence and heavy-handedness of Protector Urratia and the junta.  Their acceptance of their new overlords was solidified by a series of short-sighted retaliatory raids ordered by Protector Urratia; attacks by the First Taurian Lancers and Gordon's Armored Cavalry in 3115 and 3117, respectively, both did widespread damage to Laconis' infrastructure before being beaten back by the CCAF garrison. The failure of these attacks, along with the spate of planets seceding from the Concordat that followed on their heels, set the stage for the eventual coup d'etat that left Urratia dead and Kaff Doru as the new Protector.

The 2nd Magistracy Highlanders garrisoned Laconis and the other captured Taurian worlds from 3122 to 3137, and the greater cultural affinity between the occupiers and the Laconiki helped smooth over the final stages of the world's full incorporation into the Confederation. However, much of this good work has been undone since the Highlanders left and were replaced by the Eighth Confederation Reserve Cavalry. A regiment composed of the conscripted sons and daughters of BattleMech-owning Sheng nobles, the Eighth had proven an abject failure. Their defeat at the gates of Tikograd during the first attacks on Tikonov had earned them the Chancellor's displeasure, and he effectively banished them to Laconis; Taurian raids had petered off and only the rare pirate raid was a threat to Laconis at all. With little to do in the way of military matters, the arrogant nobles who made up the regiment began to throw their weight around both in the political system and society in general. After a handful of peaceful protests were met with violent force from the Eighth CRC, an anti-Capellan insurgency began. As on many other worlds, the insurgents were aided by the Blackout: Laconis' HPG was one of the many that failed on Gray Monday. While the Strategios' current plan is to gradually cashier and replace the Eighth's members, the Concordat has managed to exploit the situation; already, insurgents augmented by suspected Special Task Groups teams from the Taurian Ministry of Intelligence have made strikes at Eighth CRC bases and assets (and, quite conspicuously, not those of the Home Guard).

For most of its existence, Laconis had functioned as a typical Taurian representative democracy, with a robust welfare state funded by the wealth Laconis' industrial sector produced. In the century prior to Capellan rule, under the regime of the juntas, political freedoms began to wane as the federal government cracked down on “unpatriotic” sentiments using the emergency powers Protector Shraplen had activated “for the duration of the crisis” in 3066. Ironically, this slow erosion of civil liberties made it much easier for the Confederation to assimilate Laconis following its conquest. With a large middle class and little social mobility (the steep decline of warfare since the end of the Jihad and the hyperinflation that the bull had experienced in the 3070s had produced a long period of economic stagnation for Laconis), the caste system of the Confederation was a good fit for the Laconiki in many ways. They also benefited from the increased rights for servitors that Daoshen's father had established in the previous century, as nearly everyone on Laconis and the other new worlds were able to earn their citizenship by the late 3120s. The economy has begun to improve noticeably in recent decades as access to Capellan markets gives Taurus Majoris Mining far greater reach than they ever had as a Taurian company.

Greek and English are the main languages spoken by the Laconiki; most speak both fluently, as they are both taught throughout their primary and secondary education. Since the Capellan conquest, Mandarin has also become a part of the curriculum, which has put a strain on teachers as language courses threaten to crowd out other important subjects. No religion is particularly dominant on Laconis, although the Orthodox and New Avalon Catholic churches claim the largest shares, with a few million followers apiece. Adherents of nearly every major religion can be found here; for a time in the late 30th and early 31st century, there was even an enclave of the One-Star Faith high in the Pentadaktylos. Not surprisingly, the largest employer on Laconis is TMM; there are also sizable petroleum and aquaculture industries (nearly entirely for local use). Due to the plentiful mountains and cooler-than-average temperatures, alpine sports are extremely popular, and especially mountain-climbing. Not coincidentally, the TDF's specialized mountaineer infantry units usually contained a disproportionate number of Laconiki (and several platoons now serve in the Home Guard). Much like their namesake, natives of Laconis tend to be terse, and accord respect on that basis: to be talkative is to be considered foolish and immature. Like many Taurians (or, in this case, ex-Taurians), most Laconiki despise House Davion; when Bromhead had nuclear weapons deployed against it by the TDF in the 3070s, many Laconiki saw it as justice for the countless AFFS raids that had used Bromhead as their staging point. This hatred of the Davions has also made House Liao somewhat easier to embrace: the CCAF's success against the Federated Suns and execution of the hated Duchess Hasek in recent years has been greatly played up by state media.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of Laconis is that its rotation lasts just eight hours, and its year is only half as long as Terran Standard. Visitors can find this incredibly disorienting as their bodies try to adjust to three sunrises and sunsets each day. Because of the constant fluctuation of lighting and temperature this causes, shades with polarized lenses are extremely commonly worn and tear-away sleeves and leggings are a standard part of almost all Laconiki clothing. Another adaptation has been what the natives call chnoúdi: similar to the concept of “siesta” found throughout the Capellan March and several older Terran cultures, chnoúdi is a nap taken during second sunset and followed by a light, tapas-like meal (usually sushi or other seafood-based confections) with friends or co-workers. Most Laconiki also regularly consume a beverage called tsai vounou, a tea steeped in sage grown in the Pentadaktylos and infused with guarana. When the Confederation took over, locally farmed abalone (or bao yu, as it is known in Mandarin) quickly became a dietary staple as the aquacultural industries began producing enough of a surplus to allow for regular export across the Victoria Commonality, where it is considered a delicacy by the well-to-do and members of the nobility.