The Marathon wiki

Overview

Argolis was a Super-Earth classified planet in the Tau Ceti system. It was considered as a second potential colony site by the UESC during the planning of Project Goliath.

History

Project Goliath

During the planning phases of Project Goliath, Argolis was suggested as a potential planet to survey for new colony sites in the Tau Ceti system. If New Cascadia was found to be beyond recovery due to anti-government activity or AI rampancy, concerns over the fallout from deploying a "Nuke and Pave" nuclear option to destroy all surface assets of the Colony compelled the UESC to reassess the viability of Argolis for colonization. However, other options were also weighed, such as minimizing damage to the terrain by using ground forces to deploy antimatter catalyzed conventional explosive devices to destroy the Colony, as well as the assessing other sites on Tau Ceti IV that are outside of any potential fallout patterns. Argolis was still selected as the second colonization site in the event of a worst-case-scenario for any of the situations stated above.

Trivia

• Argolis has a real-life counterpart in the Tau Ceti system, as two Super-Earths were detected in 2017 that are located in the inner and outer edges of the system's habitable zone.

References

1. Marathon ARG, UESC Documents, Memorandum for the Secretary General: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1M4iwWZGP6-uAnPk89B_kbnKA5i3laB0ITtJ79g0ySco/preview#heading=h.waqrasblcpil
2. "Color Difference Makes a Difference: Four Planet Candidates around τ Ceti." F. Feng et al 2017 AJ 154 135: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/aa83b4#artAbst