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The Eternal Spring Revolt was an armed uprisings that took place in 2149 aboard the O'Neil ship, Eternal Spring. The rebellion was motivated by frustrations with political reforms put in place at the end of the Third Mexican War. A key grievance of the rebels was the lack of representation for the O'Neil and Orbital colonies, which was eventually achieved in the incidents' aftermath. The rebellion led directly to Dr. Max Estavez's Report on the Unincorporated Colonies of the United States and to Distributed Territories Act, 2151 which partially reformed the American orbital colonies into distributed territories of whichever commonwealths they identified with (typically the one they were either orbiting or regularly rendezvoused with.)
The Eternal Spring attempted to secede and bombard Earth while passing by the planet. Sure enough, the station was recaptured and the rebels were arrested. Some tried to abduct former President Halvidar afterwards but failed.
History[]
O'Neil Ship Eternal Spring[]
Originally christened BC-0154 Atlas III, the ship that would be known as the Eternal Spring was launched in 2054 from the Atlas Shipyards around Saturn, originally to cultivate biomaterials for terraforming projects on Titan and Venus. At 32km in length, it was one of the largest ships of its kind at the time, making the lazy arc across the system every 18 months. In 2079 it was re-tasked as a colony ship and its orbit shifted to travel between Earth and Mars on a much faster 3 month transit. In 2114 it returned to serve as a biomass cultivator for Venus and Titan, however it now had a permanent population of some 59,000 residents. By 2130, the ship's population exceeded 100,000 residents; and in 2135 these people, like the citizens of many other O'Neil colonies were reassigned to transport people for the early settlement of Venus.
The Great Mutiny[]
By the end of the Third Mexican War, the Eternal Spring's loading docks were taking on close to a quarter million people per trip. The ship's permanent residents issued a formal petition in 2145 to the US Congress asking that they be permitted to take on fewer settlers, as the current workload was placing too much stress on the colony ecosystem and local economy. Their petition was ignored, prompting the ship's civilian leadership to override the navigational system and intentionally miss their next scheduled rendezvous with Earth, sending the Spring on a much longer orbit out beyond Pluto. Attempts were made by the US Department of Commerce to override the residents control of the Eternal Spring and return it to its assigned orbit, but those attempts were met with a repeating petition by the colony demanding that they be admitted to the union as a state, so that they may govern their own affairs. Meanwhile similar petitions and complaints were being made by a number of other O'Neil colonies, and in 2146 five of these colonies took similar action as the Eternal Spring and left their assigned orbits, including New Dejima. However, by 2149, some of the rebellious colonies would return to their positions after peaceful negotiation.
New Dejima Front[]
In one colony, New Dejima, some 2000 people were injured and 150 killed when local security forces fought with rioters protesting what they believed was unfair treatment by the Federal Government. This act led to the formation of the New Dejima Front, a loose connection of politically active residents of the O'Neil ships protesting their treatment by the Earth Commonwealth and the US Government.
Open Revolt[]
When the Eternal Spring neared its solar periapsis in 2147, the US Space Force attempted to capture the colony by force, but were repelled by the local militia. The colony had fortified itself considerably over the last two years traveling around the system, and was playing host to some 250,000 residents, many of whom were New Dejima radicals, driven from their home colonies. It had built up a sizable militia force for an O'Neil Colony and in the summer of 2149 made a final petition to the Federal Government and the Commonwealth of Earth government: Grant the O'Neil Colonies statehood or they will seek independence. The US Space Force positioned a fleet of ships to intercept Eternal Spring and its confederate colonies as they prepared to enter Earth Orbit in late December. All but the Eternal Spring were captured, as the colony declared its independence, and its sovereignty over all Orbitals and O'Neil colonies as the "Eternal Spring Empire." On December 11 it was discovered that the Spring's residents had successful captured a sizable asteroid from the Kuiper Belt and were towing it to drop it on Earth. The asteroid, Nemesis, would have struck with the force of the KT event, potentially wiping out most life on Earth. Fortunately when the Spring reached Earth Orbit on December 24, 2149 the Spring was captured and the asteroid release system disarmed. Some 25,000 people were injured and 5,501 killed during the Eternal Spring Revolt, many being either members of the New Dejima Front or the Spring's loyal security forces.
Aftermath[]
While the attack was unsuccessful, some of the more radical residents of the Eternal Spring escaped before it was captured by US Space Forces, and tried to abduct the former President Lionel Halvidar from his retirement home on Mars. The conspirators were captured by local police forces in Pierce, just moments after breaking into Halvidar's home. The former President later remarked that he was in his garage at the time, and didn't even realize that anyone was inside his house. After being questioned, the rebels stated that they blamed Halvidar for abandoning the O'Neil ships during the reforms his administration championed on Earth. When asked, Halvidar remarked that he did not see any practical solution at the time to the issue of shipborn representation, but recognized the need.