Torin Prime: The J'Har's Rebel Colony World

Torin Prime was a Paraguayan colony in the Tartarus sector of the Outer Rim, and the first world to rise against the United Americas. The J'Har revolt of 2106 to 2108 became the union's first civil war among its extrasolar colonies. Arthur Dallas flew in that war and Dennis Parker spent half a year in one of its camps, long before either man joined the Nostromo. Decades later the colony was a sanctioned police state, home to a Weyland-Yutani research center, with its rebels quietly rebuilding.

The Planet

Torin Prime orbited in the GJ-229A system, in a stretch of frontier that took its name from the infernal realm of Greek myth. It was a terrestrial world with a breathable atmosphere and a semi-arid climate, rainy in summer and dry in winter, with a mean temperature of 18°C. Its land ran from mountainous glades to high peaks. Paraguay settled it before the three Americas merged, and it was one of several member-state colonies unhappy with the new government. By the 2180s it held three colonies and a population of about 700,000.

The planet's wealth lay in its metals: chromium, titanium, osmium, palladium, iridium, and other heavy metals. It also held a large supply of rhenium, vital for the superalloys of mega construction, which rebels kept the United Americas from mining. In the 2170s its main settlement was a sprawl of low habitat domes and settler shacks under a bitter cold sky. Above them rose the Weyland-Yutani facility, a steel and glass ziggurat on an evercrete ramp, ringed with sandbag bunkers and company commandos.

History

The J'Har Revolt

When colonial law from the new union took effect, Torin Prime pushed back against the unification of the three Americas. A rebel faction calling itself the J'Har issued a manifesto of terror, seized most of the colony, murdered planetside officials, and killed or imprisoned anyone who stayed loyal. More than half the population ended up in concentration camps. The revolt spread, and J'Har advisors pushed a massive labor dispute on Thedus to cut military supply lines. Miners turned a standard Weyland-Yutani mining laser into a weapon during the 2106 uprising, and the company later studied the rebels' modifications for its own fleet.

The newly formed United Americas Allied Command worked with counterinsurgents on the ground to take the world back. When the J'Har captured a flotilla of warships, the Outer Rim Defense Fleet answered in kind, and the civil war grew into a space war. Dallas flew as pilot of the fast-attack ship UAS Leviathan under Major Baines from June 2106 to February 2108. Parker, a corporal and chief mechanic at Skyfire Down, was captured on 1 August 2107 and held at Concentration Camp GR-161. Inside the wire he set up an underground black market for the prisoners of war.

The Liberation

The Liberation of Torin Prime came in February 2108. On 21 February Parker escaped from GR-161 during the fighting and built an emergency escape vehicle out of scrap. Two days later Dallas was promoted to captain and received the Sunburst Medal of Honour for meritorious service, and on 1 March he took command of the troop carrier UAS Archangel. The Thedus dispute had lasted only four months, but retaking the colony took nearly two years. The war embarrassed the young Outer Rim Defense, yet it also cemented the United Americas as a power among the stars.

After The War

Once the J'Har leadership fell, the other colonies appeared to fall in line. The United Americas formed the Extrasolar Colonial Administration and the Colonial Marshal Bureau to prevent another Torin Prime, promising a law office on every colony and station. The debacle also exposed a weakness in the new union, and other nations moved to build conglomerates of their own. That push led to the Union of Progressive Peoples. The revolt later stood as the first big extrasolar test for the Colonial Marines and the forces under UAAC command.

The Special Operations Center

In Aliens: Bishop, set in 2179, the Hardboiled 8th under Marcel Apone had left the rest of its company on Torin Prime, a full platoon kept there as a deterrent. Apone thought his Marines could have stayed there propping up another UA regime instead of chasing the synthetic Bishop. Before the Xinjiang was scuttled, a huge coded transmission left in the direction of the colony. Apone guessed at UPP rebels and turned his ship back to collect his people. The burst carried the mind of Michael Bishop.

At the Special Operations Center, Director Frederick Munston hurried past the bunkers, which had gone up after murmurs of another insurrection. The uploaded Michael Bishop offered him the whole Xenomorph life cycle, documented with samples from every phase, along with ideas for bioweapons and medicine. His price was time in the state-of-the-art laboratory the company kept on Torin Prime. Munston left the offer unsigned while he weighed it. Apone's company was still on the ground, and the Il Conde was already turning back to collect it.

Torin Prime In The 2180s

Almost eight decades after the rebellion, Torin Prime had never recovered. Sanctions kept it from thriving, the local government was barred from arming itself, and locals felt they lived in a police state. The GR161 camp was as full as it had been seventy-five years earlier. President Araceli Segarra led a J'Har government in exile, while another faction under Para Guarani turned to piracy. Segarra offered the planet's rhenium to the Three World Empire and the UPP for military aid, and both sent covert missions to check the claim.

United Americas intelligence believed the next J'Har rising would aim at the whole Tartarus sector, quietly backed by the UPP. The Liberty Echo fleet was preparing a response. To win that support, the J'Har promised their backers a cut of the planet's new-found riches. The narrator of Alien: Perfect Organisms came into port on Torrin Prime with a load of rations. Exploring the city after unloading, the narrator met a small, bald street preacher shouting about a dragon, who sold a copy of Space Beast by Robert Morse.

Behind The Scenes

Torin Prime began in the Nostromo crew dossiers, hidden on the Alien Legacy box set, where it appeared only in the service records of Dallas and Parker. Free League's Colonial Marines Operations Manual, Building Better Worlds, and Alien: The Roleplaying Game expanded the revolt into a timeline event and a playable world. The roleplaying game also linked the war with the loss of the Archangel at Thedus. Aliens: Bishop by T.R. Napper was the first novel to visit the colony. Alien: Perfect Organisms spelled the name with a double r.

Conclusion

Torin Prime was the Paraguayan colony that refused the United Americas and paid for it. The J'Har revolt filled concentration camps, spread to Thedus, and took nearly two years and a space war to crush. It made Dallas a decorated captain and sent Parker home with a discharge. Generations later the colony was still under sanctions, still holding dissidents in GR161, and hosting a Weyland-Yutani laboratory where Michael Bishop's uploaded mind made his offer. Its rebels were preparing to try again.

Appearances

• Alien Legacy DVD box set, Nostromo crew dossiers (mentioned only)
• Alien: Isolation by Keith R.A. DeCandido (mentioned only)
• Alien: The Roleplaying Game (Free League, mentioned only)
• Colonial Marines Operations Manual by Andrew E.C. Gaska (Free League, mentioned only)
• Aliens: Bishop by T.R. Napper (Titan Books)
• Alien: Perfect Organisms (mentioned only, as Torrin Prime)