Without further ado, I present you with... The Union of Progressive Planets (UPP*).
Unity A7789CA-C
Originally called Serendipity, this industrial world with a long history of colonization, industrialization and heavy mining was where the Revolution began. Today it is the industrial heart of the UPP, as well as the seat of its socialist government and the P3 (People's Progress Party), led with an iron fist by its vastly popular Revolutionary Council. Polluted to the hilt, it still boasts the highest standard of living in the entire Union, and is home to a large portion of its population, mostly industrial workers, miners, engineers and a strata of bureaucrats and administrators. It also hold the main headquarters of the Red Army and the Red Navy. However, more free-spirited citizens sometimes dislike this world with its ever-present government control of their everyday lives and massive police presence, and thus emigrate to the colonies (which is permitted and even encouraged - especially since this removes potential troublemakers from the capital-world).
Novi Irkutsk B412753-C
A cold world with ice caps and a very thin atmosphere, Novi Irkutsk is only nominally controlled by its planetary-level Party Chairman, while real power resides in the hands of the Syndicates - the old trade-unions of old who became, in a sense, a certain sort of clans, each controlling an industry. Each autonomous Syndicate provides the needs of all of its members, as well as significant services to the other Syndicates, while large scale economic allocations are done in negotiation between Syndicates. The Novi Irkutskans are known as an unruly lot, but their technological innovation is second to none, and thus the Revolutionary Council allows them to run things on Novi Irkutsk, as long as they do not spread their "anarchist deviation from the Party Line" to other worlds.
Bordiga C869786-A
Bordiga is the UPP's breadbasket, producing a vast amount of foodstuffs of better and more varied kinds than those which can be raised, for example, in hydroponic Victory Gardens on Unity. Agricultural cooperatives dot this lush world, each an autonomous entity owned by its farmers, but also bound by higher-level government production plans. The government is a remarkably efficient civil-service bureaucracy, the result of massive reforms, and a massive purge, following a disastrous series of crop failures, and a famine on this world, brought by gross bureaucratic mismanagement of the economy back when the central government had much tighter control over agriculture.
Novaya Vorkuta D63369C-9
This penal colony is where the UPP sends criminals who have committed severe crimes, as well as bureaucrats caught in severe corruption and misconduct (such as those responsible for the Bordiga Famine 21 years ago), and, from time to time, also dissidents. This world is managed by a horrible bureaucracy led by the APPC (Administration of Prisons & Penal Colonies), and even those who are exiled here without being confined to a specific penal colony live under the iron heel of the administrators and Interior Troops. The world is a cold, dry hell, and life is harsh, though corruption, ironic in such a place designed to punish corrupt officials (among other criminals) is rife, and so is the smuggling of luxuries for prisoners with "connections in high places".
Sunrise E655531-8
Sunrise is the newest UPP colony, somewhat thin-aired and dry, but still with significant potential to become the UPP's new breadbasket. Hundreds of thousands of colonists, particularly the more free-spirited citizens of Unity, eke a living on this alien world. Official power rests in the hands of the Party officials at First Landing (where the Downport is located), but they have little interest in what goes outside of this frontier town, and, given the right incentives, will look the other way from any disturbance in the outback.
Stakhanov C0005A7-A
Stakhanov is a promising new asteroid belt in the early phases of mining by the UPP for rare earths and radioactives. Its rowdy population of miner-cosmonauts is inspired and led by the magnetic personality of the local Party Chairwoman, Natalya "Talya" Kirovsky, a former belter, who wields nearly absolute political power in the system and is revered almost to the level of deification by the miners, especially since she is "one of our own" and not one of these "Core suits with big plans and zero knowledge in mining". The Core tolerates Talya's cult of personality, which is officially against the Party Line (which stresses collective leadership) as it produces results in good mining output.
* Name inspired by
William Gibson's unused script for Alien III .
