Vekta is a planet located in the Alpha Centauri system orbiting Alpha Centauri B.^[3] It is a rich agrarian planet with atmospheric and geological conditions similar to Earth. Vekta is of highly strategic importance to the United Colonial Nations and its surrounding colonies.^[2]

History

Colonization

The Helghan Corporation's colonization fleet reached Alpha Centauri in 2127. After deeming the planet Helghan to be unsuitable for human colonization due to a volatile atmosphere and poor ecosystem, they chose the nearby planet that closely resembles Earth's pristine biosphere.^[3] The Helghan Corporation named the planet after its CEO Philip Vekta and began settling the planet in 2129.^[2][3] Within a decade Vekta became an agrarian world that provided a variety of foodstuffs and luxuries, and its government was ruled by the Helghan Protectorate and later the Helghan Administration.^[3]

First Extrasolar War and Aftermath

Though the vital planet's ownership fell under the Helghan Administration for decades, it was eventually ceded to the United Colonial Nations following the events of the First Extrasolar War and the dissolution of the Helghan Administration in 2202.^[3] The UCN then installed the Alpha Centauri Interplanetary Strategic Alliance Command to act as a new government for Vekta. In addition, settlers from Earth were brought in to supplement the corporate population that was already on Vekta.^[3]

However, tensions soon rose between the Helghan corporate majority and a growing Earth-loyal minority. Some of the Helghan population formed resistance groups and terrorized the Earth-loyal citizenry with constant terrorist attacks. In response, the ISA administration enacted harsh punishments and sanctions on the Helghan population to protect the Earth colonists.^[3] Eventually in 2204, the Helghan corporate loyalists could no longer endure the hardships imposed by the ISA and chose to resettle on planet Helghan.^[3] Thus, Vekta was left solely to the ISA and its Earth-loyal settlers.

For over a century, Vekta had remain in peace while the ISA maintained an economic blockade on Helghan that was exploited by the Vektan government. However in 2330, Vekta's exploitation of Helghan's mineral wealth led to a great depression that affected the two planets and consequently gave to the rise of the Helghan Empire that became hostile to Vekta.^[3]

Second Extrasolar War

Main article: Second Extrasolar War

Vekta was invaded by the Helghast during the outbreak of the Second Extrasolar War in August 2357. Vekta's defenses were sabotaged by Helghast collaborators and allowing thousands of Helghast troops to land on the planet and overwhelmed unprepared ISA ground forces. Vektan cities such as Vekta City were turned into war zones as Vektan civilians were killed in the crossfire or massacred by Helghast troops, and some were forced to take up arms against the invaders.^[4] The conflict on Vekta would last for two months in which the ISA managed to drive out the Helghast with reinforcements from the United Colonial Army in October 2357.^[3]

By 2359, the planet was fully liberated and rebuilt for the ISA counter-invasion of Helghan. However, the counter-invasion failed and by 2360 the Vektan Colonial Government capitulated and agreed to end all conflict with the Helghan Empire.^[3][5] Any ISA troops that were trapped on Helghan were then ordered to stand down and surrender to the Helghast as prisoners of war.^[5] However, the Second Extrasolar War abruptly ended in Vekta's favor when the remnants of the ISA invasion force inadvertently caused the Terracide which devastated Helghan, during an effort to save Earth from destruction by the Helghast and escape the planet.

Vektan Cold War

Main article: Vektan Cold War

Despite Vekta's victory, the Vektans agreed to an uneasy truce with the Helghast in which the ISA allowed the survivors of the Terracide to take refuge on Vekta in the wake of Helghan's devastation. Due to the two civilization's animosity towards each other, as part of a political settlement, the entire planet was to be split in half between Vektans and Helghast.  

Towering and heavily fortified walls separate the cities and communities of the Vektan and Helghast people, with both living starkly contrasting lives on either side of the walls, as the Helghast attempted to replicate their harsher and industrialized lifestyle while the Vektans had retained its more cleaner and utopian one. At this point, Vekta became used to identify the ISA half of the world, while the other was renamed New Helghan. Many disaffected Helghast had chose to remain in the Vektan side in which they were treated as unwanted pariahs liable to be faced with varying degrees of persecution by the Vektans. 

Despite the Second Extrasolar War exhausting both sides, tensions between New Helghan and Vekta grew once again. The partitioning of Vekta caused dissent to grow in the Vektans and Helghast alike, and the governments of the two peoples soon rearmed and fought covert wars. Helghast terrorists would attack ISA installations and Vektan civilians, while the Vektan Security Agency conducted illegal incursions into New Helghan. Despite the insurgency, open conflict was narrowly averted, even as the ISA and Helghast attacked each other covertly.^[6]

Government

Vekta was initially governed by the Helghan Administration until it fell under the control of ISA Alpha Centauri in 2202. The senior government official on Vekta was the ISA Governor General.^[3]

By the time of the Second Extrasolar War, the Vektan Colonial Government had remained under the jurisdiction of the ISA.

Military

Main article: ISA Alpha Centauri

The mandatory military of all UCN colonies is known as the Interplanetary Strategic Alliance. Each ISA is independent, much like a normal military. Planets provide funding and manpower, while the UCN provides training and equipment, although they keep the ISA of every colony world, including Vekta, inferior compared to the United Colonial Army in order to prevent them from ever staging a successful rebellion.

Even though the UCN provide equipment to ISA Alpha Centauri, this is not to say Vektans do not manufacture their own equipment or even develop new weapons, as weapons such as the M55 Rumbler by ISA Weapon Systems clearly prove otherwise.

Physical Aspects

Typically described as an Eden class world,^[2] Vekta is covered with lush, fertile land, with flowing lakes and oceans. Vekta is self-sufficient in food production and serves as a stable point for administration and manufacturing. Vekta's approximate mass and atmospheric conditions mirror that of Earth's.^[2]

It is also a planet of significant strategic importance to the UCN as it acts as a jump point between Earth and the other colonies.^[2] It is also a significant source of food and various other resources. Upon the arrival of Helghast refugees and the founding of New Helghan, half of the planet has been heavily industrialized and somewhat replicate the polluted urban environment of Helghan.

The population of Vekta was numbered around 3.2 billion according to a census that was carried out at least 5 years before the Second Extrasolar War, but due to the war the population had been halved due to the Helghast's brutal attack on the civilian population in Vekta City and the surrounding areas.

Locations

Northern Vekta

• Vekta City is the only populated area on Northern Vekta. Founded in 2129, Vekta City is the capital of Vekta and home to the VSA Headquarters. Following the establishment of New Helghan, Vekta City was divided in half in which the other half is administered by the New Helghan government.

Southern Vekta

• Rayhoven^[7] is a city notable for its nearby military base, simply known as Rayhoven Base. Rayhoven Base was where General Dwight Stratson oversaw Evelyn Batton and her team's development of the infamous Red Dust nuke, which Stratson proposed to use in order to eliminate the invading Helghast from Southern Vekta. Several Red Dust warheads were later stolen by the Helghast and used in a similar fashion to Stratson's plan, eliminating all ISA forces from the Helghan capital city of Pyrrhus, albeit at the cost of many Helghast soldiers.
• Diortem^[7] was a city the ISA chose to research technology during the Helghast invasion of Vekta. One such project was the development of a biological weapon overseen by ISA Admiral Alex Grey that could be used as a deterrent against the Helghast. Diortem is also home to the Hall of Justice, as well as Diortem Plaza.
• Magus City^[7] is known for the nearby Magus Harbor, which the war hero Jan Templar had to search for a hovercraft to maneuver the Reag swamplands and rescue ISA VIPs from Armin Metrac.
• Sedah City^[7] is home to the Royal Vektan Palace, indicating that Vekta had a monarchy at some point. It was also one of many places where government officials died during the Helghast invasion of Vekta. Tendon Cobar tortured and killed three ISA council members here, and Dwight Stratson would kill General Murphy inside the Palace to gain total control of all forces in Southern Vekta.
• Dilos^[7]
• Oas^[7]
• Suiten^[7]
• Anemos^[7]
• Kirin^[7]

New Helghan

• Containment City, also known as the New Helghan Slums, is located in one of the lower tiers of New Helghan. It has a population of over 3 million as of 2390, and 43% of these 3 million are believed to be non-Helghast, and the rest are Helghast migrants. Due to its high level of poverty and civil unrest, the Black Hand has a lot of influence in this area, while the New Helghan government is struggling to maintain control.

Gallery

Trivia

• The planets Vekta and Helghan are respectively based on the real-life planets Earth and Mars.
• In the cinematic intro of Killzone 2, Vekta have two moons. These moons are named Fortune and Hope in the cinematic intro of Killzone: Mercenary.

References