Cadia is a volcanic planet roughly eleven light years from Reach, directing towards covenant space.
Geography
Cadia is a Volcanic world surrounded by rings which house many ship yards. Most of Cadia's surface is covered by what is known by the locals as the Deathlands large barren strips of land which are constantly shifting due to the seismic activity from the volcanoes. The rest of the world is covered by active volcanoes ranging from the small to the large, these volcanoes spew large amounts of ash but also push large amounts of metal to the surface that can be easily collected.
Population and society
Cadia has a relevantly small population compared to most worlds. the currently population is around 12.92 million, mostly refuges returning home after the Human-Covenant war. Most if not all of cadia's cites are build on the side of volcanoes which provide power and metals for the city to use. Due to the barren landscape all food is grown in large bio domes or imported in from other worlds. Cadian cities are considered large factories in which all citizens work in, in one way or another. The planet is controlled by a council of representatives elected by each of the cities.
Cadian society revolves around machines and the forge. All Cadians wear a pendant of their guardian animal, known examples of this are sergeant Mark Howlett who wears a pendant of a crow and the late sergeant Kieran Howlett who wore a raven pendant. Many cadians replace one or more limbs with bionic replacements as they believe it brings them closer to perfection, this is also seen as a symbol of maturity among many Cadians. Many Cadian have some sort of burn mark on their right arm that bears their family crest if they are of high enough status.
History
Cadia was founded in 2392 for its rich metal deposits and it use for manufacturing goods (Before being switched to military production for the UNSC in 2496).Cadia was attacked by insurgent forces July 27 2499, the attack consisted of three ships, one captured paris class heavy frigate and two Charon-class light frigates, and a unknown amount of insurgent forces, recovered data puts the number around a thousand soldiers on each charon-class with drop ships,armor and fighter craft for support. The paris class had around seven hundred and fifty soldier with drop ships, armor and fight craft for support. The battle lasted for one week before the insurgents were forced to hide in the captured city of factory gamma, reports show that they remain there to this day as the area is impossible to get to by air due to the heavy defenses in the area and being surrounded by Deathland for miles. Second major event next to the founding was the assault and capture of the planet by Covenant forces in 2549, the Covenant forces consisted of three SDV-class heavy corvettes and one CCS-class battlecruiser, with a untold amount of Covenant forces. The battle lasted three and a half hours until all civilian craft evacuated the population or were destroyed by the Covenant. In 2554 with the end of the Human-Covenant war spreading around human space a large amount of the displaced population returned to Cadia to recolonize what was left from the Covenant attack.
Post war insurrection
First recorded in 2554 with the return of the local population a large amount of insurgent forces came forth from factory gamma and attempted to take the planet as their own. Only one of the three surviving factories joined joined the new insurrection and declared independence from the UEG and UNSC. Due to the consistent strain on the UNSC with the post great war clean up no major UNSC campaign has been launched to retake the city. Many smaller battles have taken place in space with raiding parties and on the ground with the local CDF defending the two remaining citys from insurgent forces both outside the cites and inside it. There is no intel on who the insurgent leader is but many suspect it to be Gillian Howlett, daughter to the late high counselor James Howlett and sister to current factory prime supervisor Carter Howlett, Gillian went missing after a riot on a UNSC refuge ship three months after the Covenant attack on Cadia.On march twenty seventh 2557 the new colonial alliance declared open warfare on the PDF of cadia (And UNSC troops.) trying to take the planet as their own. Cadian loyalist forces lead by lord general creed conducted a massive orbital bombardment of the cadian city of factory gamma, the attack wiped the city off the face of the planet and broke the back of the insurgent movement, now cadian forces are mopping up any remaining insurgent cells.
Economy
Cadia economy is completely dependent on the manufacturing of military and civilian goods. As such every city has a large number of factories ranging from small ones to create commercial good to large one creating military hard wear for the UNSC and private security forces.
Due to the lack of local vegetation most food must be imported from other planets, mostly trading the UNSC and UEG weapons and other supplies for food and water.
Military
Due to the large amount of military supplies that are produced the local CDF is far better equipped then most. Currently the local PDFs forces stand at three Charon-class frigates, two Stalwart-class frigates with one Paris class heavy -frigate being produced. With around 3.12 million Personnel enlisted with more being trained in the Cadian cadet corps, many cadets that excel in the corps are pushed to join the UNSC marine corps.
The cadian military is broken up into two large groups the CDF and the PDF. The CDF is a UEG/UNSC controlled group while the PDF Serves independently of the UEG/UNSC. The Cadian PDF comprises of all military groups (Army also known as the guard,Air force, Navy and special forces.)
Cadian Military branches and equipment.
The Guard :The main military arm of Cadia the guard composes of all the land forces(Minus special forces.), be it infantry tank or boarding teams. The standard cadian guardsman is equipped with the c-27 combat rifle ( the rifle features a thirty round magazine with 9.5x40mm rounds the same rounds used by the battle rifle.) , the k-19c pistol (The pistol features a fifth teen round clip with 12.7x40mm bullets, the M6G bullet.) and are armored with a variant of the green M52B body armor used by the UNSC marine corps but is upgraded with higher grade materials that reduce the wight and increase protection by 19%. Cadian guardsmen are also equipped with the EJ-31 combat face shield, the "shield" is a ballistics face mask worn by the guards it has light dampening visors which aid in fighting next to lava, it also has minor EVA capability as it can filter out most gases or other hurtful airborne agents, it also has a small air supply with last around fifth teen minutes.
Cadian tanks and vehicles:. The most comment tank in the cadian PDF is the M850 Grizzly, but the cadian PDF is prototyping a new tank known as the H-415 nicknamed the volcano. The tank sports a very low to the ground and spread out build but with heavier armor. Thank H-415 features a single heavy rail gun as its main armament, it is also fitted with three machine gun sponsons which fie .50 caliber rounds (one on each side and in the front.) and a single gauss canon pin tel mounted on the top.
Infantry are deployed in the warthog armored personnel carrier, whose designs were recovered from insurgent forces. guard forces are also deployed in the TZ-031 APC a sleek and low to the ground vehicle whose role is meant for rapid deployment of troops over flat terrain.
Navy:Very similar to the UNSC navy they control all the naval vessels and all combat outside the planet.
The Cadian navy has three Charon-class frigates, two Stalwart-class frigates with one Paris class heavy -frigate being produced in their current stock with multiple patrol and support ships..
Air force: The same as the UNSC air force, they control all all the fighters and bombers in the cadian military.
The cadian airforce has multiple craft for their numerous roles a list of the most common are.
The B-65 Shortsword-class Suborbital Long-range Bomber
The AV-22 Sparrowhawk
The GA-TL1 Longsword-class Interceptor
the Skyhawk fighter
and the pelican dropship 79 Heavy-Troop Carrier
Special forces:The special forces are a elite group of cadian soldiers who deal with the most dangerous missions, they are split into three groups. The noble guard,the high mobility assault forces (Nicknamed the raptors.) and a unknown special forces division.
The noble guard: The noble guard are expert counter terrorism and assassination troops. They're job is to protect the noble families as well as the general populous.The noble guard are equipped with black armor with a full EVA helmet, and use the M7 SMG or the M90 tactical shotgun for most operations.
the high mobility assault forces: These forces use experimental jump packs to make small to medium jump between streets and building, they are used a forward scouting/rapid assault units inside the sprawling cities.
They are equipped similarly as the noble guard but use much lighter armor but are equipped with jump packs making them very quick on the battle field.
The war machines: The war machines are guardsmen augmented heavily with cybernetics. They use heavy weapons such as M41 rockets launchers and heavy LMGs. They are deployed where the fighting is the thickest and are used as a sledgehammer to level any enemies in the area to great effect.