Here's how it is. This is going to be my campaign journal for the Serenity game I'm running. It's for my own memory as much as for others to read but I figured if I'm going to type it up I might as well put it somewhere others could see it if they cared. I am going to try to keep things in line with the series as much as possible but being that there's so little official content, I'll be making some up on the fly and I'm going to try to retcon as little as possible. That being said: Here's my little write up of Athens that I sent the players prior to the game.
Athens: Before the Unification War, Athens was known as 'The Jewel of the Rim” It is a large planet that took well to terraforming, supporting a great host of life from Earth-that-was. Vast oceans, sweeping plains interrupted by wide slow rivers, and steep heavily forested mountains dominate the largely temperate planet, and other than rapidly shifting weather and unfortunately frequent tectonic activity, it is as receptive to human colonization as could be hoped for. Originally settled as a scientific outpost to study the flora and fauna in hopes to recreate this degree of success elsewhere, Athens is now home to several Buddhist temple communities in the mountains, a few trading posts serving the sprawling ranches and marble quarries, and a handful of growing cities patterned after the solar panel lined skyscrapers and shining tube lines of the capital metropolis, Edensgate.
Athens supported Unification and became a hotly contested battleground through most of the war. After a flawlessly executed surprise attack, the Browncoats captured Edensgate, and in a grinding ground campaign eventually succeeded in claiming the whole planet. Rather than commit the resources to liberating Athens, the Alliance elected to withdraw, but not before orbitally bombarding all major population centers killing untold numbers of Independents and innocent civilians alike. Refugees flooded to the smaller untouched rural communities or set up shanty towns on the edges of the ruined cities. Three years after Unification Day the Alliance gave rights to Unified Reclamation to license legal salvage operations in the ruins, resulting in a boom of scrappers and smugglers come to pick over the ruined metropolis.
My PCs are a kind of eclectic lot, (as PCs tend to be) but I think they'll do. But they'll have to wait until next time.