Well they are clone soldiers so who’s to say they can’t be made using her DNA?
I guess some of them could be, but the initial batch was supposed to be seeded into orphanages and selected families, and you'd think they'd figure something out if several thousand girls the same age looked and behaved exactly the same way. Not to mention Angelica's potential descendants might take offense to her DNA being used like that. Though I'm not sure if she even has descendants at this point. She'd have been about 20-21 when the nukes flew, and any child of hers would have grown up on Mars. It's possible, but unlikely, so I've ignored that question for the moment. Regardless, Dragoon's implication is that the clone soldiers were not all made from the same DNA template, but tailored to specific functions. I think he was referencing the Spartans from Halo, which were not clones, but given the heavy 40k influences it could easily be the Space Marines as well, who were all male but still not clones. My old notes made references to DS9's Jem'Hadar, but I don't think that applies now that I looked at it again.
So a handful of the Centurions could use her DNA, but the HTE also got samples from other promising soldiers and generals since her time, and perhaps even older military figures from Earth if they got access to their bodies during Julius' resettlement project. Having them all be Angelica clones would raise too many eyebrows.
I know Dragoon mentioned there was a fierce rivalry between the Centurions and the Templars, but I could also see a rivalry between the Centurions and mech pilots, who already have another rivalry with the Templars.
So the inner family hierarchy of the Annionas would go: pure blooded Annionas at the top, followed by the old Earth nobility now considered honorary Annionas and the children born to them, then the newer post Rapture nobles that have to go through the Harem system to interact with the royal family, and finally bastards and children born to commoners of good genetic stock (cause they wouldn’t be selected to be consorts/concubines otherwise) at the bottom.
The HTE class hierarchy as of the end of Julius' reign would have been:
- The Anniona imperial house, and then any cadet branches (like descendants of Julius' illegitimate son Octavian, whom I haven't covered yet). Officially prioritized as imperial consorts, but generally not selected for genetic reasons. Considered "above" the harem.
- Old Roman nobility from the big houses like the Bonapartes, considered "honorary Annionas." Children of marriages into the imperial house are considered in the imperial succession and as future marriage candidates outside the harem. The big houses can participate in the harem, but they can also directly negotiate with the imperial house.
- Old Roman noble families that aren't as powerful or influential as the big houses, corporate dynasties (Krupp and Beretta, but Dragoon specifically mentioned Ferrari in Imperial Hearts), the former civilian government (more on that later on), the former Church, and the officer corps (which increasingly becomes spread throughout the various tiers of nobility, with a handful of exceptionally talented commoners among them). They go through the harem but get priority.
- Non-Roman nobility who pledged loyalty to the empire. They are not considered "honorary Annionas," nor are anybody from lower tiers. They go through the harem and make up the majority of participants.
- An emerging class of researchers and engineers who gain influence due to maintaining the life support systems, which is frequently at odds with the emerging military aristocracy. While they can participate in the harem system, they generally don't.
- The original 1-2 million settlers granted nobility. Again, harem system, and due to their lower status they fight extremely fiercely for any minor advantage they can get in the harem.
- The 500 million refugees resettled from Earth, as well as any of the 1-2 million from the previous tier who were barred from nobility for continuing to resist the empire. These form the new commoner class. No harem, and illegitimate children from this class are completely ignored.
- Everyone else.
Also funny to think that the Bonapartes and Hohenzollerns would be legally considered Annionas now.
Bonapartes yes, but the Hohenzollerns were a minor noble house and only came to prominence in the 20th-21st centuries due to Otto being a chancellor and Elisabeth Alexandra being a senator, so they'd fit into tier 3 above. Unfortunately not honorary Annionas, but who knows if that will change in the next 400 years?
And Europa’s terraforming process was pretty chaotic in comparison to Mars and Venus, especially with the presence of Spaceborn creatures around Jupiter.
UNAP also had bases on Europa, though Dragoon never said when they were set up:
Europa was the other major world UNAP terraforming efforts were based on. While efforts on Venus were mostly to cool the planet and reintroduce water and Oxygen, Europa needed defrosting and ended up being a effective dumping ground for shipments of Carbon Dioxide as Freighters dipped into Jupiter for Hydrogen to return to Mars.
Things on Europa had also spiraled out of Hand, thanks to a Runaway Greenhouse effect combined with the Moon's vast plains of Ice thicker atmosphere had risen temperatures dramatically until finally the Ice began to melt eventually swallowing the whole of the planet in water. Tidal Pull from Jupiter meant that the water level rose or fell dramatically depending on the orientation of the surface in respect to Jupiter. The Scientific Log was as follows.
"Europa seems to have become a Moon of Storms, Nearly forty percent of the planet is covered in Hurricanes and merely finding the original UNAP outposts took a month. UNAP base Trident, unfortunately had it's foundations eroded away due to the heavy tides and was carried down into one of the Trenches where we expect the pressure crushed and killed everyone who did not escape. UNAP base Atlantic survived but the inhabitants had begun to worship the fauna they had brought with them to seed the ocean world with life. They had also genetically modified some of the creatures to grow to gargantuan sizes which was a nasty surprise. A far as the team themselves they were so far gone by the time my men had arrived, The Leadership had begun forcibly gene splicing the Children with DNA from the fish for well over a generation. Senior Scientist Milo Thatch had become stricken with one of the surviving women and 'went native' later attempting to convert the crew which was about the last straw. I authorized Captain Nemo and his marines to conduct a full purge of the station and preserve the scientific data for future use".
I found lots of "haha funny reference" moments, but I give it a pass for DEA. Dragoon had a lot of sci-fi reference mods that added stuff like the Covenant, and the base game has the "legally distinct Pikmin" event that appeared in DEA. Besides, I can figure something out on the story side to make it more realistic or just ignore it.
I also noticed Ganymede was a colonizable world in a couple DEA screenshots after the Omega Alingment too, which gives me Expanse vibes. I think the asteriod belt was striped to create a ring world too IIRC.
Yeah, but those ringworlds probably don't go around the sun, since that would require an entire planet's resources, and Dragoon made no mention of dismantling Mercury. So I think they're just giant ring-shaped stations in the asteroid belt. Ganymede isn't referenced in the text so I've ignored it for now.