Romulus and Remus

These two planets are Romulus and Remus, named after the twin brothers from Roman mythology that were fathered by Mars and abandoned in a forest (later to found the city of Rome). Originally these planets were not called Romulus and Remus, but Castor and Pollux, after the twins from Greek mythology who became the constellation Gemini and guided sailors. Their terraformation was sanctioned by the Martian government, which desired to expand their world's income by turning that particular star system into a crossroads for interstellar trade between the Sol System and the various colonies of the United Earth Federation, United Jovian Moons, and, more recently, the Republic of Venus.

The terraformation began right away and was expected to be finished in only twenty-five years (about sixty Earth years), but shortly before it was completed the Republic of Mars was dragged into the Second Solar War when Jovian forces attacked ships carrying supplies of food to Earth (Mars is known as the Bread Basket of the Sol System, providing food for Earth's enormous population of fourteen billion people; seventeen billion counting the various orbiting habitats around it, though most of them are self-sufficient in their own right). Funding was diverted to the military and the project was eventually put on hold indefinitely.

Now the planets are known as Romulus and Remus, the bastard sons of Mars which were abandoned in the wilderness. They have become a haven for criminals, anarchists, political dissidents, and primitivists who all flee to the planets, which are officially "uninhabited."

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Felt like doing something a little easy to practice the starfield, I'm going to try some new techniques in the future for nebulae and other background items, since my ability to make Earth-like planets has dramatically increased. I also had the idea in my head to do something with a "double planet," that is, a couple of planets that orbit each other (technically the Earth/Moon system is a double planet, but because the moon is slowly moving away from us it is better simply to classify it as a satellite). And I was bored, so I decided to put pencil to paper (so to speak).