Dragons Breath 2132

Aetherial, the Belter capital, used university investment funds earned on owning the stock exchange, and made a science ship the HASS Powerburn, to go in search of planets. In short order it found a mineral rich protoearth that swept a path through the middle of a large asteroid belt. Because of how it looks from space, the planet was given the name Dragon's Breath, although the apostrophe was soon dropped.

The planet itself is almost entirely volcanic and continues to receive regular asteroid bombardment. Unusually for a settled planet, it has not been terraformed as continuous volcanic activity would keep the CO₂ levels very high, which also means there is no liquid water.

The inhabitants maintain a Belter style of life, living in domes and wearing suits when they go outside. A massive water condenser kept inside an equally massive double diamond dome that straddles a mountain, pulls water from the outside atmosphere and lets it flow over a high ridge as a waterfall, to humidify the dome. As well as supplying water, the facility grows tropical food. Unsurprisingly, the settlers built their conurbation around this dome, creating the capital city, now called Water Falls.

Orbital guards redirect any incoming asteroids to help with the surface mining of the planet, and avoid populated areas. Bombardment isn't prevented, it's just controlled.

The local government keeps the belter model it was established with, including the separation of religion and state, but from the outset, the population has a Fire Element religious leaning. The planet is very liberal, not requiring any residence to officially register as an immigrant, considering those who did not register themselves as economic visitors. Consequentially Dragons Breath did not gain independence until 2181 when Demostratus used the Entangled Network in a campaign of phone calls to get the population on the local electoral register. The population hasn't been counted since then but Operator at the request of Laissez-Faire estimated a resident population of 1.2million based on phone calls.