The Infrastructure and Expansion Initiative of YE 44 was an effort by the New Dusk Conclave in an attempt to create more living space for the rapidly expanding population of the Conclave. This initiative focused on building new Dawn Pattern cities on Sirris VI, constructing new settlements on other Conclave owned habitable planets, and moving mobile colonies into position to serve as orbital hubs.
The NDC Infrastructure and Expansion Initiative first began being formulated during the latter half of YE 43, after Dawn City finished construction and the first Island class mobile colonies began to roll off of the assembly lines. Both projects had been conceived, though independently, to attempt to solve the problem of housing the growing population of the Conclave. With the rapidly growing population, Obsidian City's limits were being stretched and off-world settlements were not yet far enough along to house large populations yet.
The decision to unify the Island and Dawn projects into a single initiative helped to concentrate resources, and the initiative was overseen by the Department of Public Services with the assistance of the Department Of Engineering.
The first phase of the project, beginning in the first third of YE 44, involved sending mobile colonies and colony ships to the Nephis system in order to expand the Conclave presence in the system and expand the Arcadia settlement, as well as set up orbital infrastructure and develop the system. The choice to send ships first was made because, unlike the construction of new cities on Sirris VI, the vessels were ready and needed only to be loaded with colonists.
The second phase of the project involved constructing new settlements on Sirris VI. For this purpose, both Osman Heavy Industries and Default Industrial Tools and Manufacturing were contracted to submit proposals for the construction of low-cost housing infrastructure that could be rapidly built up within the Green Zone surrounding Obsidian City, as well as the area surrounding Dawn City. Ultimately, OHI's proposal for container-based housing units was accepted with Default contracted to construct the building shells and utilities connections on-site.
The third phase of the project was to begin exploration of the absorbtion, via the granting of noble titles, of the Skyguard remnants located in the Pacifica nebula who had left the OSO at the same time as Section 6 had. This group had been allied with the Conclave for years, and the mostly unsettled worlds within the Pacifica Nebula presented immense scientific opportunities, so long as the Conclave was willing to foot the bill on developing them. Additionally, new systems would be sought out rimward and spinward.