In this NES you will play pirates, in the near space in a dystopian future where freedom and opportunity only exist in the Final Frontier: the great void of space.
This thread for ideas and development
It is year 2186
Since the mid-21st century humanity has been actively colonising the solar system.
The expansion has given humanity access to resources their planet has been chronically lacking for the last couple of centuries and a place where to dump their ever growing population.
Yet the old saying still remains true, extended beyond their home.
The universe produces enough to satisfy everyone's needs but not enough to satisfy everyone's greed.
Being drained up and used only as a pool of resources to satisfy the needs and "needs" of Earth (and later the Moon which became a fancy luxury resort for the truly richest in the turn of the 22nd century), bitterness grew in the frontier and borderlands.
The revolution began from a distant mining outpost in the Asteroid Belt when miners turned their lasers and drills against their supervisors, demanding more equal share of what they produced.
The five major powers of Earth, formerly engaged in fierce competition over the space noticed how they began to lose all grip over their precious treasure and formed an alliance to stop the rebels from gaining any more strength and driving their influence to zero, but the archaic troop transports could not reach the borderlands in time and the revolution spread like fission reaction in pure U-235.
When they finally did they were greeted with the opening shots of the first interplanetary war, destroyed within seconds of their arrival, thousands of troops perishing in the vacuum.
The rebels, on the other hand, used the resources salvaged from the remains to build ships of their own.
Meanwhile, on Mars which had become a relatively densely populated agricultural planet in Project Terra Nova (ie. population bordering on one million at the time) the sentiments were similar but more civilised and peaceful.
Nonetheless, they supported the revolution and provided a base for the rebels to hide in.
The war was fierce, every side trying to develop the field of space combat which had not existed at all just a couple of years earlier.
The superpowers of Earth could have easily won the war but the possibility of grabbing more colonies than the others with better technology and strategically placed operations led to mutual distrust and lack of cooperation which turned the tide.
The alliance suddenly broke up and the colonies' best bargaining chip: refusal to provide any resources at all led to the recognising of their independence.
The war had produced a new class of people who had gained a living from the discord and violence reigning and were not willing to give it up: space pirates.
Using war-time equipment they managed to harass trade routes enough for the five powers and the Free Republic of Mars to form the Union of Planets to fight the threat to trade they formed.
The pirates were gradually pushed back but techniques of space colonisation were so easily available at that time that for each base they lost one or two new ones were established in the seemingly endless backwaters.
The Union forces became more and more spread over the areas and less and less able to protect the locals which led to the forming of local militia groups, vigilantes and mercenaries to protect (or extort) the frontier lands.
Now, five decades after the war, you are at one of the backwater colonies seeking for employment.
-----
In this NES you will play as pirates, mercenaries or merchants in the outskirts of our Solar System.
Rules:
You have a high level of freedom in this NES: you are allowed to do anything one might do in the outer space in the late 22nd century.
Your goal, well, it's whatever you want: get rich, get powerful, get famous, not get dead. Or all of them at once. It's up to you.
Your orders should be PM's for two reasons:
1) I can't find them in the thread
2) You don't want others to know whom you are going to rob, do you?
In them you should include:
1) Your stats
2) Your actions this turn (each turn is about 40 days)
3) *OPTIONAL, BUT RECOMMENDED* Some kind of a story about what you have done
Stat template:
Player Character:
PC Name/Player
Class-Race
Amount of Credits
Ship: (one for each ship)
Name-Class
Modifications
Captain (your PC or someone else)
Crew
-Loyalty
Cargo
Status-Location
PC name = the name of your character
Player = your name
Class = the specialisation of your PC; leader, fighter, trader or engineer
- leader: your crew is more loyal and you are more convincing in situations
- fighter: you are a strong and skilled fighter, in any kind of fights (ship-ship, boarding, on land) you and your crew will fare better
- trader: you get better bargains and any kind of trade will bring more credits to your coffers
- engineer: your knowledge of spaceship functioning (and a lot more) enables you to improve and modify your ship yourself without the need of a shipyard or specifically trained crew. You can for example scavenge battle remains for useful equipment or repair your ship with scrap parts
Race = not the best word, which of the five fits your PC: human, cyborg, hybrid, hybrid cybord, android (descriptions in the world information)
Credits = money, everyone starts with 10 000 with which you buy your starting ship and hire some crew
Ship name = The name of your ship
Class = The type of your ship
Modifications = how it has been modified
Captain = who commands the crew
Crew = who is aboard
Loyalty = how dedicated they are to working for you. A crew with high loyalty is more likely to be courageous and take on even the most improbable odds, while a crew with low loyalty may refuse to obey your commands or even leave you. If their loyalty drops too low a mutiny might occur.
Cargo = what is aboard
Status = if the ship is damaged or something, it's told here
Location = where the ship is. Your starting location is either Troy, Triton or Enceladus
Ship types currently available to you:
(default configurations)
Small ships:
Ant
Publicly available: 4 000 credits
Acceleration: low
Durability: medium
Weapons: none
Crew space (required to operate): 20 (1)
Cargo space: 10 units
When introduced in 2102 the Ant class was the most advanced publicly available ship of its time. It was fast, sturdy, easy to operate and equipped with the latest gadgets. When the war came pirates found the small Ant one of the best ships to mount weapons on, thanks to its modular structure. Now it has become undoubtedly the most widespread ship on the frontier. It is a sluggish, old-fashioned, run-of-the-mill and reliable machine one doesn't need to be a rocket scientist to fly or modify.
Jackal
Publicly available: 7 000 credits
Acceleration: above average
Durability: medium
Weapons: 2 missile launchers, 1 mass driver, 2 beam turrets
Crew space (req.): 15 (3)
Cargo space: 5 units
After the war the Jackal class was designed by the Trojan Yards to provide the frontier with a small ship suitable for escort and patrol duty for the militia and mercenaries. While the Jackals are more complicated than Ants they are still one of the simpler designs and far more suitable for frontier use than their Union counterparts. Needless to say, it is the favourite pirate small ship.
Parrot
Publicly available: 5 000 credits
Acceleration: low
Durability: low
Weapons: none
Crew space (required to operate): 5 (1)
Cargo space: 1 unit
Rarely seen on the frontier, the Parrot class is usually used as a luxury shuttle for VIPs or anyone rich enough to afford their own ship for interplanetary flight.
Medium ships:
Ox
Publicly available: 7 500 credits
Acceleration: low
Durability: high
Weapons: none
Crew space (required to operate): 50 (5)
Cargo space: 30 units
The Ox is the standard bulk freighter on the frontier. It's simple shape gives it a small silhouette and surface area relative to its volume, making protecting it from pirates relatively easy compared to other designs.
Fighters:
Wasp
Publicly available: 2 000 credits
Acceleration: high
Durability: low
Weapons: 2 beams
Crew space (required to operate): 1 (1)
Size (how much cargo space it needs in a ship's cargo bay): 10 units
The Wasp is a typical frontier fighter mostly used for ship escort. As always, the designers preferred function over form and simplicity over fancy gadgets.
Ship modification possibilities
You can modify your ship practically endlessly. Buying better engines, thrusters, weapons, systems, cargo space extensions, anything is possible with the right amount of credits.
World information
Humanity, "races" and factions
In the late 22nd century humanity is, although alone, not at all united. The advances in electronics and biotechnology have led to the creation of two "species" which are only partially human if at all: the genetically modified "hybrids" and the IHA, Indistinguishably Human-like Androids. In addition to that many regular humans have been improved with tecnology and cyborgs are common.
"Races"
- In this game human means the normal vanilla humans without any special abilities but nobody has anything against them (well, almost nobody)
- Although countless people are theoretical cyborgs even nowadays in this game a cyborg is a human strongly enhanced with technological parts. Their senses are more advanced and they are often stronger. However, some people tend to distrust people who have altered themselves in such a way. Also their electronic parts are vulnerable to electro-magnetic attacks.
- The practice of genetic evaluation in the early 21st century spelt the first steps in human genetic modification. Although actual GM of humans has been forbidden in most places a shady clinic in China and later in Triton has specialised in it. Humans genetically engineered in this way to be stronger, more resistant to unfriendly conditions, more intelligent and "better" in most ways are called hybrids. Many people consider this tinkering with the basic essence of humanity unethical and worrying, and almost everyone else has at least some fear towards them. In addition to that the manipulated genes don't behave in expected ways in normal biological reproduction causing the children of hybrids to be often horribly mutated.
- IHA, or androids, are basically very advanced computer programs in robots on the verge of humanity. It is impossible to know whether they are truly conscious or just complicated machines, as everything in them (except appearance and structure) is practically identical to humans. Obviously something like them is a great cause of confusion among humans and some consider them just machines, or worse, monsters. As they have nothing biological in them they are immune to bacteria, viruses, most toxic chemicals and normally lethal doses of radiation. Instead, EMPs are a real threat to them as they shut their functions off causing a temporary state very similar to human coma.
Factions: (not including those on only one planet or colony, which are represented on their respective planets/colonies)
The Union of Planets
The Union of Planets (UP) was established soon after the war to combat the threat pirates caused to shipping. Its headquarters are located on Gateway Base above Earth and it is funded by a tax on transporting commodities between the colonies which are its members. Often criticised as inefficient and wasteful the UP has undeniably prevented pirates from harassing the most crowded trade routes inside the orbit of Mars. On the frontier its presence is little if any and its strikes against pirate bases haven't seriosly decreased the pirate threat.
The Church of the Sacred Soul
The Church of the Sacred Soul (or CSS in short) is a religious sect which has a relatively large influence on the frontier. In 2071 rev. Roberts (first name unknown) was expelled from his congregation after physically assaulting a 80-year old woman with artificial legs claiming that she was "ungrateful for her gift". The CSS was founded by rev. Roberts on the following year. The sect is well known for its opposition toward "abominations", ie. cyborgs, hybrids and androids and the violence directed towards those who oppose them.
The Asimovites
Unknown except for a couple of vague references and symbol, the Asimovites are apparently some kind of an android faction. The name suggests some kind of connection between them and Asimov's laws. However, it's unknown how their speculated agenda of android supremacy would fit with this.
The Pirates
The pirates don't form an unified faction but are represented here for their importance. Arrr!
Planets and colonies
In order of increasing distance from Sol, yr 2189
Sol
-
The Sol Factory and Particle Collider (SFPC)
pop. 1500; mostly industrial workers, scientists
The SFPC is a ring of bases built inside Mercury's orbit to be a scientific and industrial center. Huge rotating solar planets trap energy to power the production machinery, most importantly the largest particle collider ever built, but also other devices with high energy consumption. Some of the 64 bases act just as magnets to change the direction of particles traveling in the open collider around the Sun, others have detectors in them for scientific purposes but the most important one, the SFPC HQ Base produces numerous important products, most notably anti-matter.
-
Mercury
Uninhabited
-
Venus
Uninhabited
-
Earth
pop. 11 000 000 000; practically every profession represented, mostly agricultural and industrial workers, service and business employees
The cradle of humanity, Earth is still the most important single location for any purposes. Although being situated in a deep gravity well and having only limited space elevator capacity mean that Earth exports only low-weight high-value products it imports practically anything to keep its industries running and its excessively large population happy.
Earth is not united but instead composed of a number of nations, the most important being the five superpowers although dozens of smaller and less important nations exist. However, the international space stations on the orbit are neutral territory and considering that most of inter-planetary interaction takes place on them and the UP coordinates the actions of the powers of Earth outside it the internal political structure is unimportant.
The standard of living on Earth is surprisingly low compared to the level of its development. It has peaked twice, in mid-21st century and just before the war in the early 22nd century but wars, environmental disasters and currently high price of imported products have brought it down.
Gateway Base
pop. 154 000; mostly service and business employees
Gateway Base is the largest of the three Space Elevator stations. It is the hub of most trade between Earth and space. The population of the base itself would generate a fair amount of commerce but the passing traffice makes Gateway one of the richest places in the Solar System.
Because of its neutrality most international organisations have their headquarters on Gateway, including the Union of Planets.
Luna
pop. 22 000; mostly service employees, millionaires, billionaires, anyone rich enough
Moon is unrivaled in its status of the number one posh luxury resort. While it was originally colonised as a mining base for helium-3 it soon developed to a gigantic theme park for the richest.
With every leisure activity imaginable present, the inhabitants of Luna don't care about producing anything else. However, the per capita consumption of Luna is by far the greatest and it imports anything the consumer of the 22nd century might want.
-
Mars
pop. 3 780 000; mostly agricultural and industrial workers, service and business employees
Mars was the location of the first human colony outside Earth.
Conspiracy theorists claim that Earth intended Mars to be just a supplier of food without its own industry. After the war the colonies united to become the Free Republic of Mars which is more accurately a loose federation of all but independent city states.
While the Project Terra Nova was intended to make Mars an agricultural colony, after the war a strong industrial sector has developed there. As greenhouse gas emissions are considered desirable rather than avoidable as in Earth, Mars has attracted almost any kind of industry.
-
The Asteroid Belt
pop. unknown; mostly mining workers
The Asteroid belt contains countless mining and trade outposts. Two major asteroids have developed into centers of their own.
Kleopatra
pop. 71 000; mostly mining workers, service employees
Kleopatra was originally a mining outpost but has since attracted a growing sector of services as well.
It is also a relatively important harbour where small transports from around the Asteroid Belt unload their cargo into huge bulk freighters.
Challenger
pop. 49 300; mostly mining workers, service and military employees
Challenger could be almost an identical twin of Kleopatra; their history and current situation are so similar.
Challenger is also the location of the largest UP base and the center of anti-piracy operations.
-
Jupiter
pop. >600; mostly mining workers, also unknown number of hermits and eccentrics; possible pirate presence
Jupiter is at the bottom of an extremely deep gravity well making transportation of resources away from there difficult, but after Uranus became an unprofitable location for helium-3 mining several extraction bases have been built on Jupiter to ensure a continuous supply of the vital fuel.
Because of the deep gravity well, Jupiter has long been a favourite destination for those willing to escape humanity for one reason or another. Speculations of entire cities built inside the planet are commonplace but nobody has been interested in finding out whether they truly exist; one reason is that for most ships going to Jupiter is a one-way travel.
Europa
pop. 9 100; mostly scientists, service employees
While Europa doesn't produce any useful resources the possibility of extra-terrestrial life has always fascinated humanity and Europa is one of the most likely candidates. For that reason a large scientific base has been built on Europa along with its support infrastructure.
Troy
pop. 23 000; mostly service and business employees
Troy is a large space station located in the Trojan asteroid group in a lagrange point of Jupiter's orbit. It is the most important harbour of its area and a trade hub for the outer Solar System.
-
The Outer Solar System
Pirate presence is much greater in these areas.
-
Saturn
Uninhabited
Titan
pop. 71 400; mostly industrial workers, military employees
Because of its abundance of hydrocarbons Titan has become the holy land of chemical industry. Raw materials are as easily available as salt water on Earth and the low gravity makes manufacturing processes easier. The distance from consumers has led the industrial sector of Titan to be not only raw material production but their refining and processing as well.
Enceladus
pop. 6 350; mostly industrial workers
Enceladus serves mostly as a raw materials supplier for the industry of Titan, especially water.
-
Uranus
Uninhabited
Uranus used to be the main source of helium-3 but tributes paid to pirates made mining unprofitable and finally all infrastructure was destroyed in a clash of two rival pirate clans.
-
Neptune
Uninhabited
Triton
pop. unknown; mostly service employees, pirates
Located on the outskirts of the Solar System, Triton is the furthest known human colony. Deep in pirate territory, Triton is nominally neutral and pirate clans keep their fights outside it.
Technology:
(to come)
map:
-----
Any comments or ideas?
This thread for ideas and development
It is year 2186
Since the mid-21st century humanity has been actively colonising the solar system.
The expansion has given humanity access to resources their planet has been chronically lacking for the last couple of centuries and a place where to dump their ever growing population.
Yet the old saying still remains true, extended beyond their home.
The universe produces enough to satisfy everyone's needs but not enough to satisfy everyone's greed.
Being drained up and used only as a pool of resources to satisfy the needs and "needs" of Earth (and later the Moon which became a fancy luxury resort for the truly richest in the turn of the 22nd century), bitterness grew in the frontier and borderlands.
The revolution began from a distant mining outpost in the Asteroid Belt when miners turned their lasers and drills against their supervisors, demanding more equal share of what they produced.
The five major powers of Earth, formerly engaged in fierce competition over the space noticed how they began to lose all grip over their precious treasure and formed an alliance to stop the rebels from gaining any more strength and driving their influence to zero, but the archaic troop transports could not reach the borderlands in time and the revolution spread like fission reaction in pure U-235.
When they finally did they were greeted with the opening shots of the first interplanetary war, destroyed within seconds of their arrival, thousands of troops perishing in the vacuum.
The rebels, on the other hand, used the resources salvaged from the remains to build ships of their own.
Meanwhile, on Mars which had become a relatively densely populated agricultural planet in Project Terra Nova (ie. population bordering on one million at the time) the sentiments were similar but more civilised and peaceful.
Nonetheless, they supported the revolution and provided a base for the rebels to hide in.
The war was fierce, every side trying to develop the field of space combat which had not existed at all just a couple of years earlier.
The superpowers of Earth could have easily won the war but the possibility of grabbing more colonies than the others with better technology and strategically placed operations led to mutual distrust and lack of cooperation which turned the tide.
The alliance suddenly broke up and the colonies' best bargaining chip: refusal to provide any resources at all led to the recognising of their independence.
The war had produced a new class of people who had gained a living from the discord and violence reigning and were not willing to give it up: space pirates.
Using war-time equipment they managed to harass trade routes enough for the five powers and the Free Republic of Mars to form the Union of Planets to fight the threat to trade they formed.
The pirates were gradually pushed back but techniques of space colonisation were so easily available at that time that for each base they lost one or two new ones were established in the seemingly endless backwaters.
The Union forces became more and more spread over the areas and less and less able to protect the locals which led to the forming of local militia groups, vigilantes and mercenaries to protect (or extort) the frontier lands.
Now, five decades after the war, you are at one of the backwater colonies seeking for employment.
-----
In this NES you will play as pirates, mercenaries or merchants in the outskirts of our Solar System.
Rules:
You have a high level of freedom in this NES: you are allowed to do anything one might do in the outer space in the late 22nd century.
Your goal, well, it's whatever you want: get rich, get powerful, get famous, not get dead. Or all of them at once. It's up to you.
Your orders should be PM's for two reasons:
1) I can't find them in the thread
2) You don't want others to know whom you are going to rob, do you?
In them you should include:
1) Your stats
2) Your actions this turn (each turn is about 40 days)
3) *OPTIONAL, BUT RECOMMENDED* Some kind of a story about what you have done
Stat template:
Player Character:
PC Name/Player
Class-Race
Amount of Credits
Ship: (one for each ship)
Name-Class
Modifications
Captain (your PC or someone else)
Crew
-Loyalty
Cargo
Status-Location
PC name = the name of your character
Player = your name
Class = the specialisation of your PC; leader, fighter, trader or engineer
- leader: your crew is more loyal and you are more convincing in situations
- fighter: you are a strong and skilled fighter, in any kind of fights (ship-ship, boarding, on land) you and your crew will fare better
- trader: you get better bargains and any kind of trade will bring more credits to your coffers
- engineer: your knowledge of spaceship functioning (and a lot more) enables you to improve and modify your ship yourself without the need of a shipyard or specifically trained crew. You can for example scavenge battle remains for useful equipment or repair your ship with scrap parts
Race = not the best word, which of the five fits your PC: human, cyborg, hybrid, hybrid cybord, android (descriptions in the world information)
Credits = money, everyone starts with 10 000 with which you buy your starting ship and hire some crew
Ship name = The name of your ship
Class = The type of your ship
Modifications = how it has been modified
Captain = who commands the crew
Crew = who is aboard
Loyalty = how dedicated they are to working for you. A crew with high loyalty is more likely to be courageous and take on even the most improbable odds, while a crew with low loyalty may refuse to obey your commands or even leave you. If their loyalty drops too low a mutiny might occur.
Cargo = what is aboard
Status = if the ship is damaged or something, it's told here
Location = where the ship is. Your starting location is either Troy, Triton or Enceladus
Ship types currently available to you:
(default configurations)
Small ships:
Ant
Publicly available: 4 000 credits
Acceleration: low
Durability: medium
Weapons: none
Crew space (required to operate): 20 (1)
Cargo space: 10 units
When introduced in 2102 the Ant class was the most advanced publicly available ship of its time. It was fast, sturdy, easy to operate and equipped with the latest gadgets. When the war came pirates found the small Ant one of the best ships to mount weapons on, thanks to its modular structure. Now it has become undoubtedly the most widespread ship on the frontier. It is a sluggish, old-fashioned, run-of-the-mill and reliable machine one doesn't need to be a rocket scientist to fly or modify.
Jackal
Publicly available: 7 000 credits
Acceleration: above average
Durability: medium
Weapons: 2 missile launchers, 1 mass driver, 2 beam turrets
Crew space (req.): 15 (3)
Cargo space: 5 units
After the war the Jackal class was designed by the Trojan Yards to provide the frontier with a small ship suitable for escort and patrol duty for the militia and mercenaries. While the Jackals are more complicated than Ants they are still one of the simpler designs and far more suitable for frontier use than their Union counterparts. Needless to say, it is the favourite pirate small ship.
Parrot
Publicly available: 5 000 credits
Acceleration: low
Durability: low
Weapons: none
Crew space (required to operate): 5 (1)
Cargo space: 1 unit
Rarely seen on the frontier, the Parrot class is usually used as a luxury shuttle for VIPs or anyone rich enough to afford their own ship for interplanetary flight.
Medium ships:
Ox
Publicly available: 7 500 credits
Acceleration: low
Durability: high
Weapons: none
Crew space (required to operate): 50 (5)
Cargo space: 30 units
The Ox is the standard bulk freighter on the frontier. It's simple shape gives it a small silhouette and surface area relative to its volume, making protecting it from pirates relatively easy compared to other designs.
Fighters:
Wasp
Publicly available: 2 000 credits
Acceleration: high
Durability: low
Weapons: 2 beams
Crew space (required to operate): 1 (1)
Size (how much cargo space it needs in a ship's cargo bay): 10 units
The Wasp is a typical frontier fighter mostly used for ship escort. As always, the designers preferred function over form and simplicity over fancy gadgets.
Ship modification possibilities
You can modify your ship practically endlessly. Buying better engines, thrusters, weapons, systems, cargo space extensions, anything is possible with the right amount of credits.
World information
Humanity, "races" and factions
In the late 22nd century humanity is, although alone, not at all united. The advances in electronics and biotechnology have led to the creation of two "species" which are only partially human if at all: the genetically modified "hybrids" and the IHA, Indistinguishably Human-like Androids. In addition to that many regular humans have been improved with tecnology and cyborgs are common.
"Races"
- In this game human means the normal vanilla humans without any special abilities but nobody has anything against them (well, almost nobody)
- Although countless people are theoretical cyborgs even nowadays in this game a cyborg is a human strongly enhanced with technological parts. Their senses are more advanced and they are often stronger. However, some people tend to distrust people who have altered themselves in such a way. Also their electronic parts are vulnerable to electro-magnetic attacks.
- The practice of genetic evaluation in the early 21st century spelt the first steps in human genetic modification. Although actual GM of humans has been forbidden in most places a shady clinic in China and later in Triton has specialised in it. Humans genetically engineered in this way to be stronger, more resistant to unfriendly conditions, more intelligent and "better" in most ways are called hybrids. Many people consider this tinkering with the basic essence of humanity unethical and worrying, and almost everyone else has at least some fear towards them. In addition to that the manipulated genes don't behave in expected ways in normal biological reproduction causing the children of hybrids to be often horribly mutated.
- IHA, or androids, are basically very advanced computer programs in robots on the verge of humanity. It is impossible to know whether they are truly conscious or just complicated machines, as everything in them (except appearance and structure) is practically identical to humans. Obviously something like them is a great cause of confusion among humans and some consider them just machines, or worse, monsters. As they have nothing biological in them they are immune to bacteria, viruses, most toxic chemicals and normally lethal doses of radiation. Instead, EMPs are a real threat to them as they shut their functions off causing a temporary state very similar to human coma.
Factions: (not including those on only one planet or colony, which are represented on their respective planets/colonies)
The Union of Planets
The Union of Planets (UP) was established soon after the war to combat the threat pirates caused to shipping. Its headquarters are located on Gateway Base above Earth and it is funded by a tax on transporting commodities between the colonies which are its members. Often criticised as inefficient and wasteful the UP has undeniably prevented pirates from harassing the most crowded trade routes inside the orbit of Mars. On the frontier its presence is little if any and its strikes against pirate bases haven't seriosly decreased the pirate threat.
The Church of the Sacred Soul
The Church of the Sacred Soul (or CSS in short) is a religious sect which has a relatively large influence on the frontier. In 2071 rev. Roberts (first name unknown) was expelled from his congregation after physically assaulting a 80-year old woman with artificial legs claiming that she was "ungrateful for her gift". The CSS was founded by rev. Roberts on the following year. The sect is well known for its opposition toward "abominations", ie. cyborgs, hybrids and androids and the violence directed towards those who oppose them.
The Asimovites
Unknown except for a couple of vague references and symbol, the Asimovites are apparently some kind of an android faction. The name suggests some kind of connection between them and Asimov's laws. However, it's unknown how their speculated agenda of android supremacy would fit with this.
The Pirates
The pirates don't form an unified faction but are represented here for their importance. Arrr!
Planets and colonies
In order of increasing distance from Sol, yr 2189
Sol
-
The Sol Factory and Particle Collider (SFPC)
pop. 1500; mostly industrial workers, scientists
The SFPC is a ring of bases built inside Mercury's orbit to be a scientific and industrial center. Huge rotating solar planets trap energy to power the production machinery, most importantly the largest particle collider ever built, but also other devices with high energy consumption. Some of the 64 bases act just as magnets to change the direction of particles traveling in the open collider around the Sun, others have detectors in them for scientific purposes but the most important one, the SFPC HQ Base produces numerous important products, most notably anti-matter.
-
Mercury
Uninhabited
-
Venus
Uninhabited
-
Earth
pop. 11 000 000 000; practically every profession represented, mostly agricultural and industrial workers, service and business employees
The cradle of humanity, Earth is still the most important single location for any purposes. Although being situated in a deep gravity well and having only limited space elevator capacity mean that Earth exports only low-weight high-value products it imports practically anything to keep its industries running and its excessively large population happy.
Earth is not united but instead composed of a number of nations, the most important being the five superpowers although dozens of smaller and less important nations exist. However, the international space stations on the orbit are neutral territory and considering that most of inter-planetary interaction takes place on them and the UP coordinates the actions of the powers of Earth outside it the internal political structure is unimportant.
The standard of living on Earth is surprisingly low compared to the level of its development. It has peaked twice, in mid-21st century and just before the war in the early 22nd century but wars, environmental disasters and currently high price of imported products have brought it down.
Gateway Base
pop. 154 000; mostly service and business employees
Gateway Base is the largest of the three Space Elevator stations. It is the hub of most trade between Earth and space. The population of the base itself would generate a fair amount of commerce but the passing traffice makes Gateway one of the richest places in the Solar System.
Because of its neutrality most international organisations have their headquarters on Gateway, including the Union of Planets.
Luna
pop. 22 000; mostly service employees, millionaires, billionaires, anyone rich enough
Moon is unrivaled in its status of the number one posh luxury resort. While it was originally colonised as a mining base for helium-3 it soon developed to a gigantic theme park for the richest.
With every leisure activity imaginable present, the inhabitants of Luna don't care about producing anything else. However, the per capita consumption of Luna is by far the greatest and it imports anything the consumer of the 22nd century might want.
-
Mars
pop. 3 780 000; mostly agricultural and industrial workers, service and business employees
Mars was the location of the first human colony outside Earth.
Conspiracy theorists claim that Earth intended Mars to be just a supplier of food without its own industry. After the war the colonies united to become the Free Republic of Mars which is more accurately a loose federation of all but independent city states.
While the Project Terra Nova was intended to make Mars an agricultural colony, after the war a strong industrial sector has developed there. As greenhouse gas emissions are considered desirable rather than avoidable as in Earth, Mars has attracted almost any kind of industry.
-
The Asteroid Belt
pop. unknown; mostly mining workers
The Asteroid belt contains countless mining and trade outposts. Two major asteroids have developed into centers of their own.
Kleopatra
pop. 71 000; mostly mining workers, service employees
Kleopatra was originally a mining outpost but has since attracted a growing sector of services as well.
It is also a relatively important harbour where small transports from around the Asteroid Belt unload their cargo into huge bulk freighters.
Challenger
pop. 49 300; mostly mining workers, service and military employees
Challenger could be almost an identical twin of Kleopatra; their history and current situation are so similar.
Challenger is also the location of the largest UP base and the center of anti-piracy operations.
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Jupiter
pop. >600; mostly mining workers, also unknown number of hermits and eccentrics; possible pirate presence
Jupiter is at the bottom of an extremely deep gravity well making transportation of resources away from there difficult, but after Uranus became an unprofitable location for helium-3 mining several extraction bases have been built on Jupiter to ensure a continuous supply of the vital fuel.
Because of the deep gravity well, Jupiter has long been a favourite destination for those willing to escape humanity for one reason or another. Speculations of entire cities built inside the planet are commonplace but nobody has been interested in finding out whether they truly exist; one reason is that for most ships going to Jupiter is a one-way travel.
Europa
pop. 9 100; mostly scientists, service employees
While Europa doesn't produce any useful resources the possibility of extra-terrestrial life has always fascinated humanity and Europa is one of the most likely candidates. For that reason a large scientific base has been built on Europa along with its support infrastructure.
Troy
pop. 23 000; mostly service and business employees
Troy is a large space station located in the Trojan asteroid group in a lagrange point of Jupiter's orbit. It is the most important harbour of its area and a trade hub for the outer Solar System.
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The Outer Solar System
Pirate presence is much greater in these areas.
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Saturn
Uninhabited
Titan
pop. 71 400; mostly industrial workers, military employees
Because of its abundance of hydrocarbons Titan has become the holy land of chemical industry. Raw materials are as easily available as salt water on Earth and the low gravity makes manufacturing processes easier. The distance from consumers has led the industrial sector of Titan to be not only raw material production but their refining and processing as well.
Enceladus
pop. 6 350; mostly industrial workers
Enceladus serves mostly as a raw materials supplier for the industry of Titan, especially water.
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Uranus
Uninhabited
Uranus used to be the main source of helium-3 but tributes paid to pirates made mining unprofitable and finally all infrastructure was destroyed in a clash of two rival pirate clans.
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Neptune
Uninhabited
Triton
pop. unknown; mostly service employees, pirates
Located on the outskirts of the Solar System, Triton is the furthest known human colony. Deep in pirate territory, Triton is nominally neutral and pirate clans keep their fights outside it.
Technology:
(to come)
map:
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Any comments or ideas?
We also have pirate folk - Lanun. Those who only played FfH age of ice may be unfamiliar, but there is rich, rich lore in FfH main mod (0.34)
