Upon arrival to the Sol system a greeting was transmitted in the clear and should have been available to any ships listening. However shortly after our arrival communication traffic sharply increased, though with many different encryption schemas. We believe that this is a result of multiple separate nations reacting to some event. Initially it seemed as though our arrival was the cause, however as no ships attempted communication or challenged our presence it seems that this is not the case.
Speculation among the crew is that some diplomatic exchange happened that coincided with our arrival that has consumed the attention span of the resources in system. We will investigate further and try to get a general view of the political situation. Thus far we have identified the presence of likely 5 nations perhaps more, though we have limited data currently.
Preliminary survey of Earth and local space, Earth is a dead world as far as we can tell. Without an extensive survey the exact state is unknown but by our readings it is lifeless. In local orbit are several stations, we will attempt to close and dock with one of these stations. If challenged or threatened we will retreat and try our luck at another. We may have luck once we arrive on station.
48hours later - The Meeting Place neutral station
"Unknown Station, this is the New Horizons explorer, requesting permission to dock" The ship transmitted loudly and in the clear, in every manner the crew could devise. The explorer sat safely beyond the ranged of normal docking and navigational traffic with each of its laser cannons pointed away from the station to appear non-threatening as possible.
"We must explore our ancestral home, it is the most reasonable place to start." stated Jakus Hal, Senator of Hab-London. "Not only to see the fate of old Earth but it would be the only common ground any other surviving civilizations have. It-"
"Assuming there are other civilizations" said Irra Tosk CEO and Senator of the Fusion Core shipyards glumly
"Of course there are others!" shouted Derus Noi Senator of Hab-Moscow "We survived and thrived with nothing but a useless dead world to colonize, it is preposterous to assume none others did."
"If nothing else, we must send ships to explore these new systems to assess any opportunities and dangers, Perhaps there are hostile aliens with access to a gate, or an empty system with a neutron star to study." Interjects Senator Fabion Oris of the Outward Bound research group
Talks continued for months on what actions the senate should take, or if the senate should take action. As the Senate slowly ground on many Habitats began making deals, alliances, and partnerships to refit a ship as a dedicated explorer. It was equipped with the best sensors, computers and defensive abilities that could modified quickly. Before the Senate had reached any form of conclusion. However it was beginning to look like the Senate might come to the conclusion to help fund exploration efforts sometime in the distant future, long after research vessels had already left the system.
5 months later - New Horizons Explorer ship - Gateway
-=Alert=- Approaching Gateway - Unknown danger - Please Alter Course
Captain Threa waved a dismissive hand at the computer screen "Dismiss" she said flatly, awaiting the next automated challenge. Her ship, a modified Asteroid surveyor, is a small and light craft compared to the hulking bulk transporters or mobile factories that crawl around the system with very few crew. Several scientists, handful of engineers and a pair of Envoys recruited by the sponsors of the explorer who largely waited out the Weeks long journey to the gateway.
-=Alert=- State Intention and Habitat of Origin
Captain Threa sighed "transit through the Gateway, Habitat is the Outward Bound Research site Delta." Her ship was still days away from the gate and the interface for the gateway her ship was equipped with was a copy of the ancient relic from the original colony ship which was still docked at Hab-Delphi as a museum piece. Nobody was entirely sure it would activate the Gateway if they where honest. Even as she considered the possibility of the system not functioning it started communicating with the gate, lists of destinations populated. The captain selected Sol and would be taken to the cradle of humanity.
As the ship arrived in Sol several signals where detected from ships and stations in the system. The scientists where discussing the data from their sensors animatedly but Erin Penn spoke up "well, It seems the Jakus was right, the Sol system seems inhabited." The captain fired the heavy ion drives and broadcast a signal.
"This is Captain Threa of the New Horizons Explorer, We bring welcome from the Theta-Leonis system" She said while the crew waited excitedly for the first contact with their long lost cousins.
Demographics: Base line human, Minimal cybernetic/biological modification
Population: 2 Billion
--- ---
System Description: Binary Red Dwarf system Stars: Theta Leonis A & B Planets: Ares - Rocky inner world much like Mars, cold and nearly airless Oceania - Large Gas giant nearest the stars, deep blue in color, dozens of moons Tempestus - Smaller gas giant beyond Oceania, extremely violent storms on its surface, nearly 50 moons
Thick Asteroid belt separates Ares and Oceania, many more objects than old Sol's belt
Year 0: Colony ship "Redemption Factoria" transits through the Gateway finding a binary system of small and cold red dwarfs, the potential habitable world they expected to find was a frozen and lifeless rock. The Gateway fell silent behind them trapping the colony. The Redemption Factoria entered the thick asteroid belt to collect resources and begin manufacturing and setting up simple Asteroid habitats Year 1: The ship designed to land on a planet was not prepared to support a strictly orbital colony, food supplies quickly run short. Strict rationing and controls are put in place Year 2: 10% of the population starved due to low production and limited supplies, by the second year enough infrastructure was built to become self sustaining, though only just.
Year 10: Plans for the first major habitat are drawn up as infrastructure is continually built out to sustain the growing population. Year 12: Population controls are put in place to slow growth while Habitats are still built very slowly. Year 15: Construction begins on "The Well of Hope" a huge orbital structure capable of housing many hundreds of thousands Year 20: Population becomes fixed as capacity is reached until habitats are built, Slow construction continues on outlying habitats and the Well of Hope
Year 60: Well of Hope collects expected delays but significant experience is gained in Orbital Habitat construction. Year 65: The first Cylinder is finished increasing the carrying capacity of the system by hundreds of thousands
Year 83: Several Continental sized Orbital Habitats are started Hab-Tokyo, Hab-London, Hab-Denver and Hab-Delphi. Each capable of housing millions. Year 85: Disagreements on Resource allocation grow heated. Asteroid habitats drifting from the Well of Hope and the colony ship grow more independent. Year 88: The various habitats declare Autonomy from the distant Well of Hope and run themselves but are still generally cooperative. Year 90: Agreements are reached to concentrate on Hab-Delphi, Construction begins to accelerate.
Year 125: Hab-Delphi is completed, population of the system begins to skyrocket as the Hab fills with millions. Year 128: Other Habs resume construction, many small asteroid colonies also spring up. Year 131: Automation and industry techniques are refined increasing output
Year 170: The group of Mega-structure habs are complete increasing the population capacity to well over a billion Year 175: Mega-structure habs begin to try and consolidate political power as an Oligarchy. Year 179: The many small habs revolt, denying the large habs basic resources Year 182: The Large habs concede defeat due to pressure from the embargo. leading to the formation of a Republic granting each hab (or group of habs) their own representative.
Year 203: More Large habs are planned and begin preliminary construction. Small habs in the Belt grow more ubiquitous now numbering in the hundreds. Year 208: The first Jovian Moon colony is built as a religious enclave, though concerns of it being a cult compound are raised Year 210: Tensions grow as the Enclave proves to be a sinister cult striving for cultural supremecy, its ideology proposing a highly totalitarian and authoritarian structure where freedom would only exist for the priests and heads of state. Year 214: Most habs ignore the Enclave but its propaganda collects followers who see the cult as a necessary evil Year 219: Enclave followers attempt a coup of the senate, while many are killed and the building damaged it is ultimately unsuccessful Year 220: terrorism and sabotage are common occurrences in large habs like the well or hab-london Year 224: The largely ends when the myriad of small habitats pool their resources to tow a large asteroid into a collision course with the moon and have a small fleet of cargo ships act as escort. It is believed there are still members of the cult among the population. Year 230: the Senate agrees to a Constitution establishing a set of universal rights that most already enjoyed, but now the rights are formalized and officially protected. Beyond this it formalized many of the internal workings of the Senate and government adding a more rigid structure.
Year 250: As the Senate becomes a larger and larger body requiring many departments and oversite committees to manage the complexities of the solar system The Well of Hope is converted to a centralized government earning it the nicknames such as the "Well of Bureaucracy" Year 260:The enormous task of managing the thousands of habitats proves that the Senate has very little real power and would become crippled by its own size Year 266: The Senate disseminates power to the stations even further granting the vast majority of habitats the power to self govern, the Senates role becomes largely that of Mediator between stations. Year 272: Disaster strikes Hab-Tokyo as a cascade of failures leaves 120,000 dead, Senate is nearly powerless to help directly Year 280: The Senate takes on the role as disaster relief organization, purchasing ships, small stations and supplies to manage disasters and support any station that is damaged or under threat year 298: Activity detected from the gateway, Proposals of System wide security and preparedness are discussed, Defense satellites begin construction around the gateway Year 300: First Exploration ships constructed ready to be sent through the Gateway
Culture and Society: The many orbital habitats are culturally diverse as Earth was, everything can be found from an asteroid habitat run as a corporation to religious enclaves built into a gas giant's moon. There are several commonalities depending on the the kinds of station one lives in.
The large habitats like the O'Neill cylinders have the capability of theoretically housing tens or hundreds of millions if people were housed densely enough. While each have areas like this the vast majority of Cylinders are suburban or rural, many people living on somewhat large properties with gardens and the like or even small farmsteads. Most scientists and computer engineers hail from one of the major cylinders universities, many of whom transfer to one of the thousands of Asteroid colonies. For most O'Neill cylinders they posses a casual lifestyle, even in the dense city districts. This is because the Cylinders grow the vast majority of food or plant based luxury goods for the system, their wealth and abundance relieves much of the pressure of Habitat living.
Asteroid colonies fall into two significant groups, Industrial or Habitation, Industrial colonies are rather regimented and people live and work like those on off-shore oil rigs. Few are permanent residents of Industrial colonies and rotate in and out. Habitat colonies are also more regimented than their Cylinder cousins. This is due to the fact that few are entirely self sufficient, reckless consumption of resources could prove dangerous.
---
Governance and Politics: Politics are extremely localized, each habitat or group of habitats are allowed to govern themselves generally however they please within reason. So long as taxes are paid to the republic and there are no universal rights being violated the habitat is free to run itself. However there is a system wide senate where each major habitat or group is given voice, due to the many opinions and objectives in the senate, and its sheer size, the government turns very slowly.
Technology Overview: Technology has been well maintained since the fall of earth, though focused entirely on space infrastructure. Designs on strictly planet side capability has atrophied. Advanced ship drive systems, laser technology, and industrial automation are well understood, but airplanes or ground vehicles would be archaic or simply ancient in comparison to some.
Their most advanced technology are High Energy Ion Drives that while slow to accelerate gran immense top speed eventually. Their other is Fusion power which while still complex and expensive to maintain provides abundant power.
Military Overview: Military power is generally non-existent, as a purely military capability. However each habitat has security/law enforcement personnel that could be armed with dangerous weapons if needed. Beyond this each habitat, and many ships, have heavy point defense lasers built to defend themselves from space junk and meteorites but would prove quite dangerous to military ships as well.
However some resources have been allocated for protection and a network of Defense stations have been built around the Gateway. These are simply automated satellites with over built point defense lasers, several of which are also equipped with over sized sensor and communications systems.
Due to the religious based conflict that raged years ago Religion, while still free to practice, is widely frowned upon. Few citizens are religious, and as part of the Senate's universal rights citizens are free to move between stations ensuring that no station can realistically force its population to be of a singular religion.
hmmm, im not a huge fan of rolling for things on the guild, but thats just me. I prefer a more narrative focus. It would be frustrating to come up with a clever solution to an SCP only to roll a critical fail on dealing with the SCP and a critical fail on how much 'heat' i would get. It happens sometimes I suppose but could wreck any overarching story I think up.
I suppose I would do something like this:
GM introduces SCP-whichever though news, police, or whatever report. Player(s) works the problem GM decides based on player actions the repercussions (assuming its written well with the expected problems of dealing with SCPs) Player(s) Manages fallout Repeat step 2-4 as needed
This is just my first thought on how to manage it. probably isnt perfect.
i do like the writing of containment procedures though, that could get interesting.
ok, just trying to get my bearings on what kind of technology is reasonable. I have a fondness for realistic scifi but still love me some space magic too. I wont start the debate on what is realistic.
for me, at least to start ill probably stick with pretty realistic tech, like ion Drives, fusion power, automation etc. Things like hover tech and hard light ill probably buy, trade, or steal. The cool factor im planning on is more of a scale thing O'neill cylinders are big lol.
Demographics: Base line human, Minimal cybernetic/biological modification
Population: 2 Billion
--- ---
System Description: Binary Red Dwarf system Stars: Theta Leonis A & B Planets: Ares - Rocky inner world much like Mars, cold and nearly airless Oceania - Large Gas giant nearest the stars, deep blue in color, dozens of moons Tempestus - Smaller gas giant beyond Oceania, extremely violent storms on its surface, nearly 50 moons
Thick Asteroid belt separates Ares and Oceania, many more objects than old Sol's belt
Year 0: Colony ship "Redemption Factoria" transits through the Gateway finding a binary system of small and cold red dwarfs, the potential habitable world they expected to find was a frozen and lifeless rock. The Gateway fell silent behind them trapping the colony. The Redemption Factoria entered the thick asteroid belt to collect resources and begin manufacturing and setting up simple Asteroid habitats Year 1: The ship designed to land on a planet was not prepared to support a strictly orbital colony, food supplies quickly run short. Strict rationing and controls are put in place Year 2: 10% of the population starved due to low production and limited supplies, by the second year enough infrastructure was built to become self sustaining, though only just.
Year 10: Plans for the first major habitat are drawn up as infrastructure is continually built out to sustain the growing population. Year 12: Population controls are put in place to slow growth while Habitats are still built very slowly. Year 15: Construction begins on "The Well of Hope" a huge orbital structure capable of housing many hundreds of thousands Year 20: Population becomes fixed as capacity is reached until habitats are built, Slow construction continues on outlying habitats and the Well of Hope
Year 60: Well of Hope collects expected delays but significant experience is gained in Orbital Habitat construction. Year 65: The first Cylinder is finished increasing the carrying capacity of the system by hundreds of thousands
Year 83: Several Continental sized Orbital Habitats are started Hab-Tokyo, Hab-London, Hab-Denver and Hab-Delphi. Each capable of housing millions. Year 85: Disagreements on Resource allocation grow heated. Asteroid habitats drifting from the Well of Hope and the colony ship grow more independent. Year 88: The various habitats declare Autonomy from the distant Well of Hope and run themselves but are still generally cooperative. Year 90: Agreements are reached to concentrate on Hab-Delphi, Construction begins to accelerate.
Year 125: Hab-Delphi is completed, population of the system begins to skyrocket as the Hab fills with millions. Year 128: Other Habs resume construction, many small asteroid colonies also spring up. Year 131: Automation and industry techniques are refined increasing output
Year 170: The group of Mega-structure habs are complete increasing the population capacity to well over a billion Year 175: Mega-structure habs begin to try and consolidate political power as an Oligarchy. Year 179: The many small habs revolt, denying the large habs basic resources Year 182: The Large habs concede defeat due to pressure from the embargo. leading to the formation of a Republic granting each hab (or group of habs) their own representative.
Year 203: More Large habs are planned and begin preliminary construction. Small habs in the Belt grow more ubiquitous now numbering in the hundreds. Year 208: The first Jovian Moon colony is built as a religious enclave, though concerns of it being a cult compound are raised Year 210: Tensions grow as the Enclave proves to be a sinister cult striving for cultural supremecy, its ideology proposing a highly totalitarian and authoritarian structure where freedom would only exist for the priests and heads of state. Year 214: Most habs ignore the Enclave but its propaganda collects followers who see the cult as a necessary evil Year 219: Enclave followers attempt a coup of the senate, while many are killed and the building damaged it is ultimately unsuccessful Year 220: terrorism and sabotage are common occurrences in large habs like the well or hab-london Year 224: The largely ends when the myriad of small habitats pool their resources to tow a large asteroid into a collision course with the moon and have a small fleet of cargo ships act as escort. It is believed there are still members of the cult among the population. Year 230: the Senate agrees to a Constitution establishing a set of universal rights that most already enjoyed, but now the rights are formalized and officially protected. Beyond this it formalized many of the internal workings of the Senate and government adding a more rigid structure.
Year 250: As the Senate becomes a larger and larger body requiring many departments and oversite committees to manage the complexities of the solar system The Well of Hope is converted to a centralized government earning it the nicknames such as the "Well of Bureaucracy" Year 260:The enormous task of managing the thousands of habitats proves that the Senate has very little real power and would become crippled by its own size Year 266: The Senate disseminates power to the stations even further granting the vast majority of habitats the power to self govern, the Senates role becomes largely that of Mediator between stations. Year 272: Disaster strikes Hab-Tokyo as a cascade of failures leaves 120,000 dead, Senate is nearly powerless to help directly Year 280: The Senate takes on the role as disaster relief organization, purchasing ships, small stations and supplies to manage disasters and support any station that is damaged or under threat year 298: Activity detected from the gateway, Proposals of System wide security and preparedness are discussed, Defense satellites begin construction around the gateway Year 300: First Exploration ships constructed ready to be sent through the Gateway
Culture and Society: The many orbital habitats are culturally diverse as Earth was, everything can be found from an asteroid habitat run as a corporation to religious enclaves built into a gas giant's moon. There are several commonalities depending on the the kinds of station one lives in.
The large habitats like the O'Neill cylinders have the capability of theoretically housing tens or hundreds of millions if people were housed densely enough. While each have areas like this the vast majority of Cylinders are suburban or rural, many people living on somewhat large properties with gardens and the like or even small farmsteads. Most scientists and computer engineers hail from one of the major cylinders universities, many of whom transfer to one of the thousands of Asteroid colonies. For most O'Neill cylinders they posses a casual lifestyle, even in the dense city districts. This is because the Cylinders grow the vast majority of food or plant based luxury goods for the system, their wealth and abundance relieves much of the pressure of Habitat living.
Asteroid colonies fall into two significant groups, Industrial or Habitation, Industrial colonies are rather regimented and people live and work like those on off-shore oil rigs. Few are permanent residents of Industrial colonies and rotate in and out. Habitat colonies are also more regimented than their Cylinder cousins. This is due to the fact that few are entirely self sufficient, reckless consumption of resources could prove dangerous.
---
Governance and Politics: Politics are extremely localized, each habitat or group of habitats are allowed to govern themselves generally however they please within reason. So long as taxes are paid to the republic and there are no universal rights being violated the habitat is free to run itself. However there is a system wide senate where each major habitat or group is given voice, due to the many opinions and objectives in the senate, and its sheer size, the government turns very slowly.
Technology Overview: Technology has been well maintained since the fall of earth, though focused entirely on space infrastructure. Designs on strictly planet side capability has atrophied. Advanced ship drive systems, laser technology, and industrial automation are well understood, but airplanes or ground vehicles would be archaic or simply ancient in comparison to some.
Their most advanced technology are High Energy Ion Drives that while slow to accelerate gran immense top speed eventually. Their other is Fusion power which while still complex and expensive to maintain provides abundant power.
Military Overview: Military power is generally non-existent, as a purely military capability. However each habitat has security/law enforcement personnel that could be armed with dangerous weapons if needed. Beyond this each habitat, and many ships, have heavy point defense lasers built to defend themselves from space junk and meteorites but would prove quite dangerous to military ships as well.
However some resources have been allocated for protection and a network of Defense stations have been built around the Gateway. These are simply automated satellites with over built point defense lasers, several of which are also equipped with over sized sensor and communications systems.
Due to the religious based conflict that raged years ago Religion, while still free to practice, is widely frowned upon. Few citizens are religious, and as part of the Senate's universal rights citizens are free to move between stations ensuring that no station can realistically force its population to be of a singular religion.
Awesome while Im thinking about it, technology, I haven't read everything but it's all reasonably plausible technology yes? No energy shields, FTL flight or communication (ignoring the gateways) or infinite energy schemes etc
So I was looking about some, looks like an interesting game if there is room?
If so I'll start work on a proper CS, only question is a space based civ ok? Such as orbital or asteroid habits rather than a planetary based civilization
In a long-forgotten ruin the Grave lord sat upon a simple throne of stone, staring at the night sky through the broken roof with pinpoints of light emanating from his empty sockets. Ancient cobwebs cover his desiccated body, decades of neglect leaving armor pitted and flaking. The cloth of his robes crumbling to dust. Empty sockets of his skull fixed on the sky, the only changing scenery in the hall. Death of the Holy Empire granted the Grave Lord respite from their priests and paladin-knights. Allowing the servant of the Black God to await the beginning of his master’s dying curse.
The Grave Lord did not sleep however, he sat contemplating the dark rituals and runic sigils that gave him power over the dead. Recombining them in his mind to make more powerful and profane magics. Three hundred years after the fall of that holy kingdom the Grave Lord still hid from the world. Something new crossed the heavens before Mortan, it took several days before he became aware of what was before him. A crimson streak of light. As the Grave Lord focused on the comet. The splash of color he noted was in the constellation of the earth mother, a grim omen indeed.
As the gravity of the omen was realized Mortan’s eyes began to glow with brighter eldritch light as his awareness was dragged to the fore leaving the tangled ritual formulae he had been considering forgotten. “The blood star” Mortan spoke into the silence of the ruin, an omen he had only seen twice before. The comet had been in they sky, in the constellation of the priest, the same year Paterdomus collapsed. Only once before for a full week after his master spoke the death curse upon this realm. This time it spelled doom for the world itself.
The Grave Lord rose, flakes of rust and clouds of dust falling away, and stepped away from the throne he had sat upon for so long. He walked to the entrance of the ruin where sign of battle had long been covered over by nature and time, but some signs proved difficult to mask. A boulder laying in the rubble of cut stones or bones still clutching at the spear that ended their life. One such skeleton caught the Grave Lord’s attention.
He carefully disentangled the bones from its armor and plant matter that had grown from the fertile ground beneath it. In time the skeleton was laid out carefully and completely. Mortan gently removed the skull from the arrangement and began etching profane sigils into the bone with his claws. While doing this Mortan chanted weaving the sigils with arcane power. It took hours to cover the skull, once complete he placed the skull in an exact position of the arrangement and began the final chant.
As he murmured the words the bones slowly drew themselves together, snapping into place held together with dark magic rather than flesh. As the ritual completed a rush of power flowed into the bones and the skeleton jerked drawing itself up and stood silently awaiting orders. Mortan examined the skeleton briefly examined his control over the creature before he nodded, satisfied at the success of the ritual. The Grave Lord ponders how the curse will take hold in this world, if nothing else the servants of the black god will need soldiers beyond what the fell creatures can provide. Soldiers he could provide. Before making war however Mortan needed to build the army, but he needed to learn what had become of the world during his hiding. While he hadn’t been sleeping since the fall of his master he was still out of touch.
