Note: Inspired by [@Water Akira]'s interest check and aspects of the movie Interstellar. [u]Adventure Beyond the Stars[/u][hider=Introduction][i] The year- 2150. The era- Space Exploration We're in a golden age, so to speak. Three Blocs have prevailed on the global scale, and taken to the sky- the Sino-Russ Bloc, consisting of Russia, Ukraine, China, and many of the smaller satellites scattered around them. The second Bloc- The Euro-East Bloc- has taken control of the world's fossil fuels and a larger majority of the first-world population- meaning that yes, the Middle East did, in fact, stop fighting everyone and took on a more diplomatic role in their eventual conquering of the human race. The last Bloc is that of the North American Commonwealth, paired with various factions from Africa, Japan, India, and Australia, making up the New Alliance. These three factions have squabbled over the resources of the solar system for about half a century now- Mars was taken by Sino-Russ Bloc, the Moon and the asteroid belt taken by the New Alliance, and the various moons of Jupiter and Saturn taken by the Euro-East Bloc. These three Blocs are very similar in technologies- indeed, every time one made a discovery, it didn't take too terribly long for everyone else to 'discover' it as well. However, they each had their secret projects- the Euro-East were more concerned with self-sustaining energies, and have significant, top-secret research in the field of antimatter. While everyone else knows of the antimatter development, they haven't considered it cost-effective to steal and use it, nor do they realize how deep the research into this area is. The New Alliance has significant dealings with various corporations- the most primary of them all being Lockheed Martin, founded over a century beforehand- and has the most extensive spaceborne navy and military. The Sino-Russ Bloc has their own neural networking research, going so extensive that the pilots for their best pilots don't have an organic brain anymore- replaced by a neural processor instead. Still human, just faster, smarter, etc. The squabbling had been dying down by 2150, debts were becoming settled, disputes being solved, and it seemed that a golden age might dawn with all the technological advancements. The New Alliance was expanding through the asteroid belt, breaking out record-high production with everything from iron to iridium, holding a major economic advantage by producing all those rare minerals. The Euro-East was receiving hefty support from both Blocs because of their interest in the Alcubierre Drive, and the Sino-Russ had increased research into quantum mechanics, trying to figure out something FTL. It was a great surprise when, just in the interplanetary space between Mars and Venus, a very sudden anomaly occurred. It was first noticed by a New Alliance patrol- and moments afterwards, the Sino-Russo as they spotted what lay just before the patrol. The Euro-East had been listening in, of course, between both communications between the Sino-Russians, and the New Alliance, and figured out what happened fairly quickly. It didn't take long for accusations to fly, and a massive espionage operation to go underway. The New Alliance accused the Sino-Russos, who in turn accused the Euro-Easts, who in turn accused both of them. It took three months before the mad dash to see who ACTUALLY did it ended, and all three sides realized what just happened. A wormhole like this was most certainly not a coincidence- how could it be? It was stable and it was small, but large enough for a moon to pass through. And so with wary handshakes and eyeing, all three sides came to a tentative agreement to push a combined task force through. It wasn't taken lightly- the negotiations took another year to finish, in order to agree to everyone's demands. By the end of it, it was decided that four ships- one commanded by each faction, and then one record-breaking Cruiser outfitted with everything from attack corvettes to fighters and bombers to a full compliment of task-force marines from the various factions, plus a full suite of scientific and diplomatic equipment and crew. The three smaller ships, each representing their own faction, were only to escort and watch, and let the combined force ship do all the work. Everything from exploring a habitable planet (if there was one) to taking out an alien assailant, they were prepared and ready to risk death to find new lands and possibly the people that made the wormhole. Instead, the four ships tentatively crossed the barrier between their system and the great beyond, and found themselves in a completely unfamiliar solar system... within some weird kind of nebula. Visual sight, usually infinite and only restricted by the eyes themselves, went down to about twenty kilometers, as they entered a mysterious, glowing cloud that permeated the entire system. Regular sensors worked fine, but the more complex, the more they were screwed up by the cloud. No ship wanted to return, in case something was lost. Instead, they found that there were over two dozen planets in the system- eight of them in the liquid water zone. The solar system was no bigger than that of the Milky Way, and yet it had more than twice the planets on miraculous orbits that either just missed each other, or balanced each other out, maintaining and unheard-of equilibrium. And every single one of the planets in the liquid water zone showed signs of life. Some of them were absolutely teeming- others, not so much. But each showed signs of life, and because all the sensors that would normally do the work were down, teams had to be sent down to each planet, one by one, and then return home. They found no aliens, they found no devices. It was simply another, strange system. Pulling into the gravity well of the first, closest planet, they looked down through sketchy imaging to see what appeared to be a jungle of massive vines, mushrooms, and other unexplainable structures of what is hopefully plants. And then the men making up the task force, between the three great empires of the Milky Way System, dropped onto an unknown, possibly hostile planet, for God knows what reasons. [/i][/hider] --- Interested? Ask any questions I'll post both the question and answer right up here. [quote=@Anodyne] so who exactly would we be playing [/quote] [hider=Response- Who you are and what you can have] Well, mainly the people in the task force! However, due to the equipment breaking, specialists will have to go down with the task force, meaning that you can be a soldier, pilot, medic, scientist, engineer, any of that. Just make it reasonable. Also note that other Blocs may give you technology that you can use- for example, a soldier for the New Alliance may get some fancy Sino-Russo cybernetic implants to increase his agility and speed, or something like that. It's completely at the discretion of the user, just don't go overboard. A Sino-Russo political influencing on your character may be that of the cybernetic implants as a 'offering,' while a Euro-East might give you some interesting energy weapons or exoskeletons, while the New Alliance might furnish you completely with body armor and weapons. New Alliance would likely have the better fighters, tanks, that sort of thing. The Euro-East would have the combat suits, walkers, and VTOL, while the Sino-Russos would have the cybernetics, the cool gadgets and that sort of thing. New Alliance- Hard military Euro-East- Advanced energy items, like suits and energy swords (like Halo) Sino-Russo- Advanced alterations, artificial or organic, plus devices like jetpacks, invisiblity cloaks, that sort of thing. Note that you'll only get funded by one faction, and gifted by another. Again, don't go overboard.[/hider]