Post by ch00beh on Oct 8, 2006 17:36:46 GMT -5
Okay, so Prime posted already... But anyways, I'm gonna story-form my ideas of how we get into space travel between ORP and FRP.... I'd sticky this for clarity, but um, the whole not a mod thing kinda kills it for me. *prods Lee sexually*
Version history
-11/14/06: Added description about Phobos
-11/23/06: Added a link to the ship classes topic
note: these ideas reflect those of ch00beh and possibly Prime, and it will be a jumble of random thoughts, you can be assured
History
The government is always working on something secret. Since mankind has reached the moon, the US created the Bureau of Extra-Terrestrial Affairs, aka BETA, though its creation and operation have been under wraps for a long time. The Bureau is one of those places that your tax dollars "disappear" to.
When the Soviets landed failed rovers Mars I and Mars II onto the Red Planet, BETA began working hard to get people there. NASA's own mars rovers were simply facades designed to make the rest of the world think we were making slow progress, but behind the scenes, BETA made leaps and bounds in space flight and transport technology.
In 1975, three years after the last Apollo mission, a simple combustion engine colony ship was launched at the moon. New colonists were regulararly shipped over, but always it was in secret from the general populous. Because of its proximity to Earth, supplies were easily traded, so by 1990, the colony started on the darkside of the moon was fully functional and independent. They made use of Biodomes to create space to live and grow food and raise livestock and all that good stuff. Water was extracted from underground or imported from Earth. In 1992, BETA moved its main Space Expansion headquarters to the moon colony for easier launching and easier talk about their projects. In 1995, BETA established the Genlab series of space station laboratories to research ways for humans to adapt and live on other planets.
By 2000, BETA created a manned space ship to go to Mars using newly developed ion thrusters. The massive ship landed the first two astronauts on the red planet in 2002. In 2007, the 7th laboratory of Genlab was able to unlock a latent psionic's powers, discovering the ability for teleportation. This led to a project handled by Genlab 4 and 5 to 'produce' psionics, and in 2010, a team of trained psychics were landed on Mars to create a teleportation focal point. Another team of psychics stayed on the Moon, and they were able to transport people and items at the speed of light. Genlab 7 also found ways for guided travel through other dimensions, though things that went through didn't necessarily come out alive. Genlab 3 researched this more, but only succeded in 99% success for transporting inanimate objects nearly instantaneously. A colony was started in the same year, and by 2020, it was fully functional and independent.
In 2008, frequent attacks by Chinese hackers uncovered BETA and all of their research, forcing the US to admit to such a program. By 2010, China had its own fully operational space program, as well as their own human research program. By 2012, they were able to teleport their own people to the red planet, and by this time, research had halted for the US because of human rights activist protests.
The moon colonists also voted to make "Luna" the offical name. Also, most ship building moved from Earth to Luna, because the low gravity was easier to build in, and there was less chance that the war would destroy the ships being built.
The war between Pure Sphere and Black Rogue began in 2007, and in order to gain an upper hand, in 2011, Pure Sphere stole all the research they could from China and the US. This enraged both countries, causing them both to put aside their differences to destroy the organization. Fed up with the super power's war, Russia, Japan, and Middle Eastern countries joined in the war against Pure Sphere. Military advancements skyrocketed, seeing the advent of energy based weapons. By 2013, Pure Sphere was reduced to straggling extremists.
During the chaos, Black Rogue withdrew to the shadows. Somehow they managed to stay undetected when they created a giant floating landmass over the Pacific. After the war with Pure Sphere, the human countries payed attention to the organization of Powers, seeing them, too, as a threat that could try to take over the world. China, Russia, and the US collaborated in secret, then launched a preemptive strike, sending almost all of their nuclear weapons at the landmass. The attack destroyed Black Rogue.
Unburdened by a war or human rights activists, Mars was able to continue its research freely. Because of this, all of the Genlabs (except #7, which had allied itself with Pure Sphere) moved to orbit around the red planet. There, cloning "zombies", basically humans that didn't think on their own, became a way to create cheap labor. Cloning of people with original thought came into play when creating the Martian infantry. (of course, those clones' minds and bodies were also altered to make them more efficient in combat and more resilient to attacks.) Also, during the Earth war, more colony ships were sent to the asteroid belt. The ships were fired from gigantic mass drivers, basically a row of electromagnetic rings, floating in orbit, and they slowed down when nearing target asteroids by use of their ion thrusters. The Teleportation methods used to get to Mars weren't used as much for the asteroid belt because it was very costly to create Teleporters and Rift Openers powerful enough to move all the items.
There was tension between the Chinese and American colony groups on Mars, though it never escalated to full war. They simply created their own governments and set boundaries between each other. Following the ideals of its own government, the US allowed its Mars-side counterpart to remain sovereign, and China did the same, realizing that it couldn't control both a Mars colony and handle a war at the same time. Over time, the two governments began cooperating with each other.
Although scientists were the first to begin the asteroid colonies, people attempting to escape oppression or war on Earth, or even people just looking for adventure, left the planet for Mars on the large colony ships. Fusion technology had also been well developed, so travel by colony ships became relatively cheap. From Mars, more people who felt the same joined them on the Mass Driver fired colony ships. There was also a large amount of Japanese travellers, wishing to escape the land in which most independent Powers lived, and some hoping to implement new spacecraft designs.
Because of their detachment from the Earth and Mars, as well as their primary focus on trade and mining of precious metals, the asteroid belt colonies decided to join together as the "Union of Free Traders," though they are more commonly referred to by othrs and themselves as "Belters." The capital was created on Ceres. Under this name, the Belters promoted research and development for space flight technology. Because of necessity, in only a few years, Belter scientists had created powerful force shields to protect habited asteroids from collisions with others, though they were big and noisy, so they could only be deployed for the cities, and they created organic ships, seeing the usefulness semi-sentient ships in the thick asteroids. They also created IDMs, Internal Data Modules, which were basically computers inserted into ones brain, to help pilots and miners survive their environment. Because of these advancements and many more, the Belters were the most skilled pilots with the most advanced spacecraft.
However, the focus on technology gave the UFT reason to raise taxes. Also, most of the immigrants didn't have much money leftover after the travelling expenses. Thus, Belter colonies were relatively poor. However, scientific communities do prosper. In an attempt to make its citizens better off, the government has funded public flight schools, taking in anyone with talent to train them as a pilot. They are not bound by the government after graduating, though, in keeping with the ideals of free trade.
In the year 2030, aliens appeared seemingly out of nowhere and began an attack on Mars. Because of this, both the American and the Chinese government allied together to create an army. Their respective genetic laboratories produced a massive army of clones who were altered to be better at fighting. Though they suffered a fair amount of damage from the first surprise attack, the Martian ground forces quickly and decisively struck back. The war only lasted a month before the unknown aliens retreated.
-fin-
Yeah, and now it's the "present" day for FRP... >.>
---------------
Life and stuff in the four main sectors
Earth
Earth continues to be the main world of humanity. First world countries have been redefined as those with an implemented space program, second world as those beginning to create a space program, and third world as everyone else.
The main exports of Earth are energy based weaponry (blades, guns, shields), robotics (robots, AI, prosthetics), and food.
Otherwise, planetside, the world is pretty much the same.
Luna
Luna's darkside is covered with a gigantic network of ship docks, as well as an array of biodomes connected to each other and the docks. Scientific facilities are located mostly underground, including the army of psychics to teleport people to Mars or Earth. The population of Luna mostly consists of scientists from earlier years, and their children. The brightside is also somewhat of a tourist attraction, though there are few that actually live there. (Biodome construction on the brightside was against public opinion of those on Earth, because they said it would destroy the 'romance')
Luna is Earth's primary site for ship building. High quality ships come from the satellite, and large capital ships are built there as well. Luna also acts as the main gathering place for scientists around the world to do their things or discuss stuff with each other.
The satellite relies heavily on Earth for food and water. The biodomes were designed to act as places for food to grow and livestock to live, however, they just aren't big enough to provide complete independence.
Mars
Mars has a clear regional divide between Americans and Chinese. However, the two have cooperated with each other for trade and science. The planet has biodomes, like Luna, but because it is a full planet, the biodomes were able to be built much larger, and they do provide most of the food for Martians. The main language on the Red Planet (informally known simply as Red) is a cross between English and Mandarin Chinese.
The standing Martian army is massive because of its clones. The attack by the aliens also caused Mars to build many defensive establishments across its surface, in case there were ever another attack. Phobos, the closer and larger of Mars' two satellites, has an armament of heavy weaponry mounted on it, as well as boosters to make up for the gradual altitude loss. The satellite's naturally fast orbit brings it around the planet twice a day, so it is able to protect a large area on its own, without needing heavy maintenance like a squadron of spacecraft. At present, Martian technicians are trying to replicate Belter force projection technology to mount on the satellite, but have only succeeded in energy deflection units.
Mars is the second producer of heavy capital ships, due to its closer proximity to the Asteroid Belt and its valuable metals, though Luna is still number one, because its lower gravity and still environment make construction easier.
Because the Genlabs migrated to the planet, Mars is responsible for advanced genetic modifications, though the human rights people on Earth heavily protest.
Several mass drivers float in orbit, still firing one-way ships to the asteroids.
Union of Free Asteroids
The Belter colonies exist as cities in biodomes on various asteroids. Usually, only one city can fit on any given asteroid, and there are many underground facilities as well. Force projection shields are buried throughout the surface of an inhabited asteroid, because the machines are so complex they need the space.
Many colonies have poor conditions, and the Belt is a frequent place for outlaws, bounty hunters, pirates, and other unsavory characters. It's fairly easy to get a job by walking into any of the rockside bars. However, on asteroids housing the major science facilities, such as Ceres, their respective colony is usually very wealthy. Although wealthy, pirate attacks aren't as frequent as one might think, because the colonies can afford bigger guns.
The main occupations of Belters aren't bounty hunters, though. Instead, the majority of the population are asteroid miners who mine the precious/useful metals from their surrounding rocks and sell them to the other planets.
Because of their closeness to space, about 75% of Belters have at least basic flight training, and the professional pilots are known as the best throughout the system. Belter pilots have to maneuver through the asteroid field on a daily basis. Basically natural selection chooses the best pilots.
Belter ships are usually built small, 1) because of the small areas they can build in, and 2) because it's easier to dodge asteroids in a small ship. Also, many of the ships built are organic or semi-organic (organic fused with mechanical). Anyone with enough money can buy an IDM implant, and anyone with a flying license can get a cheap one paid for by the government.
-----------
Ship types and technology and such
Check this thread out for a few models of ships and stuff
-----------
In Other News
11/14/06: After some recreational research, I've found out that although asteroids in the belt collide more often with one another in celestial terms, there is actually quite a lot of space between the rocks. But whatever. We'll just pretend a bunch of planets got blown up in the Belt's orbit, making it super dense. Or something like that. <insert treknobabble here>
-------------
If there are any changes needed/wanted, just post here.
Version history
-11/14/06: Added description about Phobos
-11/23/06: Added a link to the ship classes topic
note: these ideas reflect those of ch00beh and possibly Prime, and it will be a jumble of random thoughts, you can be assured
History
The government is always working on something secret. Since mankind has reached the moon, the US created the Bureau of Extra-Terrestrial Affairs, aka BETA, though its creation and operation have been under wraps for a long time. The Bureau is one of those places that your tax dollars "disappear" to.
When the Soviets landed failed rovers Mars I and Mars II onto the Red Planet, BETA began working hard to get people there. NASA's own mars rovers were simply facades designed to make the rest of the world think we were making slow progress, but behind the scenes, BETA made leaps and bounds in space flight and transport technology.
In 1975, three years after the last Apollo mission, a simple combustion engine colony ship was launched at the moon. New colonists were regulararly shipped over, but always it was in secret from the general populous. Because of its proximity to Earth, supplies were easily traded, so by 1990, the colony started on the darkside of the moon was fully functional and independent. They made use of Biodomes to create space to live and grow food and raise livestock and all that good stuff. Water was extracted from underground or imported from Earth. In 1992, BETA moved its main Space Expansion headquarters to the moon colony for easier launching and easier talk about their projects. In 1995, BETA established the Genlab series of space station laboratories to research ways for humans to adapt and live on other planets.
By 2000, BETA created a manned space ship to go to Mars using newly developed ion thrusters. The massive ship landed the first two astronauts on the red planet in 2002. In 2007, the 7th laboratory of Genlab was able to unlock a latent psionic's powers, discovering the ability for teleportation. This led to a project handled by Genlab 4 and 5 to 'produce' psionics, and in 2010, a team of trained psychics were landed on Mars to create a teleportation focal point. Another team of psychics stayed on the Moon, and they were able to transport people and items at the speed of light. Genlab 7 also found ways for guided travel through other dimensions, though things that went through didn't necessarily come out alive. Genlab 3 researched this more, but only succeded in 99% success for transporting inanimate objects nearly instantaneously. A colony was started in the same year, and by 2020, it was fully functional and independent.
In 2008, frequent attacks by Chinese hackers uncovered BETA and all of their research, forcing the US to admit to such a program. By 2010, China had its own fully operational space program, as well as their own human research program. By 2012, they were able to teleport their own people to the red planet, and by this time, research had halted for the US because of human rights activist protests.
The moon colonists also voted to make "Luna" the offical name. Also, most ship building moved from Earth to Luna, because the low gravity was easier to build in, and there was less chance that the war would destroy the ships being built.
The war between Pure Sphere and Black Rogue began in 2007, and in order to gain an upper hand, in 2011, Pure Sphere stole all the research they could from China and the US. This enraged both countries, causing them both to put aside their differences to destroy the organization. Fed up with the super power's war, Russia, Japan, and Middle Eastern countries joined in the war against Pure Sphere. Military advancements skyrocketed, seeing the advent of energy based weapons. By 2013, Pure Sphere was reduced to straggling extremists.
During the chaos, Black Rogue withdrew to the shadows. Somehow they managed to stay undetected when they created a giant floating landmass over the Pacific. After the war with Pure Sphere, the human countries payed attention to the organization of Powers, seeing them, too, as a threat that could try to take over the world. China, Russia, and the US collaborated in secret, then launched a preemptive strike, sending almost all of their nuclear weapons at the landmass. The attack destroyed Black Rogue.
Unburdened by a war or human rights activists, Mars was able to continue its research freely. Because of this, all of the Genlabs (except #7, which had allied itself with Pure Sphere) moved to orbit around the red planet. There, cloning "zombies", basically humans that didn't think on their own, became a way to create cheap labor. Cloning of people with original thought came into play when creating the Martian infantry. (of course, those clones' minds and bodies were also altered to make them more efficient in combat and more resilient to attacks.) Also, during the Earth war, more colony ships were sent to the asteroid belt. The ships were fired from gigantic mass drivers, basically a row of electromagnetic rings, floating in orbit, and they slowed down when nearing target asteroids by use of their ion thrusters. The Teleportation methods used to get to Mars weren't used as much for the asteroid belt because it was very costly to create Teleporters and Rift Openers powerful enough to move all the items.
There was tension between the Chinese and American colony groups on Mars, though it never escalated to full war. They simply created their own governments and set boundaries between each other. Following the ideals of its own government, the US allowed its Mars-side counterpart to remain sovereign, and China did the same, realizing that it couldn't control both a Mars colony and handle a war at the same time. Over time, the two governments began cooperating with each other.
Although scientists were the first to begin the asteroid colonies, people attempting to escape oppression or war on Earth, or even people just looking for adventure, left the planet for Mars on the large colony ships. Fusion technology had also been well developed, so travel by colony ships became relatively cheap. From Mars, more people who felt the same joined them on the Mass Driver fired colony ships. There was also a large amount of Japanese travellers, wishing to escape the land in which most independent Powers lived, and some hoping to implement new spacecraft designs.
Because of their detachment from the Earth and Mars, as well as their primary focus on trade and mining of precious metals, the asteroid belt colonies decided to join together as the "Union of Free Traders," though they are more commonly referred to by othrs and themselves as "Belters." The capital was created on Ceres. Under this name, the Belters promoted research and development for space flight technology. Because of necessity, in only a few years, Belter scientists had created powerful force shields to protect habited asteroids from collisions with others, though they were big and noisy, so they could only be deployed for the cities, and they created organic ships, seeing the usefulness semi-sentient ships in the thick asteroids. They also created IDMs, Internal Data Modules, which were basically computers inserted into ones brain, to help pilots and miners survive their environment. Because of these advancements and many more, the Belters were the most skilled pilots with the most advanced spacecraft.
However, the focus on technology gave the UFT reason to raise taxes. Also, most of the immigrants didn't have much money leftover after the travelling expenses. Thus, Belter colonies were relatively poor. However, scientific communities do prosper. In an attempt to make its citizens better off, the government has funded public flight schools, taking in anyone with talent to train them as a pilot. They are not bound by the government after graduating, though, in keeping with the ideals of free trade.
In the year 2030, aliens appeared seemingly out of nowhere and began an attack on Mars. Because of this, both the American and the Chinese government allied together to create an army. Their respective genetic laboratories produced a massive army of clones who were altered to be better at fighting. Though they suffered a fair amount of damage from the first surprise attack, the Martian ground forces quickly and decisively struck back. The war only lasted a month before the unknown aliens retreated.
-fin-
Yeah, and now it's the "present" day for FRP... >.>
---------------
Life and stuff in the four main sectors
Earth
Earth continues to be the main world of humanity. First world countries have been redefined as those with an implemented space program, second world as those beginning to create a space program, and third world as everyone else.
The main exports of Earth are energy based weaponry (blades, guns, shields), robotics (robots, AI, prosthetics), and food.
Otherwise, planetside, the world is pretty much the same.
Luna
Luna's darkside is covered with a gigantic network of ship docks, as well as an array of biodomes connected to each other and the docks. Scientific facilities are located mostly underground, including the army of psychics to teleport people to Mars or Earth. The population of Luna mostly consists of scientists from earlier years, and their children. The brightside is also somewhat of a tourist attraction, though there are few that actually live there. (Biodome construction on the brightside was against public opinion of those on Earth, because they said it would destroy the 'romance')
Luna is Earth's primary site for ship building. High quality ships come from the satellite, and large capital ships are built there as well. Luna also acts as the main gathering place for scientists around the world to do their things or discuss stuff with each other.
The satellite relies heavily on Earth for food and water. The biodomes were designed to act as places for food to grow and livestock to live, however, they just aren't big enough to provide complete independence.
Mars
Mars has a clear regional divide between Americans and Chinese. However, the two have cooperated with each other for trade and science. The planet has biodomes, like Luna, but because it is a full planet, the biodomes were able to be built much larger, and they do provide most of the food for Martians. The main language on the Red Planet (informally known simply as Red) is a cross between English and Mandarin Chinese.
The standing Martian army is massive because of its clones. The attack by the aliens also caused Mars to build many defensive establishments across its surface, in case there were ever another attack. Phobos, the closer and larger of Mars' two satellites, has an armament of heavy weaponry mounted on it, as well as boosters to make up for the gradual altitude loss. The satellite's naturally fast orbit brings it around the planet twice a day, so it is able to protect a large area on its own, without needing heavy maintenance like a squadron of spacecraft. At present, Martian technicians are trying to replicate Belter force projection technology to mount on the satellite, but have only succeeded in energy deflection units.
Mars is the second producer of heavy capital ships, due to its closer proximity to the Asteroid Belt and its valuable metals, though Luna is still number one, because its lower gravity and still environment make construction easier.
Because the Genlabs migrated to the planet, Mars is responsible for advanced genetic modifications, though the human rights people on Earth heavily protest.
Several mass drivers float in orbit, still firing one-way ships to the asteroids.
Union of Free Asteroids
The Belter colonies exist as cities in biodomes on various asteroids. Usually, only one city can fit on any given asteroid, and there are many underground facilities as well. Force projection shields are buried throughout the surface of an inhabited asteroid, because the machines are so complex they need the space.
Many colonies have poor conditions, and the Belt is a frequent place for outlaws, bounty hunters, pirates, and other unsavory characters. It's fairly easy to get a job by walking into any of the rockside bars. However, on asteroids housing the major science facilities, such as Ceres, their respective colony is usually very wealthy. Although wealthy, pirate attacks aren't as frequent as one might think, because the colonies can afford bigger guns.
The main occupations of Belters aren't bounty hunters, though. Instead, the majority of the population are asteroid miners who mine the precious/useful metals from their surrounding rocks and sell them to the other planets.
Because of their closeness to space, about 75% of Belters have at least basic flight training, and the professional pilots are known as the best throughout the system. Belter pilots have to maneuver through the asteroid field on a daily basis. Basically natural selection chooses the best pilots.
Belter ships are usually built small, 1) because of the small areas they can build in, and 2) because it's easier to dodge asteroids in a small ship. Also, many of the ships built are organic or semi-organic (organic fused with mechanical). Anyone with enough money can buy an IDM implant, and anyone with a flying license can get a cheap one paid for by the government.
-----------
Ship types and technology and such
Check this thread out for a few models of ships and stuff
-----------
In Other News
11/14/06: After some recreational research, I've found out that although asteroids in the belt collide more often with one another in celestial terms, there is actually quite a lot of space between the rocks. But whatever. We'll just pretend a bunch of planets got blown up in the Belt's orbit, making it super dense. Or something like that. <insert treknobabble here>
-------------
If there are any changes needed/wanted, just post here.