On the year 2072, our planet was home to twelve billion people. Within the space of sixty years, the number of souls living upon the Earth had nearly doubled in number. For centuries, humanity's unchecked growth had adversely affected our world. Carbon fuels that had been thrown into the atmosphere for more than two hundred years had rendered Earth's atmosphere hazy and warm. The pristine seas and oceans that once teemed with living things were swollen by thawed ice caps and flowed thick with garbage and filth. For so long, the planet we inhabited suffered under the weight of so many denizens; but it was this year, 2072, that the human that broke the proverbial back of the Earth was born.
In the Near East, the nations strangled the rivers that had birthed civilization with mighty dams built to hoard precious drinking water from their neighbors. Desire for something as simple as potable water sparked nuclear warfare across the Indian subcontinent and the Near East that snuffed out nearly half a billion people and sickened hundreds of millions more with toxic radiation.In the wake of the Water Wars and the innumerable brushfire conflicts and genocides it sparked, the United Nations enacted a series of protocols designed to ration out the Earth's dwindling resources to a hungry, teeming planet with the goal of preventing such a conflict from recurring - often at the end of a rifle. The once timid United Nations had transformed into a totalitarian one-world government.
Following the Water Wars and the United Nation's ascendency as the world's government, Earth was a crowded, cramped place rife with crime and vice. Bribing the overextended, underappreciated UN Peacekeepers kept the eyes of the law away from powerful criminal enterprises and black markets. Between the authoritarian world government and the cartels bubbling just beneath its nose, it is little wonder so many sought escape.On the arid surface of Mars, a population of steely colonists established the first colonies of any significance and began the slow process of making the red planet more hospitable via terraformation. By the close of the 21st Century, nearly 10 million settlers eked a living from Mars' unforgiving deserts of rust. From the red world came a rugged people who valued hard work and freedom from the dictators and criminal filth on Earth. Mars, however, failed to sate humanity's drive to explore and conquer, and so the instruments of science turned to the stars to seek a more hospitable second home for the cramped human race.
On March 23rd, 2103, humanity had found its new home. Pirouetting around the star 75 Sotelo, radio astronomers found a terrestrial world with with a mass of a comfortable 0.87 Earth masses and a breathable Nitrogen - Oxygen based atmosphere. Radio spectroscopy also demonstrated the presence of watery clouds, and perhaps most tantalizingly of all - brief glimmers of green light shimmering off the surface. As soon as it was discovered, scientists the world over worked to bring 75 Sotelo C - Invictus - within reach of exploration.
Within five years of the discovery of Invictus, Physicist Jeannot Mbambela and his associates unveiled a proof-of-concept of technology that when installed on the fore part of a starship compresses spacetime around the vessel allowing for superluminal travel relative to the universe. With Dr. Mbambela's contribution in place, scientists set to work planning the first mission to Invictus. But before construction could begin, the United Nations approached the scientific parties heading the operation and offered their support with the stipulation that the first missions to Invictus would be to establish colonies rather than conduct the sterile, purely-scientific mission that was previously drafted. Ethicists and biologists were dismayed, but their complaints did little to keep the United Nations from effectively wresting control of humanity's first mission to Invictus.
After twenty-three of construction in Earth's orbit, the colossal colony ship UNIS Ararat with its crew of 1.24 million people left Earth on September 12nd, 2131 with the goal of establishing a permanent base for human settlement on the planet. Despite their excitement to be the first to set foot on this mysterious alien world, all aboard knew that upon arriving at Invictus, 30 years would have elapsed and it would take 40 years for any radio transmission to reach Earth. Even their most long-lived friends and family back on Earth would be long dead before any farewell could be sent back home. While September 12, 2131 was a highlight of humanity';s history, it was a sorrowful day for many. In 2140, the slightly smaller UNIS Fujisan was constructed and followed Ararat into the unknown.
On 2172, listeners the Earth over watched excitedly as a 40-year-old broadcast from the Ararat beamed back a brief testimony from the vessel's captain that the voyage had gone according to plan and that landing would commence shortly, before concluding the transmission with a cut to an orbital view of Invictus. Humanity waited with baited for more transmissions to arrive. But no further communication was made. Nine years later, even after the first transmissions from the Fujisan were due to be received, Invictus remained silent.Concerned by the lack of feedback from Invictus, it was decided that one last ship, the UNIS Olympus, would be sent to Invictus to procure supplies and provide Earth with a report of the progression of the Invictus colonization. And so on March 12, 2182, the Olympus set out into the great darkness to the planet Invictus with a crew of 520 thousand passengers among which you are counted. Following what will seemingly be but a momentary sleep in a stasis bed, you shall awake above the planet Invictus, 40 light years away from home and any family and friends you may have left there.With no way back home for the foreseeable future, you and your 520 thousand companions have only Invictus to look to. Together with them you will help to establish humanity' second home among the stars. The role you will fill on this alien world, no matter who you were on Earth, is vitally important; your legacy will reverberate through the stars as long as mankind travels among them.
Summary!
Landfall is a sci-fi roleplay set in a futuristic universe where a united Earth has become overpopulated and chaotic. Though united under one government headed by the United Nations, the Earth is still plagued by conflicts over differences and ever-dwindling resources. A once timid United Nations has become a totalitarian government in an effort to quell the violence and control a desperate population. Pollution and loss of jobs to automated programs are but a few of the problems humans face on Earth. Many humans have taken to Earth's closest colonies for a better life but it has done little to alleviate the overpopulated Earth.A partly terraformed Mars has prided itself with a booming agricultural rush and a thriving mining industry, but only 10 million people have been fortunate enough to settle the red planet. Driven by an ever-growing desire for adventure and a desperate need to find other resource-rich planets on which to settle the cramped human race, humanity has constructed a series of three colossal ships and sent them out into the unknown in intervals. Two ships embarked on the journey before the Olympus but communication with both has long-since been lost. You are aboard the UNIS Olympus, the third ship sent on a course set for the mysterious planet codenamed 'Invictus'.
This thread is a continuation of an RP located on another forum that has been relocated due to poor administration. The original Landfall thread had 70 IC posts and will be continuing seamlessly (without any form of timeskip or flash-forwarding) from the MCF thread. As such, a brief summary of the previous thread has been compiled to make it easier for newcomers to jump in. If you have more specific questions about Landfall so far, you are invited to look though the old IC yourself (offsite link) or ask here in the OOC.
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In the previous thread, the UNIS Olympus, the third of a series of gigantic starships built by the United Nations to establish a colony on the planet 75 Sotelo C - "Invictus" - arrived in the planet's gravity well after a 40 year journey traveling at relativistic speeds. Shortly after decelerating and allowing the passengers out of stasis, Captain Erick Homsy and Lieutenant Major Len Bendill discovered that their hailings to the planet had gone unanswered. The only response to the Olympus' arrival was automated reply from the seemingly-derelict UNIS Ararat in orbit and a mysterious, unintelligible transmission from an unidentified second starship.
Soon afterward, the Olympus found itself hurdling through a ring of debris around the planet left by the planet's shattered moon, Kerimov. Despite the Captain's best efforts to avoid the micrometeorite storm, the hull was breached in several places and many passengers were killed. With the hull's integrity compromised, Captain Homsy ordered all personnel to abandon the wounded spaceship as he stayed behind to keep the vessel's propulsive nuclear bombs from detonating upon breaking up in the planet's atmosphere.
In a disorderly mess, the passengers were launched from the Olympus in a swarm of capsules, gliders, and dropships. In the chaos, many of the vehicles collided with one another and others still veered off target and landed all over the planet. Most of the survivors, however, arrived at an enclosed colony city called Landfall situated in one of Invictus' jungle regions. To the colonists' dismay, Landfall appeared abandoned and found no response when trying to enter.
Soon after the colonists established camps outside the walls of Landfall, they came under attack by all manner of hostile wildlife - most notable and dangerous being a pack of seemingly-invisible carnivores. In response, a network of hastily-built walls were built around the camps with debris and scrap metal. Hemmed in between the walls of Landfall and the predators lurking in the jungle beyond their palisades, resources dwindle and friction between the groups of exasperated colonists reaches a crescendo that can only end in violence. As resources are consumed within the camps, salvage parties are sent into the abandoned city to recover what they can and ascertain the fate of the previous colony.
Apply Now!
This is not a strategy RP! Nor is it a nation RP. You play a human being aboard the UNIS Olympus, an enormous ship carrying 550,000 colonists. You may play a doctor, a builder making use of large mechs for heavy-lifting, or perhaps a surveyor sent out into the wild to provide accurate, eyes-on readings of treacherous alien terrain. The choice is yours. Do your part to establish a permanent human presence on this new world.But once landfall is made, illusions of thriving societies may crumble and unanswerable questions may arise. Perhaps you'll abandon your post and take to the unknown in search for answers. Factions with differentiating views and methods may form and perhaps you'll join or lead one. Or maybe your loyalties lie with Earth and the authority aboard the Olympus. Whichever path you choose to embark on, is for you to decide.
This is not a Advanced-only RP! This is not to say people capable of writing lengthy posts will be asked to tone it down a bit. No, we encourage lengthy, detailed posts. However, we do not require this. Intermediate writers are welcomed, as is anyone below that skill-level willing to push themselves in order to keep up and learn from more experienced writers.
