Foreword
First, the title. I looked up English to Latin translations for the words 'new' and 'frontier', and came up with the title from there. It sounds cool to me, and I hope no Latin buffs have a problem with it.
This is a work in progress still but when I was writing the story I decided to cut it off and begin the RP where it starts below. In my opinion it is kind of the actual start of Mankind's expansion into the galaxy so there is a lot of room for cool PC stories, as well as the ones I want to tell through this RP with the PC's as the cast. I also hope that the actions of the PC's will help birth new factions and many cool stories. This is a work in progress so that means I will be adding more planets, as they are needed and as my creativity and free time mesh. But for now the two fictional ones seem to be enough.
I am 100% open to ideas, suggestions, and questions. I am not looking for a terribly large group, just a dedicated few but really it is easy to jump in and out of this setting (I feel), so I feel like anyone can find a place. When this does begin I want people to be able to live out their sci-fi space fantasies with other people, so if anyone has ideas for planets and stories or anything like that, please feel free to let me know on here or privately in a message. Warp drives do exist so for those people that want to tell their own story on a planet they've been thinking about, just let me know and we can come up with something.
This is like 40% sandbox and 60% my own story driven, but I've always been interested in this genre and I know that other people are too. And I know people have stories they want to tell. So share them! And your ideas on this!
EDIT: I should also mention that you can play either side of the law here!
So here we go...
The Golden Space Age
It all began in the year of 2016. Multiple studies came out and revealed that the natural Human lifespan had been reached. From there Man decided to further studies in two fields; bio-engineered advancements (BEA’s) and the final frontier. The road to research and advancement of BEA’s was a quick but painful one, paved by errors and deaths. Through many trials however, Mankind was able to improve Man through technology. These advancements were simple at first. Highly advanced limb replacements to those who lost their natural ones. Visual and auditory upgrades. Upgrades to muscle structure to increase the effectiveness of Human muscles without men and women needing to bulk up to ridiculous size. These eventually turned into more luxury items. Implants for night vision, auditory implants to break down language barriers, encyclopedias added to the brain, the list goes on.
Exploration into space took a little more time than the BEA’s. First Mankind continued its exploration, further exploration specifically, of its own solar system. After 20 years, Mankind had set foot on every planet in their own solar system, and in that time they advanced their rocket technology. The Golden Age of Spaceships was beginning. Warp Drives were still an idea that many scientists could not quite perfect. But it only took a week to travel to Pluto from Earth, and that was an advancement in and of itself. Eight years later Warp technology was perfected, or so they thought. The first warp jump made by a Human did not go according to plan. The coordinates entered were not followed and the ship arrived in the Eura System. The ship was able to return and another warp jump was not made for almost 10 years.
The Fall of Mankind Marks the End of the Golden Age
While these technological advances were great, they also took a toll on the Earth. Production facilities were created en masse. These facilities eventually led to a collapse of the atmosphere. This was a terrible event. The air on Earth became unbreathable. Though Mankind was able to escape onto orbiting space stations that were the size of small cities, not all escaped. There were only 12 of these space stations and because of that a very large percentage of the Human population was exterminated on Earth. Though not was all as bad as it seemed. Scientists were able to save the wildlife and vegetation of Earth. At first it was only small numbers but as the space stations grew in size and more were built, the animals reproduced and were put onto their own space stations. These space stations, “Zoos” as they were dubbed (although the only Human presence was scientific and to monitor), acted as their own regions from Earth where animals and vegetation could roam and grow at will.
Still, Mankind was in a bad spot. They were slimmed down significantly. Those who survived and made it to the space stations were mostly rich or invited because of their trades. This led to a new ‘class war’ as it was called. The rich were not required to work, only to fund. And because of this they led lavish lifestyles aboard the space stations. On the other end the rest of the population had to work, whether as engineers, scientists, security, janitorial, or anything else required. The space stations were divided into districts based on income and class.
An actual war was narrowly avoided however. The ruling bodies of the space stations, each their respective nation on Earth, recreated the UN in a sense. A unified ruling body, led by men and women of all nations. Now this, at a glance, would not seem to tie into class warfare but this ruling faction recognized the problem and controlled it. Giving many new luxuries to the working class which alleviated much of the tension. This began a new era of peace and rebuilding.
The Final Frontier and The New Wild West
Many space technologies were developed before the Earth was destroyed, and even more after. Eventually the ruling body of the remaining Human populations decided that it was time to further advance their technology. There was no Earth to destroy while producing technology, so it was easy to a degree. Warp technology was actually perfected, and jumps were made back to the Eura system. More space stations were created around other planets in the Milky Way, as well as five more in the Eura system, four over Eura Prime and one over Eura Beta.
The exploration of a new system led to a new “gold rush” of sorts. New minerals on the periodic table were discovered on Eura Prime, leading to many people taking their ships out that way. But mining in the Milky Way on other planets, as well as Earth, also led to more people leaving their space stations. Mining of all of the planets in the Milky Way was difficult due to a lack of the ability to breath. At first these miners would create their own makeshift breathing apparatus’, this led to many deaths. Eventually official devices were created making mining much easier.
The advancements of new space ships was also incredible. Rather than large space ships that required a large crew to manage, smaller ones were developed. Eventually single operator ships were created, though they are a recent development and much more experimental, there for they are not extremely common. Though they are popular in a niche group.
Space outside of the space stations has become a sort of Wild West however. The space stations have very well armed and trained security forces, they also have space ships capable of policing nearby space. But there is so much empty space between space stations as well as different planets that it is impossible to police it all. This has led to lawlessness and criminality spreading throughout space. Raids on larger cargo ships have become frequent, as well as dogfights between travelers. Death is common, survival is not.
The Eura sector is the worst. The security forces are not as numerous in that region, leading to vigilante justice and many outlaws.
These are dangerous times, but with the danger comes the opportunity to get rich.