zombieaccount

Precipice of War - We Write Under The Sign Of The Goat

Doesn't america still have control over the Panama Canal in this timeline? I looked at the maps and it pointed the Panama Canal as US controlled. Even when isolationist I imagine the US would not want Colombia touching the canal, after all the U.S. Made panama independent to make that canal in the first place. However if the U.S. Doesn't have control over the canal or is really that isolationist even there than I'll need to ask Mihndar what brazil would do.

Precipice of War - We Write Under The Sign Of The Goat

I asked how fucked Colombia would be if it tried in this world, not if it was possible. I know that the second The United States notices Colombia will lose horribly and any occupying forces being forced out of Colombia. I just want to know what the US of this world would do in response to such action so I can explore the consequences of it.

Precipice of War - We Write Under The Sign Of The Goat

Which reminds me to ask. If Colombia tries to annex panama as a military junta in the early sixties, how fucked is Colombia when the fallout of this action hits? Mainly since I think Colombia under the right conditions may have a military dictator who believes they could get away with the land grab while america is occupied with Canada and Florida. Militarily Colombia seems pretty shit, but organized enough they might try to make a land grab for what was a province of their country just a several decades earlier. And I need a reason for the Colombian government to degrade into even more of a timocracy.

Empty Horizons 2.0

So, shall we put life on Europa or Titan? One gets more complex life (I.e stuff that is macroscopic) and the other is restricted to microbial lIfe depending on which moon people want alien life appearing on more.

Empty Horizons 2.0

April 5, 2325
Asteroid Ida, The Asteroid Belt

Looking over the ruins of the Old Order depresses even a surveyor, one of the surviving products of the old order that continues to do its duty to record information.

Asteroid Ida, despite the 150 years has miraculously has avoided disturbance. The surveyor never questioned why, but it is now looked upon once more. At some point in the late 21st century there was a company who invested so much into this asteroid, not to mine, but to be made into something much greater than just another rock that gets mined away. The asteroid was meant to be a massive colony ship. What wondrous device that would have been to have!

Yet the surveyor of the wreck dates the artificial parts of the ruins, finding that its construction stopped two decades before the collapse of earth and the dark decade. The probe wondered of the colony ship. Why did the creators at their height stop building! Will they ever be able to attempt the creation of such craft again?

Did the investments just not pay off?

Was there is a technical difficulty?

Was it just too inefficient for the terrans?

All these questions became suddenly moot as multiple ships coming from both directions flared up in the surveyor’s sensors and so the surveyor thrust itself away from the ruins, banking on the possibility the approaching crafts wouldn’t destroy it for being in their way. The approaching ships targeted each other. Three of them Martian, two of them belter, the surveyor knowing its basic survival programming just let itself float far away from the scene while recording it without fear. For this was history being made, just as history was made so many times before in the belt and so many times before in the modern age.

And so the probe observed the Martian approach, one of the ships large in size and designed akin to an elongated pyramid if one takes into account just the basic shape, and clearly it is a ship designed to annihilate the enemy. The other two ships, smaller in size, couldn't possibly take a hit simply by looking at their hulls. Such ships, the probe inferred, likely were meant to be strike craft. Why they have ten people on them is beyond its own understanding.

The belter ships look like simple mining vessels. The surveyor however did notice that their mining lasers had anomalously high amounts of energy emitting from them for mining vessels. Could these vessels be here to strip mine Ida, despite being an enshrinement of human achievement?

The probe caught itself trying to wonder again, when it must now watch events unfold.

Spaceship Sylvia Rex, The Asteroid Belt

The captain of the ship saw the rustic belter crafts, of which likely well over a century in age approach his own on the map and under his voice breathed “Belters…”

He didn't know if these were military crafts, but any craft can in theory have powerful enough payloads to
damage even the sturdiest of spacecraft. The captain, using the comm instructs the mainframe “Take aim on the approaching belter ships, they are in unauthorized zones.”

“Action completed.” The ship logs back to the Captain.

One of the dozen other people on the large ship with the captain, the second in command, asks “Are we sure these ships are hostile? They are mining vessels.”

“I am certain they are hostile, any reason they are here is bound to amount to malice, especially with the heat readings coming from their ship. They are too hot to be typical mining vessels.”

“It could be just their stupidity or ignorance, my superior.” The second-in-command suggests.

The captain considers the possibility for a few seconds, before hastily telling the second-in-command

“Impossible, even the Belters should have the preservation catalogs stored on their ship’s database. If they truly are this incompetent, I attribute it solely to malice.”

The radar suddenly surges with requests to open communications, of which occurs. The message, pre-recorded due to the 30 light seconds between the crafts opens up on the information center of the ship, telling everyone in the ship “We are here to look at the ruins of civilization. We mean no harm.”

The captain is skeptical, and a bit confused by the message, conflicted on the validity of the message. The belter ships however, were still moving closer to Ida despite the . The other two ships sent messages to the main ship, stating "Civilian ships, we will await further orders."

"Take aim on the vessels and fire if they do anything suspicious." The captain tells the other two ships.

The captain interpreted this as a taunt by the pilots of the mining vessels. They do not seem to understand their violations. Instead of responding, the captain instead decided to destroy these ships. Knowing they may have begun launching projectiles or spewing lasers, the captain without any hesitation shouts “Fire on both targeted ships!”

“Action Completed” The ship tells the captain.

However, as the ship fired tension filled the room, no one knew if the arrays projected from the ship will hit their target, and uncertainty over if the belters fired as well made, the captain immediately proceeded to tell the computer "Shift the ship's trajectory".

And so the ship begun to thrust itself downwards while keeping its targeting systems trained on the enemy, shifting the movement of the ship below the line of attack, reducing the probability of being hit. The smaller ships stayed in position. The minute of panic gracefully ended when one of the belter ships shined bright as the sun itself for a second, before being reduced to debris. In a soothing voice
stated “Target neutralized.”

A couple members of the crew begun to feel relief, but the tense look on the captains face, with his eyes glued to the maps of nearby space quickly neutralizes the relief in everyone in the center. For the computer didn’t say ‘all targets neutralized’, and so the captain asks “Both of them?”

But before the computer could reply, the map begun to flare red repeatably as numerous panicking communications came ushering in from the crews pf the two other ships shouting "Critical damage send help!"

But these messages were in vain, and sent far too late, as two of the frigates suddenly fumed in plasma-like fire, the shock wave of which briefly surged through the Sylvia Rex itself and shattered into debris. Another beam passed by the Sylvia Rex, but missed the ship by a hundred meters.

There was then five seconds of silence and seeming despair, where the captain stared at the screens in complete and utter helplessness. As the captain stared in shock at the destruction of the strike crafts, the other belter ship vanished into a white fireball before fading into silence.

The computer affirms the destruction, stating “All targets neutralized”

The captain sunk into his chair, seemingly exhausted as the whole crew stayed silent, horrified at how this could have occurred. How did one belter ship manage to destroy two Martian ships? Luck? A secret weapon?

With grief, the captain tells the computer “Head back to Mars, dock at the Phobos port.“

The captain looks at the brightness of the flares, before turning around to the rest of his crew. Informally, he tells the crew “Belters further will see this incident. We must move away before other belters move in. This humiliation of the Martian Protectorate will be avenged, but not by me.”

“How were you to see that attack coming?” the second in command asks.

“It was obvious, the failure to destroy both meant that the other one had a window to shoot at all three of our ships. That belter nearly hit our ship as well. I believe the other two ships under my wing were waiting for me to tell them to make evasive maneuvers, but by the time I realized I missed one... Striker June and Striker Dimanche were neutralized.” The captain tells the second in command.

One of the crew members on the ship, a technician affirms the captain by saying “I've checked the systems, there was no failures on part of the ship's comms.”

The captain looked at the technician, before looking at the rest of the crew and telling them “Disregard any loyalties any of you have with me from here on out. I have failed to manage all ships of my squad properly, and now twenty Martians will forever be lost to the void of space, if not reduced to ash due to the obliteration that occurred. I have proven myself unsuitable as a captain by letting two strike craft fall to two mining vessels. I now shall resign from being Captain Auderii, as is obligated.”

The captain than just stood silent, as the ship begun heading back to Mars. In contemplation on what to do now that his reputation has been tainted.

-----------------------------------------------
Nine years later

August 2nd, 2334
Utopia Plantia, Mars

In the reddish landscapes of mars, sterile of life as a endless desert, gleams the sun itself radiating as a pale white dot in the pale pink sky radiating a blue aura where it shines on the cold barrens. The terminating efforts slowly have heated the world, but it has not affected the landscapes themselves. As desolate the Utopian plains may be, a small mining base from the old order still functions with relatively little change in the past two centuries. It is stony, made of material from the Martian crust itself from the outside it blends in with the landscape as a artificial complex of drum-like structures that cluster around each other. The powerful dust storms have weathered away the derelict faculty, making it part of the landscape.

Violently zooming by, a silvery vehicle reminiscent of a buggy completely insulated from the carbon dioxide filled atmosphere of mars and the towering clouds of dust leaves its tracks inscribed into the Martian plains. The driver within is headed towards Elysium Mons, the site of meeting for the technocrats themselves. Of which, the driver is one. The driver in the buggy is distracted in thought, the anxiety surging through his mind being borderline unbearable. Thankfully, the Martian plains are easy to navigate for the buggy, its native Martian design specialized for the arid and rocky lands of Mars.

There, the driver knows shall be the last meeting of the technocrats. Looking once again at the message, he finds himself conflicted. It is the day that he has been waiting for, the day when the great project that has been laid since the creation of the protectorate will come to fruition. The day that tomorrow begins. The driver remains tacit, for he fears one thing and one thing only, and that is failure. Nightmares of his last failure in the Ida Expedition, of which lead to the death of those twenty Martians still haunt him deeply. Twenty dead Martians because of his failure, incinerated or left to die in the emptiness of space with their corpses drifting around the asteroid belt.

Auderii knows that many more Martian deaths will be inevitable, but unlike those in the Ida Expedition they must not be in vain. For the day he has grown up being taught of is here and unlike in the Ida Expedition, there is no room for failure. For failure will be death, and the death of thousands of Martians. That would be unacceptable. The vastness of the northern Martian plains when driving in a buggy are hard to overestimate, but all too easy to underestimate. Normally he would've taken a personal plane to traverse the desolate, quarry marked terrain of Utopia Plantia, however there was no planes left at the active mining complexes. Thankfully, even by buggy the destination will be reached in a matter of hours on a meeting that is just a day away from happening. He just needs to make sure that he makes it there uninterrupted as possible.

Auderii gets a message from one of his associative Technocrats, Michala.

“Auderii! We are going to Earth! I get so few opportunities to express true excitement, but now is the best time to do so. The world our ancestors lived on just centuries earlier before the terran collapse, we live in truly joyous times.”

Auderii, annoyed by the unprecedented enthusiasm by Michala, of whom he considers one of the least competent Technocrats he knows, tells her “There is no call for joy or happiness. Not until the day we inherits the earth can we be happy. We must make sure that our future is ensured, and until than your over expression will only cause disaster.”

The comm is for a bit silent, but Machala briefly says to Auderii “I will try to restrain myself better.”

As informally as he could be, Auderii tells Machala “Good. I am two hours from Esylium Mons, the rest of those of genuine importance will meet up there, including the leader of the people*. Be there or else risk the standard punishments. I will be blocking communications until then, good bye.”

Auderii shuts the communications off, instead preferring to silently start planning out how he will play his part in the liberation of earth itself. A planet that Auderii knows damn well he has never stepped foot on. Representations of earth exist all over, he has seen the pictures and even briefly used a virtual apparatus to walk on a fictional representation of earth. Yet he worries, as the gravity of Earth is much higher than that of Mars. There most certainly will be suits for those who have to go on land, but the natives of Earth will be numerous as they will be hostile.

The way to win Earth will have to be through the fleet. Any other way would be unattainable.

But any means to liberate Earth and begin tomorrow will surely be worth the end goal. There is too many people on Earth as is, and if he had say in matters of military operation despite his failures in the Ida Expedition he knows what he would do, as failure to act truly decisively will always lead to disaster.

The best way to win is to use all the tools at one’s disposal, not to play games with the enemy.
Yet, he has not enough merit to speak of this sentiment in public. He won't have much say at all at the meeting, but like his even lesser peer, he is obligated to meet at Elysium Mons and hear the leader itself. A privilege imposed indeed, as is the privilege he must have. How else will he be part of the liberation of earth?

*Hesitant to name drop here.

How about a Interplanetary, Sol based Sci-fi RP?

I'm sorry that your methods of application writing have come off as incompatible with this roleplay. Hope you find a role play your find better suited towards your tastes. To everyone else, The roleplay OOC is up!

Empty Horizons 2.0

-place holder for any characters I may make-

Empty Horizons 2.0

The following acts in a sense like "my" app sheet, however everything here is either semi-NPC or historical and heavily subject to altering depending on what comes up.

The Solar Powers

These factions are the major factions factions in the solar system. They are semi-NPC in their nature and you can play as part of one of these nations. These nations aren't that culturally defined nor have their tech defined beyond a overarching trend, this is intentional as to allow greater degree of creativity for players part of these factions.

However they're defined by the following:

-Having low populations, but having the most advanced technologies.
-Having a hegemonic spaceship fleet that allows them to exert dominance over other civilizations around the solar system.

Each of the factions are opposed to each other, and tend not to have many connections outside of proxy trading through one of the other offworld societies.

The Venusian RepublIc

The Venusian republic's population dangles in densely populated modular complexes that float tens of kilometers above the hellish surface of Venus. The republic is ran by a decentralized (ergo, not something you can just compromise and cause all the cloud cities to descend to hell) AI cloud network that unifies what is a collection of competing sub-cultures/clans who share the common characteristics of having virtual reality for centuries (counting early colonization here). Transhumanism is rather endemic to the Venusian republic, with little regulation on genetic modification technology. It is to the point where people from other factions sometimes don't even regard the various clades that have formed as people anymore. ]

The AI mainframe controls a defensive army of drones and has total control in theory, being that everyone in venus is dependent on the AIs and their maintenance of Venusian infrastructure. This makes the Venusian Republic a paradox, for it has a oligarchy of AIs that keep things running. Yet the highly individualistic and borderline anarchic nature of the citizens makes the Venusian republic both highly oppressive and highly free. For while a structure may fall into the inferno of Venus, a new one can take its place. The Ais are apathic to the actions of individuals on Venus, and tend to try to keep neutrality even as the denizens of the 'republic' in their clans and tribes may go adventuring outside of Venus.

Unified Protectorate of Mars

The Unified Protectorate of Mars is highly centralized and very rigid in their governance, of which is guided by the overarching ambition to become the legitimate successors of the 'old order'. They have elements of market-Leninism mixed with technocracy, having not long after the collapse of the old order become unified under a protectorate ran from Elysium that became increasingly authoritarian to bring about a unified martian society that would come to value science, technology and industry over all else. Censorship of scientific pursuits in many fields is unheard of. Despite gene mods designed to reduce breathing requirements, genetic modification is restricted to the standard set. However, implants, augments and cybernetics are quite frequent. Full-body cyborgs occur frequently on mars, especially in the military or police. When not using cyborgs, nanosuits manage to allow for super human capabilities for those who wear them.

The unified Protectorate of Mars, in order to control their culture regulates media heavily, often blocking out media from other parts of the solar system. The protectorate is highly standardized as a civilization, despite the frequent engineering competitions with a powerful, hegemonic fleet that has experienced numerous conflicts with the Venusians and Jovians. Martian industry is surprisingly powerful, with space ports and defense systems on Phobos and Deimos along with surface manufacturing and mining that has altered the martian terrain since colonization.

Jovian Federation

The Jovian Federation is a lot like how @monkeypants envisioned them, a collection of world/moon-states around Jupiter and Saturn unified by a military junta. The Jovian Federation is highly capitalist with multiple organizations that dominate from Jupiter to Saturn. The military has evolved into a peace keeping force that conscripts people from the Jovian moon colonies and is their own sub-culture in a way. There is the endemic issue of corruption along with the need to quell secessionists who think Enceladus can survive as a independent entity. The Jovian Federation is radically humanist, with minimal genetic modification and the rejection of advanced forms of AI, usually using at most systems and computers.

The Jovian Federation is the most culturally diverse of the three major factions as the moon-states in Jupiter and Saturn developed separate forms of governance that are united under the fleet. The Jovian Federation is the most religious of the three factions, despite the ideological theocracy the Martian Protectorate can be viewed as. These sub-cultures are further explored by other players who may make moon-states in the Jovian Federation. Artistically the Jovian Federation has been having a renaissance in neo-traditional art.

The Old Order

The Old Order is what had existed until the mid-22nd century, and was defined by the colonization of the solar system and the progressive consolidation of earth that ultimately fell apart when the super state of United Eurasia tried to take control of the whole world from the pivot of history.

The details

The way the world can change in a century is astounding, no? The 20th century saw the rise and fall of empires, of ideologies and cultures in the course of a few generations. The permanence of the world lived in hasn’t been granted for centuries now, for it is the year 2325, and the world we live in is vastly different from what people lived in at the turn of the millennium. To understand how the world has changed, you must know the history of the old order.

In the early 21st century, there were only probes on other worlds than earth, with manned missions to other planets not occurring until 2030. However, with the advancement of industrial technologies came the cheaper price at which rockets, and later spacecraft, could be manufacturing. However, the biggest revolution in the 21st century had to be in the biotech industries, for life itself begun to become programmable. Habitation technologies improved dramatically as tailor made food products to live off world made permanent research centers on other worlds attainable. The build up of solar infrastructure, thanks to technologies invented in the 21st century revolutionized where humans could habitat. Even worlds as hostile to humans as Venus would have ways to be built up as areas for civilian access. The colonies themselves weren’t initially intended to have humans calling them home, more places to gain access to solar resources, space tourism and research. Yet, as more people worked off world the colonies grew as children from those at the colonies for long periods of times stuck to the world instead of returning to earth.

Earth itself was increasingly connected, with the blooming of multiple countries on the planet causing the increased needs for ever greater energy, especially as automation of numerous industries led to mass unemployment to the point where the majority of people by the 22nd century spent their time free from hard labor. However, the sustainability of such high standard of living for the 8.3 billion people living on earth came with a cost, as the amount of water in the world that was drinkable struggled to keep up with the amount of vertical farms needed to sustain the global market. Much the world at the time was not free, however, for there was a global aristocracy that went unchallenged by most of the world thanks to not only the bread and circus, but also due to their high positions that came as a result of being the controllers of the robots that maintained much of the world’s infrastructure, assisted by the fact automated militaries made them near-impossible for civilians to topple.

The economic apparatus that made the world function for over a century would be completely compromised in 2082, not from without, but from within. A massive plague broke out from the failure of antibiotics or nanotechnology to handle what was created in a lab, the free trade much the world had at the time causing tons of people to die in just a day after contracting the disease. The plague lasted for a decade, and is there were attempts to reform the system, but these attempts to alter the very economic fabric of the world led to serious ideological divisions in the global aristocracy that also clashed with the newly forming super-states whom developed from supranationalist ideals that drove over old ideas of nationalism. The EU, for instance would become federalized and later connect with much of the middle east, north africa, china along with northern and central asia. This super state would in the coming decades become known as 'United Eurasia'. There was four other super states, including the Pacific Directorate which dominated much of the Pacific and included most of the Americas. In short, these states were massive and had the economic weight and bureaucratic power to dominate numerous and vastly different cultures across billions of people.

The clash would cause the global system to collapse to the point where trade connections were limited at best despite having underground networks around the globe to transport resources. The physical meeting of other people being highly restricted and often requiring multiple tests to even step out of a superstate. This affected the off-world colonies the most, as while isolated to a high degree before the plagues, after the plagues people off world were banned from returning to earth. The people on the colonies would still get supply shipments in return for infrastructural support, however the colonies became progressively more self-sustaining due to having less support from earth than in the past.

For the old order, made of super-states would become increasingly more authoritarian as terrorism increased dramatically for a decade, of which in of itself caused even more terrorism to spring about with virtual worlds being compromised on a regular basis. However dissent was minimal on the whole due to the bread and circus, as well as the state apparatus being hard to break in the most developed of countries. There was a confederate world order that did exist at this time, but it wasn’t unified with super states maintaining their own government and military alongside the planetary peacekeeping forces designed to keep things in check. Things became stable, but stagnant from a innovation stand point [the colonization of sol continuing just fine, with perhaps even more investment than before due to the need to extract off-world resources]. The innovativeness of Terrans declined, with the only major revolutionary innovation in the 22nd being the use of Fusion power.

This system lasted for decades, but ultimately fell apart as the system didn’t try to address the issues of the world ecology that was going increasingly out of whack, nor the increasingly aggressive sentiments shown in super states that wanted to rid the world of tiny, useless provincial states like kurdistan through conquest, which in a several instances each super state actually did, despite the other super states condemning the conquests. Eventually resource control on earth started to drain out, with off-world resource centers becoming a major dependency for the world, especially for rare-earth metals. Yet the need for water was far more pressing, as the whole world relied on vast quantities of arable land and water, which was becoming increasing more scarce despite Russia thawing out and becoming a bit of a breadbasket in the 22nd century.

These resource limitations caused Terran civilization to, for decades look as if it was frozen until the mass death occurred in the mid 22nd century. For the stagnation of earth became a serious concern to those at top, of whom wanted to try to consolidate earth to the point of becoming a global, unitary body and the elites who wanted to go back to the more globalized system that was far less restrictive. Despite the similarities of the ideals, this ideological conflict became a second cold war that went on for decades until one of the super states had the confidence it could conquer the world using its vast armies.

The militarization of the Terran super states at first was seen as something hat wouldn’t lead to any disaster, since after all despite there being the occasional tactical nuke used in a war somewhere on the planet civilization never stopped moving forwards. So many citizens in super states were actually very apathetic to the militarization, with some of them seeing it as just another creative outlet since now there’s a reason to make machines of war. The ascension of AI in the time would caused for a unexpected consequence, as the pivotal super state of the United Eurasia had a exceptionally powerful military with European innovation combined with Chinese industry along with Russian determination. To the shock of the other super states, using its pivotal part of the world which for centuries was theorized as the point to control the whole world, went about on a global crusade convinced their defense systems ruled out the possibility of WMD retaliation, despite evidence to the contrary.

But they didn’t factor in the infrastructural damage they would cause, and the damage that would be wrought on their own civilization when the other super states united against the would-be world conquerors, who made use of bioweapons that spread throughout the communications systems that would completely impair the conquers, but not before they occupied much of the world and already was beginning to plan bringing the off-world colonies into their fold. However, their unified government lasted only two years as strikes against the capital of their world government killed off the leader ship and brought anarchy to the whole world as multiple military generals left over from the United Eurasian military wiped each other out.

The bio plagues from earlier surged throughout much of the two year-lasting world government, killing off billions of people as famines and droughts caused by the automation distribution systems falling completely apart and salinity plants being shut down without funding led to there being no real states left on earth. The earth’s human population shot down to just a hundred million people with the only civilization left being in isolated city-states bunkered down in the earth.

Without much food and much of the cities being looted or irradiated neotribalism became common in much of the planet, but unified states would start to appear again using knowledge stored in underground libraries and data centers to make the cheaper technologies, however the more advanced technologies such as rockets or fusion plants would take a lot more infrastructural demand to create. The geography of the world, altered by the orbital bombardments and flooding would make some of the metropolis into sites of vast ruin and the ecology of the world would be dramatically altered by the abrupt temperature changes along with the dark decade. The dark decade essentially was a nuclear winter that caused mass extinction as bad as the mass extinction that killed off the dinosaurs.

By 2334, the world remains green. Humans still existed and there are factions on earth whom have recently been building back up once more in a world where global civilization had launched humanity beyond earth, but had regressed from a elite that was too powerful for their own good and tragically collapsed.

Now there is interplanetary powers descended from the off world colonies that seek to colonize earth, despite those who still live on it.

Empty Horizons 2.0

A probe making touch down on earth...

In a security faculty hidden in the Martian region of Elysium, the following message plays itself to the chief of security. The sender being from one of the last surviving 'presidents' of the Pacific Directorate, one of the super states that made up the old order.

"I am at loss of words the future we have created for ourselves. Our home, the world we built for centuries toppled in the course of a few years. I can't express the death and violence that now has consumed the earth. The piles of dead, the waste that has piled about the streets, the machines that wander bout without cause or direction- all I can tell you, is that for all the denial the oligarchs, the megacorps or aristocrats have had, we knew what was coming. Many people have, but never we thought the destruction would be impossible to mitigate, we believed civilization would survive just fine, but now it is but ruin. We neglected the off worlders, even mars as shameful it may be, as now the off worlders inherit the solar system.

I do not believe that the human race will survive on Earth. Already billions are dead, and if the senseless anarchy, fueled by nuclear terrorists who have nothing holding them back anymore doesn't kill everyone, the plagues created in a lab will be how the last man on earth dies. Yet, for the darkness that now shrouds our world in time Earth will be habitable again. All you, the head of security, needs to do is ensure the survival of the martian colony so they can inherit the future.

I am unlikely to be alive when you get this message, just remember that no matter the circumstances, the future lies in your hands."

-transmission cut-

That message was sent centuries ago. Since than, priorities have changed as has the circumstances. On earth Terrans did not die out despite how much it seemed like extinction was inevitable. Instead, the Terrans have resurged. Multiple nations are building up and are expanding their power on Earth. Outside of earth, two rivals to us stand. There is the Venusian Republic, where their citizens dangle in floating, crowded cities over the hellish land they operate from as their rampant individualism proves again and again destructive for those involved. In the asteroid belt mining still is frequent, however bloody it has become with our great rivalry with the corrupt and decadent Jovians never ending.

On our world, however, the circumstances stay the same. We will recolonize the earth and inherit our position as the future of mankind. We have built up for centuries for the moment about to come, and we shall seize it no matter how many die for the liberation we shall bring.

The fleets mobilize as we speak, and our mission will be completed,

no matter the obstacles in our path.

-----[+++++]-----

Welcome to Empty Horizons 2.0

It is the year 2334, nearly two centuries since the fall of the old order. In the collapse of Terran civilization, the off world colonies kept intact and would go on to develop culturally and socially in isolation, three of which would come to dominate the solar system. The United Martian Protectorate, the Republic of Venus and the Jovian Federation. All three of them ideologically conflicting with the other, and all three of them seeking to dominate the solar system in their own way. Until recently, none of the major solar powers would dare touch earth due to treaties and fear of getting infected by the plagues that caused the downfall of Terran civilization.

On Earth, despite the total collapse of global society various parts of the world managed to hold enough stability in their area that they would dominate the regions they exist. However, the geopolitics of the world have been altered by the ruins of the old order and the flooding of the world, leading to a world that looks like this:

Warning, massive image!

Credit: [url=Vrstudio]http://vrstudio.buffalo.edu/~depape/warming/100meter.html[/url]

Needless to say, the Earth by the year 2334 is a much more tropical and arid place with nature reclaiming a lot of cities in the short course of 184 years, even the ones that have been irradiated.

For more detailed lore, go tot he character section where you can find information on the Major Solar Powers and a detailed history of the Old Order terran players can mine for ideas. It also will [obviously] contain app sheets from other players.

Feel free to take become part of one of the three great solar powers, make a faction on earth, make a faction outside earth, a organization or a player character.

Technology

This is a role-play intended to be sci-fi in nature, and as a result I need to state what technology I find acceptable, even if I am open to many sorts of technology.

I likely will not be fine with really out-there technology that would be normally acceptable in a interstellar scale role play like megastructures, relativistic speeds of travel or space stealth. All in all, while I am fine with technology being invented, I recommend avoiding making something too over the top. Venusians for instance, do not use levitation devices for their floating cities, rather they look a lot like this:

Cumbersome Picture

Nasa logo not included. Author unknown.

Players who have a better grasp on more down-to-earth technologies for interplanetary colonization should do their best to assist those who have less grasp on the matter

In terms of spaceships, remember space is not a ocean nor are spaceships jet planes. Running out of fuel is not the main concern of a spaceship for instance, rather the concern is if it has enough fuel to make maneuvers. In theory your spaceship can go all the way to pluto using minimal amounts of energy due to the lack of friction in space. One can rotate a spaceship without changing direction, only when a thruster is use will direction change.

Only a minority of a spaceship should be inhabited, the majority of a spaceship should be dedicated to making the spaceship function.

In terms of propulsion/energy, anything more advanced than fusion is probably too advanced for this RP.

Artificial Intelligences do exist, but they shouldn't be so advanced they are god-like in how powerful they are.

Robots will be very important to the colonies especially, as the robots help fill in the man power left over from the lack of population off worlders have. Earth has a lot more man power, but even they may find applications for machines. After all, machines basically are highly advanced tools.

Biotech is common, being used to engineer plants that can survive in alien conditions or engineer humans that can survive with less air, among other augmentations done for varying reasons. Augmentations that alter the fundamental structure of a human tend to create animals with hominid levels of intelligence that lack the brain required to function in a advanced civilization. As a result, dog men never became a thing.

Medical applications of biotech are effective, with artificial organs, limbs, eyes and so on being readily available. Brain rebuilding is limited even in 2334. The recording of memories with machines is being currently pioneered.

Terraforming is occurring on Ganymede and Mars, but terraforming is far from complete on either world.

Hydroponics is commonplace. Habitation technologies are diverse. However, I may have limits when it comes to the creation of megastructures.

While I have given the tech standards, don't be dissuaded by what i've stated on tech. Just keep the tech reasonable and I should be fine with it. As well, if you have a good reason to have a certain technology i'll likely allow it.

Guidelines

Open Door Policy

The OOC of this roleplay is open for anyone to come into, as I believe anyone who even looks at this thread is a potential player. Feel free to stop by and post for the sake of it, I believe in open communication as opposed to trying to constrict people based on what they're talking about as this is a social hobby, not a job despite what standards may exist.

Hard Sci-Fi

This roleplay genre-wise is "hard sci-fi", so the implications of technology are important. For instance manual labor due to automation is not normal and advancements in biotech has allowed for easier survival on worlds without any breathable air, which is almost all of them.

Note that the 'hard' aspect of the sci-fi doesn't necessitate the RP demanding you do everything as hyper-real as possible or go blabbing about technical shit like where the polar reversal goes. When I say hard sci-fi, I mean minimize the non sense. No psionics, no exotic matter, no problem!

The roleplay overall strives to be internally consistent, and as a result I expect the laws of physics to be the same across players. If something contradictory occurs, please call it out on the OOC!

Common standards

Remember, this is an advanced roleplay and the standards associated with advanced roleplays do apply here.

Or,

Elevated standards. Advanced RP focuses on longer posts that include character development and elaborate plot development. Suggested minimum of 2-3 paragraphs per post.

I expect for players to be able to not play the role play to win, instead to play out the situation this role play has given.

I am not one to use authorial fiat unless absolutely needed to, for instance if someone is constantly harassing another member of this thread [which is not the same as being critical] or posts in the IC despite not being accepted.

Co-GMs will be chosen at my discretion.

Other than that, I want people to not fret over how often they play this RP nor stress themselves over any of the policies.

Resources

Online Sol Map, 3D
Advanced sol map, along with universe exploration. May not work on all computers!
Resource to get texture maps for any planet you want.
Wanna quick draft a app or post? Try this.

Potential Players

Section with potential players for the RP. Initial use is to alert people to this thread's existence.

@Isotope
@Commodore Robot
@Rhymer
@Sigma
@orichalk
@Lunamaria
@Tatsua Aiisen

How about a Interplanetary, Sol based Sci-fi RP?

I see there has apps posted. I'll check them now.

<App>

@TRF

It's nice to see interest in being a Jovian admiral to try to keep order in the system. However, I recommend that you treat your history and biography like writing a story instead of using bullet points. For instance I don't have much idea on what the Battle of Themisto war like. The only reason I used bullet points in the OP was to summarize, hence why in the second post I have more detailed information on the major factions. And on the lore standpoint, each of the major solar powers all rival each other, this includes the Jovian Federation and the Unified Martian Protectorate. Having a Jovian admiral who studied at a martian university is equivalent to a american general going to a soviet university. I put myself to blame as I neglected to state that in the OP's lore section, but i've fixed that now. All in all, while this may try to be a harder sci-fi than most, I still want things to have story to them. I should note I haven't looked deeply at the military part of your app yet.

<app>

@Lunamaria

Not so sure on some of the tech you describe, especially the idea of having a habitation ring round Io. One space elevator, fine, 18 space elevators that connect to a ring around all of Io that can make spaceships? Perhaps too much for this setting. All in all, I recommend refining your app some more since Io is my favorite of the moons.

oh god why would i even app this what am i doing with my life

The Terran Trolls

ALICE

Type: Organization Location: Earth Headquarters: "Wonderland" Synopsis: Despite their influence and size, little is known about ALICE's motives or structure, except that they hold nearly complete control over the vast Terran Underground, and worship an untouchable, enigmatic figure of the same name. They are a secretive and troublesome group, whose widespread followers on Earth have caused quite a few headaches for those attempting to create successful colonies on its surface. Some call them a religious cult, while others call them terrorists or anarchists, but they have only ever vaguely referred to themselves as being the "Seeds of the New World." They rarely act out in the open, and instead prefer to stick to the shadows and serve Alice's purposes in secrecy. It isn't uncommon for members of ALICE to integrate themselves into colonist society, working towards the organization's goals from within the various factions on the surface. Its immense influence in the shadows of Earth have allowed it to have some influence in the surrounding Terran space, including the Moon and whatever large orbital implementations are present.

Relevant Data

The Underworld Colonies of Earth

Still considered by many to be uninhabitable (or even nonexistent), there exists a sprawling network of underground colonies beneath the surface of earth, all of which have seemingly fallen into complete disuse. In some places, the facilities and implementations once designed to sustain life have somehow managed to remain intact, just waiting to be found by future colonists. At some, unknown point in time, the organization known vaguely as ALICE came to inhabit these deep, dark spaces, far from the watchful eyes of the surface dwellers. As of recently, they hold almost complete control over this unused space, and have preempted the colonist's attempts to harness it by strategically preventing any advances into their territory. Supposedly, ALICE has managed to repair the thought long-lost infrastructure of inter-continental railways, located far beneath the surface. This would explain their long-reaching influence, despite Earth's massive size. Unconfirmed, and generally not widely known.

Black Alice

A fabled super-drug said to have been circulated in the past through members of ALICE, which causes hallucinations of a strength and realism far surpassing Virtual Reality. Its origins and composition are unclear, and the drug itself has never been documented in any of the Terran colonies to date. Due to this, and its certain "Fantastical" qualities, it has been dubbed non-existent.

Wonderland

A land said to exist far beneath the surface of the Earth, where Alice and her closest subordinates operate from. It is the centre of all of ALICE's operations, and yet somehow manages to escape watchful eyes through clever camouflage and well-guarded secrecy. Thought to be located in the remnants of one of Earth's abandoned underground colonies, sometimes told to have been found in perfect condition prior to the colonization rush.

The Broadcast

A radio broadcast that can be picked up at certain, seemingly random intervals for a period of time ranging from four seconds to nearly fifty-five minutes, which details various strange, unidentified noises, and very rarely, strings of words. It is not known exactly what the purpose of the broadcast is, but it is thought most likely to be a method used by ALICE to communicate with its various operatives. Is the subject of much speculation and interest from the general public, and many an individual has been known to attempt to tune in from time to time, just to hear what's up. There are even some groups, unassociated with ALICE, that routinely monitor for signs of The Broadcast out of peculiar curiosity. The source of The Broadcast has been traced in the past, but it seems to be perpetually in motion, preventing any attempt to locate the "Broadcasting station". Some who reject the ALICE theory suggest that it is a somehow-intact program from Old Earth, although that would not explain how the broadcasting location seems to be in motion even to today. Those who have listened to The Broadcast share a general consensus that it is a "Mysterious, and oddly terrifying program." There are several reoccurring sounds and patterns from The Broadcast, which serve to even further increase the mystery factor of the enigmatic phenomenon. What's more, there have been many reported cases of unexplained noises similar to those heard in The Broadcast occurring in seemingly random locations around the world. While they most often seem to emanate from the ground or walls, they have been known to appear in other locations and contexts, and have even somehow made their way into video broadcasts, sound recordings, intercom system and other public sources.

So, basically, I made some spooky earthlings who like making a hard time for everybody on Earth. Enjoy(?).

@Tatsua Aiisen

So essentially a terran organization that has come to make use of the underground networks left over from the old order as a base for their operations? I like, not sure if app is complete or not currently, but it is good enough for IC. On the tech, the wonderland drug giving a more real than virtual reality sensation makes sense by likely being a mind altering substance [not too unlike LSD, which lewis caroll himself is said to have taken], whereas virtual reality isn't mind altering. I wonder if it induces 'wonderland syndrome' to those who take it. As for the underground network, when you say rebuild to you mean simply get it back running or do you mean rebuilding from scratch?