STARFIRE: SHATTERED GALAXY
Prologue:
Space. The Void. The Final Frontier. It has been called many things, but one thing is true: Regardless of what lurked out there in the blackness, Space was humanities future.
We always wondered, always sought, always searched. We looked for signs we weren’t alone. Our efforts lasted hundreds of years, from the first institution of SETI in 1984 onwards to the mega telescopes and signal amplifiers of the 2020s. It wasn’t until the 2100s that we found evidence we weren’t alone, and it took another hundred years before we punched our first hole through the dimensions in order to go faster than light.
Throughout this period, humanties will was tried. We solved our ecological problems during the technology boom of the 21st century. We thought we’d solved our conflicts too, until World War Three started in the 2030’s. Over two hundred million people died, and the wars conclusion was agreed not due to clear victory but due to war exhaustion. After 20 years of fighting, all sides agreed to a ceasefire.
Like the cold war of the 20th century, this tension-filled world led to another boom in technology, from cybernetics to nanotechnology, Nuclear tech to gene therapy, medicine to engineering and metallurgy. Humanity had never grown so fast.
When the To’kar picked up our signals in 2103, humanities focus turned not just from wars with itself, but to potential wars with extra-terrestrial enemies. Various nations set up anti—alien departments, from the USA’s Non-Terrestrial Strategic Command (NTSTRATCOM) and Russia’s Alien Defense System (ADS) to the UK’s Royal Alien Counter-Operations Command (RACOC) and China’s Peoples Defence Corps (PDC).
Technology advanced, but hostilities from the previous war had not abated. Proxy wars were fought globally, mostly in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.
Assassination had, also, become a common thing in the upper echelons of society. With the governments sometimes openly supporting attempts on their rivals governments, an un-official open season was declared in which corporations also took part. Some philosophers and societal analysts declared that Humanity was now in a Dystopian condition.
Some corporations and Governments with more humanitarian leanings grew displeased with the conditions of Earth, and set out to colonise the rest of the solar system. First, the colonies on the moon were expanded from only a half dozen research stations. What were once small science communities of a couple dozen soon turned to small towns and cities of thousands or tens of thousands of people. This spurred further development of technologies still only found in Sci Fi fiction. Artificial gravity, oxygen generation, hyper-efficient advanced cooling systems for heat dissipation in a vacuum and much more were developed by government and corporation alike, often with identical inventions getting produced by independent sources.
In 2131, a UK company known as Imperium Global began work on Project: Vanguard. A monumental plan for the safeguarding of the human race and the creation of a powerful faction who shunned technologies Imperium saw as useless, such as Cybernetics. Instead, they advocated Genetic engineering/modification and nanotechnological augmentation.
The world progressed further down the technological rabbit hole until, in 2199, Professor Albers Volkov-Russel, an Anglo-Russian engineer and scientist, created the first Dimension Core. The Dimension Core, or DC, was capable of punching holes in reality to a multi-dimensional tunnel in which starships could travel faster than light. He tested his device personally using a retrofitted Canadian Star Freighter previously used to transport H3 fusion fuel from the mining stations around Jupiter to Earth. Making the journey from Pluto to Venus in 30 seconds, Albers proved he could move faster than light. He also theorised that powerful enough sub-light engines could be used to propel the ship faster through the multi-dimensional tunnel, reaching even higher speeds.
Needless to day, the impact on Human society was immense. For the first time in Human history, other star systems were within easy reach.
Humanity reached for the stars with glee.
Two centuries after Albers’ Dimension Cores were invented, humanity had colonised over 300 worlds, with a total population reaching the tens of billions. Unfortunately, a fractured homeworld led to a fractured civilisation. Various worlds held allegiances to various Earth polities or corporations, all of which had their own goals.
As you could probably predict, this set the stage for another war. The Fourth World War, also known as the Great Inter-stellar War, was immense in size and length.
For 50 years, Humanity tore itself apart. Whether it was government against government, corporation against corporation or government against corporation, it didn’t matter. Billions died, piracy and space-banditry bloomed and worlds burned.
However the result of the war was the most horrific.
Humanity thoroughly shattered.
Imperium Globals Project: Vanguard had become a massive top secret project, and in the aftermath of the war, the Vangaurdians declared their independence from Humanity as a whole.
In secret, Imperium Global had been shipping civilians, scientists, engineers and military personnel from Old Commonwealth nations (UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa) and their colonies (which totalled 50 as of 2400 (the beginning of the Fourth World War) to a secret and artificially designed solar system using a young but bright star in the Aeturna System. Six artificial worlds roughly 1.5 times the size of Earth were built to house these people and the flora and fauna of Earth. Like a colossal ark it was to safeguard humanity, its knowledge and its beloved ecology.
Now, dissatisfied with the dystopian and totalitarian polities of Earth and after a colossal, Imperium Global merged with the Vanguard. This new polity, based out of the newly renamed Vanguard System (or Vanguardia, to some), soon became a force to be reckoned with as many Old Commonwealth space forces, civilians and even entire colonies defected to the Vanguard banner.
The Vanguardians weren’t the only new polity to rise out of the ashes of the old order. The Siren Corporation, specialists in cybernetics and in many ways the ideological opposites to Imperium Global, broke away. Renaming themselves the Cyrans, they sought to perfect and expand upon the human form through cybernetic enhancements and organic-synthetic hybridisation.
Ceres Interstellar Supply, a very ecology-focused genetic engineering firm, also founded their own polity based in the outer rim of Humanities previous territory. They based their territory on Genesis, one of a dozen resource rich, but ecologically pristine, worlds. Renaming themselves the Genorians, they broke away in disgust at the burning and glassing of dozens of worlds.
Fourthly, Sirius Intelligence Interstellar (SII), a company focused on the development of computer systems and AI, completed their Singularity project. After proving uploaded humans could still ‘breed’ and that the new human-programs, also known as hugrams, were identical to real humans, SII embarked on a mass-uploading that was almost entirely voluntary. Seeing inherent weaknesses in the human form and the human condition and believing there to be no resolution to them, SII believed the future of humanity is as an uploaded people, who use disposable robotic bodies to interact with the real world. By the end of their mass-uploading, they had 10 billion hugrams over 9 colony worlds. They renamed themselves the Embodied of the Singularity (EOTS or Embodied, in short).
News of the breakaway states shook the rest of Human space. With Earth, the Sol system and its nearest sectors going dark, what remained of human space was divided between warring factions.
Pirate kings and Bandit groups cut out their own space territories based on a warlord and tribal mentality. Corporations without the capital or resources of the Big Four clung to their few worlds as few corporations had more than three or four worlds, keeping their people under their watchful eyes, employing mercenary groups or private armies to keep them safe.
Government entities that had lost contact with the homeworld sought to consolidate their hold. The Russia-sourced Iron Guard cut out a section of human territory, whose goal was to rebuild. Their ultimate goal being the destruction of the enemies they believed to have destroyed Earth. The USA-sourced Unity sought to reunite humanity. Seizing two dozen formerly US colonies, Unity laid the foundation for their ‘reconquista’.
For 100 years, these factions grew, developed and forged their own paths. No one sought the Homeworld, as all believed it lost, nothing more than a mass grave. The unaligned human worlds either perished due to lack of supplies or went out on their own, becoming trading havens and planet-sized city states. Many were conquered by the new human factions.
However, none of the factions paid attention to the other players of the galactic game, seemingly forgetting that Humanity wasn’t the only species amongst the stars.
The Coalition of United Species (CUS), an alliance of 26 spacefaring races watched with dismay as a promising young race tore itself apart. They mourned human dead, but decided against aiding humanity as humanities perceived ruthlessness and warlike nature dissuaded the CUS from contacting humanity in any form until Humanity, as a whole, had, in the words of the High Chancellor, ‘matured’.
The To’kar, a serpentine race with the ‘upper body’ very similar to that of a human, also watched as their long time trading partner shattered. Dismayed, the To’kar took the the nearest human worlds under their protection, deigning to help them however they could. To’kar pirates, however, saw the human territories as easy pickings and, since the shattering of mankind, have been at constant war with Human raiding parties.
The Slinkar, an insectoid race hailing from another galaxy known to them as the Fortus Galaxy, also took interest. The Slinkar are a very warlike species, and have been warring with the CUS, To’kar and many other galactic powers for centuries. Many have called their a plague, a scourge. Yet few truly understand their origins. They are a hive minded species, yet at the same time are individuals. They can take many shapes and sizes. The Slinkar have recently started slowly advancing into formerly Human space, eating or enslaving the humans they come across.
Three other galactic powers also took special interest in Humanities war and its former territory. The Moray (a race of matriarchal, all female humanoids), Abridan (a race of stubborn, honourable avian-mammal hybrids) and Torun ( a race of cunning, sly, fox-like creatures who are prove to vanity and lust) all looked towards the Humans due to Humanities unusually advanced technology for such a young race. Whilst most remnants of human civilisation were damaged beyond understanding, all three factions have made collection of human tech an objective, whilst warring with each other over the spoils. All three are also partial members of the CUS.
Lastly, there is another enemy lurking in the void. An enemy more terrible than any species of the Milky Way could fathom. An enemy hungry for power........
And so, the year is 2551. Humanity is broken, the Homeworld and its surrounding systems are silent, and enemies are closing in on all sides.
It is time to choose.....
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WELCOME to STARFIRE: Shattered Galaxy.
Some may recognise a few things from a previous game I ran. Some names, factions and suchlike are being re-used as this is set in a more developed version of the Starfire: War and Politics universe.
In this, I hope to expand on the information given in my previous game whilst also producing something of similar quality. I was happy with my previous writing and the praise it got. Games I’ve run since haven’t been as successful. As such, I’ve gone back to Sci Fi writing.
This is a Suggestion Game. You, the community, assume the role of a single character (as I don’t have the time or the skill to run a multi-character game...yet).
So, lets get started.
Before we get to the actual story and the suggestion part of this suggestion game, I need to know whether you guys would like to pick a pre-planned background from a list, or whether you want me to start the story/game like I did with Starfire War and Politics, ie with a character with no known background that you discover as the games goes on.
So,
OPTION A: Choose from a list of pre-planned background with 1 option being a mysterious background
OPTION B: Go straight straight in on and mysterious background.
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Topic: (SG) STARFIRE: Shattered Galaxy (Read 967 times)