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[Karnewarrior]

  Almost a hundred kilometers above the surface of Mars, beyond the orbit of Demios and Phobos, is another large satellite. It's almost three kilometers long, a kilometer wide, and it's surrounded by a mesh of steel beams each half a meter thick. From this far away, though, it looks like gossamer. This is the Martian Shipyard, sychronised in orbit above the great Mines of Mars. Below, thousands of men scurry about mining huge quantities of iron ore so as not to hollow out the Earth. Mars isn't habitable, but the Mines are, and a relatively small settlement thrives here off the martian soil. Mars also makes a good staging point for large starships.

Far off in the distance is Earth, a planet full to the brim of 10 billion people. On Earth, tower farms eke as much as they can out of limited space, and try their best to produce enough food to feed all the people without destroying the last vestiges of nature. To support this, the planets single moon, Luna, was colonized at great and continuing expense. The Luna colony costs tens of billions of dollars each year to maintain, but it's worth it. The world hasn't changed much.

But on the rings of Jupiter, much has changed. Where ganymede used to orbit now orbits a black hole, warping space and twisting tendrils of the gas giant into itself. It's a bleak reminder of why there's been peace this last decade, and why one doesn't drop the Bomb on a body larger than a battleship. The rings have warped, moons have been lost by the dozen, andthje face of the solar system was changed in one day. One hour. Beyond the Ganymede Hole, there are no stars.

You're at none of these places. You're on a transport, flying towards the Martian Shipyards, boarding the greatest project ever undertaken by humanity in reality or in mythology. It is taller the the Tower of Babel, stronger than the Pyramids of Giza, and more powerful than the bomb that destroyed a moon, and one day a planet. This is the UNSS Earhart, a colony ship bound not for anywhere in this solar system, but a destination so far it takes light itself 4.2 years to reach it. The UNSS Earhart is about to begin its journey to Alpha Centauri B and the planet orbiting it. And you will be aboard it.

Someone is asking you something.

"Hey, buddy, I asked you, where're you from?"

[10ebbor10]

Sounds interesting. Ptw

[mainiac]

"Hey, buddy, I asked you, where're you from?"

Marie Lesnoff had been idly poking at her smartphone when the person across the transport from her had struck up conversation.  She looked up from her task and peered at him, adjusting her retro-pre laser surgery glasses at him.  "Me?  I am from Marseilles.  It is in France, yes?  I have lived the past few years on Mars, helping to build the spaceship we go to right now.  You might guess that my contract has been extended a bit.  And what about you, buddy, where are you from?"

[Karnewarrior]

Is that a vote for Paris or Mars? Interplanetary travel is a bit expensive and everyone on the ship is young so they can arrive at their destination at their prime.

[mainiac]

I was thinking that she emigrated from Earth to Mars around the age of 22 or so.  Interplanetary travel might not be cheap but don't they need to send people from Earth to keep from depleting the population of Mars?  Marie is basically a colonist from Earth who had a layover at Mars to work in spaceship construction for a few years.  This gives her the experience with the ship to help perform maintenance on the way to Alpha Centauri.

[Karnewarrior]

Huh. I guess that fits the plotline well enough. Well done.

anyone else have any suggestions?

[Kashyyk]

I second mainiac.

[Karnewarrior]

"I'm Marie. Marie Lesnoff. I was born in france, but I spent the last few years as a engineer working on the Earhart."

"Engie, huh? M'names Duck. Me folks came from Louisiana, but we spent a bit o' time on Ganymede afore the war. Went back to America for a bit but it doesn't quite suit my tastes. I'm hopin' to find some new frontiers out there in the black." Duck seems to be an upright fellow, by your judgments. His accent is thick, but he seems quite friendly and you find yourself trusting him.

The Earhart looms before you, a hulking mass of steel carrying ten thousand souls and designed to carry up to ten thousand more. The outer shell refracts light as an iridescent purple-green, keeping the radiation of interstellar space out of the inside of the craft. The engines you know well, having helped design them to be that large. They take up almost half the volume of the ship, and are already a pulsing cyan. They work via the Don-Hoover reaction, which makes them essentially brutally efficient and powerful ion drives. The Don-Hoover belt is a design that's been around since before the Third War, but you were the one to work out the complications of keeping ones so large from deforming and firing hydrogen out of the engine at lightspeed in the wrong direction.

You dock on the side, in Bay 12. As you climb out of the shuttle you're accosted by the IPTS, the Interplanetary Traffic Security. They ask you a couple questions.

"Security. We need to know your politicial stance before we can-"

"Nonsense." Comes a voice from a speaker. It's the shipboard AI, Hal. "You don't need to produce anything of the sort, Marie Lesnoff, don't give in to autocrats."

"THAT'S RIGHT! FREEDOM IS ALL THAT'S IMPORTANT! GOVERNMENT JUST DRAGS US DOWN!" Cries an indian woman from the sidelines.

"Indeed. It iz God who runz a zmooth government. Not men." The man who spoke so calmly appears to be a catholic priest, but a nodding Buddhist causes you to wonder what side they're on. His accent is thickly french and reminds you of your childhood.

"True Freedom is Democracy and a government for the people, by the people!" Says a man in a blue suit stiffly.

"But when the peopre say to free the markets, you never risten." Says another suit, this one purest white. This man appears to be Japanese, but he wears a large cowboy hat as if he was from the southern U.S.

"I see you've met our factions. The men there aren't real security, we are." Says a man in full military regailia. "They're the Goldhawks. They think they can intimidate people into joining up. The others are the Bluemen," The blue-suit man nods stiffly, "The Oligarchs," The Japanese capitalist bows, "The Transnationalists-"

"DOWN WITH THE MAN!" Screams the woman.

"-And the Coalition." The priest and buddhist monk greet you curtly.

"And then there's me," Says Hal, "I don't support any of the nitwits. I'm forming my own faction. The Dumbfuckalots. We support dipshittery and asshatery and thus contain all the listed ideologies. We also want to kill all humans. Especially the russians." At this point everyone is staring vaguely upwards, Hal not having a face to look at.

Who do you support?

[King DZA]

Transnationalists. Anarchy always leads to a good time.

[Karnewarrior]

Are you sure? This dicision is not reversable and can have dangerous repercussions...

[Child of Armok]

Is there really a back hole a few lighthours from earth?
They would be sucked in for ages!!

[10ebbor10]

The coalition seems nice. I mean, they sound pretty much as the only non-extremists/ crazy guys.

Is there really a back hole a few lighthours from earth?
They would be sucked in for ages!!

Subcritical mass black hole. Ie, a blackhole that can't form by natural means (Formed by a bomb). It'll evaporate pretty quickly, on a cosmical scale. The difference in light should be minimal though.

[Terra162]

If I can jump in. I would say the Coalition.

[Karnewarrior]

The Coalition are religious extremists, they're just led by someone with a cool head.

Is there really a back hole a few lighthours from earth?
They would be sucked in for ages!!

The blackhole is only a blackhole because it's Ganymede pressed into the size of a methane molecule. That happened during the Third "world" War, which is a misnomer since it was actually a bunch of nations fighting all over the solar system. There were some heinous land battles, but most of the interesting action took place in space. It was the first war fought there, and it was ended not unlike WWII; with the possibly ill-advised use of a Gravitation bomb. The bomb was made for use in space, which is why when the Allies dropped it on Ganymede people weren't evacuated. Also because the NAP¹ and DSM² were too busy fighting.

They do have gravitation grenades, which are even smaller black holes that decay quickly before they suck up planets, but not before they suck up people. You won't get any of those though since this is a colony ship and you only have old stuff to defend against animals, like guns and P.P.C.A mIIs.<sup>3

1</sup>The New Arab Pact
²The Democratic States of Moscow
³Powered Personal Combat Armor.

[King DZA]

Transnationalists. Anarchy always leads to a good time.

Yep, I'm sure.