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| Science Fiction Writers forum This are is for those of you who like to write scifi or create a history or backstory as part or your design process |
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Published by cooloneinca 2224 04-15-2007 | ||||||||||||
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By
cooloneinca 2224
on
04-15-2007, 09:58 PM
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| new pic  The Centurion Class Battlecruiser is the primary Ship of the Line operated by the Earth Alliance Interplanetary Defense Forces (IDF). The massive vessel measures half a kilometer from bow to stern and is twice as powerful as the largest rebel cruiser. The Centurion was the first vessel to be equipped with the new Imperial Ship Drives' Capital-1 Fusion Core, the largest such unit yet installed aboard an Alliance vessel at the time of the Centurion's launch in 2989. The Centurion was designed for deep space superiority, and as such is armed to the teeth with powerful direct fire weapon's systems, heavy torpedo launchers, missile defense systems, heavy armor, and extensive shielding. However, though brute force has proven to be the deciding factor in most Alliance and rebel skirmishes, any good ship captain will tell you information is also a valuable weapon, especially if such information can be gained before the first shots are fired. For that reason, the Centurion has the largest GUARD sensor suite of any known vessel, and can detect and track an enemy vessel's gravity-distortion signature from nearly twelve light years away. With this weapon in a Centurion commander's grasp, the warship can track its prey indefinitely without being observed. Repeated successful raids in recent years against the Novan ship yards on Ambria have proven the superiority of the Centurion over the Novan Advocet Class Heavy Cruiser. In addition to tradition weapons systems and advanced sensor suites, the Centurion holds one last ace up its sleeve: an entire Marine Battalion and twenty AutoPods. In formation with the new Spartacus Class Assault Cruiser, the Centurion poses a significant threat to any enemy garrison army, as repeated successful attacks have shown. These troops, in addition to direct ground engagements, have proven invaluable as boarding parties on rebel warships and transports, as well as the occasional pirate or Interstellar Trade Agreement violator the Centurion has the pleasure of finding. The Centurion continues production as the premier front line warship. <weapon's data> direct fire damage index=3600; missile damage index=1200 <4800> |
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Last edited by cooloneinca 2224; 04-15-2007 at 10:11 PM.
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By
cooloneinca 2224
on
04-16-2007, 12:32 AM
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| all new pic  hope you enjoy  cred all mine |
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Last edited by cooloneinca 2224; 04-22-2007 at 10:42 PM.
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By
cooloneinca 2224
on
04-16-2007, 02:50 PM
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| Peace lasted on Earth for nearly four centuries. War and poverty seemed ghosts of the past. Unified by the thought of preserving our race by expanding out among the stars, mankind stretched forth his hand across the heavens, touching dozens of worlds across hundreds of lightyears of deep, cold space... But the evil that dwells in men's hearts returned as the hope and dream of human preservation faded, replaced by ambition, greed, and the classic thirst for power. The race of man scattered itself across the cosmos, settling worlds with a fierce hunger for knowledge that had not visited our minds since the Age of Exploration first spurred mankind to uncover the globe. But even as these new, brave explorers struggled to survive on far flung colonial worlds, those left comfortably behind sought to reap the treasures of these new worlds by exploiting those very settlers who carved them from the cold recesses of oblivion. The rebellions came fast and bloody, colonial powers echoing the shots fired ages ago on the frontier lands of ancient Earth. Some worlds gained their indepence, others failed, defeated, and were slowly ground back under the heel of their oppressive Motherland overseers. As dawn strikes out across the year 3003, the stage is set for a contest of power, intrigue, and fortune. The Cold War has persisted for centuries as the Earth Alliance struggles to subjugate its rebellious colonial worlds and battles ceaselessly against the repeated assaults of the Novan breakaway republics of the New Terran Confederation. Even as the new revolutionaries among the Alliance' malcontents plot their next move, the Confederation and its allies are making plans to launch a renewed offensive against the hated Earth Alliance, this time with a newly developed secret weapon, a weapon never before imagined by a member of the human race... The human race, over the course of several centuries finally united itself under one banner. The last nation-state on Earth joined the United Nations Global Alliance (UNGA) in the year 2200. The road to planetary unification started back in the year 1945 with the formation of the United Nations. Over the following years the world economy became more and more intricately interdependent, and culminated with the formation of the World Bank in the year 2087. The World Bank was an extension of the ideals that had led to the formation of the International Money Fund (IMF), which was, established 1947. The World Bank took the idea of an international "savings and loan" one step further, uniting the world economy with one currency, one stock exchange, and an international financial institution open to all, backed by the full faith and credit of the combined economies of one hundred and eighty two nations. The UNGA was formed in the year 2150, and included all the former nations of the United Nations, NATO, and European Union. This massive power block of both economic and social force effectively ruled the world, and in fifty years nearly every corner of the globe was enjoying international trade and diplomatic exchange on a level never before seen. Under the UNGA, every member nation retained its territorial authority and powers, with only matters of global importance, for example trade agreements and international border disputes, elevated for review by the UNGA. A uniform set of social laws guaranteeing basic fundamental human rights to every human being were adopted and enforced on every nation by the UNGA. For the next century, international war, widespread starvation, and other social ills became all but extinct over the face of the Earth. Earth could be considered a fine place to live in the year 2200, but a sense of vulnerability began to permeate global culture. Sensing that the relative peace and prosperity may be a sign of impending doom, an idea then widespread in the media, the citizens of Earth began to look to the stars as a possible source of future salvation. Already several asteroids the size of cities had come very close to colliding with Earth during the latter half of the 22nd century. The Unites States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) lead the way in space exploration for over two hundred years, but by 2220 NASA and the European Space Probe Agency had become equals in the quest to litter the solar system with probes, satellites, and telescopes. At the urging of the UNGA in 2230 NASA and ESPA merged resources and formed the International Space Administration. The International Space Station project two hundred years prior had led to the creation of several subsequent space stations, each larger and more advanced than the last, but in 2235 the fledgling ISA was tasked by the UNGA to develop the first fully functional and sustainable colony on another world. It came as no surprise when Mars was the target chosen. Over the next seventy years a series of spacecraft carried supplies, materials, and eventually several thousand colonists to the red planet. Massive container towers, recycled fuel tanks from those original spacecraft, were erected and filled with potable water and chemicals. Prefab labs, habitats, industrial facilities and eventually even malls began to dot the surface of Mars. By the year 2305 a small community of scientists, wealthy adventurers, doctors, and hand picked civilians were living on the surface of the Red Planet. Experiments in the Martian laboratories were many and varied, but one key study focused on the relationship between certain particles of matter, energy, and their behavioral differences in Earth and Mars environments. In the year 2325 the most important scientific discovery since the advent of the wheel occurred in a small prefabricated laboratory unit on Mars: we mastered the graviton! An elementary particle that had escaped us for centuries was discovered to be the key to the secret of uniting classical and quantum physics. The study of the interaction of gravitons with matter paved the way for the next chapter of scientific discovery, and the technological implications seemed endless. Following the discovery and subsequent work in gravitics in the early 24th century, a series of ground breaking technological advancements took place. Around the year 2335 several scientific institutions simultaneously claimed credit for the first technology to take advantage of gravitics. By applying a negative charge to a series of gravitons suspended between two nonconductive materials using a static electromagnetic field, scientists were able to create a stable antigravity field. In 2345 the technology was applied to building materials, allowing truly massive structures to be built. Soon huge domes were being erected over homesteads and outposts all over Mars' surface. In 2355 the first repulsor field was patented, which lead to hover cars and wingless aircraft called airspeeders. Hover ground vehicles were built on anti-grav sleds, whereas airspeeders utilized outboard anti-grav pods to carry the vehicle through the air at incredible speeds and with little cost in fuel. Other applications were found over the years, from tractor fields that could tow an object remotely, to launching spacecraft from the surface into orbit on anti-grav lift fields alone. The successful harnessing of fusion power in 2287 finally enabled scientists to seriously consider travel to another star. Fusion power had freed up the power grid on Earth, stabilized the fossil fuel vacuum and allowed a stable source of power for the Martian colonies and the orbital space platforms scattered across the solar system. By 2330 micro-fusion engines were being installed aboard the numerous craft that continuously crisscrossed the vacuum between Earth, Mars, and the various outposts springing up across the solar system. FTL travel was long thought to be a fantasy, one that could only be achieved in science fiction, but the principles of gravitics changed our understanding of the limitations nature set upon us. The ability to cross immense interstellar distances became possible in the year 2325 when mankind discovered the ability to manipulate the forces of gravity. Gravitics paved the way for hover vehicles and other antigravity applications, but, these side-technologies paled in comparison to the affect gravitics would have when applied to spacetravel. In 2380 scientists discovered that creating an extremely compressed a gravitic field would create an articial wormhole event. The wormhole event, called a "Vortex", was only sustainable for several seconds, and the initial Faster Than Light (FTL) probes only traveled several light seconds before being "dumped" back into normal, or "real", space. Researchers soon were able to construct an FTL engine system that could systematically create a series of wormhole, or vortex, events, thereby allowing sustained FTL travel. By 2400 the ISA had begun to launch a series of space probes from their orbital facility around Mars After several inconclusive attempts, scientists finally successfully sent a probe outside the solar system in the blink of an eye. In 2405 an automated probe was sent out beyond the solar system and returned at speeds significantly faster than light. Scientists were stunned at the ease with which light speed could be achieved, and by 2410 the first human safely piloted an FTL vessel beyond Pluto. This research culminated in 2412 when the first reliable FTL vessel was constructed, now universally referred to as a "Lightship". The early lightships developed in the early 2400s were primitive by today's standards. The first probe was nothing more than a long capsule with an ion drive mounted at the rear, a sensor farm mounted amidships, and an exposed Gravitic Propulsion Drive (GPD) assembly at the bow. A fusion engine, navigation computer, and communication array completed the small vessel. Later probes added maneuvering thrusters, more sophisticated communication and sensory equipment, and various scientific experiments. It's interesting to note that animals were never used during these early days of FTL experimentation, thanks mostly to the computer advances around that time. The first human occupied lightship, launched in 2410, was basically yet another probe vessel with a habitat module wedged inside the central hull. Later vessels added more sophisticated life support systems, backup batteries, EVA suits and vehicles, and finally in 2418, a landing craft. By 2425 lightships had matured into sophisticated vessels complete with solar sails, multiple crew modules, landing pods, cargo capacity, and even probes of their own. Lightships continued to evolve over the next hundred years, mostly based on the same hull form as the original probe designs in the early 2400s. However, the need for military vessels toward the end of the millennium saw a radical change in lightship design. |
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By
cooloneinca 2224
on
04-16-2007, 08:50 PM
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| In 2430 we began to spread across the stars. The search for another world like our own, or indeed another people like us, spurred the early explorers to direct their lightships in every direction. 1.8 light years could be covered in a day, and a single month of travel could carry a lightship over fifty light years. However, travel was haphazard at best. Sensors were useless in the FTL vortex, and natural gravity wells or interference from the FTL vortexes of other vessels had to be studiously avoided, or the gravity distortion would shear vessels into pieces. FTL jumps had to be planned and calculated, and the sophisticated computer systems aboard light ships took into account every imaginable variable to safely guide a lightship to its intended destination. Of the dozens of lightships built in those first 20 years, many were lost without trace. By 2450 mankind had set foot on several dozen planets outside our solar system and had traveled as far as 130 light years from Earth. The first Near Earth World, often called an NE World or simply a NEW System, was discovered in the year 2452. This new world was the first planet that had all the components necessary to support human life, unaided by machinery. The first explorers expected to meet intelligent alien life forms, but none were found. The planet was called Terra Nova, or "New Earth", and was often called New Terra by its inhabitants in the years to come. By 2462, twenty years later, fusion reactors, prefab structures, and a thousand humans occupied Terra Nova. The world was rather drab compared to Earth, with endless grasslands and steppes in the temperate regions, ice caps, and broad oceans in between. Vegetation was sparse and the trees were short, ugly affairs compared with the towering trees on Earth. However, there was plenty of space, a resource Earth had long since exhausted. The animals on Terra Nova were very varied however, from massive whales to small rodents, and every imaginable insect. Terra Nova was a xenobiologist's dreams come true. The quest for a new Near Earth World started about two minutes after the first human set foot on Terra Nova, or so historians say. As we spread out across the systems nearest Earth, we soon realized that Near Earth planets would be hard to come by. After we discovered Terra Nova in 2452, the ISA began commissioning larger and longer-range lightships. The second NE World was discovered in 2459, and this one much closer to Earth! The UNGA voted to call this new planet Gallia Nova, due to the French sponsorship of the research project responsible for discovering the world. This new world was only 39 light years away, less than half the distance to Terra Nova. The ISA realized that our point and miss method of exploration was too sporadic and random to effectively map our surrounding space, and so a program to build a planetary detector was instated. The search for a sensory device to locate NEW Systems took fifty years, and by that time we had already uncovered three more worlds. The planet Utopia, the third human colony, was discovered in 2464. Utopia was anything but utopian, being rather similar to Terra Nova in that it was flat and featureless, but the climate was less temperate. The ground was hard and flash floods rolled continuously over the plains, and nearly four fifths of the surface was covered in broiling oceans. Scientists believed Utopia was going through the after effects of a global thaw following an ice age, and most settlements had to be located in the mountain regions around the warmer equatorial belt and at the southern pole. The nation-state of the United Kingdom was granted a charter in 2460 to seek out and establish a colony beyond the 100 light year barrier (the distance a ship could nominally travel without refueling, refurbishing, and replacing its exhausted GPD). After four years of searching, the team discovered a lush world 112 light-years coreward, and called it Britannia. This was the fourth NE World, and the most beautiful. While Terra Nova was mostly flat and featureless and Gallia Nova cold and mountainous, Britannia was lush and green. Vast tropical forests dotted the equatorial regions, towering pines covered the rolling hills in the temperate regions, and great oceans rolled between the five continents. Following the landing of settlers and researchers on Britannia in 2466, twenty years followed before another world was discovered. Finally, nearly eight months out from Earth, a licensed Terra Nova commercial vessel that had gone off course detected a new planet. The wayward Novans landed on a desert world with three moons in 2487, and decided to call the world Ithaca, after the home city of Ulysses, as they too were far from home and adrift. Note: Colonial Government: The United Nations Global Alliance was a representative body composed of delegations from the 180 member nation-states of Earth. On Earth, each nation still retained sovereignty within its borders. It was decided, however, that the UNGA alone would rule on legal matters that concerned offworld issues. A special court under the UNGA, called the Colonial Affairs Office, headquartered on Earth, handled all disputes and matters of importance that didn't fall under the authority of the individual colonial governments. These governments were councils elected by the citizens of the colony, under the leadership of a colonial magistrate, called a governor. The Lunar colonies were the only exception, the inhabitants being considered citizens of their respective member nation, and not considered citizens of a separate political entity. Mars was the first colony to follow the colonial government system. The Martian General Assembly was a legislative body established in 2310. By that time several thousand colonists from dozens of Earth nations were settled around the original landing site and subsequent "capital" city. Massive domes allowed further settlers to breathe fresh air and walk about on the planet without EVA suits, and anti-grav technology later allowed artificial gravity flooring, permitting people to live normal, healthy lives on Mars. The colonial governments on Mars and other subsequent worlds were answerable directly to the Colonial Affairs Office on Earth. The colonial governments ruled on legal matters within their own court systems, had their own law enforcement, and collected their own internal taxes. However, the laws were written by the UNGA for each colony to follow, and the colonies that shipped goods to Earth or other worlds were taxed. This was no surprise to the colonists, and for nearly two centuries the system worked fine. The new sensor developed in the early 2500s was called GUARD, or Graviton Ultra-Amplification and Resonance Detection. The GUARD device allowed scientists and explorers to remotely detect the presence of significant gravitic Distortions at a range up to 5 light years away. The GUARD system was initially very primitive, and was only useful for detecting relatively large planets such as Red Dwarfs and Gas Giants. But the GUARD system was refined continuously for ten years, and was soon able to detect the difference between a barren world and a world with vast expanses of surface water, a sure sign of a NE World. This refined GUARD system was dubbed the GUARD Navigation System. By 2520 the GUARD Navigation System was standard issue aboard the first ISA Deep Explorer Vessels, giant spacecraft developed by the ISA to detect, explore, chart, and colonize NE Worlds. GUARD could only be used in normal space, so the Explorer had to jump short distances and power up the GUARD Nav, change course, and as such track down objects that could be NE Systems. Lightships became larger, and soon massive interplanetary vessels were moving between Earth and Terra Nova delivering goods, resources and colonists to and fro. In less than fifty years a sprawling metropolis surrounded the original landing site, and hundreds of homesteads dotted the landscape. In the years to come, Terra Nova would quickly become the developmental epicenter of human life, with towering skyscrapers and extensive spaceports. Britannia and Gallia Nova followed suit, and in the years to come the burden of twenty billion people on Earth began to ease as people moved from the chaotic, sprawling cities of Earth to the natural, rugged splendor of the frontier worlds. People were moving to and from the colonies on a regular basis in the early 2500s. Dozens of commercial passenger ships traveled along the established "space lanes", paths determined to be safe to travel at FTL speed between worlds. The cost of travel to another world by 2510 was approximately five thousand GU's, or about one month's wages for the normal working person. It was therefore conceivable for the average Earth citizen to visit relatives on Gallia Nova once a year if need be, and it was practical for businesses to send representatives to other worlds and for goods to be cost effectively traded between colonies. By 2550 two hundred and fifty thousand people were living on Terra Nova, less than four billion on Mars, nearly one hundred thousand on Gallia Nova and sixty thousand on Britannia. The climate on Utopia discouraged civilians from settling en masse, as rainfall was constant and salt water covered most of the surface. Only on the vast mountain ranges and chilly poles did settlements start to appear, and these were mostly industrial and science centers. Perhaps six thousand people in all inhabited Utopia at this time. Ithaca, however, was a vast desert world with three moons, two the size of Luna and one half the size. It took a full year for a ship to travel to Ithaca and back from Earth, however, and by 2550 only a few thousand had begun to explore the planets deserts, equatorial jungles, and temperate polar regions. The planet's two vast oceans, each on opposite sides of the planet, were found to be teeming with life, and fishing became popular with the colonists for both leisure and as an industry. It was these colonists that first became disgruntled with foreign rule. Most of them were Terra Novans, the children of the first Novans that set foot on the planet sixty years previously. These early settlers soon fell in love with Ithaca, and brought many of their relatives to live there. On Earth, news of the bountiful oceans and year round pleasant seasons attracted tourist and adventure seekers, curious at life so far from civilization. Ithaca was soon a major tourist attraction, its climate similar to that of Nevada, and indeed many described it as "an entire planet of Southern California". The islands off the coasts were both tropical and beautiful. On Terra Nova, the people fondly thought of Ithaca as "their world". Ithaca was also closer to Terra Nova than Earth, as it was only 120 light years from Terra Nova, and vessels bound for Ithaca from Earth had to stop at Terra Nova for refueling. The thought of "mainland" Earthlings traveling to a "Novan planet" and using their homeworld of Terra Nova as a fuel stop became a source of angst for Terra Novans, who by this time had begun calling themselves "New Terrans". Meanwhile, on Ithaca, thousands of Terra Novans were arriving with each transport, though each round trip took a full six months. By 2560, Earthlings, guilty by association with the UNGA and its omnipresent ISA trade officials and interplanetary tax collectors, were being regarded as "snobs" and "elitists" by the Novans. The worrisome friction between Ithacans and Earthlings, and Earthlings and Novans would continue for years to come. In 2563, a NE planet was discovered midway between Terra Nova and Ithaca. The UNGA Explorer who discovered it named the planet Ambria. Just 13 light years off the major spacelane between Terra Nova and Ithaca, and almost equidistant between them, Ambria was in a perfect position as a waystation between the two worlds. Ambria was a small, rocky world, with sparse vegetation and a thin atmosphere. A narrow band of small asteroids formed a ring around the planet, and it was common for small meteors to fall to the surface, creating small impact creators all across the equatorial regions of the world. However, the rich iron resources and wide expanses of open unforested terrain proved ideal for mining and base building. Though windy and rainy, a human could breathe the somewhat thin atmosphere with ease if great exertion was avoided. However, it wasn't the geography that made the world ideal, it was its location as a waypoint between the Novan worlds. A major spaceport began construction in orbit of Ambria in 2565. The port was to be second only to the massive construction and orbital fuel depots around Earth itself. Massive sections of the station were built and transported within commercial container ships to the construction site. Most of the workforce was contracted from Terra Novan companies, as it was only a few weeks out from Terra Nova and two months from Earth and Mars. The ISA shipyards were designed to repair and maintain the fleet of commercial and industrial craft that plied to and from Ithaca and Terra Nova. In addition, the ships yards were to be a launch pad for a fleet of ISA Explorers. Dozens of Near Earth worlds, and possible alien cultures, lay only light-years away, and the UNGA, indeed humanity at large, was burning with curiosity. Twenty five billion people take a lot of feeding, and that's precisely how many mouths existed on Earth and Mars in 2575. Earth was heavily overpopulated, nearly every corner of the world was paved over with concrete, and apartment buildings were on average six stories tall in the country, and far taller in the cities Skyscrapers pierced the sky across the globe, and anti-grav cores allowed buildings several hundred levels tall to be constructed with ease. Earth was, in many respects, a world taken out of a twentieth century science fiction novel, complete with buzzing air cars, hovercraft, speed cycles, and ridiculously expansive cities populated by an overwhelming number of people and vehicles. There simply was nowhere to grow food, and most food was produced in the few remaining rural areas or in vast underground hydroponics facilities. Cloning had long been a reliable method of producing fields of perfect grain and troves of perfect livestock, but these too, needed room, which Earth simply couldn't afford. The discovery of the terrestrial colonial worlds was quite literally a lifesaver for Earth. Terra Novan soil was prefect for farming, as was Britannia's. The global form of recreation and food gathering on Ithaca became fishing, and in 2575 the Ithacans were shipping cargo holds of fish meat to Earth each month. It wasn't long before the restive colonials on Terra Nova and Ithaca, who now considered themselves both to be "New Terran" worlds, realized the potential power they could hold over their UNGA rulers who lived three months away. In 2575, therefore, the Terra Nova shipping corporation Super Nova Shipping Corp, decided to stop paying the docking fees and cargo inspection surcharges that the Earth orbital docking platforms exacted from each Super Nova Container ship, and refused to pay the "destination tax" that the Colonial Affairs Office enforced on all interstellar shipping. The backlash from the UNGA was immediate. The destination tax was for the shipping companies own benefit, as the tax was directly applied to the cost of maintaining the massive orbital docking platforms, refueling stations, dome facilities, and other offworld structures and agencies that were required to maintain the interstellar trade infrastructure. The UNGA gave the Super Nova Shipping Corp. sixty days to reverse its decision. On the sixtieth day, the Colonial Governor of Terra Nova ordered all Novan shipping companies and public trade offices to follow the Super Nova Shipping Corp's example, and stop paying the destination tax and fees that the Colonial Affairs Office collected for "maintenance". In 2576 the UNGA passed a resolution ordering docks on Earth, Mars, Luna, Britannia, Gallia Nova, Utopia, Ithaca, Ambria, and the dozens of other facilities scattered between, to refuse any Terra Novan cargo vessels permission to dock until they paid the required tax. Knowing that Terra Nova companies couldn't afford to lose shiploads and warehouses full of goods, as even frozen goods cost money to store, the UNGA felt confident the Novas would comply. Indeed, perhaps the Novans would have, as public outrage was great on Earth and Mars, those who had primarily relied on Terra Nova as a food source for sixty years. However, the UNGA overestimated its influence on the Terra Novans, people who had for years been bristling under foreign rule. When the UNGA sent a replacement governor to Terra Nova in June of 2576 (the General Council was a democratically elected government, but the governor, who presided over the council, was appointed by the UNGA itself), he met with an unpleasant surprise. When his landing craft landed at the New Terran Capital Spaceport, he was promptly arrested and jailed. The Ithacan Planetary Assembly, who now represented nearly seventy thousand Ithacans, voted by unanimous consent to support the Terra Novans. Furthermore, the massive orbital yard complex and manufacturing facilities on Ambria was seized, not by Terra Novans or Ithacans, but by the Ambrians! On Earth, the UNGA urgently appealed to its colonial brothers and sisters to be reasonable. They then reminded the colonies that the UNGA controlled the ISA, and the ISA controlled the spacelanes. To this, the Terra Novans seized the ISA vessels at Ambria, and vowed to build their own docking stations and their own cargo vessels. The UNGA realized its hand had been forced, and in 2579, with dwindling food supplies and the ISA utterly powerless, the Earth government relented. The destination tax was repealed. In 2600, humans were living in large numbers on twenty extra-Solar System worlds. Twenty billion lived on Earth, several hundred million on Luna, four billion on Mars, millions on the nearly discovered colonial worlds, and nearly as many were living on the various settlements in domed outposts within 50 light years of Earth. As more worlds were discovered that humans could safely inhabit, the overpopulation burden on Earth slowly began to ease. The production of large lightships allowed regular travel between Earth, Mars, and the new colonies. The population of Terra Nova reached 800 million. By 2602 four generations had been born on Terra Nova soil, and three generations on Gallia Nova and Britannia. By this time the UNGA International Space Agency had a fleet of some fifty lightships of varying sizes capable of traveling as many as 100 light years before refueling, and several hundred smaller lightships operated by various nation-states, commercial enterprises, institutions, and wealthy entrepreneurs were traveling among the human occupied worlds and space as far out as 180 light years from Earth. The ISA kept strict regulations on interplanetary travel. Only the ISA could grant a license to operate a lightship, all travel had to be approved ahead of time, sometimes months in advance, and non-ISA vessels could not travel to any unapproved location. All interstellar craft had to carry an accompanying ISA Observer to make sure that no unauthorized course deviations took place. Piracy was strictly outlawed, and the punishment for such was life in prison. Lightships became more and more complex. Early GPD utilized an exposed Gravitic Boom, a long metal rod at the bow of the vessel that created the gravitic compression responsible for the wormhole event that allows FTL flight. In the year 2430 the Gravitic Propulsion Drive was reengineered, and the Gravitic Boom was rendered obsolete. Second generation Gravitic Propulsion Drives employed a long magnetic constriction chamber, through which a stream of hyper-accelerated gravitons were propelled from the bow of the vessel. Lightship design also had started to become more varied. The ISA built long, segmented vessels with an ion drive section at the rear that could be swapped out should the engines become worn or damaged. At the front of an ISA vessel was the GPD housing, and, in a middle section module between the front and rear sections or often mounted above them, an ISA vessel featured a command section. This section contained the crew quarters, computer equipment, EVA craft and landing landing craft, labs, bridge, sensor gear, and so forth. Most nation-state vessels were smaller versions of the ISA colonial and explorer ships. Civilian designs displayed more variation however. Massive cargo vessels featured huge ion drive sections, a long segmented series of cargo modules in the middle, and a GPD section at the front. It is interesting to note that as of 2600, for the first time in human history, we had not had a major war on Earth or elsewhere for several centuries. A series of nation-state skirmishes on Earth and Mars, and later Terra Nova, dotted the newspapers, but war on a scale seen during the twentieth century was a true thing of the past. Even the brief so called Rebellion of Terra Nova and its supporters in the 2570s took place without a weapon being fired. Mankind simply had no capacity for a bloody war. |
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By
cooloneinca 2224
on
04-16-2007, 11:35 PM
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| Is there any one who is going to say ENEYTHING |
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By
DAve
on
04-17-2007, 11:04 AM
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| The pics have a definate style to them, although I think they are a bit washed out, try dropping the ambient light intensity (infact I always turn it off for space shots and rely on spot/distant lights) Unfortunatly I have not had the time to read all your text. DAve |
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By
spudmonkey
on
04-17-2007, 05:31 PM
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| Is the ship being effected by shadows? It doesn't look like it from the render, especially when compared to the shadow on the moon. The ship design falls under the boxy-but-good category for me. Is it a Volvo?  |
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Linear Mode
