Zoomba

Join Date 11/2002

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My Sci Fi Universe - Part 1 (History)

My first venture into trying to build a fictional setting

Ok, this is the first part of the history of a sci-fi universe I'm creating for a friend who is trying his hand at game coding/design. When I come up with fictional worlds for RPGs and such, I first invent a history, and as I'm writing that, a lot of the rules and structures of my world sort of end up writing themselves. What I have hear is the very earliest piece of the history written out. From pre-space faring Earth to when they first set foot beyond the boundaries of the solar system. I have a lot more to write yet, such as what they discover on the other side of the gate, a war with an alien race, and then man's eventual domination of the galaxy and the development of the political and military factions that run things at the point where the game is going to take place.

This has not been proofread at all yet, so there will be grammar and spelling errors. I'm posting it here in the hopes that those of you on JU that do the writing thing can point out places where I need to tighten things up, or where I need to provide more explanation. This is my first serious shot at doing anything like this so I'm definitely going to have a fair number problems in my writing. Go ahead and toss in your two cents if you feel so inclined, I'd definitely appreciate it.

Part 1 - Into The Great Beyond...

In the late 21st century, mankind was nearing the limits of their home planet, Earth. Natural resources were becoming scarce, land to put people was becoming rare, and the population was exploding at an uncontrollable rate. The governments of the world were ill-equipped to deal with these problems as they were entangled in wars and unofficial conflicts across the globe. Terrorism and fundamentalism had become an increasing problem. Civil unrest was spreading the globe, armies became police forces and the concept of freedom gave way to police states, all in the name of "national security and safety" By the end of the century it looked as if humanity was on a fast track to oblivion.

Until the Pluto discovery...

On March 24th, 2087 at approximately 10:30am Eastern Standard Time, scientists from NASA, ESA and the SETI Project simultaneously detected radio transmissions coming from the position of Pluto. At first, they were discarded as an anomaly, since no sense could be made of the odd pattern. Initially it was guessed to be a bad transmission from one of the long-since discontinued Voyager or Pioneer probes from the previous century. However, over the next several days, the pattern continued. It would broadcast for several minutes, pause for a short while and then broadcast again. Once it was determined to not be an anomaly, and that it wasn't being broadcast by an old probe, the brightest minds in the world set to decyphering the message.

MIT, CERN, the Fusion Research Center in France, the Fusion Test Reactor in Japan... every scientific research facility in the world halted what they were working on and poured all of their attention and resources into solving the cryptic puzzle. Eventually, news of the broadcast leaked to the public despite the best government attempts to the contrary. However, instead of inspiring fear and panic as leaders expected, it quieted the unrest, it slowed the violence. No longer were people so caught up in petty day to day differences, suddenly there existed the possibility that they weren't alone in the Universe. Maybe it was the idea that it was now Mankind vs The Great Beyond instead of against Man vs Man, but this discovery helped to unite people in a way never before thought possible.

The world watched, waited and listened. It wasn't until 2089 that the message was finally decoded. The end result was nothing more than a picture and a word in ancient Greek...
Caduceus, staff of Hermes

Έñìçò

The image was the Caduceus and the greek word was translated to Hermes, The Greek Messenger God.

No one was sure what to make of it, it was just so cryptic that no one could agree on what it meant. Why would aliens plant images of a *Greek* god in a broadcast originating from Pluto? Why had it just started broadcasting? Where in the blazes ON Pluto could it be coming from since the planet had been scanned multiple times years ago by newer deep space probes? Question after question was asked, no one had any answers. Eventually it was decided that there was no point in just sitting here arguing over it, we had to go to Pluto to discover what exactly was going on.

While technology had advanced to the point where we had research colonies on the moon and on Mars, manned space flight had not yet broken beyond the asteroid belt. At first, probes were sent, but they found nothing. The best they were able to do was pinpoint that the transmission was coming from WITHIN Pluto. Some landers were sent and they attempted to explore the planet by remote control, but once again nothing was found.

By this point, several more years had passed, it was now 2113 and the fascination with the possibility of there being other intelligent species in the Universe had dwindled and conflict and war covered the globe once more, only this time the violence was acellerating at an ever faster pace. Anarchy was spreading through Eastern Europe, martial law had been imposed in North & South America, as well as parts of Asia and Western Europe. We were a world at war with ourselves, everyone was either fighting, or hiding trying to scrape out an existence in an increasingly hostile environment. Scientists and researchers, as well as leaders of industry began to abandon the surface and fled to the research bases on the Moon, or to mining and manufacturing operations along the asteroid belt. The situation looked dark indeed.

Then the unthinkable happened.

Details are sketchy, but it's generally believed that insurgents in Pakistan began to storm the last military hold-outs in the country and gained control of one nuclear missile. How it was launched, no one is sure, though there was speculation after the fact that in the final moments before being over run, a military official decided to finally take a shot at India, with whom Pakistan had a century-old nuclear stand-off with. How it exactly happened though is still a mystery, but the results are unforgettable. Once Pakistan launched the missile, India responded with their entire arsenal. According to old treaties and containment agreements, other Eastern European nations launched their weapons at India, which prompted Western Europe to launch theirs at them. Then China got into the fray, and soon countries of the Arab League. Within two hours of the first missile launch, 90% of the population of Europe and Asia had been killed. Most of the land mass was radioactive, and no governments were left to pick up the pieces. All that was left was N. & S. America, Southern Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Since no missiles were fired towards them at any point, they had held back their own arsenal. History books from the 20th Century called this Mutually Assured Destruction, and it was what had prevented this same thing from happening before. But in those days saner, more stable heads ruled the world.

All the while, the conflict had been watched from space. Horror and revulsion spread through the human settlements of the Solar System. Almost immediately armed troops were sent down to Earth to dismantle the remaining nuclear weapons to ensure no further damage could be done, and the irradiated zones were quarantined. In addition, a planet-wide lockdown was ordered by the now stronger forces of the Solar Defense Fleet. No one came or went from Earth without permission of the International Aerospace Corporation (IAC).

With humanity on Earth teetering on the edge of destruction, renewed efforts were underway to explore the Hermes broadcast. After repeated tests, finally in 2125, the first manned flight to Pluto took place. Traveling at speeds far lower than the Speed of Light, it took several months for the expedition crew to reach the planet. On December 24th, 2125, the first man landed on Pluto, and became the most traveled human being in history. He only held the record for the next two years though.

As soon as the crew stepped off the ship, the ground began to shake and soon a cave appeared in a nearby rock pile. To make matters stranger, the cave was lit. Curious, the team explored the cavern. At the bottom they discovered what looked like a steel door. As they approached it slid open, revealing a large, well lit, room. Inside the room there were five padded chairs surrounding a pedistal in the middle of the room. The crew wandered in and all sat down, and as soon as the last one was in their seat, the lights in the room shut off and a single spotlight abote the pedistal clicked on. Where there was nothing but air before, now there stood an odd humanoid figure. And then... it spoke.

In a language none of them understood.

After a moment the figure paused, and began again, this time a few words could be made out in English. After the same interval, the figure paused again and then started speaking again, this time even clearer and more understandable. This cycle repeated until they had the complete message in English "If you understand this message, please say 'Yes'" They all responded with "Yes" finally.

The figure then went on to explain that Earth, designated Planet 3, System 42.1 56.8, Galaxy 203 has been under observation for approximately 5 billion Earth years, and that this was an automated message set to activate when humans finally became advanced enough to reach the final planet in their system. It went on to explain that as a race on the periphery of the Universe, they were not yet ready to join the larger inter-galactic community, but it was time for them to take a step forward and begin to interact with other species, and after a time we would be ready to join the Universe propper as a space faring race. To begin this journey, a gateway would become available to the galaxy Praxxodus, where we would first meet a galactic neighbor.

Suddenly, the walls lit up with schematics and images of space travel technologies. Chemical formulas for stronger materials, plans for FTL ship drives, new means to generate energy. Everything we needed to begin building ships that could safely travel the vast expanses of space. After the plans had been displayed, the figure said it was now time to deploy the gateway. Then the pedistal went blank and the room began to violently shake. If they could have seen what happened from space, they would have seen the entire planet peeled apart, exposing a massive ring construct, with a small sphere sitting at the center. The sphere was the room the explorers were in. Once the debris of the planet cleared, the spehere began to move back in towards the center of the system. Suddenly it blinked out of existence and reappeared orbiting the Mars research base. A shuttle was sent out to retrieve the crew and the construct.

We now had the plans to build ships that would take us beyond our home system, beyond even our galaxy. The IAC immediately set to work on building a fleet of ships to begin exploring what was on the other side of the gateway.

In 2140, Three large expedition ships were created, the Abderus, Priapus and Cephalus. They were loaded to the brim with scientists, settlers and explorers. On the last day of the year, they entered the gateway, and vanished.

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Shame they just discoverd the 10th planet. Maybe a slight edit job?

Good story tho!

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oops

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The 10th planet is still in dispute (as is whether or not Pluto is a planet at all... again). Though I don't reference Pluto as the last planet or the end of the solar system, so I may be able to just leave it as is.

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detected radio transmissions coming from the position of Pluto

The figure then went on to explain that Earth, designated Planet 3, System 42.1 56.8, Galaxy 203 has been under observation for approximately 5 billion Earth years, and that this was an automated message set to activate when humans finally became advanced enough to reach the final planet in their system.

Plot flaw?

Seriously, that can be whiteouted at any time. Keep writing please! Very intriguing. It is a great outline for book one.

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Ah, it's actually been a while since I wrote this so I forgot that bit was there. I may just remove that one little reference.

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Cordelia

Join Date 07/2002

Zoomba - and excellent start to an intriguing story. I e-mailed you a couple of minor comments on the story, but in general I wanted to know what happened to the colony ships at the end. Is this where our story begins? Looking forward to more. Keep up the good work!

BTW, many people claim to be writers, but the real writers are the ones who get up every day and do some writing. Good for you for getting it done and not procrastinating.

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The colony ships will be part two of the history. It just seemed like a good point to section it off at. I have been meaning to pick up on part 2 for a while, but I haven't had a free moment the past few weeks to sit down and write anything. All I have right now are notes and sketches scattered around my desk.

Looks like my email is being slow today, so I'll keep an eye out for your message.

I appreciate the feedback

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Just to give an outline of how I want to chunk out the story leading up the the "current" time for the game:
-Part 1...
We reach the point of going beyond our solar system through the newly discovered gate.
-Part 2...
What happens to the colony ships, our initial efforts to establish a presence on the other side of the gate, our first encounter with alien life. Issues humanity spread out over a great distance (and the time it takes to travel) explored.
-Part 3...
After a good amount of time, humanity established in new galaxy. Tensions mount with alien race. War errupts. Gate to Earth damaged and no longer functioning.
-Part 4...
Current game time, looking back on the war, the results and how the galaxy coped with being cut off from Earth, how things came to be how they are now.

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This is pretty good Zoomba. Quite a good plot. I'm not a game person, so what I get from this probably wouldn't say anything that could be of help. However, looking at this through the eyes of someone who loves science fiction movies, books, it would be intriguing and I would want to read it.

I would however want to know more details in between the war, the new discoveries, focusing on one person, or a tribe or someone, who would be the "star" for me to root for. And how what is happening is affecting this person and how he/she is handling it.

I guess if I'm understanding it right (forgive me if I'm not) what you've written so far is the history? And going forward is what will be the game to be played? And so then you will have a figure to focus on to be the main role in this game story? Nice. It's beginning to make sense. I can't wait to read the rest!

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What I am doing right now is developing the backstory/history of a sci-fi setting. The game I'm writing for is going to be set waaaaay in the future from what I've written so far. I write the history first as a way to organically grow the setting. When I finish with the history I'll have a backdrop to draw from to write actual story elements, I'll have political and philosphical groups to use. I'll have prejudices and societal insecurities (having lost their homeworld). And a lot of this history will have degenerated into vauge myth and legend by the point of the game, so I'll be able to take this and mutate it a bit into something really fantastic in places.

What I aim to do once I have the broader history/timeline done out is to go back to it, pick out a few individual points and try my hand at writing out an actual story with characters and dialogue. Do maybe 3 or 4 short stories to get my head around writing with characters.

For the game itself, the game is going to be a free-roaming Privateer type of game where you're a lone pilot in a large universe with various planets, governments, corporations, cults etc to contend with. By the time my friend gets to the point where he's ready to build the game content itself (right now he's coding the engine and working on some basic graphics and models to test things with) I hope to have all this back story stuff done and then we'll sit down, look at what I've written and decide how to make the game and the story fit together.

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Zoom,

As a 20 year gamer I would say that is a solid story line so far!

What realm of game are you thinking of for this?
First-person shooter like Halo
RPG?
Myst - like?
MMORG?

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Like I said in my last comment, currently it looks like it's going to be a privateer type space sim. Ya know, lone pilot against the universe, choose your friends and foes, fairly free-form.

Oh, I also have some thoughts on possibly doing the war bit as a set of missions for GC2 if it comes with an editor at launch. For fun and to see if I can adapt my story to different game genres

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Love it! You're on the right track! But you don't need me to say that!

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