Things Fall Apart
613 AE
-Humanity spread out from Terra in a ceaseless expansion. Terran ships went so far that they simply forgot to pay the Earth reverence as they once did. The majority of humans living today have never even spoke to a true Terran. The Terran Ambassador to the Federation passed away at the age of 192 in the year 3180. it has been nearly three hundred years since any word from Terra. No one seems to care… after all, humanity is no longer from Sol.
-The Federation has been dying for nearly a hundred years. Bled in every sector, subsector and even system by a deluge of independents, rising polities, the hypercorps and everyone else who sees gain. A federal polity of a thousand systems huddled together on the edge of space. The Federation existed more for the sake of peace between the systems than it did ever seek an expansion by war. The work of several hundred years has laid down and whimpered its last.
-The War, although everyone disagreed about which particular war their neighbors referred to, began small in a far corner of the Federation. Then it grew. There was no grand rebellion or alliance of upstarts. Systems, constellations, hypercorps and more all took a bite of the Federation’s flesh; small enough to be swatted aside but deep enough to cause infection.
-Although aliens surely exist and we have studied their many, many ruins they have not stepped out from the darkness to welcome us to their stars. In fact, most feel that the species that carved those statues are long gone and we are all that is left.
-But we are not alone. Science has provided us with friends, companions, soldiers and slaves through the miracle of genengineering. The uplifts have been at our side for hundreds of years although they are still discriminated against and, in many places, enslaved against their will. Altrants, genetically modified vat-grown humanoids have been bred for particular uses, particular jobs and certain fates. Soldiers, miners, consorts, labor and slaves… the old ways are coming back and they do not bode well for the Created or Uplifted.
-The FTL Drive is limited to just over 2 parsecs and breaks down with large objects. The notion of miles long vessels sailing the stars remains a myth.
-We have given digital birth to true AI. Sentient intelligences, braked for their own sanity that work on our behalf in the bureaucracy of a thousand worlds. This development alarms many and the Federation’s embrace of digital stewardship was one of the chisels that broke the foundations.
-On some planets our population is in the tens of billions and our habitats spiral kilometers into the sky built on the underbelly and the forgotten in the dank mists below. On other planets, the air is clean and the soil untouched and so we continue the path laid out by our predecessors and seek home, hearth and freedom on planets away from others.
-We wage war in the stars with beams of coherent light and grand weaponry unsafe for the atmosphere. But, to control a thing, you must own a thing and that requires you to travel down to the surface of the planet and grip it in your gloved fist. As the Federation falls, the reliability of low-tech ballistics remains a strong contender for planetside warfare.
-The preeminent war weapon is the ExoArmor and the ExoSuit. The ExoArmor (Heavy Gear) is a powered robotic chassis standing on average around 5m in height although larger, clumsier models exist. Capable of rapid deployment, movement and neural net-enhanced combat reactions, it is the high-end of military warfare. The ExoSuit (battledress) is a man-sized powered armor that functions in much the same capacity.
-The Federation has been dying for nearly a hundred years. Bled in every sector, subsector and even system by a deluge of independents, rising polities, the hypercorps and everyone else who sees gain. A federal polity of a thousand systems huddled together on the edge of space. The Federation existed more for the sake of peace between the systems than it did ever seek an expansion by war. The work of several hundred years has laid down and whimpered its last.
-The War, although everyone disagreed about which particular war their neighbors referred to, began small in a far corner of the Federation. Then it grew. There was no grand rebellion or alliance of upstarts. Systems, constellations, hypercorps and more all took a bite of the Federation’s flesh; small enough to be swatted aside but deep enough to cause infection.
-Although aliens surely exist and we have studied their many, many ruins they have not stepped out from the darkness to welcome us to their stars. In fact, most feel that the species that carved those statues are long gone and we are all that is left.
-But we are not alone. Science has provided us with friends, companions, soldiers and slaves through the miracle of genengineering. The uplifts have been at our side for hundreds of years although they are still discriminated against and, in many places, enslaved against their will. Altrants, genetically modified vat-grown humanoids have been bred for particular uses, particular jobs and certain fates. Soldiers, miners, consorts, labor and slaves… the old ways are coming back and they do not bode well for the Created or Uplifted.
-The FTL Drive is limited to just over 2 parsecs and breaks down with large objects. The notion of miles long vessels sailing the stars remains a myth.
-We have given digital birth to true AI. Sentient intelligences, braked for their own sanity that work on our behalf in the bureaucracy of a thousand worlds. This development alarms many and the Federation’s embrace of digital stewardship was one of the chisels that broke the foundations.
-On some planets our population is in the tens of billions and our habitats spiral kilometers into the sky built on the underbelly and the forgotten in the dank mists below. On other planets, the air is clean and the soil untouched and so we continue the path laid out by our predecessors and seek home, hearth and freedom on planets away from others.
-We wage war in the stars with beams of coherent light and grand weaponry unsafe for the atmosphere. But, to control a thing, you must own a thing and that requires you to travel down to the surface of the planet and grip it in your gloved fist. As the Federation falls, the reliability of low-tech ballistics remains a strong contender for planetside warfare.
-The preeminent war weapon is the ExoArmor and the ExoSuit. The ExoArmor (Heavy Gear) is a powered robotic chassis standing on average around 5m in height although larger, clumsier models exist. Capable of rapid deployment, movement and neural net-enhanced combat reactions, it is the high-end of military warfare. The ExoSuit (battledress) is a man-sized powered armor that functions in much the same capacity.