Universe Pitch: Techno Triads

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Universe Pitch: Techno Triads

Post by NoXion »

Inspired by my recent posts in Off Topic, I'd like to throw out this idea for a universe that been swirling around a bit in my head since then. I'd like to know what you think, but remember that it's unfinished and nothing has been really set in stone in my mind yet.

Imagine a world where scientists, engineers and industrialists not only have free reign, but they actually do reign over a global union that represents what's left of human civilisation after an extended Cold War turned hot. A world where madcap schemes of the type that tend to appear in dreams after eating an over-large pizza actually (sorta) work. A world filled with grand projects of engineering, science and industry that are as breathtaking in their scale and daring as they are staggering in their sheer audacity. A world in which the spirit of Scientific Man was never crushed by the likes petty bureaucrats, loony environmentalists, and miserly accountants. A World that embraces the Triad of Progress, Science and Technology (The capitals are important!).

Welcome, my friends, to the world ruled by the Techno Triads.

While the first Techno Triad itself actually has it's roots in a secret East-West alliance of scientists that started before World War Three broke out, the main "story" of this universe takes place over three primary eras:


Era 1: the Global Era

At the beginning of this era, the Techno Triad faces the challenges of a planet devasted by global thermonuclear war, tank-riding armies of bandits that prey on the dazed and confused survivors, as well as ocean-going pirates armed with aircraft carriers and submarines that represent the leftover forces of the East and West. Due to the environmental devastation, the citizens of the Techno Triad live in crowded cities as well as specially-built arcologies. Think of the world as sort of a combination between that of Blade Runner and Mad Max with all the dials turned to 11, and you'll get close.


Era 2: the Cislunar Era

In this era, the Earth has been tamed by the Triad, with the pirates and bandits crushed and most of the environmental damage fixed. Vast glittering new cities have sprung up around the old arcologies, the Earth is ringed with orbital facilities and the Moon is in the process of rapidly being colonised. But while the environment and infrastructure of the Earth has been refreshed and renewed, it's political system has grown corrupt and sclerotic, generating resentment among the orbital colonies as well as on the Moon itself. Therefore the Cislunar Era is just as wracked with conflict as the time before if not more so, due to both Selenian and Colonial desire to free themselves from what they see as an obsolete political institution in order to form Techno Triads of their own.


Era 3: The Interplanetary Era

With the breaking away of the Moon and Colonies from Terran political influence, the stage was set for the rest of the Solar System to be colonised over this period. Political refugees, disgraced (and sometimes stark raving mad!) scientists, and those who (for many reasons) simply wanted to get away from an increasingly crowded Earth seeked new homes to call their own. Later in this era, some even brave (some would say foolhardy) souls took the ultimate gamble and headed out into the Great Dark, the very nature of their expeditions meaning their fate was a complete mystery. Meanwhile, more and more of the non-Earth Triads increasingly viewed the human biological form as becoming obsolete if it had not done so already. Centralist and conservative factions were horrified at what they saw as the increasing dissolution of Humanity, taking action (political, military and terroristic) against those who advocated or facilitated the creation of genetically engineered humans (called "Frankensteins" by bioconservatives) and non-human intelligences such as AI, robots and uplifts as well as attacking them directly.

The future of this universe is bright, but uncertain. Will we ever discover what happened to those venturesome trailblazers who left our tiny archipelago of planets and moons in the vast ocean of space? Will the bioconservatives ever succeed in their campaign to stall the artificial evolution of Humanity, or are they already doomed? What other challenges will Humanity face?

Only time will tell.
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Re: Universe Pitch: Techno Triads

Post by NoXion »

Pirates and Bandits

Let's talk about those shifty fellows with a predeliction for technologically-assisted plunder that I mentioned earlier. It must be pointed out that in this universe, The Rule Of Cool taked precedent over realism, practicality and budget concerns. Firstly, it's more fun that way, and secondly this isn't an entirely serious venture in the first place. So let's meet the Rogues Gallery:


The Steel Horde

The Steel Horde is a nomadic army composed mainly of several former Soviet Army Armoured Divisions. They strike at will throughout Eurasia where Techno Triad control is weak or nonexistant. What is of great concern is that not only does the Steel Horde have a large number of battle tanks and armoured transports in their possession, but they also seem to have managed to acquire a significant amount of mobile artillery, which as well as giving them potent anti-air capability means they also have nuclear capability thanks to at least a dozen mobile ICBM launchers.


Juggernaughts

The collective name for about a dozen vehicles the size of small cities that prowl the Americas. The design of each of these Juggernaughts varies greatly, but they all share some features and capabilities in common, including the ability to wade significant depths (enabling travel on continental shelves as well as the land). All of them are bristling with weaponry of all types and sizes, including but not limited to vulcan cannons, battleship cannons, missile launchers, aircraft catapults, ramps for deploying smaller vehicles, and more. There are unconfirmed rumours that some Juggernaughts are capable of total immersion underwater, enabling them to travel over the entire world and is perhaps able to explain their elusive nature despite their size.


Wolverine Packs (or simply Wolverines)

Both Ex-Western and Ex-Soviet submarine fleets that survived WWIII and took up a life of piracy and holding coastal towns and cities to ransom are referred to in fearful tones as Wolverine Packs. Of all the malcontents of the post-WWIII world, the Wolverine packs strike the most terror into the hearts of the ordinary folk due to their ability to strike anytime, anywhere, without warning. Combine this with possible nuclear capability and you have a heady brew.


Eagle Nests

Carrier groups orphaned of their nation-states, turned pirate. The most high-tech of all the world's marauders, their vessels are stuffed with fighters, fighter-bombers, interceptors, bombers, AWACS aircraft and helicopters of all kinds. They are greatly feared on land as well as at sea due to deep striking capability.


Wasp Jars

During the Cold War, the United States developed nuclear-powered bombers that could constantly fly circuits around the world, waiting for the signal to rain nuclear death on Commie cities and military bases. The surviving examples of WWIII now do the same, except that they act autonomously and stirke as and when they feel like it. As well as having nuclear and conventional bombs and missiles, these bomber have a more substantial air defence than a couple of dozen anti-aircraft guns - they also contain parasite fighters which they can deploy and retrieve in flight, called Wasps, hence the name. Some also carry tactical bombers called Hornets.


Doom Balloons

While technically speaking dirigibles rather than balloons, the evocative name has long since stuck. Considered the Ex-Soviet counterpart to the Wasp Jars, the Doom Balloons make up for their slow speed with a larger armament and greater range of deployable aircraft. Doom Balloons can individually range from the relatively small Scout Blimps and Battle Blimps.
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Re: Universe Pitch: Techno Triads

Post by Magister Militum »

Airship Pirates! I really like some of the bandit ideas you've developed here, Nox. This also makes we wonder what the Triad has under its sleeves in order to fight these guys.
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Re: Universe Pitch: Techno Triads

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

I am partial to the skypirating horde of Project PlutOrion death bombers ruining everyone's shift from irradiated clouds.

Hypertechnological Megadeathic postapocalypse!
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Re: Universe Pitch: Techno Triads

Post by Mobius 1 »

Doom Balloons and Battle Blimps! The rule of cool rules hard and strong, and I love it.
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Re: Universe Pitch: Techno Triads

Post by NoXion »

Techno Triad Military Odds and Sods

During the Global Era the Techno Triad developed and tested a number of new military units, each with varying levels of success inspite of a number of hiccups and false starts. Some of these new units remained in use into later eras, while others fell by the wayside. The most dreaded sight in a Techno Triad soldier's career was not seeing yet another wave of tanks appear on the horizon, but seeing an over-stimulated, under-supervised white-coated scientist on approach with a gleam in his eyes and armfuls of blueprints, models and prototypes.


Mobile Infantry

The need to have a rapid reaction force in order to deal with raiders was considered paramount, and thus the world's greatest minds set out to work on the problem. The result was the Mobile Infantry, a catch-all term for infantry soldiers equipped with a wide variety of mobility enhancing devices. These include jetpacks, rocketpacks, nuclear powered pogo sticks, helipacks, and tiny, foldaway one-man vehicles such as rotorcycles, collapsible jet/rocket-propelled microlights, and inflatable aircraft. The inflatable aircraft tended to have a disappointing life expectancy in hostile situations.


Super-Heavy Armour Groups (SHAGs)

These units were developed as a response to the Juggernaught menace. Conventional armour simply did too little damage against them and the proximity of battlefields to friendly cities precluded the nuclear option. There was also a considerable surplus of warships left over from WWIII. Some unknown but certifiable genius somewhere in the Techno Triad hierarchy had the idea of fixing sets of enormous wheels onto their hulls which doubled as paddles, enabling the resulting marriage to travel both on land and on water. During the Wars of Independance in the Cislunar Era, this idea was expanded upon with titanic submarines with caterpiller tracks that were capable of moving on land and along the seabed as well as through the sea, armed with extensive strategic weaponry as well as more conventional arms.


Supercavitating Submarines

The most demoralising variety of raiders were the Wolverine Packs, so it was with great fanfare that fleets of nuclear-powered supercavitating submarines were built, which were designed to hunt down the Wolverine Packs and protect the rapidly growing marine assets of the Techno Triad. In addition to conventional torpedos, they were equipped with supercavitating versions as well as guns and cannons firing supercavitating rounds. Later they were also equipped with blue-green laser cannons and sonar weaponry. There two main variants of this submarine - that standard hunter-killer and the carrier version, which carried scout subs, one/two-man fighter subs and automated microsubs.


Atomic Scramjets

While the pestilential Wasp Jars are kept aloft with nuclear-powered turbojets, the squadrons of Atomic Scramjet aircraft developed by the Techno Triad were something else. All types of aircraft are represented, from UAVs to strategic bombers and everything in between. Atomic Scramjets during the Global Era on Earth could not use the full power of their engines over inhabited areas, but in the atmospheres of Mars and Venus and the gas giants during the Interplanetary Era they had almost total freedom to fully open the throttle.


Electromagnetic Defence Towers

Composed of a brushed steel sphere at the top of a tall spire, EDTs are a common defence system. They have three modes of operation. The "Zap" mode generates a massive electrical field, with the result that any aircraft, missile or hapless bird that gets too close is immediately turned to charcoal by a fat bolt of electricity. "Repel" mode generates a repulsive magnetic field capable of stopping battleships in their tracks. "Attract" irresistably drags aircraft and other objects smack into the hardened steel sphere, smushing it in the process. People with fillings or piercings are advised to stay well out range.


Of course, this is only a sample of the ideas that were tried. As time passed, the Techno Triad and it offspring came up with more and more ambitious of dubious reliability. But when they do work, they work spectacularly.
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Re: Universe Pitch: Techno Triads

Post by Magister Militum »

Nuclear powered pogo sticks....that's one hell of a way to move around the battlefield.
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Re: Universe Pitch: Techno Triads

Post by Mobius 1 »

Did I just read that correctly? Somebody pinch me.
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Re: Universe Pitch: Techno Triads

Post by speaker-to-trolls »

Cool, it's like The Shape of Things to Come if rewritten by Doc Smith (but without all the libertarianism), or something. Or like a world where supervillains finally take over and start setting the world to rights.

So, those American wasp jars, do they actually have to land at some point or do they just carry so much fuel that they don't need to come down for the forseeable future? An odd question, I know. I have another one here: From the sounds of it the scientists at the forefront would be the engineers and physicists, are there also some biotechnological wonders being cooked up in the Citadels of Science(assuming the Triads regard biology as a real science)?
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Re: Universe Pitch: Techno Triads

Post by NoXion »

speaker-to-trolls wrote:Cool, it's like The Shape of Things to Come if rewritten by Doc Smith (but without all the libertarianism), or something. Or like a world where supervillains finally take over and start setting the world to rights.
Supervillains with SUPERSCIENCE! And perhaps a smidgeon of social conscience - enough to make sure that nobody under their rule is homeless or starving, but not enough to interfere with their vision.
So, those American wasp jars, do they actually have to land at some point or do they just carry so much fuel that they don't need to come down for the forseeable future? An odd question, I know.
I don't see why they can't also have nuclear-powered tanker aircraft carrying additional atomic fuel to replenish other craft while in flight.
I have another one here: From the sounds of it the scientists at the forefront would be the engineers and physicists, are there also some biotechnological wonders being cooked up in the Citadels of Science(assuming the Triads regard biology as a real science)?
The biological scientists have enough clout of their own, but not as much as the physicists or engineers. They certainly have enough influence to produce legions of experimental animals, plus the occasional blasphemy against nature.
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Re: Universe Pitch: Techno Triads

Post by NoXion »

A Tour of the Solar System

During the Interplanetary Era of Techno Triad rule, the Solar System was extensively settled and developed, from the recently discovered innermost planet Vulkan all the way out to the Oort Cloud and, perhaps, beyond. As the Independance Wars of the Cislunar Era proved, consolidated Techno Triads have a definate tendency to fracture once they expand beyond the confines of a single body, although a number of mutual-interest military/economic alliances and federations did spring up. In the interests of minimising atrocities and civilian casualties, a system-wide Rules of Engagement Treaty was established early on, with it's roots in the Earth-Luna Accords that were established following the Wars of Independance. The success of the RoE Treaty, perhaps the most successful of it's kind in human history, has been attributed to the following lines in the document: " ... RECOGNISING that any who do not adhere to this Treaty represent a threat not only to their immediate neighbours but also to the safety, security and survival of the Human Race as a whole ... It is therefore the case that any Techno Triad, Federation or Alliance that transgresses this Treaty shall henceforth be declared "fair game" for the following: ... Invasion, occupation and demolishment of the transgressing authority ... " This did not mean, however, that the Interplanetary Era was a peaceful one; in fact, a major criticism of the Treaty was that it's terms were directly responsible for unnecessarily prolonging intra-system warfare. Defenders of the Treaty object that the alternative choices were ultimately between an unenforceable blanket ban on hostilities, or a chaotic situation where civilian targets would be indiscriminately targeted and planets/moons being glassed by large-scale impactors. Neither scenario being palatable, they argue, the third option was instead pursued and supporters of the Treaty point out it's ongoing success. Nobody in their right mind, they go on to say, would want a repeat of the atrocities committed on both sides during the Wars of Independance. Bioconservative Triads have frequently been accused of breaking the Treaty by supporting asymmetrical warfare/terrorist actions against civilian targets by extremist groups, a charge they either deny or weasel out of by claiming the targets weren't really civilian.


Vulkan

Vulkan's existance was known before WWIII, but it was not until afterwards, during the Global Era, that probes were sent to investigate it fully. These probes discovered a truly hellish world, with a molten, red-hot daylight side and a nightside that was significantly cooler but riddled with rivers and lakes of lava, volcanos, calderas and cinder cones. It is tidally locked with it's primary like the Moon, meaning that it always keeps one face towards the Sun. It has a thick, soupy atmosphere that is constantly being blown away by the solar wind, but by the same measure is continually replenished by the planet's rampant volcanic activity. Fierce winds constantly blow clouds of sulphur and volcanic dust towards the nightside, which unlike the relatively clear dayside is perpetually cloaked in thick banks of cloud. Earthquakes of great magnitude occasionally wrack the planet's crust, tearing great rents and gashes which quickly fill with molten lava, and the whole planet constantly flexes due to the Sun's powerful gravitational influence. Vulkan whips around the sun in a mere 14 Earth days, making it the fastest travelling planet. During the Interplanetary Era, Vulkan's vast mineral resources were exploited by titanic Juggernaught-like Mining Units on the nightside, providing a significant amount of the Solar System's uranium and other fissionables, and later on Vulkan's lagrangian points were the location of Solar Wind Collection Facilities which provided a significant source of proton-proton fusion fuel. A number of Space Fountains located on the nightside provided low-energy transmission of resources between Vulkan's orbit and it's surface. During the various conflicts of the Interplanetary Era, Vulkan's Triad always opted to remain neutral, leading many to dub it "the Switzerland of the Solar System".


Mercury

(with apologies to Ford Prefect)

Like Vulkan, Mercury was an important source of mineral resources, but this was later eclipsed by an explosively expanding antimatter industry powered by extensive deposits of fissionables and vast solar farms, which also power a manufacturing sector which has been thus far unmatched by anyone except perhaps the NEO-Asteroid Belt Union of Manufacturing (NEO-ABUM), followed by United Mars Industries, although the UMI's emphasis was on shipwrighting more than anything else. Unlike Vulkan, Mercury has had a turbulent history, attempting to use it's industrial clout as leverage against the other polities of the Solar System, mainly the other non-neutral Inner System powers. This has meant that Outer System polities could often count on Mercurian support in actions against other Inner System powers.


Venus

Venus was the second planet in the Solar System where terraforming was commenced, where the process is still ongoing. Seeded with genetically engineered algae, which created shells of carbon dioxide polymers, which rained down on the surface when they died, blanketing the entire planet in a thick layer of chalky substance. Carbon was extracted out of this new crustal layer, permanently ensuring Venus' place as the number one exporter of nanotubes, artificial diamonds and other carbon-based products. The leftover oxygen from this process was used in the continuing transformation of the planet's atmosphere, and due to the vast quantity of oxygen produced, was also exported to other terraformation projects such as Mars as well to other bodies and habitats that required a constant supply of it.


Earth

Along with the Moon, Earth spent most of the early days of the Interplanetary Era recovering from the Wars of Independance, possibly the most brutal conflict in human history barring World War Three. During and after the rebuilding process, Earth's population rapidly increased, with enormous cities and arcologies spreading across the continents. This growth was not limited to there, however, with undersea cities swiftly blooming on the abyssal plains of the oceans, a growing habitation complex in the Antarctic, and even a mega-arcology under the Himalayas adding to Earth's swelling population as well as countless Atollvilles and the vast floating cities of Atlantis and Pacifica. Indeed, for a long time during the first half of the Interplanetary Era, Earth still contained the majority of the Solar System's population. In spite of this large amount of development, Earth was referred to as "the Jewel of the Solar System", it's brilliant blue-white colour making it truly unique.


Orbitsville

Orbitsville is the name for the necklace of space stations and habitats girdling Earth, as well as the great clusters of same in the Earth-Moon L4 and L5 points. They gained their political independance from Earth during the Wars of Independance of the Cislunar Era, and since then have done everything in their power to remain free from Earth influence, aiding the Moon with the establishment of colonies and settlements on NEOs and in the Asteroid Belt, and entering into economic alliances with them once they became independant. Orbitsville is the biggest producer of spacecraft after the United Mars Industries, only losing their dominance to them once the settlement of Mars took off.


The Moon (Luna)

The Moon was once the Solar System's primary source of Helium-3, but was later superceded by the gas giants of the Outer System. Towards the end of the Interplanetary Era, Selenian industry concentrated mainly on manufacturing and antimatter production, much like Mercury, with a bit of mineral extraction on the side. The Moon is also a significant contributor to scientific endeavour, with many laboratories, farside observatories and large particle accelerators. The Moon is also called the "Silicon Moon" due to it's notable communications and computing research & industry.


The NEO Alliance of Triads

As part of the Rules of Engagement Treaty, the larger Near Earth Objects were colonised and settled while the smaller examples were used by the settlements and colonies for raw materials, the rational being that such objects would not be used as weapons against Earth or other Inner System worlds if they were inhabited and used up for resources. So far, this seems to have worked, and many Inner System worlds provided incentives for their citizens to migrate to the NEOs. Part of the motivation for the formation of the NEO-ABUM was to provide a source of employment to the new inhabitants.


Mars

The first planet to inhabited as well the first to be terraformed, the previously dead world of Mars is now harsh but bearable, with long cold winters and short but intense summers. The moons of Phobos and Deimos are major space stations and habitats with large populations of permanent residents. Mars has the largest population of the Solar System after Earth, with many large cities and numerous arcologies. In addition to it's important shipwrighting industry that is centred around it's moons, Mars has a large tourist industry, with ski resorts, beaches, extensive natural parks and it's primary attraction, the relics of the extinct Martian civilisation. As well as the pyramids and ruined temples, Mars has the titanic Arean Museum, which hosts thousands of exhibits including fossils, technological artefacts, manuscripts and codices with translations, recreations of ancient Martian scenes, animatronic Martians and fauna, model Martian cities, and many more besides. The Arean Museum itself is an impressive example of engineering, taking advantage of the planet's 1/3 gravity compared to Earth.


The Asteroid Belt

The Asteroid Belt has the honour of being the most populous of all the asteroidal worlds, with Ceres alone having more than a billion people towards the end of the Interplanetary Era. Many of the larger asteroids in the Belt have either been hollowed out and spun or honeycombed with a maze of corridors and habitation chambers. The Belt is also home to one of humanity's most ambitious engineering projects to date, a staggeringly enormous particle accelerator that encircles it's entire circumference. This gargantuan device consists of a rosette of 24 particle injectors and 192 supermagnets to bend the beam. Once completed, it will be able to answer the deepest mysteries of physics, and will ensure that the Asteroid Belt usurp the Moon as the Solar System's primary centre of scientific enquiry.


Jupiter and moons

The Jovian Subsystem, as it is also known, is almost a solar system unto itself. Ganymede and Callisto are the major population centres, while Io is exploited for mineral resources and Europa, since the discovery of a complex native ecosystem under it's icy surface, is a nature reserve. Jupiter was initially an important source of He3, used as a fusion fuel, but was quickly overtaken by Saturn due to much lower energy cost of extracting it from there. A great many of Jupiter's asteroidal moons are also inhabited.


Trojan Asteroids

While most Trojans are made of ice, there are enough rocky Trojans to make colonisation a worthwhile venture. The significant quantities of ice make Trojan habitations independant in terms of water and oxygen, and Trojans habitats frequently trade water and oxygen for metals, fissionables and other resources that the Trojans are poor in.


Saturn and moons

Without a doubt, the capital of the Saturnine Subsystem is Titan. It's dull orange landscape is dominated by cryovolcanos and seas of liquid methane, through which the inhabitants travel around in specially designed ships that cruise through the languid low-gravity waves. Titan has been discovered to posess a fairly complex ecosystem, which appears to be equivalent to that of Earth's during the Cambrian Explosion, albeit one that metabolises at a much slower rate due to the lower temperatures. Unlike Europa, Titan has a large human population, but the ecosystem appears stable in spite of this. Saturn is the Solar System's primary source of He3 fusion fuel, being generally closer to the other worlds than Neptune and Uranus and having much weaker gravity than Jupiter. The rings of Saturn are an easy source of water ice, and there are infrequent territorial disputes within them between Titan, Rhea, Dione, Tethys, Mimas and the other, smaller moons.


Uranus and moons

The Uranian Subsystem would be an almost completely unremarkable outpost of human civilisation were it not for the fact that it was a major bioradical bastion. Frequently the target of econonmic, military and terroristic assault by bioconservative factions, Uranus and it's moons were a major staging post for the bioradicals, who variously sought to either combat the strong bioconservative influence within the Inner System, push further outwards to escape their domination and persecution, or attempt to lobby other Outer System polities for support. Some credit the Uranian practice of providing asylum for bioradicals for the increasing influence of bioradicalism throughout the Solar System later in the Interplanetary Era.


Neptune and moons

The baby-blue skies of Neptune play host to many floating cities, whose main industry is He3 extraction for trade with the more distant Outer System worlds. While the Jovian and Saturnine Subsystems are politically quite involved with the Inner System, the Neptunian Subsystem like most worlds further out are more interested in Outer System politics if they get involved at all.


Centaur Asteroids

The inhabitants of the Centaurs provided an important service of refuelling and repairs throughout the Outer System, without bias or favour like the Mercurians but for more sentimental than pragmatic reasons. They were occasionally the targets of attacks by extremists on both the bioradical and bioconservative sides, but their services gauranteed them a surprising amount of influence within interplanetary politics and more often than not the extremists, for their actions, found themselves ostracised by the milder tendencies of their respective factions.


Pluto-Charon

The double world of Pluto-Charon was intitially established as a research facility for biotechnological research, but soon blossomed into a fully-fledged Triad in it's own right and became an important stopping-off point for ships heading further out. The most impressive feature of this world is the bridge connecting Pluto and Charon, a kind of double-ended Space Fountain with travel tubes and side structures along it's length, giving the impression of a solid connection between the two worlds.


The Kuiper Belt

Aside from the Neptunian Subsystem, the Kuiper Belt was another safe haven for bioradicals, especially those that felt they would never, if at all, be accepted by mainstream Inner System societies. Bioconservative attacks on such habitats were extremely rare due to the difficulty of finding them, especially if they did not want to be found.


Planet X

A surprise discovery, not least to those intrepid explorers who actually found it, Planet X is a true oddity. It's mass approaches that of a brown dwarf, and it generates it's own internal heat which helps to sustain a gas giant ecosystem, a further surprise to the discoverers of Planet X. It has a handful of small icy moons which are heated by tidal flexing, and Planet X has served as a departure for point for some of the rare interstellar excursions that have taken place. The moons of Planet X are populated by a relatively small number of colonists, most of whom were enticed there by incentive programs provided by some of the more distant Outer System polities.


The Oort Cloud

The last step before the Great Dark, and truely frontier territory. A few brave settlers have made their home here, hollowed comet habitats powered by gossamer-thin solar collectors thousands of kilometres across. The extent to which the Oort Cloud has been colonised is a true unknown, as most inhabitants of this cold, dark realm rarely if ever interact with the rest of civilisation, and the colonies themselves tend to be quite small.


Beyond?

A handful of brown dwarves are known to exist, closer than the nearest star, Alpha Centauri, and more are suspected to exist. It is not known whether anyone has taken the next step and set off to settle such worlds, and no official colonisation programs have been initiated or proposed. It is possible that the precious few interstellar journeys made may have stopped off at such places, but since none have returned or sent signals back this cannot be known with any certainty.
Last edited by NoXion on Thu Oct 09, 2008 9:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Universe Pitch: Techno Triads

Post by Magister Militum »

Hmmm, so Mars didplay host to intelligent life. That's interesting, along with much of this NoXion.
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Re: Universe Pitch: Techno Triads

Post by NoXion »

Transport

To get ahead, you need to get around, and there are a multitude of ways of doing so, depending on what exactly your needs are. Need to quickly hop to the other side of the planet? Take a flight in a hypersonic airliner. Need to cross a desert? Enjoy a trip on a well-appointed Sandcruiser. Need to move megatons of cargo but can't be bothered going around continents? Send your cargo ship along the Intra-Continental Canals. The various vehicle types and public transport systems listed below are the pride and joy of the Engineers, who take their reliability as a point of honour. So the trains are never late, although they do occasionally experience time-arrival mismatches.


Rooftop Aerodromes and Hangars

The arcologies and larger buildings have facilities on their rooftops for servicing airborne traffic, with runways on the top of the roof and airship hangars set into the top of the building's sides. Some older buildings simply have tethering posts for dirigibles instead of hangars, while the newest, largest arcologies not only service aircraft but also spacecraft, with landing pads and "cold-launch" facilities designed to hurl rocketships into the sky using compressed gas, springs or electromagnetism whereupon they activate their main engines once clear of the building.


Nuclear-powered Hydrofoils

These vehicles are used as a public transport system travelling along the Intra-Continental Canals, with regular stops at cities and large towns along the canals and coasts. Their power plant enables them to perform continuous circuits around significant chunks of major continents, and serve the full length of the canals along which they operate.


Megaships

With a beam length of 2km or larger, these monstrous vessels are mobile seaborne towns in their own right. They can use the Intra-Continental Canals to cut across continents, stopping at the offshore facilities of major cities as well as the vast floating ocean cities of Atlantis and Pacifica, and their Martian equivalents Utopia and Arcadia. They are large enough to have their own airports and cosmodromes, and the larger examples have outriggers for servicing smaller vessels.


Citywide Monorails

The vast cities of Earth and later Mars have monorail systems to provide mass transit for the citizenry, with monorail routes snaking between buildings and passing through arcologies. They operate twenty four-hours a day, seven days a week, and are almost completely automated. The service is often provided for free, and vandals, muggers and other undesirables are kept in check by patrols of stone-faced men in Transport Authority uniforms armed with X-Ray laser pistols.


Cable Cars

Networks of these vehicles operate as an above-ground transport in the Himalayan Mega-Arcology and in the mountains of Mars, providing essential transport for visitors and local holidaymakers between beauty spots. Pressurised versions are also used on heavily mountainous worlds lacking in atmosphere.


Intercity Trains

On both Earth and Mars, rocket-propelled maglev trains are a popular form of public transport between cities. They are nicknamed "Boomtrains" due to their ability to accelerate to speeds in excess of 1,225Kph. At full speed, they produce two sonic booms, one originating from the nose while the other is produced by the tail, accompanied by the roar of it's rocket engines. Since the introduction of this and other transport systems, the cost of rural property has dropped dramatically, greatly freeing up the market for first-time buyers.


Vactrains

Vactrains are electromagnetically propelled along tubes evacuated of all atmosphere. There are two types of vactrain networks, the sub-oceanic intercontinental systems found on Earth and Mars, and the equivalent to the Intercity Train systems found on airless worlds. Due to the complete lack of atmosphere within the traveltubes, Vactrains can exceed hypersonic speeds.


Delivery Rockets

Small rockets that act as a worldwide courier service, delivering packages and mail at hypersonic speeds to other continents or into orbit. They are guided towards their destination by GPS transcievers and land using either parachutes or deployable wings in order to land like a standard aircraft.


Sandcruiser

These massive, ocean liner-like vehicles travel the seas of sand that represent major desert areas on Earth and later Mars and Venus. Their massive, squishy tyres absorb the biggest dunes as if they weren't there, and they are fully equipped with all the latest mod cons. They are particularly popular on Mars, where a popular sightseeign destination are the ancient Martian pyramids.


OmniTerrain Vehicle

The OTV is designed to cross almost any terrain concievable, including seas and oceans. It is vaguely boat-shaped but has a large set of tracks and an even larger pair of wheels which double as paddlewheels. More commonly found on Mars due to the large areas of untamed wilderness.


Iceberg Aerodromes

Vast artificial icebergs complete with hangars, control towers, and runways. These were used as cheap mobile airbases during the Wars of Independance, and sometimes had cold-launch facilities for rocketships and small military spacecraft.


Launch Guns

These are designed to launch microsatellites and other very small unmanned spacecraft. The most basic versions are modified battleship guns, which can launch a saboted payload into low orbit. Much more powerful are nuclear launch guns, in which a small nuclear device is detonated at the bottom of a deep, narrow reinforced launch shaft, the force of which can launch a multi-ton payload into space. This is a one-use only method of getting payloads off a planet, but even from Earth they can launch them into deep space. Other types of launch gun include ram accelerators, railguns and gauss guns.


Ekranoplanes

Although mostly a curiosity on Earth, on Mars and Titan these are transport systems par excellance. Mars has a couple of large, relatively calm seas in it's southern hemisphere, while Titan's thick atmosphere and smooth low-gravity ocean swells lend themselves well to such vehicles. The majority of ekranoplanes operating on Earth have a variable wing geometry that also allows them to function as full-blown aircraft.


Gyrotors

The helicopter version of the flying wing - a flying rotor. Looking rather like a set of unattached fan blades, Gyrotors consist of between three and five helicopter blades that rotate around the central body. Some versions of this vehicle rely on an internal gyroscope to maintain progressive stability, while other have two sets of contra-rotating blades stacked on top of one another. The whirling blades are a cause of great concern when these vehicles fly low.


Rocketsub

Submarines with variable-geometry wings and powerful atomic rocket motors to enable flight. These are popular vehicles on Mars, where they are known as "Puddlejumpers" due to being able to leap from lake to lake and lake to ocean and vice versa. Fishermen are advised to be wary.


Flying Saucers

There are two main types of flying saucer; the first type are purely atmospheric craft, a bit like Gyrotors but with a ducted turbofan or set of such replacing the helicopter blades, with additional jets mounted along the rim for lateral thrust. The other type are the SFT saucers, able to operate in both an atmosphere and a vacuum thanks to their Superconducting Fluid Torus (SFT) drives, which lifts and propels the craft through electrostatic charges. Similar to atmospheric saucers, SFT saucers have a set of rocket engines along their rim for operating operating in deep space, although military grade SFT drives are efficient enough to thrust against the Sun's magnetic field.


Aircar

Operating on similar principles to Flying Saucers, Aircars substitute the single turbofan/SFT drive of the flying saucer for one on each corner, negating the need for gyroscopic stabilisation. Aircars are a very popular form of private transport, especially in the Interplanetary Era.


Luxury Airliners

These massive flying wings are designed with one goal in mind; to provide the most comfortable journey possible. Crossing oceans and continents, you can sit back and enjoy gourmet food and fine wine in it's spacious resturaunts, watch a holomovie in the full-size cinema, tone yourself up in the gymnasium, or stick your nose in the latest novel or scientific journal in the fully-stocked library. Not as fast as the others, but you sure get there in style. Services operate on Venus, Earth, Mars, Titan, and between the cloud cities of Neptune.


Zeppelin Airliners

Luxury intercity transport for the discerning traveller, these titanic dirigibles also serve as the perfect hoarding for advertising or propaganda. They are also a popular form of transport for sightseeing on the gas giants of the Outer System, especially Planet X where the unique gas giant ecosystem is of particular interest.


Hypersonic Airliners

The ultimate in intercontinental transport, Hypersonic Airliners can get you on the other side of the planet in under an hour, taking off like a rocketship, tracing a suborbital arc, and landing like a normal aircraft. Although the journey is initially quite dramatic, the rest of the trip is surprisingly sedate considering that you're tearing through the upper atmosphere at a breathtaking rate of knots.


Ionocraft

Ionocraft are propelled by a positively charged circular mesh with attached negatively charged vertical spikes, which ionise air molecules as the charge moves from the spike to the mesh, resulting in a helicopter-like downward thrust. Ionocraft can reach an altitude of nearly 100Km, travel faster than traditional helicopters, and the lack of moving parts makes them very durable.


Jetcars

Road cars propelled by jet engines rather than the standard boring internal combustion engines. Jetcars quickly superceded internal combustion engined cars due to their very powerful acceleration, clean burning of almost any liquid fuel with very little pollution, ease of maintenance due to fewer moving parts, and were considerably smaller and lighter than their piston equivalents.


Atomic Cars

In polities where private ownership of nuclear reactors is permitted (which is most of them), nuclear powered Atomic Cars are almost as popular as Jetcars. The most basic model of Atomic Car is the version powered by a couple of 1Kw RTGs, which can be easily removed, recycled and replaced when performance drops to levels below satisfactory. The more powerful model is powered by a miniature nuclear reactor, which like the RTGs is removable as a single unit for replacement and servicing. Both the RTG and reactor versions of the Atomic Car were marginally inferior in all aspects of performance except mileage, but the Jetcar was soundly thrashed in the second half of the Interplanetary Era by a new third model of Atomic Car: The Microfusion Pulse. Basically the powerplant for this car was an unbelievably tiny Inertial Confinement Fusion generator, a true marvel of engineering and an example of the giant leaps forward that technology was taking at the time. As it went past, the roar of it's engine as it imploded the fuel pellets and vented waste plasma for extra thrust was unmistakeable.


Uniwheels

Dynamically balanced vehicles with one central wheel, with the passenger/driver compartment forward and the engine at the rear, the Uniwheel was the ultimate sports vehicle. It's single wheel minimised friction, while it's array of gyroscopes ensured that it would never fall over permanently. Pressurised versions were popular surface racing vehicles on the Moon and other rugged, airless worlds.


Rocketships (SSTOs)

With the advent of nuclear rocket engines, the need for multiple stages, in most cases, was done away for good. The Rocketship was born, and private space travel could truly take off. Spaceports sprouted like mushrooms. Rates of colonisation exploded. The fact that the occasional spaceport was accidently reduced to a glowing blue crater was considered the price of progress.
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Heretic
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Re: Universe Pitch: Techno Triads

Post by Heretic »

By the looks of this, it seems like the Cold War caused WW3. I would love to have an OmniTerrain Vehicle.
Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.
-Joseph Campbell
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