The Rouge Planet

In the near future (5 November 2011), a rogue planet was first detected by SETI in New Mexico. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) quickly formed two teams. One was in charge of checking if it would hit Earth; the other’s job was to find out what, exactly, it was. The first team declared it a Near Earth Object and started to check if it was going to collide with Earth. While some initial reports confirmed the collision, others came to the conclusion that it would probably miss Earth by a small margin; however, both of them confirmed that it would be at it’s nearest to Earth in two years. The second team, after receiving images of it, decided it was a planet. While it was always a theory that planets could exist without a star to orbit (thus they are called “Rogue Planets”), this was the first real proof that rogue planets existed.

The media, of course, ran with the story that the Earth was ending in two years (with varying levels of professionalism.) The amount of media attention to the planet shifted it to the front of the minds of all of the space agencies around the world. However, it was the European Space Agency (ESA) that came up with the idea to work together for all Earth’s benefit. NASA, reluctantly, agreed to the idea and then all other space agencies followed suit. After an hour of heated debating, they formed the “International Space Agency.” It took a good, long week to form a charter and then get to work on what to do about the planet. Another long debate later and they decided to name it “Xeno 4” as it was the fourth unidentified planet in the solar system. The plan they formed was to land on the planet when it was at its closest to earth and then scour the planet for technology. It was discovered, after that, the planet was spiraling towards the Sun; therefore, they would only have two weeks before they would have to leave Xeno 4.

The ship was designed to be able to land on Xeno 4 and then take off two weeks later. A few months of designing and they drafted the ship “International Space Shuttle ‘Discovery’.” Immediately, they started production. The fuselage was created in Texas. Parts of the engine were created in Germany, Italy and Russia. Other various parts, such as the electronics on the ship itself, were created in Malaysia, China and Japan. While the ship was being created, they trained a crew of astronauts, sent a probe to get good pictures of the planet and designed a Xeno 4 rover.

The probe they sent told a tale of how the planet was sent into motion. The planet was struck by a massive asteroid. Remarkably, the planet itself was not completely destroyed; however, the atmosphere was extremely thin. Whether that was because of the motion of the planet or because of the asteroid’s impact, nobody knew. In the end, though, the probe came through. The probe had discovered a large, ancient city on the reverse end of the planet. Through the images ISA obtained, they were able to devise a good landing area for the Discovery.

Everything was ready for launch. Thankfully, the hurricane Morris had struck Alabama and in Tampa Bay, Florida. Since the weather was great, they launched. Everybody held their breath as the ship took off and only released it once it reached space. The crew of the Discovery set a course for Xeno 4 and entered its orbit two days later. They immediately began hitting the spots ISA had identified as “possible locations” of technology. They hit a library, a center of commerce, and what looked like a factory first. Within two weeks, they had acquired a great deal of new information. In an attempt to reduce the loss of data, they sent most of what could be sent in PDF form to ISA before the launch. However, they needn’t have worried, the launch was a success.

What the crew on the Discovery had discovered was a great deal of completely illegible data that would have to be translated into something legible. It was a monumental task to try and translate the data they had extracted. It was this fact that started it all. The European Space Agency had declared that they would like to release any technology they did find into the Public Domain. ESA representatives quickly formed a coalition with NASA on the issue and the numbers were pretty equal. However, the Chinese Space Agency and the Russian Space Agency were fervently against it. Both the Chinese and Russian space agencies quickly unified every other agency to their side, except South Korea and Japan. With the majority they shot down the vote. In response, NASA and the European, South Korean and Japanese space agencies all withdrew from the International Space Agency. They formed “The Separatist Space Agency.”

The Second Space Race

The race to space started again. Both agencies were sure that the secret to deep space travel was held in the data each one of them had. The ISA, being more devious, decided that they were going to work on the parts of the data that they were sure the SSA would not work on. They planned to infiltrate the SSA and steal the remaining data when the time came. Naturally, they both hired a team of linguists and scientists. Over the next two years two major events took place. The first one was that the planet, Xeno 4, had been completely destroyed as it struck the Sun. The second was ISA was finally successful in utilizing the advanced, alien technology.

This had been a shock for the SSA. They had intelligence that the ISA was going slowly because they were translating portions of the data that SSA had already thought to be of little value compared to the rest of the data. While the data they translated was important, it had been confirmed that the data you need to get to space was mostly left out of the ISA’s research. Therefore, when ISA announced the first “Deep Space Fusion Engine” the Separatist Space Agency was completely wrong footed. In the end, they discovered the sneak thief and found out what had occurred.

Things were going to get much harder, however. The ISA started to mobilize a force against the SSA laboratories. After the ISA destroyed 4 of the 11 major laboratories as well as killed over 40 scientists, war was declared. At first, it was only NATO, the remainder of the EU that wasn’t in NATO, South Korea, Israel, and Japan against China, India, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Egypt. However, as the war escalated, every country on earth from Canada to Ethiopia was involved in some way or another.

However, in the end, the SSA was able to finish their work and then successfully released all of the data into the public domain. The data they had released was simple; however, it would universally change everything. The data included stable isotopes for nearly every unstable element. However, the most important element was that of “Eka-Radon” also known as Element 118. The curious thing about Eka-Radon was that when electricity is run through it, a visible and physical force is created. The force it created was a very transparent light, almost turquoise, blue. The color was quickly associated with Eka-Radon’s main usages: combat the force of gravity (or create it in areas without it), as an external ship’s shield, or the light that was created when used as a Mass Driver in space combat.

The Fuel Wars

Two major corporations started manufacturing the element Eka-Radon which was needed in fueling the ship. The way the fuel worked is that it would create shards or pellets of Eka-Radon and fill the fuel containers with them. After they are full, the fuel containers would heat up and melt the Eka-Radon. The two major corporations were Eka-Radon, Incorporated and Deep Space Industries. At first, they both used the public domain method for making Eka-Radon. However, since it was quite expensive and slow, they each started researching how to make it faster and cheaper. Another problem that Eka-Radon, Inc. had was that they, being a United States based company, could not sell to the ISA countries. However, Deep Space Industries, being one of the first corporations based in space, could sell to anybody. In a sort of chain reaction, DSI sold more fuel and then made more fuel than Eka-Radon, Inc. On top of that, DSI had more money to research a quicker way and then DSI created a very quick, very cheap way of making fuel. They followed up with a patent and then thought they had beat Eka-Radon, Inc. However, Eka-Radon, Inc. was able to pull through, barely, by the fact that eventually, nobody in the SSA would buy from DSI. The Fuel Wars were then over. Even though there had been several minor corporations interested in fuel creation, they both had become the de-facto Eka-Radon manufacturers on their respective space agency group.

The Sol War: Separatists’ Early Failures

The war on Earth still raged; however, both sides knew that the entire war would be decided on who could control the different strategic areas of Sol (the system that Earth resides). The ISA had an incredible head start on mobilizing an army as they had got to space over a year before the SSA. Because of that, the SSA was defeated in battle time and time again by the ISA. The battles they fought were quick and decisive. In fact, the SSA could not get a foot hold in space for over a year. They finally built a massive ship (in comparison, the ISA’s fleet contained nearly only Cruiser class ships). The Separatist Space Agency constructed “the Behemoth,” a mobile star ship capable of ship construction in space and with formidable weaponry and a powerful defensive shield. At the time it was the largest, mobile man-made structure ever created. Through this, they created several large Destroyer class ships and started up an extremely effective espionage campaign using small ships that would not be spotted because of their small heat signature.

The major problem, as SSA discovered, with mounting a military campaign in space is the fact that there is no water. SSA had to send ships back to Earth for water often. They knew that ships carrying water were going to be a target for any ISA strike force, so they normally sent large destroyers that could repel nearly any force. However, what truly confused the SSA commanders was how the ISA could logistically support a force several hundred times their own. It seemed to the SSA commanders that they must be taking an exorbitant amount of water through trade lines. However, when they attacked a freight ship on the particularly popular Jupiter Trade Line, all it contained was minerals. It contained no water.

The Sol War: The Tide Turns

The Separatists’ espionage campaign paid off. What they discovered was that there was a massive Anchored Star Base orbiting the planet of Jupiter, deep in ISA space. It seemed to be a massive logistical hub for the entire ISA fleet. They sent a Japo-Korean infiltration team into the ISA lines disguised as the ISA freighter ship they captured: the ISS Mobility. The infiltration team discovered that the Anchored Star Base was a part of the ISA’s military plan for eventual victory in Sol. What the team discovered was a project called: The Jupiter Project. It was a top-secret water farm that was designed to mine a certain Jupiter moon as well as the Hydrogen and Oxygen from Jupiter and create massive amounts of pure water on the Anchored Star Base. The Jupiter Trade Line carted minerals from Earth that were required to create the purist water available. After that, it would be frozen and sent to every cruiser’s respective Destroyer by Fast Logistics Class ships. The Destroyer would then give the frozen water to each Cruiser ship in its control.

The SSA commanders decided to launch a military campaign against the Jupiter Project using their ship the Behemoth in battle for the first time. They decided they would attack the Jupiter Line and then take the Anchored Star Base in a lightning fast strike. After that, before they had time to mobilize, they would steal all the frozen water and then destroy the moon and the anchored star base. After they did that, they would tear into ISA space as a diversion. After all the ISA forces came to stop their advance, an even more powerful blockade force would surround Earth so that no more water shipments could reach ISA space. The Behemoth force would destroy every logistical structure they had before they would escape.

A month later, they attacked. The attack had taken the ISA completely off guard (not knowing that the SSA knew about The Jupiter Project). The battle of Jupiter Line was the first decisive victory for the SSA. Everything seemed to work perfectly and they used a previously drilled hole and planted a nuclear bomb on the moon. The bomb was successful in destroying the moon. After stealing all the frozen water, they also destroyed the star base.

Before the ISA could mobilize a force against the Behemoth and its fleet, the SSA carved a deep wound into ISA space and destroyed nearly every logistical structure the ISA had. After that, the SSA’s blockade force surrounded the earth as the ISA ships guarding it came to fight the Behemoth in ISA space. Behemoth was completely surrounded by over 300 ISA ships when the Behemoth used its size to ram other ships. The ISA ships were no match to the massive mobile star ship. Their railguns bounced off the superior shield without damaging it. However, the destroyers were arriving and then the Behemoth was forced out of ISA space with the rest of its fleet safely on board.

The Behemoth raced back to Earth before the ISA realized that the blockade was in place. With the military force guarding Earth and without the logistical support of the Jupiter Project, the size of the ISA military became its weakness. Several hundreds of ships’ crew all died because they ran out of water. After a month, the SSA had routed the ISA forces and took control of the entire solar system.

World War III: The Bloodiest War

On Earth, the bloodiest war ever was still raging. Over 600 million people were dead, from civilians to militants. It didn’t seem to matter anymore. The two factions destroyed everything in their way. However, the fact that the ISA lost Sol was not yet known. In a desperate move to stop African forces, the largest show of naval strength since the Spanish Armada crowded the Gibraltar Strait. The American, UK, and Japanese navies surrounded the strait. The ISA forces had marched North through the strait and had taken Spain, Portugal and France using the momentum they had obtained. The Eastern front with Russia had resulted in the loss of nearly every Balkan state. It seemed only Israel that was prepared for an attack. Israel had taken all of the states around it including Egypt. In fact, the bloodiest battle of the war, The Battle for Jerusalem, had occurred in an Israel attack.

After the SSA had taken Sol, though, everything started to change. The SSA’s bombardments were deadly accurate and it wasn’t long before the Naval attack on Gibraltar and the following attack to take Spain, Portugal and France back. In Germany, a European force finally started to move the Russian line back because of the SSA bombardments. Within a month, the fighting was on Moscow’s doorstep and the South Koreans had been successful in taking back North Korea. In the attacks from Israel, Iran and India fell. A force deployed from Gibraltar into Morocco quickly took the unsuspecting African forces by shock. The northern Gibraltar force had taken back Portugal and Spain and had surrounded Paris. Fighting finally stopped a week later on all fronts when a peace treaty, “The Treaty of Versailles,” was signed. The treaty said that the ISA must never again step foot upon Earth, thus banishing anyone who would not swear allegiance to the Separatists.

The Arms Monopoly

While the Sol War was raging, one corporation in particular stood out among the group of arms manufacturing corporations. They were particularly fierce and very good at corporate espionage. By the first quarter into the war, they had become the dominant corporation for the development of Railguns, Mass Drivers and Eka-Radon Shielding. They continued to hold dominance for a year before removing every corporation in their way. The corporation’s name was Weapons & Armor Manufacturing Incorporated (or WAMI [WAM-ee] for short). Over the course of the war, the corporation became obscenely rich. However, it wasn’t until after the war that they discovered what they would be known for. During a routine test of a massive Mass Driver, a small shuttle got caught in the ammo chamber and was fired from it. The Eka-Radon gravity shielding saved the pilot’s life. It was then pieced together a plan to create inter-galactic travel with extremely large Mass Drivers.

The plan was that they would create a Conduit. That conduit would fire a construction ship into the next system at the edge of dead space. After the ship arrives moments later in the next system, they would use a massive amount of Eka-Radon to slow themselves down. Once slowed down, they would create a Receiver in which would act to slow down an incoming ship. Then, they would make the Conduit able to slow ships down before sending a larger construction ship to make the receiver able to mass drive ships. These devices were called “Jump Gates.” They forever changed transportation. They were cheap, quick and easy to build. The only issue was that the shields and energy of the mass driven ship would have to recharge as the conduit would sap any of it during the transfer. However, there were fears that pirates would sit at gates waiting for unsuspecting ships to come through and be destroyed. In response, WAMI themselves deployed at each gate a group of destroyer class ships to both guard the jump gate from being taken and protect the people using the jump gates. Since WAMI charged a small fee for going between them, WAMI reorganized as a transportation corporation. The weapons industry started back up momentarily.

Tags: Deep Space Industries, Eka-Radon, Inc., inital sketch, isa, ssa, storyline, The Jupiter Project, WAMI, xeno 4