Space Cruiser Amahara

Space Cruiser Amahara is a game about the eponymous ship and its adventures through the cosmos in a journey to save besieged humanity from destruction at the hands of the Lunarians. It is a soft (very soft) science space opera with fantasy elements.

Background

First Space Race

Following the conclusion of the Sixty Years War, the countries of the world settled into the Cold War, a military, economic and political staring contest between countries and power blocs across the world. Though hostile to one another, each side was held back by fear of more global war, the awesome power of the spin bomb and fresh memories of the self-destruction wrought by the previous three generations. The Cold War was thus about more about proxy conflicts, political maneuvering, economics, and ideology. At the same time, knowledge gained over the Sixty Years War had advanced human sophistication by leaps and bounds. Across the world, scientists sought to conquer outer space in a race to prove the superiority of their governments.

Lunarian Attack

The communist People's Confederacy of Lotus Asia first gained an upper hand in the Space Race by launching a series of attempts at lunar flyby and impact missions. S-01 was apparently successful as a flyby and announced in communist media with significant fanfare. However, much of the information on the probe and the data it collected were classified. A series of impact attempts followed by were all said to have failed mysteriously. The first non-communist mission, with a much publicised launch ceremony presided over by Napoleon X and the Princess of the Church, was the Luna α mission of 24 April 1999. On that day, the Lunarian fleet emerged from the surface of the Moon. Without warning, the Lunarians launched an all-out attack on the Earth, bombarding the surface and decimating most life aboveground by the end of the year. The Hollow, a layer of caverns deep beneath bedrock and previously of little interest besides the tapping of spin wells, became humanity's last refuge.

Alien Technology

Although forced to dwell underground, humanity continued to resist the invaders, using the close confines of the caverns to intercept and destroy Lunarian robotic units before they could approach the hidden underground settlements. Without the direct support of their fleet, the Lunarian onslaught ground to a halt. The war stalled for many years with the Lunarians lacking either the will or the means to meaningfully escalate the conflict now taking place many kilometers beneath the surface. Instead, the multitudes of destroyed robotic units and even sunken ships on the seabed have become common salvage for their alien technology. Less common, but even more mysterious, are strange ruins being sporadically confirmed in the vast unexplored stretches of the Hollow.

On 21 December 2012, a mysterious, unmanned alien ship impacted in the North Ectasian Ocean. The event drew a massive response from both sides of the war resulting in a pitched battle where humans prevailed against the Lunarian forces for the first time. NEET forces secured the underwater wreckage and immediately began salvage operations, removing the ship, piece by piece where necessary, through undersea rifts to Hollow Amahara.

For the countries of the North Ectasian Economic Treaty, the Ectasia Impact had profound technological consequence. Although hardly intact after its (possibly unintended) crash and the ensuing battle for control of it, the wreck still contained massive amounts of usable data as well as advanced technology that could be reverse engineered for the construction of starships unlike any before contemplated. It was agreed that the alien ship was launched by a sympathetic alien power and represented an aid package intended for salvage by humanity.

The international A Project was quickly organised by the member states of NEET with several goals in mind:

1) Contact the alien power and attempt to gain further assistance.

2) Survey the cosmos for habitable planets that might be suitable as a replacement for Earth.

3) Acquire any technology or assistance that might, in any way, alleviate the desperate military situation on Earth.

Other Space Projects

Amahara is not the only country to launch a ship into outer space. The other countries in NEET will also be launching vessels with technology from the A Project: the Albish Union is building the Albion and the North Middle Republic is preparing the All Under Heaven. Additonally, all known governments are in negotiations with the NEET Governing Council to share the technological advances acquired from the Ectasia Crash Site from which the A Project ships are derived.

There are also separate space programs that predate the Ectasia Impact. The Francian Empire launched a ship, the Flower of Orleans earlier in the year but it was quickly shot down by the Lunarians before it could complete its surface launch sequence. Various sources claim they were able to salvage a number of critical components and/or that a sister ship is nearing completion. It is unconfirmed what sort of superluminal propulsion this ship might have utilised. If the prevailing opinion of the global intelligence community is correct Francia may have created the first independently developed superluminal drive. Francia does have unique access to the Valois-Lorraine Hadron Collider, a massive installation that had already become operational deep beneath the surface from the mid-90's.

Danuby has a larger ship under construction. It is believed they have power and propulsion systems for it, though their nature is unclear.

Consistent rumours place the People's Confederacy of Lotus Asia in the lead of the Second Space Race, supposedly having placed ships there in secret already. It is not known whether their superluminal propulsion is stolen A Project technology (known to have been compromised to some extent by communist spies) or from some other source.

Space Cruiser Amahara

The Amahara is one of the results of the international "A Project" between member states of the North Ectasian Economic Treaty. The main goal of this initiative was to break the Lunarian Blockade and send a ship into the cosmos in search of the source of the mysterious alien probe that impacted deep into the crust in the North Ectasian in 2012.
length: 180m
mass: 13500t
complement: 99