Solar Destiny

Setting

It is the year 3500. Humanity has spread itself across the Solar System, turning formerly uninhabited - and uninhabitable - rocks into the realms of humankind. Worlds that were once simply names and places became countries and then nations. And for every world changed by man, man was changed in turn. The Old Wars and the Scourge annihilated boundaries and nationalities drawn up by the ancient Earthers, defining - and then redefining what was 'human'.

The Exodus

The Exodus off Earth began more than a millenia ago, as more and more humans took to the frontier of space. Great works were done - the terraforming of Mars, the (first) Venusian sunshield, the Ganymede Loop. Spanning many centuries, as an era it has faded into history and legend but has left an indelible mark upon the solar system.

The Scourge

What is 'human' and where is humanity's place in the cosmos has long been the topics of philosophical debate. The Scourge turned this into a physical debate - a vast movement to purge all that was wrong and deviant. It was a time of destruction and chaos - a time of madness. Thankfully for humanity, the fever that gripped it broke before everything they had built was laid to ruin.

Today

Earth (and environs)
The ancient cradle of mankind, still the most populous of worlds was hit hard by the Scourge and even now it is a broken, scarred world. It has vast human potential but is hamstrung by the sheer scale of its problems. Nonetheless it is one of the three leading powers in the solar system.

Mars
The red dunes of Mars have been long tamed and the Bringer of War is now a world where humans can walk under the open sky. While ravaged by the Scourge, Mars' delicate and artificial ecosystem balance managed to survive and today Mars is one of the Big Three, with a large and diverse population.

Jupiter
The Jovian system has long been a center of industry, thanks to the easy access of raw materials and energy. While never as heavily populated as Earth or Mars due to the need for closed habitats it was also touched more lightly by the Scourge, leaving it the third of the three leading powers.

The Inner System
The inner system - Mercury and Venus - is the realm of energy superpowers. The primary material export of these worlds is antimatter and other exotic materials, generated in vast solar-powered farms. These go outwards in return for volatiles, rare near the boiling heat of the Sun.

The Middle System
The Belt and the Jovian Trojan asteroids make up the middle belt, a million flying mountains. Much of the raw materials that feed the solar system's industries come from the belt and the Trojans.

The Outer System
The outer worlds - Saturn, Uranus and Neptune - are all important players, though not as politically or economically powerful as the Big Three. Each has their own distinct culture and a millenia of history.

The Kuiper
The Kuiper is the catch-all for those worlds and areas past the major planets - Pluto, Haumea and other major Kuiper belt objects, along with the scattered (but extremely numerous) Neptunian trojans. In the frigid outer edge of the solar system civilization is scattered, staying to a few major locales - in the wasteland of the Kuiper belt, help can be very far indeed.

Politics
Politics in the solar system is determined by more than just simple distance from the Sun. Differential revolution means that worlds neighbors this year may be on the far side of the sun from each other in a few. It is instead ideology and self-interest that binds the various nations together - or seperates them. Each of the three major worlds has grown distant from the others, leading the solar system into a trio of armed camps and a seemingly ever-changing number of small powers.

Locations

• Mercury:
• Venus:
• Earth:
• Mars:
• The Belt:
• Jupiter:
• Jovian Trojans (Leading):
• Jovian Trojans (Trailing):
• Saturn:
• Uranus:
• Neptune:
• Neptunian Trojans (Leading):
• Neptunian Trojans (Trailing):
• Pluto:
• Haumea:
• Makemake:
• Anubis:
• Eris:

Making an UnSol nation

Assign your points to each of the categories until you run out. That'll give you the basis around which to write up the details of your nation. Modifiers (such as +3 Infrastructure) are cost, not level modifiers. Negative modifiers do not need to be bought up to zero, though values below 0 can be assumed to be particularly exaggerated.

Current suggestion: 30 points

Population

0: A backwater nowhere habitat, the solar equivalent of a city-state.
2: A small alliance of habitats or a single dwarf planet like Ceres. Adds +1 Growth Potential.
3: A lesser state, though one that cannot be ignored. An exceptionally populous minor world or else one of several nations on a major world. Adds +1 to Infrastructure.
5: A fairly typical midsized nation, the typical owners of a major body or multiple smaller ones. Adds +1 to Infrastructure and Space Fleet.
6: A large nation with a substantial, diverse population spread across many cities and habitats. Adds +2 to Space Fleet and Infrastructure but suffers -1 to Growth Potential and Transhumanism.
7: A top-tier state with a massive population. Space-China. Adds +3 to Infrastructure, +2 to Space Fleet, but suffers -1 to Transhumanism and -2 to Growth Potential.

Transhumanism

0: None at all! Your people are the same old [i]Homo Sapiens Sapiens[/i] from the 20th century. Badass normal powers combine!
1: Basic gene-screening has weeded out various ailments and weaknesses, though nobody is fundamentally [i]different[/i].
2: Minor genetic engineering has spliced in desirable traits from exceptional humans, but except for a few outliers, everyone remains functionally ‘natural’.
4: Significant genetic engineering allows for the implementation of more radical changes through transgenic techniques. Reproductive speciation is a possible side-effect, though uncommon and can be mediated.
6: ‘Strong’ transhumanism starts to skirt the edge of what’s no longer truly ‘human’, at least in the eyes of some. Reproductive speciation is inevitable and discrimination from baselines is not uncommon.

Infrastructure

0: Well, you could probably rearm a warship . . . Construction Rating 20, max size 2
1: Construction Rating 30, max size 4
2: Construction Rating 40, max size 8
3: Construction Rating 50, max size 16
4: Construction Rating 60, max size 48
5: Massive, well developed planetary and spaceborn industry. Construction Rating 70, max size 96

Growth Potential

0: Overcrowding and resource shortages are chronic; you need relief and now!
1: Either planning or natural growth has put you at a comfortable maximum, but you have nowhere to grow.
2:
3:
4:
5: The Frontier. Resources are plentiful, with plenty you probably haven’t even begun to tap yet.

Military Quality

0: No real military, more like a glorified police force.
1: Barely adequate, not quite an undisciplined rabble but definately not very good.
2: Below average, your soldiers might be trained decently, but there's not many of them. Or the reverse, with a large but ill-trained army.
3: Average armed forces, nothing special but no glaring weaknesses.
4: A respectable military force, definately something to be reckoned with.
5: Best of the best, your military is well trained and/or very large.

Military Support (Replaces Military Quality)

0: Your nation simply sees little need for a large military; 6x Infrastructure in support
1: 8x Infrastructure in support
2: 10x Infrastructure in support
3: 12x Infrastructure in support
4: 14x Infrastructure in support
5: 16x Infrastructure in support

Space Fleet

0: No deep space fleet whatsoever, just a handful of short-range corvettes. 50 fleet points
1: 200 fleet points
2: 350 fleet points
3: 500 fleet points
4: 650 fleet points
5: 800 fleet points

General Advancement

0: Fairly limited technology, probably imports all high-tech goods.
1: About the lowest level at which one could design a halfway-competitive spaceship.
2: Below average technology, probably a second tier power. May have a spike or two of above-average effectiveness but overall not too impressive.
3: Average advancement, no glaring weaknesses or strong points.
4: Powerful technology including advanced energy weapons.
5: Highly sophisticated technology across the board.

Emergent Technologies:

The 21st century was a boom time for so-called emergent technologies; ubiquitous connectivity, autonomous robots, flexible AIs, nanotechnology. These promised the galaxy and delivered the solar system as legions of machines erected sunshades around Venus, built cities on Mars and excavated habitats all across the outer system. Unfortunately, ‘Rogue machine’ incidents in the latter 21st as well as the heavy use of automated weapons in various Earthside conflicts saw these technologies progressively limited and collectively suppressed and the mechanical workers of the early colonization era worked until they failed, never to be replaced.

0: Safetech only; while the overall advancement level might be high, there is no access (probably deliberately) to nanotechnology, advanced AIs and the like. The reimagined Battlestar Galactica is the archetype here, where (like a number of Sol states) emergent technologies were sealed away for the greater good.
1: You have a few examples of emergent technologies, though they are almost certainly kept under (very) tight control and may not even be publically acknowledged. An example of this level is Halo, which has a smattering of AIs and cybernetics of generally primitive (if effective) design.
3: Cornucopias and similar devices have begun to radically reshape your economy. Industry is faster and more flexible than ever before. Star Trek is firmly at this level, though in a much more ‘floppytech’ paradigm.
6: You’ve passed into the New Economy, though the dreams of post-scarcity and TA-style instant construction haven’t materialized. Adds +1 General Advancement. Eclipse Phase and similar settings would be at this level.

FTL Drives

0: Has no ability to design or construct FTL ships.
1: Has the basic theory for FTL jumpships, but needs outside help to actually construct them.
3: The principles of FTL travel are well-understood and your nation can construct jumpships.
6: You [i]invented[/i] the damn things and know a few tricks others don’t. Adds +1 Outsystem Territory.

Outsystem Territory

0: No outsystem territories, strictly a Sol system power. The norm at this stage of the game, really.
1: Little more than fueling stops and barren rocks.
3: You have an actual outsystem presence of a few (armed?) stations and as a result can conduct meaningful fleet operations in the Great Beyond.
6: You’ve actually dropped a self-sustaining colony on a habitable world. Mucho bragging rights.

Setting notes

Getting There and Back

Quantum Transition Engine
First developed in the middle of the 21st century, Quantum Transition Engines (colloquially known as QTEs or ‘Cuties’, or Q-Drives for the more straightlaced) revolutionized space travel. A non-newtonian propulsion method, they generate a macroquantum effect that essentially ‘tunnels’ the QTE and surroundings across significant distance. The effect propagates directly forward at the speed of light and as such does not violate relativity – it would take another century and a half to cheat Einstein. However, as it takes substantial time to recycle a QTE between jumps, the effective pseudovelocity is far below c, rarely exceeding ~1 light second jumps every 10-12 minutes for high-performance units and giving an effective pseudovelocity of 4-500 kms or about 1 AU every 4 days. Outside of strong mass influences (several tens of light-seconds of distance for the Earth) the quantum effect can travel much further before dissipating, resulting in approximately an order of magnitude increase in pseudovelocity. This is known as ‘high cruise’.

Despite many years of use, the performance and general design of QTEs has not improved markedly since the late 21st century; a QTE from an American Trailblazer deep-space cruiser circa 2080 would recycle in 25 or so minutes instead of every 12 like that of a Jovian Federation Endeavor destroyer’s, circa 2200. Growth in the speed of cargo ships has been essentially nonexistent with typical peudovelocities being in the 2-2.5 light secondshour range. Durability, fault tolerance, size and cost have improved however, and few ships of any size built in the past half-century are not fitted with a QTE.

• A typical civilian ship goes at 2.5 light seconds per hour.
• A typical military ship goes at 5 light seconds per hour.
• For high-travel, any ship outside of a defined distance from a significant sub-stellar mass can travel 10 times normal speed.
  • Addendum - Any ship in the interstellar void beyond the interference of a stellar curb can accelerate to a further order of magnitude.
• Star ‘curb’: 500 light seconds
• Gas Giant ‘curb’: 100 light seconds
• Major Body ‘curb’: 25 light seconds
• Minor Body ‘curb’: 10 light seconds

This would put Earth-Pluto travel times at 16-40 days, one way. A journey from Sol to Alpha Centauri would take approximately 31 years.

Tachyon Jump Drive
While a handful of interstellar sleeperships were launched in the late 21st century, outfitted with special QTEs designed for the exceptionally flat space-time between stars and capable of upwards of 10% lightspeed even without using their immense antimatter drives, it seemed that for all intents and purposes humanity was locked inside its solar system, unless one wanted to be very patient. All that changed with the publishing of a physics research paper in 2189 that laid out the foundation of a new theory of FTL transit. The critical difference between this one and previous such as wormholes and Alcubierre drives was that the ‘tachyonic spatial displacement device’ was actually workable. Several major governments poured immense resources into developing tachyon jump drives (or simply ‘jump drives’) and the first flights were scheduled to coincide with the 2200 centennial celebrations.

Jump drives are radically different beasts from the familiar QTEs of solar system craft large and small. First and most notably, jump drives are capable of bridging the distances between two stars essentially instantly. They are also extremely large, cumbersome devices; where a QTE or fusion drive is a ship component, a jump drive essentially is the ship.

A jumpdrive (and thus by extension a typical jumpship design) is essentially a pair of monolithic wheel-shaped field guides connected by a spine that houses much of the core generation equipment. The particular and unusual design is a necessity to properly shape the jump envelope; the loss of even one field node could potentially critically compromise the entire envelope geometry. Unsurprisingly, jumpships carry a lot of spares. A number of combat jumpship designs have also been floated – the Earther ‘System Control Ship’ concept being most notable – which move away from the simple wheel-spine-wheel design for less efficient but less constraining geometries, though all are instantly recognizable by the massive field guide arrays.

In operation, jumpships are designed to spread a field envelope around one or more in-system ships; the mass and strict design criteria of a jump drive make the best of them clumsy and pathetically ill-suited as anything other than interstellar tugs. Since the jump takes place in the blink of an eye, hard docking is not required. After each jump the drive must be purged, which involves both cooling it down (larger jumpships can go through a hundred tons of water in less than a minute, vented into space as superheated steam) and then the much longer process of stabilizing and damping the post-jump ‘static’ in the drive, which can take a week or more.

Jump drives can only function between stellar-mass objects, and furthermore ones that are no more than ~8 light years apart (ed. note: test jumps of <8.75 and even [once] 9LY have been recorded, but are not recommended outside of dire emergency due to undue stress on the TJD and an uncomfortably high chance of total existence failure). This has created an interesting dynamic with regards to exploration and expansion, as ships must take specific routes outward.

Preliminary hullcosts

In-system ships

Corvette: 1
Frigate: 2
Destroyer: 4
Cruiser: 8
Battlecruiser: 16
Battleship: 32
Superbattleship: 64

Monitor: 16

Aviation Cruiser: 12 (10DP)
Assault Carrier: 24 (30DP)

Escort Carrier: 8 (20DP)
Light Carrier: 16 (40DP)
Fleet Carrier: 32 (80DP)
Supercarrier: 48 (120DP)

Jump-capable ships

Scout: 4
Constructor: 16 (10DP)
System Control Ship: 96 (80DP)
Light Jumpship (4x8): 8
Heavy Jumpship (4x32): 24