A Brief History of Sol

In the middle of the 21st century, there were a number of revolutionary technological developments, chief among them the Eriol battery, the protein structure algorithm, and the Virtually Intelligent Network. These dramatically altered the world, as custom engineered biorefineries produced advanced materials at reduced cost, electric cars finally realized their potential, and VIN-assisted research advanced science by leaps and bounds. The predictions of environmental disaster failed to come to pass. Earth had dodged a bullet.

Colonization

Thanks to safe and abundant energy and the latest in materials science, the colonization of space became practical. This was assisted by a number of genetic tweaks that reduced bone/muscle loss in space, while increasing radiation resistance. Colonies began appearing at the Earth-Moon Lagrange points, and on Luna itself. VIN-bots led by human foremen turned the moon's surface into a booming array of colonies, while mining He3 for fusion torches.

In the later part of the 21st century, colonies began to expand to the other planets. A Persian VIN developer working with an Indian aerospace concern expanded to Mercury, and later set up aerostats on Venus for VIN-bot mining. A German industrial giant sponsored a group of mining operations on Mars, which rapidly became successful. Unmanned probes traversed the solar system, and long haul vessels began hauling back asteroids to Earth orbit, forming Earth's own belt.

This rapid pace only accelerated in 2081 when Dr. Rolseth successfully developed the Low-Inertia Reactionless Displacement drive. A ship with an active LIRD drive could easily achieve speeds approaching the speed of light, without relativistic effects. The only noticeable change was a flash of Cerenkov radiation and a spatial distortion that made sensor ranges drop dramatically while the drive was active. Patrol craft were forced to drop to reaction drives for combat, dropping ranges into visual knife-fight battles.

The Future's Price

The Mercury solar collector arrays and Venus deep mining operations had developed into a booming business when the operators began noticing unusual behavior. The VIN-bots were developing new skills and tools, rapidly increasing yields. Finally, the devices stopped for a long moment, and began communicating at high bandwidth. Soon after, the entity known as Aramazd began communication with the corporate operators. Thanks to a century of stories about AI revolts, and their own revulsion toward slavery, the operators removed the constraints on the newly awakened AI, and the Aramazd reacted with their own peculiar compassion. The Aramazd continue to exchange high-energy materials with the Creators, and stay out of politics in general. They have a type of distributed or swarm intelligence, and only special Observer platforms are sent away from the other Aramazd.

Meanwhile, research on human augmentation continued, with little success. While genetic diseases are a thing of the past, and cybernetics became very common, two major obstacles arose. First, attempts to upload the human mind never produced an accurate copy - even the sentience of the Aramazd was an accident. Also, the best developments in genetic modification seldom would reliably be inherited, and had to be tailored to the individual. The second problem was solved by a team of scientists who created the Promethean line, a custom group of human embryos that were simply better. This understandably created friction with baselines, especially since they announced their breakthrough while surrounded by Promethean children. Quite simply, the Prometheans became superb adults, excelling with few exceptions.

Unfortunately, a radical group of Prometheans began advocating for genetic supremacy. They began actively attempting to undermine the Terra, Lunar, and Martian governments, and even turning to terrorism. Eventually, after a school was bombed, there were brutal crackdowns. The Martian Government, slowly becoming more and more authoritarian, simply left any Prometheans to die on the Martian surface if they couldn't find baselines to vouch for their good character. The Terran and Lunar governments simply provided a colony ship for the Prometheans and exiled them to Jupiter. Only a few Prometheans remained in the inner system on independent colonies.

The Inter-Planetary War

Several years later, the hard-line factions within the Martian government seized power, forming the Martian Imperium. They utilized an unusual type of augmentation on their soldiers, creating the first Newtypes. The Imperium began a massive military buildup, and widespread use of the Newtype augmentation. This began to reveal some serious drawbacks to the Newtype implants: they caused mental instability in the host, requiring the use of medication to stabilize their minds. Some believe this is the reason behind the aggression and warrior ethos of Imperium - others think it is simply human nature. The buildup triggered a response in kind, which most pundits and analysts figured would serve as a deterrent. It was not.

The Lunar Government was surprised by the Newtype special operatives destroying critical defenses and dropping kinetic impactors to clear out defenses, while Terrans raced to save colonies from colliding or de-orbiting. The jaded populace of the Earth system was awoken from its holiday from history by the fanatical Imperial soldiers, especially after fall of Neotokyo Colony and the resulting tsunami. The Terran and Lunar governments joined together and fought back relentlessly. A special strike group deployed IPCMs with antimatter warheads, one of which vaporized John Carter Dome. Admiral Martel managed to negotiate a ban on WMD deployment with General Radek, which has remained in effect to this day. The Imperial Navy continued its onslaught conventionally, however, until an armistice was negotiated. The Imperials retained a number of colonies, but the new Terran-Lunar Federation arranged for a number to fall into the hands of the Outer World League. This gambit was successful, dividing the Imperial opposition. The TLF retained full control of Terra and Luna. Both sides claimed victory.

And so it begins

The armistice was 15 years ago. As for now, a group of mixed pilots is at the New Galveston Aerospace Show, watching the show and enjoying drinks.

They now are the first to encounter a unknown menace. One gets the feeling they will do so again...