Worldbuilding: A New World, a World of Conflict and Sorrow

[Aaron Fox]

This is a setting that has been poking me at the back of my head for a while since bullethead of SB read the novelization of the pilot episode of seaQuest DSV. It is inspired by Anno 2070/2205, Front Mission, seaQuest, Submarine TITANS, SubWar 2050, Nexus: The Jupiter Incident, among others. While the previous worldbuilding threads were focused on either creating in-universe versions of the US and Japan, unfucking the shitshow that is Gundam SEED, and creating a world where it's a bastard child of Frostpunk and Day after Tomorrow with all the shit that such a setting would entail... this is more of a 'mixed bag' setting. A mix of optimism and pessimism, where ideologies can be used for good and evil, with hefty 'the moral calculus is almost alien to us' bits...

The Setting Basics

• The world is an 'almost worst case scenario' for global warming
  • Here we're talking about entire sections of continents being underwater and entire sections of the Earth literally uninhabitable due to the heat
    • To put things into perspective, Washington DC and New York City are both restructured to be underwater cities while Memphis has become a major sea port
    • The entire Saudi peninsula and some of the surrounding area is literally a death sentence, and it is used by Iran and Israel to exile anyone convicted of a high crime that didn't get the death penalty
  • Due to the massive change in weather patterns, the food supply had been constantly in flux for the better part of one and a half centuries
    • This is exacerbated by the reality that vertical farming was far harder than it looked and most nations defacto or genuinely banning GMO research
      • Most nations would later reverse this or literally collapse into anarchy
    • This led to mass starvation -which would kill billions-, resource wars -which would kill even more billions-, and ecoterrorism -which, again, will kill billions-, all of which has caused the greatest death toll since the time of the Black Plague...
      • The death toll from all that is 5 billion over a period of five decades, or averaging a hundred million per year or roughly 5,475.7 people per day
      • Ecoterrorism carries the highest punishment on the planet, as any eco-terrorist will have to live with the fact that when they get caught their family is going to hell with them
        • Most Ecoterrorism is unleashing synthetic plagues or creating monsters (be animals created from the ground up or modified uplifts specifically designed to be weapons) designed to kill as many people as possible
        • However it is recorded that whenever these terrorists manage to get an atomic device, they will use it to kill as many people as possible, much like what happened to LA and San Diego or Hamburg -among others- during the first two centuries of the new era (i.e. smoking radioactive craters)
        • It should be noted that any pro-Ecological group is at best highly suspect, given that much of the ecoterrorism has come from these groups
          • The only group that isn't considered to be suspicious is the companies under the Ecological Initiative Corporation, which has a strictly self-defensive mandate for its member corporations… and anyone who breaks this mandate is usually cast out, with those that violate the Eco having the perpetrator's families executed and the perpetrator marked for death
  • Instead of the worst case scenario being 80 or 114 meters of sea rise, it is 65 meters
    • As such, the world looks quite different…
    • This is in part by the precursors of the current governments to stabilize the situation
• Nation-States effectively no longer exist in the current era
  • The world -and all of Sol- is split up between several political-economic blocks called "Federal Confederations" or 'FedCons' for short
    • The governments of these FedCons vary from standard cybernetic representative democracies to monarchies and everything in between
      • It should be noted that it isn't uncommon for FedCons to literally own corporations outright, many development corporations are actually government divisions for development of new islands
    • There are several FedCons that aren't based on Earth at all, and are usually break-away states that broke away from their parent FedCons during the early days of space colonization (NWE 150-250)
  • Outside the FedCons, the mega-corporations ('Meg-Corps') rule
    • Numerous mega-corporations exist, with various technologies and capabilities
    • Should be noted that like the FedCons, the Mega-Corps run the gambit of 'being decent despite being for profit' to 'Shere Khan Machiavellian' to pre-New World 'psychopathic'
    • It should be noted that some of these corporations have made alliances to ensure that the FedCons don't intrude on their business
      • Two of the major 'corporate alliances' are the Global Resources and Energy Trust (GRET or simply 'Trust' for short) and the Eden Ecological Initiative Corporation (EEIC or simply 'Eco' for short)
        • While the EEIC would rely mostly on defense forces, the GRET has the mercenary group White Sharks on their payroll
      • The Scientific Academy for Advanced Technologies (or SAAT for short) generally doesn't care for politics, only advancing science with few moral scruples and is known to be an ally of not only these corporate alliances but also independent corporations
        • SAAT is similar to GRET that it has its own mercenary force to protect its interests; this mercenary force -known as the Black Octopi- is also armed with some of the latest military equipment that SAAT can produce
      • The SpaceTech Conglomerate is a minor but growing space-based Meg-Corp that has been making waves since its founding in NWE 250 out of several space-based corporations
      • There are independent corporations (called IMCs for short) like the Crayven Corporation that are rather successful in this new world…
  • There is only one supranational organization that isn't a Meg-Corp, that would be the organization SolForce
    • SolForce is a slowly growing organization, but is constantly screwed in terms of funding, material, and personnel
    • SolForce has been forced to be largely independent of any group within the Sol system
      • Despite this, SolForce has been slowly growing in power, but not enough to challenge the FedCons and Meg-Corps in decisive battle in NWE 320
• In addition to the radically changed landscape thanks to global warming, new islands of numerous sizes have been discovered
  • These islands have popped up across the globe, and are rich in natural resources and provided fertile soil for farming
• In addition to these new islands, numerous undersea colonies have sprung up
• Technologically, this new world is quite advanced in many ways compared to our own, particularly in terms of submarine, biotech, cybernetics, robotics, AI, comp-tech, nuclear energy, and space tech being the most obvious
  • With the push for nuclear technology, fusion has started to replace fission… although at an immensely reduced rate due to the Helium 3 requirements
  • Most fission reactors are of the Thorium or Molten Salt type, although there are still some traditional fission reactors in operation, mostly as breeder and reprocessing facilities
  • Various uplifts are relatively uncommon in Sol, and this is mostly thanks to SAAT's morally dubious experimentation and some ecoterrorist groups trying to weaponize uplifts to kill off humanity…
    • Despite this, the vast majority of FedCons and Meg-Corps treat uplifts with some respect at the minimum, those that don't generally don't last all that long
• The vast majority of the solar system is under the control of various Meg-Corps and FedCons, with SolForce trying to keep the peace…
  • Luna is one of the few bodies in Sol to be owned by only one group, and that would be SolForce, and anywhere else is split between the various factions
    • Mars and Jupiter are two of the most common battlegrounds in Sol, with fighting almost constant over the various resources and research opportunities
• The current era is called 'the New World Era' or NWE for short
  • The "New World Era" started in 2100
  • The 'current' year is NWE 340, which is 2440 in the old calendar
  • The "New World Era" started after the events of 'The Upheavals', a series of wars, disastrous climate change events, and other horrific events which caused immense hardship and death
  • The current population of humanity is 10 billion on Earth, 2 billion across the solar system (with Mars being the largest with 850 million humans); uplifts number in 4 billion on Earth, and another 1 billion across the solar system
• War is a common occurrence in the New World Era, particularly over resources like drinkable water and other vital necessities for life
  • Thanks in part to these new technologies and the limited resources on Earth, war over vital resources and land is extremely common
    • Nuclear weapons aren't as taboo as they once were, the only reason that they're not used as often is due to the fact they're expensive pieces of ordinance, especially since the depletion of weaponizable fission materials (be elements like Uranium and Plutonium or the newly discovered element Starcorium) on Earth and the Helium-3 requirement for laser-initiated fusion warheads
      • In the years since the Upheavals, a new element has been discovered called 'Starcorium' (or simply Corium for short), which sits on 276 on the periodic table
        • The discovery was made when a series of meteors created deposits of the material on Earth
          • Most of the deposits on Earth are centered around the central Atlantic and Pacific
        • A series of probes on various planets and moons across the solar system showed that there were deposits on various planets and moons of the solar system
          • The major producers of Corium are the colonies of Mars, Titan, Triton, and Iapetus
        • Starcorium's energy density when undergoing fission is 82% of fusion
          • Starcorium 297 -a somewhat rare isotope of Starcorium- is incredibly useful for creating what would be considered 'extreme efficiency' fission warheads, which produce very limited long-term radiation
            • The White Sharks mercenary group and their GERT backers have one of the largest Starcorium-based nuclear stockpiles across the solar system
    • Powered exoskeletons and powered armor is common, requiring far better armaments to combat them
    • This is on top of combat-grade cybernetics and gene-augmentations, vastly improving the user's combat performance
      • To combat these new threats, a new type of round known as 'Hypervelocity Rounds' -or HV and whatever other designation at the end of it like HVAP- have been developed for most small arms
      • In addition to HV rounds, there are rifle-sized lasers as well…
      • Due to advancements in containment technology, plasma has become available as a warhead for missiles and shells, and depending on the containment setup, it can be used to defeat hard or soft targets
    • Vehicular armaments include Electrothermal Chemical Triple Coaxial Plasma Igniter cannon, electro-motive (i.e. rail/coilgun), lasers, and with some groups plasmoid and particle beam weaponry
    • Sol in general is rife with conflict, be between FedCons, Meg-Corps, and/or SolForce
    • This has given birth to a new phrase: "Livable land is rare, but human lives are cheap"

 

[Aaron Fox]

This is what I have so far for the introduction, with some details of the four most influential 'Trusts' and introducing certain concepts:

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1.1 Introduction​

The world in NWE 340
​

The New World Era had such promise for all of mankind, but various groups sought to ensure that this promise never came to fruition. Most of this is due to men who lusted for the past that didn't exist, those whose greed was greater than their sense, those that believe that their utopias are justified with genocide, and those who want humanity exterminated. As Anno Domini came to a close in its last century, it saw the collapse of the UN, the horrors induced by greedy corporations that would rather see the world burn than their profits decline, the ideas of enforcing a utopia no matter the cost, those who wanting to return to 'the glory days' that never were, and blaintent use of genocide to settle ethnic scores.

This, in turn, had radically transformed the landscape of Earth in more ways than one.

Between the rising sea levels and the heavy use of nuclear ordinance, the landscape has changed immensely. Memphis is now a major sea port; LA, San Diego, Hamburg, St. Petersburg, and more are now craters thanks to nuclear terrorism; fresh water is in short supply while mass desalination is used to keep the water needs satisfied; entire bands of the Earth are literally too hot to be inhabitable by human life; great swathes of land uninhabitable due to various acts of bioterrorism… all that and more contributing to this new world.

The world is now split into numerous factions, mostly between the various Mega Corporations -or Meg-Corps for short- and the three major corporate alliances (Global Energy and Resources Trust (GERT for short), Eden Ecological Initiative Corporation (EEIC), and Scientific Academy for Advanced Technologies (SAAT)) and large super-national states called 'Federal Confederations' -or FedCons for short. Now there is a sort of 'third' faction in NWE 320 called SolForce, and in NWE 340 it is not effective enough to keep the peace but not weak enough that anyone will simply run over it without repercussions. SolForce is basically the armed peacekeepers of this new era. It enforces several international laws that everyone -outside of the most idiotic and insane (in more ways than one) groups- has agreed to abide by… and ruthlessly executes anyone that breaks those laws if the FedCons or Meg-Corps don't get to them first.

1.2 The Federal Confederations​

The Federal Confederations -usually called FedCons for short- are somewhat complex social-political constructs that are far larger than any nation-state of the pre-Upheavals era. As a whole, they're similar to the Supranational nations of Front Mission, just far more expanded due to the shear length of time they've been operating. For the most part, nations within the FedCons are only of historical and administrative significance. This is partially due to the fact that normal nation-states can't survive in the New World era, especially since corporations can filibuster -in military terms its is someone(s) who(m) engages in an (at least nominally) unauthorized military expedition into a foreign country or territory to foment or support a revolution- smaller governments into being subversive to whatever corporation did the filibuster.

As such, the various FedCons are the only traditional governments left.

FedCons come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and governments and can have politics ranging from tempered optimistic to Machiavellian to outright tyrannical and everything in between. One of the few things that these FedCons have in common is an electronic panopticon, usually governed by some sort of AI. This is partially due to the Upheavals and certain technologies -mostly biotech, but also weather manipulation tech, nukes, and nano-tech- that has proliferated to almost universal levels without the people having countermeasures, allowing any yahoo with a little know how and the tech to simply cause immense havoc. It should be also known that without weather manipulation tech, the world would be in a far more dire spot than it already is, and all Weather Stabilizer stations are under the sole control of SolForce as per the Treaty of Luna, which established SolForce's exclusivity to Weather Control tech (and the punishments for the breach of this exclusivity) and the rights of the organization.

Culturally, the FedComs can be varied. Some have one dominant culture while others are more of a mixing pot, and there are those that are in between these two extremes as well.

1.3 The Mega Corporations​

The second group of factions are the Mega Corporations or 'Meg-Corps' for short. With the dissolution of power from nation-states before and during the Upheaval, these businesses are -in many cases- the government in numerous locales across the planet. Through overt and subversive force of arms, these corporations have taken over great swathes of the world that aren't part of the FedCons or groups like SolForce. The situation outside FedCon and SolForce territory is generally either land that no one has claimed yet or belongs to the Meg-Corps.

The Meg-Corps are one of the legacies of what led to the Upheavals, and while some of them aren't as bad as what birthed them (the Eden Ecological Initiative Corporation being the 'nicest' of the bunch), others are completely exploitive and will do anything to get more profit. However, it should be noted that the most common type of corporation can be described as 'Machiavellian', as being too exploitive tends to incite things like revolutions and uprisings. As a cartoon tiger once said: "I desire only power and money, unrepresentable workers provide me with neither."

1.3.1 The Trusts​

Might makes right, that is the core aspect of the world that this is set in… and with the FedCons trying to take power away from the Meg-Corps, alliances between Meg-Corps to ensure that they don't loose power (and thus profits) formed. There are four major corporate alliances, usually called 'trusts': the Eden Ecological Initiative Corporation (a conglomerate of 'Green' business), Scientific Academy for Advanced Technologies (SAAT for short, a conglomerate of tech corporations that specialize in numerous fields including cybernetics, biotech, nanotech, nuclear physics, among others), SpaceTech (a conglomerate of space-based industries and corporations), and the Global Energy and Resource Trust (or GERT or 'Trust' for short). Other Trusts exist, but aren't as influential as these four.

1.3.1.1 Eden Ecological Initiative Corporation (EEIC or 'Eco')​

(a major Eco city in a crowded archipelago in the South Pacific, population 1 million humans)​

The EEIC is a conglomerate of 'Green' business trying to show the viability of 'Green' tech as a profitable venture. The brainchild of Ulysses 'Mr. Green' Williams and originally headquartered in Berlin, it had shown some success in its original mission. The problem with the mission is that, at the end of the day, it is far cheaper (and thus more profitable) to simply tear the environment up than doing environmentally friendly methods.

That has always been a major problem with being ecologically friendly as it's far less expensive to simply destroy the environment in order to get the resources you want than extract them in an environmentally friendly way. One of the more problematic problems that EEIC has is the extreme resistance to gene-modified organisms. Despite their use being an outright requirement in this era, the vast majority of the EEIC aren't willing to pursue GMOs too far and aren't too fond of uplifts either.

It also doesn't help that environmentalism has become a byword for eco-terrorism… as the numerous acts of biological and nuclear terrorism perpetrated by the various eco-terrorist organizations like Greenpeace, the World Purity League, and the Eco Pact. These atrocities in the name of environmentalism stained the name and ideology of environmentalism to the modern day and beyond.

The EEIC is 'governed' by what amounts to a constitution known only as 'the Ecological Mandate'. The Ecological Mandate is an immense document that has been amended numerous times over the two centuries that it existed. It outlines rights, basic laws, what the EEIC can and can't do, establishing judicial and political protocol, among other aspects of governance. This allowed a certain level of control over the vast territory that the various corporations under the EEIC's banner have procured over the centuries, which helps in ensuring that the EEIC doesn't have problems with factions within the Trust causing PR problems out the ass.

The biggest difference between the EEIC and other trusts is that they don't have a mercenary group on their payroll. The most military gear they have is basically enough only for defensive purposes. A Self Defense Force writ large as it were. While this kept costs low, it also has limited the ability for the EEIC to expand, a problem that has also extended to it's space-based holdings.

1.3.1.2 The Global Energy and Resources Trust (GERT or simply 'Trust')​

(a major GERT city, in an archipelago in the Pacific)​

The Global Energy and Resource Trust is the culmination of one woman's -one Skylar Banes, who is currently the Chairwoman of the Board of Directors, the CEO, and company president- desires and dreams, built upon sweat and blood that started in NWE 225. Starting from a simple exploration and prospecting firm, Madam Barnes created one of the largest Trusts that humanity has ever seen. Outside the FedCons, GERT owns about a third of Earth's energy and resource output. Many other corporations (and several minor FedCons) have some level of reliance on GERT to ensure that they can continue functioning.

Despite their cornering of the world's resource and energy markets, GERT is far more pragmatic than one would assume, despite the occasional 'bad egg' like Thor Strindberg -who was responsible for the Site 13 Debacle and the Break the World Crisis before his execution in NWE 250. Skylar Banes puts pragmatism, rule abiding, and competence above all else. While this isn't shared with her colleges within the trust, this has garnered a lot of goodwill and positive PR for the Trust… and the unquestioned grumblings of Banes's underlings.

To defend its immense holdings, GERT had acquired the mercenary nation of the White Sharks in a hostile takeover in NWE 252 after the Break the World Crisis demolished GERT's security and military forces. The White Sharks are notorious for being brutal combatants and basically follows the 'David Drake' style of Rules of Engagement (or, to be more specific, 'every tool at your disposal to end the conflict if you can get away with it' and 'the moment your opponent uses protected locations and vehicles, treat all other protected locations and vehicles as targets' rules of engagement, although for the latter it is used by all militaries across Sol). Most independent groups tend to simply surrender than fight, allowing GERT to create a massive empire for itself across the planet and on numerous planets, moons, planetoids, and asteroids.

As a whole, the leadership of GERT is pragmatic when it comes to uplifts and gene-modified organisms, allowing uplifts to work and live in higher-security areas so any problems with anti-Uplift groups are minimized and make extensive use of GMO plants and animals to maximize production and minimize environmental impact and disease.

1.3.1.3 Scientific Academy for Advanced Technologies (SAAT)​

(a major SAAT city, please note the numerous emergency services buildings)​

SAAT is the biggest technology conglomerate in human history. Out of all the groups within Sol, only SolForce is more advanced (and SolForce maintains the immense climate control network that keeps everyone from dying from the worst that climate change has to offer).

Born out of the group known as 'The Old Crew' (or TOC for short), SAAT became a major juggernaut in terms of scientific exploration. Growing out of a conglomerate of laboratories and advanced prospecting and resource extraction corporations, it became a juggernaut in terms of scientific and metamaterial output. It is also the group with the most advanced GMOs in Sol. SAAT is also infamous/famous (depending on how you look at it) for the development of the various uplifts that exist.

The treatment of uplifts, however, is a different story.

Uplifts are treated like second class citizens within SAAT borders… and got away with this for the longest time due to the fact that SAAT is the center of technological development and produces a significant portion of the GMOs and metamaterials needed for modern existence. However, as of NWE 320, SAAT's grip on metamaterial and GMO production has been waning which allowed SolForce to effectively wage a 'lukewarm' war against SAAT for this and other atrocities. It also didn't help that a massive 'underground railroad' network made up of less amoral citizens and workers and various uplift advocacy groups across the planet to ship as many uplifts as they can to FedCons like the Oceania Cooperative Union and the Union of North American States or MegCorps like GERT.

Much of SAAT's technological prowess is the fact that they rarely put ethics into their research. Outright human experimentation using 'unnoticeables' or 'undesirables' across the world is sickenly common. This lack of ethics rarely shows up in their branch offices in various FedCons or MegCorps, however, and due to the lack of a powerful supranational entity to enforce these laws (although as of the present day in NWE 340, SolForce is becoming that to pretty much everyone) no one can really touch them.

SAAT has its own private military in the form of the Black Octopi. Originally a major undersea prospecting and exploration corporation, the Black Octopi transformed into a mercenary group in the second century. The Black Octopi showed itself as a major military force during the Break the World Crisis as it fought the first incarnation of the Orbital Watch terrorist organization/rogue state.

 

[Aaron Fox]

Another prototype for you guys, this time SpaceTech and SolForce:

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1.3.1.4 SpaceTech

(An older SpaceTech Stiletto class Corvette fighting a ship from one of SpaceTech's many rivals)​

SpaceTech (and yes, that is how it is spelled) is a major space industry trust that is a rising star in today's world. AstroTech Industries (headed by Michael Garibaldi), Star Transport Limited (headed by Richard Williams), and the Space Prospector Group (headed by Ismail Edgar) make up the core of the SpaceTech Trust's core corporations and all of it began during the Space Boom that started in NWE 210s when the first viable permanent space stations became operational. Numerous corporations either created new space divisions from scratch or got enough investment to start entirely new companies in the high-risk, high-reward environment that is space exploration, prospecting, and colonization.

In this ruthless environment, it wasn't uncommon for skirmishes and outright conflict to erupt… and it has quite often when one can lose and gain everything. This is especially true with various resources that are either rare or nonexistent on Earth. Exotic elements like Starcorium and Starmetal are in immense abondance in space alongside more conventional ones like uranium, helium 3, the rare earth metals family, among others. This is much of the impetus for space colonization and exploitation.

SpaceTech's nucleus would gain much power during this period, which created the aerospace behemoth today.

This didn't stop the creation of numerous enemies however. Minor Trusts like the Kassaki Syndicate and OSEC vie for power across the outer planets of the solar system alongside SolForce and FedCons like the Oceania Cooperative Union and the Union of North American States. This is why SpaceTech is tied with SolForce with the largest space force in Sol, with almost thousand warships and two thousand assorted freighters, star liners, and assorted logistical vessels to it's credit.

SpaceTech is notable that it sells modified versions of their spaceships in market, causing much of the spacelanes to be filled with SpaceTech gear as few MegCorps and FedCons can afford to not only build their colonies on moons and other planets WHILE creating their own spaceship construction infrastructure.

In addition, it had to fight it's way to become what it is today, as the Jovian and Cronosian Skirmishes, in 235 and 244 respectively, showed. With corporate espionage and outright wars becoming more and more common as time went on SpaceTech's military has become one of the few crack militaries in Sol.
1.4 SolForce

(Top: SolForce's Flag Bottom: SolForce's Battle Standard)​

SolForce is the supranational organization that is the successor to the UN, indeed several of its organizations (World Health Organization (WHO), Universal Postal Union (UPU), International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), International Maritime Organization (IMO), and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)) are part of the nucleus that created SolForce in the first place. Unlike its predecessor (which could only do as much as the Security Council would allow it), it is almost entirely self-sufficient and effectively a nation unto itself. As such, it is looked upon with suspicion by the majority of the FedCons and MegCorps.

Despite this, SolForce is a major force within the Sol system, trying to ensure that the few international laws that remain are enforced. It is also known to enforce these laws with lethal force as necessary. This includes SolForce's monopoly on terraforming tech.

Other international laws that are enforced includes the universal restrictions on bioweapon technology (all overseen by SolForce AI and 'twined' inspectors), the universal restrictions on nanotech (also overseen by SolForce AI and 'twined' inspectors), enforcing SolForce's monopoly on antimatter, SolForce's monopoly on psionics in its entirety, and the complete ban of gene-line bioweapons outside of devising countermeasures (overseen by SolForce AI and 'twined' inspectors, enforced by SolForce itself via agents called 'Silencers').

(an early permanent orbital stations, in this case a permanent orbital research laboratory designed to carry out various 'low'-risk research, in this case in the biotech, agriculture, electronics, and heavy industry fields)​

SolForce started out as simply as the space equivalent of the ICAO in 210 as orbital launches became more and more frequent, leading to the first permanent orbital stations only 5 years later. This, predictably, caused orbital traffic to be effectively impossible without one organization ensuring everyone else has the same training, standards, and equipment. This puts SolForce into an interesting position to effectively control space and orbital traffic. This iron grip on orbital traffic, an iron grip that hasn't abided with the creation of the space control AI almost a century later.

SolForce quickly gathered the remnants of the UN and integrated them into the organization, allowing for a major shot in the arm in terms of political power. This allowed SolForce to start creating its own space force in the 230s which became powerful enough to dictate terms in what would shape into the Treaty of Luna in 292 after the OSEC-Kassaki/SolForce War, allowing it to dictate terms alongside certain aspects of 'enlightened self interest' from the vast majority of humanity.

(Top and Bottom: The Novikov Crater Outpost, a typical SolForce 'quick and dirty' lunar outpost of about thirty thousand; please note that this setup is only viable via modern hybrid Anti-Kinetic/Radiation Fields)​

SolForce slowly grew from what would be effectively a laughing stock to a powerful faction in it's own right. By 250, SolForce had some of the most lucrative areas of the moon under its control, led by Luna Headquarters in the southern hemisphere, which has allowed for much of SolForce's growth in the years that followed. SolForce would expand its reach to across the solar system, setting up settlements and bases to expand on its power and enforcing international law.

 

[Aaron Fox]

For those who are going to ask "does Mecca and Medina still exist in the setting's modern day?", the short answer is no... but not because they got razed to the ground or nuked but because they were swallowed by the desert, quite literally. For those who assume that any Islamic group wouldn't abandon Mecca and Medina, well...

No one is going to keep the place when it gets literally too hot for humans to live (as in, regularly over 140 degrees Fahrenheit -or 60 degrees Celsius if you prefer metric- for the area around Mecca alone... and that is well within the danger zone for the human body as hyperthermia will set in rather quickly) and basically berried by sand via the horrific dust storms and intense desertification. The House of Saud constructed biodomes for these cities, but it proved fruitless as even the best that money could buy couldn't keep up with the demands (and this practically bankrupted the country mind you). No one came back for the cities after the House of Saud fell in the late 21st, and by the time things stabilized, both cities had been consumed by the desert, never to be seen again.

Remember, the climate control tech currently operating only stops the situation from getting worse, not reverse centuries of atmospheric pollution. A lot of resources in SolForce's RnD are being thrown at finding a way to reverse this, but even with helium-3 fusion this is basically impossible as every solution so far requires anti-matter levels of energy potential at best to change the climate back on a global scale.

 

[Aaron Fox]

I've been working on how to introduce everyone into combat, and I had the idea that the average blue-water navy of the various factions having a minimum of 6 to 8 hundred combat vessels (about half of which are submarines) each to cover their various assets and undersea colonies. In addition, line infantry squads with transports number somewhere between 10-man squads and two-man transports to 15 man squads and 3-man transports.

Attrition is god in this world, as platoons of 60 to 90 men regularly die in skirmishes, with entire companies (which usually consist of 4 or 5 of these platoons, which means somewhere between 240 to 450 troops for line infantry companies) being either being rendered combat ineffective or annihilated within days during a war. These large unit sizes are able to be fielded thanks to 'replicator' tech -an incredibly powerful 3D printer/nano-fabber hybrid that can produce practically everything that it can fit through the exit (be ammunition, armaments, parts for vehicles, entire smaller vehicles, armor plate, or portions of ship for most models, with the rare naval drydock sized fabricator that eats energy like a pig, hence why most most shipyards tend to be basically a fabber plant with a more traditional shipyard attached) and has the feedstock for- decreasing the costs of equipment with the fact of gene and cyber augs eliminate the problem of having entire portions of the population incapable of being part of the military (and the fact that there is actually not much work outside the military helps as well).

... and why drones aren't used? Because they require AGIs to be able to be on the battlefield thanks to drone spoofing techniques developed during the Upheavals and refined in the New World Era, and AGIs require Quantum Processors (or 'Q-Procs' for short) to function which has a tight production bottleneck compared to simply having augmented soldiers with more traditional computer circuits and processors...

 

[Aaron Fox]

Some of the weapons that I've thought up while writing the current portion of the introduction, sure they're SolForce armaments but the principles behind them are rather common:

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My newest pulse laser rifle thanks to Pimp My Gun. The battery essentially gets put into the handgrip ala the Wattz 3000 mod laser rifle:


Incredibly potent and the muzzle break is to keep the focusing array from getting damaged. It also uses thermal clips to help keep the heat down. It's capabilities is comparable to the next weapon, but at the cost of more weight and longer barrel.

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The above is a 'Burst Rifle', which is pretty powerful. It utilizes Electro-Thermal Chemical Triple coaxial Plasma Igniter technology and can fire a 5.565mm (this is the dimensions of the actual bullet) round at (to us) extremely high speed (2km/s for normal, 3km/s minimum for hypervelocity) Given that the usual cores of these weapons tend to be iridium or some other high-density metal, they can impart immense amounts of kinetic energy. This is mostly due to metallurgy advancing leaps and bounds thanks to what amounts to 3D printer style replicators and nano-tech fabrication as well as the proliferation of armored exoskeletons, powered armor, cybernetics, and gene-tech. When you can augment a person with gene-tech to make them act like SPARTANs on permanent 'SPARTAN Time' or make cybernetic bodies straight out of Ghost in the Shell meta-verse with ease, you'll need something that can actually hit them.

Also, explosives are far more potent than ours, as competently designed exoskeletons and powered armor can dampen the effects of explosives. Effectively, an 'Anno Domini' grenade would only cause slight disorientation for a man clad in an armored exoskeleton or be simply laughed off by a mostly-/full-conversion cyborg or someone clad in powered armor. On the other hand, a 'New World Era' grenade would turn normal humans into paste within 50 meters and into chunky salsa outside of that up to 100 meters.

 

[Aaron Fox]

Now, another 'assumption' that is considered truth is that human beings are still viable in military matters. Between the fact that AGIs require quantum computing and at least a month in AI Crèches to be even viable as a whole (alongside the large tail that each AGI requires to ensure maximum effectiveness all units) with the fact that cybernetic and genetic 'boosting' is an extremely common technology (the closest that popular fiction has to this sort of thing is what the Systems Alliance in Mass Effect utilizes for its own military, as many of it's soldiers are 'boosted' genetically to enhance effectiveness) and this allows the various factions to effectively have everyone able to do military service (a report that the US military did earlier this decade indicated that ~10% of the US population are non-viable for even 'bottom of the barrel' conscription due to how much has changed in terms of equipment, tactics, and doctrine).

 

[Aaron Fox]

Hm, something to go with a picture that I've found on Facebook that is prudent for the setting:

"When mankind first came to Mars, it was mostly surveyors of SolForce, the Union of North American States, and several mega corporations, all looking for resources and locations to set up their future colonies. Despite this, the first American colonies on Mars would be located at several NASA probe landing sites including Opportunity and Viking 1. Each and every one of them would have those probes as monuments, the center of these colonies as it were. This was not only a testament to the willingness of humanity to anthropomorphize machines and animals (although the latter became the driving force for the Uplift Process), but also attempting to recreate the future that was..." ​

 

[Aaron Fox]

Now, thanks to the SB Mod The Dark Gods, I've found World Anvil and have made a prototype of a major problem that everyone can face: A Death Zone.

What these areas are is stated on the tin, they are literally zones of death. Usually they're synthetic plagues specifically designed to latch into the biosphere of an area and kill anything that it is coded to kill in horrific and disturbing ways, but occasionally you'll see an area where it has enough ambient radiation that unless you're using heavy power armor or what is essentially a mini-mecha, you are going to be glowing so hot that the Geiger counter won't be able to tell how irradiated you are outside of 'off the scale' (basically the last area in the game Metro: Exodus).

The largest of these is the Rome Metropolitan Death Zone, created by the most horrific bio-terrorism attack (by eco-terrorists) in the history of mankind. At the time that this act of horror was unleashed, the Rome Metropolitan Area had a population of 12 million. The synthetic plague killed 9 million and the survivors were barely able to live out the rest of their shortened lives.

SolForce has created a cordon of the Zone consisting of two armies and a sophisticated network of sensors and automated turrets with explicit orders to shoot first, ask questions never. This is mostly due to the fact that if the synthetic plague that has latched onto the biosphere within this zone was to become 'wild'... well... let's just say the best case scenario is at least another Rome Metropolitan Death Zone would be created. You don't want to know the worst case scenario, and if you want to know then prepare for me (and SolForce) to throw redacteds at you...

 

[Aaron Fox]

An outlawed weapon in this new age -thanks to the Treaty of Luna- is mimetic or 'meme' weapons. These weapons are designed to basically cause disaster wherever it goes. This is thanks to the fact that they can lie in wait for decades, even centuries before activating and then causing untold havoc. That is why all factions that have an ounce of self-preservation has entire departments specifically hardened and designed against this new weapon to find, track, and eliminate mimetic weapon users, with quite a few nations going for 'killing ten innocence and a guilty is better off than allowing the guilty to walk' approach (which, in all honesty, is sadly not unwarranted, given the mechanics of mimetic weaponry).

If SolForce finds out someone has been using this sort of weapon, well, let's just say that the mimetic weapons creator and his/her family will get killed by Black Section Black-Ops operatives alongside a Silencer, but it might end up having an entire state/island be nuked until it glows and nuked some more just to be sure with the internet literally locked down and thoroughly scanned by every faction to find any and all sleeper mimetics... which could mean the internet and every database might be offline for months if not years as they are carefully and thoroughly checked for mimetic weapons.

Mimetic weaponry started showing up in the second decade of the 21st -and last- century of Anno Domini, with Brexit and the US 2016 elections being the most prominent with events like the March 2019 New Zealand terrorist attacks having even very crude versions of mimetic weaponry being used to cause more havoc. This, eventually, led to the end of privacy and the free flow of information in it's entirety by the end of the first half of the century. With the proliferation of this type of weapon, anyone that didn't get with the 'end of privacy and unilateral free flow of information' program died very messy deaths.

 

[Aaron Fox]

Attention everyone! This setting is now also being built at World Anvil!

Link: A New World at World Anvil​

 

[Aaron Fox]

Now, thanks to the SB Mod The Dark Gods, I've found World Anvil and have made a prototype of a major problem that everyone can face: A Death Zone.

What these areas are is stated on the tin, they are literally zones of death. Usually they're synthetic plagues specifically designed to latch into the biosphere of an area and kill anything that it is coded to kill in horrific and disturbing ways, but occasionally you'll see an area where it has enough ambient radiation that unless you're using heavy power armor or what is essentially a mini-mecha, you are going to be glowing so hot that the Geiger counter won't be able to tell how irradiated you are outside of 'off the scale' (basically the last area in the game Metro: Exodus).

The largest of these is the Rome Metropolitan Death Zone, created by the most horrific bio-terrorism attack (by eco-terrorists) in the history of mankind. At the time that this act of horror was unleashed, the Rome Metropolitan Area had a population of 12 million. The synthetic plague killed 9 million and the survivors were barely able to live out the rest of their shortened lives.

SolForce has created a cordon of the Zone consisting of two armies and a sophisticated network of sensors and automated turrets with explicit orders to shoot first, ask questions never. This is mostly due to the fact that if the synthetic plague that has latched onto the biosphere within this zone was to become 'wild'... well... let's just say the best case scenario is at least another Rome Metropolitan Death Zone would be created. You don't want to know the worst case scenario, and if you want to know then prepare for me (and SolForce) to throw redacteds at you...

 

[Aaron Fox]

Another thing that should be mentioned here is that due to a combination of factors (including the various gene-mods that most of humanity have as standard increasing the caloric intake immensely), vastly improved versions of 'traditional farming' are utilized as the primary source of food instead of 'vat-grown meat' and 'urban farming'. This is partially due to simple efficiency.

Urban farming was quickly discovered during the second half of the 21st century as inefficient compared to 'modernized' traditional farming, especially in the grand scales needed to keep the billions of humans (and millions of various uplifts) fed. Vat-grown meat -once heralded as a new beginning to food production- turned out to be only useful for chicken as any other meat produced would taste off -a sort of 'taste uncanny valley' effect- enough to be useless as a foodstuff... and not to mention that in order to produce industrial quantities of meat through the vat-grow process meant that the required proteins, bio-catalysts, and water are immense. To put things into perspective: for one ton of vat-chicken you'll need two tons of proteins, ten tons of bio-catalysts, and twenty tons of water. To produce the needed vat-chicken for a week, you'll have to multiply that by a factor of fourteen as you'll need two tons of vat-chicken per day to help feed a good-sized town. That doesn't include the physical (which runs in the tens of thousands of square meters) and carbon (it turns out, industrializing vat-grown meat on a grand scale isn't as carbon free as it was touted to have) footprints!

This ties into another thing about the setting, practically all the factions have 'equalized' the population and economies of their constituents when possible. The centralization of population and economic power in a handful of mega-cities cause untold problems. One such problem is militarily as even going near a mega-city is an invitation for war crimes a plenty. Another such problem is the Ruralist Revolts that plagued much of the world during the second half of the 21st century and the New World Era's first century thanks to the large Rural/Urban divide. These revolts included outright terrorism, forced starvation, and some cases outright insurrection. This forced a policy of economic and population equalization, forcing the breakup of the mega-cities and creating a system of smaller cities and large towns to maximize efficiency while keeping areas economically viable...

 

[Aaron Fox]

Another thing that has come up is India and Pakistan, and well, let's just say their story didn't end happily and had long-term repercussions in the setting.

During the Upheavals, India and Pakistan fought each other over Kashmir (again) and it quickly spiraled out of control, ending in the final phase of the conflict going nuclear. Pakistan lost a confirmed six (with many more unconfrimed due to Pakistan's nuclear policy) nuclear warheads of strategic yield during the 24 hour nuclear bombardment, three of them went into Europe and detonated (one in Sarajevo, one in Hamburg, and one in Paris) with the other half being intercepted in Sri Lanka (whose government collapsed some time beforehand) by a joint Japanese/US/SK black ops team before they went to their targets (Tokyo, Seoul, and New York City). While no one claimed responsibility, it forced even the most liberal nations to veer very hard towards being authoritarian in some way or fashion.

This, in conjunction with the ability to produce horrific synthetic plagues (leading to the nationalization of biotech by the FedCons and SolForce by NWE 0050) being lowered to the individual/small group level, has created a world where there is only electronic panopticons in the factions that survive...

 

[Aaron Fox]

Now, another thing that has come up is vaccinations and a black/white ops group within SolForce.

Now a common law of all factions in the setting is that Vaccinations are MANDATORY unless you've got a VERIFIABLE -as in 'by verified medical professionals' verified- MEDICAL CONDITION that would cause horrible reactions to said vaccination. This is partially due to synth-plagues using various diseases as a baseline to ensure quick and easy deployment, and anti-Vaxx being such a problem that entire towns got wiped out due to too many holes in the town's herd immunity, as the holes allowed the plague to bypass older vaccines via mutation.

Now, this law is strictly enforced by all factions, be meg-corp, FedCon, SolForce, and even terrorist organizations... and trying to break this law is dire for the parents. If the parents refuse to vaccinate, then they'll get forcibly implanted with birth control implants and have their children taken away at the minimum. Given that having holes in a town's/city's/island's herd immunity is a certain death sentence in setting, this is sadly necessary.
______
Then there is SolForce's Special Actions Division (aka 'SAD'). SAD is a powerful division within SolForce's 'Black Section' (aka all the external intelligence services put under one roof) that is responsible for enforcing several international laws enforced by the Treaty of Luna. They number in a dozen or so divisions in terms of operative strength. There are various levels of operators and only a division of the best operatives have the ability to turn entire islands and US State sized areas into ash at their discretion. Each operative is a post-human warrior that can swap bodies as necessary and are overseen by a techno-organic AI that is implanted through a process called 'Twining'. This AI is constantly looking over the shoulder of the operative every moment of their life. By being (functionally) immortal, they have a enormous wealth of knowledge, experience, and training to carry out their duties.

In addition, SAD agents are constantly watched by Internal Affairs, which is similar to pre-Travis's ONI Internal Affairs division (aka 'scary motherfuckers that scare even the worst of ONI operatives') which are helped by the AI.

If a SAD operative tries to defect, tries to go rogue, among other things, then the AI can (and will if necessary) activate a kill switch that turns the cybernetics into white hot slag, killing the operative and AI and leaving nothing salvageable behind.

 

[Aaron Fox]

While this might be political to some, the FM9 handbook/report is an interesting read on information/memetic warfare... and from what I've read it is very interesting, very surprising, and very worrying...

 

[Aaron Fox]

In setting, of something like this shows up, shit is going to go down:

​

Why do you ask? Because memetic weapons/hazards are a thing and the various factions have entire departments dedicated to searching and destroying memetic ordinance every day. Memetic warfare is quite similar to other forms of warfare in that there are plays and counter-plays, measures and countermeasures. Modern memetic weapons are required to be 'tuned' to their targets, the faction they're being deployed in, and whatever countermeasures they will face. This has predictably caused several generations of weapons and countermeasures to come into being and evolve. However, this hasn't stopped these weapons from becoming problematic, period. It also didn't help to improve the current state of affairs either, and the current state of affairs is thanks to the deployment of the first genuine weaponized memes thanks to Russia. Due to the variety of memetic weapons and how they evolved, memetic weapons are classified by their medium of transfer, if it targets the consciousness or subconsciousness, and 'generation'. This has allowed the civilian population to properly react to their deployment if there is a breach (usually by the use of things like mind-altering drugs/substances to 'muddle' the memetic in question).

The Generations are:

• Generation 1 (Gen1): The crudest and most basic memetic weapon in human history. They were originally developed by Russia during the Putin regime in the 2010s and first revealed to the world in the 2016 Brexit vote and the US 2016 Presidential Elections as part of a wide-scale world destabilization operation only known as 'Operation Deep Fifty', an operation whose description is essentially 'soak the world in gasoline and then lite it on fire'. This generation is known to simply 'convince' the consciousness of the target(s) to do whatever the memetic wants them to believe... and oddly enough the easiest to counter and neutralize due to the heavy reliance on frames of reference and mentality proximity for its effectiveness.
• Generation 2 (Gen2): The second generation of memetic weaponry and -surprisingly- vastly more sophisticated. While the majority of the afflicted tend to be simply 'convinced' to do whatever the memetic wants them to do or believe in, this starts to show the mind control esque properties of memetics in general as a tiny (<2%) of the afflicted effectively have no free will. Despite these improvements, it shared the same problems as it's predecessor in terms of effectiveness, and thus was the second to be rendered neutralized. This was created by the successor of Vladimir Putin, one Grigor Ilyanich Stoyanov, and his administration is directly linked to the infamous 1st Ruralist Insurrections -which killed hundreds of millions of people worldwide- and other conflicts that were created to ensure that no one would be able to attack Russia -later ZAFTRA- before it was ready.
• Generation 3 (Gen3): The second generation introduced memetic's ability to take away people's free will to small populations, but Gen3 memetic weapons managed to up this to give one about a 30% chance of the afflicted to have their free will taken away. First introduced by various warlords and maniacs in the various developing Lawless Zones across the planet in the latter half of the 1st Century NWE, the Gen3 memetics was a genuine surprise to memetic weapon experts at the time. This generation of memetic weapons is particularly infamous as it was partially the cause for the 2nd Ruralist Insurrections, which killed millions of people worldwide. At the time of NWE 0340, Gen3 memetic weapons are only partially neutralized, and the current cure for those who have their free will taken from them is simply to, effectively, put them out of their misery...
• Generation 4 (Gen4): The fourth generation of memetic weapons is a frightening one when it was first introduced during the late 2nd Century NWE, and for good reason. It is infamous as it is well known to have the ability to effectively take free will entirely. Despite much research, at the time of introduction, the only 'cure' for those afflicted is to simply kill the afflicted. Like the previous generation, there is no one group or person that is responsible for its development, but there were signs that a transhuman that went by the name of Caulder Stolos had a hand in a few of these...
• Generation 5 (Gen5): Currently the ultimate memetic weapon in existence bar none. Designed by one Caulder Stolos as an anti-civilization weapon, it is essentially designed to eliminate free will completely to those that are afflicted and has been called 'the closest thing to Warhammer 40k Chaos Bullshit without the space magic' by various anti-memetic groups, which isn't far from the truth, as it targets not only the consciousness but also the subconsciousness. However, to do this, Gen5 weapons abandon any and all sense of subtlety when being unleashed and thus able to be quarantined. A few thousand have to be killed due to being afflicted, but that's better than having millions be killed off in a 'ten innocents will die so we can get the afflicted' style rule.

The current state of memetic warfare is one where attacks come and go in nanoseconds, requiring augmented individuals and AGIs with in-built anti-memetic systems to 'man the walls' so to speak... and the current situation of these 'memetic warfare divisions' and the various memetic weapon creators/users in the various Lawless Zones across the planet is best described as a 'stalemate'. Before Gen5 memetics came into the field, anti-memetic capabilities were slowly but surely ensuring that the only place you can learn about these is in the history books, but that changed when a transhuman named Caulder Stolos introduced to the world the first Gen 5 memetic weapon and caused several mutual genocides in the process in several Lawless Zones. Whenever he arrives in a populated location, he generally leaves only bodies in his wake for his goal of removing civilization entirely...

 

[Aaron Fox]

So, here is some more lore for you guys. I've talked about my setting and memetic weapons, now I'm going to tell you about something that every faction has effectively agreed to be worthy of literal on-site execution: the Mind Jack (common name).

The Mind Jack is a system designed by the mad post-human known only as Caulder Stolos (who is currently at large) in a bid to annihilate civilization in every form. A Mind Jack completely invalidates the concept of Free Will and a constant threat to the well-being of sentient lives at large. Elements of the Mind Jack are also used in 5th Generation memetic weaponry, making it even more problematic.

Given the widespread distribution of Stolos's proxies and his memetic attacks allowing for their proliferation, the only punishment for even having one of these devices is on-site execution at the very minimum... with some factions making the family on the execution block as well to ensure that no one uses these willingly.

How the Mind Jack operates is simple in concept: it is a technological replication of psionics, but able to completely rewrite a person's mental state (something that psionics can't do). Building upon a firm understanding of neuroscience and psychology, it uses electromagnetic systems to reprogram a sentient being. Its range is limited, however, as it's maximum range is 100 meters and it's effective range is only a tenth of that (10 meters). Effectively, it is a near-instantaneous version of Mass Effect's Indoctrination or the technological version of scopolamine (a drug with similar properties). This can allow the user to make the person do anything they wish from making the person in question be an idiot to making scandals like clockwork to turning people into literal suicide bombers who would die for the cause to make even the most fanatical fanatic look like cowards.

It should be noted that this is one of the technologies that got amended into the Sol Accords as a banned technology, only to be researched to find a way to counteract its effects. All nations enforce this ban under the pain of death. The only sentients immune to this technology are either techno-organic or quantum-based AGIs and psions, with the former due to being AGI and the later due to how the technologies of the mind jack interact with psionic energy.

 

[Aaron Fox]

(Thank Schwarzweiler for these)

The MBT-01 'General Williams' series of MBTs is one of the oldest MBT designs still in use in the solar system. Designed soon after the creation of SolForce as replacement part shipments were cut off, the MBT-01 was designed by the then newly-formed Solforce White Section wholely in-house but based off of the numerous designs that SolForce used up to that point.

Using a hybrid boogie/torsion bar suspension, the MBT-01 series has consistently kept its cross-terrain ability throughout the centuries. With a top speed of 80km/h on-road and 50km/h off-road, it is quite a speedy tank for its weight.

Its primary armor is -oddly enough, similar to the concepts brought about by the fictional setting Battletech, although in hindsight this isn't exactly surprising as what was essentially EndoSteel was first revealed to the world in the 2010s. The armor is a composite of various materials including conventional and unconventional alloys, metal foams, composites, metallic and nonmetallic ceramics, and carbon nanotubes with a weave of electro-reactive armor and various materials. This allows the MBT-01 series to withstand numerous weapon impacts while retaining effectiveness. Now, unlike its fictional counterpart, it doesn't make anyone wearing it invulnerable to penetrations (or close to it depending on the rules you use), it simply makes penetrations (especially when double-digit megajoule energies or greater are being thrown around) uncommon. The thicker the plate, the more uncommon these penetrations are. The front of the MBT-01 series is one of the few that goes with the Battletech stereotype due to how thick the frontal plate is (250mm).

The active protection systems are also a key component to the MBT-01's lifespan on the battlefield. Consisting of a suite of electronic warfare equipment (requiring an electronic warfare officer (EWO)) and an active protection system suite. While systems like TROPHY were used, newer models utilize the 'HardKill' 2cm pulse laser CWIS units. While the electronic warfare suite would degrade ATGMs, the active protection system shoots them down alongside any recoilless rifle rounds or RPGs. The RWS mount with the 15.5mm HMG can do ADS in a pinch, but it isn't recommended.

The armament of the MBT-01 series has changed over the centuries, with the current models utilizing a 65mm coilgun instead of an Electrothermal Chemical cannon. Outside of the MBT-01 to MBT-01A2, the entire series uses an iridium-alloy dart instead of a depleted uranium or tungsten carbide dart as its armor-piercing round. Each round has a muzzle velocity of 2km/s as standard, giving the projectile kinetic energy measured in the double-digit megajoules. In eras previous, this would simply rip any tank apart. The coaxial is a 15.5mm or 15.5mm ETC-FLARE HMG, capable of unleashing rounds with 100kj of kinetic force onto any target. The RWS mount is configurable to use a 15.5mm HMG or a 60mm AGL system. All of these (and the ADS) is controlled by VGI (Virtual General Intelligence) fire control systems that utilize the extensive sensor suite that the tank has.

It has a crew of four (a driver, a gunner, an EWO, and a commander).

Stats:

• Name: MBT-01 'General Williams' 'Family'
• Type: Main Battle Tank
• Mission: Spearhead, Assault
• Mass: 65 tons
• Dimensions:
  • Length: 8.25m
  • Width: 4.5m
  • Height: 2.75m
• Power Plant: Hydrogen Fuel Cell, 2,250kW (MBT-01 to MBT-01A6)/Fusion Cell, 2,750kW (MBT-01A7 to MBT-01A9)
• Suspension: Torsion Bar-Boogie
• Motive System: Treads
• Armor Composition and Thickness (fore/Sides/Rear/Top): Standard SolForce Light Vehicle Composite -ablative alloys, carbon nanotubes, various foam metals, diamond weaves, mango ceramics, polysilicate alloy, Iiridium-osmium alloy, molybdenum polyalloy- (250mm/175mm/75mm/100mm)
• Armament:
  • Main: 150mm L/50 Smoothbore (MBT-01 to MBT-01A2)/90mm L50 Electro-Thermal Chemical Flashboard Large Area Emitter (ETC-FLARE) Cannon (MBT-X1A3 to MBT-01A5)/105mm L/55 ETC-FLARE Cannon (MBT-X1A6 to MBT-X1A7)/105mm L/55 ETC-FLARE in automated turret mount (MBT-01A8)/65mm L/55 Coilgun in automated turret mount (MBT-X1A9 to MBT-01A9)
  • Coaxial: 15.5mm HMG (MBT-01 to MBT-01A5)/15.5mm HMG ETC-FLARE (MBT-01A6 to MBT-01A9)
  • Secondaries: 15.5mm HMG or 60mm AGL on RWS Mount (MBT-01 to MBT-01A5)/15.5mm HMG ETC-FLARE or 60mm AGL on RWS Mount (MBT-01A6 to MBT-01A9)
  • Countermeasures: 90mm countermeasure launchers (numerous, all models), 2x Trophy VI ADS (MBT-01 to MBT-01A5)/2x 2cm HardKill Laser ADS in CIWS mounts (MBT-01A6 to MBT-01A9)
• Electronics:
  • Communications: SolForce White Section Standard Communications Array Mk 2 OR SolForce White Section Tank Platoon Command Vehicle Communications Array Mk 2
  • Sensors: SolForce White Section Standard Tank Sensor Suite Mk 2
  • Electronic Warfare: SolForce White Section Standard Small Vehicular Electronic Warfare Suite
• Top Speed (Road/Off-Road): 80 km/h / 50 km/h

 

[Aaron Fox]

SolForce is an unusual faction within the solar system, mostly since it was never a government in the first place but simply a collection of former UN organizations and a good portion of the peacekeeper forces (mostly Pakistani, Indian, American, German, and Philipino). SolForce was founded in the year 0010 New World Era (NWE) -or 2110 AD if you still use the old calendar- by the remnants of the UN. The initial founding had SolForce being something of a strictly technocratic government, something in part since the idea behind democracy (particularly 'unlimited' or 'democracy by birthright') had been thoroughly beaten as a whole due to the technological context of the New World Era.

Eventually, due to the increasing demands of governance, very limited representative democracy had been implemented at the 'district' -aka 'State/Province'- level. These limitations would be implemented when the Legislative Branch would be created in the mid 0200s NWE. These limitations require an aspirant to work for the government for a minimum of decades before being allowed to have any voting rights. This isn't much different than most factions in the setting, as full citizenship usually fell into three categories: stock-based (voting power is based on how much stock you have), service-based (serve time in the federal government), and tax-based (pay a certain level of taxes). The voting age is mandated to 25, due to various studies on human neurology (and this is one of the few common things that SolForce has with other factions across Sol). The dominant part of the SolForce government is the bureaucracy which is split into divisions called Sections. Each section has a specific task. Gold Section is the equivalent of the Department of State, Red Section is the military, so on and so forth. However, all sections are required to keep each other appraised of what they are doing. Usually, this is done via detailed memos... but in some cases, this isn't effective so there are liaisons between the various sections. This is especially the case between the military, diplomatic, external intelligence, and RnD sections, as they have to be able to adapt within seconds to the changing situation.

One thing that SolForce shares with every other faction in Sol is the fact that it utilizes an electronic surveillance panopticon. This is due to the fact that in-setting, there is no real alternative to utilizing this sort of surveillance as you've got too many 'idiots with ideas' that have ideas that boil down to 'megadeaths/exterminate ethnic groups/exterminate humanity' with tools to carry out those ideas. This panopticon setup is the least bad way to keep idiots with gene-kits that some nation-states would kill for their bioweapons programs from causing megadeaths... even if it didn't stop people from trying.

Another threat that all factions within Sol have to deal with is memetic weapons... something that has restricted information and speech freedoms due to how they can simply destroy governments if not countered correctly.

The currency of SolForce is the SolForce Credit (SFC), which is a non-fiat currency and is backed by a field of materials called 'smart matter'. You may know them as 'metamaterials' or 'programmable materials'. The process to create these materials is what backs the SFC. The SFC is also a 'dual-entity' currency, which means that it exists in physical and electronic formats. While the electronic format of the SFC is common within SolForce territory, physical SFCs are also available at the local government-owned bank. Within the physical form of SFCs is a type of metamaterial called 'claytronics', this is critical as they not only prove a currency's worth (each denomination has a specific mass of claytronic within them) but also act as a security measure as each claytronic core has an unbreakable security code. This makes the SFC one of the most stable currencies in the setting. It also makes the SFC very valuable. To put things into perspective, one SFC is worth something along the lines of 25,000 USD in 2016 or 26,806.09 USD in 2019. Add to the fact that the Average Life Product (the replacement of GDP after it detached itself from anything sane economically during the second half of the 21st Century AD) of a SolForce citizen is 550,000 SFCs (or 14,743,349,500 USD in 2019).

The total population that SolForce has under its aegis is 5 billion across the entire solar system, with 2.34 billion being heavily augmented humans, 2.16 billion being various uplifts, and 500 million being AGIs. This has given SolForce a very cosmopolitan outlook on things, as you would think. The demographics are roughly 10% being seniors, 45% being adults, and 45% being teens and children. The average family is generally 6 to 8 people, two parents and somewhere between 4 to 6 children. This is in part due to various family subsidies, an incredible education system, and an incredibly robust childcare network.

In terms of manpower, the distribution is 15% for civilian affairs (i.e. business), 5% for government, 45% for military, 1.5% for education, 2.5% for law enforcement, and 31% is straight-up unemployed. To keep the unemployed from causing a revolution, a system similar to Huey Long's 'Share Our Wealth' program has been instituted which puts limitations on inheritance and yearly incomes. This is common across all of Sol, as doing nothing is... problematic... at best. The immense unemployment is because automation is so capable that humans are largely unneeded in the job market (the Sol average for employment is ~20%).

The immense military is because the entire Solar System is constantly at war, with about 1.237 billion (actual numbers being 1,237,500,000) being in the armed services, SolForce can ensure that it can survive in the setting. Due to the constant warfare -ranging from border conflicts to system spanning wars- a vast military complex had to be created. With the immense manpower, SolForce can fight multiple conflicts at once without major manpower shortages.

 

[Aaron Fox]

Spoiler: Stupid Large Picture Ahead

It is a prototype but gets the point across. 15 men total; 12 of which are foot-sloggers and 3 of the men man the IFV. Each SolForce soldier is equipped with power armor, armed with ETC-FLARE small arms (usually an assault rifle firing a 12g FMJ-style round mostly made up of an Iridium-Osmium alloy core... or 24kJ or ~a fifth more than the 800 gr (52 g) Barnes round (20,195J/20.195kJ) at a cyclic rate similar to the M16) or 125kJ output pulse free-electron lasers (which have about 29.88 grams of TNT going off on the target), and enough explosives to wreck pretty much everything up. This is partially due to how armor evolved since 2016 when the predecessor of EndoSteel(TM) was revealed to the world, giving armor, in general, a Battletech vibe... just not as paper-thin as the setting implies. Explosives of the setting are 4.76 times as potent as TNT, to give you an example a 120mm mortar round (HE) has an explosive filler of 6.59 pounds of Comp-B or ~2.99kg of the substance (with a TNT equivalent of 1.33, this means that each mortar round is the equivalent of ~3.98kg of TNT). This means a similar round with in-setting explosives has an equivalent explosive filler of ~18.93kg of TNT. To put things into perspective, the modern 155mm howitzer shell that the US uses only has 10.8kg of TNT with a charge liner attached, thus a mortar round has about 1.75 times the explosive capabilities of such a massive shell...

Given that most factions utilize power armor to even their rear-echelon forces, this level of direct firepower is a requirement. Those that don't either utilize full-conversion cyborgs out the wazoo, use cloned genetically and cybernetically enhanced meatshields, or a combination of the two if they're a minor player. With fragmentation being far harder to use, their equivalent kill radius decreases immensely. To give an example, the M67 grenade has the equivalent of 239.4 grams of TNT stuffed into it, the SolForce equivalent of it has ~1139.54 grams (or, to put it bluntly, ~1.13 kilograms) of TNT equivalent, utilizes an iridium-osmium alloy fragmentation case, and has a kill radius (and no casualty radius) measured in 25 meters against modern power armor. Against our soldiers? The kill radius is measured somewhere between 4 to 6 times the previously stated kill radius with a casualty radius going another 2 to 6 times again depending on the circumstances.

The power of the setting's weapons is just insane in comparison to ours, this is partially due to how militaries developed over the years and how widespread genetic and cybernetic augmentation changes how powerful weapons need to be to function. This made building materials, in general, stronger, easier and faster to procure and manufacture, or both depending on the faction. Think of Israel's rocket proofed buildings as a basic standard and go up from there...