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2759: A New Odyssey | joachim | 2

 

This guide is for people to help out with story ideas, and to get a feel for the various worlds.

The Inner System
* EARTH: Other than low-orbit billboards, space launch facilities, and some places having a bit of a Zeerust feel to it, Earth has pretty much unchanged (except for the technology, that is). Thanks to the enormous concentration of power in the hands of major corporations, most brands and logos are fairly the same as they are today.

* ORBITAL SPACE: After orbital space colonies were made feasible, several attempts were made to develop outposts at Earth's Lagrange points. Due to economic factors, the idea wasn't as successful as people had hoped. A handful remain, though, in orbit around Earth and the Saturnian system, mainly as scientific research facilities or temporary living quarters.

* LUNA: Over 2 billion people live in enormous underground cities hollowed out of the surface. Most of these are grubby, Victorian-era-style, depressing "factory towns". Smaller surface facilities are on the surface, including an amusement park.

* MARS: Home of Asimov City, the single-largest city in the solar system. Nearly 90 percent of the Martian population lives in the great Valles Marineris canyon. The world's been partially terraformed over the years, and it's possible now to move about the surface without a spacesuit. Martians are, on average, the wealthiest people in the solar system. Various technological and scientific facilities (spacecraft, botanical research, software, etc). If you're young, rich, beautiful and clever, Mars is the place to be.

* ASTEROID BELT: Asteroids are mined for almost everything, from ice to precious metals. Asteroids are prowled by prospectors, techno-hermits, and even pirates. Occasionally, the larger asteroids are used as living habitats, generally outposts populated by a couple dozen people, bringing plenty of life-support and artificial-gravity technology with them. One of the two Trojan groups of asteroids (clusters of captured asteroids at the Lagrange points 60 degrees behind and ahead of Jupiter in its orbit) seem to be the most popular choice for settlers, due to their stability.

The Jovian System
* IO: Plumes of toxic hydrocarbons ejected by Jupiter itself regularly sweep Io. The surface is highly unstable, given to unpredictable quakes and volcanic eruptions. The only presence on Io is industrial. Mining operations (some of the most dangerous jobs in the system; good pay, but low survival rate) either stripmine complex hydrocarbons from the surface or drill for sulfur compounds. Mining here is the equivalent of the French Foreign Legion: if you're willing to work, you're accepted, no questions asked. Working long-term is highly admirable, due to the risks.

* EUROPA: A featureless ball of ice covering a water ocean, Europa is the fasted growing of the Jovian moons in terms of population. Several undersea colonies use the liquid ocean as a shield against Jovian radiation. Europa is also home to the system's first working space elevator, transferring cargo and personnel between an orbital station and an undesea transit station. Water is the primary export, with an extensive tourist industry, with submarine tours and various underwater sports.

* GANYMEDE: Heavily populated, due to outer system industrial production. Wyndham Base is also the main Space Corps installation in the outer system, covering 1/3 of the surface. It includes shipyards, training grounds, weapon testing ranges, and other military facilities. In many tays, Ganymede is an "army town" with most of the population and industry devoted to support of the base. Accepted as having the wildest nightlife of any place in the outer system, though luckily local security (civilian police and Space Corps MPs) keep things out of control. It's also the home of underworld activity in the outer system, with many items sold on the black market.

* CALLISTO: The comfortable "bedroom suburb" of the Jovian system. It's where well-educated middle-class types from Earth (who want a hint of adventure) go to raise their families. Callisto has good schools and highly-developed computer industries. The major problem? The Vallhalla Impact Structure. A basin nearly 2500 miles across, surrounded by ring arcs, apparently produced by a massive impact nearly 4 billion years ago. The UN's Jovian Authority has sealed it off, allowing nobody near the site.

The Saturnian System
* TITAN: Dotted with huge cosmopolitan cities and such extravagances as the only zoo in the outer system. It features an atmosphere and is rich in organics and precursor compounds. While too cold to support life, a terraforming project is in the beginning stages. Titan features massive atmospheric processors, paced far from the cities to protect them from the resulting high winds and electrical storms. Titan's cities are mostly underground, with large domes and pressurized surface buildings. It's the most popular destination for wealthy in-system tourists because of the scenic grandeur of Saturn's rings; in short, the Las Vegas of the outer system (casinos, legalized prostitution). Organized crime exists, but they focus more on bribing government officials and overseeing tourist vices, rather than gang wars and hijackings.

* MIMAS: The primary testing station for the Space Corps. Mimas watchers report all kinds of strange phenomena, including anomolous gravity waves, charged particle flares, and bursts of extremely short wavelength radiation. Regardless of the rumors, it's obvious that all kinds of fringe technologies are being tested on Mimas.

* HYPERION: The only real feature of Hyperion is the structure that's been set up inside the famous Impact Crater. Essentially a city devoted to science labs and research institutes, a majority many of the technologies used by everyday folk (in the Saturnian system and others) are developed by the scientists and regular workers on Hyperion.

* DIONE: Site of the outer system's only serious attempt at an independent colony. Before large-scale settlement, a group of political separatists headed out from Jupiter. They set up shop on Dione, declared it an independent world, and laid claim to most of Saturn's orbital space. Eventually, the settlers began resorting to piracy on any various cargo ships, before the Space Corps eventually shut them down approximately a century ago. Though the survivors decided to abandon ship (so to speak), the current individuals, having learned their lesson, have resorted to small-scale terraforming, creating factory towns. Rumors of "pirate treasure" still abound, though.

Outland Colonies
* MIRANDA: A tiny Uranian moon used as a homebase by various prospectors and freelance miners working the rest of the Uranian moons. Like a Yukon gold-mining town, Miranda is the last civilized point outbound miners visit, and the first place they come back to resupply (or party). Miners in the Uranian system work hard, most of them die, and the survivors like to play hard. Mirandan bars and breweries (especially Hacienda ale) are renown throughout the system.

* TRITON: Neptune's only moon, the outermost body in the solar system with a permanent residential population. Triton's colonly is just getting underway. Not to mention that it's the coldest object in the solar system. At this point, settlers need to have a serious gleam in their eye (not to mention plenty of fusion reactors). Based on the history of settlement in the Jovian and Saturnian systems, though, it has a promising future as humanity begins to move out-system.

* PLUTO: A human presence on Pluto was primarily established for symbolic reasons. The tiny, frozen world hosts a handful of UN and Space Corps installations. Some say the stations were established so mankind could say he had gone as far out from the sun as possible without leaving the system. Others claim stations are there as the ultimate place to station somebody who's really screwed up.

 

Any questions?

 
 
 

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