Latest revision as of 23:09, 12 November 2011

user:dieterthebold

A rough idea of a PA setting I'm coming up with. I don't really know why I dug so deep into the previous politics, since it's all moot at this point. The tech was to give me a better idea of what could be expected to pop up or be lying around.

SETTING. The year is 2064.

THE BIG EVENTS

Rogue comet suddenly shows up passing inside the orbit of Mars
... No one’s sure how it dodged detection, but best guesses put it on a bizarre path between Saturn and Jupiter during a planetary conjunction
... Projections place its path dangerously close to Earth’s
... Spectrographic analysis detects exotic and previously unknown elements and radiation
... Nuclear weapons are deployed in an attempt to “nudge” the comet into a different orbit
...... Due to the “short” time and distance of the comet from the Earth, there was only shot to get this right
...... A mad scientist, Dr. Lyn O’Hara, managed to convince an influential Senator, Lang (D – OH) to pressure the USAF to secretly include an experimental Gamma-bomb
......... The Gamma-bomb interacted with the exotic elements in the comet to somehow “energize” the comet into something wholly unknown, but the overall barrage did manage to nudge the comet just enough…
... The comet impacted the moon and simply blew it up, raining about a quarter of now radioactive moon onto the earth
...... Impacting debris caused massive damage and casualties, but the weird “ion” storms that began at the same time managed to wipe out most of the world’s electronic infrastructure ...... In a bizarre and haunting turn of events, the Moon Base actually survives, but soon goes dark, after sending increasingly nonsensical and then darkly insane messages
... The radiation would devastate world food supplies and most smaller animals and fish, but larger animals and insects were largely unaffected
...... The Moon Base became an alien invading force that still had high-tech manufacturing capability and would trade them to Earth settlements in return for human slaves (no one’s sure why)
......... Moon Raiders were left unable to tolerate Earth gravity after so much time in microgravity and the exotic comet radiation
... Alien crystal growths were found to be able to worked and could channel and store (a little) the energy from an ion storm or in places of intense radiation
... War is now done either medieval-style (anytime), Star Wars-style (during ion storms or by mutant raiders in high radiation environments) or high-tech style (when there’s surviving electronics to be used or the enclave is in cahoots with the Moon Raiders; never when there’s a chance of radiation)

DAMAGE

... The moon exploded as the night was ending for the Western Hemisphere
...... This EMP’d the all the Americas
...... But by the time the lunar debris started raining down on the Earth it was hitting from East -> West starting in Asia
......... The biggest chunk hit in central China
............ China is fucked
......... The rest of were of varying size that sprinkled out mostly across Russia, Europe, Asia (mainly Central, less so South-East), Mediterranean & the Middle East
............ Russia is fucked
............ Europe is totally fucked, having lost its industry & infrastructure to heavy impact & radiation, along with all its crops to radiation
............. Mostly subsistence communities, some scattered enclaves and raiders
......... Smaller chunks hit the Americas, but in sufficient numbers enough to ruin most cities wherever they were
......... Japan’s infrastructure survived surprisingly well due to good design, missing the EMP and very light debris impacts
............ Country as a whole isn’t well-placed to take advantage of anything as they remained the oldest nation and still suffered from massive food supply issues
......... South Africa is in an incredibly good situation
............ Missed by all debris pieces & the EMP
............ Hemmed in to the north by a new desert of radiation
............... Fierce combat between nomadic desert tribes (with crystal weapons) over alliances w/ South Africa, and also raiding against South Africa directly
............ Alliance between Moon Base & South Africa has switched race dynamics so that blacks are in charge and use whites as slaves to trade with Moon Base (as well as for traditional purposes) ...... South America is the best off overall of the Americas, but it’s not in any situation to look outside its own borders
...... Australia’s much like the US
...... Iceland is a paradise, but no one knows besides the UK/Ireland, where refugees occasionally attempt the trip
......... Those that survive are welcomed

THE CURRENT SITUATION

... Everything’s pretty much gone except for military bunkers
...... Several bunkers have an unusually high amount of functioning technology w/ supporting infrastructure
......... This is due to the prescient actions of an independent-thinking Army commander who found out about the Gamma-bomb and funneled as much equipment & personnel into shielded bunkers as he possibly could before the lunar impact
............ Lt. General O’Neil felt stockpiling for the future was more important than his survival, so he forged authentications, issued illegal orders and basically mutinied; his actions were noticed and after his arrest, he cut a deal with Senator Lang to accept a kangaroo court execution in return for staying quiet about the Gamma-bomb and a delay in attempts to reverse the stockpiling
............... Like the “Brotherhood of Steel” in Fallout 3, including some splintered factions due to ambitious would-be Kings as well as standard officer personality conflicts

EXCEPTIONS:

... Vancouver, B.C.
...... Almost entirely missed by debris impacts, faced the horror of starvation as it was still hit by the EMP and food shortages
...... The city’s mostly intact with a few burned out sections, but is populated almost entirely by raiders; most of the population spread out into the wilderness to look for food, and there’s actually still some forest northeast of the city
... Vancouver Island got hit by an especially radioactive rock and holds a very active 1st Nations/Native American/Hippie tribe that fiercely defends themselves from Vancouver as well as trade (and raid when necessary) for livestock

TECHNOLOGY

... Game-changing advances:
...... -effective humanoid & non-humanoid autonomous robots
...... -cybernetics that effectively replace limbs and mesh very well with both technology & the nervous system
...... -metamaterials: radar & light absorption, smart materials (moderate shape-changing & self-healing, smart munitions)
...... -effective gene therapies, tissue regeneration, intermediate organ replacement (still haven't managed to get all the way there)
...... -ubiquitous cloud computing and intuitive interactive devices
... Notable absences:
...... -no next-gen energy generation (much improved batteries & capacitators, but no generation)
...... -no real AI (clever programs and comprehensive behaviors, but no true intelligence/awareness); improved sensors but nothing “Star Trek”
...... -no advanced space capabilities (minor functioning orbital station & established moon base; still no humans to Mars)
...... -no ubiquitous energy weapons (some for anti-missile/satellite & point-defense; vehicle-mounted railguns)

POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY & HISTORY

... US and China had a minor dust-up thanks to a bat-shit crazy conservative government (control of Congress & the Presidency) ...... Despite Chinese hacking ability, US technology & experience delivered some devastating defeats to China, who retreated and quickly turned to economic warfare that almost ruined the US and incited the “2nd American Revolution”
......... Things are pretty normalized now with the US having gotten its finances together and is no longer spending China’s money, but things can still get schizophrenic with crazy nationalistic stunts coming in between “hands across the water” cooperation
... Europe got smart after a right-wing resurgence nearly tore the entire region (plus half of Africa) apart, it’s now the most equal, prosperous and advanced region on the planet
... Russia continues to do its own thing. It’s got the base resources and smarts, despite its massive corruption and oligarchy, to stay a world power. It mostly plays a balancing game to keep China from simply swallowing it whole.
... South America is pretty solid and prosperous.