Refugees from the Demon Star: Background

[Amwhere]

<i>(OOC: These first couple posts will just be some background. Statements like this one (with the OOC: which means Out of Character) aren’t parts of the story, just me babbling.) </i><p> First, I’ll explain the title. This story will be about Aron’s ending in PSIII, hence the “Refugees” part. The “demon star” part, however, I will explain further.<br><i>(OOC: Feel free to skip this. It isn’t that important)</i><p> I’m making the assumption that “Algo” is just a corruption of Algol, a name of a real star. Algol (also known as Beta Persei) is a triple (possibly quadruple) star system some 100 light years away from Earth.<p> The central pair of stars orbit a mere 6 million miles from each other, and their orbits are edge on as seen from Earth. The effect of this is that one star eclipses the other as they orbit, causing the brightness of the star (as seen from Earth) to vary in cycles of 68 hours. The ancients, presumably, noticed this variability and attached evil connotations to the star, hence “Demon Star”.<p> The third star of the Algol system (Algol C) orbits the AB pair at a distance of 50 million miles. It is likely that any planets orbiting either the AB pair or the C star would either be far too hot or cold for life, or chucked out of the Algol system entirely.<p>So, that leaves the possible fourth star of the Algo(l) system, D. This star, which we know nothing about, is where the 4 planets of Phantasy Star call their home. <p> <i>(Semi-OOC: The night skies of Algo(l): http://www.geocities.com/amwhere/algol.html<br> The sun is the yellow circle, and you’d need binoculars to see it. This is a geocities site, so if you’d can’t access it, don’t worry about it.)</i><br>-------------------------------------------------<p>This is just a start. Next (tomorrow, most likely) I’ll get to the Earth of 2076 AD (SC 339.04, if you will). After that, it’ll be the story itself. Do feel free to comment and suggest things, that’s why I’m writing it in sections here.<p><p>[size=small][Edit by Amwhere on [TIME]1078812739[/TIME]][/size]

[Amwhere]

This "background" is already 5 handwritten pages long, and I'm not done with it yet! It'll be a couple days, I figure.<p>[size=small][Edit by Amwhere on [TIME]1077329961[/TIME]][/size]

[Amwhere]

<i> OOC: Once again, not a vital reading, but it helped me set out the story in my mind. It also might help to clarify things in your minds. </i> <br> Earth, 2076 AD <p>The Earth of 2076 is divided into 7 countries (well, 7 countries that matter, at any rate). One country, the United States, grew by conquering its neighbors. Another, Australia, didn’t grow much at all. Most, however, grew by peaceful union and diplomatic pressure.<p> The countries <p> The United States <p>After the “War on Terror” ended in 2028, the US found itself with a huge military. Congress, naturally, wished to dismantle it in order to save money. However, the President took advantage of a series of “incidents” with Mexico to force Congress to approve still massive military budgets. <p>In 2032, the Americans elected William Jarvis as President. Jarvis, for some unknown reason, began to escalate the tension between the US and Mexico. When Mexico closed its borders to US trade in 2034, Jarvis used this as a pretext to occupy Mexicali, Cuidad Jaurez, and other Mexican border towns. Due to America’s position on the UN’s security council, the Mexicans were unable to use the UN to force the Americans out. Having no other choice, Mexico declared war on the US on November 24th. While this was a necessary move to protect its sovereignty, Mexico had no hope in even scratching the US. By late December, US troops had stormed through the country and were on Guatemala’s border. The terms of the surrender were simple: total annexation of Mexico by the US.<p>Subsequent presidents saw Central America as 2 things. First, it was a way to enlarge the union, and secondly, it allowed the president a chance to capture some of the glory Jarvis did. One by one the US annexed the Central America countries until there were none left. By 2051, the United States southern border was the old Panama-Columbian border.<p>It began to slowly dawn on Canada that it was next, especially when new President’s campaign slogan was “O Canada”. Canada decided it was time for preemptive action, so in 2057 Canada signed the Act of Union with the United States. The US held hegemony over North America, a dream that was 250 years in the making.<p>As the year of America’s tercentennial began in 2076, America was by far the brightest star among the nations….<p> The Asian Republic <p>The Far East was very unstable in the early 2040s. China was just emerging from a bloody anti-communist revolution, and Japan was in the midst of a deep economic depression. Both countries realize that economic stability lied in each other. Accordingly, they merged into the Asian Republic in August 2047. There were rocky times as several fundamental issues were settled, but the union held. <p>Nations in Asia looked at the new Republic as a score of stability for the entire region. Some counties, like the newly unified Korea, asked to join the new nation, and were gladly accepted. The leadership of the Republic began to apply diplomatic pressure to all Asian nations, and one by one they joined. With the joining of India in 2064, the Republic is considered complete. The Asian Republic is the most populous nation on the planet, containing 5.6 billion of the Earth’s 14 billion people.<p> Euro-Russo Union <p>The European Union officially erased all national lines in Europe in 2027. Very few were surprised by this, as Europe had been moving towards unity since the Berlin Wall came down.<p>Russia, however, never solved any of its post-communist woes and was disintegrating to petty, bickering factions. The UN, not wishing to see the instability in Russia spread to more peaceful regions, gave Russia to the EU as a 15-year mandate in 2031. When the UN mandate ended, however, the Russian people elected to remain part of the EU. In 2047, Russian delegates to the EU Parliament managed to change the countries name to the Euro-Russo Union, or the ERU. <p> South American Union <p>In response to the United States aggression in Central America, the countries of South America set aside their petty differences and joined together to for the South American Union in 2046.<p> Unified Arabian States <p>The UAS is a direct result of the US “War on Terror”. As the US neutralized each country on the ever-expanding “Axis of Evil”, they replaced the government of each nation with a US friendly one. When the US ended the campaign in 2028, every nation in the Middle East (save Israel, which was admitted to the ERU in 2054) had a US puppet government.<p>Several high-level talks between Middle Eastern leaders in the mid-2040s planted the idea of Middle Eastern unification. However, the countries dared not take any action. The US would have certainly taken action against anything that would have threatened the constant flow of oil from the Middle East’s oil fields.<p>In 2056, they saw their chance. The world had just gone through the environmental revival. The proliferation of clean energy sources caused the value of oil to drop. So, when the Arab leaders declared the UAS in early 2057, the US didn’t even bat an eye.<p> African Confederacy <p>Much of Africa was still considered as part of the 3rd world into the 2060s. A landmark action by the UN formed the African Confederation, over the protests of Egypt and South Africa. The aim of this was to allow the Africans to help themselves, and to allow foreign aid to be distributed much easier. So far, these aims having been meet with resounding successes.<p> Australia <p>The “land down under” is the “land nobody wants.” It isn’t part of Asia and it is too far from the US for the Americans to care, so it remains independent. The current Prime Minister, Clinton Wall, has a very well known mean (some say evil) streak.<p><i> Thus ends the countries. </i><br>

[Amwhere]

-------------------------------------<p> Environmental Revival <p>It was basically overnight in when the people of Earth got with it and started to really care about the environment. Governments and private corporations poured trillions of dollars into research and development into more environmentally friendly ways to do things.<p>In the cities, new electric transportation grids cut smog, and highly advanced recycling centers cut bulk trash to almost nothing. However, the most important advancement was the creation of weather and climate control systems. These “perfectly safe” systems both ensured proper temperature and rainfall, and well as helping to further control air pollution. The first, small units were installed in cities, and in 2072 the worldwide network was brought online. This massive network was controlled by the “Master Climate Control Computer”, which was colloquially known as “Mother Brain” by its creators. Some were worried that someone could hack into Mother Brain and hold the world hostage. This was dismissed as “paranoia.”<p> The Megalopolis Explosion <br>People became so desirous of helping the environment that they flocked to cities in droves to take advantage of the new technology being introduced there. By the time this flood of new city slickers tapered off, fully 82% of the Earth’s population lived in the massive Megalopolises. The rest lived in the small villages and towns that dotted the countryside.<p> Space <p>Space research, like it was in the 20th century, is left to individual nations. Currently, only 3 nations have major space programs: The United States (NASA), the ERU (ERSA), and the Asian Republic (ARSA). All 3 countries maintain fair sized space fleets as well as small bases on the Moon.<p>While the business of space research and travel was left to the nation themselves, the UN imposed strict guidelines on what to do in case of Extraterrestrial contact. These guidelines amount to not starting a war and contacting the UN as soon as possible so they could take over. No one figured that the aliens could speak English, or be of human stock themselves.<p>The 2040s were marked by the incredible discovery of Earth-like planets around Tau Ceti, Eta Cassiopiae, and 82 Eridani. The UN, to prevent competition and rivalry, gave each country a mandate to explore one of the newly discovered star systems. NASA, in the eyes of many, won the interstellar draw by receiving the mandate to Tau Ceti. Tau Ceti was the closest of the 3 stars, so NASA would gain the prestige of showing the first views of another solar system. The ERSA and ARSA got Eta Cassiopiae and 82 Eridani, respectively.<p>Each of the 3 nations spent unimaginable sums of money on the creation of the 3 space probes. These probes were marvels of technology (or so they thought at the time…) capable of reaching three-quarters of the speed of light in just a year. Despite all out attempts by each country to complete its probe before the others, all 3 probes launched within weeks of each other in 2050. The NASA probe’s data is due back in 2079, with the others arriving in 2086 and 2095.<p>----------------<br>So, that’s it for background.<p>Now I’ve got a question for you: How would you like to be served?<p>Would you like short sections/posts or long sections/posts?<br>