Your browser does not seem to support JavaScript. As a result, your viewing experience will be diminished, and you have been placed in read-only mode.
Please download a browser that supports JavaScript, or enable it if it's disabled (i.e. NoScript).
what do you think?
This is something I wrote on a break from NeoPlanets beta testing.
It deals with real world issues, but is COMPLETELY fictional.
It could be the basis of a TC one day, or it might never come to anything.
Inspiration comes from real life, Orwell, and my twisted mind.
Tell me what you think, aside from obvious gramatical errors.
Part 1: The Fall Of The Old Order
2009 AD:
The U.S.-British invasion of Iran is met with fierce resistance worldwide. As the missiles and bombs rained down upon Tehran, a massive Russian-Chinese military force made its way into the conflict zone.
Israel and France entered the conflict on the side of the United States and Britain, while Syria, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia joined the Russian-Chinese Alliance.
All the other nations in the region aligned themselves one of the superpowers.
World War Three had begun.
Nobody knows who launched first. It is suspected that the missiles crossed paths in orbit. What is certain is that all contact was lost with the capitols and population centers of the combatant nations, from Beijing to Washington DC. Also destroyed were the cities of Mecca and Medina.
In the immediate aftermath, Indonesia, untouched by nuclear fire and enraged by the destruction of the holiest cities of Islam, launched invasions into Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, and The Philippines.
Part 2: New World Order
2010 AD:
With most large cities obliterated, the remaining inhabitants of the Earth organized themselves into various and assorted factions, mostly divided along religious lines. Small conflicts broke out, warlord rose and fell.
Deep below this feudalistic existence, in various far-flung bunkers, a shadowy group maintained control of the vast network of artificial satellites that remained in orbit. Utilizing these satellites, this group, known among themselves as "The Illuminated Ones" maintained a watchful eye on world affairs, as they had done since long before the war.
Through the network of satellites these Illuminated Ones maintained contact with one another globally, slowly and carefully they plucked at the strings of power. Before the war, the group had included world leaders, prominent members of international banking, and royalty. Now they began to integrate the most powerful of the warlords into their ranks.
2020 AD:
Eventually only one power stood independent from the secret government of The Illuminated Ones. Known to outsiders as Oceania, a mulit-cultural multi-religous nation ruled from Jakarta, it's largest city.
2030 AD:
The Illuminated Ones, growing impatient with age, announced their supremacy over the majority of the Earth. Their warlords opened re-education camps, forcibly tailoring the beliefs and opinions of the masses until all concepts of nationhood, family, and religion had been abolished. A new calendar was established, however it was not know as new. It is simply known as the World Calendar.
Part 3: Man's Return To Space
10 WC:
The aging satellite constellations over the Earth begin to fail. Gaps appeared in the Illuminated One's spy network.
20 WC:
Most of the original Illuminated Ones had died of old age. Their offspring became increasingly panicked at the idea of losing their near-monopoly on world power. These new Illuminated Ones dedicated themselves into study of Pre-WC space technology, utilizing the brainwashed masses as slave labor.
It was a difficult undertaking, most of the information they were looking for had been purposely destroyed in the revolution. From what scraps they could recover, however, they were able to assemble both a working launch vehicle and spy satellite.
Dubbed "Observer-1", the satellite was stationed permanently over Oceania, in case the last free peoples of the Earth ever decided to move toward the Illuminated One's in aggression.
40 WC:
The old spy network is completely restored, and manned space flight begins to seem possible for the first time in nearly seven decades. While the Illuminated Ones view space merely as a means of control, the Oceanians have come to view the cosmos as their only chance at freedom beyond their now-overcrowded islands, and busy themselves with their own space projects.
50 WC:
An Oceanian becomes the first man in space in nearly eighty years.
A new space race is on.
(The End?)
-BP
Very interesting. You should consider getting rid of some of the sooner dates, though: what happens when 2009 comes around and there's no WWIII? They just kind of date your story is all. Otherwise, very good. It'd be interesting if you could make a small TC out of this eventually.
This post has been edited by Starbridge21 : 01 September 2007 - 02:10 PM
First thoughts:
While a high percentage of Indonesia's population worships under Islam, that is not the only thing to define that nation.
The real Indonesia has a motto that translates to "Unity in Diversity."
Jakarta is Indonesia's real-life capital, and the capital of your story's "Oceania." How does a nation "enraged by the destruction of the holiest cities of Islam" become "a multi-cultural multi-religious nation?" As your story stands now, the one does not logically flow into the other.
Additionally, brainwashed masses and slave labor are more attuned to agriculture, domestic work and menial labor. They're tend to fare poorly in the field of high-technology.
I Agree with Starbridge21 on trying to predict the very-near future with your story. If your story needs a nuclear war, leave in the war... but don't try to detail every little treaty and alliance. For example, if Saudi Arabia, which depends upon western military assistance, tried to side with China against America, the American armed forces, which are currently stationed in that nation, would likely destroy it (or at least cripple its war-useful infrastructure) immediately.
@eugene-chin, on Sep 1 2007, 07:55 PM, said in Intro Story:
Of course not, didn't mean to imply so.
I read that in wikipedia while researching the story.
I don't understand this one, I never said they adopted shiara, simply that the nation was enraged. With the mentioned motto, I can see the transition, though maybe I should illustrate it more, mention a mass exodus of people from under Illuminated control to Indonesia, and so on.
Or the american forces could be airlifted out before the site was nuked, like that scary neocon guy at the bar was suggestiing, but that probably isnt the only international relations issue in the story...I digress...
It's alright. Though detailing the alliances like that may make some leaders today in real life angry if they ever found out about it...
I doubt any world leaders would care. The leader of Iran isn't that insane, well, maybe...
Anyways, it looks like an interesting small TC project. I mean, very small. The background is done, but I'm intrigued as to how this develops. Can you write a bit more for the history books? I mean, enough to get to the point of the pilot getting into a small shuttle in this galaxy. How early do you want this TC to start? This is like pre-EV1!!! Or could turin into such.
@trinix, on Sep 3 2007, 03:57 AM, said in Intro Story:
Hm, there is some interest. Maybe I should write part 4: "Hyperspace" today.
As for including the names of actual nations, I don't think world leaders would get upset, as much as somebody from a combatant nation would. I'm suprised I haven't upset anybody yet, actually.
Anyway, if I have (need) time off from plug dev today, I will continue the story.
If it were to ever be a TC, I'd want to start it fairly early in history, using weapons like machine guns, tank main guns, and missiles. Stuff that would be left over from the wars. Maybe somebody would develop lasers.
--BP
Near future sci-fi stories are quite a bit harder to write than Far future Sci-fi stories. In a Far future story, When a character encounters an issue, all he has to do is pull out some magically advanced technological do-dad and presto! problem solved. In a Near future story, when a character encounters a problem, He is forced to use the tools he has and logical thought to get himself out of it. The writer has to conform to certain laws and rules that are here today, and is forced to be realistic. (A common thing a writer would have to do is look at are technology today, and realistically portray how that technology will have advanced to the time he/she is writing.)
The good thing about this is Near future SCi-Fi is often more interesting to read.
I am writing My TC as a near future story. (2041) and from looking at current technology and pop culture, I have come up with a design for ships That make sense and would be Accepted the common individual. (In The movie Star Wars@ (<-trademark) and several other space movies, has anyone noticed how the ships just hover with no apparent reason for doing so? because they are far future stories, they are accepted. If they were near future. people would not have accepted it without some sort of explanation(That and light-sabers )
I will post a picture later in the members gallery.(top right corner in the blue bar.)
Ships hover in SW™ because they have repulsorlifts, a kind of anti-gravity device. It might sound far-fetched, but I think it's plausible enough.
This post has been edited by Starbridge21 : 03 September 2007 - 01:44 PM
Back in the '80s they thought we'd have robots and hover-cars by now. "Realistically portraying" something can be very hard.
thats my point, really. antigravity has been a widely debated issue among scientists, but there is really no science to it. In star wars, they say it has antigravity. however, If It was in the Near future, the makers of star wars would have had to provide more of an explanation of how of works. (One that a scientist would be able and have it work. or at least work in theory )
That and Star Trek hyper space. It is, in fact, theoretically possible, but would Require the Equivalent output of a billion suns (Also, did you know that in one second, our sun generates more energy than mankind has used since it's creation?) . If you can tell me how to generate that much energy, I'll build you a Hyper-drive
@zapp, on Sep 3 2007, 04:25 PM, said in Intro Story:
Can't forget jetpacks.
And weather control. And floating cities.
We already do have robots and jetpacks. The former have been around for quite awhile, though not super advanced. The latter is more recent. They only last about 30 seconds on, what was it? Hydrogen? There's also one using petroleum or some other gas-type fuel that lasts 30 minutes, but probably isn't very safe.
For near future stuff, just take Sim City 200's stance: "Don't come complaining to us if we don't have fusion power in 2050."
Actually, the jet packs I have seen are not real jet packs because they lack a jet engine. To be politically correct, they are rocket packs or rocket belts. They are often powered by hydrogen peroxide. No, not the stuff in your medicine chest. That is about 10% hydrogen peroxide. Rocket belts run on 90% pure hydrogen peroxide or greater. They heat the fuel, changing it to high pressure steam and oxygen, which is then shot out of a pair of nozzles at the pilot's sides.
This post has been edited by scienceguy8 : 04 September 2007 - 12:01 PM
@scienceguy8, on Sep 4 2007, 10:22 AM, said in Intro Story:
Actually, the jet pack I have seen are not real jet packs because they lack a jet engine. To be politically correct, they are rocket packs or rocket belts. They are often powered by hydrogen peroxide. No, not the stuff in your medicine chest. That is about 10% hydrogen peroxide. Rocket belts run on 90% pure hydrogen peroxide or greater. They heat the fuel, changing it to high pressure steam and oxygen, which is then shot out of a pair of nozzles at the pilot's sides.
The name says it all: Scienceguy
Theorectically, anti-gravity could be acheived with electromagnetics. If ALL (and I mean ALL) of the electronics in the vehicle were HEAVILY shielded, I don't see any reason why they couldn't do it that way. After all, they have levitated frogs with electromagnetics.
Blueplanet, I think that your story sounds pretty realistic. My stance on dating stories is that as the person writing the story are gonna do it anyway, so why not just go ahead and say that 'this is 2080, and we all have jet cars and personal robots.' if you want to. If someone in 2080 is playing a EVN plugin, then they have some problems anyway
No, if someone in 2080 is playing EVN then they're awesome
I stand corrected
SF has never been right, or it would be called "future reality" No one wants a prophet. Just use your imagination, and it'll satisfy most people.