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View Full Version : Since Skiiran and Warsaw posted their stuff...



Emmzee
September 24th, 2007, 06:22 PM
Only a bit of what I've been cooking up for the past 2 years.

Copyright (c) 2007 ME.

It is an undisclosed number of years in the future. Most technologies are roughly what they are today. It is roughly ten years after a kind of nuclear holocaust happened, between multiple countries with nukes in Asia, Europe, and North America. India "accidentally" launched a medium-range ICBM at Pakistan, prompting Pakistan to nuke India in retaliation. Israel took this as an opportunity to launch several missiles into Pakistan, destroying over half of the country. Saudi Arabia, which had secretly bought several Cold-War era missiles from Russia in the late nineties as part of a covert military buildup, attacked Israel, effectively wiping it off the face of the Earth. America, England and France responded in force, launching a massive conventional war against Saudi Arabia. With all these forces in the Middle East, China decided to make its move and invade the US. Hawaii quickly fell, and Chinese operatives in California detonated several tactical nukes along the San Andreas fault, plunging part of California into the sea with the massive earthquakes that ensued, resulting in massive civilian casualties and several west-coast nuclear plants falling into the sea, contaminating a large part of the Pacific ocean with nuclear waste. Russia, rich with oil sales from the Arctic to the US, did not want to lose a trading partner and coordinated a massive ground retaliation on China's northwest border, while simultaneously detonating tactical nukes in several major Chinese ports, crippling them economically. China retaliated by launching dozens of long-range ICBMs, completely razing Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, several other Russian cities, and turning three-quarters of Siberia into a nuclear wasteland. In the end, all major nations on Earth were severely crippled both financially and politically. Roughly five years later, nuclear winter started to set in. Governments crumbled, and despots ruled various areas of North America. Nuclear Fallout in the Pacific Northwest turned some people into mutants, most with violent tendencies. Most highways are still intact, making travel not too difficult, if one can brave the cold and snow. Cars that still worked (EMP from the nukes having wiped out most electronics in affected areas) were outfitted with armor plating and equipment designed to withstand the cold. Cities still standing, with low fallout levels, were turned into heavily armored and armed "havens", which are places where people can live in relative safety, albeit controlled by despots. In havens, food is grown hydroponically in underground greenhouses, while most power is provided by geothermic or wind power. Other, less fortified cites, are used as trading outposts. The wasteland outside of the havens is inhabited by two kinds of people, not counting the mutants: Raiders and Drifters. Drifters are generally peaceful, scavenging for things to trade and trying to stay alive. Raiders participate in activities from slaving to pillaging trading posts and ambushing travelers. Most drifters refuse to live in havens, or are rejected by society (exiled, as is most often the case). Most drifters believe somewhere in North America there is a place not beset by nuclear winter, a place they call "Paradise."



That's the backstory, or what I have so far. I've been working on and off for the past 2 years on this.

Abdurahman
September 24th, 2007, 06:24 PM
Holy shit that's cool.

Warsaw
September 24th, 2007, 06:38 PM
Sounds like Nuclear Dawn meets Battlefield 2142 meets S.T.A.L.K.E.R.to me...

Interesting, but needs something to spice it up.

Emmzee
September 24th, 2007, 06:39 PM
Sounds like Nuclear Dawn meets Battlefield 2142 meets S.T.A.L.K.E.R.to me...

Interesting, but needs something to spice it up.
That's what the characters are for, but they're still top-secret.

Warsaw
September 24th, 2007, 07:33 PM
Well, I meant background-wise. A twist that is hardly ever used or has never been used (the latter is harder) would add some extra flavor, and then the characters are the ice-cream in the middle.

Emmzee
September 24th, 2007, 10:46 PM
Basic Living in Havens:
Water is gathered from underground wells, as most surface water is either frozen due to the winter or contaminated with radiation. Snow is also decontaminated and then melted for water. Food is grown underground, in hydroponic gardens. Security for these gardens is very tight. Most of the power for havens consists of geothermic power generators and wind, as solar is practically useless, and nobody wants to go nuclear. Fossil fuels are scarce, as large-scale trade has been put to a halt. Most cars run on methane from animal feces, as do some small-scale power generators. These animals are kept in underground pens where they're fed hydroponically-grown vegetables and such. Havens are protected by walls at least20 feet high and several inches thick. They have multiple security gates, guard towers, and dozens of guards. Most of the security measures are done by hand, as electronics are hard to come by due to EMP. While each haven has its own economy, except for the Oregon Six (I'll talk about that later), money does not work from one haven to another, so most drifters trade with merchants in the havens using a simple bartering system. Communication between havens is nearly non-existent, although some communicate with nearby havens via shortwave radio.

Warsaw
September 24th, 2007, 11:01 PM
Very Dark Reign-ish...

Emmzee
September 24th, 2007, 11:02 PM
Very Dark Reign-ish...
What's that?

Warsaw
September 24th, 2007, 11:08 PM
A sci-fi RTS game that actually set the bar for all RTSes after it, and is what most have been modeled on. It has a sequel (which takes place prior to the first game) which was one of the first 3D RTS games, but it was never widely marketed. Basically, Earth is contaminated and people live in domes similar to your Havens. The Sprawlers are outcasts, who are oppressed by the JDA who run said domes. Eventually, Earth is destroyed, and the JDA become the Imperium Shadowhand, and the Sprawlers the Freedom Guard. All of the surface water in most of the known galaxy is contaminated by Shadowhand chemicals, and underground springs must be tapped.

Texrat
September 25th, 2007, 12:03 PM
Something for you futurists to consider:

Germs sent to space come back meaner, scientist reports (http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/09/25/germs.in.space.ap/index.html)



WASHINGTON (AP) -- It sounds like the plot for a scary B-movie: Germs go into orbit on a spaceship and come back stronger and deadlier than ever.

But it really happened.

The germ: Salmonella, best known as a culprit in food poisoning.
The trip: Space shuttle mission STS-115, September 2006.
The reason: Scientists wanted to see how space travel affects germs, so they took some along -- carefully wrapped -- for the ride.
The result: Mice that were fed the space germs were three times more likely to get sick, and died more quickly, than mice fed identical germs that had remained behind on Earth.

Emmzee
September 25th, 2007, 01:27 PM
A sci-fi RTS game that actually set the bar for all RTSes after it, and is what most have been modeled on. It has a sequel (which takes place prior to the first game) which was one of the first 3D RTS games, but it was never widely marketed. Basically, Earth is contaminated and people live in domes similar to your Havens. The Sprawlers are outcasts, who are oppressed by the JDA who run said domes. Eventually, Earth is destroyed, and the JDA become the Imperium Shadowhand, and the Sprawlers the Freedom Guard. All of the surface water in most of the known galaxy is contaminated by Shadowhand chemicals, and underground springs must be tapped.
Well, that was chemicals, and in this, it's fallout, and one big government or whatever doesn't control each Haven, as they are mostly autonomous.


And Texrat, that's not quite applicable for my story, but it is pretty crazy.

Texrat
September 25th, 2007, 02:18 PM
I just figured someone reading the thread might be able to use it. Hell I might.

Warsaw
September 25th, 2007, 04:04 PM
@Emzee: Dark Reign is a combination of fallout and chemicals. It depends on which release you are talking about.


Nonetheless, I think your universe is good, but it just seems like the background is missing something.

Emmzee
September 25th, 2007, 05:42 PM
The Cesserian Regime

As the governments started to disintegrate and winter set in, a leader by the name of Adam Cessarian rose to power, at the height of his power controlling the entire East Coast of North America. He tried to be a peaceful ruler, but necessity demands force, and he had to plot a path of conquest through North America in search of much-needed natural resources for his ever-growing empire. This created many dissenters, and as his army was crippled by a much more fierce nuclear winter than expected, rebels struck in the major cities he controlled. Nukes were set off in what was left of Atlanta, New York, Boston, and Richmond, all key cities in Cessarian's empire. Cessarian was in Richmond when it was nuked. Without its leader, the short-lived empire crumbled and warring factions fought for control of what was left. The west coast and midwest was relatively safe from these armies, but as necessity generates change, some factions of Cessarian's empire have begun the march west. They are heavily armed, having been armed by the remaining US armories on the east coast.