Interstellar: Backstory

[Hades]

The Beginning

2023
Mars One successfully lands on the red planet. The mission revolutionizes private spaceflight, sending the world into a second space race. Corporations such as SpaceX and Boeing work overtime to claim their spot on the top of the food chain, and the sudden need for industrial products helps the world overcome the recession.

2025
On the second year of the Mars One mission, drilling is completed into the Martian crust. Trace elements of amino acids are discovered in the radiation-free soil; evidence of life. Just a month later, the report comes in from Mars One that microbial life has been discovered. The very foundations of human society are shaken by the discovery: man is not alone.

2028
The first mission to Europa discovers multi-cellular life underneath the ice. Samples of the strange organisms are brought back to Earth for analysis, and after months of being in quarantine, the confirmation is given. Europa's ecosystem is much more complex than anyone previously theorised.

2033
Planetary Resources becomes the first corporation to successfully land on and mine an asteroid. Thousands of tons of unrefined metals are sent to Earth for processing over the following months, utilizing a space-borne railgun to shoot them towards the blue planet.

2037
The first commercial fusion reactor becomes operational in the outskirts of Vancouver, Canada. Orders for the technology are immediately placed by dozens of nations. Nuclear Canada, the corporation responsible, transforms from an ambitious Kickstarter venture into a multi-billion dollar corporation within a week.

2039
Armstrong Outpost begins commercial harvesting of Helium-3 from the surface of Luna for use in fusion reactors.

2041
War erupts again in the middle east. Israel invades Iran in a surprise attack, and the situation escalates to a limited nuclear exchange. Hundreds of thousands die in the ensuing blasts. The United Nations publicly condemn the entire incident, but sanctions are not imposed to help the victims recover. Tel Aviv is reduced to rubble.

2045
60% of the world's power needs are provided for by Helium-3 fusion. Electrical cars finally take off, thanks to the increased efficiency of capacitor banks. Tesla Motors becomes the leader in the field.

2046
Kim Jong-Un is assassinated by extremists during a diplomatic visit to Seoul. North Korea takes it as an act of war, and begins mercilessly bombarding the city and the DMZ. Thousands die within the first hour. By the time NATO aircraft neutralize the artillery batteries, Seoul has been reduced to rubble. The following war ends in a matter of days, with the surrender of North Korea.

2047
The European Union signs the Paris Accords, converting it into a democratic federation, and each former nation becomes a state in the new country. All members except Britain sign the accords; Britain withdraws from the Union.

2051
SpaceX demonstrates its first antimatter annihilation rocket, combining the best parts of chemical and electrical engines. The demonstration drone does the journey between Earth and Luna in just under one hour.

2057
NASA experiments with faster-than-light technology, but ultimately fails due to funding issues. SpaceX buys the rights to the project from the US government for a fraction of the original cost.

2061
The SpaceX experimental vehicle 'Venture' performs the first faster-than-light jump in human history. The vessel disappears from Low Earth Orbit at 07:14 in a bright show of light, and emerges in Europa Low Orbit a fraction of a second later. Space travel is revolutionized once more. SpaceX flaunts its new potential for instant travel to anywhere in the galaxy.

2062
A computer hacker group infiltrates the SpaceX servers and obtains the schematics for their FTL drive. It publishes them, including the warnings of the project leader that the devices are not efficient enough for extreme distance travel; each jump is limited by available energy and computer power, contrary to what SpaceX claims. SpaceX's stocks collapse overnight.

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The Expansion

2063
Planetary Resources organises the first manned expedition to Alpha Centauri. Human expansion into surrounding solar systems begins. Unfortunately, few systems are capable of supporting human life.

2065
The world's population is almost at 15 billion. Overpopulation issues force aggressive colonization and expansion programs; millions of people, mostly the poor and homeless, are moved to startup colonies. But with the massive distances involved, even AIs struggle to calculate lengthier jumps in any reasonable amounts of time. Human expansion has met a dead end.

2068
The science vessel 'Prometheus' detects a sudden change in spacetime curvature near the Wolf 359 system. Upon moving closer to investigate, it discovers the first observed occurrence of a natural wormhole. After modifying the jump drive of one of its exploratory probes, it sends it through. The probe finds itself on the other side of the wormhole. It travelled 45,000 light-years in just under five seconds.

2071
Further exploration commences on the other side of the wormhole. With international pressure to begin colonization efforts immediately, Planetary Resources and SpaceX declare the wormhole to be completely stable, despite indications to the contrary.

The solar system on the other side of the wormhole is found to lack any habitable planets, but one of the moons can support human life.

2072
The first colony is established on Deus 4 V, the fifth moon of the fourth planet in the 'Deus' system (named after 'Deus Ex Machina'). Five hundred thousand colonists arrive in cryostasis with the first transports.

2082
Expansion begins into the adjacent systems to Deus using conventional jump drives.

2102
Thirty years after the establishment of the Deus colony, at least eight new systems have been colonised by mankind.

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The Incident

2116
Sensors pick up numerous new signatures in the Deus system, moving towards the wormhole. A group of asteroid defense drones is ordered to intercept. The drones are destroyed almost immediately, but not before sending back pictures of an alien fleet. Panic erupts throughout human space: first contact.

The SpaceX-owned cargo ship 'Defiant' is taken over by the United Nations and loaded with materials, weapons and nuclear missiles. Some of the world's best engineers are loaded aboard. Their goal is simple: to make the ship combat-ready in the three day journey to the wormhole from Sol's side.

When the ship arrives at the wormhole, it is monstrosity akin to Frankenstein's monster. A variety of railguns, designed for at-sea naval combat, along with electric-reactive armor plating and a few missile launchers have been crudely welded onto the hull. The engineering crew finally turns control over to the ship's commanding officer, Captain Xi Liao, of the PLA Navy Submarine Force and his military crew, a bunch of submariners, pilots and naval officers collected from the world's armed forces. Their objective: to determine if the object is a threat, and eliminate it if that is the case.

At 08:14 GMT, the Defiant travels through the wormhole. It then begins preparations to engage in combat if necessary.

At 11:26 GMT, the alien fleet enters weapons range of the Defiant. The Defiant sends a message of peace over multiple frequencies.

The reply is a railgun shot on its primary heat exchanger. The Defiant's crew is forced to shut down the antimatter rocket engine to prevent a catastrophic meltdown. The captain orders a full barrage to be fired at the enemy ships, focusing on the alien flagship. Dozens of nuclear missiles are fired, along with a salvo of railgun projectiles. The flagship suffers heavy damage. The rest of the fleet retaliates, and damages the Defiant's antimatter reactor. The captain orders a retreat through the wormhole using emergency propulsion.

At 11:34, asteroid defense drones join the battle, providing the Defiant with the distraction it needs to retreat. The drones focus on the damaged flagship, destroying its weapons systems and hitting multiple ammunition storage lockers. The flagship begins to break apart under the stress on its hull.

At 11:37, the Defiant enters the wormhole. The alien fleet follows.

At 11:39, contact is lost with both the Deus system and Sol.

When more drones arrive at the Deus system to investigate, they discover that the wormhole has collapsed, and that the colony on Deus 4 V is not responding. Radiation readings are off the scales. A deep space search and rescue vessel is redirected to investigate the situation on Deus and reestablish communications with Sol.

The crew that lands on Deus discovers that all of the colonists have been killed by a massive radiation burst. Computer logs indicate that there was a burst of antiparticles from inside the wormhole, which caused it to collapse. The resulting wave of radiation reached the nearby colony. Most importantly, it destroyed the communications hub nearby, severing contact with everything on the other side.

The colonies are left isolated from their homeworld.

Representatives from every colony meet on neutral ground to discuss the future. With no hope of restoring contact with Earth, some representatives propose abandoning each colony's former allegiance to one of the superpowers (European Union, American Union, African Union, Russian Federation, Asian Coalition, Commonwealth of Nations) and forming a coalition of their own. Many colonies oppose the change; the meeting ends fruitlessly.

2146
Now

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It is your turn to shape the story of this universe. Take control of either a human colony or an alien race. Guide them to either poverty or success, war or peace, diplomacy or aggression, trade or theft.

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[Hades]

This should be pretty much done now!