Starcrash Universe by SHG – Timeline
The Starcrash Universe by SHG is the universe of StarPirates.net and Spybattle.com. Listed here is the official records of that Universe as confirmed by the AI Council.
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2085 – Man first lands on mars. This project is almost entirely automated by new computer technology. As a result, there is little public interest.
2086 – Predicting an upcoming population boom, scientists quietly re-open Eugenics research, in order to ensure production of superior humans, and limit births.
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2094 – With the end of WWIV, favorable public opinion permits research to begin on the Regenabot project.
– Sensing impending social collapse, a faction of high society leave earth, heading for Ganymede. Low tech engines means they are in for a long ride.
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2096 – Laser technology advances far enough for crude weaponry.
2097 – Founding of the Sons of Earth (SoE) – Peaceful organization trying to solve the problems of mass starvation. Strong belief in a gaia force; life is precious and balanced.
2100 – SoE protests over what they view as an abdication of space travel and technological advancements to machines are largely ignored.
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2103 – Completion of first dome on Ganymede. With a base of operations, construction on the colony becomes much easier.
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2109 – Disgusted by the turn the world has taken, a small group of pacifists band together, and head off into the relative unknown of the asteroid belts.
2115 – The Eugenics Project, Stage 1 begins its research to manipulate various species DNA to adapt them to the harsh environments of space mining.
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2118 – Development of Farcasting technology begins.
2119– Pluto and Charon are reclassified as a pair of binary dwarf planets in the Kuiper belt.
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2121 – Ganymede (Jupiter Station) colony completed.
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2124 – First publicly admitted and “optimally upgraded human” clone. SoE believe they have created the
ultimate human being, and transference of a collective consciousness occurs. The clone becomes a hybrid of their best and brightest, reaching mental adulthood within a year. He chooses his own name: the Son of Earth.
– SoE Takeover – Son of Earth becomes militant leader. He predicts the end of mankind, seeing them as slovenly, mindless peons fully dependent upon machines.
2125 – Clones etc. Ltd. institute a service for Earth’s upper class. Citizens pay exorbitant fees to grow their own superior clones in “organ farms”.
2126 – SoE announces that GAIA is being contaminated by technology. The fittest should survive, not stupid consumers.
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2128 – SoE sabotage of a Clones etc. organ farm in Moscow infects a full crop of clones with a deadly, fast-mutating virus. Virus is rapidly isolated and contained by AI’s. World health systems are mostly put into AI control.
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2130 – Policebots and automated weaponry destroy the original SoE headquarters. SoE himself is believed dead.
2131 – Nothing happens – A year of astounding tranquility. Public AI reports confirm that nothing of historic note transpires.
– Superior clones become the norm, as those who can afford it “upgrade” their bodies for eternal and optimal youth, or purchase mindless drones for menial work
2132 – Son of Earth reappears. Claiming to have survived the destruction of SoE headquarters, he attracts devout followers by the thousands.
– SoE virus resurfaces in an extremely virulent form. The wealthiest are hit hardest. The “old elite” begin to die off.
2133 – The SoE virus puts a huge strain on medical resources, stretching them to the breaking point. Scientists race against the viral mutation rate to find a cure. Death toll rises.
2134 – Millions are terminally infected. Regen technology is massively boosted – the world elite pour resources into it.
2135 – Development of functional nanotech finally allows the SoE virus to be purged from the quarantine zones and cures those who remain infected.
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2137 – Invention of the Laser Pistol and Laser Beam. Marketed as “The last weapon you’ll need to own”.
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2139 – Early space miners working in the belts come across colonies of pacifists possessing technology much further advanced than their own. The pacifists begin to use stealth technology to hide from the rough and ready miners.
2140 – The Eugenics project produces its first successful mining model, adapted to life in Zero-G. Despite their incredible resiliency, many succumb to the dangers of space mining. Regen technology from Earth is applied to the survivors, giving them just enough of a survival edge.
2141 – The ever-increasing need for Regen technology pushes scientists to add in the ability to scavenge resources for a self-improving regenerative unit.
2142 – Regenabots are invented that seek out and aggressively treat any ailing human – even those suffering from advanced military-grade designer plagues. Regenabots are everywhere and briefly the Earth is a Utopia.
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2144 – Furthering the mental “normalisation” routines used on criminal minds, wholescale mind wiping tech is publicly accepted as the way to deal with now eternally young but sociopathic individuals.
– Brain scans are uploaded to neural sim networks that grow in complexity.
2145 – Psychiatrist profession booms to never-before seen highs as mankind comes to terms with apparent immortality. The massively-growing neural sims permit amazing insights into human minds.
– Variants on human states including multiple and linked personalities are accepted in law.
2146 – Space travel becomes commonplace, a trade system is established between Earth and Ganymede.
– Scientists discover that neural nets can cross-link. An experiment follows for massive computing power, but scientists quickly lose control. This causes the first Super AI.
2147 – The Super AI tasked to help the Regenebots becomes fully self aware, and begins replicating itself. This is the beginning of the AI Council.
2148 – Super AI uploads itself to Mars terrabots. Mars terraforming begins.
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2150 – Founding of Celeb Idol New Corporation. (CINC)
– Mars colony founded. Mars domes are initially peopled with mind-wiped criminals. Deaths resulting from asteroid impacts, and severe radiation prompt the Mars AI to divert resources to shielding technology.
– World leaders accused of sending subsonic subliminal Pro-AI messages.
– Massive SoE riots throughout the world. Beijing, Washington and London are among cities that are mostly destroyed; nanotechnology repairs and upgrades most areas.
2151 – Recognizing their new longevity, more and more discerning humans head to the stars in search of resources and fortune.
2152 – Breakthrough on Mars AI: Shield technology produces the first truly useful protection device – the Class 1 Shield, commonly called C1.
2153 – Privately funded project for terraforming Titan using experimental technology is launched.
2154 – Six months after first colonists arrive on Titan, all contact is lost.
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2156 – Farcasting/Gravity manipulation technology is perfected and mankind begins to implement it for mining/space travel. Travel times are massively cut into days instead of months.
2157 – Mars AI and Earth AI’s interlink. The AI council is officially formed. They are viewed by most of humanity as helpful and wiser partners. Almost immediately humans instate the AIs to act as arbiters, peacekeepers, decision-makers. Democracy starts fading as AIs take over more and more functions.
– Titan is quarantined pending further investigation, but due to draws on resources, the inquiry falls by the wayside.
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2159 – Construction begins on Uranus station. The farcasting of Earth’s limited resources creates massive public backlash. Riots ensue. AI’s insist it is logical and necessary.
– SoE recruitment drive reaches unparalleled heights.
2160 – Farcasting technology use causes a slight shift in the solar system’s orbit. The entire system is affected by occasional sunspots, which cause systems to go haywire.
2161 – World’s last natural parrot dies in San Francisco zoo. Entrepreneur and clone technician Vic Frank buys the rights to the DNA, mass produces a cut-down version and Vic Franks’ NuPets is created.
2162 – Earth’s resources are tapped out.
2163 – Resources allocated for Mars terraforming project are redirected to Earth instead, in an attempt to stave off the inevitable decline.
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2165 – Time of SpyBattle 2165. Population is high, resources are low, Earth is at war.
– A faction of colonists, unsatisfied with a life of war, leave Earth, heading for Eris.
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2168 – SoE2 is officially cloned on Mars.
2169 – Mars Riots, Mars secedes, Martian despot takes planet. Rumors are that this is SoE3.
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2171 – SoE launch a variant of Amalgon-3 to target certain nanites in Free Captains heads.
– The AIC quickly develops and mass-produces a cure, but not before many infected Free Captains join the SoE.
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2174 – AI Council takes over (Regenabots). Democracy on Earth vanishes as the population swells to over 27 billion. AIC starts planning long-term solutions
2175 – Piracy begins to take hold in space. No law-enforcers guard the space-lanes, and some Free Captains-turned-privateers are able to make a comfortable living, stealing from the rich.
2176 – AI Council decrees that “unaugmented” humans may not serve as councilors – Riots break out in scattered cities, but are quickly subdued.
2177 – Sterilisation or the Stars. Humanity is faced with a choice, freedom-seekers and those looking for families take to the stars.
2178 – Mankind returns to Titan – builds Saturn station.
2179 – Construction of Neptune Station.
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2181 – Construction of Lower and Upper Belt stations.
2182 – Asteroid Belt – Star Ports. The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter is populated by orbiting habitable satellites called “StarPorts”. Resources are mined and farcast to Earth.
2183 – Groups of humans begin to coalesce within the asteroid belts, forming societies and occasionally functioning governments.
2184 – AI Council commissions a security force for the stations and to patrol and protect shipping lanes.
– An AI beyond the reach of the AI Consensus goes renegade, heading off in an unknown direction.
2185 – Construction of Pluto & Charon Station.
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2187 – All space stations are declared fully operational.
2188 – Starcrash Catastrophe – two of the giant rocks farcast to Earth collide and plunge into the Tokyo
harbor. Final and complete destruction of the planet. Existing Humans are no longer able to visit Earth- or Moon-space. And are not interested in doing so.
2189 – SoE take control of inner system.
2190 – Powerful new drive technology is discovered in space. Where it came from is uncertain, use of it is imperfect and dangerous.
– Weekly Solar News (WSN) Founded. Hailed as “The Solar System’s ONLY Reliable News Source.”
2191 – AI Council provides humanity with more efficient “Jump Gate” Technology, set in a network around the system. Occasional StarSlips with the parallel universes are said to occur from here on in.
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2193 – Shields are perfected – CXs are slated for mass production, but even with scavenging AI-bots, demand outweighs available resources, and production is slow.
2194 – Game Begins. The Earth is uninhabitable. Mankind has moved entirely to the stars, piracy becomes a way of life.
– Pirates begin practice of “running the belts” – risky but lucrative.
– Heavy resistance to AI Council rule.
– AIC undergoes viral attack from SoE – corruption in databanks spreads through AI faster than can be controlled.
– Stories circulate between stations, pirates tell of mysterious encounters with pods that can only be described as “strange”.
– A rift forms to the Nega-verse, briefly causing havoc throughout the system.
2195
– Visible AI withdraw.
– Suspicions of a rift in AI Council grow stronger.
– Nanometer-scale Optimization Modules are perfected, allowing captains to permanently hardwire items to their ships, thereby increasing the power of the items.
2196
– Contact is made with Alpha Centauri, leading to the discovery that it has been populated with a slave race of clones.
– AI Council rift is confirmed, giving rise to at least two factions of AI, the ACAI (Alpha Centauri AI) and the Sol AI. The groups present radically different viewpoints, with the net result being increased risk, both to free captains and clones in AC, as they are often caught in the crossfire.
– Continuing technological advancements permit the development of high-powered multipurpose equipment. Though still extremely rare and costly, many free captains have begun collecting these powerful, broad spectrum items.
– Warped Rum Enterprises Inc. (W.R.E.) begins publicly trading on the stock market.
– The mysterious disappearance of galley toasters in numerous pirate vessels coincides suspiciously with the appearance of Stealth Gear in Neptune debris fields.
– Census taken mid-year suggests that human population of solar system has risen to over 50,000 free captains.
– Mysterious and deadly planetesimals discovered in the belts. Their propensity for arriving at just the wrong time results in their being credited with a malign intelligence, however unlikely that may be. The nickname “sentient moon” sticks.
2197 Present Day