A World in the Dark [IC, Post-Apocalyptic, PMT]

[Hippie Kiwis]

A World in the Dark IC
OOC: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=315679



Earth. Once, a great world with 13 billion inhabitants all trying to find ways to improve the lives of those more misfortunate than they. Some might've called it paradise, now, it was anything but. The year was 2179, and an extraterrestrial fleet had entered the solar system. They came in the trillions, bearing down on the tiny world of Earth, but it was not Earth they wanted. They went after a greater prize. Our sun. Within an hour, the sun was gone, harvested for energy by mysterious aliens. Within the day, 98% of the Earth's population had perished. Humanity would never again be the same.

The year is 2345. What remains of the human race huddles around nuclear power plants for survival. Pyramidal cities stab at an empty sky. People are forced to mine for air, sending out rovers to collect liquid nitrogen and oxygen, as well as ice and dry ice. Subterranean greenhouses produce food for the human race, as well as an additional source of air. Nuclear power heats, lights, and powers the remnants of the human race, keeping it alive on the edge of extinction. Society has evolved since the darkening, as it is called, religions, cultures and ethnicities even have changed. Many of the cities have banded together in great leagues that stretch over the planet in great swathes. They will occasionally war with one another, fighting over food, air, or uranium. But humanity has reached the point where they no longer have to focus completely on survival. Man turns its eyes upward at a starry sky, and seeks for other worlds where life would not be so hard, and where paradise can reign again.

---

I am the OP, my word is law.
CoOPs: none at the moment

Rules:
1. be reasonable!
2. no godmoding, metgaming, flaming, basic RP etiquette
3. remember, this is post-apocalyptic
4. the world is completely different than it is now, use your imagination
5. Earth's geography is now different. The seas are frozen over, and the continents are larger.
6. have fun

[Kinkerland]

can i be CoOp

[Northern Arcadian Empire]

New Ateria-

Frederick looked out over his subterranean city, it was small but free and hidden form the outside world.

"Sir the latest crime..."

Frederick sighed, even though he had given his people enough freedoms to live but the crime rate was horrible "Just put it on my desk, and give the latest police budget to the chief."

"Yes sir"

[Hippie Kiwis]

can i be CoOp

OOC: no, nor can you be on this RP!

[Naval Monte]

Al Amarja

Sitting in her private chamber Alexylva sat drinking a cup of tea, enjoying the peaceful quietness of the room with only the sounds of her own breathing and that of a indoor water fountain breaking the silence. In front of her where several papers sent her by Helba each detailing both positive and negative news. The first is that the monorail project is nearly complete and that by a few months most of the cities in Al Amarja will be better connected with each other. The other news is an improvement in the mines thanks to the addition of better mining equipment. All other news seem to be well and good except for two. The first one was the latest crimes in Al Amarja and the other is that the military is still not yet ready for the possibility of war. Luckily for the latter the troops are showing gradual improvement so hopefully this problem would be one that fixes itself but for the former as the empress reads it it states that the prime minister wishes for police to have better equipment and weapons to fight crime more effectively, like how better equipment helped improve mining operations. The empress agreed to the idea but wrote down that along with new technology law enforcement officials must be trained better in their job if they wish to bring more order into Al Amarja.

[Masimino]

Diego, looking at the small city of Bozril at his small hillside home, casually says to his advisers, close friends and other influential people in the city. "A new city, a free one, I pray to God that this will be the start of a new era, a new generation." As he finished, one of his advisers and engineers, says "Sir, the Plant needs more fuel and the people need more protection from bandit raids and more food and water." Diego looks at his Assault weapon, grabs it, points it at the engineer and casually says "Let them come". The room was silent, the room was scared, but not Diego.

He went back to looking at the city, spotting a small group of people, then says to the Military Head "Welcome them please". The captain nods and goes out with his guards.

[Brechalht]

ignore

[Hippie Kiwis]

Ice. It was everywhere. The cold ruled. The sun was gone, humanity clung to the dark abyss of extinction. Dominator Kaigan sat in his bedchambers, small, even for his high status. Space was in high demand. Death ruled the land. The dirt in which Capital lay was once rich and full of life, now it was cold and dead. The plans for the Starhope lay one his desk. The ship would be the last hope for the Halis Dominion. Uranium deposites were becoming more and more rare, despite good equipment. After the uranium was gone, the dominion would be to. The cryogenics chambers were being prepared. He would sleep for fifty years, and then the warp gate built by the colonists would take him to paradise. On that happy thought, he dozed off into a deep sleep.

[Naval Monte]

In the capitol city of Carmina Gadelica a celebration is being thrown, the location that's experiencing the most activity is the nearly constructed monorail stations. In other parts of Al Amarja many of the populace living in the other cities are to celebrating. Standing on the steps in front of a red and gold ribbon are the empress holding a katana dressed in a ceremonial robes , prime minster wearing both a mask and a white suit along with a hat, and other members of the National Diet. The empress gave a rare small smile seeing the festivities breaking her stoic somewhat tired look that she usually has. "Oh a rare sight indeed, our empress is smiling." said Helba. Hearing Helba make that comment about her smiling she turned to her. "Just cause I don't have a permanent cheshire smile like you doesn't mean I can't feel joy, I just rarely allow my emotions to show out, especially out in public." Alexylva said, being greeted by Helba's smile. "Maybe you should show your emotions more often. The people will like it more if they knew they follow an empress who smiled a bit more than one who looked as though she's about to fall asleep at any time, especially in times like these any moral booster is better than none at all." replied Helba losing any sense of playfulness in her voice when she said those last words. The empress thought about her words but tried to make sure that the prime minister's words don't make her forget about her speech.

Once the festivities die down everyone becomes quiet, some even have cameras ready for the speech. "My fellow Al Amarjians, we have suffered a lot in these years. First the warm yellow sun we called our neighbor was taken away from us, losing the heat that we all both hated at times but desperately need to live. Than the cold that help cool us down in hot dry days has turned to harsh that now we hide underground to avoid the cold, the world that our ancestors knew is long gone, replaced by a cold, harsh, and dead world not to different from a corpse." Alexylva than pulled the sword away from the scabbard. "But as nature commands us all to die we refused. When the culture, religions, arts fade away to the either we simply created our own, as the this new world spelled doom to initiative, engineering, and technology we not only keep those two alive but have greatly improved our technological achievement much more than what we had in the old world, in a world where food and freedom should be lacking we have both along with the world's newest life blood uranium. While our laws still haven't recovered from these dark times and our military still not as strong as to defend from barbaric invaders they will in time grow in strength just like all of us. Until then I proudly announce that this is the day were our great cities finally achieve their long await connection with each other." With that the empress swing down the sword and cut the ribbon that blocked people from the new station. When the ribbon was cut the crowd cheer loudly, even the crowd in the other cities cheered as they saw the speech and ceremony thanks to the holographic screens throughout the city. As the cheering dies down Alexvlva spoke again. "This monorail station is just the beginning, as we improve more in our society soon we will able to reach the technological prowess to achieve our ancestors greatest dream, to finally go and live among the stars!" The empress began to make her way down the steps as the festivities resume once more.

[Zenoch]

"The earth shall soon dissolve like snow;
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who called me here below,
Will be forever mine."

The congregation finished the song by singing the chorus of Amazing Grace as Noah took the stage. He wore old religious robes, but they were wired with small microphones that communicated wirelessly with the speakers at the base of the stage.
"Friends!" His voice boomed through the hall, the speakers making his voice deep and powerful.
"As the great prophet John Newton foretold, the sun ceased to shine and the earth has dissolved into nothing but snow. The surface has been claimed by God, and man has ceased to live there. Surely this was a sign from the Lord!" His voice grew as he came to the climax of his closing statement. "We must leave this Earth! It is clear, the Lord has made it so. Trust in the lord with all your heart and he will make your path straight! Surely no path is so clear as the one laid before us. The Ark shall lead to a new world, a new era. Up there is our future, up there is our destiny!"
Hundreds of his followers cheered as he held his hands up, signifying the end of the sermon.

[Hippie Kiwis]

Work has begun on the starhope. The central power core's outer shell is nearing completion. The starhope, when finished, should look like this:

The Starhope is the most ambitious project the Dominion has ever undergone, and is also the most important. All excess industry is being put into the project, and the Dominion hopes it's large size will give it first pick on Florida's surface.

[Naval Monte]

Within a research facility in a undisclosed location in one of Al Amarja's cities scientists, technicians, and engineers begin work on their most ambitious project yet. Code name "The Ark" the ship would use a solar sail to use radiation pressure (also called solar pressure) from stars to push large ultra-thin mirrors to high speeds. However for "The Ark" project other sub projects are formed in combination with it. From designing the perfect buildings for staying in the moon, new space suits, robots to assist humans, and ways to deal with the lower gravity on the moon. Other scientists are working on creating genetically altered crops to grow on the moon once oxygen farms are made on the moon while others are trying to find ways for humans to be in suspend animation for the more longer flights to other worlds.

In other news holographic pets with A.I.s advanced enough to talk and think on their own have become popular, especially with children. In an attempt to deal with crime surveillance cameras were placed in public places, much to the disapproval of most citizens. Along with holographic pets humanoid robots have joined society has well and are seen in most parts of Al Amarjian society except in the military since many fear that doing so is asking for a robot uprising.

[German Papau]

The Kaiser looked out from his watchtower at the top of his Pyramid-like city. As he looked out across the vast expanse of ice and snow, he sighed. Turning to his 12-year old daughter Sofia Michaelmas, he asked her: "What do you think of all this, my daughter?" She looked up at her father, eyebrows raised. "Well, what do you mean by that? The outside, beyond the city?" The Kaiser, still staring out the window, replied. "Yes, the outside. What do you make of it? How does it make you feel?" The Kaiser's daughter thought for a moment, and then answered her father. "I find it... Bland. Boring, I guess. It makes me feel angry. In school, they teach us that humanity once was a great race, and I get really angry when I realize what we could have done if only our sun still shined!" She finished her rant, breathing heavily. The Kaiser smiled at his daughter. "That judgement will, one day, make you a great leader. Now come, I have business to attend to." The Kaiser and his daughter stepped into an elevator, which flew to the ground in a matter of seconds. For the rest of the day, The Kaiser oversaw his city, which, so far, had gotten by, sometimes having surplus. Neu Wilksdorf wasn't perfect, but it worked.

[Hippie Kiwis]

(Image)

Within a research facility in a undisclosed location in one of Al Amarja's cities scientists, technicians, and engineers begin work on their most ambitious project yet. Code name "The Ark" the ship would use a solar sail to use radiation pressure (also called solar pressure) from stars to push large ultra-thin mirrors to high speeds. However for "The Ark" project other sub projects are formed in combination with it. From designing the perfect buildings for staying in the moon, new space suits, robots to assist humans, and ways to deal with the lower gravity on the moon. Other scientists are working on creating genetically altered crops to grow on the moon once oxygen farms are made on the moon while others are trying to find ways for humans to be in suspend animation for the more longer flights to other worlds.

(Image)
(Image)

In other news holographic pets with A.I.s advanced enough to talk and think on their own have become popular, especially with children. In an attempt to deal with crime surveillance cameras were placed in public places, much to the disapproval of most citizens. Along with holographic pets humanoid robots have joined society has well and are seen in most parts of Al Amarjian society except in the military since many fear that doing so is asking for a robot uprising.

OOC: humanity isn't going to the moon, they're going to planet florida

---

Satus update - Project Starhope

Central power core casings completed, work on cassis framework has now begun. Halisian scientists are looking into ways to use uranium more efficiently as a fuel source for the ship, Project Dirty Bird, and on perfecting the cryogenics "cold sleep" process, Project Iceberg.

The Halis Dominion has been gradually increasing the temperature of their cities to prepare the Halisian citizens for Florida's warm weather.

[Zenoch]

Noah sat in his private office, cello music filled the halls of his quarters. He lived alone in the largest single apartment in Incip. He looked at the coputer screed built into his desk. he viewed a live feed of the construction of his Ark. The frame of the ship had been childsplay, and the only problems facing the Incipients now was that of powering the ship enough to get it into orbit. The option of nuclear power seemed the most logical, but that would eventually run out, leaving the Incipients trapped in a metal casket floating in space. Clearly, a more renewable solution was required. The scientist of Incip were among the most advanced in the world, and they were working on an unprecedented way of securing almost unlimited energy. The method was still top secret, and Noah himself knew little of its details, only that it would allow the Ark to go virtually anywhere in the universe given enough time.
The other problem that faced the incipients troubled Noah greatly. That is the problem of the length of the voyage. Noah knew that he alone could lead his people to the new Promised World, but the limitations of his mortal body made this idea impossible. For now, his private group of scientists were working on this problem. Currently, the only real progress to be noted was that the body of the Ark had been completed.

[Naval Monte]

In the empress's private chambers both Helba and Alexylva shared a celebratory toast with wine glasses. "here's to another successful event. I must say this new age of ice and darkness isn't turning out so bad for us, if anything we're benefiting greatly from it." Helba said taking a shot. The empress only drinking half of the wine started to spin the glass around a bit. "Well right now we're experiencing a temporary boom but soon all the few remaining resources on this world will be gone and we'll be left with the horror that our time here was borrowed times." said Alexylva drinking the rest. Letting out a sigh Helba filled up her glass "Boy aren't you a ray of sunshine." Helba said with obvious sarcasm in her voice as she passed the wine bottle to Alexylva "To be honest I never once in my life saw sunshine or light before." Alexylva replied, trying to sound neutral to the comment as possible even though she felt somewhat upset that she never saw the light of the sun for her own eyes. "Well you aren't the only one here. Me and a vast majority never saw the sun in our lives, we only know of it thanks to history." the two of them stayed quiet for a while just drinking.

Eventually the silence was broken by Alexylva. "So I heard that the Ark project is your own little project right now so how's it going?" said Alexylva who almost slurred the last word of her sentience as she starts having a difficult time holding the glass properly. Helba in the mean while doesn't seems to be effects as much. "The designs for the ships body and sail are set and the sail is already being made. Most other parts of the project are going well but the ones that are responsible for dealing with zero gravity and how to deal with long trips into space are stuck right now, though suspend animation seems to be the idea they are going for the latter. It seems that if we manage to solve those problems while having enough time, money, and resource we have have our ship ready." Helba said, sounding excited. The empress to gave a smile at the idea of having the ship complete. The two of them talked for a while longer but soon they had to call it a day when it became obvious that Alexylva was starting to get drunk.

[Brechalht]

ignore

[Hippie Kiwis]

Status Update - Project Starhope

The Starhope's main chassis is now complete. Construction of the outer shell has begun. The power core is now complete, showing the fruition of Project Dirty Bird, a densely packed plutonium-uranium-sodium alloy (that would never work in real life) core would burn at a slow pace, emitting highly charged electrons from spouts in the Starhope's outer shell. Project Dirty Bird has been canceled due to success. Project Iceberg is making significant advances and has been successfully tested on rodents. Volunteer testing has begun on humans.

[Naval Monte]

Helba saw the giant solar sail that was made, the size was three football stadiums in one. As of know she liked the progress that was going the sail and ship was done, funny enough even though the ship is huge itself it's sail make's it look like a dwarf by comparison. The buildings and spacesuits are being made along with other essentials for the trip. A new addition to the ship is a massive rotating doughnut shaped capsule, not only would it power the ship's life support systems it would help deal with the problem of weightless by spinning the the ship anyone who will be inside it will experience earth like gravity, scientists also state that no one would be able to feel the ship spinning similar to how people don't feel the Earth spinning. Other scientists are beginning work on two possible power sources for the ship. The first is the obvious nuclear energy which they have plenty of but the other is interesting, one idea has it that the ship have an anti matter reactor. While the chances of one working now are slim that one along with the nuclear one are getting the equal amount of pay and research done.

While solar sails are fine the fact that this trip will be a one way trip means that any errors on their propulsion systems would spell doom for them so scientists are researching and developing a second propulsion system for the ship, like the power source nuclear and anti matter seem to be the most popular. Some eccentric scientists are even developing lasers for both helping out the solar sail on getting more energy to work and for self defense and another is something more akin to a force field, stating that micro meteors pose a great threat to the ship. It seems that with some projects done a new one is born but all this waiting and work will ultimately pay off once Al Amarjans take off to the sky and into the stars.

[Hippie Kiwis]

status update - Project Starhope

The chassis framework is complete, as is the power core. Another subproject, Project Congo, has begun by working on a defensive (and offensive) system for the starhope. The hope is, that if any other ships attempt to attack the starhope in an effort to get firsts claim of Florida, would get a nasty surprise. Project Congo is currently working on converting AA batteries from before the starfall (when the sun went out) so they can be mounted on the starhope. Work on the starhope's "skin" has begun, and is hopefully going to take a short time due to the simplicity of the task.

[Congreveopia]

Chief Minister's Office, McMurraysville:

“Accounting. That’s all it is.” thought Chief Minister Charles Prentice. “Most powerful man in Unified Athabasca, and I’m a glorified accountant.” he read through the report, dictated a quick note to his computer, sent it off, and then pulled up the next report. “McMurraysville is complaining about rising electricity prices from gradual uranium depletion.” he thought. “Suncor mine is complaining about falling uranium values from the more efficient reactors developed by Fort Gregoire. And Fort Gregoire is compiling that they don’t have enough power because its all going to McMurraysville. It’s all one lovely complaining insoluble loop.”

Charles heard someone approaching his office. He reflexively sat up straight in his chair, and began carefully reading through the next report. The person outside knocked.

“Come in.” he said out in a friendly tone. His aide came in, carrying a tablet in one hand.

“Good afternoon sir.” said his aide “There’s an urgent message to you from Fort Gregoire.”

“Oh?” asked Charles “Do they need even more power?”

“I’m sure they do, sir.” said his aide “That’s not what the message is about, though. They picked up a transmission from another surviving group.”

Five minutes later, emergency government meeting:

“Good day to you, leaders of the world.” said the transmission “I greet you from the city of Horizon. No matter its location, we will remain anonymous. However, we are interested in pursuing a new project to lift humanity from the cold ashes of our homeworld. We must push beyond the vast reaches of cold infinity that have so recently invaded our planet and find a new, burning beacon of life, hope, and of a future for our race to settle on. To open contact, utilize the satellite constellation. We will expect your reply shortly.”

“Well.” said Charles “Here’s the billion dollar question: Can we reply without giving away our location?”

“Maybe.” said the Minister of Science “But there’s no way to be sure. Before starfall, we had basically three ways to send a signal around the world. We could send it by fiber optics. We could send it by bouncing it off the ionosphere, or we could send it by satellite. Today, the cables are in tatters, the ionosphere is gone. And if you’d asked me yesterday, I’d have said that there were no satellites in orbit. If we want to reply, we need to use their satellites, and we don’t know if they’ll be equipped to locate us when we do.”

“We can’t fight a war.” said the Minister of Defence “We have one nuke the size of a truck, one nuke that the research boys are still building, and that’s it. After that I have five hundred and fifty people to throw at the enemy before they overrun us. Could we send a robot down the Athabasca River or something and have it give the signal from far away?”

“If we send it over the horizon then we can’t communicate with it, so we won’t know if it worked or broke down.” said the Minister of Science “It’s irrelevant, though because it we need the radio in Fort Gregoire. I can’t be confident anything else will be powerful enough. After all, McMurraysville and Suncor Mine didn’t receive the message.”

“Okay.” said Charles “We need to choose then. We can stay hidden, or we can reply. What should we do?”

“This could be anyone.” said the Minister of Defence “The first contact we’ve had in decades, and they just happen to want to work together? It’s too convenient.”

“The sun is dead and we’re running out of Uranium.” said the Minister of Education. He was typically energetic and full of excitement, but today he just seemed tired and depressed. “How much longer will Suncor Mine keep finding more? Will we die before we see widespread shortages? Will our children be as lucky? We used to feel so secure in our world. We thought that the death of the sun was billions of years away. We had time. We could stumble and pick ourselves up. We don’t have time now. We may be the last generation with the power to stop humanity from going extinct within the next century. I can live with the knowledge that I tried to live but failed. I can live with the knowledge that I was tricked and died in vain. What I can’t bear would be the knowledge that I was too scared to try and live. The knowledge that I was so desperate to survive the next fifty years in safety that I chose to sacrifice all those who would come after me. If we reply to this message, we may live or we may die. But if we don’t, we will all certainly die. We will hide away and burrow deep, eke out survival for as long as we can, but in the end we will all die. Some others may live and fly to other stars. Some others may die in horrific wars because they tried to speak up, but all of those will have chosen to try to survive. We will have chosen to hide away because we couldn’t bear to make the decision that might be our last chance to survive.”

“Any further debate?” asked Charles. The room was silent. “All in favor of replying to the message?” Everyone raised their hand except the Minister of Defence. He sighed and raised his hand too.

“It’s decided.” said Charles “We’ll take a fifteen minute break and then meet again to decide on how to word our reply.”

Message from Unified Athabaska to Horison:

If you do truly intend to work for the good of humanity, Unified Athabaska stands with you. As you control the means of communication between us and evidently have some sort of plan, we wait on your advice as to how to proceed in this effort.

[Hippie Kiwis]

status update - Project Stahope

The skin of the starhope is finished, more work is concentrated on life support. Project Iceberg has turned out a cheap and effective way to store people and food over long periods of time. Cryogenics chambers are being fitted in in the place of living quarters. The starhope is now becoming recognizable. Project Congo has successfully mounted AA guns on the skin of the Starhope. Project Tree has been launched to develop a means to get the starhope into space after it has been completed.

[German Papau]

"Good day to you, leaders of the world. I greet you from the city of Horizon. No matter its location, we will remain anonymous. However, we are interested in pursuing a new project to lift humanity from the cold ashes of our homeworld. We must push beyond the vast reaches of cold infinity that have so recently invaded our planet and find a new, burning beacon of life, hope, and of a future for our race to settle on.

To open contact, utilize the satellite constellation. We will expect your reply shortly."

"Mein Kaiser!"* The Communications Officer said as h entered the Kaiser's Office, saluting with the traditional Imperial German salute. "We have received a transmission from a city called Horizon." He then played back the transmission for Kaiser Michaelmas. The Kaiser thought for a time, then responded. "Well, what are you waiting for? Call them back with their satellite constellation!" The Communications Officer messily answered with an "Of course, My Kaiser" and flew out of the room, readying for a transmission to "Horizon".

The Kaiser stood in a frame, and proceeded to speak:
"Hello, mysterious people. I understand your need for isolation, but I promise if you reveal your location, the only thing you will receive is an ambassador from Neu Wilksdorf, the glorious city I am in charge of. However, on to more pressing matters. If what you speak about a need to leave Terra is true, Neu Wilksdorf shall contribute. As, no doubt, our separate city-states are to small to travel into space alone, I propose a United Space Project, with our states and other states we come into contact with working together to achieve a common goal: leaving Terra. Please respond with an answer as soon as possible."
-Official Transmission Of The Communications Department Of The Government Of The Glorious City Of Neu Wilksdorf

[Brechalht]

ignore

[Hippie Kiwis]

status update - Project Starhope

Project Tree has successfully built a conventional rocket capable of carrying the starhope past earth's gravity well. Most of the Cryogenics chambers have been fitted in. Ice Carriers have begun ferrying in people from the many cities of the Halis Dominion into Capital, where the Starhope is nearing completion. The entire Dominion will board the ship, and proceed to humanity's new home.