It is the year 28,000 A.D., more or less. It was about three thousand years ago that the galactic core erupted mysteriously, blasting out a wave of superluminal particles that caused the heliospheres of most stars in the galaxy to become so charged and energized that attempting to fly through it to make a warp jump would be tantamount to suicide.
The various races of the galaxy collapsed into carnage as more dependent systems were suddenly overcome with famine and severe disorder. Many worlds have been wiped clean of life altogether; but this isn't about those worlds. No, this is a tale about Sol. The core of the Human nations and what was once among the galaxy's mightiest and wealthiest star systems. The old shipyards about Neptune decayed from lack of use and the research stations of Sedna starve, cut off by the fearsome tempest from the rest of the system.
The great palaces of Earth are flooded with grime and waste, food running low and water resources particularly taxed. The sheer mass of sewage alone creates severe disease problems. The terrified government organizes itself and begins making drastic actions to recycle and conserve their resources stringently, all the while the world slips further into chaos. Raiders and opportunists begin swamping the survivors.
Mars, the lofty resort planet loved for its vast pine forests and cool climate, is an oasis in the storm, rapidly forming its meager defense forces into a veritable army to protect its well-preserved environment and economy. The agri-world of Venus, its planet-spanning farms once helping feed Earth's ravenous appetite, is invaded by Terran forces and forced to export nearly all of its produce to the city-world. Mercury's vast mines similarly become a target but the resilient miners drive off all invaders and their world is too valuable to torch.
The Moon, known simply as Luna, is caught in especially desperate straits, all resources- particularly oxygen- becoming direly needed commodities. Only by chaining themselves to Earth could they be saved, given a scant share of Venus' bounty. The rich colonies on Jupiter's moons are overthrown by panicked commoners after discovering the wealthy rulers and government officials had hoarded food for themselves while the people subsisted on recycled gruel and water from melted ice.
Saturn, its moons and rings rich in water but notably absent of major food production, was particularly hard-hit by the famine. Many of its inhabitants turned to piracy to feed their families, and others worked overtime producing raw materials to trade with Earth for badly-needed necessities. Uranus' hydrogen farms are taxed to the brink by hardline trade consortiums, desperate to generate revenue to buy food with. Mercenary factions crack down on anyone not working their share. The miners of the Asteroid Belt, never ones to become involved and self-sufficient to begin with, simply keep on mining and guard what they have.
Lastly, the dwarf world of Pluto, capitol of the outer solar system and its several moons brimming with trade floors and stock exchange plazas covering the galaxy over, was suddenly without commerce. Clinging to its resources and strictly enforcing conservation, the dwarf planet's governing authority struggles to keep the hardy miners and traders on its moons in line.
That was all three thousand years ago- the Great Blackout of 25,000 A.D. The worlds of the Solar System have fractured since then. The Earth government, tyrannical and conservative, has degraded into dozens of states again dividing on ethnic or ideological lines. Mars jealously guards its wealth, shutting out all outsiders. Mercury and Venus' many trade pacts rule the flow of resources throughout Sol. Saturn and Jupiter's fleets and armies war over ice-rich Centaur asteroids and outlying moons, using their water to till farms to feed their people and provide drink. Uranus and Neptune have been largely abandoned but for the profiteers mining gas to sell on planetary markets. Pluto has fractured, the world and each of its moons forming a different government.
In this perilous and dangerous future, you live. For the many walks of life in the hostile Sol system, its farthest reaches still shut off and therefore interstellar travel still impossible, there is only what you can make of what there is. So what are you then? Are you a pirate, or a trader, or a soldier or a government official? In an age so unsympathetic, the only one you can rely on is yourself.
