Places to Go

The Place: Helios Star Cluster, 2355

Brief Timeline

2010: a micro-singularity was detected entering the Solar System. Its trajectory would cause it to pass dangerously close to Earth in the year 2178. Scientists predict dire consequences. Earth will be rendered uninhabitable.
2012: A team of the world's greatest Astrophysicists announce a plan to take advantage of the extreme gravity created by the micro-singularity to slingshot spacecraft to very near lightspeed. These spacecraft will discover and colonize new Earth-like worlds. The nations of the world form around 2 great international blocs (essentially China and the Western Alliance) to build the technologies to capitalize on this plan.
2014: The first of dozens of probes are sent to the micro-singularity, now named "Nemesis". They each slingshot to different nearby star systems. It will be many years, even decades, before their signals reach Earth to report on their progress. Meanwhile, work begins on the exodus fleets of colony spacecraft to travel to the best candidates. The exodus fleets become the endeavor of a generation, utilizing the combined output of nearly every nation on Earth.
2018: Scientists discover Quantum Gate technology, allowing transport between two gates at lightspeed. A gate must exist at both ends. Development on automated destination Gates begin.
2020: Automated destination Gates are sent to other stars using Nemesis as a slingshot.
2020 - 2100: Over the next decades, reports come back on the neighboring star systems, and a few suitable candidates are chosen with planets close enough to Earth in mass and composition to allow terraforming.
2100-2170: The Diaspora. Mankind leaves the Earth to colonize other worlds using the Gates. Gate technology make interplanetary travel as easy as orbital travel.
2178: Earth is destroyed, killing billions who could not or did not emigrate.
2100-2300: Planets are terraformed, colonized, and populated. By 2300, the first planets colonized have populations slightly over 2 billion, prompting further colonization to the outer worlds.

There is still limited contact with the colonies on other star systems, but communication is limited to lightspeed. It takes years and decades to travel between stars. Interstellar travellers use hypersleep to make the long voyages, and for those that return, the world and people they left behind are either long gone or completely changed.

However, It only takes minutes and hours to travel between planets in the same star system. As a result, most people never leave their home star system. Interplanetary travel becomes almost as commonplace as rail travel in the 19th Century.

The Gate System

The first Quantum Gates connected Earth and Cronus and allowed for the mass exodus of mankind to the stars. Over the past two hundred years, as terraformed worlds of the Helios Star Cluster opened up new planets to colonization, new Quantum Gates were built. Through shady government grants, vast resources were put aside to several Gate corporations for the construction and maintenance of a network of Gate routes. There are actually five Gate networks, each controlled by a seperate corporation.

Due to the strange vagaries of politics, kickbacks, bribes, and other forms of corruption and influence, Gate routes have very little to do with the actual astronomical placement or orbits of the planets. A Gate route may start out in planet 1 of the Helios star system, then next go to Planet 8 of the Asgard star system, only to return to planet 2 of the Helios star system. Given the fact that regular interplanetary travel may take several weeks or months, this round-about route is often still faster.

There are times, however, where interplanetary travel is more efficient than Gate travel. For example, when the planets Takshaka and Kanya are at conjunction, an event that happens every few months, many large freighters transport livestock from Takshaka straight to Kanya to take advantage of Kanya's inexpensive and more-direct Gates to Odin and Cronus. During this time, direct interplanetary travel from Takshaka to Kanya is cheaper and faster than going the less-direct route through the Gate network.

Planets

1. Cronus :
1. Core World. Population: 6 billion
2. Climate: Earth-like, cool equatorial region. No major deserts. 
3. Notes: Major industrial world. Capital of the Combine. Heavily urbanized.
4. Major cities: Neo-Amsterdam, Jefferson , Neo-London.
5. Imports: Grain, Vegetables, Fruit, Livestock, Metal Ores, Processed Metals, Manufactured Goods, Information, Novelties.
6. Exports: Manufactured goods, refined metals, spacecraft.
2. Atlas :
1. Core World. Population: 2 billion
2. Climate: Earth-like, warm, steamy. Equatorial jungles, swamps, and marshland; forests and mountains towards the poles.
3. Notes: Heavy agricultural base. Recently defeated and occupied by forces from Cronus. Economy depended on robot labor. Cronus used the Nexus virus to break robot programming, crippling Atlasian economy.
4. Major cities: Terminus, Richardson , Manos.
5. Imports: Manufactured goods.
6. Exports: Food, textiles.
3. Ares :
1. Frontier World.
2. Dusty desert world.
3. Major city: Feng.
4. Imports: Manufactured goods, food, textiles.
5. Exports: Ore.
4. Damocles :
1. Frontier World.
2. Grassy plains, small seas.
3. Major cities: Le Fay.
4. Imports: Manufactured goods, food, textiles.
5. Exports: Ore.
5. Hephaestus :
1. Frontier World.
2. Hot, volcanic world. Heavy mining, gambling.
3. Major Cities: Crystal City
4. Imports: Manufactured goods, food, textiles.
5. Exports: Ore.
6. Gaea :
1. Frontier World.
2. Forested, cool, several mountain ranges, large ocean.
3. Major cities: Newport Cities , Fort George .

1. Tano :
1. Core World.
2. Marshy swampy world, little land, small mountains/hills.
3. Major cities: Redpole, Neo-Orlando, Faster.
2. Asase Yaa :
1. Frontier World.
2. Mountainous rocky world. No atmosphere. Mining and industrial center.
3. Major cities: Meteoropolis, Danson, style='font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Arial'>Pike size=2 face=Arial> City .
3. Anansi :
1. Developing Core World.
2. Temperate Earth-like world. Forests, Mountains, Deserts, Oceans. Major mining and shipping center.
3. Major cities: Francis, Deva, Blessing.

1. Odin :
1. Developing Core World.
2. Temperate Earth-like world, cold winters, mild summers. Major trading center.
3. Major Cities: Chi'Huan, Spencer, Lewis, Trois.
2. Ull :
1. Frontier World.
2. Dry desert world with tall mountains and acid seas.
3. Major Cities: Crater City .
3. Ran:
1. Core World.
2. Mostly aquatic world dotted with rocky mountainous islands. Cool climate.
3. Major cities: Pelagia, Neo-Caledonia.
4. Niflheim :
1. Frontier World.
2. Frigid world completely covered in glaciers, snow, ice, and mountains.
3. Major cities: Tropical Paradise (Tropara), Huang .

1. Kanya :
1. Frontier World.
2. Entirely flat. No oceans or mountains. Small lakes.
3. Major cities: Kanya City .
2. Kali :
1. Frontier World.
2. Flat desert world. Designated Indigenous Repopulation Zone. Legally off-limits to off-worlders.
3. Major cities: none.
3. Takshaka :
1. Frontier World.
2. Dry grasslands and desert, shallow ocean. Independent government, not a part of the Combine.
3. Major cities: Houghton, Alpha-Omega.

Titles of Nobility

During the days of the great Diaspora, many EU member states offered incentives for investment in colonial charters. One of the incentives was that of the aristocratic title of nobility. The title itself provided no real political power or geographic ownership. Instead, the title was simply a label given to those purchasing a certain percentage of the shares of a colonial charter.

Each colonial charter offers publicly traded shares. One purchases shares in a charter much like one purchases stock in a corporation. If the colony is successful, shareholders are paid dividends on their investment. Shareholders were also awarded certain political power over the planetary government of the colony, much like the relationship between the shareholders of a corporation and that corporation’s President and Board of Directors.

Many colonies awarded aristocratic titles to shareholders that owned certain percentages of shares in a colonial charter. These titles were hereditary insomuch as the child of a 'noble' typically inherited their parent’s shares, but one could just as easily earn the title by purchasing the shares from a shareholder. Over the centuries, as colonies matured into Core Worlds, providing the investors and their descendants with uncountable returns on their investments, colonial titles became very real symbols of power and influence. The descendants of the original investors generally become leaders of commerce, industry, or politics, their inherited title providing the prestige, funding, or political clout necessary for such endeavors.