Background Bible

In the year 2480 the explored Galaxy consists of the Sol system and 16 Colonies.

Physics:
The Colonies have been reached by a phenomenon known as Transit Points. These can be used by a ship using a reactionless drive impinging on the location of the point. Thus they were not discovered until the drive had been put in use. This drive is believed to be a Federation secret.

Earth or Sol 3 has two Transit Points, one that opens to a system known as New Texas; the existence of a second is a Federated government State Secret and is hidden from anyone beyond the New Texas Transit.. New Texas had three known Transit Points, from these has developed a web of Transit Points that lead to 15 other systems being colonized. The last established Colony system New Carolina found a Transit Point (TP) which opened back to New Texas which could be detected only from the New Carolina side by normal means. The lead to a type of Transition Point called a “Closed Point” This information was withheld from the Federated Government by a group called the Colonial Organization.

The drive in use by the Federation Government (FG) has a max speed of .3C and further research has been outlawed.

All types of scientific research are controlled from Earth Many types are outlawed completely. Research on any ongoing axis must be approved either from Earth or by the Senior FG representative in the System

Although the FG will allow Colonies to build In-System reaction drive vessels (rockets, chem and nuclear) it is illegal for anyone other than the FG to build or possess a reactionless drive vessel.

There is no gravity control on any ship built without the reactionless drive. This limits non federation ships to what ever the crew can handle. Typically 3 G’s or less. (This alters greatly in and after Chapter 5)

The Federation does not spend much time visiting the 15 colonies but instead, stops at the transit point space stations and loads cargoes shipped by the planets inhabitants.

The Federation operates several hundred ships in this inter-system trade. The FG also controls most of the in-system trade. (Getting this level of dominance off the backs of the Colonies is a viable Economic excuse to start ship-building)

The Federation has a military force of several hundred to a thousand in each colonial system and maintains a bureaucratic establishment in proportion to the system population and amount of trade.

The Earth/Mars planetary population of is close to 25 billion. Populations of the colonies range from the 200 million on New Texas to the 60,000 on Rock. There is some exploration going on looking for new transit points and new planets.

Armament:
Possession of a weapon of any type by a civilian is illegal. The Armed Forces of the FG are armed with Energy based weapons which are designed to inflict pain as opposed any type of instant kill. Several of their beam weapons are indeed lethal but, they kill over a period of time. Anyone who refuses to hold the beam on long enough to kill is immediately punished and discharged. The Armed and Police Forces do not train Warriors, they train Sadist’s.

Ship board weapons include short range energy beams and longer range missiles with max accelerations of about 100 G’s. The instantaneous acceleration of ships with reaction drives would make them next to impossible to hit with any weapon but an energy beam at close range. Something that would hit them before they moved. So we need to come up with an answer to that problem if we are to have long range battles.

Government:
The FG is a tightly controlled hierarchy that resembles pre Magna Carta England with the Federated Council taking the place of King John. Based on a tightly controlled Council whose members were Elected by a very tightly controlled electorate. It ruled with ruthless control. The Colony Governments had only Advisory Positions and no actual votes.

The Colonies were Controlled Territories. Their very existence was to provide materials and goods for Earth. Democracy had died on Earth as the old US had crumpled at the end of the Long War. The only saving grace is that the scourge of Islam no longer exists as a military power, despite their takeover of Europe by demographic means. The Islamics had simply out-bred the French and Germans. The US had died to save the Human Race from their Military threat only to be undermined by Politics. The FG was the result, headed by the Family Redmond.

The new planetary government is located on Earth at the site cleared by the military when the pro-Islamic forces were evicted from old Detroit. The location on the river, across from what was once the independent country of Canada is spectacular and a garden spot. It was leveled and rebuilt with none of the 21st century population remaining. New York, San Fransisco, and what was once Washington DC. are slagged over parking lots.

Much of the political background takes place and is forced by a global Ice Age that became undeniable (by most) in 2023. A ring of mirrors called the ‘Halo’ were placed over a period of 45 years in order to get more solar heat on the planet.

This technology was used to Terraform Mars.

Thus at the start of our little excursion several starting points exist.

Most of the Colonies are fed up with Earth but, the Majority have no way to affect any change!

The Islamic Nations have plans to restore the Caliphate and have massive underground installations aimed at that, their Target date is 2530!

The Federated government is totally corrupt!

There exist on New Texas the Manpower, Technology, Money, Brains and Skills to effect a change in the Status Quo.

The point of the Novel is “How Do We Effect That Change?”

This is an encyclopedia resource to fill in some of the details of the Never So Few Universe.