Ephraim Ben Raphael
Banned
So for a long time I've been working on a "map" of the Solar System from my Waters of Babylon NaNoWriMo project for 2012. It's a universe where a very large asteroid was spotted heading towards the Earth in the early 21st century, and numerous efforts were launched to establish off-world colonies to preserve, alternatively; the species, the nation, the faith, the movement, etc. I made none of the flags myself, credit for those goes to @Marc Pasquin, @Shaucker, @Highlander, and others.
Here's some history;
First Expansion 307- 199 B.I (2016- 2124 C.E): When everyone still believed that had all the time in the world to get off it, the first serious forays into space were undertaken many of them as multinational or international projects. Once the engineering kinks were worked out this was when the most expensive colonies (that took the longest to build) were constructed co-operatively, pseudo-O'Neil cylinders that could provide Earth Normal Gravity and possessed systems capable of easily feeding and supporting all their inhabitants. This was also when the first settlements were built on the moon and when Mars was colonized, as well as when the Deep Sea habitats were constructed. The UN sent off an international generation-ship with five thousand colonists and crew and a sperm bank to leave the system and ensure that humanity survived no matter what.
Second Expansion 199- 88 B.I (2124- 2235 C.E): People began to realize that they were running out of time and that it wouldn't be possible to get everyone off the Earth, co-operation became a lot more limited and most attempts to evacuate were either private or national. This was when mass colonization of the moon began by people who couldn't afford to get more salubrious quarters on a rotating space station, generally supported by people in the space stations who realized that they'd need mines and factories to maintain their space stations. Most of the governments of the Earth evacuated to space, China launched its Long March project. By this point space travel was cheap enough that private corporations were able to mass-produce large numbers of cheap space habitats which they sold to poorer governments and private, foundation-type organizations. These were small, cold, leaky, without any sort of gravity and possessing inefficient recycling systems. Most set up shop in Earth Orbit or in the area of space that would eventually become the Inner Settlement, but a number of them used solar sails or limited-use chemical rockets to head for unclaimed terrestrial bodies further out- along with Mars they became the Outer Settlement. The Martian colonies themselves were generally ignored by Earth governments that were pre-occupied with evacuating as many people as possible to the Moon and near-Earth space.
Third Expansion 88- 0 B.I (2235- 2328 C.E): Chaos on Earth as everyone who could leave did leave. The evacuated governments generally lost control of their territories on Earth, the only stable terrestrial states during this time were theocracies that had convinced their citizens that either they'd survive the asteroid or that divine aid was coming any day now. Unstable warlord states fought over the means to construct ships capable of reaching orbit and tens of millions of attempts at escape were launched during this time. 90% of those attempts didn't even reach orbit, and those that did were generally nothing more than airtight metal cans packed with refugees and lacking any provisions for long term survival. Some died, others found refuge as unpaid laborers on the moon, and still others survived by attacking small Second Expansion habitats crowded together in Earth Orbit.
The Long War;
The dates of the beginning and end of the Long War are a matter for considerable debate amongst historians, some put its start as far back as the conflicts of the Third Expansion in the year 88 Before Impact, and others argue that the internecine conflicts of the Purlieu are a continuation of the war and so the Long War has in fact never truly ended. A more conventional approach however, places the conflict from the years 0 to 70 Post Impact, acknowledging that the war’s origins can be traced back to well before the conflict proper, and that conflicts whose birth can be attributed to the Long War continue on throughout the Solar System today.
The causes of the Long War are directly attributable to the actions of the old Earth governments during the Second Expansion, particularly their approach to survival. It was quite clear at the time that it would be impossible to evacuate everyone in the face of the coming Impact, but the ruling powers were nonetheless committed to ensuring that they and their families at least should be safe from the cataclysm. The political and commercial upper classes packed themselves into space habitats and the Lunar colonies, frequently resulting in populations much higher than the habitats were designed to handle. On top of this the quality of stations produced during the Second Expansion took a considerable dive from the first as evacuees looked to escape the Earth first and survive in space second. Consequently once the rise of the planet-wide anarchy that characterized the Third Expansion cut off regular re-supply from Earth, humanity in what would become the Inner Settlement was forced to dig deeply into its stockpile of emergency food, water, oxygen, and spare parts to support its population. These circumstances were worsened by the emergence of poorly supplied but heavily armed Third Expansion refugee ships who took to attacking habitats in Low Earth Orbit for food and oxygen.
By the time the Impact finally occurred the situation was growing desperate. There simply did not exist the capacity to feed the many people in the Inner Settlement, or a system for dispersing parts and oxygen produced on the Moon. Given a choice between dying because their cut-rate air filtration system was failing or forcibly taking the necessary parts from another station and leaving that station’s population to die, it isn’t hard to understand why so many acted the way they did. The tremendous psychological effect of the Impact also cannot be understated. Ten billion human beings, 99.99% of the human race, were wiped out in an instant and the planet that had been our home for four million years had been rendered virtually uninhabitable. Individual stations realized just how little they had to gain from continued loyalty to governments unable to effectively project power in the new equilibrium and the political structures of Old Earth- preserved past the atmosphere during the Second and Third Expansions- crumbled.
Twenty-five years after the Impact the human population of the Solar System had fallen by half, as many from the failure of critical systems and essential supplies as by violence. For details of the campaigns of the Long War one should consult other sources, but it suffices to say that the emergency conditions had an extensive and continuous impact on human history. In the face of starvation cannibalism was widespread and the lack of resources prompted the most grisly custom of the war- the use of body parts as emergency construction material, bones, hair, teeth, skin, intestine, and more. By midway into the war the famous “Code of Conduct” began to evolve, the understanding that among other things one did not threaten to destroy a habitat that could not be seized by force of arms and one did not threaten to destroy one’s own habitat if it became clear it could not be held. On top of this although the common run of a station’s inhabitants were fair game as slaves or simply victims, the station leadership and their immediate family was to be spared- a sort of reward for their refraining from suicidally sacrificing their abode out of spite. Factions who failed to comply with these unofficial rules were considered fair game and tended not to last long.
Democracy, such as had survived the expansions, died in the violence of the Long War as republican governments quite reasonably proclaimed martial law which they would never relinquish. It is far too easy for a handful of individuals to control the vital systems of space habitats, crushing dissent and monopolizing the flow and access of information, making dictatorships almost impossible to overthrow save from within the leadership itself. By the time the war was over there was no one left alive who remembered popular rule and the aristocratic families- the de facto nobility of the Inner Settlement- had become so entrenched that it was impossible to remove them. The political landscape of the region today, the dominant aristocracy and the extensive balkanization, are a direct result of the Long War.
The fighting ended ultimately because the desperation did. Those in danger of dying due to food and parts shortages either died or found sources of both, the fight ceased to be one of survival and became one of conquest out of greed, lust for power, or the knowledge that if one failed to go on the offensive to try to improve one's tactical position then one ran the risk of being devoured by more proactive competitors. Extensive alliances formed, increasing dialogue and making the war less of a free-for-all. By the sixth decade P.I. the Lunar states- most notably the People’s Republic of Luna- who had managed to maintain their size and integrity much better than purely space-based polities, began to regain a presence in space, frightening the alliance blocks who feared PRL dominance. The Lunar states themselves were exhausted by more than half a century of tunnel warfare and not eager to fight a protracted battle for few real resources. Thus in the year 70 P.I. the majority of the Inner Settlement came together on the Colony One station to form the New United Nations. Although sporadic warfare did continue after that, particularly in the Purlieu where it never entirely ended, it was of a different nature than that of the Long War proper and on a much smaller scale.
The political balance of the Inner Settlement, that is to say the competing influences of the primarily Lunar factions versus the primarily space-borne factions, continued until the Union War a century later and the subsequent Consolidation.
Here's some history;
First Expansion 307- 199 B.I (2016- 2124 C.E): When everyone still believed that had all the time in the world to get off it, the first serious forays into space were undertaken many of them as multinational or international projects. Once the engineering kinks were worked out this was when the most expensive colonies (that took the longest to build) were constructed co-operatively, pseudo-O'Neil cylinders that could provide Earth Normal Gravity and possessed systems capable of easily feeding and supporting all their inhabitants. This was also when the first settlements were built on the moon and when Mars was colonized, as well as when the Deep Sea habitats were constructed. The UN sent off an international generation-ship with five thousand colonists and crew and a sperm bank to leave the system and ensure that humanity survived no matter what.
Second Expansion 199- 88 B.I (2124- 2235 C.E): People began to realize that they were running out of time and that it wouldn't be possible to get everyone off the Earth, co-operation became a lot more limited and most attempts to evacuate were either private or national. This was when mass colonization of the moon began by people who couldn't afford to get more salubrious quarters on a rotating space station, generally supported by people in the space stations who realized that they'd need mines and factories to maintain their space stations. Most of the governments of the Earth evacuated to space, China launched its Long March project. By this point space travel was cheap enough that private corporations were able to mass-produce large numbers of cheap space habitats which they sold to poorer governments and private, foundation-type organizations. These were small, cold, leaky, without any sort of gravity and possessing inefficient recycling systems. Most set up shop in Earth Orbit or in the area of space that would eventually become the Inner Settlement, but a number of them used solar sails or limited-use chemical rockets to head for unclaimed terrestrial bodies further out- along with Mars they became the Outer Settlement. The Martian colonies themselves were generally ignored by Earth governments that were pre-occupied with evacuating as many people as possible to the Moon and near-Earth space.
Third Expansion 88- 0 B.I (2235- 2328 C.E): Chaos on Earth as everyone who could leave did leave. The evacuated governments generally lost control of their territories on Earth, the only stable terrestrial states during this time were theocracies that had convinced their citizens that either they'd survive the asteroid or that divine aid was coming any day now. Unstable warlord states fought over the means to construct ships capable of reaching orbit and tens of millions of attempts at escape were launched during this time. 90% of those attempts didn't even reach orbit, and those that did were generally nothing more than airtight metal cans packed with refugees and lacking any provisions for long term survival. Some died, others found refuge as unpaid laborers on the moon, and still others survived by attacking small Second Expansion habitats crowded together in Earth Orbit.
The Long War;
The dates of the beginning and end of the Long War are a matter for considerable debate amongst historians, some put its start as far back as the conflicts of the Third Expansion in the year 88 Before Impact, and others argue that the internecine conflicts of the Purlieu are a continuation of the war and so the Long War has in fact never truly ended. A more conventional approach however, places the conflict from the years 0 to 70 Post Impact, acknowledging that the war’s origins can be traced back to well before the conflict proper, and that conflicts whose birth can be attributed to the Long War continue on throughout the Solar System today.
The causes of the Long War are directly attributable to the actions of the old Earth governments during the Second Expansion, particularly their approach to survival. It was quite clear at the time that it would be impossible to evacuate everyone in the face of the coming Impact, but the ruling powers were nonetheless committed to ensuring that they and their families at least should be safe from the cataclysm. The political and commercial upper classes packed themselves into space habitats and the Lunar colonies, frequently resulting in populations much higher than the habitats were designed to handle. On top of this the quality of stations produced during the Second Expansion took a considerable dive from the first as evacuees looked to escape the Earth first and survive in space second. Consequently once the rise of the planet-wide anarchy that characterized the Third Expansion cut off regular re-supply from Earth, humanity in what would become the Inner Settlement was forced to dig deeply into its stockpile of emergency food, water, oxygen, and spare parts to support its population. These circumstances were worsened by the emergence of poorly supplied but heavily armed Third Expansion refugee ships who took to attacking habitats in Low Earth Orbit for food and oxygen.
By the time the Impact finally occurred the situation was growing desperate. There simply did not exist the capacity to feed the many people in the Inner Settlement, or a system for dispersing parts and oxygen produced on the Moon. Given a choice between dying because their cut-rate air filtration system was failing or forcibly taking the necessary parts from another station and leaving that station’s population to die, it isn’t hard to understand why so many acted the way they did. The tremendous psychological effect of the Impact also cannot be understated. Ten billion human beings, 99.99% of the human race, were wiped out in an instant and the planet that had been our home for four million years had been rendered virtually uninhabitable. Individual stations realized just how little they had to gain from continued loyalty to governments unable to effectively project power in the new equilibrium and the political structures of Old Earth- preserved past the atmosphere during the Second and Third Expansions- crumbled.
Twenty-five years after the Impact the human population of the Solar System had fallen by half, as many from the failure of critical systems and essential supplies as by violence. For details of the campaigns of the Long War one should consult other sources, but it suffices to say that the emergency conditions had an extensive and continuous impact on human history. In the face of starvation cannibalism was widespread and the lack of resources prompted the most grisly custom of the war- the use of body parts as emergency construction material, bones, hair, teeth, skin, intestine, and more. By midway into the war the famous “Code of Conduct” began to evolve, the understanding that among other things one did not threaten to destroy a habitat that could not be seized by force of arms and one did not threaten to destroy one’s own habitat if it became clear it could not be held. On top of this although the common run of a station’s inhabitants were fair game as slaves or simply victims, the station leadership and their immediate family was to be spared- a sort of reward for their refraining from suicidally sacrificing their abode out of spite. Factions who failed to comply with these unofficial rules were considered fair game and tended not to last long.
Democracy, such as had survived the expansions, died in the violence of the Long War as republican governments quite reasonably proclaimed martial law which they would never relinquish. It is far too easy for a handful of individuals to control the vital systems of space habitats, crushing dissent and monopolizing the flow and access of information, making dictatorships almost impossible to overthrow save from within the leadership itself. By the time the war was over there was no one left alive who remembered popular rule and the aristocratic families- the de facto nobility of the Inner Settlement- had become so entrenched that it was impossible to remove them. The political landscape of the region today, the dominant aristocracy and the extensive balkanization, are a direct result of the Long War.
The fighting ended ultimately because the desperation did. Those in danger of dying due to food and parts shortages either died or found sources of both, the fight ceased to be one of survival and became one of conquest out of greed, lust for power, or the knowledge that if one failed to go on the offensive to try to improve one's tactical position then one ran the risk of being devoured by more proactive competitors. Extensive alliances formed, increasing dialogue and making the war less of a free-for-all. By the sixth decade P.I. the Lunar states- most notably the People’s Republic of Luna- who had managed to maintain their size and integrity much better than purely space-based polities, began to regain a presence in space, frightening the alliance blocks who feared PRL dominance. The Lunar states themselves were exhausted by more than half a century of tunnel warfare and not eager to fight a protracted battle for few real resources. Thus in the year 70 P.I. the majority of the Inner Settlement came together on the Colony One station to form the New United Nations. Although sporadic warfare did continue after that, particularly in the Purlieu where it never entirely ended, it was of a different nature than that of the Long War proper and on a much smaller scale.
The political balance of the Inner Settlement, that is to say the competing influences of the primarily Lunar factions versus the primarily space-borne factions, continued until the Union War a century later and the subsequent Consolidation.
