Welcome to the near future sci-fi setting of Red Horizon, one of the longest percolating ideas I have had for a setting. Technically it is for GURPS, but any fairly generic system could probably be used for Red Horizon. The year is 2237 and humanity has expanded across the solar system, driven by a heady mix of nationalism, corporate greed and overpopulation. Crime is rampant as the politicians and executives care little for the plight of the masses and one of the few paths to true wealth for many is espionage, both political and corporate.
Starships can easily travel through the solar system, taking an average of a week to go between earth and Mars. But beyond some potential theoretical designs, leaving the solar system even on a generational ship does not seem likely in the near future. While only a small percentage of overall spacecraft, warships are maintained by around a score of different powers, though only half a dozen maintain more than a single capital ship. In all fleets the vast majority of ships are police and patrol craft, followed by independent cruisers.
Humans are largely concentrated on Earth, Mars and their moons, but there is at least some human presence on every planet of the inner solar system and most of the large asteroids in the belt. There are few independent entities other than on Earth, Mars and Luna. To date no alien life has been detected.
Earth is still controlled by various nations, though only a half dozen power blocks are remotely relevant to solar politics. The most powerful are the Pan-Asian Block, the North Atlantic League and the European Conglomerate, while the South American Confederation, Indian and Russian Federations remain relevant. Unemployment, debt and despair are rife in the failed states that exist as buffers between the major powers. Every major power on earth has allies and enemies among the solar system, creating multiple parallel economic blocks that largely don’t officially interact.
Mars is run by a series of Corpornations, companies that owe no loyalty to any earth nation and are powerful enough to not be accountable to earth laws or attempts at control. Forced decades ago to allow some kind of restrictions and regulation, the Corpornations agreed to the corporate compact in order to be allowed to do business on earth or with earth controlled colonies. The vast majority of assets on Mars are contained within a series of domed cities, some buried outposts. Work is being done to terraform the planet, but it is currently estimated to be completed at some point between 2450 and 2500, well past the lifespan of even the richest bio-tech executives. While the corpornations don’t release census data to outsiders, it is generally estimated that the population of Mars is somewhere in the vicinity of a billion humans.
Luna, or the moon, has long been dominated by Luna-Corp, one of the first effectively independent corporations. The gateway to the solar system, Luna-Corp became fabulously wealthy off enabling humanity’s expansion. Even establishing its own colonies in the asteroid belt and on the moons of Jupiter. But Luna-Corp does not have sole control of Luna, as several other corpornations maintain outposts there and every significant earth power has at least one lunar colony. Luna is among the most heavily militarized parts of the solar system, and when the corporate compact finally breaks, the first shots of the ensuing war will likely be here. Luna is estimated to have a population of approximately 250 million.
The asteroid belt holds many operations, from official mines and the tunnel- cities of Ceres to independent micro-colonies and pirate strongholds. Wealth is funnelled out of the belt to Earth, Luna and Mars, guarded by numerous escort, patrol and police ships. Every naval power in the system even sends cruiser patrols through the region. But there are never enough, and there are too many places to hide. Many of the pirates should actually be described more as privateers, as many have sponsorship from one of the solar powers, preying only on rival’s assets. Nests of pirates are frequently hunted down, and made examples of, even the most lenient authority simply using relatively painless execution methods.
The outer solar system is very sparsely populated, with little more than tiny colonies, military outposts and research stations for the most secret of projects. Warships are surprisingly common, as navies keep squadrons far from the populated inner solar system to avoid losing their entire navy in a surprise attack.
Psionics first started appearing around 100 years ago, with telepathy and telekinesis the two most common abilities. Governments immediately began attempts to regulate psionic abilities, while most mega-corps denied their existence while conducting extensive research including genetics. Of course psionic individuals and their allies demanded fair treatment and rights for those they called “Scions of Humanity” but in the face of increasing opposition and suppression the more radical elements founded the Scionic Rights Alliance, which is considered a terrorist organisation by the majority of the solar system. Despite significant security actions to eliminate the SRA, they are growing like a weed, spreading across all national and corporate holdings. Their most recent and brazen act was a significant attack on the capital of Luna-Corp.
Technology has advanced significantly, exo-suits are in common use within the military and many deep space projects. Railguns are now the primary weapons of anything larger than an exo-suit and certain railguns can be mounted on exo-suits or used as heavy crew operated weapons. Some designs for laser weapons are in the prototype stage. Designs also exist for weapons that fire electrically charged rounds to immobilize the target. Nanite technology exists but is not widely used. Cybernetics are rather common and can be used to create weapons in some cases. Individuals have been known to use cybernetics to use electrical energy from the human body as lightning from their cybernetics. Medicine has progressed to the point where most people live for around 95-105 years.
Hopefully you found this setting interesting, do you want more detail about it? If so, what areas specifically?
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