After reading the Nontechical EV Bible (A good read, if you haven't seen it already) I was inspired to go and have a little look back at some of the smaller projects that I abandoned in light of a bigger picture. Now that the bigger picture has grown slightly smaller again for me, I thought I'd post this up for comment.
It's the story for a small scenario/TC, which orginally, believe it or not, grew out of an experiment with missionbits. It would have, in completion, no more than around seven or eight continous systems, with perhaps a few extra on the side. Tell me what you think, and maybe I might even think about doing it, if there's good response.
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In 2060, the colonisation of Mars finally becomes a reality with the establishment of a permanent base there. Fed by water from the surprisingly saturated regolith, the base grows, abeit slowly and clumsily.
Then, in the year 2070, a radical discovery was made that changed the entire nature of travel between the planets. A group of researchers discovered how to experimentally increase the likelihood of wormhole creation to a certain range to a near total probability, with the addition of a little impulse energy. Encouraged by anxious governments and greedy corporations around the world, they quickly developed a framework for a series of transfer stations which would cut the travel time between Earth and Mars from weeks and months to a matter of days.
Martian colonisation really boomed after the construction of the stations, with massive influxes of immigrants eager to escape the crowded and polluted environs of Earth. Within 5 years, Mars population trebled. However, the gigantic cost of building the transfer station nearly crippled the governments that built it, forcing them to raise taxes spectacularly. These taxes were raised especially on Mars, in inhabitants of which are seen as having got an easy escape. This increased resentment between the two planets, both sides angry and envious of the other.
This resentment came to boiling point in 2087, with the introduction of a new oxygen tax levelled specifically at Martians, to pay for pollution cleanups on Earth. The resistance movements that were once small and in the background exploded with ferocity onto the centre stage. In a horrible massacre, the entire administrative staff were butchered overnight in one fell swoop. To follow up, the rebels destroyed the transfer stations between the planets, to symbolically cut links.
Unfortunately, they were unaware of the terrible consequences of doing so. The already unstable energy balance between the stations was thrown wildly off-kilter, and the resulting backlash destroyed all the stations in the network. Both Mars and Earth had several transfer stations close in orbit around them, to facilitate transport. Their destruction rained debris down on both planets, causing massive destruction. On this day, civilisation as we know it was destroyed, and Earth and Mars were forced into isolation.
Fast forward four hundred years. Both planets crawl out of their enforced seclusion, both convinced that the destruction all those years ago was the fault of the other. Years of separation have turned idle speculation and gossip into folklore and myth, distorted outrageously. Children on both planets grow up learning that those on the other planet are despicable, sinister mutants, evil beyond all description. Tentatively, both sides rediscover and reuse the transfer station technology, slowly and cautiously. But both planets are reaching the end of their usefulness, their resources depleted and their ecosystems raped. Each side envisions the other world as an Eden, populated by unworthy savages, waiting to be taken.
Governments in this age are not the ones we know. Earth, in total, is ruled by a despotic monarchy, its militaristic tentacles spread all over the globe, Its decrepit leaders, born and bred in warfare and hatred, spoil for the chance of another conquest. Meanwhile, the masses endure a kind of techno-feudal slavery, toiling away in massive, dirty factories night and day.
Mars has become an ultra-communist state, ruled by a secretive and all-powerful committee. Efficiency is the watchword here, partly due to the unforgiving nature of the Martian environment. The people live in sprawling living complexes, sliding between assigned tasks so that noone can ever know anyone else too closely. Total, unswerving loyalty to the Party is called for, and everyone spies on everyone else for the chance of reward.
There are no good guys in this universe, only less bad ones. But which side is worse? Is there even a difference?
Tech Descriptions -
The Kingdom (Earth) - A gigantic techno-monarchy, ruled over by a vindictive and scheming old man, kept alive by machinery. Their focus in shipbuilding is on large, oversized ships with devastating broadsides. Their ships are inevitably slow, unwieldy but highly armed, technological nightmares. Their weapons are ridiculously inaccurate, due to nepotism and general corruption among the scientists, but just about make up for it in sheer weight.
The Collective (Mars) - A sprawling communist state, focused of maximum efficiency and minimum cost, due in part to the unforgiving nature of the Martian environment. Their ships are small, lightweight and generally fast. Their weapons are also much more accurate. However, due to resource insufficiencies, they fire slowly, and their ships are protected with at best minimal armour. Survival of the individual pilots is seen as a secondary requirement, if at all.
Both sides have rough parity of forces, based on the power and numbers of their ships.
You start as the young son of a nobleman from The Kingdom, a third in line and therefore ineligible for inheritance. So, instead, you have been parceled off to the Royal Kingdom Navy, to become a pilot. The transfer stations have finally met in the middle, and at their meeting, skirmishes are taking place, although none can say for sure who started it. Feeling is, however, against the Martian scum. You yourself are unsure, but who are you to argue? You know in your heart that the Martians are twisted creatures that deserve nothing less than total eradication. With this thought in mind you are posted to Eros Base, near Earth, no doubt the first of many assignments.
The outfit and ship arrangements are slightly different here. You're a member of the military now, and as such, they don't charge you for your ship equipment and such. That would just be ridiculous. Fuel costs do come out of your pay, however, but they should be quite adequately covered if you don't go off gallivanting. Chem-rocket restocking and reammunition are all free, but there is little or no selection of equipment. You are offered the chance to move up to command of bigger and better things as you progress. You might even be offered special modifications by technicians, but those would no doubt come out of your own pay.
So, what do you think? Is it good enough for translation into reality? Or is it dumb and simplistic, and should I just go home? 
Service With A Smile :),
Aegywn
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And the Lord said unto his children, "Look to your submachine guns and grenade launchers, for they are great damagers when fired on full-automatic"
-Before & After
