Backstory

Formerly the play-by-post forum for my TSGS Space Force game, now the private forum for development of the new Space Force Science Fiction RPG game. I've retained the entirety of the original game threads here, to be mined for possible content. See the introductory post for more information.
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Solomoriah
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Backstory

Post by Solomoriah »

World War II was nearing its end when the signals were first detected... the Germans had already surrendered, and the US was building the bombs that would herald the end of the war in the Pacific. At first it was believed the radio signals were terrestrial in nature, but soon scientists confirmed that the signals were coming from Mars.

The space race was on! The United States and the Soviet Union both started space programs right away, but the US had the advantage of technical expertise with atomic power. Oppenheimer worked side-by-side with Von Braun, and soon unmanned atomic rockets launched from the US were in orbit around the Earth and her Moon.

Automatic systems were years away yet, so the decision was made that the first mission to Mars would be manned. A massive ship called the USS America was launched with a crew of twenty-two, it's powerful nuclear ramjets driving it down the runway; once in the upper atmosphere, the ship switched to a nuclear thermal drive system. In later years the nuclear ramjet was outlawed, the radiation release too harmful, but at the time it was the only technology the Americans had that could get the heavy craft into space.
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Re: Retro Sci-Fi Game

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What the crew of the USS America found on Mars was scattered, eroded evidence of an advanced civilization gone for at least a million years. Without the radio signals to follow, they might never have found the underground bunker system which they codenamed "Vulcan's Forge."

Within the Forge the explorers found living quarters, workshops, and a hangar containing a few single seat conical spacecraft. The facility showed evidence that the unknown, apparently humanoid inhabitants had left in an orderly fashion, abandoning unneeded and nonfunctional items as they did. The items left behind were mysterious in the extreme, but with the Soviet mission believed to be just a few months behind them, the American explorers worked feverishly to understand what they had found.

A junior member of the science team discovered a classroom with a version of the Periodic Table of the Elements on the wall. Though it differed in some details from the familiar version understood by Earthly science, it served as a Rosetta stone, permitting the scientists to decode the alien system of numbers and some of their writing.

Amazingly, considering the extreme age of the machines, one of the spacecraft was still marginally operational. It was from that ship, and several other non-working models found in the hangar, that the Americans discovered the secret of the plasma drive (a superior, less harmful reaction drive system). Other technologies were acquired in time; some of the ancient devices could be reproduced, but not understood, the most important being the graviton accelerator which permitted interstellar travel.

The graviton accelerator system made it possible to create temporarily-stable wormholes; a spaceship would create such a wormhole in front of it, then slip inside and exit (after a journey through a starless space within the wormhole) many light years away.

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Re: Retro Sci-Fi Game

Post by Solomoriah »

By the time the Soviet Union had a significant presence on Mars, the United States had begun to build the first wave of interstellar scoutships, the Scorpius class.
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Backstory

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It was one such ship, the USS Icarus, which first encountered an alien spacecraft while exploring an unnamed G0V star in the constellation of Orion. The alien ship attacked immediately; the crew of the damaged, unarmed Icarus managed to arm a Bluebird probe rocket, with which they attacked the alien ship, inflicting minor damage. The aliens fled by wormhole in the direction of the constellation of Taurus, prompting Earthly authorities to call them "Taurans."

As soon as its wormhole drive could be made operational again, the Icarus returned to Earth. President Kennedy presented photographs of the alien craft along with mission details and crew testimony to the United Nations in late November 1963, which led eventually to the UN's transformation into the Solar Alliance.
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Re: Retro Sci-Fi Game

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The year is 1969, and you are the crew of a Nova-class scoutship, patrolling space to protect the people of Earth. Many questions are unanswered... where did the Tauran spacecraft originate? Are there more of them? Do they, in fact, threaten the Earth?

At present, the only extraplanetary colonies held by Earth are on Mars and in orbit around Earth and Earth's moon. While your missions are officially peaceful, many on Earth believe a war against alien forces is inevitable. Thus, your ship is equipped with tactical nuclear missiles, while you yourselves have Vulcan blasters, energy guns based on designs found on Mars.
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Re: Backstory

Post by Solomoriah »

Space Force Ranks

The Solar Alliance Space Force, though officially multinational, was formed by a collaboration of the US Army Air Corps and the US Navy. One result of this combination is the unusual rank system used within the Space Force: Officers have Navy-style ranks, while enlisted personnel have Army-style ranks.

Enlisted ranks are as follows, from least to greatest:

Private (Pvt)
Private First Class (PFC) Addressed as Private
Corporal (Cpl)
Sergeant (Sgt)
Staff Sergeant (SSgt) Addressed as Sergeant
Master Sergeant (MSgt)

Officer ranks are as follows, from least to greatest:

Ensign (Ens)
Lieutenant (junior grade) (LtJG) Addressed as Lieutenant
Lieutenant (Lt)
Lieutenant Commander (LtCmdr) Addressed as Commander
Commander (Cmdr)
Captain (Capt)
Rear Admiral (RAdm) Addressed as Admiral
Vice Admiral (VAdm) Addressed as Admiral
Admiral (Adm)
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Re: Backstory

Post by Solomoriah »

This post will be updated as I detail more of these ships.

Scorpius-Class Ships

SAS Scorpius (SR 191) Lost on a mission in 1961
SAS Icarus (SR 192) Retired after Tauran incident in 1963; refitted and re-entered service in 1966
SAS Hercules (SR 193)
SAS Skylark (SR 194) Lost on a mission in 1967
SAS Endeavor (SR 195)
SAS Dauntless (SR 196)

Nova-Class Ships

SAS Nova (N/A) Prototype, flew one mission to Alpha Centauri before being dismantled for examination, not listed in the Standard Registry but sometimes referred to as SR 1400 in early documents
SAS Blackbird (SR 1401)
SAS Phoenix (SR 1402)
SAS Challenger (SR 1403)
SAS Vanator (SR 1404)
SAS Trinidad (SR 1405)
SAS Nautilus (SR 1406)
SAS Argo (SR 1407)
SAS Eagle (SR 1408)
SAS Pegasus (SR 1409)
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