Okinaka: Planetary Wilderness

By Andrew Singleton

William Michael James

Legal

Okinaka Planetary wilderness distributed under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribute, Non-Commercial license.

Democratic Confederation of Okinaka

It is 2249, over a century since almost a century the original colonists left the Terran system's Sphere of Influence; life has both changed and yet stayed the same for those that have decided to make a fresh start. With time new things are learned, old things forgotten, and in the end humanity continues as a whole much as it always does, one step at a time.

Brief History

Okinaka was discovered April 3rd 2134, and was only noteworthy at the time for the fact it was only one of three planets found that were close to earth's size, mass, and was inside of it's star's projected habitability zone. Further observations and study by the AI Ceres as well as others in the astronomical community would were halted due to the outbreak of war. Initial development of interstellar drives cited Okinaka then labeled as PH051.

It would take the end of the war as well as finding a way around the universally lethal effects of FTL travel to the human mind before plans for a sizable colony could see the light of day. Originally these plans called for essentially sending whole colonies of people, Synths, and animals to Okinaka in stages. The first stage went as planned with the conversion of Gerard K. O'Neil Station in Mars orbit to the colony ship Pandora paving the way for the mass exodus. Stages two and three involved the construction of smaller colony ships using material from the Asteroid belt as well as Trojan asteroids to shuttle the main wave of colonists. Stage four

Currently stage one is in progress and the United Terran Federation has allowed continued Confederate activities within the Terran system as part of the agreed upon plan outlined in over simplistic terms in the above paragraph. This isn't without tensions between both groups, as Terran observers are constantly monitoring for signs of 'hidden weapons emplacements', just as Confederacy engineers are constantly going back over completed sections searching for signs of sabotage. Stage Two is slated to begin within the next twenty years and, even with that much time before the next wave of colony ships, the reserved lists have reached well over two hundred pages, assuming you wanted a hardcopy of the whole thing to print out.

Daily Life

Your average Confederacy citizen, by this point, no longer considers himself or herself anything but Okinakan, as enough time has passed for the original generation of Colonists to have grown gray, produced children, who've in turned produced children of their own. With a 'fresh' planet to start with, Okinakans have spread out from the initial three settlements to communities of all sizes, demographic groups, and primary industry. As such it's hard to pin down just what your 'average' Okinakan is like without excluding too many other possibilities.

Having said that, its best for players to remember that people of all jobs and backgrounds are needed for a realistic economy to function. Look around you for inspiration. It may be two hundred years in the future but in addition to those jobs that get all the good press are those that nobody wants to do, or even speak of yet are still vital to maintain a standard of living for the community as a whole. If Players need help thinking of jobs their character could do, or Narrators need an excuse for background NPCs cast about for what's new and interesting in technology, or in other futuristic settings.

On average, though, Okinakans live fairly well off lives. On average they eat freshly grown food, as opposed to your average Terran having to make do with processed enriched and flavored soy based foods. For the most part families earn enough for a decent, if not luxurious, home with perhaps one or two Small drones to continuously dust/sweep or to act as watchdogs. For those that don't wish to live within the system and prefer to act without a legitimate identity (either due to a need for adventure, anonymity to conduct business, or lack of options) life can get not so comfortable in a hurry as everything requires your PIC (Personal Identification Chip, a microchip that's roughly the size of a grain of rice imbedded in one of the body's large muscles and can be read by scanners up to a yard away) these days for 'legitimate' business. With that said there are, as always, those that wish to live 'off the grid', or those that were forced into the situation for a variety of reasons, and even they have options. After all Okinaka is still relatively wild and a person can make their living in any number of ways that don't require much in way of interacting with modern conveniences. Its hard living, but doable.

Popular Music and Performing Arts

Music tends to move in cycles, thus while its hard to actually gauge future tendencies one can infer a few things. One, there will be some kind of acoustic music, their equivalent to country music. Chant set to a musical tempo detailing the troubles of life would likely be present, modern examples being rap, aboriginal music, or even select pieces of heavy metal. Classical music, be it from Asia or Europe, will most certainly have a foothold of some sort. Oh and if one wishes they could always have techno/trance music as a main staple, after all it is a futuristic setting so it wouldn't be entirely out of place.

Even in the future stage performance still has a steady following. For a modern cue on justifying live plays in an age of Virtual Environments and the like look to history. Radio, Television, and the Internet were all supposed to eclipse, then crush prior forms of media but never quite did as the predictions or hype suggested. Live storytelling has simply existed for far too long in the human mind to be allowed to die, so it will have traveled with mankind as it settles the stars.

Sports

Competition has been a part of human nature since prehistory, so it should come as no surprise that when Mankind finally left the solar system he took his love of sport along for the ride. Typically these sports would be fairly recognizable. Baseball, though the rules have changed somewhat due to cybertek and psychic proliferation, soccer, and other 'ball' sports are fairly commonplace, though on Okinaka are played at an inter-district and inter-city level rather than the larger scales seen on earth.

Racing, be it on foot, animal, or machine, retains its popularity. This may be due to the straightforward rules, or possibly due to the hypothetical accessibility of the sport. Regardless of the reason, racing is, without question, one of the most popular, and consequentially, highest earning types of sport. Typically tracks for foot races are housed inside of public parks, or inside other facilities (exercise centers, venues for other sports, ect). Tracks for vehicular racing are, for safety and noise reasons, kept at a minimum of a half mile from heavily populated centers, which also has the side benefit of having plenty of space for parking, side venues outside of the actual motorway, and other activities so that customers don't feel that their day has been wasted if they didn't enjoy the race itself.

Lastly there's Urban Warzone. This game can be best summed up as a combination of war game, capture the flag, and (hopefully) non-lethal hand-to-hand fighting. A typical match consists of two teams of eight wearing their choice of armor and weaponry (in the case of projectile weapons they are often modified to reduce lethality). Both teams are set in a prepared arena, typically one square mile, though arenas have been known to be as small as five hundred yards for amateur matches, to as large as ten square miles for the annual 'best of the best' match where the six topmost ranking teams are set against each other in a winner-take-all environment. Matches are divided into two periods with one team designated to defend, and the other team designated to attack. If the attacking team captures and successfully returns the defending team's flag then that earns them one point and roles reverse as the situation warrants till the end of the period.

Synths

Historically the Confederacy has taken a somewhat antagonistic view towards Synths. This isn't because they view Synths as being less deserving of basic rights, or that they're lesser beings due to being constructed rather than born. Instead it's the simple matter that without strictly enforced labor laws it's a disturbingly common habit for employers to use the threat of replacing non-compliant human workers with Synths, or at the very least 'dumb' AI. With the transition from colony to independent settlement the attitudes have changed somewhat to accommodate the need for more labor, as well as pro Synth Rights groups that have managed to successfully get the Senate to pass 'Fair Treatment' laws which, among other things, guarantee basic civil liberties most humans take for granted (the right to Vote, Fair Trial, the right to conduct business, ect). On the flip side of this equation Synths are dealt with in a more reactionary manner than when dealing with human, or even psychic, criminals; perhaps owing either to fears that anything less than extreme measures would prove ineffective, or more likely due to lingering resentment at needing to use labor that, at least when one discounts the time spent in stasis, sparked a major war within the lifetimes of the original colonists.

Judicial System

Law changes over time to reflect the values, ethics, and attitudes of the society that enforces it. Within Okinaka laws are fairly straightforward in most cases and to the point, don't steal/murder/destroy property/ect or else you will be punished. To add to the classical laws, as well as the labor laws first introduced in the twentieth century are laws pertaining to electronic transactions, file sharing, protecting a company's rights to its intellectual property, and a person's identity.

Punishments typically involve returning stolen property in the case of theft, a public confession of wrongdoing and apology to accompany fines or community service for non-violent crimes. It should be noted in most instances of non-violent crime prison time is typically optional for the first offense, so long as the guilty party carries out sentencing and checks in with their assigned officer. On the second offense, or in cases where it is felt that the convicted party cannot be left unattended there is generally a mandatory prison sentence, usually solely for the purposes of making sure the parties in question serve the main portion of their sentencing, rather than being punishment in of itself.

Rehabilitation is generally enforced for those who's crimes are drug related, as studies have shown that prisons for such individuals rarely work, and in fact can often hook new people on those same drugs that land people in jail in the first place. This is partly due to a changing attitude in how to handle criminal behavior, but it is mostly due to a practical need to put able bodied people to work instead of letting them sit while being guarded by even more able bodied persons. There's simply too much to do with building and maintaining the fledgling nation for people to sit ten or twenty years, or even longer at a stretch if it can be helped.

Some cases, however, can't be treated regardless on how hard you try. With normal humans this is as straightforward as segregation away from the larger public, only to be allowed out under close supervision and then only to work (typically menial or hard labor depending on which the psych evaluations feel would be more of a benefit). For Psychics and Adepts things become somewhat thorny as they require regular injections to inhibit their psychic powers.

It should be noted that there has been research into psychic rehabilitation programs that involve altering a subject's mind. However in too many instances there were either signs that the new memories were being rejected, the new personality didn't fully take hold, or for reasons as yet unknown the person being treated continued on with other crimes in addition to negative public reaction to the concept. This doesn't mean that research, sanctioned or otherwise, has halted, just that those doing the research are taking measures to stay out of the public eye.

Terran Federation

After the end of the enforced blackout shortly after colonization started was a time when reconciliation between Federation and Confederacy governments was possible, and for a time had happened. Currently however, while there is a two-way dialog between governments tensions have been mounting as a result of recent Terran colonization projects.

To call each side hostile to the other, however, would be a bit of a stretch. Consider it more a case of wary alertness in much the same way the Cold War era Superpowers were wary of each other.

Okinaka at a glance

Reference Photo: http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y216/wdojinn/planetfall/okinaka-placenames.png

Planetary Statistics

Hours per day: 28 hours with one hour being sixty minutes in length

Days per year: 668.6 split between six 669-day years and four 668-day years to each decade.

Months Per Year: 24 with each day 28 hours long arranged according to the Darian calendar due to the similar length in year, which is roughly two Terran Standard Years.

Continents: 2 Rodinia, Lunomikra

Oceans: 1 Panthalassa

Moons: 1 Onisaka

Surface Temperature

Min: -135\B0 Fahrenheit

Mean: 50\B0 Fahrenheit

Max: 120\B0 Fahrenheit

Onisaka

Roughly the size of Mars, and sits 3.51x the distance from Okinaka as Luna does from the earth. Given the fact it's too large to have formed from an impact, the current theory is that Onisaka formed at roughly the same time as Okinaka itself, thus explaining why it's made of similar materials. Though the barycenter for the Okinaka-Onisaka is between the two bodies, which would make it a double-planet system if one wished to get technical, most people simply consider it Okinaka's moon.

It should be noted that recent surveys have discovered evidence that Humans were not the first sentient beings to visit this body, which should be impossible as Onisaka possesses an atmosphere far too thin for anything to survive, not to mention the question of 'how did it get up there?' and as a result this particular finding is largely only talked about within the scientific community, at least publicly. Privately its got everyone from xeno-archeologists, those studying psionics, to even astrophysicists and biologists pouring over the problem since its sitting right there, but nobody knows how it got there as its clearly artificial construction. There's been no official information blackout on the matter, but unofficially nobody in the research community wants the public to look too hard at the matter. Of course as a result it's been a point used in popular telecom broadcasts, literature, and games of all sorts even before the planet-side cities were permanently settled.

Geography

Aside from Lunomikra, a Greenland-sized landmass at the southern poll, and several clusters of islands; the majority of Okinaka's landmass is gathered in the super continent Rodinia. The eastern and western coastlines are, with a few exceptions, fairly low laying rock. In fact both regions, up until they encounter the Divide mountains. Extreme lowland deserts, likely created by a meteor impact, dominate the northern region bracketed by these mountains.

Outside of a seven mile deep basin off the southeastern edge of Okinaka the sea floor is, on average, only about a thousand feet deep. As a result the vast majority of life was destroyed in what researchers believe was a long duration gamma ray burst. With that said there have been numerous sightings of native aquatic life coming from this deep spot in the ocean. Little is known about these creatures as no specimens, living or not, have been observed in the wild, and due to their almost leviathan-esque size an 'up close' look would be too risky for anything to go down at this point. One would have to wonder though, if these creatures are so large, what are they feeding on when virtually everything else in the ocean is dead?

Unlike Earth, where all but one or two major rivers flow southwards Okinaka's river systems appear to follow no particular set of guidelines other than those of basic hydrodynamics and gravity. A prime example would be its two largest rivers, Marathon and Lethe. Each start in the divide mountains yet flow in opposite directions, emptying into Panthalassa. Most rivers, however, empty into lakes, with the largest being Penatubo on the southeastern side of the divide and are fed by eight river systems converging. Naturally these aren't the only fresh water features on Okinaka, but they are the most prominent.

Natural Resources

The mass of the Okinaka is approximately 6.08\D71024 kg. It is composed mostly of iron (31.9%), oxygen (30.5%), silicon (14.6%), magnesium (12.4%), sulfur (2.3%), aluminum (2.2%), nickel (2.1%), and calcium (1.2%); with the remaining 3.8% consisting of trace amounts of other elements. Due to mass segregation, the core region is believed to be primarily composed of iron (88.8%), with smaller amounts of nickel (5.8%), silicon (4.5%), and less than 1% trace elements.

Climate

In brief, it\92s colder on Okinaka than Earth. This is caused mainly due to its relative distance from the sun, which puts it roughly at an even distance from its sun as Mars is from Sol. In apparent compensation, however, given the local year is roughly twice a Terran Standard Year. As one would expect the growing season, for those that wish to grow food naturally rather than use hydroponics or simply grow algae for food processors to use as a base, is also roughly twice that of most Terran regions. It should be stressed, however, that despite the rising tide of the 'back to the land' movement the nine months of winter puts a damper on many attempts to 'go back to basics', which, as a result, leaves most of the population within an hour's drive of at least one of the three major cities on the western side of Rodinia.

Originally plans were in place to build three more cities on the eastern side of Rodinia, taking advantage of the stronger coastal winds that blow there for wind farms. Unfortunately this was unworkable due to the frequent and severe weather that sweeps the eastern half of Rodinia which are similar to, but much more intense than, the storms that blow across the western coasts.

Biosphere

For the most part any plants and animals will be of Terran origin. However, and this is of particular importance for those hired to assist in exploring the Native Ruins. While the majority of life is Terrestrial in origin often times it has been mutated or otherwise altered by forces yet unknown. It seems to occur more frequently the further away from human settlements, and studies done through the transitional phases of colonization have shown that there is no evidence that humans are at risk with one major exception. Roughly ten to fifteen percent of children born or brought to Okinaka within the first year of development have subtly altered neurobiology that has given rise to a new branch of psychic development that are, by the wider public, dubbed 'Adepts'.

Despite what many to believe several decades prior to human colonization of little to no plant life there appear to be several 'species' of bipedal life forms that are most often seen in or near the ruins of the prior civilization. It is thought that these are psychic manifestations of the last generation of 'people' that lived there, partly due to their location, but mostly because eye witness reports from humans, synths, as well as recorded footage shows them 'melting' into objects, or outright disappearing. If this is true then they have some material component for camera and synth to observe, as terrestrial 'ghost' sightings have proven beyond the capability of even twenty third century recording equipment to document with any amount of certainty.

Human Settlements

While Humans have only actually lived, in a permanent manner, on Okinaka for roughly thirty years humans have been building and preparing the planet for life for roughly a full century. As such there's been plenty of time for the buildup of extensive urban areas, as well as prepared for future agricultural, water and waste reclamation, and transportation needs.

Oldham

At a Glance

Population: 687 249 (255 821 Synths 405 846 Humans)

Major Industry: Politics, Business

Number of Districts: 8

Ethnicities

Other: 10%

Hispanic: 19%

White: 22%

Black: 24%

Oriental: 25%

Registered Psychics: 75 598 (27 215 Adepts, 48 383 Psychics)

The first city that saw permanent residence after the planet was deemed habitable. The original plans had called for humans moving into all three settlements once the atmosphere had been stabilized, but these plans didn't take into account how rapidly the environment bounced back from the plane wide disaster that'd whipped out the native biosphere.

Even with the other two major cities are, to degrees, incomplete, the ruling council decided that it was time to transport the majority of Pandora's residents to the planet itself and followed the initial plans of using Oldham both as the planet-side government.

Oldham is, first and foremost, a political city, a place for negotiations and in the case of disputes that affect the population as a whole, a place where judgments are handed out. In the early years, before Perkins manufacturing centers started, it did a little of everything out of necessity, and as a result the outer ring is still known as an 'industrial' zone when its current business is purely shipping and storage.

Layout

Oldham is lain out in the design of an eight-spoke wheel with three 'rings' of buildings along these spokes. The easternmost portion of the outer rim flattens out as the spokes meet the Hibiki River at its northern most edge. This outermost ring of development centers on storage and shipping from either the river, over the highway network, or, via airbus to the space bridge leading to Pandora.

The central ring of heavy development is dedicated to residential and education. Among the notable features here are the eight schools each aimed at Elementary through Primary education (roughly from kindergarten to high school, or its equivalent) and is the site of the sole university currently active on Okinaka. Here also one will find a variety of churches, Mosques, and other places of worship scattered around. As there are no mandates barring religion, and faith travels with humanity wherever it goes.

As one nears the center the innermost ring is dedicated purely to commerce of all kinds, with a focus on fashion and tourism. The most notable locations here would be the Chandrove Museum of Science and Arts and Jackson Memorial University. There one can find exhibits ranging from applied basic physics, an overview of what is known of Okinaka's native culture, and human history, since even though they have broken ties with the old government when they left the system, these people are aware enough of the importance of remembering the past to attempt to bring it with them.

All roads, be they a four lane spoke, or a feeder road, eventually lead to the central hub. This is where matters of Government and Justice are conducted. Security here goes above and beyond the cameras posted along the street to armed guards patrolling as a visible deterrent, as well as, if rumors are true, a dedicated team of psychics that scan the surrounding city to zero in on potential troublemakers. Undoubtedly there are measures in place to take on even the most determined attacker, probably including high end military hardware that could down anything that could be conceivably fielded, or used as a suicide weapon. Even so every security system has holes if one looks hard enough for them.

Politically speaking, the layout of Oldham follows the spokes, with each one representing the centerline of its own district. These districts are also the main method of things such as school zoning, neighborhood layouts (I.E. the neighborhoods in district 1 having a different financial standing than those in District 6).

Perkins

At a Glance

Population: 557 822 (239 042 Synths 318 780 Humans)

Major Industry: Shipping, Trade

Number of Districts: 6

Ethnicities

Other: 14%

Hispanic: 15%

White: 19%

Black: 22%

Oriental: 30%

Registered Psychics: 31 890 (12 277 Adepts, 19 613 Psychics)

Perkins, the second of the three initially planned cities constructed while Okinaka was being prepared for human habitation, was designed to act both as a center of commerce, and a shipping hub for the first forty eight planned settlements. While currently only half complete Perkins shows no strain whatsoever even with servicing the three major settlements, the roughly tow dozen smaller ones, and receiving shipping from Oldham, Dust, the outlaying smaller communities, and Space Elevator One.

Layout

Perkins is situated roughly three hundred miles northeast of Oldham, putting it roughly in the middle of the Murari Plains at the equator. This location was chosen because seismic studies showed it to be a relatively geologically stable area, and as this would serve as a major shipping depot, disruptions such as tsunami, earthquake, or the like would be devastating on the fledgling population.

Through the center of Perkins there are a series of under-overpasses both above and belowground to facilitate unimpeded traffic flow while allowing those vehicles that need to stop to find their destination as quickly and safely as possible. Off of this main network of interconnected roads shoot feeder thoroughfares connecting to one of twelve districts, of which only six have been deemed useable.

Beyond the interconnected central roadways Perkins is noteworthy in that there is a dedicated mass transit system that, not only travels from curb side to curb side, but also in the case of each apartment bloc, will stop at a covered entrance leading directly to a person's housing section. While this is nothing new (first seen in Beijing in 2053) it is the most elaborate transit system for any city on the planet. This isn't due to a dense population, as is the case with Terran cities with such a system, but due to leaving the roads as open as possible for commercial traffic.

In political terms Perkins politics, like everything else in that city, follows the roadway. Each district follows the next in neat ordered blocks with the exception of the city management complex; which sits roughly a half-mile away from everything else. Not only does this provide better security from roadway accidents, but it also provides those in office a view of the entire city at once from the top of the eighty-ninth floor observation balcony.

Dust

At a Glance

Population: 221 940 (100 000 Synths 121 940 Humans)

Major Industry: Politics, Business

Number of Districts: 3

Ethnicities

Other: 8%

Hispanic: 18%

Oriental: 23%

White: 25%

Black: 26%

Registered Psychics: 5 428 (3 216 Adepts, 2 212 Psychics)

To call Dust 'wild' or 'uncivilized' would be a discredit to its population, as it requires a great deal of organization to run the largest mining and processing business on the planet. To outsiders, however, the stigma of a wild and lawless environment persists, owing perhaps in large part due to the sheer bulk of fictional material cropping up all over the telecom that equate Dust to being a lawless gaggle of miners that are both used and abused by greedy mining corporations. So it is with no surprise that locals often take offense at the usual stereotypes that they're pigeonholed into.

This skewed perception stems, in all likelihood, that Dust is the largest privately owned operation on Pandora, who's entire residential population either works for the Yakazumi Diet, attends Company run schools, uses Company owned recreational facilities, and use Company provided services. Naturally due to the all-pervasive nature of Yakazumi ownership the ruling council has set several watchdog groups within the city both as a monitor against company abuses, and to gauge whether or not this type of ownership is feasible for other operations across the planet.

Layout

With Dust situated both at the base of, and inside of Mt. Hygin its layout deviates a great deal from other 'standard' city designs. The exterior portion of the city is layered, with smelting and refining at the uppermost layers around which exists a ten-mile zone where nothing may be built. Below this upper area exists the commercial district, acting as a buffer zone between the noise of mining and processing, and housing.

The most interesting thing to note is that Dust is divided into an Exterior and Interior city. Its Exterior rests in a wide band along the slope of MOUNTAIN1 as mostly commercial venues with housing sections interspaced at random and close to the eight parks along the Exterior. Taking one of the four shafts (each one set well outside of the Exterior City in the event of poison gas eruptions or other hazardous substances using the shafts as method of escape into the Interior reveals a multileveled city connected by a series of elevators, connector ramps, and in many cases buildings having multiple exits on different levels.

On each of the fifteen publicly accessible levels exists, in varying degrees, housing and education, consumer goods (stores and the like), Entertainment (theater, ect), and publicly accessible areas (such as parks). Going downward Level's 15-10 Focus primarily on residential, with only a small smattering of commercial districts at the fringes near the main access ramps. Levels 9-5 are geared primarily towards entertainment, with its main feature being the Stallman theme park and shopping center. Levels 4-1 focuses on consumer business, trading, banking, and the daily needs of your average citizen/employee. Five levels exist below these dedicated to Company specific business, and are only accessible by designated employees, with access controlled via the ID chip everyone carries.

Dust's administrative buildings sit apart from the majority of the rest of the settlement, isolated on a shock absorbing plate and with a half mile of mountain between it and the rest of the Interior and connected only by two roadways, one for vehicular traffic, the other for larger items and for emergency use only. Within this administrative complex exists enough living space and facilities to sustain one eight of the entire Interior population, and combined with seven other storage and underground greenhouses can sustain the city's population for a month in the event the Interior is somehow sealed off from the outside world.

Other Settlements

While the three cities listed above are the main congregations of human settlement one can expect to find smaller settlements, anywhere from ten thousand or less, people, set up wherever the local population felt that they could make their mark. This isn't entirely accurate as gaining a building permit involves filing with both the department of xeno-archeology to make sure you're not encroaching on known sites of interest, and the department of transportation to ensure that the settlement's location won't interfere with any future development.

Typically these cities have populations ranging from a thousand upwards to eighty thousand people (human or otherwise). Again looking at the 'typical' settlement one would find a central location for government, usually set near a museum, or park to maintain aesthetic appeal. Normally from this central location roads are set either as wheel spokes, or in a grid radiating out to the predestinated boundaries allowed by the zoning permits. At the outskirts of such settlements are usually its primary business, be it mining, general commerce, or whatever. Inside this ring of commerce are the general-purpose malls, stores, and other such things that help drive local economy. Sandwiched between this layer and the town center are the residential and educational sections.

As with all things exceptions can and do happen, thus you may find a city who's grown beyond its initial boundaries and thus repeat the layering, using commercial business as a buffer between industrial zones and residential sectors, or maybe the town's development follows the local contours and doesn't follow the 'usual' preplanned structuring for whatever reason. The only commonalities that are universally shared between such settlements are roads connecting to the main highway system, terminals for mass transit along said highway system for those that do not own their own vehicle, and a local series of servers that tie into the planetary network's backbone.

Research Stations

When FTl came the ability to send probes and the like to the cataloged planets to see just how accurate the prediction models were. In Okinaka's case, while the models were fairly accurate, there are a number of planetary phenomena, the augmentation of planet-side born psychics, and the native life somehow surviving despite lack of any feasible food web to sustain it being only two of the larger mysteries found on the surface. With the end goal of understanding their new home in mind colonists had set five research stations up around the two major landmasses, as well as one underwater.

Currently only four of the facilities are active, owing to a catastrophic explosion in 2239 that literally disintegrated Hollywood facility. The proverbial jury is still out on what caused the detonation, as there were no explosives, no comet or asteroid impact, or any other process known to humans that could spontaneously occur that would explain its destruction.

Of the remaining four research stations Regan held what is seen as the most potential to impact daily life as it concerns itself with the study and comparison of different Pluxonite ore samples and is in fact the only place on Okinaka where Onisakan Pluxonite deposits are studied in any capacity, that is until the events of 2245.

That year saw the conformation of rumors of a planet-wide intelligence that had grown increasingly agitated with human attempts at mining Pluxonite, which it viewed as being key to its survival. After an agreement had been reached, Regan's role had changed from research station to meeting place between the natives and humans in hopes of preventing further disputes from causing disruptions on the scale that had been experienced that year.

The other three stations, Anderson, Wayne, and Jackson, are still important as they study everything from weather patterns, the ruins of the prior civilization, and what few samples of native life have been found. However the public at large seems to have latched onto Regan as the place of importance, going so far as to feature it in no less than sixteen films, eighty-seven pieces of fictional writing, and countless rumors.

Native Ruins

On average the natives of Okinaka seemed to be at about ancient Rome's level of technology. While this allows for structures like aqueducts, waterwheels, and even if one wishes to get speculative, steam power, one has to remember that even though there are a few hard and solid inferences that can be made on life and function through archeology that these people aren't human and thus house a different psychological point of view. For instance, while research has shown that natives certainly possessed the technological means to create large monuments and temples, evidence so far suggests that they didn't. What they seemed to focus on instead were the day-to-day needs, roads for transport, more efficient methods of distributing water, storing crops, ECT. Notably absent, it seems, is any form of written work, as humans understand the concept. It should be noted now that Okinakans apparently exclusively built structures out of stone, as so far any evidence of wooden, or even mud brick structures has proven nonexistent.

An 'average' Native settlement consists of a central building, possibly a town hall, storehouse, or some other public building as prior evidence has shown these structures to contain everything from weapons, to clothing, to clay or metal containers. it should be noted that apparently the natives either didn't know of the toxic affects of lead, or have biology that somehow either filters lead out, or somehow makes use of it, since virtually every metal container has at least some lead content, and a variety of powders that are currently presumed to be food additives contain the mineral to one degree or another.

Around this central building, and always at the cardinal points (North, South, East, and west, using the planet's magnetic north for orientation) are four buildings, always consisting of twelve floors as well as a rooftop observation deck. It is presumed that these serve either as signal towers (for they are always the tallest structures in a settled area) or observatories.

Past this central five building configuration and the surrounding circle begins the settlement proper. Typical buildings consist of a stepped pyramid design, consisting of anywhere from three to six levels as well as a basement. It is believed that the basement level is where animals and food were sheltered during inclement weather. The first floor suggests, via evidence from separate settlements throughout Okinaka, that it was used as either a work area, or a place of business. The third through sixth floors are, by and large, regarded as the family's living area, consisting of a communal bedroom, a bathroom with internal plumbing (using bronze pipes), and an entryway for receiving guests, all centered around a cooking area (that apparently also doubled as an entryway into the floors above when not in use in multi-storied family areas)

Pandora Station

At the other end of the space elevator is Pandora Station. It serves as cultural center, factory, communications relay between the Confederacy and the rest of the universe, and is home to the AI that started it all, Ceres. Containing roughly one hundred twenty four square miles in total livable area, though due to the amount of recycling and maintenance needed the design can only safely house a maximum of a little over a million people, its still easily the largest space bourn object man has created to date (twice the size of the Chun-Lo research facility in Venetian orbit, which is the next largest man-made object in space).

Brief History

First conceived of in the late twenty-first century; Gerard K. O'Neil Station was to be mankind's crowning achievement to represent not only the pinnacle of engineering accomplishments, but also as a symbol of cooperation between nations that had just dug out from underneath the third, and final world war. It was built in earth orbit with the intent that it would be used to send the third wave of Martian colonists over all at once, and not in groups of six or a dozen at a time as with the other colonization projects. It worked as intended, and nearly bankrupted the United States and China, the two principle nations backing the project.

The money 'sunk' into the O'Neil station paid off in the end as technologies developed for its construction, maintenance, and support were then later applied to other fields at home and in the existing colonies. When it arrived in Mars Orbit in 2114 it became not only the single largest migration of humans from earth to mars, but also the largest human migration ever in one trip (beating out the rush to Okinaka by twenty thousand passengers).

For the next thirty years it served as the terminating point for a Martian space elevator, ferrying people and materials to and from orbit. While serving in this capacity it has been rumored to contain everything from a cloning farm, a city destroying particle cannon, and even a Martian invasion fleet in the latter stages of the Great System War was supposed to exist within the station's confines. While it contained none of these things, it did house the Inugami institute of paranormal research and development until the outbreak of war.

After the war and before Pandora was finished being converted for FTL travel there was one minor incident that won't show up in any history book or record. Few even know it happened; fewer still will discuss the matter. Three months prior to launch Psychics reported a mental pressure, something powerful, and alien had scanned them all quite deeply, deeper than any ethical psychic dares to try as the deeper you go the more risk of permanently damaging the subject. Ceres was contacted as a matter of course, since it was nominally in charge of the retrofitting process, as prominent psychics from both sides of the war. All of those affected were found in a catatonic state with their minds so completely and thoroughly erased that the only thing anyone could read off of them were base instincts and autonomous mental functions.

Current activities

Pandora currently rests in geosynchronous orbit around Pandora's equator; acting as a counterweight to the space elevator that currently is the main method on and off Okinaka's surface in much the same capacity as it had done while in mars orbit. This time, unlike before, Pandora also serves as a manufacturing center for Synths other military equipment, and specialist mining vehicles. These things are made in Pandora and nowhere else for security reasons. After all while all of the colonists have their reasons for leaving Terran influence, not everybody came with the same idea on how life would be like, which inevitably starts conflicts. So to limit access of the more destructive weapons they have been kept inside of Pandora under Ceres's personal supervision, and even then it takes the entire council's agreement to allow the use of anything beyond massed infantry, or perhaps lightly armored vehicular support.

Layout

Reference photos: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Spacecolony3edit.jpeg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/26/O%27niel_Cylinder.jpg

Pandora's interior consists of two counter-rotating cylinders each two miles in radius, and twenty miles long. Each cylinder has six equal-area stripes that run the length of the cylinder; three are windows, three are 'land.' Furthermore, an outer agriculture ring, 10 miles in radius, rotates at a different speed for farming. It should be noted that each habitation strip focuses on one of three things, commerce, residential, and transportation with a manufacturing block located at the middle (behind the satellite dish assembly) to allow for minimized gravity for ease of manufacturing the specialized components needed for Synth construction, low gravity research and development.

To permit light to enter the habitat, large windows run the length of the cylinder. These were not to be single panes, but would be made up of individual sections, of considerable thickness, so as to be able to handle the pressure of the atmosphere in the habitat. Occasionally a meteorite would break one of these panes, which would cause some loss of the atmosphere, but calculations showed that this would not be an emergency, due to the very large volume of the habitat.

Large mirrors are hinged at the back of each stripe of window with the unhinged edge of the windows points toward the Sun in order to reflect sunlight into the cylinders through the windows. Opening the mirrors, letting the window view empty space, simulates night; this also permits heat to radiate to space. During the day, the reflected Sun appears to move as the mirrors move, creating a natural progression of Sun angles. Although not visible to the naked eye, the Sun's image might be observed to rotate due to the cylinder's rotation.

Transportation between habitation strips is handled by a series of tram ways that run with the spin of the station (otherwise there's a small risk of nullifying the station's centrifugal force). Each tram has a primary route that takes it in a circle, stopping at each habitat strip to load and offload passengers, and a secondary route that can be taken along a particular strip. However as each strip contains its own transportation network this function is rarely used except to route around inter-strip tramways under maintenance.

Plot Hooks

Your Player Group needs a place to get out of the rain and dives into what appears to be an abandoned and easily entered warehouse. This Warehouse could be in any city large or small so long as its outdoors (thus precluding Dust's Interior City as a location without a little modifying). Unfortunately once inside they find that they weren't the only ones that decided to use this place to get in out of the rain, and the current occupants aren't in a sharing mood. Alternatively for those that are using a law enforcement/bounty hunter motif this could also serve as a backdrop for cornering a collection of gangers, or possibly a pair of rouge psychics, that aren't going to come quietly

After a string of bomb threats one of the party members is implicated as either the culprit, or aiding the one responsible. Evidence is presented that makes a very strong case against that person, and while the rest of the party knows they didn't do it, they have a good deal of legwork ahead of them to prove that to the authorities.

A "Jerald J Johnson' hires your player group out, either as a group if they've coalesced as such or individually if you need an excuse to bring them together, to find a client's missing child. This Mr. Johnson is known on the streets as being a middleman, finding jobs that people wish done without involving authority figures then finding people who can do these jobs. Said jobs aren't always illegal, far from it, those that seek this man's service simply wish for a low-key approach to whatever problem they have. As a result Narrators should stress to players that explosions and mass amounts of 'run n gun' game play aren't encouraged, and should feel free to, for instance, have this child that they're searching for end up harmed as a result (be creative, doesn't always have to be physical harm, it could end up that the kidnappers have a psychic at their disposal that can alter memories, or with sufficient use of the Mind Shape power make the girl not want to leave when the player group finally shows up).

A fight breaks out with your characters caught in the middle. Afterwards, win or lose, nobody save for the PCs seem to remember the fight actually taking place. There were too many people involved to have been a psychic working alone, and given that the player characters ate and drank the same food those affected did it can't have been something edible unless it was introduced to specific people. That of course raises the question of who started this and why.

The group, either as a group or pulled together from different locations, has been hired to escort an archeology expedition into a recently discovered Okinakan village. On the way there they might sense being watched, and any adepts or psychics within the group who succeed on a Second Sight power use would be able to tell that 1) the party is being Scryed and 2) the person Scrying isn't human and fits reported descriptions of Native life. Narrator discretion on just how hairy things get after that point, but as they near this particular site (in the middle of the northern desert, near where Hollywood Station used to be) the going should get hairy.

At first the party should site natives watching from a distance, gradually getting closer with each spotting till the final peaceful encounter involves the natives blocking the roadway and pointing back where the party came from. Psychics and Adepts in the party would feel a wordless message emanating from the natives, that can best be summarized as 'turn back.' After this final encounter things start getting violent, not only due to Native raiding parties, but also the weather and terrain fighting the expedition (difficulty is up to the narrator, but please keep it sane, as nobody likes having a party get wiped due to an impossibly difficult game). Why do they want the party to turn back? For that matter the reason Hollywood was destroyed still hasn't been answered. The two are probably related which is why the research team was sent in; though they haven't told the player characters their exact reason for the expedition in the first place.

Given Pandora's mix of wilderness and variety of urban locations most 'real world' plots will work, not to mention several fantasy themes with a little adaptation (...it all started with a barroom story). Do you want a detective story, back ally run and gunning, adventures exploring the wilderness and finding mutated variants on known creatures that have somehow been altered by the planet's unique properties? Go for it! No really, it's your game session, if your group likes the idea. Run with it.

Terran Federation

Much of human history has already been written, and Earth should be a familiar enough subject for everybody, considering it's the planet we've occupied as a species since pre-historic times. Having said that, dealing with a two hundred, to two hundred and forty year gap can be a hard thing for people to deal with, especially when the reality, as presented, of that future doesn't line up with the views that we had grown up with of how things would be. The point of this chapter is only to give guidelines, and if a group wishes for a different tone to their game, then that is completely up to them.

The colonies tend to, as one gets further from Earth, become less populated up until you get to the scattered research stations and all but unmanned outposts between Saturn and Uranus's orbits, which contain, at the most, only a dozen individuals each.

Politics

It has been nearly one hundred and twenty years since the old nations of Earth were reorganized into a single globe-spanning, then later system spanning political body. Although there are still occasional outbursts, lamentations at the loss of cultural heritage, and those that have long claimed the creation of such a government would be a sign of the End Times, by and large the change was accepted surprisingly free of major incident.

Earth

Each of the eight continents (North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the 'Pacific Continent) has fifty representatives to the Terran Senate, with half of these serving for two years, half serving for seven. By staggering between those that could serve on a short term basis and those for longer it was hoped that between those that wouldn't have to worry about maintaining a public image, and those that worried over if the next vote they cast would be the final straw that gets them voted out during the next elections that affairs of State could be tended to with some reasonable assurance that corruption would be mitigated. Unfortunately most that end up elected are more or less hand picked by their respective parties so that no matter who actually wins, the people that are finally chosen by the general public can be negated if they don't 'play ball'.

Locally each continent governs itself differently. The Americas work with a scaled down version of the World Senate, though each of the continental governing bodies has roughly twice as many delegates, and are often even more beholden to special interests or lobbyist groups. Europe is further subdivided by allowing each region, each corresponding roughly to one of the Old World nations, to govern much as they had before the grand unification amended so that no one region overshadows its neighbors for long. Asia, much like the Americas, erased the old national boundaries and created its own governing body. Unlike in the America's, though, this body is split between four branches, two of which are Senatorial-like bodies of one hundred people each, and the other two consisting of a dozen members apiece that act both as watch-dogs for the main law-making bodies, and in times where no clear majority is gained in voting, they are allowed to directly vote in order to break the deadlock. Australia has, more or less, continued as it had before being assimilated into the world government, as it was the only continent that was occupied by a single country. Lastly Pacifica, mainly owing to the scattered nature of its inhabitants, seems to favor the same level of traditionalism that Europe does, despite modern communication methods rendering the old obstacles of physical distance and remoteness as straw-man arguments.

Colonies

While two-thirds of the Terran Senate consists of members from Earth, nearly enough to pass legislation regardless of the off-world colonies wishes, it requires a minimum three-quarter majority to pass anything, and in total the Colonies have a two hundred deligate voice in matters. Unlike their Terran counterparts the colonies have a gross disadvantage in terms of communications, since even with the speed of light, it can still take anywhere from a half-hour, to half a day for a single message to be relayed. This has the effect of making the colonies, particularly those past the asteroid belt; feel more self-reliant than those of Mars, Venus, and the Orbital colonies.

Locally the colonies differ in their governing styles. Mars is the largest and oldest of the colonies, and also the only colony that has a large enough population to be further divided into regional governments. Venus consists of little more than researchers and those ships passing by to deliver cometary ice to the planet's surface (well, as close as can be gotten before they boil away) so has almost as informal an internal style of government as some of the Jovian colonies. One should not make the mistake of thinking the appearance of informality means that a colony is lax in its standards, far from it actually since with the tight controls a population must face day in and day out on everything, even the air they breath, there must be a fine balance struck between maintaining order and gripping so tightly that there's a full scale mutiny as was the case of Ceres Outpost.

It seems that for the time being humans have spread as far out into the solar system as they dare spread, with the exception of automated vessels or those manned entirely by synths to mine the resources of the Kuiper Belt. There are theories on why this is, many being variations on the fact that despite all the advances in space travel, its still hazardous, and travel from the inner solar system to the outer takes months, if not years. Others instead cite the fact that with the extra-solar colonies and favorable trade agreements with Okinaka for ships, humanity has shifted focus from a hard goal to one that appears easier, for in the time it takes to reach Neptune one could be at any number of Earth-Like worlds, and given the choice, even the most die-hard explorer would rather take their chances on the surface of a hostile, but survivable, world instead of the cold embrace of deep space if something goes wrong.

Extra-Solar Colonies

After the treaty that ended the System War and the confederates showed those in the Federation that it was possible, efforts were put forward to find other worlds that humans could settle, worlds that would remain under Federation control. In the early 2200's several sites were found, most having already developed life, and two having developed species that may, if they survive and grow, become intelligent. These worlds have been blacklisted, and are only visited by those that have the credentials, and clearance, to study the life there. Those worlds that have life, but have no clear indications of emergent intelligence are reminiscent of the Old West, each left to its own devices save for the direst of situations.

Be advised that I am leaving the specifics of these worlds and the life there intentionally vague. While the Terran Federation is a key part of the setting, and groups may wish to explore other facets of the Universe I've put forward, Okinaka is the primary backdrop. Plus this allows, off the bat, those that either wish to import worlds from other settings, or to create their own, to have a free hand.

Psychics and Adepts

In popular culture the word psychic refers to the ability to perceive things hidden from the senses through means of extra-sensory perception. The term also refers to theatrical performers who use techniques such as prestidigitation and cold reading to produce the appearance of having such abilities.

The study and application of Psychic phenomena by governments started at roughly the beginning of the cold war with CIA and FBA (and the Soviet counterparts to these agencies) investigating the concept of remote viewing and influencing at a distance. Rumors of these programs had persisted for decades till the end of the cold war when they were forced to go underground due to US journalism. Instead of relegating this method of espionage to a minor role, stepping out of any official spotlight allowed American, Russian, and other government sponsored programs to flourish in an environment where they could expand and develop a further understanding of what was then considered a psudo-science.

Until 2073 there were virtually no serious work done on a meaningful scale outside of government black projects with psychics. That changed, however with the Geneva conference when self proclaimed 'Prophet of Truth' Kamio Daisetsu, with the help of a small group of dedicated and well armed followers, demonstrated the reality of what psychic soldiers can do by first getting past what was considered impenetrable security, then using the delegates from America and China to deliver his message of 'the end of mankind's enslavement to its flesh' over a live telecast to the developed world nations.

While Kamio was killed shortly thereafter, the incident did spark a wider public understanding of the reality of psychics as more than charlatans out to hustle a quick buck. These people do still exist, but due to the efforts of Terran, Confederate and local agencies, many such 'miss Cleo' operations are a thing of the past.

Identifying potential and further Education

The methods used by parapsychologists to test for psychic capacity include the use of random number generators to test for psychokinesis, mild sensory deprivation in the Ganzfeld experiment to test for extra-sensory perception, and research trials conducted under contract by either the Terran or confederacy governments to investigate other phenomena such as telekinesis, empathy generation, or other such affects. The statistical methods of parapsychologists have, since the discovery of psychic talent within the human mind, developed over the past century to the point of usually catching latent potential as early as the early teens (some reports claim that prepubescent psychics have been discovered, but are largely discounted as sensationalism). Often times though such talents develop on an individual basis once a person reached adulthood.

If a person has been judged to have enough latent ability to be trained they are taken to one of six possible locations depending on which government they are a citizen under, personal preferences, abilities that have manifest, and whether they're civilian or military. Normally this is a voluntary step which a person may refuse if they do not wish further training, however in those cases where a person's powers manifest violently, or their minds are in some way imbalanced then it becomes mandatory due to public safety concerns.

Those who's talents develop naturally are required, under penalty of having their abilities suppressed through drugs or, in extreme cases where drugs are either ineffective, permanent severance by a group of specialized psychics that literally burn out key centers in the brain that are responsible for manifestations. Unless in a situation where there is a chance of rescue the player character gets no save against the actual severance and, after being severed, must make a DC20 Fort save or suffer a point of permanent damage to any one mind stat (narrator's discretion).

Occupations that specifically require psychics are few and far between. Having said that, though, psychics are welcome in almost any profession where there's the need for interacting between people, entertainment in the form of illusions and altering a crowd's mood, or using psychic powers as a weapon either for privet defense contractors, or the military.

Psychic Training:

While each 'school' is different in its approach all share developing the mind's ability to exert itself in some fashion. Some do this through meditation and focusing inward while focusing on 'eastern' discipline such as yoga. Others focus on rationalizing, quantifying through scientific methods both a person's capabilities, and a quantification of those abilities as well as experimentation into drugs that can both enhance and suppress psychic capability within the human mind. Which way is the 'right' way? It depends, as people respond to each approach differently and what may work well for one may well do nothing for the other.

Often time though Psychic talents manifest independently, and while this can be potentially destructive for those around the developing psychic, often times it's the only way a psychic will develop new talents. For Adepts this process takes a further step in the form of often having visions, or a guiding presence slowly easing their mind into a new power. Science has yet to quantify this factor, and philosophy has no single answer on what this could be.

'Adepts'

Adepts are the product of psychics born, or brought there within the first year of life, and being raised to adolescence on Okinaka itself. Adepts are so named due to being 'adept' at using their minds to generate effects above and beyond what even normal psychics are capable of, at least within Okinaka's sphere of influence. As a result of subtle alterations made by as yet unknown forces associated with the planet on the human mind; an appreciable percentage (roughly 5% - 15%) of the total population have psychic abilities of some form or another. Additionally, while on Okinaka an Adept has a +2 to fatigue checks.

Physically Adepts appear to be normal save that they often times have slightly pail skin and naturally blue hair (the shading seen so far has been everything from 'sky' blue to Cobalt) that develops shortly after their paranormal abilities begin to manifest. Hair and skin aside Adepts appear to have the normal range and limitations as any other human., though as a result Adepts often have had to put up with superstitions and urban myths concerning their somewhat abnormal appearance.

Over the decades there have been various attempts at 'importing' the kind of mental versatility adepts possess to other places where man has colonized. Every Adept that has left Okinaka has reported sensing loss, yearning, depression, and other signs of emotional trauma when away from Okinaka, and. On returning from off world Adepts have reported sensing euphoria, joy, and in some cases a wave of 'love' on returning. This affect lasts, for those wishing a general frame of reference, anywhere from a week to a month while out of stasis.

Pluxonite

Pluxonite was discovered shortly after humans made a permanent home of Okinaka. This ore has been shown to augment a psychic's natural abilities. Pure pluxonite, when mixed with moderating chemicals to avoid over stimulating the subject's brain has been shown in laboratory conditions to reduce the strain on the psychic's mind while exerting itself, and in the case of adepts suffering from home sickness an injection eases, but does not eliminate the symptoms. This application has caused many adepts to wear low-grade pluxonite studded jewelry, or have pluxonite-studded clothing in a belief that it will mitigate the symptoms. Player Characters that have been injected with a dose of Ploxon (pluxonite and its moderating chemicals) receive a +5 to all fatigue checks for the following twenty four hour period, and adepts wearing Pluxonite studded jewelry/clothing outside of Okinaka only suffer -1 to fatigue checks and don't suffer skill based penalties.

In nature this ore is dull rust colored rock in low-grade deposits in and around quarts deposits. Higher-grade ore can only be found deep underground, starting at roughly two miles and dropping. Mining this far beneath the surface, even under normal conditions, present hazards that most people feel just aren't worth the reward. On Okinaka, however, any and all attempts to mine this ore have resulted in failure in the form of eighty synths, four tunneling rigs, eight humans, and countless tools being lost due to a variety of mishaps. The accidents thus far are usually cave-ins, or in some cases, workers with psychological issues that should have shown up in the screening processes somehow sliding through the cracks, then snapping while underground. Consequently acquiring high grade pluxonite is exceedingly hard, and it takes roughly a half-ton of raw ore from a low grade deposit to produce a single dose of Pluxon, whereas it only twenty pounds of high grade ore.

Pluxon comes in single use, single dose, syringes and are kept under lock and key at all times when not being administered due to its scarcity, the cost to manufacture and potential for addiction among those that regularly use it. It can be recognized due to the bronze coloring in liquid form.

It should be noted that Okinaka and its companion Onisaka possesses this mineral in large quantities (it is estimated that 14.4% of silicate rocks on both bodies are pluxonatic ores) though the Terran system contains trace amounts of pluxonite, it is estimated that the entire amount of ore, if concentrated into a single location, would be matched in a weeks' worth of mining low grade ore from Okinaka

Pliskin12

Pluxon isn't the only psycho-reactive drug man has produced. Others have been made over the decades with less\85pleasant interactions with the subject's mind. Pliskin12 is the latest iteration of inhibitor drugs that react with how the mind works. The Pliskin line of suppressants is, compared to prior efforts, effective with an acceptably low risk of severe side effects (ranging fro constant migraines, jitters, depression, ect, varies on a person by person basis, consult Narrator). The primary uses of Pliskin12 injections are either to prevent someone who manifests their powers destructively from harming others till control can be established with the help of experienced psychics that can act as guides, or administered to criminals as part of their sentencing.

A single Pliskin12 dose suppresses the psionic abilities of an individual for roughly a twenty-four hour period per dose. If enough, anywhere from eight to a dozen doses, are injected within a short enough time span (usually within twelve hours of the first injection) the person on the receiving end suffers a permanent -2 to all power checks even after the chemicals have run their course due to residual damage to key centers within the human brain that aid in focusing psychic energies. Pliskin 12 is kept under lock and key, not due to the expense in making it, but due to its tempting nature as a weapon against psychics.

Plot Hooks

A privet investigator group 'Psychics 'R' Us', an agency staffed entirely by Adepts and Psychics, puts out several ads through daily news and word of mouth that they're hiring non-psychics in compliance with anti-discriminatory laws. This could lead into a series of detective stories centered on the fledgling company and also an ample chance to introduce party members either at the start, or throughout the campaign. That or one could use this as a backdrop for other gaming sessions.

This one applies only if a party member is an Adept. Either the aforementioned psychic has to fend off an attempted kidnapping involving several men dressed in conservative black business suits. If the kidnapping fails then there will be other attempts down the road. If, however, it succeeds the rest of the party is left wit ha mystery, with several clues being dropped at the scene (intentionally, though the players don't' know this). As for the Adept, after they come to they'll be in a featureless gray room unable to use any powers and faced by two suits (different from the ones that kidnapped him/her). They have a job 'offer for the player to consider and have left clues for the rest of the party to follow leading them to a meeting location that is part of this job. Regardless on if the Adept accepts or refuses the rest of the party will be faced with this task, thus giving the adept character incentive to agree if only to make it there to fill everyone else in on what's what. It should be noted that the Adepts powers would remain severed for roughly twelve hours after first waking up in custody (meaning they've been captured for at least an additional twelve hours.)

A friend who'd recently taken a job at Regan station has reported odd activity. Most disregard his stories as outright fabrications or the product of frayed nerves caused by overwork, but it's been a week since his last correspondence and he always sends something at least once per day.

'Ghosts' of people who've died since Colonization started have begun popping up at random places, usually places where the deceased used to frequent. However as more sightings are reported a trend is noticed that these ghosts seem to be attracted to Psychics, and even more so to adepts.

Synths

Androids, Gynoids, Robots, Synths, take your pick on what you want to call mankind's 'children', but they're now a fairly significant presence in daily life just about anywhere one would travel in this day and age. Granted humanoids aren't the only robots produced, but they are the only ones as a playable race.

Synth Appearance:

On Average a Synth will be anywhere from 4'0 - 6'5 in height, lean to somewhat middle build, and have anywhere from blue-white to eggplant colored skin. Typical eye coloration involves a black 'white', no pupil, and a red, green, blue, or gold/yellow iris. As a general rule modern Synths are portrayed as genderless, as they have no need for gender defining characteristics, but can, and are produced in 'female' if a specific customer wishes.

Lifecycle of a Synth:

Generally speaking building a Synth is fairly costly. The hardware components may be relatively inexpensive, and need to be if one wishes to replace worn out or damaged parts, but the tricky business involves replacing the computer systems that make up its mind unlike off the shelf, or even most ship computers, these make direct use of distinctively quantum mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and entanglement. Given the expenses and equipment needed to create a stable mind for a Synth; generally speaking only major corporations are able to build them, though there have been notable cases over the past century of financially well off individuals building their own custom units.

While a Synth's mind is being created one can insert knowledge critical for a Synth's job, 'instincts' so a Synth will react both naturalistically and in a manner to preserve its own existence, and a few basic ethical guidelines. An example of these in-built ethics would be 'you should not act to harm humans because x, except in situations' y and z where your own existence or the existence of others are endangered. However, as with humans, just because it has been 'programmed' into the Player Character's mind that they should not kill/steal/torture doesn't' mean they will follow that imperative. If, for example, a Synth decides that it wants to murder, rob, and such, the typical punishment is similar to the punishments handed out to humans save that for the duration of confinement their mind's connection to their motor functions is severed (typically a Computers vs. Will DC).

By Terran law (which has also been adopted by Confederate society) any sentient AI is, for the first twenty years of its existence, considered a ward entity of its parent corporation, or if the parent corporation cannot meet that obligation, either due to being merged with another entity or unable to pay for upkeep, custody of the Synth in question is given to the State to be dealt with as he government sees fit.

During these twenty years the AI is given a few basic 'human' rights (adequate living conditions and, even though it's monitored, freedom of thought). At this time a Synth is, for all practical purposes, in existence to work off the debt incurred in its creation as well as being observed to ensure that it doesn't go rampant or otherwise show behavior that would leave it incapable of functioning in society as an independent entity. The work a Synth must perform varies from company to company but is generally something that eventually a human, perhaps requiring a haz-med suit or other protective apparatus, could eventually do. This is why Synthetics are humanoid in appearance, so that they can easily replace humans and vice-versa without substantially changing the work environment.

Beyond testing and working off debt, a Synth is expected to learn. By the way their brains are constructed Synths cannot simply 'download' information once their minds have been created and must learn the same way humans do, observe, read, and educate themselves. The advantage Synths have in this regard is sheer speed, as a Synth can go from having the basic knowledge programmed into it's mind to an equivalent of a college education is, on average, anywhere from four weeks to three months.

Once the required twenty year period is up and a Synth is deemed capable of acting in a responsible manner in normal society it is then offered the choice of either continuing to work with its parent entity earning roughly the same pay a human worker would (with a similar benefits package offered, thus sidestepping fears of another attempt at outright replacing humans with machines for financial reasons. At least that's how it works in theory, and how it should work by law but your mileage may vary), or to receive aid in finding another job suited to its skills and interests.

Naming Conventions

Normally a Synth is allowed to choose its own first name. It's last, and occasionally middle, names are general designators of its original function, typically with the last name denoting a general vocation and the middle denoting a specialty field. For the sake of allowing Synths to better integrate with human culture these names are typically names you would find from families, or in some cases words that sound vaguely like names.

Examples:

Vocation: Name: Vocation: Name

Business Associate Perkins Consulting Mikimoru

Vocation: Name: Vocation: Name

Diplomat Logeot Doctor Wallin

Vocation: Name: Vocation: Name

Engineer Fawkes Military Daisho

Normally a Synth is allowed to choose its own first name. It's last, and occasionally middle, names are general designators of its original function, typically with the last name denoting a general vocation and the middle denoting a specialty field. For the sake of allowing Synths to better integrate with human culture these names are typically names you would find from families, or in some cases words that sound vaguely like names.

With no emotions of their own Synths, at least early on in their lives, tend to come off as cold, emotionless, and what one would normally think when the word 'robot' comes to mind. As time passes and the Synth's personality develops there's the opportunity to learn how to at least emulate emotional response for the benefit of those they have to work with. It works on a case by case basis, so you'll see some Synths that show little to no emotion at one end of the spectrum to some that are so good at faking emotion that it makes even the experts wonder at the other.

Turing Virus

Psychology

Originally created during the Terran System War this virus was created to specifically attack the higher functions of an AI, while at the same time leaving baser functionality, such as motor functions and sensory inputs, intact. It will often be introduced the same as with any other computer virus, that is a Synth unknowingly (or knowingly in some cases) interfaces with an infected system. Originally the Virus simply 'bricked' a Synth's mind, making the shell completely inoperable, and would infect any other 'minds' connected to the infected body. As time passed variants of the virus were created to induce everything from a berserker-like rage, to more subtle forms of co-opting such as the attempted assassination of General Taro Daisho after his own systems shrugged off the virus's effects.

Note: The Turing virus is EXTREMELY illegal as it can linger in 'dumb' systems until an AI interfaces with it, which then injects the virus. Consequently Player characters who are caught possessing either a working virus, or material claiming to allow a virus to be made (regardless on if the end product works or not) should have the proverbial Book thrown at them because society as a whole regards it as their generation's equivalent to possessing anthrax, or smallpox.

Plot Hooks

ToHo, Urial-Sloat Rotek, and other Synth manufacturing firms based on Pandora have been reporting repeated break-in attempts on corporate buildings within Pandora. Evidence at first points to inter-company spying, however while each admits to keeping tabs on its competitors the methods used feel too...sloppy to be a professional job, or at least one backed by people with deep pockets (as these three manufacturers would have practically limitless resources to put on the matter).

Either your character is approached by, or in the case of those bounty hunter-law enforcement types, tracking down the 'face' man trying to sell an 'off the market' Synth. The pitch involves gaining a fresh from Pandora Synth that has no concept of freedom or would realize its being used, so as long as its being taken care of no harm done. This, of course, is merely the tip of the iceberg as somebody had to get the Synth brain from Pandora (procuring enough parts to build a body is relatively straightforward as Synths have to have access to these materials to repair themselves. Brains, on the other hand, are manufactured and stored only on Pandora itself to try and regulate who can and can't build Synths).

By random chance the player group (or individual player as the case may be) finds a discarded Synth torso that looks like it'd been severely battened and with its limbs hacked away. Either hooking the torso up to a computer, or taking it to the nearest repair/refit shop shows that while the body is extensively damaged, and almost all reusable internal components have been stripped clean the Synth 'mind' is still in good order. Replacing the body isn't cheap, but if the player characters elect to do so they gain an ally in finding out who did this and why as opposed to question and answer sessions via computer interfacing before doing the legwork themselves.

Synths in and around Dust have been...unusually productive during the past three-month quarter. At first glance visitors find everything running smoothly, full throttle forward, and production reaching an all time high. Just under the surface and barely even whispered about unless one digs hard enough, there's talk that any HINT of nonconformity to the slavish regulations and work-hours Synths are being forced to work under brands the dissenting voice as either a Rampant, or encouraging Rampancy.

Planetary Networking

The Internet is a worldwide, publicly accessible series of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol (IP). It is a "network of networks" that consists of millions of smaller domestic, academic, business, and government networks, which together carry various information and services, such as electronic mail, online chat, file transfer, and the interlinked web pages and other resources of the World Wide Web (WWW)...The Internet and the World Wide Web are not synonymous. The Internet is a collection of interconnected computer networks; linked by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless connections, etc. In contrast, the Web is a collection of interconnected documents and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs. The World Wide Web is one of the services accessible via the Internet, along with various others including e-mail, file sharing, online gaming and others.

Text courtesy of Wikipedia

While the basics of this still holds true even in the 23rd century the mechanics have changed; copper wire almost wholly being replaced by fiber optics, computer storage and processing speed having grown largely to the point where any differences are rendered largely irrelevant from the average user's standpoint, and the addition of inter-planetary and inter-stellar distances. To break it down into its most basic forms there is no longer a single monolithic communications network; as even with the roughly two dozen or so Quantum Bridge relay stations throughout the Sol system and the extra solar colonies there's simply too much information to be handled.

With the distances involved between Earth, its local colonies, and the solar systems humanity has started to colonize, there is no longer a single unified 'internet' and hasn't been since 2069 when the first permanent Martian colonies were established. Instead each settlement has its own local network fully enclosed and cut off save for regular transmissions to send and receive email. While some view this as unnecessary with the advent of FTL data transmission via Quantum Bridge, most disregard this as rubbish due to the cost and fragility of the required equipment. Till such time as the needed transmitters become more common, sturdier, or most likely both of the above, the best people can do when in separate settlement areas is to use email, or be fortunate enough to have clearance to use the local transmitter to send and receive data real time.

The 'typical' network

The local network works on a client-server relationship. Your computer is the client, requesting data from the servers, which is then sent back to your computer. When the servers are networked together they can also act as clients that request data from other servers. Each network also is tied, directly or via a series of relays depending on distance, importance, and traffic, to a FTL transmitter for emergency situations as per both Terran and Confederacy laws. The use of said transmitter outside of emergency situations, however, is closely monitored for unauthorized traffic and generally considered a Bad Idea to attempt to use without proper authorization.

However for those wishing to try anyway each transmitter are designed with a minimum of three levels of security (which are rarely exactly the same between transmitters), each requiring a disable device (35) check before anyone is allowed access. If players can bypass the transmitter's security measures it then seems a bit anticlimactic as the transmitter itself works in a very narrow band, making intercepting highly unlikely unless you're directly within the line of communications, which is why there's also typically monitoring and logging software in place along with external security measures (DC25 Computers to disable).

Daily computing

Daily tasks and normal web surfing, even in the 23rd century, still chiefly uses a monitor, keyboard, and pointer device as its fairly efficient for routine tasks. Having said that though, virtual offices, full immersion programs, and other applications that historically have been referred to as 'virtual reality' or more commonly 'virt' have become commonplace enough to warrant the inclusion of a virt headset and gloves with all computers.

The typical computer, while sharing similar input methods to 20th century counterparts, differ in presentation as the home computer now serves as TV, Video Conferencing, Phone, as well as what had historically been tasks for the computer. As such the typical 'home' computer consists of a wall or stand mounted display that contains the primary processors, internal storage media, and connects via short range wireless (anywhere from 50 - 100 feet) to periphery devices such as keyboards, mice, remotes, speakers. For higher bandwidth applications such as networking multiple machines, connecting virt rigs, or hooking a synth in for diagnostics wireless can be used, but due to the amount of bandwidth used for the aforementioned applications its generally best to use hard line connections (using wireless for any of the above applications imposes a +2 to any and all difficulty checks that involve that connection).

A person's avatar can be, within reason (usually limited by server rules on size, complexity, and decency), anything the User wishes. After all who wants to be overweight, out of shape, and with bad completion Online as well as in reality when you could look like anything from a supermodel, action movie star, wizard, robot, or anything else for that matter. Granted those that know how, as well as the system administrators, can see through any persona you wish to create, or false information you post in your profile, to see where you're really working out of since, at least with sys-admin they have to be able to police their server and would otherwise be unable to keep troublemakers out. 'Tagging' an avatar's IP address requires either a DC 20 (computers), administrative privileges for that server, or somehow coercing your target into giving said information out.

Outside of computing, Television's largely a flat medium, at least for the basic telecom package, the technology's widely available and cheap enough to make a full 3d experience possible, but after researching the problem in the early 22nd century, it was widely agreed upon that its just not worth it to push everything into holographic projection. There are a good selection of 3d movies, which are popular as being able to watch a scene from different perspectives and angles provide for repeat viewing, but its been, at least for the past fifty years, largely a fringe element as most such movies consist of movies that practically require pausing and rewinding scenes from different angles to 'get' the entire story. It is worth noting that it is possible to set virtual cameras within a Virt program to get that camera's perspective transmitted to a 2d display.

Major Players

Ceres

The main information repository of Pandora station is actually the AI Ceres's main memory warehouse; at least that's what the public is told. The truth of the matter is it's a mirror of Ceres's raw data, updated and changed by Ceres herself to either remove vandalism, failed attempts at gaining access to her, or general information update, roughly twice daily.

CroComm

Main, in fact the only, reliable telecom provider for Okinaka, based out of Oldham and was formed shortly after surface colonization began due to Megami Telecom refusing to do business with Okinaka, thus creating an opening for another company to step in.

Megami Telecommunications

Telecom provider, based from Eastern Europe, provides service either directly or indirectly through partner corporations, to most of the Terran system. Formed in the late 22nd century, and also has branch offices in the four extrasolar Terran colonies. It should be noted that it is one of the few companies that have decided against having a presence on Okinaka, or even to have anything to do with Okinaka as a potential business venture.

Seres Industries

Company founded in the late twenty-first century, at first dealing with electronics in the most general sense, but has since specialized in computers and other telecommunication devices.

ToHo United

One of the other principle electronics makers and, unlike Serras that's since migrated to solely producing telecom, ToHo produces everything from smart paper, computers, cameras, and even some work with prosthetic limbs and their beefed up cybertek counterparts.

Prominent Groups

Joe User

Not a group as such, but more a term given to your average computer user. These people make up the vast majority of network traffic as they go about their daily routines, web searches, games, or whatever. There is no 'typical' User as computers are a part of daily life for everyone, making statistics irrelevant.

Neon Angels

One of the roughly eight-dozen or so groups that crop up in the news every so often. Generally they're portrayed as being young, male, and typically seen as little better than Vandals by the larger population. Their reason for existing, as with any gang, is to provide their members a sense of family or other social connection they feel is lacking elsewhere in their lives.

The actions they take, while generally little better than 'tagging' websites or distributing pirated software, do occasionally escalate into less overlooked territory. Usually this is because one member or another has run across something of particular interest either in way of software, or a physical address that catches the group's eye. Typically though they don't concern themselves with anything larger than what to do that weekend for thrills, or how to get back at whoever they thought wronged them last, which usually takes the form of something instant, fairly brutal but effective (which it rarely is in a lasting sense), and forgotten outside of the context of late night story swapping with buddies.

EXAMPLE MEMBER

Name: Kenny Sloat

Age: 17

PROFILE: Member of a sports team? Its well within his grasp, but Kenny instead chose to make the networks his stomping ground of choice. He's won and lost dozens of battles through the local networks, having doctored his grades (with help from fellow Angels) to make up for lack of effort in classes, and some would argue that he's started drug pushing. That last would be false as Kenny's view of authority continues to erode due to his understanding of computers that he believes puts him above their concerns. Unlike the first generations of net users this isn't the case as there's been roughly two centuries time for the 'net to integrate into all age brackets, but you try telling that to a headstrong teenager that thinks he's right and the rest of the world simply doesn't understand.

Note: The above template could easily be used, with slight modifications; to represent any number of groups that roam the Internet much the same as their meat space counterparts. Also, much as meat space street gangs there's always a bigger fish and as the scale gets larger it goes from being a group out either for thrills or operating under a pack mentality, to operating more like a business.

Anonymous:

Almost since the Internet was publicly available there's been a headless group just beneath the surface. Unlike other gangs or organizations based online this group has no leaders, directive, or even members. They simply are what the majority acts on at any given moment. Usually this consists of little more than petty pranks both online and off, talk on the Internet of what's what, or just existing in the moment. However, as been shown by the two dozen global, and three systems wide protests that have been staged since its formation, Anonymous also wields a considerable amount of influence if and when it perceives a threat to the free flow of information through the Internet that it doesn't consider 'normal'. An example of this would be company documents being left alone, as their secrecy is expected. Video of x or y person being pulled due to a lawsuit against the hosting website, however, would cause said video to be distributed throughout both the local network and the different networks both throughout the local system and beyond. This is a bit simplistic and perhaps altruistic view of Anonymous as, under their banner, thousands of proprietary documents have been spread throughout the networks of humanity 'for our own amusement.'

Combat:

Combat can be split between flatland and virtual combat. Flatland 'combat' can simply be handled via relevant uses of the computer's skill check. Virtual combat operates much as normal combat does, with changes listed below.

All \93weapons\94 used in virtual reality are malicious code used to crash the opponents system. The weapons, like avatars, can take any form the designer wishes. With few exceptions, weapons cause non-lethal damage and can knock a user offline as well as knock the user unconscious. All weapons are treated the same regardless if it's a club, an uzi, or a fireball. The user's non-lethal damage track, unlike lethal damage, is used to reflect the fact that while virt combat isn't 'real, the stimuli is 'real enough' for the human mind to react accordingly. An experienced weapon designer can create a weapon that attacks the system in such a way that it damages how its hardware functions. These are rare, not to mention illegal for a privet individual, or even the vast majority of corporate or other non-military entities to possess.

Powers:

Virtual Reality isn't a real location the majority of powers simply are non-applicable leaving a potential adept at a gross disadvantage. Psychics, on the other hand, aren't nearly as hindered as mind related powers still apply. For those wishing to use a power within virtual space treat any subject that is currently being interacted with only as 'very familiar' due to the fact that while player characters are currently interacting with them they are not actually present.

Items

Basic VR Hookups

Description

While most, if not all, computers within the past twenty years come with a basic VR setup and avoids the majority of involuntary reaction to what's happening through the screen as only one's hands and head are truly interacting. This also gives this set of hookups the added advantage of portability over the other units, which require bulky booth setups. Just be aware that gamers for using this now ubiquitous piece of gear in your next LAN party will look you down on.

Full Bodysuit Hookup

Description

With the addition of a skintight bodysuit your virtual experience becomes less a videogame and something approaching actual interaction. Describing this as a suit is a bit of a misnomer though as in addition to the suit is a stand that you're hooked to help facilitate movement and give a safe place, where you won't jar other people by reactions to your chosen stimuli.

Full Immersion suit

Description:

This is the pinnacle in man-machine interfacing, well, short of a direct neural interface anyway. In addition to the full body suit this comes with memory materials that gives appropriate force feedback to stimuli, and has an inbuilt library of reflex actions to take to supplement a user's own abilities within virtual space, which stacks with any relevant bonuses from feats or cybertek.

Business Utility Games and Guidance Service (BUGGS) Subscription

Description

An online software distribution model that originated in the early 21st century by offering games, but has since grown and expanded beyond games into general software both through its own label and others willing to be distributed via third party, an all-inclusive help desk service, and a community consisting of roughly a billion active users at any one time. Users of the BUGGS service can use any software within their library for free as long as they subscribe and are connected to the local network to verify their account status. If one wishes to use software while disconnected from the networks they must buy that piece of software. Granted for most people this is a non-issue as they're always able to access a local node to connect, but for those that take wilder shores, or move from network to network and wish to work while in transit its a relevant issue.

Media Net

Description

This service is similar to BUGGS, but primarily focusing on Movies, Music, Literature (books, news, ect), and other 'passive' media instead of interactive software. As with BUGGS users may 'rent' media for free as long as they can access a network to verify account status but must buy the desired media if they wish to view offline.

E-Z Avatar Creator

Description: While the most die-hard virt-goers look down on this piece of software, claiming its populated virt-space with cookie cutter and clich\E9 creations, most view this as a vital piece of software for whipping together something they can use with about an hour's tweaking (depending on how much time one wishes to spend customizing their virtual selves). Despite the elitist attitudes towards E-Z Avatar Creator, the combination of its straightforward interface, expandable scripting engine, and the option to export the source code for the user's creation for those that wish to manually edit and tweak every little parameter has made this the gold standard in virt-editing. Players using this program gain a +4 to their computers score for the purposes of creating virtual armor, weapons, or a new persona. However the catch is this program resides in the same area of the computer's memory as the items it helps to create.

Plot Hooks

This section is to aid groups that need just a little help finding ways to get an adventure going, or possibly find ways to flesh out an existing adventure in the event that players wish to stray from the carefully manicured path the Narrator has lain out for them. Alternatively Narrators can use these hooks as a method of introducing Player characters together that normally wouldn't interact.

Smart AI typically require a quantum computer to operate, thus forcing them into highly specialized 'brains' to work out of. Research, leaded to the local networks of course, has been done on making a 'smart' AI that's capable of running off of more commonly available hardware (such as a desktop computer for instance). Considering what this might do for the Synth race/Market its little wonder that the fact that no workable AI has been developed has been attributed to a cover-up. There are, as always, rumors of a single working example that somehow survived the clampdown and attempted purge by Those That Don't Want It Active and has somehow made a home within Okinaka's electronic network.

A new game has taken hold in Virt-Space that's offering Big Money to the best and most capable teams. While professional gaming is nothing new, in the age of telecom it's rarely had as much exposure, even so far as to have an entire channel dedicated to the better matches, and JUST the matches without color commentary from hosts or other talking heads.

Your character's between jobs and is being offered work with Seres. It isn't much, but testing equipment, debugging code, or (all depending on character aptitudes) working security pays the bills. The problem with 'milk run' jobs are that they're not always boring, or easy. Take for instance a horde of virt gangs working through the networks (flatland), Virt-Space, and Meatspace in a coordinated attack against the building you're guarding due to rumors of a new production model that's the talk of the entire network. Normally rumor and buzz wouldn't' prompt illegal action, but if the player(s) involved can get their mitts on the system in question they might understand what the fuss is about, or it could all just be a test from the Pandora Office to see just how well building security holds up under a worst case scenario.

Your group is being targeted by a virt-gang identifying itself as 'leet cru'. So far this gang has done little beyond vandalism, but the sheer volume of taunting, harassment, and its finally gotten to the point where enough is enough. Unfortunately while the authorities are looking into the matter, and are doing their best considering everything, it's just taking too long. So it's left to the players how they will attempt to cope with the issue. Do they counter-torment with the help of computer-savvy friends? Do they try going for a long vacation away from it all till the virtual punks find something else to do (thus leaving themselves open to a 'monster in the woods' type adventure)?

On the flip side, of course, are those that wish to join a virt gang, either out of boredom, the need for protection, or perhaps to use in your own ends. Of course you could be the best and brightest of the lot, could have all the flash and SoTa

Native Life

By and large humans and Natives stay away from each other. In the past, however, there have been encounters, generally ending in both parties fleeing after a short examination period. Notable exceptions occurred when Jeric Hikari first attempted to communicate with a group of three Natives who, knowingly or not, saved him from pursuing ELOI. The other notable exception was when Maya Artisan reported making mental contact with a Native identifying itself as Legion. However given she was near death and delusional during that time this reported communication is widely disregarded.

Typical Native stands at about five feet in height (though it varies between individuals, anywhere from 4'3 - 5'6 is considered normal). Descriptions vary, but most agree that each have stocky legs and torsos with long arms ending in three long fingers and a thumb. Topping the body is slightly large compared to the body (by human standards) head with a short mouth/nose snout and two black eyes. It should be noted that the skin texture and appearance has often been compared to dirt and have a variety of skin tones ranging from black loam to dust colored. Okinakans, due to whatever force binds them to the physical plane, can be detected by even latent psychics at a distance up to 120 feet. Any sensitive within the area can point out general direction and a rough estimate on how close they are, but not exact distances.

Cabbits (note: Dear God what was I thinking when I wrote this?)

Size: Slightly smaller than the average house cat

Weight: Between five and fifteen pounds

Eye Coloration: Yellow, Green, Blue, grey

Fur Coloration: Cream, black, brown, orange, grey, red or a combination

Fur Length: Short

Profile

Birth

Due to the lack of reliable data from conception to egg laying the exact gestation time is unknown. However no cabbit egg has taken longer than thirty days to hatch. Each egg consists of a roughly soccer ball sized multifaceted crystalline structure, usually dark blue, but can range in color from sky blue to black (given the structure of the 'egg' itself many different color variations are often seen within each egg). Eggs are often found nested among high ledges, usually with no method of temperature regulation, or even very little protection from the elements. Each egg is solitary, or at least no examples have been found where multiple eggs have been found clustered, or even within the general vicinity of each other. This fact coupled with the complete and utter lack of documentation of cabbit pregnancy leads many naturalists to believe that wild cabbits are, by and large, solitary creatures during pregnancy and egg laying. Still others believe that cabbits do not reproduce naturally and are instead created by the same intelligence that seems to control the natives, a theory enhanced by the utter lack of any off-planet cabbit procreation observed from those specimens that have successfully been raised outside of Okinaka. However that could simply mean that they either aren't sexually mature, or require even more food than is 'normal' to reproduce, or even that the constant transformations imposed on off-world cabbits prevent reproduction.

Life

On average cabbits confined to Okinaka behave much the same as any other small wild animal, a little more intelligent perhaps, and able to eat anything from wild plants and insects to meat leftover from another creature's kill, but still little obvious behavior differences between wild cabbits and other small mammals save for one key difference. Much to the chagrin of humans all over the planet cabbits show little if any fear towards humans, which makes sense as, unlike those species from earth, they have had no reason to fear people as a species.

Despite having no clear cut social structure cabbits are exceedingly social both with others of their own species, and in fact any other species that isn't outright hostile towards them. This fact has made the process of domestication shrink from centuries or millennia as with every other species humanity has domesticated, to a handful of years.

Unlike their wild counterparts, who seem to behave much the same as terrestrial rabbits (albeit with an expanded diet), domesticated cabbits frequently manifest psychic, or in rare instances, adept-like powers, typically at the direction of the person whom it belongs to but not always. Additionally the process of domestication instigates a radical series of changes in cabbit physiology, since, unlike their wild kin, tamed members of this species have shown the unique, and barely understood, ability to change form, almost at will. As a result of this, and their tendency to turn into either items that the settlers find useful, or modes of transportation, cabbits are something of a commodity amongst the population of Okinaka, and more recently, the Terran federation.

Alternate Forms

Given time and training cabbits have shown the potential to become other things. Typically each Cabbit can only become, at the largest, something the size of a large car. However a rising number, all owned by shipping companies, have become large enough to carry material and trade goods about.

This object will look like it's made either of crystals grown into an approximation of the object desired, or of unrefined metal. Additionally this object will have the same coloration as the Cabbits original form, and retain the ability to fly.

Note: For those wishing to use cabbits as interplanetary, or planet to station transports, the energy expended in the effort makes the cabbit extremely hungry when it arrives. Per every day the cabbit has to travel interplanetary distances increase its dietary requirements to twenty pounds of food per day for the following week (or for the week after the last day of travel).

Near the peak of cabbit evolution we find the truly colossal craft, passenger craft, flying (or hovering as the case may be) home, long haul transport craft, and the like. Additionally at this stage interstellar travel becomes possible (via anything up until a class VII jump (Starship) drive), which, coupled with the fact that cabbits can be bred and raised faster than most Jump-Space capable ships can be built, make them an attractive option for those that can afford the care, training, and feeding. Unfortunately to generate enough energy to create the additional mass, much less the power needed for flight, cabbits need fifty pounds of food per day tapering down to twenty pounds per day three months since its last transformation.

Death

Everything dies, even the strange life, if it is indeed life in the traditional sense, native to Okinaka. Once a cabbit dies, its body starts to quickly break down, forming a slightly less massive pile of exceptionally high grade Pluxonite dust within a 36 hour period of time.

Speculation: Due to the fact that cabbits had not shown up till after the Regan Accord, and due to the close ties between cabbits and Okinaka it is theorized that whatever intelligence was responsible for the events just prior to the Regan Accord created cabbits for reasons known, at best, to the bare handful of people that directly spoke with this intelligence.

Entity

The whole story (which won't be covered in this story) is that the 'natives' are in fact projections by the planet itself, or rather a massive gathering of ore that retains the psychic echoes of an entire civilization way back ever since the native life gained sentience. This intelligence is very old, and despite its wholly inhuman intelligence, is able to relate to and converse with humanoids.

This intelligence is essentially a planet-wide genus loci and its also the reason the super continent hasn't broken apart, since it formed when the continents came together, bringing the ore deposits in close enough to reach a critical mass. So most of its will is actually directed in the planet itself to maintain stability in that one region. It is also the reason the adepts are around, as very young psychics are touched by its mind and in a way are acting as its eyes and ears on human culture and life. It's also why adepts don't like leaving the planet. They leave, that connection is lost. This also explains why deep mining is practically impossible. The entity knows that even though current mining wouldn't affect it greatly, with the human tendency to super size once they find success, humans could very well kill it.

Plot Hooks

The Entity makes itself known through via the natives, and possesses the vast majority of the Adepts on Okinaka (the few that escape possession are quickly rounded up and kept under lock and key at Wayne research station or else have gone into hiding. Through the adepts that the Entity controls Pandora, and via Pandora's Quantum Bridge, the Terran System is addressed. In this address the Entity states, in no uncertain terms, that humans can either cease any and all attempts at deep mining, or it will 'Take any and all steps necessary to ensure its continued survival'. It doesn't have a commanding tone when it makes this proclamation. Instead it's pleading with mankind to stop what it's doing so there can be peaceful co-existence.

It takes a terrible amount of effort to do what it's doing, but like any creature it does what it feels it has to in order to survive. It doesn't want people to leave, since as long as a sentient species exists on the planet's surface it can continue to grow and learn. Its projections, both natives and 'ghosts' are simply its way of attempting a more direct form of communication. With the second disaster at Hollywood, It discovers that people would continue to dig, and poke, and blast until there was a definitive an answer of some nature, so here that answer is staring them in the face telling them to either stop trying to kill it, or the natural catastrophes that had been flung at them would pale by comparison, since if it wished it could enslave enough of the population long enough to rewrite their minds so that it wouldn't need to directly control everybody. It could simply order its drones about (which it does on a very small scale) and make them build weapons, defenses, whatever it takes to wage war on its behalf so it can survive.

Its strongly advised that this story be woven into a long term campaign, incorporating elements mentioned in other plot hook sections from this book as well as whatever else strikes the player group, or narrator's fancy to keep things interesting.

Augmentation

As medical technology advances things once thought impossible, or at the very least extremely risky to the health of the patient have since become commonplace. For example for those currently insured even with the most basic of insurance plans if for whatever reason an organ fails or needs replacing, a new organ is cloned out of your own body's tissue to replace it, thus negating in all but a very few cases where genetic abnormalities prevent this from becoming a workable alternative, the chance of organ rejection and the lifelong need to take immune suppressant drugs afterwards to further reduce the chances of organ rejection or failure. Unfortunately even in the 23rd century genetic modification and cloning technology can only do so much. In cases where the risk of an organ developing cancer is high, artificial replacements are crafted. The majority of these blend in well with 'normal' organs when they're externally visible (eyes, limbs, skin, partial facial replacements, etc). However as with everything, the more money a person is willing to invest, the better they\92re able to purchase.

Cykosis

While the use of cybertek is more or less commonplace it still involves particular dangers, especially when a person tries having more cybertek installed than their minds can deal with without warping, causing a condition known as cykosis. Those who fully succumb to cykosis, a mental condition where those affected begin obsessing, even more than they had prior to this point, with replacing the flesh and bone of their bodies with cybertek, are known as cykoteks

Once a character have succumbed to cykosis are warped parodies of their former selves due to their mind's attempt to cope with the altered physiology by latching onto cybertek as being somehow inherently better than the flesh it was born into. After a character becomes a cykotek, they are typically locked away from the general population because their fixation on 'mechanical perfection' also leads to the belief that anyone not also attempting to 'upgrade' themselves are somehow enslaved by their flesh, and are little better than mindless cattle.

There are a few instances of cykoteks living in relative harmony with the outside world, but the majority of those that suffer from this condition end up lashing out violently at anyone and everyone due to paranoid delusions of their own 'ascension' to perfection being halted by 'the fearful masses choking on their own rotted meat' and must be captured, either to be 'humanely' euthanised, or locked away in a terminal care facility equipped to deal with their particular nature. There are rumors, which have naturally been latched onto by popular culture and the media, of cykoteks serving government or privet militaries as super-soldiers.

Space Travel

Inter-Planetary Travel

Ion-thrust engines are the norm here.

Travel Times

Earth - Mars. Depending on both planets' positions anywhere from a month to a year.

Most craft are built in space and thus aren't able to land, but are constructed so that if there's no other option they can be crashed with a reasonable chance at crew survival.

How prevalent are they?

About as common as steam ships were just after the civil war. In other words just common enough to be part of daily living, but not so common that many people still see just riding in one as something memorable.

Inter-Stellar Travel

Reactor Type:

Main power is derived from a cold-fusion reactor

Power Requirements

Roughly that of a good sized city, which is astronomically low considering Pre-FTL era science predicted that one would need more energy than is available in the entire universe for this method of travel.

Commonality

Ships capable of entering jump-space are quite rare, partly due to the costs of construction, but it has more to do with the fact that both governments, up until the Confederacy started marketing and exporting Cabbits as a method of mass producing FTL capable craft, both governments had kept the plans for this technology a state secret. Theories run rampant as to why, with the most common being that nobody wants to see the technology further weaponized, however nothing has ever been either proven or disproven.

Travel Times:

Sol System - Okinaka: Anywhere between one to six weeks depending on engine type.

Earth - Pluto: One to Three Years. Paradoxically it takes almost as long to travel distances within a light-year's span than it does to travel across the galaxy.

Sol - Center of the Milky Way: Six Months to a year.

Sol to the furthest point in the Milky Way Galaxy: - Two to Five years.

Turbulence:

The seeming randomness of the stuff Jump-Space is made of makes exact travel times impossible. Two ships, exactly the same and crewed by idiot-savant machines capable of making the journey without being powered down, can travel to the same destination at the same time and arrive weeks apart.

Weapons

Good examples of Futuristic weapons that would fit within the theme presented here include (but arn't limited to) most sci-fi themed tv and movie series as long as they conform to the familiar 'gun' form factor, any hand to hand weapons that come to the group's mind (as some designs simply work and who's basic design changes little over time, a prime example being the knife), or futurist shows centered around hypothetical military technologies

Sample NPCs

Ceres

Synth Neuter

Age: 106 Terran Standard Years

Office Held: Head of Juno Foundation, Chief AI for Pandora Station, Okinakan Planetary Council Member

Ceres, the AI at the heart of Pandora Station, and some would argue the heart of the Okinakan Government. She started life as an attempt to create an AI capable of learning and growing through the course of its operating lifespan and was successful beyond even the wildest dreams of her creators. Praise or denounce her as you would, Ceres advanced the fields of AI development and robotics, helped make cold fusion practical, and gave humanity the capability to reach the stars within anywhere from weeks to decades instead of millennia.

Dr. Mizuno Ami

Human Female

Age: 63 Terran Standard Years

She is the first, and so far only, 'head' of Oldham's governing counsel, which says something about her talents in the political arena. Dr. Mizuno is generally publicly portrayed as being a 'new western sheriff, capitalizing on the popular sentiment of Okinaka representing a new frontier for humanity, much as the old-west was four centuries earlier. Privately, however, she loathes the 'wild west' persona she's had to wear in the public eye, as privately she feels that the overly romanticized image put forward hides the atrocities that it seems very few within Okinakan society remembers.

Timeline

2134 - Practical Cold Fusion Achieved

Planet PH051 discovered. Later study that year shows it to be comparable in size and density to Earth.

2136 - First unmanned Cold-Fusion powered craft tested near Wells-Lowell Mars. Flight considered a success marred only by a program glitch that causes it to crash on landing.

2139 - First Cold Fusion power plants come online. Solar System wide energy crisis lessened, but not eliminated.

A.I. Ceres comes online at Wells-Lowell research facility. That October Ceres devises a way of getting around the light-speed barrier with current technology and hides this information due to the lethality of the drive when activated.

2141 - Intra-system Commerce halts. The stated cause of the strike is due to the widespread use, or threat of use, of robots to replace human workers. Terran government responds by replacing essential positions with robots.

November 21 05:00 GMT - System War One starts with a wave of terror attacks aimed at crippling the Terran government, with the largest of these being the detonation of Tranquility Bay's fusion reactor, killing millions both in the actual explosion as well as through loss of power to the surrounding lunar colonies.

2142 - February - Separatists deploy Turing virus in battle of Kyoto. This act eventually leads to laws being passed in March which forbids any A.I. to hook into 'any and all computer systems not needed for the maintenance of their intelligence without some form of intermediary device to act as a filter.'

March 31 - coalition of Terran and Separatist scientists petition both governments to cease using the Turing virus, fearing it would end up as their generation's land mine.

April 13 - Both sides of the conflict agree to discontinue using any Turing-class virus. Privately both sides continue researching and developing better, less noticeable strains.

May 5 - Wells-Lowell research facility attacked. To prevent enemy forces from stealing any of the research material or data the head of the facility initiated a reactor overload. At this time, to preserve ongoing research, the A.I. known as Ceres was transferred into a shell specially built to house its consciousness. A.I. as well as two hundred non-essential personnel escapes before the colony's reactor goes critical.

May 9 - A.I. Ceres oversees completion of TSS Hermes, mankind's first Faster Than Light (FTL) capable craft. This ship is then used to lure two heavy cruisers away from the battle of Clarke station, Earth. This results in both the boarding of the TSS Hermes as well as the activation of the ship's FTL drive. This results in twenty dead due to side effects of creating the warp bubble, but otherwise the flight went as expected.

A.I. Ceres takes up residence on TSS Hermes after disabling the FTL drive and continues its research while evading further pursuit.

2142 - August 29 - Ceres becomes self-aware.

September 9 - Unmanned probe equipped with FTL drive sent to PH051. It finds a dead world that suffered from what is thought to have been a gamma-ray burst, or some other event that stripped the entire planet of its ozone layer, thus allowing for its sun's radiation to kill all surface life as well as all life at the top levels of the ocean. Other than this the planet was deemed 'a near twin to Earth.'

This news, that there were other worlds to colonize and room for humanity to expand caused both major factions of the war to enter into peace negotiations. It is in these talks that, if a method to reach PH051 by humans is found, anybody not satisfied with the Terran government may go to that planet. They would still be considered part of Terran government and would accordingly be held under the same laws and responsibilities as before.

November 21 - System wide armistice goes into effect.

December 1 - Unmanned mission to further research PH051 launched. This mission, while unmanned, is controlled and monitored and maintained by both former adversaries.

December 13 - Probe Odyssey lands on the eastern coast of the super continental landmass. Automated systems function flawlessly and over the course of the mission gather soil samples, take many audio and video recordings as well as bring back artifacts. Sadly the robots that were sent along with the probe had been damaged as a result of their trip through jump space. These droids, along with the samples and other materials, were sent to Earth and Mars based institutes for study.

It is at this point first theorized that PH051 was the home to a thriving civilization that, as far as photographic evidence suggested, existed on roughly the same technological level as Roman-era Europe.

2145 - A.I. Ceres finds a way to keep potential colonists alive during warp travel through use of stasis fields.

March 12 - To test Ceres's theories several mice as well as a single A.I. are sent through to PH051. For the duration of the trip the robot is switched off and the mice are held in suspended animation.

April 1 - Experiment concluded with the safe return of both mice and machine, both in good working order and sent into quarantine for evaluation.

April 7 - Ceres enters negotiations with Terran leaders to be allowed to create a new generation of robots that would be both less 'clunky' as it were, and innately self aware. In exchange for being allowed to improve on the general design of robots Ceres gave to the Terran government plans for both more power efficient FTL drives, as well as plans for a colony ship that could carry 650,000 specialists, colonists, sentient robots, and refugees to PH051..

July 3 - First new generation robot comes online, named Hikari.

August 4 - Hikari as well as one military build droid arrive on PH051 with the intent of giving Hikari a field test as well as gather more samples from the ruined settlements. The ulterior mission here is to test Hikari's combative abilities. However that is only known to a bare handful of people. Once Hikari activates after their craft makes planet fall he attacks and destroys the companion drone, but not before the probe's set to return with an emergency signal.

August 21 - A Squad (Eight individuals) of old types are sent after Hikari. All eight activate without problem and search under orders to subdue if possible, if not, destroy.

2146 - August 7 - After almost a yearlong hunt Hikari's central processor and memory units are returned to earth. It took three more squads to eventually bring him down as Hikari had been equipped with the latest in personal armor and weaponry as well as apparently making use of alien technology, though probably not for its intended purpose. Several of the pursuing drones had been bashed in with portions of the ruins.

2147 - Several crews of labor drones are sent to PH051 to aid in the construction of habitats as well as assist in the creation of a livable biosphere for the colonists.

2150 - March 3 21:43 GMT - TSS Pandora Launched

650,000 total Colonists

50,000 Biologists, Botanists, ect to study the remains of the extra solar life

250,000 Farmers and general Laborers

150,000 Commercial/Business

75,000 Police/Militia/Security forces

125,000 Misc. personnel, Families of workers, general refugees, ECT

Launches with expectation that they would reach PH051 in twenty years. Such slow transit time is required as the attempt to move something of this mass and scale hasn't been done yet. A.I. Ceres installed in ship's control room via series of networked connections that could, in an emergency, be disconnected, severing Ceres's control of the ship.

2170 - April 2 04:34 GMT: TSS Pandora achieves Orbit. Between droid monitored equipment and unknown forces PH051's ozone layer had rebuilt enough for genetically engineered plant and microbial life to further assist in the rebuilding process. I want it to be later found out that some of the surviving inhabitants had been using magic to attempt to rebuild and revive the planet's biosphere. It is also at this point where humans first set foot, even if that foot is encased in a protective suit, on the surface.

2215 - First batch of colonists migrate down from Pandora as permanent settlers.

It is at this point that Ceres advises a near total blackout state of communications with earth for a period of five years. Even though Faster than Light communications is impossible save for the use of telepaths (and how THAT is possible is still not understood) there had, up until this time, been routine message buoys sent between Terran System and Pandora. Ceres's reasoning was that it was at this point that the colonists had to assert their independence. After the colonist's ruling body confers with Terran government there is an official five year blackout period placed over PH051 where no communications or persons can be sent to or from Terran System to the settlement outside of a life and death emergency.

2217 - Second and third Settlements established. Population restrictions eased.

September 12 - Population reaches the one million mark.

2220 - Communications blackout ends.

May 1 - Ruling council, along with Ceres, approach Terran System government with progress report and petition for independence.

September 1 - Full autonomy granted to PH051 and the two governing bodies exchange ambassadors.

Exploration of PH051 continues, as does the study of the dead civilization.

2239 - June 5 - Research station Hollywood goes silent. Orbiting satellites record an explosion equivalent to the Tunguska event of 1908. Transmissions just prior to the explosion indicate one of their experiments with PH051's unusual properties the stuff that makes magical affects possible had gotten out of hand.

2245 - February 3 - Winter weather worsens, forcing an expedition that was to explore the ruins near the remains of Hollywood to delay until the weather cleared.

April 15 - Ceres turns 100.

December 1 - A treaty between Ceres, the Terran Federation, and the Intelligence behind the year's events reached a tentative agreement, ending overt hostilities. Those that were being directly controlled by this Intelligence was released, and any further attempts at anything other than surface mining of Pluxonite has been outlawed. Lastly the Confederate government was to abandon Regan Station so that it could be converted to a meeting place should further formal talks be required.

2246 - January - The Regan Accord, as it has become known, was formalized, which essentially was a reiteration of the agreements made a month earlier by the two governments and the planet-wide intelligence in a more formalized setting.

2249 - Present day