Here's a first draft for the storyline behind Blue Shift (complete with gaps). Feel free to comment, make suggestions or flame me for all the inconsistencies. Constructive criticism greatly appreciated.
Mull.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
BLUE//SHIFT is set on an alternate Earth approximately one hundred years from now. This vision of Earth is one possible future for our own planet, it just happened in the game a little earlier and with the addition of a little dose of science-fiction.
It is the late 20th century and Moore's Law proves to be a little conservative. As the end of the millienium approaches, technological, medical and industrial breakthroughs are arriving faster and faster with corporations, research agencies and governments discovering advancements and moving forward in leaps and bounds. By the 1990s the International Space Station (ISS) is complete and orbiting the Earth. Plans are underway to colonise the Moon and Mars. On Earth, diseases and conditions such as cancer and spina bifida are easily diagnosed and treated with drugs and gene therapy. Rudimentary, organic cybernetics are commonplace and blindness and deafness are as a result ailments of the past. Industrialisation is advancing faster and faster, with new polymers, alloys and methods of mass-production being discovered and implemented every few months. In all but the smallest factories, robots are used to manufacture goods. Mankind thinks of itself approaching a Golden Age. But at what cost?
The Earth's natural fuel resources are all but starved. By the beginning of the new millenium, fossil fuels reserves will be exhausted. International quotas on pollution and global warming are treated as nothing more than simple statistics by the governments of the largest and most industrial countries, and these quotas are traded between nations with no concern for the long-term effects on the environment. In the UK, refuse and landfill sites are contributing to a massive 2% of the worlds gaseous pollutants. In the US, the industrial rustbelt pours sulphur dioxide out into the atmosphere and fills rivers with nitrates. Globally, temperatures are steadily rising and despite the best warnings of environmentalists, the world's leaders press on with their Golden Age. Blissful ignorance paves the way for consumerism and the new global economy.
The millenium arrives and people celebrate. Sceptics that predicted that computers worldwide would fall prey to "The Millenium Bug" are scoffed at as automated manufacturing systems, bank mainframes and the global information infrastructure rolls over into the new year with very few problems.
The first decade of the new millenium heralds is a decade of "more and faster". By 2005, more than 70% of the modern, western world lives a life of affluent luxury. Automated systems are cheap and tend to the average family's everyday needs. Factories are similarly automated and produce and distribute products with minimal human intervention. Beneath it all, a class division as broad as the rift between the affluent west and the impoverished third world slowly grows. The technological elite - the "haves" - those that rode the wave of technological advances and consumerism of the last twentieth century. And the "have-nots" - what is left of the working classes of the great US and EU: not affluent enough to break free and into the New Society yet skilled enough to be of use to industry. Meanwhile, the third world still suffers despite "aid" from large multinationals who buy up land and either relocate or employ the people that once lived there.
All this is moot, however. On May 14th 2007 a deep-space research team monitoring edge-of-system phenomena and based at the ISS observes a large mass moving through our solar system. This mass exhibits a property known as "blue shift" - it is moving towards the observers. It is assigned a rudimentary ID of #070563476 and logged for further observation.
April 3rd 2007 and the ISS observation station makes a routine check once again on #070563476. This time, they take more notice. The mass is still moving towards the centre of the solar system and its location is estimated to be somewhere between Jupiter and Saturn. Projections indicate the mass will pass dangerously close to the Earth and #070563476 is identified as a high-risk threat. All appropriate authorities and governments are informed. Risk-assessment of #070563476 begins.
Calculations on the size and mass of #070563476 put it to be approximately seven kilometers in diameter, comparable to the comet Halley. A collision with the Earth by an object of such size and projected mass would most certainly result in an extinction event to rival the K-T event that was reputed to have wiped out the dinosaurs. Despite the fact that the orbit of #070563476 passes the Earth, announcements are made and contingency plans are put into place.
TODO: Timeline to impact
#070563476 fragments as it passes through the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars, throwing small shards of itself in all directions. Three main shards remain, approximately 2.5km, 1.5km and 2km in diameter. These are dubbed XXXX, YYYY and ZZZZ.
Whilst YYYY passes close to the Earth, XXXX and ZZZZ impact the surface along with hundreds of smaller asteroids. XXXX strikes in the ocean between Greenland and Iceland, sending huge tidal waves in all directions. The arctic's frozen walls shatter with the impact, throwing millions of tons of ice into the oceans. The east coast of the US, the United Kingdom and western Europe are devastated by immense tsunami. YYYY impacts 22 minutes later in the south pacific. The western seabord of the US and the Pacific Rim suffer similarly. Both impacts throw incalculable masses of dust into the atmosphere, starting an impact winter that lasts for decades. Billions die.
[fast forward]
With the impact of XXXX and ZZZZ upon the Earth came the near-extinction of terrestrial life. You are one of the survivors, commander of a small colony of individuals seeking out answers and a new life on a shattered planet. The impacts and subsequent winter laid waste to most of the surface land and the billions of tons of ice combined with tidal waves flooded most land. The Earth is almost completely ocean. In the years since the impact over a century ago, mankind has adapted to its new environment. Small colonies have banded together using what advanced technology they could salvage and knowledge they possessed. Five main factions have emerged from the darkness and your origins lie with one such faction.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Anonymous
-
2003-03-10
On May 14th 2007 a deep-space research team...
April 3rd 2007 and the ISS observation station makes a routine check once again...
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Deffinitly a chilling read, and great potential. The dates are a little 'soon' though, all though that could be what makes it a chilling read I suppose.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Here's a first draft for the storyline behind Blue Shift (complete with gaps). Feel free to comment, make suggestions or flame me for all the inconsistencies. Constructive criticism greatly appreciated.
Mull.
BLUE//SHIFT is set on an alternate Earth approximately one hundred years from now. This vision of Earth is one possible future for our own planet, it just happened in the game a little earlier and with the addition of a little dose of science-fiction.
It is the late 20th century and Moore's Law proves to be a little conservative. As the end of the millienium approaches, technological, medical and industrial breakthroughs are arriving faster and faster with corporations, research agencies and governments discovering advancements and moving forward in leaps and bounds. By the 1990s the International Space Station (ISS) is complete and orbiting the Earth. Plans are underway to colonise the Moon and Mars. On Earth, diseases and conditions such as cancer and spina bifida are easily diagnosed and treated with drugs and gene therapy. Rudimentary, organic cybernetics are commonplace and blindness and deafness are as a result ailments of the past. Industrialisation is advancing faster and faster, with new polymers, alloys and methods of mass-production being discovered and implemented every few months. In all but the smallest factories, robots are used to manufacture goods. Mankind thinks of itself approaching a Golden Age. But at what cost?
The Earth's natural fuel resources are all but starved. By the beginning of the new millenium, fossil fuels reserves will be exhausted. International quotas on pollution and global warming are treated as nothing more than simple statistics by the governments of the largest and most industrial countries, and these quotas are traded between nations with no concern for the long-term effects on the environment. In the UK, refuse and landfill sites are contributing to a massive 2% of the worlds gaseous pollutants. In the US, the industrial rustbelt pours sulphur dioxide out into the atmosphere and fills rivers with nitrates. Globally, temperatures are steadily rising and despite the best warnings of environmentalists, the world's leaders press on with their Golden Age. Blissful ignorance paves the way for consumerism and the new global economy.
The millenium arrives and people celebrate. Sceptics that predicted that computers worldwide would fall prey to "The Millenium Bug" are scoffed at as automated manufacturing systems, bank mainframes and the global information infrastructure rolls over into the new year with very few problems.
The first decade of the new millenium heralds is a decade of "more and faster". By 2005, more than 70% of the modern, western world lives a life of affluent luxury. Automated systems are cheap and tend to the average family's everyday needs. Factories are similarly automated and produce and distribute products with minimal human intervention. Beneath it all, a class division as broad as the rift between the affluent west and the impoverished third world slowly grows. The technological elite - the "haves" - those that rode the wave of technological advances and consumerism of the last twentieth century. And the "have-nots" - what is left of the working classes of the great US and EU: not affluent enough to break free and into the New Society yet skilled enough to be of use to industry. Meanwhile, the third world still suffers despite "aid" from large multinationals who buy up land and either relocate or employ the people that once lived there.
All this is moot, however. On May 14th 2007 a deep-space research team monitoring edge-of-system phenomena and based at the ISS observes a large mass moving through our solar system. This mass exhibits a property known as "blue shift" - it is moving towards the observers. It is assigned a rudimentary ID of #070563476 and logged for further observation.
April 3rd 2007 and the ISS observation station makes a routine check once again on #070563476. This time, they take more notice. The mass is still moving towards the centre of the solar system and its location is estimated to be somewhere between Jupiter and Saturn. Projections indicate the mass will pass dangerously close to the Earth and #070563476 is identified as a high-risk threat. All appropriate authorities and governments are informed. Risk-assessment of #070563476 begins.
Calculations on the size and mass of #070563476 put it to be approximately seven kilometers in diameter, comparable to the comet Halley. A collision with the Earth by an object of such size and projected mass would most certainly result in an extinction event to rival the K-T event that was reputed to have wiped out the dinosaurs. Despite the fact that the orbit of #070563476 passes the Earth, announcements are made and contingency plans are put into place.
TODO: Timeline to impact
#070563476 fragments as it passes through the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars, throwing small shards of itself in all directions. Three main shards remain, approximately 2.5km, 1.5km and 2km in diameter. These are dubbed XXXX, YYYY and ZZZZ.
Whilst YYYY passes close to the Earth, XXXX and ZZZZ impact the surface along with hundreds of smaller asteroids. XXXX strikes in the ocean between Greenland and Iceland, sending huge tidal waves in all directions. The arctic's frozen walls shatter with the impact, throwing millions of tons of ice into the oceans. The east coast of the US, the United Kingdom and western Europe are devastated by immense tsunami. YYYY impacts 22 minutes later in the south pacific. The western seabord of the US and the Pacific Rim suffer similarly. Both impacts throw incalculable masses of dust into the atmosphere, starting an impact winter that lasts for decades. Billions die.
[fast forward]
With the impact of XXXX and ZZZZ upon the Earth came the near-extinction of terrestrial life. You are one of the survivors, commander of a small colony of individuals seeking out answers and a new life on a shattered planet. The impacts and subsequent winter laid waste to most of the surface land and the billions of tons of ice combined with tidal waves flooded most land. The Earth is almost completely ocean. In the years since the impact over a century ago, mankind has adapted to its new environment. Small colonies have banded together using what advanced technology they could salvage and knowledge they possessed. Five main factions have emerged from the darkness and your origins lie with one such faction.
On May 14th 2007 a deep-space research team...
April 3rd 2007 and the ISS observation station makes a routine check once again...
Urm... *strokes chin in deep thought*
Deffinitly a chilling read, and great potential. The dates are a little 'soon' though, all though that could be what makes it a chilling read I suppose.
That would be an inconsistency :) Thanks.