2096

This is the back story for my short's, books and game. The table top role playing game has just launched on Kickstarter. It is only a part of a world I want to share and build with everyone.

Just when we thought we would conquer the stars and fix the damage we were doing to the Earth, the sun started to erupt. Massive solar flares scorched the Earth’s atmosphere, thinning it greatly and raising the Earth’s temperature. Within no time at all, plant and animal life headed towards complete extinction. The scientists and governments of Earth tried their best to engineer new species and alter how we grow food, but it was all in vain. The water that Earth didn’t lose to the void receded deep into the ground, leaving behind vast stretches of barren wastes.

Our satellites and orbital stations were hit hard. Constantly bombarded by the solar flares, we lost much of what we had in orbit around Earth and beyond, in the far reaches of the solar system. Contact was lost with the colonies of Mars and it was assumed millions had died.

The governments of the world, unable to keep control over their desperate populations, fought each other for Earth’s last resources. The war that ensued would be the last, taking the lives of billions, and scattering radiation across the already scorched Earth. The once powerful nations were torn apart, and the remnants took refuge in deep underground bunkers.

Mega corporations quickly seized control over the remaining cities, waging war with augmented cybernetic agents and battle mechs that stand ten meters tall. They became the New World’s governments and control their populations with technology any way they can.

Although the damage was widespread, it was not absolute. Pockets of civilization remain, trying to survive in the unforgiving world. Paper money has been replaced by digital currency, stored on encrypted vault cards or chips, which are implanted in a person’s wrist, allowing them to seamlessly integrate themselves with their surroundings when making purchases or selling services. Technology has advanced to the point where vehicles swiftly move about, utilizing levitation pads and seeming to defy gravity. The wealthy can essentially live forever; they protect their consciousness, backing themselves up on encrypted digital servers to download into a new body upon death. These bodies can be exact clones of the original, genetically enhanced, or fully augmented cybernetic bodies known as full Augs. Cybernetic augmentations (Augs) are widely used to enhance human abilities.

Away from the corporately controlled mega cities, among the scattered wasteland settlements, raiders and slavers prey upon the weak. Bounty hunters use the Exchanges Connect Net to search for new jobs. Hackers break into encrypted systems risking life itself to collect fragments of data. Heavily armed and armored sand barges ferry goods and people between the remote points on crackling levitation pads. Android resistance groups control varying settlements, continuing to fight for freedom. Genetically engineered beings called Bioderms wander the Earth, side-by-side with their inferior human creators.

The wastes are filled with radiation zones and huge desert storms that sweep across the plains with devastating effects; walls of sand a hundred meters tall bury roads, settlements, and those unfortunate enough to get caught in their paths. The most severe storms – although breathtaking to behold with their glowing green and purple colors highlighted by strikes of lightning – carry high winds, making the lashing desert sands fatal. The storms can also contain destructive plasma lightning capable of vaporizing anything it hits, turning its impact point into a highly prized and sought-after glass.

Then there are the Gods of the desert, the mighty sand worms. A genetic aberration that somehow came into existence, they are extremely difficult to kill but Saviors to all, providing sustenance. No part of the worm is wasted.

This is just the beginning as your story is still to be written. Who will you decide to be as you journey through this world? Join me as we adventure and create new stories together.