THE CHRONICLES OF WAR
PROLOGUE
It is the nature of life to create, to push bad the boundaries of its world. It is the nature of man to destroy what he has created and defend, unto death, the boundanes that he calls his own. It is the fire that fuels our supremacy. It is our nemesis! For, in the dark recesses of our minds, in the cold vacuum between the stars, there lurks an unspeakable presence that looks upon the darkness of our hearts with slavering anticipation.
It is the Dark Soul. And with every life we take, with every drop of blood we shed, with every treacherous deed, every famine, every war, every psychotic act, we bind ourselves more closely to its dark purpose. And the Dark Soul delights in our weakness. Despite our efforts to resist, the Dark Soul is laughing, it is laughing at you! For you can no more shed its teeth, its claws and its desire for rending flesh. Hide yourself away and it will find you, fight and it shall destroy you, stay yourself and it shall claim your soul, submit and it shall mock you for all eternity...
And yet, there is a way; a way to prevail. But will you find it? I think not. For even now you feel the Dark Soul clutching at your soul...
Can you feel it?
Can you hear it laughing?
It is laughing at you...
It is the nature of life to create, to push bad the boundaries of its world. It is the nature of man to destroy what he has created and defend, unto death, the boundanes that he calls his own. It is the fire that fuels our supremacy. It is our nemesis! For, in the dark recesses of our minds, in the cold vacuum between the stars, there lurks an unspeakable presence that looks upon the darkness of our hearts with slavering anticipation.
It is the Dark Soul. And with every life we take, with every drop of blood we shed, with every treacherous deed, every famine, every war, every psychotic act, we bind ourselves more closely to its dark purpose. And the Dark Soul delights in our weakness. Despite our efforts to resist, the Dark Soul is laughing, it is laughing at you! For you can no more shed its teeth, its claws and its desire for rending flesh. Hide yourself away and it will find you, fight and it shall destroy you, stay yourself and it shall claim your soul, submit and it shall mock you for all eternity...
And yet, there is a way; a way to prevail. But will you find it? I think not. For even now you feel the Dark Soul clutching at your soul...
Can you feel it?
Can you hear it laughing?
It is laughing at you...
WAR WITHOUT END, AMEN!
1500 years ago man set foot upon the moon - one small step for a man; one giant leap towards oblivion.
"We come in peace for all mankind" - so arrogant, so naive. Did they really think they could deny a milion years of bloodshed with a single gesture of unity? There has never been a time....when mankind was not at war. There has never been a time of peace.
Mankind's appetite for destruction has translormed his beloved Mother Earth into a toxic wasteland, its beauty raped, its treasures plundered, its people deserted, left to wallow in the discarded filth of the Megacorporations. Those privileged organizations with the power and the resources to deliver their own from the poisoned Earth. When Earth could no longer sustain them they fled to the other worlds that orbit the Sun, taking with them their wealth, their armies and their greed for power. And thus the tragic story of mankind continued. Violence, bloodshed, war ... thus has it always been, thus shall it always be ... war without end ... Amen!
1500 years ago man set foot upon the moon - one small step for a man; one giant leap towards oblivion.
"We come in peace for all mankind" - so arrogant, so naive. Did they really think they could deny a milion years of bloodshed with a single gesture of unity? There has never been a time....when mankind was not at war. There has never been a time of peace.
Mankind's appetite for destruction has translormed his beloved Mother Earth into a toxic wasteland, its beauty raped, its treasures plundered, its people deserted, left to wallow in the discarded filth of the Megacorporations. Those privileged organizations with the power and the resources to deliver their own from the poisoned Earth. When Earth could no longer sustain them they fled to the other worlds that orbit the Sun, taking with them their wealth, their armies and their greed for power. And thus the tragic story of mankind continued. Violence, bloodshed, war ... thus has it always been, thus shall it always be ... war without end ... Amen!
EXODUS
Towards the end of the twenty-first century the world was no longer divided into nations but into vast financial blocks known as corporations. These powerful companies carved up the planet until every inch of soil, every blade of grass, every drop of water belonged to one corporation or another. Nothing of value was left unclaimed, and nothing of value was left uncontested.
Fewer and fewer of the battles for ownership were fought within the courts as corporate espionage grew into an art form and an instrument of war. When corporate investors began to look beyond the planet for resources it became less important to protect those on Earth. Why fight for dwindling reserves in the mountains of Siberia, when surveys showed vast deposits on Mercury, Venus and Mars! And why transport resources back to Earth, when setting up a base on these planets would prove so much cheaper?
A dynamic corporation known as Capitol established the first pemanent base on the moon, which became known as Luna, the presence of water on the moon made it the perfect launch pad for space craft, as the water could be split into hydrogen and oxygen, which forms the main component of rocket fuel.
Working with the Capitol Corporation were a number of others. Bauhaus, whose engineering was second to none, Imperial, whose navigational expertise and manpower skills were valued by all and Mishima who would often accomplish a task where others might abandon it for safety's sake. Other smaller oorporations sought to assert themselves, but they were crushed and absorbed by the four giants who who guarded their supremacy with ruthless determination. They became know as Megacorporations and their power was total.
Towards the end of the twenty-first century the world was no longer divided into nations but into vast financial blocks known as corporations. These powerful companies carved up the planet until every inch of soil, every blade of grass, every drop of water belonged to one corporation or another. Nothing of value was left unclaimed, and nothing of value was left uncontested.
Fewer and fewer of the battles for ownership were fought within the courts as corporate espionage grew into an art form and an instrument of war. When corporate investors began to look beyond the planet for resources it became less important to protect those on Earth. Why fight for dwindling reserves in the mountains of Siberia, when surveys showed vast deposits on Mercury, Venus and Mars! And why transport resources back to Earth, when setting up a base on these planets would prove so much cheaper?
A dynamic corporation known as Capitol established the first pemanent base on the moon, which became known as Luna, the presence of water on the moon made it the perfect launch pad for space craft, as the water could be split into hydrogen and oxygen, which forms the main component of rocket fuel.
Working with the Capitol Corporation were a number of others. Bauhaus, whose engineering was second to none, Imperial, whose navigational expertise and manpower skills were valued by all and Mishima who would often accomplish a task where others might abandon it for safety's sake. Other smaller oorporations sought to assert themselves, but they were crushed and absorbed by the four giants who who guarded their supremacy with ruthless determination. They became know as Megacorporations and their power was total.
AND THOSE WHO HAD CHOSEN TO STAY LEARNED THE MEANING OF REGRET!
Stein watched as the last of the great transport ships dissappeared into the thick and dismal clouds. The column of fire burned brightly until the cloud swallowed it and only the distant noise remained. It was raining and people around him were racing for cover to get out of the corrosive downpour. The poisoned water burned his eyes but still he looked up. They asked him to go - but he said not. He said no because she said no... she had lied.
Stein watched as the last of the great transport ships dissappeared into the thick and dismal clouds. The column of fire burned brightly until the cloud swallowed it and only the distant noise remained. It was raining and people around him were racing for cover to get out of the corrosive downpour. The poisoned water burned his eyes but still he looked up. They asked him to go - but he said not. He said no because she said no... she had lied.
The Megacorporations pushed the limits of space travel and atmospheric processing until the colonization of other planets was no longer a dream but a practiced reality. Humanity became obsessed with the science of terraforming and entire worlds were transformed. Powerful supenconducting gravity regulators were buried deep beneath the planet's crust. Giant atmospheric processing plants were set up to convert thin, toxic gases into breathable air. Organic enzymes dusted from orbit worked upon the noxious soil until it was capable of sustaining life. Entire ecologies were designed to suit the nature of each environment and the fertile land was seeded with a plethora of life. Enhanced with DNA accelerators and screaming with the torture of forced growth, life was spawned on worlds which nature, in her wisdom, had chosen not to grace. By the middle of the twenty-second century all the inner planets had been settled and the Megacorporations began to push out to the larger planetoids in the asteroid belt and the giant moons of Jupiter.
But all this was achieved at the cost of Earth's ruin. The skies grew black:, the seas rose, famine war and pestilence swept over humanity like a ravening lion. Armageddon, it seemed, had finally arrived. The population of Earth cried out in despair but ...when they beseeched the heavens for salvation it was not the Lord of Hosts that reached down to save them but the mighty hand of the Megacorporations. They harvested the human race like any other commodity, fighting over the brightest and the best and leaving the weak and the sick to wallow and drown in the poisoned sludge and toxic waste of a world that had given all it had to give. They built gigantic transport ships to deliver the faithful to the New Worlds prepared for them and the human race was apportioned between the Megacorporations. Capitol, Imperial, Bauhaus and Mishima, four great powers, the like of which mankind had never known.
There was much weeping and gnashing of teeth as the sick, the weak and those too proud to sell their loyalty, watched the mighty transports rise up on columns of fire and disappear into the choking brown clouds. The Megacorporations left nothing behind, neither resources, knowledge nor technology, that might, in time be used against them. They fled their diseased home-world and thus the tragic story of mankind spread beyond the place of his birth in this greatest migration in the history of the world, this Exodus of the human race.
But all this was achieved at the cost of Earth's ruin. The skies grew black:, the seas rose, famine war and pestilence swept over humanity like a ravening lion. Armageddon, it seemed, had finally arrived. The population of Earth cried out in despair but ...when they beseeched the heavens for salvation it was not the Lord of Hosts that reached down to save them but the mighty hand of the Megacorporations. They harvested the human race like any other commodity, fighting over the brightest and the best and leaving the weak and the sick to wallow and drown in the poisoned sludge and toxic waste of a world that had given all it had to give. They built gigantic transport ships to deliver the faithful to the New Worlds prepared for them and the human race was apportioned between the Megacorporations. Capitol, Imperial, Bauhaus and Mishima, four great powers, the like of which mankind had never known.
There was much weeping and gnashing of teeth as the sick, the weak and those too proud to sell their loyalty, watched the mighty transports rise up on columns of fire and disappear into the choking brown clouds. The Megacorporations left nothing behind, neither resources, knowledge nor technology, that might, in time be used against them. They fled their diseased home-world and thus the tragic story of mankind spread beyond the place of his birth in this greatest migration in the history of the world, this Exodus of the human race.
WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD
And the waves of Dark Symmetry went out from the Steel Tablet like ripples upon a black velvet pond, like the waves of sound from
the striking of a gong. The sound was terrible and it spoke thus ... "Look into the face of Evil and despair!"
By combining their strengths the four Megacorporations had managed to eradicate all competition. But now, with so much unclaimed wealth and so much unclaimed territory, the eternal curse of conflict began to manifest among them. They began to withdraw support from each other as they tried to extend their power. While each corporation had some presence on all the newly settled worlds, they maneuvered their positions until they had established strongholds that they could call their own.
On mercury, Mishima had the strongest presence. To accommodate the searing heat and the thin atmosphere the extensive subterranean caves of Mercury were excavated and enlarged to house the millions transported here. Vast cities, mining complexes and sunken jungles now fill there deep pockets, which shield the people from the heat of the sun and the frigid cold of Mercury's long nights.
As the largest of the newly settled worlds, Venus is host to a large contingent from all the corporations. Though of them all, it is the Bauhaus Corporation that dominates the planet. Once a hell of sulphuric rain and searing heat, the planet is now swathed in deep ocean and dense jungle and the Bauhaus city of Heimburg is testimony to what mankind can achieve in the short span of half a century. Life on Venus is unlike any other world in the solar system. For on Venus the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. And unlike any other world its days are longer than its years. One day on Venus lasts for 243 "Earth days". Designing the plants and animals that could survive a night of 121.5 days was one of the greatest achievements of the Bauhaus and Mishima molecular biologists. It is therefore no wonder that some of the most bizzare "New Era" plants and animals are to be found on Venus.
And the waves of Dark Symmetry went out from the Steel Tablet like ripples upon a black velvet pond, like the waves of sound from
the striking of a gong. The sound was terrible and it spoke thus ... "Look into the face of Evil and despair!"
By combining their strengths the four Megacorporations had managed to eradicate all competition. But now, with so much unclaimed wealth and so much unclaimed territory, the eternal curse of conflict began to manifest among them. They began to withdraw support from each other as they tried to extend their power. While each corporation had some presence on all the newly settled worlds, they maneuvered their positions until they had established strongholds that they could call their own.
On mercury, Mishima had the strongest presence. To accommodate the searing heat and the thin atmosphere the extensive subterranean caves of Mercury were excavated and enlarged to house the millions transported here. Vast cities, mining complexes and sunken jungles now fill there deep pockets, which shield the people from the heat of the sun and the frigid cold of Mercury's long nights.
As the largest of the newly settled worlds, Venus is host to a large contingent from all the corporations. Though of them all, it is the Bauhaus Corporation that dominates the planet. Once a hell of sulphuric rain and searing heat, the planet is now swathed in deep ocean and dense jungle and the Bauhaus city of Heimburg is testimony to what mankind can achieve in the short span of half a century. Life on Venus is unlike any other world in the solar system. For on Venus the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. And unlike any other world its days are longer than its years. One day on Venus lasts for 243 "Earth days". Designing the plants and animals that could survive a night of 121.5 days was one of the greatest achievements of the Bauhaus and Mishima molecular biologists. It is therefore no wonder that some of the most bizzare "New Era" plants and animals are to be found on Venus.
DARK SYMMETRY
The smell of fear filled orbital station as the computer controlled scrub-air filters screamed into reverse, spewing out the poisonous gases that they were designated to absorb. Two of the crew were already dead following a series of violent electrical malfunctions. The station was running on emergency power and all communications were down. As dizziness and nausea began to overtake Station Commander Brennan he saw one of the technicians move past the airlock in an attempt to reach the central control console. One flick of a switch would shut down the computer that was acting as though possessed of an evil force with murder on its mind.
The technician pulled himself through the weightlessness and made for the console but as he reached out the airlock cycled open. A hurricane of rushing air sucked him violently back, slamming his body against the half opened bulkhead. The technician screamed as his body was pulled through the narrow gap and Brennan heard bones snapping. The technician 's screams were suddenly cut off as the airlock closed, crushing the man's body and severing his torso from right shoulder to left hip. A mass of human flash drifted away from the airlock, gobbets of blood forming into crimson spheres. Brennan began to tremble violently, he was in the belly of a demon and no hope remained...
The smell of fear filled orbital station as the computer controlled scrub-air filters screamed into reverse, spewing out the poisonous gases that they were designated to absorb. Two of the crew were already dead following a series of violent electrical malfunctions. The station was running on emergency power and all communications were down. As dizziness and nausea began to overtake Station Commander Brennan he saw one of the technicians move past the airlock in an attempt to reach the central control console. One flick of a switch would shut down the computer that was acting as though possessed of an evil force with murder on its mind.
The technician pulled himself through the weightlessness and made for the console but as he reached out the airlock cycled open. A hurricane of rushing air sucked him violently back, slamming his body against the half opened bulkhead. The technician screamed as his body was pulled through the narrow gap and Brennan heard bones snapping. The technician 's screams were suddenly cut off as the airlock closed, crushing the man's body and severing his torso from right shoulder to left hip. A mass of human flash drifted away from the airlock, gobbets of blood forming into crimson spheres. Brennan began to tremble violently, he was in the belly of a demon and no hope remained...
Building on their first initial steps, the Capitol Corporation has claimed Earth's Moon and built the city of Luna, which is destined to become the grandest city of all time. They also maintain the strongest presence on Mars, whose red deserts have been made fertile and whose deep canyons now flow with the cold waters that were locked away beneath the planet's rocky surface.
Ever driven by spirit of exploration, the Imperial Corporation chose not to contest the inner planets, not until they had established a position of strength at least. They pushed our further, claiming small asteroid Victoria and Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon, which is larger even than Mercury.
Ever driven by spirit of exploration, the Imperial Corporation chose not to contest the inner planets, not until they had established a position of strength at least. They pushed our further, claiming small asteroid Victoria and Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon, which is larger even than Mercury.
A new golden age descended upon humanity and they delighted in their power. Theirs was the greatest, most technologically advanced society that had ever existed and they seemed invulnerable. They built manned ships capable of reaching the outer planets of the solar system. Powerful computers generated DNA profiles that put an end to disease. And these same computers managed every aspect of corporate life from the navigation of ships, to the allocation of resources. Complex artificial intelligences predicted tension and unrest in the population and recommended measures to avert disaster. They plotted corporate strategy, engaged in corporate negotiations, the computer - the artificial brain had come of age.
But oh! How the mighty fall...
In the year 2200 AD, the pioneering wing of the Imperial Corporation, known as the Imperial Conquistadors, successfully landed on Pluto. Immediately they began the task of terraforming and the first thing to do was to set in place the Gravitational Regulators or GRs. Huge superconducting devices sunk deep into the crust of a world to concentrate or diffuse gravitational waves until gravity was stabilized at 1 G, at which point work on the atmosphere could begin. The fourteenth and final regulator was barely kilometer below the surface when it struck something that should not have existed, something that resisted the diamond tipped drilling head, something entirely unnatural and not of human hands. The Conquistadors sent back to Victoria for instructions on how to proceed. A day later they received two orders, the first was a standard AI directive:
"Do not proceed. Document exact location of artifact and abort mission."
The second was an official order from human board of directors:
"Previous order countermanded! Learn the nature of artifact and recover if possible."
Over the next few days, as reception from mission control deteriorated, the artifact was indeed recovered and it took the form of a large metallic table, engraved with strange lines and shining like dark steel. The Conquistadors maneuvered the tablet into the lab for analysis. Their limited instruments revealed only that it was an alloy of unknown composition and that it was 100% inert, which is theoretically impossible. Concluding that it was safe, one of the team reached out his hand to trace the strange lines in its surface. As he touched the steel tablet, he was suddenly a viciously yanked to his knees. His eyes widened in terror but his scream was cut short as the front of his face was torn off in a shower of blood. His companions rushed the dying man to sick bay and all the while his severed tongue moved over his splintered jaw as he struggled to tell them something.
While they tried to save his life, the Conquistadors recorded his pitiful litany as the laboratory equipment began to fail around them. They included his drowning, lisping words in the mayday they sent to Victoria and of their fate, no more is known.
The mayday was picked up at mission control on Victoria. They too were having trouble with much of their equipment, as if from the disturbance of a violent solar storm, though none had been reported. Before they lost power, they were able to decipher what the dying man had said, what he had repeated over and over as the life ebbed out of his ruptured skull, the words were faint but clear, "She kissed me..." he'd said.
"She kissed me..."
"She kissed me!"
But oh! How the mighty fall...
In the year 2200 AD, the pioneering wing of the Imperial Corporation, known as the Imperial Conquistadors, successfully landed on Pluto. Immediately they began the task of terraforming and the first thing to do was to set in place the Gravitational Regulators or GRs. Huge superconducting devices sunk deep into the crust of a world to concentrate or diffuse gravitational waves until gravity was stabilized at 1 G, at which point work on the atmosphere could begin. The fourteenth and final regulator was barely kilometer below the surface when it struck something that should not have existed, something that resisted the diamond tipped drilling head, something entirely unnatural and not of human hands. The Conquistadors sent back to Victoria for instructions on how to proceed. A day later they received two orders, the first was a standard AI directive:
"Do not proceed. Document exact location of artifact and abort mission."
The second was an official order from human board of directors:
"Previous order countermanded! Learn the nature of artifact and recover if possible."
Over the next few days, as reception from mission control deteriorated, the artifact was indeed recovered and it took the form of a large metallic table, engraved with strange lines and shining like dark steel. The Conquistadors maneuvered the tablet into the lab for analysis. Their limited instruments revealed only that it was an alloy of unknown composition and that it was 100% inert, which is theoretically impossible. Concluding that it was safe, one of the team reached out his hand to trace the strange lines in its surface. As he touched the steel tablet, he was suddenly a viciously yanked to his knees. His eyes widened in terror but his scream was cut short as the front of his face was torn off in a shower of blood. His companions rushed the dying man to sick bay and all the while his severed tongue moved over his splintered jaw as he struggled to tell them something.
While they tried to save his life, the Conquistadors recorded his pitiful litany as the laboratory equipment began to fail around them. They included his drowning, lisping words in the mayday they sent to Victoria and of their fate, no more is known.
The mayday was picked up at mission control on Victoria. They too were having trouble with much of their equipment, as if from the disturbance of a violent solar storm, though none had been reported. Before they lost power, they were able to decipher what the dying man had said, what he had repeated over and over as the life ebbed out of his ruptured skull, the words were faint but clear, "She kissed me..." he'd said.
"She kissed me..."
"She kissed me!"
DARK SYMMETRY
It wasn't until many years later that the connection between the Steel Tablet on Pluto and the corruption of electronic equipment was fully appreciated. All that humanity knew was that their precious AIs and their mighty computers grew silent and full of malice. Their God turned away from them It did not happen over night but in pulses like the beating of spiteful heart of the waves of a dark incoming tide.
Each of the corporations blamed the others for corrupting their systems but as the months passed the corporations were forced to acknowledge that something far more sinister than a hacker's virus was at work in their lives. Sporadic malfunctions became increasingly common and people began to die. Orbital craft spiraled out of control, food quotas were miscalculated and power supplies were lost for weeks at time. Hundreds of thousands died from cold and starvation, from transport and industrial accidents as computer-controlled machines turned on their human masters as though possessed. Financial credit systems collapsed, and human records and archives disappeared from electronic databanks. The people rose up in revolt and the corporations recalled their ambassadors and flexed their military might as panic struck a civilization that had embraced the power of the thinking machine only to realize that in doing so they had shaken hands with the Devil.
And yet, the spirit of mankind shines most brightly in the darkness of adversity. From the raising of the Egyptian pyramids to the shaping of hostile worlds, the defining qualities of humanity have remained the same - boundless ingenuity and a stubborn refusal to lie down and die.
The collapse and treachery of all "thinking machines" came to be known as The Fall. And as the pillars of their civilization began to crumble around them mankind shored it up with every ingenious contraption they could devise. Basic electrical equipment remained reliable but complex electronic circuits were not. One could safely direct the path of electricity, but to ask an electronic machine the question - yes or no, was invitation to chaos. Scientists christened the new phenomenon "Dark Symmetry" the pattern without logic, the science of entropy.
The technology of mankind was dragged back 300 years. But amid all the cataclysmic tragedy there was one field of science that took a massive stride forward, even as so many disintegrated in ruin, a science that literally stretched the bounds of reality. As the influence of Dark Symmetry grew stronger new energy fields began to form throughout the solar system. Shifting electromagnetic tides that resonated in a way that defied comprehension. The Dark Symmetry tore great holes in the fabric of space and time, and by a combination of accident and design, mankind learned how to navigate the unpredictable rifts of space.
It was a small Imperial engineering family by the name of Harrison who first stumbled on a way to move between spacial rifts. They were experimenting with a new mechanism for docking orbital spacecraft. The device was mechanical in nature, with a host of intricate parts working together to measure altitude, velocity and inertia. The information was then transferred through a complex series of steam-powered valves to the maneuvering thrusters. Compared to the earlier computer guidance systems it was a clumsy contraption but it was so finely crafted and accurate that docking in space was once again considered a relatively safe operation.
Each of the corporations blamed the others for corrupting their systems but as the months passed the corporations were forced to acknowledge that something far more sinister than a hacker's virus was at work in their lives. Sporadic malfunctions became increasingly common and people began to die. Orbital craft spiraled out of control, food quotas were miscalculated and power supplies were lost for weeks at time. Hundreds of thousands died from cold and starvation, from transport and industrial accidents as computer-controlled machines turned on their human masters as though possessed. Financial credit systems collapsed, and human records and archives disappeared from electronic databanks. The people rose up in revolt and the corporations recalled their ambassadors and flexed their military might as panic struck a civilization that had embraced the power of the thinking machine only to realize that in doing so they had shaken hands with the Devil.
And yet, the spirit of mankind shines most brightly in the darkness of adversity. From the raising of the Egyptian pyramids to the shaping of hostile worlds, the defining qualities of humanity have remained the same - boundless ingenuity and a stubborn refusal to lie down and die.
The collapse and treachery of all "thinking machines" came to be known as The Fall. And as the pillars of their civilization began to crumble around them mankind shored it up with every ingenious contraption they could devise. Basic electrical equipment remained reliable but complex electronic circuits were not. One could safely direct the path of electricity, but to ask an electronic machine the question - yes or no, was invitation to chaos. Scientists christened the new phenomenon "Dark Symmetry" the pattern without logic, the science of entropy.
The technology of mankind was dragged back 300 years. But amid all the cataclysmic tragedy there was one field of science that took a massive stride forward, even as so many disintegrated in ruin, a science that literally stretched the bounds of reality. As the influence of Dark Symmetry grew stronger new energy fields began to form throughout the solar system. Shifting electromagnetic tides that resonated in a way that defied comprehension. The Dark Symmetry tore great holes in the fabric of space and time, and by a combination of accident and design, mankind learned how to navigate the unpredictable rifts of space.
It was a small Imperial engineering family by the name of Harrison who first stumbled on a way to move between spacial rifts. They were experimenting with a new mechanism for docking orbital spacecraft. The device was mechanical in nature, with a host of intricate parts working together to measure altitude, velocity and inertia. The information was then transferred through a complex series of steam-powered valves to the maneuvering thrusters. Compared to the earlier computer guidance systems it was a clumsy contraption but it was so finely crafted and accurate that docking in space was once again considered a relatively safe operation.
However, on March 24th 2202 an historic event occurred. One of the Harrison drive ships vanished from orbit around Ganymede. Within a matter of hours Bauhaus and Mishima radio stations on Venus reported picking up a distress call from the Harrison ship in orbit around the planet. Somehow, the ship had accomplished in a few hours a trip that would normally take months. The first journey through a spatial rift had occurred and in the face of technological collapse, there emerged a new form of travel that far outpaced anything from before "The Fall".
Eager to learn the nature of this freak accident Imperial demanded that Bauhaus return the ship to them. Bauhaus regretfully informed them that this was impossible, as the ship had lost control and burned up in the planet's atmosphere. Mishima and Capitol both confirmed this story, a lie, which seriously damaged relations between the corporations. Imperial were forced to build a duplicate ship before they could attempt to replicate the experiment.
And so, as basic electrical circuits, gas driven micromechanisms and simple mechanical calculating machines slowly replaced electronic gadgetry, compute controlled systems and semi-sentient microprocessors, mankind embraced a new obsession, that of mastering the technique of travelling through the spatial rifts.
Over the next twenty years some thirty thousand people were killed, driven mad or simply vanished, as scientists sought to unlock the secret of moving through the spatial rifts. Slowly they realize that certain mechanical configurations, combined with the resonance of the machines, produced a kind of magnetic polarity that drew the device and anything attached to it through a rift in space and time. The rifts appeared and disappeared around planets and a ship could drift for weeks before encountering an active rift. There were, however, certain individuals that seemed to possess an instinct for knowing where a rift would open. There was no explanation for this, but such people became much sought after by all the corporations.
And so the new ships were constructed. At the rear of the craft lay conventional jet propulsion system while at the front of the craft a new device was fitted, a device that came to be known as a Harrison Drive.
Eager to learn the nature of this freak accident Imperial demanded that Bauhaus return the ship to them. Bauhaus regretfully informed them that this was impossible, as the ship had lost control and burned up in the planet's atmosphere. Mishima and Capitol both confirmed this story, a lie, which seriously damaged relations between the corporations. Imperial were forced to build a duplicate ship before they could attempt to replicate the experiment.
And so, as basic electrical circuits, gas driven micromechanisms and simple mechanical calculating machines slowly replaced electronic gadgetry, compute controlled systems and semi-sentient microprocessors, mankind embraced a new obsession, that of mastering the technique of travelling through the spatial rifts.
Over the next twenty years some thirty thousand people were killed, driven mad or simply vanished, as scientists sought to unlock the secret of moving through the spatial rifts. Slowly they realize that certain mechanical configurations, combined with the resonance of the machines, produced a kind of magnetic polarity that drew the device and anything attached to it through a rift in space and time. The rifts appeared and disappeared around planets and a ship could drift for weeks before encountering an active rift. There were, however, certain individuals that seemed to possess an instinct for knowing where a rift would open. There was no explanation for this, but such people became much sought after by all the corporations.
And so the new ships were constructed. At the rear of the craft lay conventional jet propulsion system while at the front of the craft a new device was fitted, a device that came to be known as a Harrison Drive.
THE HARRISON DRIVE
Steve Harrison was well aware that all previous attempts to replicate the "Harrison Effect" had resulted in death. But he was certain that his new innovations would make a difference. Only he understood. It was not perfection but a particular pitch of disharmony that would succeed. As he watched the dials twitching and the brass regulators spinning, he listened to the steam screeching violently from straining valves. One of the crew moved to adjust the valves but he stopped them with a sharp gesture. He could hear something, feel something, a resonance like discordant music. The pistons labored slowly, the shuttles shifted back and forth and the canter-lever turned in their lopsided circles. He could hear the oil pulsing in the narrow pipes, inserting itself between copper axle and steel bearings, he was listening to the symphony of mechanism.
Steve Harrison was well aware that all previous attempts to replicate the "Harrison Effect" had resulted in death. But he was certain that his new innovations would make a difference. Only he understood. It was not perfection but a particular pitch of disharmony that would succeed. As he watched the dials twitching and the brass regulators spinning, he listened to the steam screeching violently from straining valves. One of the crew moved to adjust the valves but he stopped them with a sharp gesture. He could hear something, feel something, a resonance like discordant music. The pistons labored slowly, the shuttles shifted back and forth and the canter-lever turned in their lopsided circles. He could hear the oil pulsing in the narrow pipes, inserting itself between copper axle and steel bearings, he was listening to the symphony of mechanism.
To be continued...