///From the author: The world of 2289 is what I would call medium-hard sci-fi - physics are observed whenever possible, but there are caveats. For example, the basic method of spacecraft propulsion is pulsed fission or regular fusion, but there are also special operators who can use “neural connectivity” to read other people’s thoughts.
The basic idea here is that human civilization has evolved somewhat linearly in the three hundred years-plus between today and the setting of The Frontier Wars, with the exponential nature of advancement in the past century gradually slowing into a plateau in the coming century.
Still, while technology has not advanced as far as some optimistic futurists predict in the IRL 2020s, it has still wrought some very amazing future outcomes, from fusion power to mind-body uploading. In short, while tech may not be as science fantasy-miraculous as Star Wars, humanity has still managed to settle most of the Solar System by 2289.
In addition, the idea that human technology is always on the verge of another revolutionary paradigm shift is a major subtext of the entire Spacers Saga universe
Solar Space in the year 2289 CE
(A graphic displaying locations in Solar Space and their affiliations)
Notes on the future history of The Frontier Wars
The many settled worlds of Solar Space all have their own unique culture and history, with orbital stations around the sun, hollowed-out asteroids in the main belt, and domed-over settlements on the gas giant moons mingling against a backdrop of interplanetary commerce and, more often than not, sociopolitical strife. The Interplanetary Cooperative Administration (ICA), born in the mid-21st century from an agreement among UN nations following the 2049 Lunar War that all offworld affairs were to be overseen equally by the assembly of peoples instead of by individual nations, abandoned the pretense of impartiality in the wake of the Mars-Titan War (2189-2194), and now allows the wealthy Confederation of the Main Belt and their militaristic allies in the United Nations of Mars to call the shots in Solar Space. As a result, the Alliance of Free Worlds emerged to challenge the ICA’s oversight of solar resources and grant a new dimension of sovereignty to the colonial frontier. As the ICA seeks to rein in the colonial uprisings spilling across the vast solar frontier in the wake of the Draconist Crises (2223-2261), the nascent Alliance wages a revolution against their longstanding control of Solar Space.
This graphic was created to demonstrate the political situation in Solar Space, with color-coding to indicate which faction controls each world. It shows worlds as wholly or partly controlled by each faction based upon the 2281 Nüwa Accords, which apportioned controlled territories in the aftermath of the 2279-81 offensive run by the Alliance and their cohorts in the Zharan Collective. These divisions hold more or less true eight years later, though some blending of factions on worlds in the mid- and outer system does occur. A prime example of this is the Commonwealth of Titan, which remains jointly-run by both ICA and Alliance in a “divided world” scenario that is intended to allow for trade and discourse between the two superpowers. Still, as 2289 drags on, many commenters on both sides debate the idea that a lasting peace is merely a pipe dream, and that a return to open war will be, if nothing else, made inevitable by the necessities of each side’s military ambitions.
By and large, the single greatest threat to this fragile status quo is the existence of the Colonial Liberation Front, an insurrectionist faction which rebels against Alliance domination of the frontier in the name of achieving total colonial sovereignty. The conflict between the Alliance and the CLF has now spilled into its seventh year, and a zharan special forces Colonel named Damon Jerek wages a brutal campaign against the CLF’s various operational cells in the interest of whittling away at their ability to mobilize resistance to Alliance rule. As the ICA struggles to balance tacitly supporting the CLF rebellion with avoiding an outright breach of the Nüwa Accords, the dormant Frontier Wars seem closer than ever to reigniting. And it will be the new generation who will step up to fight whatever conflict may emerge - including three young Spacer Corps reservists from Mars...
Factions within Solar Space
The Interplanetary Cooperative Administration ("ICA")
Notes:
Officially founded in 2051 with the adoption of the Tyndall Accords by the UN, it was devised as a means to prevent interplanetary conflict in the vein of the Lunar War of 2049. With its the start of its first council session, a standard was set that has lasted more than two centuries, despite the turbulence of the Fall and the recent Frontier Wars, wherein the ICA legislates, mediates, and arbitrates all affairs beyond Earth
The Interplanetary Defense Corps ("IDC" or “ Spacer Corps”)
Notes:
As part of the Tyndall Accords, the UN devoted considerable effort to discussing the creation of an armed branch tasked with peacekeeping and security within jointly-controlled space. The IDC, also called the “Spacer Corps'' after the demonym for its personnel, was first mustered in 2054 to that end, and would be called in to defend ICA interests from the early years of the Fall through to the Frontier Wars of the 23rd century
The Alliance of Free Worlds (“the Alliance”)
Notes:
Beginning with the outbreak of Draconist-led revolutions in the Jupiter and Saturn Sectors in the 23rd century, the long-widening chasm between the ICA and the citizens of the outer system quickly split into a vast gulf. As the ICA’s Spacer Corps fought to crush these Draconist insurrections, a new organization–the Alliance of Free Worlds–emerged to serve the interests of countless disillusioned citizens in the frontier
The Zharan People’s Collective (“the Collective”)
Notes:
Once referred to as “artificial labor units,” zharans are synthetically engineered beings created beginning in the late 21st century to carry out the menial and dangerous work of building offworld infrastructure. After they were used in combat roles during the Solar Civil War, they were strictly regulated by the ICA until they rebelled in 2257 (the Uprising) leading to the formation of the Collective as an independent state
The Purimar Organization ("Purimar")
Notes:
Emerging during the late 21st century boom in interplanetary commerce that followed the adoption of the Brookenden Accords in 2054, Purimar was originally just another competitor in the rapidly-expanding field of deep space water distribution. By the 23rd century, though, it has become a veritable monopoly, with enforcers deployed to harass water license holders and maintain the org’s grip on Solar H²0 resources
The Tianshan Mining Corporation ("The TMC")
Notes:
In the early 22nd century, an asteroid mining cartel called Tianshan Incorporated became wealthy enough they could essentially buy a planet. Through an agreement organized by the ICA between Tianshan and the United Nations of Mars, they did just that: they would have rights to nearly all mining claims on Mercury, provided that twenty percent of all material mined went to the bustling Martian materials industry
The Community of Gaia (“The COGs”)
Notes:
In the years during and after the Long Fall, many of Earth’s old nation-states faded away as stressors forced the people there to adapt and refocus their efforts on basic survival, which ultimately brought about greater equity and sustainability overall. By the time the Harrison Accords were signed in 2195, the Community of Gaia was set up as the main overseer of Earth’s recovery and reconstruction as a “better society”
The Progressive Republics of Gaia (“The PROGs”)
Notes:
The PRoG splintered from the CoG in the early 23rd century over disagreements as to the approach to governing the Earth. Despite overlapping ideologies, they resisted cooperation with the Alliance of Free Worlds until the Alliance forced the ICA to the negotiating table at the end of the Frontier Wars - since then, the PROG has leaned increasingly pro-Alliance in the interest of removing Martian influence from Earth
The United Nations of Mars (“UNOM”)
Notes:
Founded in 2148 as an aggregation of Martian pioneer settlements, the UNOM quickly rose to peer status with the nations of the UN. Over the next two hundred years, as the Confederation of the Main Belt rose to superpower status, Mars and the worlds of the outer system fought tenaciously for second place, with Mars’ long-standing aspirations on the ambitions only recently threatened by the Alliance of Free Worlds
The Confederation of the Main Belt ("The CMB")
Notes:
Founded in 2163 during the long prosperity of the mid-22nd century, the CMB (often referred to as the Confederation) has long maintained a monopoly on the trade & mining of deep space resources across the inner and outer system. As a result, the Ceres-led organization became the single richest and most influential in Solar Space by the 23rd century, which makes them the chief benefactor of ICA legislation
The Solar Mining League ("The League")
Note:
The League was founded in advance of the big outward push of the late 21st century as a means to forestall overreach by the corporations champing at the bit to cash in on this boom time. But as with the Purimar Organization before it, the League metastasized over the years until it was a conglomerate in its own right, and by the 23rd century it rigidly controlled resource rights in most of the Main Belt
The Galilean Union ("The Union")
Notes:
After the turmoil of the 21st century, many refugees from Earth sought opportunity in the outer system. This led to a surge of new polities springing up in the 22nd century under the oversight of the ICA, with the Galilean Union a prime example. Thanks to the fall of Callisto to Draconism in 2223, however, it became essentially a rump state, and existed only as a shadow of its former self by the ascent of the Alliance to power in 2235
Hernandez-Echevarria Resources Amalgamated (“HERA”)
Notes:
During the rebuilding that followed the Solar Civil War, the Hernandez-Echevarria Group (a joint interest founded by descendants of two of the original families to settle on Mars in 2036) took over control of the struggling mining colony on Io. Under their administration it was a manufacturing powerhouse for all of ICA-aligned space, at least until Io fell under the control of the Alliance of Free Worlds in 2261
The Europan Research Administration ("the ERA")
Notes:
Originally meant to obscure the dealing of the infamous IDC black site at Kelvin Station, built on Europa in the 22nd century, the ERA grew into a formidable political entity in its own right by the time of the First Draconist Crisis (2223-2241). Throughout its lifespan, the organization has often been accused of being nothing more than a front for ICA-funded research & development projects, but this has never been proven
Divisão Revolucionário Armado de Callisto (“The Draconists”)
Notes:
Draconism arose as part of the surge of colonial nationalism which swept through the colonial frontier following the passage of the Harrison Accords in 2195. From there, it quickly infested the entire Jovian system, and later on dozens of settlements across the outer solar system. By the time it was stamped out, it had irreparably upended the political order of Solar Space, paving the way for the turmoil of the Frontier Wars
The Commonwealth of Titan ("The Commonwealth")
Notes:
The Protectorate of Titan was created by the ICA to represent the booming industrial settlements which sprang up there throughout the 22nd century, only to be torn asunder by regional infighting during the era of the Solar Civil War. During the Draconist Crisis, Titan was just as swept up as was the rest of the outer system, and the ascent of the United People’s Party to power in the tumultuous elections of 2233
The United People's Party ("The Party")
Notes:
Following Draconism’s arrival in the Saturn system in the early 2230s, the neo-Marxist/ ultranationalist ideology which they espoused took up residence on Titan. The UPP took power in 2233, kicking off a roughly thirty-year-long period of civil strife which ended with the massive moon being split three ways between the ICA, the Alliance of Free Worlds, and the Zharan Collective, who still claim dominion over the whole
The Enceladus Scientific and Biological Preserve ("The Preserve")
Notes:
When humans began exploring the Saturn system in-depth in the early 22nd century, alien lifeforms were found beneath the ice of Enceladus. After it was revealed to the public in 2109, there was extensive debate within the ICA Council over how to respond; in 2112, they passed the Enceladus Preservation Act, securing most of the moon as a biological preserve for future generations to study and enjoy
The Protectorate of Uranus ("The Protectorate")
Notes:
Among the last of the sectors to be extensively colonized, Uranus was especially sought after for its easily-accessible supply of hydrogen and helium. Even so, it took until 2203 for the settlement there to advance to a point at which the ICA would grant the colony membership status as a protectorate, an event spurred on largely by AEROCOM’s post-Mars-Titan War interest in securing fuel for the IDC Fleet
More to come, when it's ready...
Hey man, this is great!