the year is 1999
Humanity eagerly awaits the turn of the 21st century and the beginning of a new millennium, heralded by a decades-long Silver Age of scientific advancement, unprecedented cooperation, and rampant economic growth. Colonies on Luna, Venus, and Mars shine like beacons of hope and prosperity for those on Earth. Mona, the Lunar currency, promises stability and security for nations who seek to push the limits of space exploration. The vast armies of the great powers, augmented by the power of the Anvil, stand ready to defend their homelands against wars which seem like distant fantasies. As the clock ticks to midnight, humanity wishes for this peace to never end.
It was not to be.
By the late 1990s, four large power blocs dominate the global order, with states generally falling into one of their orbits without significant effort to stay unaligned.
The Pan-American Alliance
After pulling out of Vietnam in 1969 due to overwhelming domestic discontent, the United States of America decided to change its strategy. Instead of foreign entanglements on behalf of European and Asian allies, they would instead focus on shoring up their own hemispheric interests. Instead of sticks, they would employ carrots. Coupled with the extension of the Space Race and friendly, furious competition with the Soviet Union, these new strategies resulted in new diplomatic avenues and outright alliances between America and her continental neighbors. Thus, in 1973, the Pan-American Alliance (PAA) was born.
The major premise to join the PAA was simple: allow the United States to build space launch facilities in the country and reap the benefits of access to the solar neighborhood. Many countries accepted, and those which didn’t were convinced through alternative methods. An embarrassing defeat in Panama, eventually resolved during Operation Just Cause in 1988, cemented the United States’ premiership of the PAA, and showed the world just how devastating their new Anvil combat vehicles truly were.
The PAA maintains scores of space launch facilities across the North and South American continents. After the Iranian Oil Crisis of 1973, the PAA identified energy independence as a critical strategic goal. As of 1999, over 500 Solar System photocell satellites circle the globe, beaming power to Earth and transiting PAA spacecraft.
The Union of Sovereign Socialist Republics
Spurred on by the discoveries of the Soviet Venera probe series, the vast industrial might of the Soviet Union was refocused towards blazing a path to the stars. The death of Leonid Brezhnev in 1968 proved to be a blessing in disguise. The new chairman of the party quickly adjusted the USSR’s trajectory and, in 1975, oversaw the first permanent human settlements erected on Venus.
With more settlements and industry set up in the extraterrestrial colonies and the flow of resources beginning to flow both ways, the financial might of the republics most connected to the effort managed to extract more autonomy from Moscow. The tune of the Communist Party had changed dramatically. Gestures of goodwill towards old foes and non-aligned nations culminated in the return of the Kuril Islands to Japan in 1984, marking the final departure from “the old ways of doing things.” Detractors to this new method of governance were quickly met with the firepower of Soviet Anvils, which curiously began to see service not long after the original American models.
The USSR boasts incredible space launch capacity and operates the Ak Zholy, or “Laser Highway,” which transports beam-riding space vessels between Luna and Venus. Other nations are permitted to use the highway, provided they pay a toll. Compatibility between systems is usually never an issue, thanks to universal spaceflight tooling and design agreements penned by the USSR and USA after the Dorsa Andrusov incident in 1971.
The European Union
Caught between the burgeoning PAA and newly-reinvigorated USSR, the nations of Europe found themselves on the collective backfoot. Internal bickering had cost them entry and competition in the Space Race. France, in particular, was disillusioned by the constant bureaucratic gear-grinding, and sought an out. Desperate to keep their economic alliance together, the EU invested heavily in terrestrial technologies now being neglected by the other great powers.
The “scaffolding strategy” ultimately proved fortuitous. With the rise of the Mona as the global currency and the logistical demand across Europe and the Mediterranean at all time highs, members of the EU settled into a unique economic niche which protected the Euro and, therefore, their financial security. The buildup of national armies also proved to be a windfall for European defence firms. Military mech units, from modest GPs to advanced SPs, and of course, the almighty Anvil, flew off the proverbial shelves.
The EU takes a less-active approach to the advent of regular spaceflight, instead providing support to various other nations and their endeavours. Of particular note are the investments in African energy systems, piggybacking off of former colonial entanglements to feed the demands of the modern age. As a result, Europe and those who do business with the EU are frequently seen as being “left behind” by members of the other blocs, even though their own rapid rise to the stars is partially powered by European technology.
The League of Arab Nations
Stretching from the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf, the League of Arab Nations emerged from decades of conflict and decline with the realization that only through closer cooperation could the Arab nations weather the 2000s. As the space economy burgeoned and the Solar Power System took shape, it became clear that oil was not going to support multiple regional economies in the future, and only immediate diversification on a massive scale would keep them afloat. Over the course of the 1980s, the United Arab Republic signed more and more trade deals paired with deeper military integration to avoid a repeat of the Yom Kippur war. These agreements culminated in a comprehensive treaty that renamed the bloc to the League of Arab Nations.
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The majority of the League's economic diversification is in bulk transport and providing logistical support to space programs. The vast landmass available to the LAN is dotted with intentionally isolated sites for testing vacuum-rated habitats, distribution hubs for freight traffic, and luxurious research cities to attract top talent to future industrial projects. Notably, the LAN does not have a single market like the EU and members pursue their own trade agreements, occasionally creating intrabloc tension.
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In contrast to the loose economic ties, the League military is tightly integrated with units divisible for integration at both the divisional and brigade levels. Cross-training is drilled regularly, and a collaborative air defense network covers all League airspace. Despite the disparate arsenals of the members, homegrown command and control systems allow the League military to effectively coordinate between systems.
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The nations forming the League are keenly aware that if they do not succeed in diversification before oil bottoms out, they will likely never have the opportunity to recover in the same way. Tourists and observers from other regions universally tell of a highly competitive internal ethic and a willingness to get results at any cost.
Extraterrestrial Colonies
In the early 1960s, interplanetary probes dispatched from the American and Soviet space programs revealed the improbable habitability of Mars and Venus, sparking a substantial increase in the budgets allocated to the space race as the prize shifted from first to the moon to much loftier ambitions. By the 1990s, travel to these far worlds is frequent, and permanent settlements exist across each of them as the grip of humanity slowly stretches to the far reaches of the solar system.
Luna
Luna was the first celestial body to be colonised by humanity. The Space Race, flush with money and at the forefront of the public consciousness for both the US and Russia, resulted in temporary stays on the lunar surface at first, then permanent structures and industrial operations. Both nations and their power blocs shouldered the incredible responsibilities for elevating humanity to Earth’s closest relative. The public support was unwavering, and with the discovery of titanium in the lunar regolith, the potential rewards were limitless.
Due to the unique demands of lunar life, the men and women who sacrificed the safety of their home planet bonded in extraordinary ways. They shrugged off the trappings of borders and nationalities, embracing one another as human, not as American or Russian. This in turn gave rise to not only new governance, but a new nation: Selen, and her Selenite people. To add to the mystique of the new Selenite people, their skin turned blue due to the high amounts of biocidal silver in their drinking water. Those who lived and died on Luna truly left their old selves behind on Earth.
Venus
Venus was discovered to be a wet jungle world hidden underneath a thick blanket of clouds. The second of Earth’s neighbours to host human habitants, the Long Rains and psychotropic plant life provided very different challenges compared to the dust and vacuum of Luna. With the economic might of the great powers at their backs (and with shockingly low aversion to risk), the researchers and scientists who chose to stay on Venus eked out a soggy, windswept existence on the stormy planet, becoming the first Venusians.
Those who made it to Venus spoke of strange changes which overcame them. The Long Rains deprived entire continents of sunlight for months at a time, and the Slog (sticky, ever-present Venusian mud) clung to everything and everyone. Some began to believe that the Slog got into the brain, and only the sun could dry it out. As a result, a curious new religion formed on Venus, deifying the sun as the physical manifestation of God. Visitors noted that when the Long Rains finally stopped, and the dripping, steel-grey landscape exploded into lurid landscapes of pinks and blues and purples, it was easy to see why sunlight was so fervently revered.
Mars and Beyond
The pioneers of that barren desert face a thin atmosphere, and as such must use the uneven gravitational field of the red planet to their advantage. The most common settlement is a small complex set up in a gravity hotspot and overseeing a terraforming process using large ice chunks and RTGs to ‘seed’ an area with water and oxygen. The end result is a patchwork of small green patches that have slowly been expanding over the last decade, of which the oldest now cover a large enough area to host a small town’s worth of colonists.
Martian settlers generally rely on subsistence farming and unconventional livestock to supply themselves and as a result have a very rugged and independent attitude which is often perceived as outright hostility by visitors, the most common of which are shuttles from the Belt-to-Luna transport lines delivering supplies on their outbound flight. These huge freighters are propelled by plasma engines and serve to bring the material bounty of the asteroid belt to a more practicable position for mining in Lunar orbit, forming a sort of ‘tail’ of asteroids circling the satellite.
On the other end of the transit, permanent asteroid belt installations such as the infamous ‘Gateway’ station located at the Mars-Sun L2 point host mostly temporary crews that carry out the surveying, testing and preparation work for the mining trade. These crews are fiercely protective of their role in the ecosystem and the extremely high pay it commands, compensation made possible by the materials harvested being critical for the buildout of the space infrastructure itself. The ambitious Solar Power System in construction would not be possible without the rare materials harvested from the region.