Lore

### **The Human Empire :**

The Human Empire expanded throughout the galaxy during the centuries. Many solar systems were conquered and colonised by human populations. To do so, humans used a rudimentary technology of fast travel they are still using. It was made possible by a newly discovered type of resource, able to make ships way faster and much more powerful : the Crystals.

**The Crystals :**

The crystals work as an energy amplifier, any energy that runs through the crystal comes out one-billion times more powerful. Most ships have a nuclear fusion reactor that powers most of the systems on the ship such as, life support, navigation, gravitationnal generators, weapons and so forth. But in order to go fast enough for quick interplantary travel you need an insane amount of power, this is where the cystals come into play. The electricity created by the nuclar fusion reactor is channeled through a crystal, then increasing the power of the electricity one-billion times over. This makes the engines powerful enough to go near light speed. However, crystals can not be used indefintely, the longer they are used the less energy they can amplify. They also cantain impurities that cause them to wear out quicker. A crystal without impurities can be worth hundreds of credits. Due to the their usefulness in regard to interplantary travel, soon after their discovery, a gold rush started in search of this valuable resource.

### The Strewwa System case :

Strewwa is a medium yellow star with 5 planets and 2 asteroid fields orbiting. 2 of these planets are in the "green area" where life is possible. These planets were named Vankor and Narvis by colonists. Between them is an extremly stable asteroid belt in equal distance of each planet.
The Strewwa system is one of the multiple systems exploited for the Crystals. At the beginning of the colonisation of the system, the two planets were in good terms. The Human Empire was supervising relations between them and commercial routes were established. Mega-corporations started to mine Crystals in the asteroid belt. To do so, they started to build numerous bases in the asteroid field, biodomes, mines, factories, buildings, gravitationnal stabilisers and generators to make life possible in the belt.
At its peak the asteroid belt was occupied by more than 50 millions inhabitants.

### **Political Systems :**

The Human Empire is a giant dictatorship with full power over every system. It controls all these systems with the fear of their giant space armada. However, it's power decreases with distance. The further the central planet of the Empire is, the lower is it's power. Narvis and Vankor are in a medium range giving them quite some control over what they are doing. Moreover the extraction of the Crystals gives them a quite big economic power with the Empire.

Vankor is an extreme dictatorship, every inhabitant can be localised with GPS markers and facial recognition cameras. There is no liberty at all, everyone works for or with the Government. The only ones with a bit of liberty are the mega-corporations, who are exploiting the asteroid belt for Crystals. They have a big interest in technology development to get the advantage over Narvis.

Narvis is an autocratic society. They are completely controlled by the mega-corportations who are in all political associations. A strong lobby of weapons are maintaining the war active. People here are all workers for mega-corporations who are using them without let up. It has legalised slavery and a big part of the non-private army members are actually slaves.

Since the Empire has it's own problems in this era, they are not taking much part in the Vankor-Narvis conflict. As long as they can get Crystals from this system they won't make any action to stop the conflict.

### **The "Cold War" :**

The power of the Human Empire was growing continuously, and so was the power of the Strewwa System. But one day, the Empire started to loose it's influence and power. The supervisors from the Empire left Strewwa and let Vankor and Narvis on their own. The two planets were quite advanced already and autonomous. However, this time period marked the beginning of extrem tensions between Vankor and Narvis. The mega-corporations started to mine in claimed land of each other inorder to increase benefits in this period of hard time for the Empire. The numerous mining and commercial agreements between Vankor and Narvis started to be broken one by one. The asteroid field's non-inhabited area started to be occupied by junkers, robbers and all the dregs from both planets. They started to attack mining and commercial ships to steal Crystals and commercial resources. In retaliation, Vankor and Narvis started a huge militarization of their convoys. They also militarized the asteroid belt by putting, turrets, borders, mines, and military bases in the belt. With this two-side militarization, enormous amounts of tension were created in the belt and between the two planets.

### **The "Great War" :**

Nobody knows who shot first, but one day, war began between Vankor and Narvis. The inhabitants who could, left the asteroid field to go back to their native planet and activated their defense drones to guard their homes and businesses while they were away. For the others who couldn't leave, they try to survive the best they can in the belt. The war is not yet over. However it has calmed down, the asteroid belt has some areas where the fighting has almost stopped and where inhabitant can live quite peacefully. Vankorians and Narvisians are still oppressing the inhabitants of the belt, considering the ones who could not leave the same as the dregs from the borders of the belt.

### **Main character story :**

You were a Vankorian lieutenant. You were forced to serve in the military, as every Vankorian from the age of 16, but you had never gone into space before. One day, you saw a high Vankorian General plotting with a Narvisian enemy, holding a strange blue shining item. He found out that you knew and to silence you he sent you to jail. Despite all your attempts to tell the truth, you did not succeed in convincing anybody of what you saw. You were being transfered to an asteroid belt orbiting prison when you were attacked by an unknown force...

You are hunted by Vankorians all troughout the story and Narvisians despise you as an inhabitant of the belt.

### **"The Artefacts" Narrative Arc :**

Not much is known about the artefacts. We know that they are ruins of an extremly old alien civilisation and that they can control electromagnetic signals remotly. They can take the control of full ships or places but they are never under the form of a single entity. They are always behaving like a parasite on something, never someone. They are very violent and always end up destroying whatever it is they take control of, sometimes ending in fatalities. We have never directly seen a member of this specie. But if we were somehow able to harness these artifacts it would give either side a great advantage when it comes to the war; enabling them to take over entire star ships remotely. All attempts to harness them however has ended in disaster; with the artifact breaching containment, and sometimes taking over an entire base.

### WARNING ENDGAME SPOIL **"The Gravitationnal Anomaly" Narrative Arc :**

After having repaired the AI at Gamini, it found out that a big gravitational anomaly is occuring in the belt. After some analysis you discover that this anomaly is the result of prolonged exposure to gravitationnal manipulations from the gravitationnal generators. Since Vankorians and Narvisians would not care if you told them about the problem directly, the AI plans to hack into the belt's main telecomunnications transmitter to send a general message. You hope that this message will be listenened by Narvisians and Vankorians. If it's not the case, the asteroid belt stability will be broken and it will cause extrem damages on all the belt structures and take countless lives.

### FAQ :

Why is there gravity for players in the belt but not for strucures ?

This is due to the gravitationnal generators. Humans do not completely control gravity at this point of history, only a small artificial gravity can be produced on living entities. This is mainly to protect the human body from turning into soup in space and remain healthy.

Why Narvisians and Vankorians ships are inside the belt and not going above or under it ?

They are in a full war, they have developed strong weapons able to do orbital bombardment directly on the belt. If one of the enemy spaceships takes the risk of going above or under the belt it will be destroyed. So the pilots from both sides learned to navigate through the asteroid belt using it like a big shield.

Why aren't crystals used to power the ships weapons?

Since the crystals amplify power one-billion times over, firing a weapon of that magnitude would create an enormous amount of kick-back therefore tearing the ship apart. Currently both Narvis and Vankorian engineers are working on building ships that will be able to handle the kick-back from using crystal power for weapons, therefore making them extremely destructive; this technology would have a great impact on the war.