Lore

Lore
"After decades of war and bloodshed the solar system was never the same.  We had to find our own haven in the asteroid belt.  We built Sinley Bay.

Now it’s where they hire us to fight in their war that never really ended. It’s where renegades flee to when they have nowhere left to go. Now I am here to welcome them—to turn them into fine Captains that will keep Sinley Bay free.

Let’s see if they're worth my time."

~Bix Duquette
 * The Solar System
 * Colonies & Terraforming
 * Megacorps

Setting and Technology
Dreadnought is set in the future, around the year 2440 CE (Current, or Common Era), where human spaceflight has advanced to the point of allowing interplanetary travel to become nearly trivial. "Warp Drives," or "Jump Drives," let vessels travel between planets nearly instantaneously, and advanced terraforming equipment allowed humans to colonize previously uninhabitable worlds. The limit of human space travel in 2440 CE appears to be the edge of the Solar System.

The technology in Dreadnought appears to be an extrapolation of current technology. Guided and unguided missiles and torpedoes using nuclear or chemical fuel are common offensive armament for human ships, and directed-energy-weapons like Repeater Turrets and Anti-Missile Lasers appear as well. Kinetic weapons are also seen on human warships, manifesting as Autoguns and Flak Cannons. "Healing" and amplification effects are manifested as coherent beams or pulses, which could be explained as an energy boost to a structural integrity field, or nanotechnology that adaptively repairs damage to vessels.

Sublight engines and maneuvering thrusters appear to use pure directed energy rather than a chemical reaction to produce thrust. The engines emit a light blue, green, or red plume when fired, similar to the Xenon Ion Engine currently carried by NASA's Dawn mission. The vessels are powered by reactors, presumably some kind of sustained fusion or antimatter reaction. The warships have the ability to shunt power where it is needed; to increase engine output, raise an electromagnetic shield, or increase the fire rate of energy weapons. Very little on the capability of the vessels to sustain their crews through food replication or preparation is addressed in the lore, however it can be inferred that vessels still must take on supplies to sustain themselves for long periods.

The vessels are immensely resilient, able to shrug off direct impacts with asteroids, orbital facilities, and incoming thermonuclear missiles. The warships can operate in atmosphere as well as in the vacuum of space, and appear to be able to hold station despite strong gravitational forces. Alloys like "ultratitanium" presumably lend themselves to the vessels' ability to absorb massive punishment and stay in the fight. The vessel interiors are spartan, with harsh, utilitarian strip lighting and simple metallic deck and bulkhead plating. The bridges incorporate holographic heads-up displays and situation indication systems.

Vast shipyards, orbital facilities, and docks are seen throughout Dreadnought. Huge Space Elevators and orbiting habitats display a thriving state of human spacefaring, though some have become derelict or destroyed by conflict. Many moons have shining city lights across their surface, indicating successful colonization and development. At various spaceborne facilities, huge dockyards with interplanetary shipping vessels can be seen, with large standardized shipping containers stacked in neat rows throughout the facility. Mining and processing facilities in key locations provide resources to humanity to sustain the vast colonial demand throughout the solar system.

State of Humanity
In the late 2100s CE, Earth was struggling with overpopulation and resource depletion. Scientists began to experiment with Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the Transhumans were created. Transhumans are mechanical, highly advanced beings that eventually gained sentience. Their appearance and characteristics are not fully known.

In 2210 CE, the Federal Earth Government initiated the Valkyrie Venture, a massive undertaking with the goal of terraforming Venus and Mars. Dispatching thousands of scientists and Transhumans, the task force terraformed Mars by 2235, and Venus by 2240. Project Morrigan was responsible for the successful terraforming of Venus, and was the result of independent thinking by the Transhumans, who were just beginning to develop sentience. With their primary tasks complete, the Valkyrie Venture scientists were reassigned to the worlds they had helped terraform to assist in colonization efforts. Venus, Earth, and Mars were called The Home Planets. The Transhumans built the Okeanides, a series of navigation beacons in the asteroid belt. The Okeadnides greatly assisted their efforts to terraform Mars, and made it much safer to use warp travel into and out of the asteroid belt.

The Transhumans made a proposal to humanity in 2239, offering to terraform and develop the outer solar system, including the Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus systems. While the gas giants themselves could not be terraformed, the numerous moons of their systems could be, and could offer virtually limitless resources. The Transhumans set out on the Viking Venture, and successfully terraformed and developed the majority of the objects around Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus between 2260 and 2340 CE. Jupiter's Moon Io was colonized in 2280.

The Great Solar War
Upon reaching Neptune in 2340, the Transhumans declared their intent to take the Neptune system for themselves. The Home Planets rejected their request, and dispatched attack fleets to defend human interests throughout the Solar System. As hostilities grew, the Pan-Colonial Fleet (PCF) was formed in 2350 by the governments of Earth, Troja, and Enyo. Every ship able to fight was dispatched, and the three Megacorps, Oberon, Akula Vektor, and Jupiter Arms began building warships to support the PCF. The initial skirmishes were in the asteroid belt, before several push-and-shove fleet actions took the war to Mars and then Jupiter. The tide turned in 2354, when, during the first major conflict with the Transhumans, the Akula Vektor Simargl Dreadnought fleets pushed the Transhumans past the asteroid belt and the Transhuman battleship "Recalcitrant" was destroyed. This dealt a massive blow to the Transhuman's combat power. Seeking retribution, the Transhumans launched a series of brutal counterattacks that lasted a decade, from 2356 to 2366. The battles raged across Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus, with the PCF eventually gaining a strong foothold around Uranus by 2366. .

The Uneasy Peace
For 22 years, the pace of combat slowed while preparations were made to strike against the Transhuman homeworld, Neptune. The Atlantian Plan, a renewed effort for a final push to defeat the Transhumans, was developed in secrecy until 2388. Tens of thousands of ships and millions of crewmen were manufactured and trained in preparation for the final stage of the conflict.

The Siege of Neptune
In 2388, the PCF launched the First Atlantian Assault. For the next twelve years, constant warfare in orbit of Neptune sapped the strength of both sides. PCF warships covertly bombarded Neptune's upper atmosphere with experimental bombs and took readings to determine how best to increase their destructive yield. A friendly-fire incident occurred in 2399 during the test of a "warp bomb", developed to destroy Transhuman facilities on and around Neptune. The 19th Holding Aces Regiment, a PCF patrol fleet, was completely destroyed.

In 2410, after 60 years of war, the PCF strategists launched the Atlantian Plan. Every vessel the PCF had at its disposal, including non-combatant vessels, warped into orbit above Neptune to engage the Transhuman fleet. The sheer number of vessels, totaling in the thousands, baited the Transhumans into engaging the fleet and drawing their defenses away from the terraforming machines that were maintaining Neptune as a solid planet the Transhumans could live on. Massive numbers of PCF vessels were sacrificed to the withering fire of the Transhuman defenders, however a few PCF attack fleets managed to get close enough to the surface to deploy their experimental warp bombs and disrupt the terraformers. Neptune's surface was destroyed, returning to its former icy ammonia atmosphere and wiping all traces of Transhuman technology from the planet.

The war raged for 61 years, until in 2411 the Transhumans departed the Solar System in defeat. It is uncertain what caused them to leave, or where they went. The PCF was dissolved in 2410, and the solar system returned to an internal struggle for power.

Sinley Bay, The Scum Belt, and The Great Mutiny
During the chaos of the Battle of Atlantis, Captain Bix Duquette, along with four other captains, realized the PCF was willingly sacrificing civilian vessels to allow them a chance to strike against the Transhumans. They halted their fleets' attacks, and ordered them to jump away from the battle. Hundreds of PCF ships deserted, and eventually found solace in the asteroid belt, which was termed the Scum Belt.

Bix founded Sinley Bay, a massive outpost anchored to several asteroids, and reactivated the Okeadnides beacons, allowing safe travel throughout the belt. Sinley Bay is a haven for outlaws, and none of the warring factions have claim to it. Sinley Bay is the foremost installation in the asteroid belt, holding the keys to the Okeadnides beacon network and the seat of leadership for the mercenary outlaws inhabiting the belt.

Another outlaw's outpost, Ryugu Haven is a massive base built into the Urvara Crater on Ceres, a rocky dwarf planet with no atmosphere. It has served a wide range of purposes, from early human colony, to Transhuman way-station, to Pan-Colonial Fleet outpost. One of the largest efforts to colonize Ryugu Haven was launched by the Martian government in 2422 CE. This operation tasked Akula Vektor with mining old technology left by the Transhumans—however, the immense dangers of navigating the Scum Belt severely limited the Megacorp’s success. In 2431, Akula Vektor gave up control of the Haven, and a group of raiders occupied it. Shortly thereafter, Ryugu Haven struck a deal with Sinley Bay leadership, and a crude alliance was formed.

Outlaw fleets generate revenue as mercenaries or treasure hunters. A power vacuum was left in the solar system after the dissolution of the PCF in 2410, so the Home Planet governments and the Megacorps battle for control of the resources and technology left over after the Great Solar War. Formerly grand orbital facilities, mining depots, and terraformer sites stud the surfaces and orbits of moons and planets colonized by humans and Transhumans before the Great Solar War, and without a central government to control them, anyone with enough firepower can lay claim to them. The outlaw fleets of the Scum Belt rely largely on mercenary work to seize key locations throughout the solar system for their employers.