ManX War

My Great American Novel.

Monday, August 01, 2005

Postwar GTA

The titanic struggles left the GTA in seriously weakened position. Dozens of its worlds were shattered by the battles and casualties were over three hundred million. Its powerful fleet was reduced to barely twenty percent its prewar strength.

Still, the GTA had won its political and economic freedom from the Republic. The first few years after the war finally wound down saw the GTA struggle to feed its population. GTA scientists and engineers work miracles devising new ways to rebuild the infrastructure.

Orbital habitats were quickly converted for use as farms, providing food for devastated worlds incapable of providing basic necessities to the people. Terraforming techniques are refined to decontaminate and reclaim vast tracts of land.

Matter replicating devices help to quickly manufacture new parts and equipment. A variant, dubbed the autochef, provides food to milllions of starving citizens. This amazing invention is soon incorporated into every new home being built

Industrial scale replicators are assembled, kickstarting the rebuilding process. The massive replicators are capable of quickly assembling massive beams used as building frameworks. Enormous new megacities are built upon the ruins of the old. Homes are provided for all citizens and no one lacks for work.

Planetary defenses, once thought strong enough to withstand any attack, but frequently proven woefully inadequate, are given a high priority. For the first time in human history, a planetary defense screen is built around an entire world. Every major GTA world is equipped with one within sixty years.

Further innovations in artificial intelligence and quantum computing sees the implementation of androids and robots in spaceship construction and repair, replacing human clones. The inclusion of autochefs significantly reduces the food and personnel requirements aboard new warships, allowing an increase in ships' systems, most notably weapons and shield.

Within seventy-five years of the wars end, the GTA is stronger and more than vital than ever before. Their technological achievments leave them at the forefront of human society.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

History

Mankind reaches the stars

In the early 23rd century, the United States develops a hyperdrive capable to traveling to distant worlds. Early drives allow ships to travel one light-year per week. Further enhancements over the next few centuries reduce the transit time even further.

Colonization of space begins with world powers claiming numerous habitable systems for their own. Inevitably, individual nations begin building fleets of warships to protect their new colonies.

War breaks out between the colonies of Russia and China, followed by France and Britain against the United States. Fighting erupts on Earth, leaving much of the world population devastated. Overall casualties on Earth and the colonies number in the billions.

A world council is formed, replacing the United Nations. Individual nations are abolished and one centralized government, dubbed the First Terran Republic, takes control of Earth and its colonies.

First Terran Republic

Rebuilding the wartorn planets, many with insufficient resources to start anew, left the newly formed Republic with a immense manpower shortage. After much heated debate, it was decided to use advanced cloning techniques to create enough workers to alleviate the crisis.

Over the next century, clones are integrated into nearly every labor-intensive or hazardous environment job.

Meanwhile, mega-corporations, exploiting loopholes in colonization regulations, begin staking out their own fiefdoms and begin to wean themselves from the increasingly oppressive and decadent First Republic. Preparations are made for the corporations to form a government, the Galactic Trading Alliance.

Alarmed by the GTA's sudden rise in power and influence, the First Republic increases the size of its clone armies and fleet. Attempts to weaken the GTA financially fail as the fledgling nation is very rapidly becoming self-sufficient. The situation escalates when the GTA Chancellor dies under mysterious circumstances. Evidence links the Chancellor's death to Republic covert operatives.

The GTA military launches a devastating first strike, destroying several Republic fleet bases and inflicting massive casualties. Subsequent invasions net the GTA twelve Republic systems for minimal losses.

The Republic launches a major counter offensive. Four fleets, totalling nearly three thousand ships, strike back in three daring attacks.

The first assault wreaks heavy damage on the main GTA fleet at Mauser IV. The second lands troops in an attempt to retake the lost worlds. The third is a bold deep strike at the GTA capital world.

The offensive costs both sides dearly. The Republic regained three of the worlds, but were bloodily repulsed on the others.

The assault on the GTA capital turns grim when the Republican fleet commander, realizing his fleet is severely outgunned and outnumbered, orders the bulk of his planetary assault dreadnoughts to begin an orbital bombardment while the remainder of the fleet engages the GTA armada. Civilian casualties number in the millions. Combined Fleet casualties approach one million.

The war settles into a series of battles of attrition lasting nearly thirty years. Dozens of planets are razed in the fighting. Both sides field armies of clones to shore up battlefield losses. The Republic begins to crumble as the entire Cameron district secedes, taking with it a third of the Republic's industrial capacity. Within three years, three other districts pull out of the Republic, reducing its size by nearly sixty percent.

The war ends after thirty-five years with no decisive victor. The First Terran Republic is a hollow shell. Total casualties are over four hundred million.

Background

I'm not really certain if I'm going to publish the stories online at this time. This is mainly a place for me to save my ideas and then write up the story later. I may even self publish the book (more on this in another post).

I've always had an interest in writing, particularly sci-fi and fantasy novels. Why? Escapism, mainly. My life is pretty dull and the world outside is very dark right now. I've written a number of fanfic stories focussing on the just cancelled TV series, J.A.G.

My J.A.G. stories have gotten good reviews from the readers. I'm now ready to try something a little more ambitious.

The first ManX War novel has some dark elements to it. I don't want it to get too dark or focus on the evils man commits against himself. I also don't want to preach about the morality of cloning and slavery.

The second book picks up the story a few hundred years in the future. The Third Republic is at war shortly after making first contact with an alien species. Besieged by an implacable enemy, the Republic sends its top ambassador to ask the Manx Federation for help.

Premise:
Mankind created clone armies to fight a civil war, then afterward continued the practice to help rebuild the dozens of worlds shattered in the fighting. After a few hundred years, clone servitude was commonplace as they performed many menial and high-risk jobs.

The clones have no rights and generally considered 'disposable'. The brutal murder of a 'servicer' (ie sex slave) sparks a rebellion that quickly engulfs a world and spreads rapidly throughout the Second Republic.

Unbeknownst to the Republic, high-ranking clone military officials have long been planning an insurrection of their own. The rebellion forces them to implement their plan ahead of schedule. The ensuing conflagration engulfs the Republic in a second civil war.

tbc

Monday, July 18, 2005

ManX War

ManX War.

Book I: For three hundred years, the Second Terran Republic has depended on the cloned ManX to field its armies, harvest crops and perform as servicers in opulent pleasure palaces. Deemed property by the Republic and denied the most basic human rights, the ManX suffer in silence until a single spark ignites a fire that will engulf all of humanity.

Book II: Humanity's first contact with an alien species ends in war. As system after system falls, the Third Republic looks to its most hated enemy, the ManX, for help. But will the ManX help their former masters or leave them to their fate?