Introduction

The year is 2299 CE. The Helios Station is a ring of 336 connected city-sized space stations, known as Nodes, orbiting about one million miles above the surface of the sun with a diameter of 2.8 million miles and a circumference of 8.7 million miles.

Eight nation like states, known as the Octant States, rule over the nodes having recently gained independence from the Earth nations and all their turmoil. Tensions are high as resources are limited and not everyone has forgotten their former allegiances back on Earth.

History

In the early years of the 22nd century, mankind scientific and technological progress entered a golden age as nations across the globe united to conquer many challenges. Many diseases were eradicated, cybernetics could replace almost any limbs or muscles, life-expectancy had greatly improved since the previous centuries and space exploration boomed. Both Mars and the Moon were partially colonised along with several space stations surrounding the four terrestrial planets. However mankind's most ambitious space project was yet to come.

On April 12th 2137 CE, multiple space agencies formalised and approved a new project, The Helios Station. The project was to be completed in three phases. First, build the main bulk of the station and all its life support systems. Second, move a small population in and begin building self sufficient systems for power, food and water as well as to begin forming political and social structures. Finally, a gradual migration of billions of humans from Earth and other colonies. Once all phases were complete, the station could be considered fully functional. The expected end date was 2250 CE.

Despite a promising and optimistic start, delays began due to resource shortages, bureaucracy and rising tensions between nations and existing extraterrestrial colonies. A strike of martian miners delayed the project for nearly four years. The first phase was completed 13 years behind schedule in 2182 CE. The second phase was similarly delayed until 2213 CE. Despite all the troubles, and being significantly smaller than initially hoped, the station was declared fully functional in 2273 CE.

However, it was clear by this time that Earth was not a unified as it had been at the beginning of the project. Time, small conflicts and resentment over each other's contribution, or lack thereof, to the project had greatly increased tensions between nations. Many people predicted and feared another world war. These fears were deeply troubling to citizens on the Helios Station. Each Octant would be expected to fight for their respective nations, likely against other Octants. This threatened the home they had spent over a century building.

In 2276 CE The leaders of the Octants decided to take bold action. They formed the Council of Eight Governors and announced that none of the 332 stations of Helios would send any resources, research or aid of any kind to Earth until the entire Helios Station was granted independence from the Earth nations and their wars or the Earth nations could adequately prove that none of the Octants would be dragged into a war. These demands placed the Earth nations in a difficult position. They had all invested so much in the station and losing that would be a major blow. However while most nations could send troops to take back their Octant, doing so would involve leaving their lands back on Earth vulnerable. Not to mention the publicity and morale issues with killing their own citizens on the station.

In 2289 CE, after over a decade of stalemate in which, true to their word, the Octants did not send any significant exports to Earth, an agreement was reached. The entire station was granted independence and autonomy. In exchange, many new trade agreements and alliances were setup, but only with the explicit understanding that an Octant would never be expected to aid an Earth nation in a war and may immediately withdraw from any agreement if a conflict of interest arose (i.e. where aiding an Earth nation would hinder another Octant).

The Helios Station has been independent for ten years. While the station has been thriving, it can not be considered a utopia for every one of the approximately 6 billion residents. Many political, economic and social issues still plague the people. Tensions on Earth are as high as they've ever been. Many have not forgotten their ancestry and old allegiances the the Earth nations, resulting in tensions in and between the Octants echoing those on Earth. People fear that a war on Earth will inevitably lead to a war on the station despite the Council of Eight's best efforts.

Space Exploration

Much of the Solar System has been explored by probes and satellites but much remains untouched by man.

Inner Solar System

Earth's Moon, Luna, was the first to become colonised. Five lunar colonies now exist primarily focused on research and mining, though small cities have formed around the operations to provide researchers, workers and their families with all the usual amenities they'd find on Earth. Recently tourism has become an increasingly popular industry on Luna. While Luna does have it's own government and is politically autonomous, it is greatly dependent on support from Earth government and corporations. Effectively making parts of it subservient to those governments and corporations that support them. While these corporations, and the politicians and media they sponser, spout praise of this system of commercialised colonisation, most of the scientific community and public agree that this should be avoided in other colonies.

Mars has also been colonised, some fifty years later than Luna. However being closer in size and gravity to Earth and containing far more useful resources (such as water), the martian colonies rapidly expanded. There are 23 colonies currently operational on the martian surface with 4 orbital stations and space ports. Unlike Luna, Mars is not treated as one single autonmous state but individual colonies still belong to the governments and agencies that created them.

The orbits of Mercury and Venus have also been colonised but almost exclusively by small research operations and are not treated as states like the lunar, martian or helios colonies.

Outer Solar System

There are no human colonies beyond the asteroid belt, excepting small temporary research missions, usually to Europa or Titan. Nearly all operations beyond this point are staffed entirely by robots, typically collecting measurements or samples and sending them back to human settlements for study.

Beyond the Kuiper Belt

Exploration outside of the Kuiper Belt had never been performed by humans until two missions that launched almost simultaneously five years ago. KITE and XPLOR are two rival private space agencies that have been engaged in a form of space race for several decades. Each decided to launch their own human led missions to Alpha Centurai. Kite produced a single large cruiser , the K-Treker, capable of carrying 250 people and enough supplies and fuel to last them 160 years. While XPLOR produced a fleet of three ships, carrying approximately 100 people each. Each vessel is theoretically entirely self-sufficient and should run as long as people are around to maintain them. Both expeditions predict the trip will take around 35-40 years to complete.

Regular updates are sent back to the Solar System and many people have taken to betting on which team will arrive first. Bryce Johannson, CEO of KITE famously bet his $5 trillion estate on the deal while the CEO for XPLOR, Velma Derishan, has publicly refused to confirm or deny any bets she has made regarding the race.

Notably each message is slightly slower to reach home than the last as the ships travel further away and speed up, currently they take about four months to arrive.

Technology

Space Travel

The science of space faring vessels has evolved greatly across the last few centuries but mankind is still greatly limited. Faster than light travel is still pure fantasy. While the theoretical top speed of all space vessels is space is close to light speed, different vessels will accelerate at different speeds and have different ranges due to fuel, supplies and life support capacity.

Small skiffs with one or two seats can accelerate and change direction very quickly but have very short range, they can rarely escape the atmosphere or orbit of a planet on their own power alone, requiring transport by larger vessels. They are primarily used to navigate asteroid mining operations, external maintenance work or for sports and leisure.

Medium sized Yachts and Galleys are slower to accelerate but can carry more cargo or crew, usually between a dozen and a hundred people. They are usually capable of making short trips between nearby planets or moons and are the primary mode of short range interplanetary transport.

Large cruisers or freight ships are very slow to accelerate, sometimes taking days to reach their typical cruising speeds. They also take considerable time to change direction, they can make very long journeys quickly once they get up to speed. A few rare models are capable of making a trip from the Helios Station to the Kuiper Belt and back in less than two years, particularly when planets and other celestial bodies are in ideal positions for gravity slingshots. It requires a humongous amount of energy to escape a planet's atmosphere, as such cruisers usually built and docked in space ports in upper orbit while smaller vessels transport crew and cargo to and from the surface.

The orbiting cities of The Helios Station are connected via long rail tunnels, some are tens of thousands of miles long. These trains are capable of moving at hypersonic speeds.

Artificial Intelligence

Primitive AI is the term for the simplest forms of AI first formed in the 20th century. They are capable of learning basic trends in datasets, allowing them to predict or mimic human actions. Primitive AIs are very common and serve as digital assistants, market researchers or basic worker robots.

Advanced AI is a remarkable step up from earlier models. They are capable of developing personalities and thinking creatively or laterally, massively improving their ability to appear human. A well made advanced AI is indistinguishable from a human to all but the most trained inquisitors. Despite their ability to display emotion and personality, they are generally not considered sentient. Advanced AI is often used to manage autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles or in the service industry, such as secretaries, clerks and entertainers.

True AI is the dream of many scientists. A truly conscious being capable of fully independent thought. Many have claimed to have invented it only for some flaw or ruse to be discovered and them to become a laughing stock.

Occasionally AI will be given a human-like robot body, this is known as an android. Despite flesh-like exteriors, androids are still fairly easy to recognise compared to real humans. It is typically more common for the AI to reside on computer servers or as part of a machine suited to its task such as a vehicle or factory line.

Cybernetics

Prosthetic technology has come a long way, it is now possible to almost perfectly replicate the motor functions of nearly any limb or muscle as well as also being able to replace certain organs. Some advanced cybernetics even use primitive AI to learn about its host and predict their intentions, offering them a form of muscle memory.

Some people have even taken to using cybernetics to enhance the body parts they replace. This includes embedding personal storage devices, projecting images and videos directly into the retinas, colour changing hair and eye implants or even retractable weapons.

Cybernetics are still often considered dangerous for several reasons. The body can reject  implants, leading to medical complications. Hardware and software can malfunction, sometimes rendering the cybernetic useless or dangerously uncontrollable. Electronics can short or electrocute the host.

In extreme cases, people have attempted to implement advanced AI into cybernetics, sometimes even into brain implants to alter their intelligence or personality. These are very rare occurrences and are usually only heard in news stories about resulting disasters. This has fed a public consensus that advanced AI and cybernetics should never mix. Some argue that the successful attempts are simply kept as industrial secrets as prototypes.

Artificial gravity

True artificial gravity is still only present in science fiction. Gravity can be simulated by spinning a vessel in space. The resulting centripetal force can replicate various levels of gravity. This is usually only present on larger and more expensive ships. Some luxury vessels are so sophisticated that individual sections of a ship can spin at different rates to the preference of those inside.

Other attempts at partially simulating gravity include; magnetic shoes and floors or weighted clothing in low gravity environments. Some trains and ship are designed vertically, with the front and back being the ceiling and floor respectively. Theses trains and ships are then accelerated rapidly, creating the illusion of gravity. Cabins inside are often designed so that the floor and ceiling are interchangeable or entirely rotates, to then produce the same effect when decelerating.

Humans

As of yet, no alien life that did not originate from Earth has been discovered. All beings that can be classified as alien to an Earthling are descended from Earthlings. This includes humans. Whilst there have only been a few generations of non-earth humans, they have many noticeable differences.

Earthlings are pretty much the same as they have been for the past few centuries, though average life expectancy is now roughly 120 years.

Helions are born and/or raised on the Helios Station. Due to an Earth-like environment on the Helios Station, Helions are very similar to Earthlings. The majority of the station uses mostly natural sunlight which, despite filtering, is much stronger than on earth. This results in a trend of darker skin. The magnitude of this trend depends heavily on where on the station a person spends most of their time as each part filters the sunlight differently. Helions are practically indistinguishable from Earthlings.

Lunarians are born and/or raised in a lunar colony. Due to reduced gravity, Lunarians are noticeably taller and skinnier than Earthlings, frequently reaching above 7'5" in adulthood. However they are considerably weaker than Earthlings and will struggle to even walk in higher gravity environments, such as Earth, without assistance from exoskeletons or considerable training before arriving.

Martians are born and/or raised in a martian colony. Like Lunarians, martians are taller and weaker than Earthlings though only slightly. They may struggle in higher gravity environments, like Earth. The average height for a Martian is about 6'4".

Nogravs are born and/or raised in microgravity environments, such as space stations. Unlike other humans, they use their upper bodies much more to move around and as a result, they tend to have noticeably buffer arms and torsos while having skinny, weak legs and glutes. Nogravs are often completely incapable of walking must rely on wheelchairs and exoskeletons.

The Octant States

Each of the stations belong to one of the octant states. The states originate from the nations and space agencies that created those portions of the station.

Space Agencies

Earth Government Agencies

Non-Earth Government Agencies

Private Agencies