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Copyright © Tony Jones, 2005.
This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence. |
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By the middle of the 22nd century Humanity had risen to heights - of technology, culture and sanity - only dreamed of in the 20th century, or the nightmare years of the mid-21st. Most of the world was at last sane and at peace, with, on Earth, only the blemish of the Chilean Empire to cast its shadow across what many considered a golden age. Although sixty-five billion of Humanity (a term which by now had expanded to include 'normal ' humans, superhumans, and many types of computer-based 'artificial ' intelligences, engineered humans/superhumans, and enhanced/engineered animals) lived on Earth, technology kept everyone at a standard of living vastly higher than that of even the richest in the 1990's. Medical science had eliminated illnesses of all kinds and promised indefinite life to all who desired it. Because most of the Earth's population lived in vast arcologies, most of the Earth's surface had been restored to pristine wilderness, where recreated and newly created species roamed. Off Earth, another thirty-seven billion people lived in millions of settlements spread across the Solar System, from inside the orbit of Mercury to deep into the Oort cloud.
However, despite all its advances, some things remained beyond the reach of Humanity, including the dream of faster than light travel.
Then, on Christmas day 2241, the golden age came to an end. A wave of stealthy attacks triggered the defensive systems of all the worlds against each other. Within days it was realised that no human had triggered the attacks, but by that time ninety percent of humanity, nearly ninety seven billion people, were dead, the Earth was an uninhabitable cinder, and it was clear that humanity was under attack by a race of aliens, the only ones ever encountered, who became known as the Hounds.
But by then it was too late; the Hounds had taken Jupiter and all its moons, somehow protecting them from retaliatory strikes, and had begun to build, and grow, using methods and technologies operating partly outside the laws of nature.
Now, nearly one hundred years later, Humanity is an endangered species, threatened by the Hounds from without, and from within by the traitorous humans of DEMON, loyal to the Hounds, and the newly created crime empire of Omerta. Only the United Nations, the one governmental organisation to rally Humanity after the arrival of the Hounds, stands between humankind and extinction. Unfortunately, despite its best efforts, the UN is inexorably losing, and only holds on against despair in the hope that somehow, some way for Humanity to triumph can be found...
The following links connect to various pages covering different aspects of the world of 2335 :
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Copyright © Tony Jones, 2005.
This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence. |