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| Negative Space Background |
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| by Jason "Rodzilla" Rodzik |
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| Posted on September 26, 2004 |
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Thanks a ton to Khaeon Games for sending us over some background information on their upcoming game, Negative Space.
Negative space is a sci-fi isometric shooter using a highly modified and improved version of the Serious Engine. This is part one of a three part series, including the backstory, character profiles, and combat history of your squad.
Negative Space Backstory
The year is 2250. The stellar realm and government of humanity, "The Presidio", controls several thousand billion souls living throughout hundreds of star systems. Interstellar democracy has failed with the destruction of Old Earth and has been replaced by a galactic plutocracy: a government of the wealthy -an administration formed by powerful star corporations.
In the milieu of the Presidio, individuals are weighed by their merit: their worth. Those who are without value are swiftly disposed of or are made valuable in some way, usually to their detriment. The Presidio finds uses for all of its inhabitants: from the lowliest trader to supervisory level shareholder.
The Executive Senate of the Presidio is comprised of five major stakeholders in human society: five star corporations who have invested heavily in the human endeavour. They are cyclopean entities, comprised of hundred thousands of corporate branches, daughter companies and planetary divisions. Their names are: General Dominion, Mandec-Geostrata, AGC Spaceframe, Ilium Macrotech, and IBS (Interstellar Biodyne Systems).
A typical human world is owned by its planetary holding company, which is usually part of a corporate star division of one of the five major stakeholders of the Presidio. In order for a planet to be successful and influential, it will have to meet profit targets outlined by it’s holding. Only then will it’s minor shareholders (it’s citizens) be able to live in wealth.
However, it happens that some subsidiary worlds are unable to pay off their debts or fail to meet their targets several generations in a row. These worlds usually fall prey to the upstart forces of the Free Economy Liberation League, also known throughout the Presidio as "Neo-Commies". After the Subsidiary Wars of 2194, a remnant of Old Earth’s starfleet was decommissioned and reformed into the Colonial Recovery Force; a corporate military whose sole purpose is to oppose hostile take-overs of subsidiary planets. They are less-than-affectionately known as the "Repo Divisions" or the "Repo Marines".
In 2241 it was discovered that the expansion of the Presidio towards the galactic "south" had entered a sector of space infested with alien lifeforms which were hostile to humanity. This zone of star systems became know as the "Line of Charybdis". Most of the planets beyond this line had been purposefully seeded with aggressive alien predators. Analogous to Old Earth type bugs the dangerous inhabitants of the worlds beyond the Line of Charybdis proved disadvantageous to the expansion drive of the Presidio. It remained unknown what kind of civilisation had seeded these worlds with the aggressive alien bugs, but it was certain that there was a non-human enemy out there who did not look favourably upon the encroaching presence of mankind.
Now, in order to study this invisible enemy, the star corporations are actively seeking out worlds populated with bugs and are keenly establishing terraformed colonies beyond the Line of Charybdis. Their goal is to provoke the alien aggressors. Corporate weapon divisions are chomping at the bit to get their hands on exclusive samples of alien spores, eggs and jellies. Thousands of bug species across the Line of Charybdis are being catalogued, shipped off to Sol system and cloned or re-engineered, depending on who is wielding the incisor.
But the Presidio’s advance beyond the Line of Charybdis is meeting with ever more vehement opposition from bug hives and spaceborn aliens descending on hapless Line Colonies. For every terraformed colony that succeeds beyond the Line, there are dozens who fail and fall to either bugs or neo-commies. The corporate Repo Divisions are working overtime to reclaim them.
The Repo Marines are on the forefront of this offensive.
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