I Want To Go Home

Apollo

The World: Man's society on Apollo is predominately subterranean; with the Gaea plugged into the planet's mantle, the soil turned fertile and the animals became plentiful. They started building in the crater where the station impacted, using the machinery and facilities to mine down into the crust. They processed and expanded, and within twenty years, the first of many great underground cities was born. All of Apollo's cities are underground, using the geothermal eddies to supplement the slowly dying Gaea, making for a constantly warm environment. The world's surface is dominated by industrial processing plants, constantly being fed ore and churning out the metals & plastics needed to make everything from spaceship parts to engineer's coveralls. Between heavy ozone levels in the stratosphere and the city's proximity to the mantle itself, everything is naturally tinged with a ruddy glow, not to mention the average temperature is a balmy 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

Part of what makes Apollo run smoothly is the oligarchy. A mixture of plutocracy and military junta, the men don't choose their life's course, it is determined for them at the moment of conception by a circle of rich and powerful men. Based on the genetic profile of the donors, the fetus is predetermined to be one of three social castes, what occupation, and so on. As such, every citizen of Apollo is issued a unique DNA-encoded cardkey that controls which areas of the cities they are allowed to enter.

Class 1 citizens are located on the upper crust of society. A class one can be from any occupational tier, but the difference lies in the privilege; a class three engineer works and lives down in the bowels of the city, while a class one works in a high rise. A class two scientist works in a group facility with twenty others, while a class one has a private lab with cutting edge equipment.

Class two Doctors, scientists, pilots, soldiers, and so on. They are the majority of Apollo's civilians, who handle the majority of the society's needs.

Class three, the slave class citizens of Apollo. The engineers, miners, and other blue collar people live in cramped dormitory housing deep in the bowels of the city. They are intrinsic to the function and survival of their society, but they are expected to spend most of their lives in their own section.

People are "paid" a certain amount of credits based on their social caste, which is spent on luxury experiences like going to sporting events, or luxury items like clothing, weapons, sports paraphernalia, or recreational substances. The society does not indulge things like music or the arts, and all food comes in flavorless pellets which contain the precise nutrients needed to ensure performance, although they are quite big on their intoxicants. Everyone has a part to play in Apollo's society, and they do as they are told because Apollo's one law is without misinterpretation: Do your job, mind your place; failure to perform will result in termination.

Reproduction in man's society, 99% of all young are born and grown in cultivation tanks, on farms that churn out batches of one-hundred. These "children of the machine" are second and third class citizens. The remaining 1% are first class children, born in cultivation tanks that are privately owned; these children are raised by the heads of major corporations, powerful military figureheads, or the ostensibly superior.

Men's technology is, in one word, inelegant; while very effective, the designs give no consideration to aesthetics. For example, the many factories on the world's surface process necessary materials very efficiently, but they choke the atmosphere with noxious chemicals. Apollo's technology is all about instant gratification at any expense.

The men's spacesuits come in two parts; the SkinSuit, the ultra-thin layer that they wear primarily, is the important part. It is environmentally sealed and filled with sensors that keep the ship aware of the wearer's up-to-date condition (oxygen saturation, temperature, heart rate, etc). Aside from short-wave communications and a built-in oxygen scrubber, the suits are generally simple. The ExoSuit is a bulkier, heavily armored suit that the men wear over their SkinSuit. While the SkinSuit's primary function is life support, the ExoSuit is designed for function and defense. It has built-in thrusters, life-sign scanning, logistic interfacing with the ship computer, magnetic boots, and high-impact redundant shielding like the spaceships use. The suits also have a built-in power plant and modular attachments, such as plasma cannons, tools, scientific survey devices, and so on. As you can imagine, the suits greatly increase the wearer's physical strength and provide him with excellent defense, but they are extremely cumbersome and greatly reduce his maneuverability on the ground.

The philosophy of inelegant performance is applied in their spaceships as well. Male vessels are powered by highly unstable antimatter, which provides them with nearly limitless power, at the extreme risk of explosion on core breach. The ships utilize antimatter missiles and charged particle cannons, of which their ships carry several banks, and large ammunition stores. The hulls are made of polarized ablative shielding, which means the ship's defensive shell is thick, and able to repair itself by drawing metallic debris toward itself. The vessels are large and clunky; they are not known for their speed or their maneuverability, although their heavy armaments make them formidable.