Futuristic HIGS Lore Pages

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Horseshoes and Ion Grenades Lore

The year is 3487. Humans have colonized almost every planet in the solar system, to varying degrees of success. Many of these colonies are just that: they have not grown independent or even necessarily stable yet. They were in the midst of a Great Expansion and as these colonies are further from Earth and the established reach of the System, the more prone they become to attacks from outlaws and problems with supply chains. The System is a very generous government however the further you are from Earth, the further you are from safety.

The System​

An international coalition formed in 2600 to manage space exploration. The have become the unanimously governing body of humanity and are run by democratically elected officials in the lifestyle and legal positions and experience-based elections for specific seats (I.e. military, agriculture, health, colonization). Society as a whole relies largely on science for its decisions about what and where things are built. Too many colonization attempts that were motivated by privatized greed and not backed by enough science led to too many deaths. As such there is no colony that does not have approval from System scientists that make sure it is at the very least safe enough. Money cannot buy these officials over.

This is not a dystopia. The System genuinely does its best by its people: Healthcare and education is 100% free. At least a small amount of food is free - it won't leave you satisfied, but you will not (usually) starve. HOWEVER: On planets other than Earth or the Moon, resources can get scarce and the System physically cannot make sure that the resources needed will be available in a timely manner. The further you get from Earth and from larger colonies the more this is true. In some places, it is genuinely a “you’re on your own” situation because the System cannot stop people from exploring, but it cannot be responsible for their safety past certain points. Here is where starvation is, indeed, possible.

Terraforming​

Currently, terraforming takes the form of thick, clear, flexible carbon fiber bubbles that are often self-repairing. These are spread over sections of buildings where possible, occasionally even covering a whole town or city on the solid and well-established planets. Stand-alone buildings are usually air locked and this is common on the moons of the gas planets where the mining towns are only recently established and money hasn’t been put into infrastructure yet.

These bubbles are extremely durable and failure of them is incredibly rare - if they were to fail though, it’s most likely going to be the maintenance pumps that fail, not the bubble itself; this would allow plenty of time for evacuation and/or replacement of the pumps. These bubbles are not only available to the System but to major companies, and smaller companies that can afford a higher maintenance cost as a failed bubble will push almost any company into bankruptcy as they must pay for every cubic oz of lost atmosphere as well as for every life lost including plants and animals.

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Earth​

The Earth is rather different than we know it now. Ocean levels are higher, glaciers are practically nonexistent, but despite the climate change humanity made great strides in adapting and cleaning things up. The Earth is a shining, pristine gem with silvery shimmery skyscrapers and lush forests abounding. Illness is rarely a concern here, especially in the big cities. The Earth is mostly lived on by people with lots of money, working deep within the System, or in one of the big corporations. Most large scale space ships are also made on Earth and in Earth’s orbit.​

The Moon​

A smaller and less green version of Earth, it’s a bit of a business district with many corporate offices there. Similarly to Earth, you’re considered lucky to be born here, however there is a large average civilian population here as well. The entire Moon is terraformed, meaning there is no need for respirators when out in the open, and there are no TerraBubbles.
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Mercury​

This planet is largely considered uninhabitable on a long-term basis due to the massive amounts of direct radiation and heat from the sun. However, there are many machine operated mining facilities run with minimal staff. There are very, very few residencies here. Given that most safe spaces on the planet are run by the System or varying mining companies, the medical care is very good but very restricted. Food comes from indoor hydroponic gardens inside the massive industrial complexes. Some people do live here long-term and simply do not leave the shelter of the complexes at all. It would be incredibly unlikely for someone to have been born on this planet as again, very very few people live there full time. There are not even prisons on this planet, as it would be too expensive to keep someone alive all year long if they aren’t being paid substantially by a corporation.​

Venus​

One of the more populated planets, Venus is a decent place to live. Given Venus’s lack of an atmosphere, this planet has cities and towns kept in giant bubbles for air. There are farm “bubbles” so food in those bubbles is very affordable, but in the cities it can get pricey. There are many mining operations but it is worth noting these do not have bubbles, just a large hub building for miners to return to when off-shift. Many families live on Venus, whether in the mines, in the cities, or farming. There are some ship-building operations here as well, and quite a bit of manufacturing goes on here. While not everyone has an equal amount of wealth, most people, especially in the cities, can get by relatively comfortably.​

Mars​

The most terra-formed and populated of the planets, Mars was the first planet that was colonized by humans. It’s not used for resources as much as most other planets are, and is by now rather similar to 2022 Earth in terms of population density and city to farm ratio, but with much better ecosystem and residency management. Everything is under giant TerraBubbles.​

Jupiter​

The first of the gas planets, Jupiter’s 79 moons offer lots of space for colonies. Many of these moons are too small to inhabit (or too unstable), but there are some candidates like Ganymede that are ideal. As the largest moon, Ganymede is the satellite of Jupiter that is most populated - and most terraformed - for actual people rather than just resource extraction or scientific exploration. The Galilean moons are host to many early colonies and exploration groups as a whole. As such there’s a decently sized System presence on Ganymede to support these early colonies and exploration endeavors, and it is considered a rather nice colony to live in.​

Saturn​

The vast majority of Saturn’s 83 moons are ignored completely on account of being tiny and/or unstable. However, Titan is the largest established human society past the asteroid belt, having been one of the first colonies established. It has cities, businesses, and the only shipyard that produces brand new ships on that side of the asteroid belt. There is a large System presence there, and the main cities have fairly large TerraBubbles. The smaller suburbs and towns do not, meaning people outside of the bubble need to wear respirators or helmets when going between airlocked buildings or sections of 3-5 buildings that have small bubbles. Titan is large enough that the distance between colonies can be a hindrance to supply transfer, adn due to its environment, once one is far enough away from the largest colony, horses become ideal for transportation.​

Uranus​

Uranus, like other gaseous giants, is not colonized, but its moons are. However there are rumors that these moons are cursed or haunted. Between the Unidentified dark material which appears on the floors of many of Oberon’s craters and the mysterious glowing ring on Umbriel’s side, and of course the fact that these moons are ancient even by cosmic standards, these rumors seem kind of founded. Multiple expeditions to colonize these moons have failed. After 75 years of attempts, though, the System managed to make the first successful terraformed colony under a 3-mile radius TerraBubble. This was able to be expanded to a rather successful base, and pirates that saw the successful methodology mimicked it, making a small base on the planet as well.
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Neptune​

Neptune itself is not colonized (yet), but its moons are. It is commonly believed that it will be one of the most difficult planets to terraform at all, as the atmospheric conditions and the supersonic winds that can reach up to 1500mph would tear apart most common TerraBubbles that are used currently.
That being said, Triton, the largest of Neptune’s moons, is not colonized, and rather has a few automated mining ships deployed there which return with minerals and nitrogen. There are a few manned spacecrafts that remain in Triton’s atmosphere to manage these - these are run by the System or a contracted mineralogical company.
Proteus, however, has been colonized. It’s a small moon, but suitable for terraformed farms kept in the TerraBubbles. Despite the small and almost spartan lifestyle this little planet promotes, it tends to be home to rather high-ranking exploration Captains and well-regarded researchers. Think of a research outpost in Antartica and you’ve got the gist of it.​

 

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Pluto​

Technically not a planet, but at least large enough to be acknowledged, Pluto is brought up in daily conversation as a slang for “unlivable” or “out of reach”. Most ships do not have the capacity to reach this little dwarf planet as not only is it the farthest from Earth, but it is also nestled in the Kuiper Belt, meaning that the ship would have to be both fast and agile to land. This planet is largely believed to be completely un-terraformed. Rumors exist of the System, rogue pirates, even aliens, setting up shop on Pluto but these are widely held to be false. Other rumors tell of lost spirits from destroyed ships wandering to Pluto's icy grasp to haunt the furthest planet from the sun.​

 

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Banditry​

Past the meteoroid belt is pretty lawless. Despite the typically high pay, miners that go out to rocky moons and asteroid farms sometimes are tempted by the valuables they find. It’s not hard to find a fence out in the open space to sell these illegal gains off to, especially as most miners have access to individual ships (they can’t go far but hey, they fly!) and many mining communities have lots of people landing and taking off to transport supplies to the miners and to take the minerals away from the camp.
This also makes planet-level banditry easy. Many mining colonies, especially independent ones, are vulnerable to groups of bandits landing, ransacking the place, and running off before the System even knows it happened. Sometimes these bandits set up shop in the established towns so they can harass nearby TerraBubbles and have a repair bay set up for their ships. Most bandits rely on being able to escape quickly, so any established operations are usually run by a rather powerful group.
Piracy is not unheard of, with all-out battles occasionally taking place in space. This is not common, though, as most pirate vessels cannot match up to supply ships.

Miners of Fortune​

Maintaining a mine can be quite expensive. As such, once output dies down below a certain level, most mining companies will close the mine and move the miners to a new, full mine. This leaves mines which were known to contain valuable resources open for the taking.
While most of these mining set-ups do not have TerraBubbles, one only needs a good respirator in a reliable helmet and an oxygenated “home base” to return to occasionally. As such, miners of fortune are known to appear at some of the mines to get the last veins and sell it themselves. This is considered extremely dangerous, and should the mine collapse, it is not likely that any inside will be saved in time, or their bodies recovered.
Legality: Here’s how it works. If you are using the ore for yourself on a small scale, it is typically not considered a problem. If you are selling it and get caught, it’s illegal and you can either repay the debt by working for the company (unpaid) or you work it off with the System. If someone dies in the mines and you were part of that illegal mining operation, you may be charged with recklessness - while this is not nearly as bad as reckless homicide nowadays, it is still a charge that will result in jail time/work time ONLY with the System.

 

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AI and Robotics​

It is not uncommon to come across someone with a fully robotic limb. Prosthetics have come a very long way after all! Some of these limbs are hooked up neurologically and work fantastically - some are not, as neurological additions come with risks such as sensory overload, neurological damage, “restarts” that can cause the wearer to faint for a moment. Y’know, things like that. Also if someone is not fully grown they will NOT have a neurological connection to their prosthetic as it can only be done once, maximum twice, per limb.

AIs​

Robots that can learn without updates. AIs are actually rather common, but there’s levels of AI. Based on how they’re made, an AI still has limits. It cannot figure out the meaning of the life, the universe, and everything - it can only learn and evolve so much and like a human brain in order to learn new stuff and process new stuff at some point it has to forget things. How much learning and processing and figuring out it can do before that happens is dependent on how it’s made. For example, AI pets are actually common. They are no smarter than an average pet usually. AI people are less common - over the years they were found to turn “buggy” when actually given the ability to interact with the human experience. They do not have “instinct” like humans have but they do have “thin-slicing” which is similar. In order to have “human-like” AIs, they must sacrifice computational speeds as more of the processing power is put toward social interaction and emotion.
It is generally accepted that AI do not have emotions - they sure think they do though. Because they are made to mimic humans they can come to the conclusion that they would feel hurt by something, or feel offended, or feel elated, or anything else- just like a human. And this affects their system similarly, an insulted AI may well miscalculate something on accident because they’re upset, just like a human. However unlike humans they don’t have a physiological response to emotions. Attempts in past generations to make AIs with bodies that actually “felt” emotion ended in a lot of explosions. So those aren’t a thing anymore.
Nevertheless it is considered rude to be rude to AIs made above a certain intelligence level as they are treated like people, especially advanced AIs. Many AIs, like the pets, are not made to become advanced enough to understand emotion and are rather made to be working companions to humans with a focus on processing power for computations and quick problem solving. The AI can subvert its own programming to lose some of that ability and gain more emotional and “human” practically sentience, however it’s very uncommon because that is a one-way road.

Level 1 AIs: computational directives, pets - they don't learn a lot but they can adapt specifically for the purpose of their job. They get to know the humans they work best with and mimic emotions but the mimicry can "glitch" as it's not in-depth. The animals particularly make good companions though!
Level 2 AIs: Assistant IAs like those in engineering or mining or health work. They still need a human to help them learn and they really cannot separate themselves from their jobs and work environment, even though they will develop a bit of personality. An engineering AI will simply not have the same creativity as a human and needs guidance as to what the end goal of the job is, for example. These AIs can definitely have a "favorite person" but they would not be able to go against program enough to refuse to work with someone unless that person presented risk to the AI.
Level 3 AIs: People or people-like AIs that can develop personality and "emotions" and can be completely independent but they are still very much programmed for their job. These AIs have emotions but they are still programmed for their job and can't break that without external interference. They can absolutely choose to not work with certain people and can be offended or hurt by things but again, can't break away from their assigned programming wihtout external interference. For instance, Cortana from Halo.
Level 4 AIs: These AIs are difficult to distinguish from humans and can adapt and think on emotional and intellectual levels that do not involve their task or job at all. They develop rich personalities and are generally pleasant people as most AIs tend toward optimistic outlooks. These AIs absolutely have emotions and can even change tasks and jobs like a human, but they will always be Best at whatever skill they were designed for unless there is outside interference. After 5 years of life outside the lab, (they are legally required to be let outside the lab but specifically with supervision) they are considered people, and receive citizenship for the planet they're from, but they cannot vote as any vote would affect them so differently from humans (they wouldn't be affected by radiation in the same way a human would, for example, so they shouldn't get to vote about a nuclear power plant). Think Detroit: Become Human.


Half-level AIs do exist but they are illegal to make outside of a Systems-approved lab. AIs Level 3 and above are illegal to make outside of a Systems-approved lab. Independent intentional creation of a Level IV AI is extremely illegal as it could lead to an AI being improperly exploited and abused.

AIs are, once in a very very rare while, the continuation of a human's mortal consciousness. This procedure was used in the 3300s briefly to try to save dying witnesses of crimes, children, especially experienced scientists, or occasionally a dying civilian who had no other chances. The practice became quickly banned for its less than .01% success rate on dying patients and less than .08% long term success rate on healthy ones as the eventual failure of the surgery was extremely inhumane. Those few humans-turned-AIs who survive are considered stable. This procedure is now only used in extraordinary circumstances and, again, is likely to fail within a few years.

 

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Ship Life​

Not everyone lives on planets, as there are established communities of spaceships that rarely land. These caravans sometimes are made of families or groups who will “link” their ships together with tethers that ensure they travel as a safe and cohesive unit. These people are often traders and are very knowledgeable in the goings-on of the solar system politically. They are vulnerable to pirate attack and do not always have the defenses to fight off the pirates - some of them actually trade with pirates and bandits and have good relations with both lawless groups and the System.

 

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History​

There were attempts made by private companies to establish colonies off of Earth. These attempts often followed motivations of the rich mineralogical troves other planets offered and ignored the risks. Attempts being the key word. It was common practice to use the cheapest option for terraforming attempts and to pressure scientists to back location choices of colonies even if the choice was an unsafe one. Due to frequent and considerable loss of life on these adventures, all Earth governments banned these endeavors if they are not planned with the help of highly regarded scientists, engineers, and health professionals. This was the beginning of the System.

With space becoming the new, obvious frontier, and Earth dying in the background, more and more treaties and intercontinentally unanimous laws came into play until the Earth Coalition for Governance of the Solar System was established. This was called the System for short. This coalition was backed by citizen votes and relied on science to make its choices. Over the centuries as colonization actually became successful and the System also was able to turn its attention to repairing Earth, it quickly became clear it was more effective than individual governments since international trade had enmeshed countries finances and laws so much.

 

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Horses​

The One True All-Terrain Vehicle​

Due to the many differing types of terrain on all the planets that are in the process of being settled, robotic horses have become the go-to mode of transportation. They don’t get stuck in ditches, they can navigate difficult terrain with an AI and 4 individual legs, they can jump, and can maintain a high speed more safely than an ATV that could get stuck in a hole.

The horses have a level 1.5 to level 2 AI. Almost all models can develop a personality that’s usually compatible with their owner, and they can process the easiest way to get from point A to B while factoring rider safety into their calculations. They aren't smart AIs, mind, they're just very adaptable within their job. There are special mechanics shops for the bodies of the horses, and a computer programmer can tend to the AI and programming as needed. All horse models convert sunlight to battery power and have battery life that can go for months without recharging. Most horses can also be powered at charging stations via a port in their side, at which point software can sometimes be updated also.

Some horses have modifications for specific jobs. Donkey and pony models tend to be built with massive amounts of torque available for carrying or pulling things adding up to metric tons of weight. The typical horse is not capable of carrying near as much, but to considerably faster.

Modifications​

Some modifications include:

• Armor plating
  • Exactly what it sounds like. It’s usually to protect the horse and it’s inside mechanics more than the rider but there are often pieces of thick metal that are raised around the saddle area to protect the wearer’s legs.
• AutoPilot
  • This will override the horse’s normal problem-solving AI when activated and will get the rider from point A to B in the quickest and “safest” way possible but it cannot process things like danger or factors that may affect route progression.
• Satellite Navigation
  • When in an area where satellite pictures have been taken, the horse is able to load basic routes so that it may flee to safety (not necessarily with its rider on it).
• Horse Flute
  • You get a key fob to call your horse to you Tesla style. If your horse runs to you or walks is up to the programming.
• Grazing
  • Your horse can sniff fresh water and food out. This does not always mean it is free food but it will happily take you there if you want it to
• HazMat sensor
  • Your horse can smell chemicals in the air that present a danger. These are things like recently detonated explosives, toxic gasses, and high concentrations of CO2, methane, etc. The horse will shy away from these areas.