Space 2099
Plot
2073 – SHADO is formed to track all space traffic (natural and artificial) after a meteorite impact levels part of New York. Commander Edward Straker is put in charge of operations.
2080 – An unusually large asteroid collides with the moon. Examination of the crater reveals the presence of an artificial surface at the bottom of the crater, apparently undamaged by the asteroid's impact. Initial investigation of the facility spurs the construction of Moonbase Alpha over the main entrance.
2081 – A full time study is begun of the Seraphim facility, with a team of scientists taking up full-time residence inside the facility itself. The Lunar Mining Consortium sets up a facility within Moonbase Alpha, and begins shipping radioactive waste out to various parts of the moon where radiation appears to be dampened down.
2099 – Parts of the Seraphim facility begin to wake up, a steady overload building as radiation is absorbed into the facility's main power core. People theorise as to why this is happening, but it is only as the power is starting to disrupt things that Professor Bergman realises that the radiation is being absorbed by the facility (a normal part of its power generation process), in order to produce a massive overload. Despite various heroic efforts, the facility continues to power up, before discharging the energy in a massive pulse by activating the facility's main drive and propelling the moon all of the way to Alpha Centauri.
Cast
Moonbase Alpha
Built over the entrance to the Seraphim facility within the moon, Moonbase Alpha is the commercial centre of all activities on the moon. Whilst primarily a United Nations Protectorate facility, it comes under the aegis of the Anderson Foundation, giving it close ties to
Commander John Koenig
Chosen to run Moonbase Alpha in 2096, Commander Koenig was formerly part of the UN peacekeeping force, running local facilities around the planet. His record was exemplary, leaving him one of the few people that could be trusted to command something as significant as Moonbase Alpha. Many people however consider the posting a waste of his talents, or a bad joke.
Dr. Helena Russell
Doctor of biological sciences, Dr Russell is more into science than medical treatment, despite her position as one of Moonbase Alpha's medical staff.
Professor Victor Bergman
Professor Bergman was part of the original team that investigated the Seraphim facility in 2080, but an accident left him badly injured. Approaching senility, and with no real options left open to him, he agreed to undergo trials of the regeneration therapy that Doctor Russell had helped to pioneer. This worked amazingly well, reducing him from a ninety year old to his mid-forties. Restored to his full vitality, he rejoined the project, trying to understand the technology of the Seraphim.
Paul Morrow
In charge of the main operations centre for Moonbase Alpha.
Captain Alan Carter
Rather than being a UNP employee like the other Moonbase Alpha cast, captain Carter is actually part of the military forces on Alpha, and therefore a SHADO officer first and foremost. He is primarily in-charge of the interceptor group stationed on Alpha, though is also responsible for the troops stationed there in the absence of a higher ranking SHADO officer.
SHADO (Supreme Headquarters Aerospace Defence Organisation)
Assigned with the defence of the Earth against outside threats, SHADO mounts defences against asteroids, meteorites, terrorists, and one day, maybe, aliens.
Commander Edward Straker
Following the destruction of parts of New York by a meteorite impact, Colonel Edward Straker began lobbying for more resources to be put into defence against space-based threats, both natural and artificial. Despite his insistence to the contrary, he was placed in charge of the new organisation.
Preferring to trust the analysis of SHADO's tactical computers after previously losing his troops when he tried to follow his instincts, Straker has become a by-the-book officer for the most part. The few times he does deviate from the course prescribed by the tactical computers it is usually as a result of his instincts over-riding his fear of the consequences. The most prominent time that this has happened was when he refused to accept the computer's assurances that the activity in the Seraphim facility could not be caused by the radioactive waste being dumped on the moon, and ordered that it be removed from the dump site.
Colonel Paul Foster
The top rated field agent in SHADO, Foster is normally chosen for either significant missions or bodyguard duty when Straker goes anywhere. Preferring to trust his instincts rather than computer analysis, Foster has a knack for outthinking people and computers.
Colonel Alec Freeman
The SHADO operations manager, Freeman has little field or combat experience despite his military rank, having been in operations work for most of his career.
Lunar Mining Consortium
Commissioner Gerald Simmonds
The Anderson Foundation
Moonbase Alpha
Research into the Seraphim, plus responsible for operations on the moon. Moonbase Alpha was built over the entrance to the Seraphim facility, providing easy access to the alien bunker and the attached complex. Alpha itself runs traffic control across the moon and in its orbits, as well as providing the principle spaceport for lunar activities.
SHADO
Assigned with the defence of the Earth against outside threats, SHADO mounts defences against asteroids, meteorites, terrorists, and one day, maybe, aliens. SHADO provides the military support in space dealing with almost anything. Their primary line of defence consists of the Interceptors (Starfury type craft with multiple weapon systems and advanced sensors), and the Space Intruder Detector network. The SID network consists of twelve satellites around the Earth (aiming to increase to twenty four within the next decade), and four around the moon (aiming to increase to ten within the next decade).
WASP
World Aquanaut Security Patrol. Tasked with underwater investigation and security, WASP is the least active part of the Anderson Foundation to date, since most of their work has involved tracking missing shipping and accidents in the few underwater habitats that have been built.
International Rescue
Domestic/ environmental accident control. Owned and largely funded by the Tracy family, International Rescue has become a familiar sight across the planet with their array of advanced vehicles and equipment. Little is publicly known about the membership of International Rescue, aside from the fact that the core members are all from the same family and that they have roughly a hundred pilots, engineers and technicians working for them at their main base, the exact location of which is a secret guarded by both the Anderson Foundation and the Tracy family alike.
Spectrum
Anti-terrorist operations. Operating out of a retro-fitted 2043 model RAF Helicarrier code-named Cloudbase, Spectrum was the first organisation out of those in the Anderson Foundation to come into existence. As such, much of their existing infrastructure was lent to the Anderson Foundation itself including their colour-coded security clearances and communication channels. Spectrum primarily deals with counter-terrorism investigations and threat handling, as well as dealing directly with any situations that might arise. They also act to co-ordinate the other sections of the Anderson Foundation for smoother running of global operations.
Channels
Gold – channels reserved for political/ government concerns. All are encrypted, and employ counter-jamming techniques. Has been used for more personal communications between significant people on occasions.
Black – channels used by the SID network.
Ultraviolet - covert operations and
W.I.N.
The World Intelligence Network acts as the information gathering arm of the Anderson Foundation. They also handle the more regular kind of criminal activities that Spectrum cannot spare people for, or which are not deemed serious enough for Spectrum's attention.
Project Joe 90
Initiated in 2089, Project Joe 90 was originally only fully understood by four people, and known of by a handful of others. It revolved around the invention by Professor Ian McClaine of the BIG RAT (Brain Impulse Galvanoscope Record And Transfer), a device allowing the skills, memories and experiences of an individual to be copied into the mind of someone with no previous experience in that field, and used as if it was their own knowledge.
The principle limiting factor of the BIG RAT, which upset Professor McClaine greatly, was that there was no reasonable way to transfer the information into most people. Initially the only person it would work with was his adopted son Joe (then nine years old), thus presenting the youngster with a semi-permanent position inside WIN as and when missions required his services.
Since that point, the factor that makes Joe's mind able to accept and process the information it is being presented with ('Analoguia') has been isolated and identified sufficiently that five agents, including Joe, are working for Project Joe 90 by 2099. Four of these are active field agents, whilst the fifth is kept locked up permanently; 'Dave' is a criminal that tracked down Project Joe 90, and acts solely in the capacity of retrieving information from the memories of criminals and the more dangerous members of society, whose memories and experiences are deemed too dangerous for the other agents to handle.
The Cell
Deep in the heart of the moon lies its greatest secret. Suspended right in the heart of the engine, the central point where all of the drive columns point to, is a sphere of grey metal. It gives off nothing. It is impermeable, allowing nothing to pass through it. The only point of access is a five metre wide passage into which has been poured more of this unbreakable material, forming an immovable plug.
Should the engines, the mighty machines that can hurl the Moon through the void into the orbit of another world, ever falter in their work, should they break or fail, this place will be torn asunder, not merely by the damage itself, but by space being ripped apart from the stresses. At an instant's notice, bulkheads can close, sealing this area off and requiring decades or centuries of work to bypass.
And around the passage leading into the sphere, in the middle of an age of science and reason, when the universe itself was laid bare for their kind to marvel upon, the Seraphim felt it necessary to place religious symbols around the entrance to the passageway, inscribed with greater care and precision than even the engines had been crafted, and all carrying the same message: this is a prison, it should never be opened.
Jump-engine technology
Basics
The jump-engine technology appears to have been the principle gift left behind by the Seraphim. It allows almost instantaneous travel between two suitable points (see below for specific details).
Jump-stations
Jump-stations as facilities set in orbit around stars or planets. They provide a power and signal boost to any ship using a jump-engine. However, they also provide a specific series of signals as recognition to each other.
The Seraphim
No one is sure of what the Seraphim look like. They were named for the image that greets people as they step through the main entrance to the facility, which appears to be of a Seraphim – an angel with six wings. Beyond this little is specifically known, but a number of things can be inferred.
Firstly, they are of approximately human size (judging from the layout of the facility), they breath an earth-like atmosphere (or at least ensured that the facility could recreate and sustain one), ate foods suitable for humans, and were technologically advanced enough that they could build the facility.