[Brian Swartz]

** Author's Note: In the spirit of the sci-fi signup, i.e. the FTL(Grover) and XCOM(Neon Chaos) threads, I present another opportunity. Feel free to sign up here, and join with humanity's first serious reaches into space.**

I made one very brief Aurora thread quite some time back, and while i've learned several times as much as I knew then, I've barely scratched the surface. I've done some test games and am familiar with the basic mechanics of most elements in the game, but I'll definitely be learning more as we go along. From my test games I know enough to get off to a solid start, but many forms of disaster are yet possible.

I expect this game to last centuries, which will give any who choose to participate the option of going through generations of characters.

THE SETTING(** This is all my slightly game-inspired gobbledy-gook, as the game doesn't go into a detailed backstory)

In late 2013, a breakthrough discovery was made. Deep within the earth's mantle and core, a series of new elements was discovered with incredible properties, properties which rendered Newtonian physics obsolete in most fields. These elements soon became known as Trans-Newtonian(TN) materials.

Unfortunately, the lesser angels of humanity's nature made themselves known soon after, as the international community could not agree on how these revolutionary new resources would be controlled and exploited. Every major nation, and many of the minor ones, wanted their piece of the pie and then some. World War III lasted the better part of a decade, and ended with the earth decimated -- less than a tenth of the population survived the fighting. Only when it became apparent that the only possible result of continued nuclear war was the destruction of humanity en masse was an uneasy truce signed.

A few years after the breakout of peace, in 2025, a united government was formed. Clearly mankind could not survive another war -- the only way forward was to do away with the archaic concept of nation-states and join as one race, using the potential of the TN elements to reach into space. A new agency was formed, absurdly named SPACE(Strategic Planning Agency for Collective Endeavor).

SIGN-UPS

The SPACE GLTC(Global Leadership and Training Center) needs you! For those with the courage to be cadets, four career paths are possible, in order of projected needed personnel:

** Naval Officer. Space is big. Many vessels of more types than can be imagined will be needed. Task Force Commanders, Staff Officers, Ship Captains(Warship and/or Commercial), Starfighter Pilots, etc. will be needed at every turn in the coming exploring of the solar system and beyond. Only the bravest need apply for this ever-popular career.

** Ground Forces Officer. No matter how powerful space-based technology becomes, there will always be the need for boots on the ground. Command a battalion, brigade, even a division in the new human army.

** Scientist. Research the cutting-edge TN technologies that will ensure the survival and hegemony of humanity. Lead a research team overseeing millions of personnel to unlock the previously-unthinkable secrets of the universe.

** Civilian Administrator. Progress through the ranks from pointless pocket-protecting, pencil-pushing bureaucrat to oversee the(hopefully) far-flung colonies of humankind in space. Perhaps you might even one day be appointed the governor of Earth, if you play your cards right.

Members of all branches are also eligible, with the right skills, to take part in specialized teams(geological survey, xenological discovery, diplomacy, and espionage).

The following will be needed from all applicants:

Career Path
First Name
Last Name
Gender

The next graduate(5 per year as of now, that will grow considerable over time so there will be tons of space for whoever wants to join). One character per person but a new one will be generated whenever yours dies/retires. There will also be some limited decision-making(i.e., whether to take a job on a project team, choice of assignments within your rank and skill level when available, etc.)

We'll see how it works as we go along, but I'm hoping this will be a lot of fun for everybody. It will be slow without a lot happening at startup, but that will change in time. I'll have a lot of screenshots at the beginning and more periodically later to show what is going on.

I'm working a lot the next few days, so I figured I'd post this now, and then I'll get things going probably sometime on Tuesday.