Dedalus Fall Setting (DF)

Timeline of the Dedalus Fall Setting

2071 — First successful Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) mining missions. Initial operations target water and carbonaceous materials.

2080 — Carbon-rich NEAs remain vital for off-Earth industry. The Moon dominates the cislunar economy, but reliance on NEAs continues.

2102 — Establishment of a mature cislunar economy. Lunar industry expands significantly.

2130 — First operational space elevator completed on Waigeo in Indonesia, spearheaded by international cooperation led by Japan. Enables vastly cheaper and more efficient access to cislunar space but soon proves too small and too remote.

2138 — Invention of the first practical long-duration ion drive. Drastically increases potential for slow but efficient interplanetary travel.

2145 — USA completes its own space elevator on Jarvis Island, focusing on military and commercial cargo transport to orbit.

2155 — China and ESA finish space elevators on Hainan and São Tomé and Príncipe respectively, expanding global access to orbit and solidifying their roles in the emerging cislunar economy.

2170 — Chaotic wave of exploration and early colonization across the solar system. Many ventures fail or are absorbed by larger players.

2195 — Second-generation colonies begin. These are launched from space habitats and successful early colonies rather than Earth.

2210 — Launch of the Mars Terraforming Initiative. Massive investment from Earth. Symbolic as much as scientific.

2225 — Mercury Industrial Boom begins. Night-side and twilight-zone settlements extract rare metals. Heavy investment from solar power harvesting firms.

2245 — Solar Alchemy Project officially launched. Ambitious Earth-based attempt to manipulate solar fusion processes and harvest exotic particles and elements from the solar corona using mega-mirrors and orbital infrastructure.

2265 — First large-scale practical fusion reactors come online. These installations require exotic materials, including those produced by the Solar Alchemy Project. Initially limited to major orbital platforms and high-priority installations.

2270 — Climate stabilization efforts on Earth begin to succeed. Massive orbital mirrors and solar shades contribute, in coordination with asteroid carbon capture systems.

2285 — Solar Alchemy Project achieves breakthrough in exotic matter synthesis. These are strategic materials for fusion power and other specialized uses.

2290 — Compact fusion reactors become viable for shipboard use but remain resource-intensive. Rare materials keep production limited to powerful states and megacorps.

2310 — Daedalus Fall: Catastrophic failure of the Solar Alchemy Project. Solar instability increases dramatically. Solar storms wreak havoc from Mercury to the Asteroid Belt. Massive losses in solar orbit infrastructure including the loss of all except the small Japanese space elevator. Earth prestige plummets.

2312–2350 — Widespread fragmentation of political and economic control. Colonies become de facto independent. Earth remains population center but loses coercive power. Apocalyptic cults and radical ideologies emerge.

2315–2330 — Rise of the Earth First movement. Following the Daedalus Fall, anti-space sentiment surges on Earth. The new Earth government calls for a rollback of space colonization and demands that colonies devolve and re-integrate. Most colonies ignore these edicts, accelerating Earth's loss of influence.

2335 — Formation of Earthforce, a militarized enforcement arm of the Earth government, intended to police and control off-world colonies. Cislunar stations and parts of the Moon are occupied. Colonies rapidly militarize in response using local 3D-printed weapons. Skirmishes erupt.

2340 — Fusion reactor designs no longer require rare materials. Decentralized manufacturing using advanced 3D-printing enables proliferation of cottage-industry fusion tech. Fusion-powered ships and habitats become common across the lawless outer system.

"Now" (Setting Present Day, \~2450) — Earth is still the most populated region but now heavily reliant on trade with self-sufficient colonies. Exploration and recovery efforts continue in Mercury ruins and abandoned solar orbit structures. High radiation limits drone use, pushing humans into dangerous salvage and diplomacy roles.

Adventure Seeds

• Abandoned mining base at an NEA. Small, rapidly rotating cylinder with high gravity gradient. Survivors abandoned in evacuation, xenophobic and radiation-scarred.

• Old base on Mercury’s dark side. Searching for data on surviving parts of Solar Alchemy project. Hazards: static electric charges in metals, seismic fissures, over-pressured living quarters holding plasma from Daedalus Fall.

• Using telemetry from previous mission to chase down a part of Solar Alchemy harvesting array and its exotic matter.

• Various space habitats governed by exotic dogma.