Welcome gentle traveller, to this ongoing deep dive into the lore of Core Space and Maladum. I’m Wayne from Battle Systems, hello.
This week we’ll be taking a look at Earth, the cradle of humanity. What happened to it during the time of Core Space and why is it rarely mentioned?
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
Early in the 22nd Century humanity developed the warp-link, allowing near instantaneous communication across the galaxy. This was a huge leap in technology and considered the last great invention of mankind. It was certainly the last technology that humans would develop unassisted. Immediately after the warp-link was established several space faring species, some minor and some major, contacted Earth. Of course, space faring species aren’t interested in the technology of a backwater planet, the vast majority were more interested in exploiting a young, naive species. This was the fate of many ‘bootstrapped’ species, those who didn’t develop space technology on their own but were prematurely introduced to the galaxy by other species. However, humans being what they are, both idealistic and greedy, soon became one of the dominant species in the Perseus-Orion Arm. Idealism and the pursuit of knowledge propelled humans into the galaxy but behind every noble endeavour was a Mega-Corp willing to exploit it for profit. This was how the galaxy was introduced to humanity and many alien cultures since have wished it otherwise.
THE RISE AND DECLINE OF EARTH
For several years Earth was the hub of the human empire. All branches into the galaxy lead back to Earth, bringing with it the advances of alien technology and culture. Humanity had long dreamed of the future and were finally able to realise those dreams with alien tech and new, exotic ways of tackling problems. For a short while it appeared that disease and poverty would be eradicated, that all of humanity would be raised to the status of kings and queens. But it was a dream built on a swamp and it crashed down thanks to that all too human drive: power.
The alien species that dominated the Perseus Arm were in some ways advanced, in some ways wise but in all ways in decline. The powerful species had reached their natural limit and were suffering the fate of all empires: their fall. Faced with an upstart species with boundless energy the older species grudgingly moved aside. Even the most greedy and ruthless couldn’t match the human willingness to exploit every resource, including each other, and to push beyond every boundary. The older species were jaded and tired, wanting only to relax in their dotage while humanity strained at the leash, ready to set the galaxy alight. Humanity were soon the leaders of the Pan Species Accord filling a power vacuum, and parking their space ships in two spaces instead of the allotted one. The other species stood back, perplexed by the sheer audacity of this fledgling race.
On Earth the Mega-Corps, now bloated on near unlimited resources and technology, had supplanted the governments as the major powers. They exploited the world and its people as they were still the cheapest resource available, despite having a galaxy to hand. Without government edicts pollution ran wild and within a few short generations even the wealthiest found that Earth was an unpleasant place to live. Those who were able to relocated to Io and Titan, the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, which had been developed into billionaire playgrounds, and have remained there ever since. Earth was left as a polluted, over populated dumping ground run by the Mega-Corps.
EARTH IN THE CORE SPACE ERA
As the rich and powerful moved out and the Mega-corps moved in there was a significant change to the lives of ordinary people. Corporations were ungoverned, and local governments were enfeebled. Earth was still a rich mine of mineral wealth and an endless supply of new workers and the Mega-corps were able to exploit that without hindrance. Rights of the individual plummeted, rights of corporations soared, pollution was unchecked, and the world was reduced to a tax haven for the mega wealthy. In short, Earth became a dump.
People left in droves as the corporations set up initiatives to push the average person into interstellar space. Even with advanced technology there was still a need for the common person – the foot soldier, the cleaner, the office worker, the people who did the work. Anyone willing to leave Earth, and able to pass the medical, could do so as long as they signed over their rights directly into the hands of corporations. As most on Earth considered that as the current norm anyway what had they to lose? Conditions were grim in the off-world territories, particularly within the confines of the solar system, but most who left Earth never returned, either unable or unwilling to.
A WIDER GALAXY
Those who did leave Earth were in for a shock. The majority never left the Sol system, working in the numerous mining operations of the system’s many moons. Work was hard and poorly paid, unions non-existent. Most would spend their wages on the corporate provided entertainment, realising they had merely exchanged one hell for another.
It was different for those with an education, with the right skill set you could go far. Scientists and engineers were well paid, entrepreneurs found a galaxy ripe for exploitation. If you were a scientist that cared little for ethics then so much the better. If you were willing to live and work with extra-terrestrial aliens then the galaxy expanded even further, alien species were everywhere and many found humans fascinating.
Even with a low education level it was possible to leave Sol. Many human star systems had their own militaries that were eager for ‘proper’ human soldiers, not the mass cloned vat-born machine-human hybrids that filled their ranks. These were poor excuses for humans and even worse soldiers, whilst humans from the Sol system could be trained for more than just cannon fodder.
Outside of the militias were the frontier careers, the long distance haulers, the smugglers, the arms dealers. Dangerous and often short-lived careers but still a long way from the tedium that they had escaped from.
Beyond the Perseus-Orion Arm was… nothing. Those who had travelled beyond the local spiral arm of the Milky Way, both alien and human, had never returned. Perhaps something greater awaited, but no one knew and few were willing to take the risk. Why travel the gulfs of empty space when a teeming galaxy was already there for the taking?
In the meantime Earth itself was left to stagnate and has become a reviled backwater. Many humans have never heard of Earth and even fewer show an interest. To them humans have always populated the galaxy, who cares where they came from? They only care for where they are going.
YOU ARE HERE FOREVER – A CORE SPACE SHORT STORY
The train was little more than an open cart on a rail track. It chugged slowly but inevitably through the early morning heat of the city taking tired men and women to work. They passed the high tower blocks of downtown, all of the garish neon blinking off with the rising sun, the excitement of the night over, a quiet settled on the city before the daytime bustle. The city looked dirty in the morning light, years of grime streaked on buildings way past their expiry. The trolley trundled on into the industrial sector, discharging its human cargo at different factories and workshops.
Wade Gentry sat on a broken plastic chair, rubbing his tired arms. He had just pulled an afternoon shift, went home to sleep for a few hours and was now back in for the morning. His work was laborious and monotonous but he was only a few weeks away from his twenty first birthday and a way out of this, if he was lucky. His older brother, Ed squatted beside him, no other seats available in the cramped car.
“You know, this used to be all swampland? Before they concreted it over and built the city on top? I think it was called the Neverglades. Miles and miles of swamp with nothing but man eating alligators.” Ed would tell him the same stories over and over again but Wade was happy to indulge him.
“What’s an alligator?” He asked dutifully.
“A big lizard that lived in the sea.”
“Extinct?”
“Of course.” Over a thousand years of unregulated industry on Earth had reduced the biodiversity to a tiny fraction. All the humans, in their billions, and only the animals and plants that were useful to them remained. Everything else was gone, except for the pests they wished they could get rid off but couldn’t. Rats and cockroaches had survived and in many cases thrived, in the dirt of the cities. Ed was testimony to the runaway pollution, he only had a fifth of the air capacity of a man his size, his lungs had started rotting when he was a child. A battery of expensive drugs kept him just fit enough to work but never actually cured him. He talked about making enough money for the operation, a full refit of biomechanical lungs or even cloned ones, a simple enough procedure but too expensive for a working man. Wade would lie awake at night trying to calculate how he could save his brother and the numbers never added up. Maybe when he was out of here he could wire his brother the money, maybe. But he suspected that the wages on the off-world colonies were no better than here.
They disembarked at the factory, an alloy-steelworks where they worked in the warehouse. It was dark, hot, and dangerous work but there was plenty of it because humans were cheaper than robots as they needed less maintenance and could work in environments that would damage machines. It damaged humans as well but they were easily replaced. Wade and Ed worked in the stamping section, where they stamped parts out of sheet metal. Sometimes they would be car parts, sometimes kitchen sinks, for a while they were parts that Wade was sure belonged to a spaceship but no one on the factory floor knew and no one in the offices would tell him. Either way the work was the same, load up a sheet, press a button, stamp, put the sheet on a pile, load up the next one and repeat for four hours until his fifteen minute break then do it all again for eight or sixteen hours depending on his shift. His brother worked on the machine next to him but it was too noisy to talk or listen to music so you were effectively isolated for the whole time. At the end of his shift he would catch the train home. It was slow but it was free and ran at all hours. If it wasn’t too early or too late he would visit his girlfriend. But not tonight, the foreman called him into his office. It was barely less noisy and dirty than the shop floor, containing only a server against one wall, and a small desk with a pot plant that had died years ago. The foreman wore a tie over a short sleeved shirt. The man was lean and wore a heavy moustache. He never smiled.
“I need you to fill in tonight.”
“I had a shift last night as well. I’m due time off.”
“You’re the only one who’s available.”
“Double pay?”
“No, that’s gone, you know that. Usual rates but you can skip break time if you want extra.”
“That stinks.”
“Check your contract.”
“What contract?”
“Exactly.” He did have a contract but it was zero hours with an agency and leaned in the employer’s favour, it might as well not exist.
He clocked off at four in the morning and took the slow train home. From there it was a twenty minute walk to his flat. This part of the city was darker, away from all the neon of downtown, the skyscapers shorter and older. His tiny flat was one of hundreds in a building that looked like a tower block lying on its side. His brother was asleep in the next room and Wade lay down on his narrow bed, exhausted but unable to sleep. He looked at the mildew on the ceiling and thought of mankind’s progress. He could travel to the stars, but was stuck here in a tenement, making barely enough money to survive. In a few weeks he could apply for the off-world territories, in the Sol system and even beyond. He looked at his tablet, and at the star chart of the Perseus-Orion arm of the galaxy where humanity had spread out. So many worlds, most untouched by human or alien. He zoomed into the Sol system, glancing at Io and Titan, the moons of Saturn and Jupiter and the true heartland of the human empire. Then to Earth, broken down, polluted Earth, nothing but a tax haven for the mega-corps and home to billions of virtual slaves, unable to leave. But he could leave, he could apply as a worker, even one of his poor education would be snapped up if he was young and healthy. He looked at the blue dot of the Earth on the screen and a note shimmered into place: YOU ARE HERE. He zoomed out from Sol and the note barely moved, then all the way to the whole galaxy, the note seeming to stay exactly where it was.
* * *
Wade’s girlfriend, Melody had a sweet smile and dark heavy bangs over shy eyes. They had been childhood sweethearts and still were. She lived with her family in a cramped flat, her mother and father and three younger siblings. Her dad, Elias, was a veteran, crippled and bitter. He had been injured in combat and shipped back to Earth with a tiny pension. Unable to work he spent most of his time sat in front of the tri-dee screen. Melody and her mother both worked for agencies, her mother worked full time as a waitress, Melody did mostly temp work. Whenever Wade visited he couldn’t wait to leave, the household was chaotic and claustrophobic and Elias never seemed to approve of him.
In the evenings, if they were both free, he would pick Melody up on his motorcycle, a ridiculous, boxy petrol driven machine with no power and only one seat so she had to sit on his lap. He would take her to a fast food joint where he would treat her to a burger and fries and a chocolate shake. They didn’t have much but they had each other. But that couldn’t last much longer.
“You could stay, Wade, you don’t have to go. We could get married. We could have a life together.”
“Then come with me. We’re both young and healthy, there will be work for both of us.”
“You know I can’t, Wade. I can’t leave my family. Dad’s getting worse and mum couldn’t cope on her own.” They’d had the same conversation for years, each hoping the other would change their minds, but both knowing they wouldn’t. Now the deadline was looming and it wasn’t a vague future problem anymore, it was happening now. Melody cried in the restaurant, small, silent sobs that broke Wade into pieces. More so because he knew it was his fault. He could stay and start a family but he’d be dooming his children to this life, of slavery just to survive on a ruined world. And Melody would grow older and sadder, worn out like her parents, her sweet smile fading, the light dimming in her eyes as the hope faded. Out there were the stars, different worlds with different people, an endless expanse to explore. He couldn’t stay here, could he?
* * *
His birthday was less than a week away and he still didn’t know what to do. For months, years even, he had resolved to get off planet the first chance he could, but now as the reality loomed closer he found he couldn’t sleep, his mind kept coming back to the same problems with no solutions. Could he really leave Melody? Could he really leave his brother behind? Their mother had run away when Wade was ten and their father, a hard working but hard drinking man with a thousand yard stare, had died when he was sixteen. Wade was all Ed had. Ed had brushed away Wade’s concerns, had said that he wished he could go as well but he couldn’t pass the medical. They had been riding the roofless trolley to work and Ed had mentioned that this used to be a swamp.
“It still is, Ed.” Ed had laughed knowing exactly what Wade meant. “You should go, Wade. I know I would if I could. You should go and never come back.”
After work the foreman tried to talk him into taking an extra shift but Wade refused. Why the hell should he? He had only days left before he was out here and everyone knew it, the foreman included. Ed wasn’t on the train home, but that wasn’t unusual, sometimes he stopped at a bar nearby and stayed the night with a friend, he had his own life. Wade thought nothing of it until he got a call in the middle of the night. He needed to go into work, no they couldn’t give details, only that it concerned his brother. He drove his bike through the city night, his mind racing. He wanted to get there as soon as possible but dreaded arriving.
The foreman didn’t soften the blow. “Your brother was in an accident. Thanks to his incompetence his arm was crushed in the stamping machine. He bled out. His body’s at the hospital morgue, you’re to arrange the funeral yourself.” Wade stared in disbelief. Then he swung his fist at the foreman’s face. The man dodged the blow easily.
“I’ll let that go this time. Just be aware that the company does not intend to pay compensation or funeral costs. Your brother was operating machinery while incapable. He was too tired to work but accepted overtime. My condolences.”
He drove to the hospital numb and made the arrangements. Then he drove home numb, the morning sun lighting up the highway before the morning rush. He arranged the funeral online, cremation, no ceremony. He sold his bike in an online auction and anything else he had of value, old clothes, old tech that could be broken down for parts. Even his brother’s comic collection that he swore would be worth something one day, but it was barely worth the shipping costs. He then took out a short term loan to cover the shortfall, with every intention of defaulting. His brother had been a living, breathing person and then he was gone, disposed of within twenty four hours, as if he’d never existed. At no time had Wade been allowed to see his body. Melody kept crying and even Elias had stood painfully to put a hand on Wade’s shoulder. He mumbled something about hoping he wasn’t still planning to ‘get out’. He believed that no matter how far you went they would break you and bring you back.
The next few days were a blur. He said his goodbyes to his friends and kept only the possessions that would fit in a backpack. The rest was sold, given away or dumped in a skip. The landlord would take possession of his flat on his birthday. His whole future hinged on passing the entrance exams for the off-world colonisation programme, if he failed that he would be on the streets and jobless, the agency had dismissed him when he had failed to turn up to work.
The night before his birthday he slept in an empty room, in an empty flat and dreamed empty dreams. Most were of his brother, and Melody and in one he was looking up at the night sky, the galaxy a giant map. There was a label over Sol: YOU ARE HERE FOREVER.
It was his twenty first birthday. He got up early and left his keys with a neighbour, he wouldn’t be returning to his flat. The enrolment office was in the centre of Florida Heights, a tall, wide set of buildings that didn’t belie how much bigger it was underground, hundreds of rooms dedicated to admin and medical facilities. He had to take the air conditioned subway into the heights sharing the train with office workers who avoided his eye. He always thought the office workers were better off than him but he could see now that under the smart clothes were just tired eyes and cheap shoes. They worked in a factory as much as he did, punching numbers instead of metal sheets.
He had no trouble entering the enrolment office, anyone of age was entitled to apply for the off-world territories, if they could prove that they were strong or smart enough. Despite the teeming trillions of humans in the galaxy and the numberless machines, there was never enough people to do the work. He was processed, first reams and reams of paperwork, then a stringent medical, invasive and humiliating where every fluid was extracted and tested and his fitness assessed. Then a battery of intelligence and skill tests. It took eight hours from beginning to end but it seemed much longer. A disinterested technician handed him his results.
“You’ve passed the medical. Your skill results aren’t as good but there’s still plenty of options for you.” He showed him a screen with a readout of job vacancies available. A number of red ones were denied him because he didn’t meet either the physical requirements (not many) or the education requirements (a lot). Several purple ones that he could apply for with additional training and many more green ones. They were all very similar, most of them for resource mining within the solar system.
“What if I pick the wrong one?”
“One mining operation is like any other. You’ll find that moving around in-system is easy enough if you want to change jobs. Moving out of the system is harder, you could join a militia or, I don’t know become a trader or something.” He shrugged, bored with the conversation.
“This one.” He pointed to a mining operation on Titan with a four year contract.
“You hoping to catch a glimpse of the glamorous lux-domes? It’s not like on the tri-dee, most of Titan’s pretty rough.” Before Wade could change his mind the technician selected the vacancy. “There’s a shuttle that leaves in the morning. If you miss it you’ll be black-balled, you don’t want that.”
* * *
He took the train back to the slums and spent the night with Melody. Elias said nothing to him and melody did her best not to spoil their last hours together. They lay together on her narrow bed, her head on his chest.
“You’ll stay in contact, won’t you? You can use the warp-link.”
“Of course. You’re still my girl.” But he knew that wasn’t likely, the warp-link was for rich people. Even if he could send her a message there was no guarantee that she could get it. And even if they could talk in real-time every day how long could that last? He squeezed her and kissed her hair. You deserve better, he thought. And I can’t give that to you.
In the morning she came with him to the airport, she even packed him lunch. It felt unreal to both of them, she couldn’t believe that she might never see him again. She tried not to cry. Eventually he had to pass through security and she stood and waited, watched him until he was lost to her view. He looked back as he walked away, she looked so small and defenceless, everything in him wanted to go back to her and tell her he’d changed his mind, that they could make it work. She would be happy, at first, but it couldn’t work, he had pinned everything on this moment and she had never been a part of it, not really. After he went through security he tried to look for her in the distant crowds but he couldn’t find her. In the waiting terminal he ate the sandwich she had made him, tears in his eyes. He waited an hour for the shuttle and wished he’d spent that time with her.
Eventually he boarded the shuttle and the g-force pushed him back into his seat from the steep ascent. After a while it evened out and he realised he was weightless, the seat strap holding him down. He dozed for a while then looked at his tablet, to his destination on Titan. He scrolled up and down the solar system wondering which of the worlds he would visit. He scrolled back to Earth, at the tiny blue pixel. As he left the Earth’s network the note ‘YOU ARE HERE’ slowly blinked three times then disappeared forever.
A LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Heath wrote: It’s nice to read some of your work in Maladum, Wayne. I always enjoyed your stories in Core Space. Are there bands of Rangers in Enveron? (and) I want that map that’s on the tavern table.
Wayne: Thanks, Heath, I know you’re a long time fan of my ramblings. The blog has been a great way to expand on the lore, allowing it to breathe a little, rather than be condensed down to a paragraph or two in the rulebooks. Also it’s a great excuse to write the short stories which are the heart of the lore and where I get to explore ideas.
There are indeed bands of Rangers, I wrote the spec for the Hyberian Rangers, a hard bunch with a rough sense of justice which I then used to write the Outland Riders, a small band of heroes tasked with fighting the growing Urmeck menace, which has reached you guys as the mounts and riders, or Riders of Hiberia. I’m not sure how much of the lore will remain once it’s been through the marketing machine but yes, there are Rangers, in some form.
As for the map, it’s not just part of that illustration, it already existed, I drew it for the Maladum rulebook and later gave it to our artist Nick along with a bunch of other assets. Here’s a big version for your own tavern table!
I’ll be back again soon with more lore and behind the scenes insights. In the meantime please feel free to leave your comments here or on the socials, we love the feedback!
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