In the year of our lord one thousand nine-hundred and seventy-three, the world was well on its way to conquering space. The Apollo missions which brought Humanity to the moon were followed shortly with the Minerva missions, establishing the first lunar colonies. The cooperative nature of these endeavors strengthened ties long thought broken forever. The Warsaw Pact, NATO and China came together and, for a fleeting moment, seemed on the verge of entering a new golden age of exploration… but all good things must come to an end.
The cutting-edge Lucifer-class heavy cruiser, backbone of the Foundation Space Forces.
In the early hours of July 13th, the world they knew disappeared, spirited away by a power beyond any of their comprehension. The lunar colonies, the Foundation's secretive orbital facilities, the Soviet spirit vessels, and the Chinese space laboratories were all left behind. SCP-2047's activation had replaced the Earth with a cold, dead world, orbitted by a tiny remnant whose homeland was forever lost. For these men and women, however, the pioneering spirit of exploration hasn't given up the ghost just yet.
Against all odds, a hastily cobbled-together fleet of ships, repurposed colonies and space debris, led by an uneasy coalition of the remaining Human governments, have decided they must find their home at any cost. An impossible task, to be sure, but certain interested parties are watching with growing excitement. The Showmen, an anomalous race of aliens, love a good struggle for survival, and have decided that the Human remnant might just be entertaining enough to deserve a gentle push in the right direction.
Welcome to the United Earth Fleet. We hope you enjoy your stay, because frankly we don't have a whole lot of options. Our current heading? Second star on the left, and straight on till morning.
The Tales:
The Articles:
The Straight On Till Morning storyline picks up just after the Departure, a complete planetary transfer involving SCP-2047. The planet the Foundation is left with is actually not the watery, inhabited world of Pycole, as outlined in 2047, but rather another, wholly uninhabitable body.
One of the first successful Foundation nuclear-propulsion vessels, the Hourmazd-class is a tried and tested design.
In the aftermath of the greatly expanded Space Race, the Solar System is occupied by four major interplanetary powers.
The Foundation: Lacking true faster-than-light travel, The Foundation has been utilizing a version of SCP-1822 to move around the solar system. Due to the unique limitations of the so-called Showmen Transit Plaques, their vessels tend to be massive and heavily-armed, designed to transport as much materiel as efficiently as possible. With the help of 1822, the Foundation has spread to all reaches of the Solar System, with 19 Foundation Orbital Research Compounds (colloquially know as "forks") distributed to every major planetary body. In the cold dark of the Oort Cloud on the edge of the Solar System sits a 20th FORC, home to the waiting scientists of Project Heimdall, nominally Humanity's first and only line of defense against alien incursions.
The GOC: The GOC benefitted immensely from the wealth of the Space Race, using conventional rocketry and thaumaturgical technology to develop reliable, leyline-based FTL travel. However, all GOC ships without conventional propulsion were left stranded following the Departure, as the leylines depended on the Earth to act as their center-point and anchor. The GOC has strong connections to the multi-nation colonial efforts involved in the Minerva mission as well, and is taking an increasingly active role in managing the lives of the civilian population.
The GRU: Technically the oldest space presence, The GRU utilize advanced ships built along the principles laid out in their early prototype. As these utilize the astral projections of long dead Russian cosmists, and the psychic energy sourced from the ghosts of Russian dead, as both crew and power source, the loss of Earth renders many of these ships either inactive or unstable. GRU ships have spread far and wide across the Outer Solar System, either ignoring or disregarding the guidance from Earth. Their advanced, nigh-incomprehensible technology, and their general unpredictability make them a significant threat to the Foundation.
Information on the GRU-P 'astral vessel' class codenamed "Gumbo", is still being gathered.
The Central Investigative Department: Though China was a latecomer to the Space Race, their heavy investment in moon colonization and orbital science stations paid significant dividends after the Departure. Chinese spacecraft were designed to incur minimum operational expenses- toughly built and crewed by some of the most fanatically well-trained personnel in the system, they were possibly the best suited to the total absence of their home nation. Without a true central command to gather around, the remnants of the CID have flocked to the GRU's banner, aiming to maintain the spirit of Maoism in uncertain times.
The United Earth Colonies: The Minerva base, and outlying colonies, along with several space stations comprise the majority of the civilian assets in the Solar System. Comprising exactly 4413 human souls, these brave pioneers were nonetheless unprepared for the chaos of the Departure. Though a few military-scientific organizations and larger corporate ventures maintain some semblance of stability, most of the UEC is leaderless, flocking to whatever group can ensure their protection and safety. Even with the assistance of the Showmen, the unfortunate truth is that many of their number may have to be left behind.
The Showmen, planet of origin unknown, are a race of arboreal predators. Characterized by trilateral bodily symmetry incorporating a set of three lower limbs (downlimbs) and three upper limbs (uplimbs) and an unusual exterior jaw structure, they-
Awwww, hell, no need for any of that dry science mumbo-jumbo, now is there? You might as well get your facts straight from the source. To understand us, you've gotta understand our past, a little. Since we developed language we've been tinkering with it, spreading words and concepts like a cave-welling ape might spread fire. Just to see what would happen. Seems we as a species have a knack for what you might call memetics. We love ideas- not information, not boring old data, but stories. Triumphs! Tragedies! Hubris! Pathos! Bathos! All those other great words that make you think 'Gosh, I sure do wonder what'll happen next!'
Nine human beings in a tin can with a fission reactor? And you named it after a god? How quaint!
So we spread out into the Galaxy. Made some enemies, made some friends… things went well for us, but we were slowly, surely running out of stories. When all you've got is technological omnipotence, trying to make convincing drama is tough, you know?
And then we discovered the incredible species-wide drama that is evolution. We'd take entire planets and just… watch them, to see how they turned out. But that wasn't always enough. Why look at one species on one planet in a solar system when you can look at all the planets at once?
Hence the Plaques. Eighteen Twenty-Two. A gentle, guiding hand, telling primitive little sentients taking their first step into the larger cosmos 'Hey. You should try expanding.' And they caught on like wildfire. Book deals, season after season of- well, you might call it television. Endless entertainment! Sure, there were a few failures, a few societies needing a gentle pruning, but all in all, great stuff.
And this Departure of yours? Well, sure, we could play the good samaritan and reunite the Human Race, but where's the struggle and the tension in that? A wagon train among the stars, a search for home, mysterious alien benefactors… your story has it all! Suffice it to say people will be watching the reruns and buying the merchandise for aeons!
So smile, my Human friends. The Showmen are watching with bated breath.
Formatting and CSS:
The Straight On Till Morning canon uses custom CSS formatting, made by Von Pincier, to achieve that truly 70s sci-fi feel. This doesn't effect the body of the article, and the style sheet was designed with legibility in mind. Just keep in mind that nearly everything text-related is now a shade of brown or beige.
To implement this formatting, copy-paste the following code into your article above the rating module:
[[include theme:sotm]]
How to write for SOTM:
SOTM is a collaborative fictional account of a few thousand survivors trying to make it back home in 1973, after being stranded in a suddenly-inhospitable Solar System by the actions of an SCP object. Think Battlestar Galactica (reimagined and not), Lost in Space, Star Trek: Voyager, Space: 1999 and Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, all mixed together with a dollop of Foundationverse on top. We have a distinctly late 60's/70's aesthetic going, and we like it that way. Von Pincier and Doctor Cimmerian have plotted out a lot of what's going on, but nothing is off the table. Write what you like… we're happy to have your help.
Now let's get these people home.
