London 2040
The night sky over London was lit by the distant glare of nuclear explosions. Within a bunker deep under the city, a well-built man with close cropped blond hair stared without seeing as his neural interface received the latest data update. He turned to his companions, concern affecting his normally composed features.
"Paris was just taken out! We don't have much time".
"Just a few more minutes. These calculations have to be precise". The grey-haired but sprightly old man tinkering with a mass of electronics equipment seemed unconcerned by the destruction raging across the surface of the Earth. His ability to focus on his immediate task was legendary.
"Professor, we don't have a few minutes. My orders are to take your team to wherever the hell we are supposed to be going, preferably before we are all reduced to radioactive ash."
"Patience Colonel. We wouldn't want to end up in the middle of the Atlantic. That would be most inconvenient."
A pair of glowing pillars eight feet apart, connected by thick cables to the Professor's equipment, dominated the centre of the underground chamber. A dozen people waited close by, loaded down with carrying cases, lab equipment and stacks of heavy books. The bunker shook suddenly, causing dust and bits of plaster to fall from the ceiling.
"Whatever you are going to do, now would be a good time!"
"Almost there. Just one last check… ready!" The Professor flicked up a cover and pressed a seemingly insignificant button. Coherent lighting flashed between the pillars for several seconds then faded to reveal what appeared to be a holographic image of an old London street, complete with horses and carriages.
"What the hell is this? I was told this experiment was an effort to open a route to a safe haven. Why the moving picture show?
"This isn't a hologram, Colonel, and not just a safe haven. This is a second chance for mankind." At a nod from the Professor, his team began moving into the hologram, somehow becoming part of the scene. A horseman in the Victorian street had to take avoiding action and stared with disbelief at the apparitions appearing in his wake.
A thundering detonation shook the bunker to its foundations and the 'hologram' began to flicker. The Colonel grabbed the Professor by the scruff of his neck and dragged him through the pillars. Behind them, the bunker imploded as London died in a nuclear firestorm.
The Professor dusted himself down and looked around, then smiled and began walking across a square toward the splendid façade of a three story mansion. The Colonel rushed after him, leaving the rest of their team and their equipment in the middle of the street.
"Where are you going, Professor"
"Burlington House"
"Which is?"
"Right in front of us"
The Colonel visibly restrained himself. "I don't mean where is it located. I mean what function does this building serve and, once again, where the hell are we?
"It's not so much a case of where, as when." Seeing the Colonel's face beginning to turn a strange shade of red, the Professor hurriedly continued. "This is still London, but the year is 1890 and we are in Piccadilly"
"What?" The Colonel roared, "You sent us back in time? What the hell were you thinking? There is a war on and your knowledge is vital if we ever hope to defeat the Eridani."
"We lost the war, Colonel" The Professor stopped, and turned to face his companion, concentrating his formidable intellect for once on real life rather than his latest fascinating experiment. "Earth is gone, along with her industry and shipyards. The mining colonies in the asteroid belt and on Titan will soon follow. Our surviving ships are scattered and the resources of the out-system colonies are too limited. At best, they can try and escape the attention of the Eridani. At worst…", he paused and stared directly into the Colonel eyes, " well, that worst case is why we are here."
"You mean, we ran away into the past to save our own skins because you believe the human race is doomed?"
"We didn't give up, Colonel. We just loaded a saved game"
"What? This is hardly the time for talking about your stupid computer games"
"Calm down Colonel. I know this is all a shock to you, but that was just an analogy. We may have lost the war in 2040 but this is 1890. We have a hundred and fifty years to make sure that when we fight the Eridani this time, the result is very different. At this point in history, the British Empire is fully industrialised and at its height. The German Empire and the United States are reaching their full potential. With the knowledge and skill that we can bring to this place at this time, can you imagine where mankind will be in 2040? Give me ten years and this planet will have converted to trans-Newtonian industry and be ready to start exploring space seventy years ahead of schedule."
Momentarily stunned by the scope of the Professor's plan, the Colonel fell back on their immediate situation. "You still didn't explain Burlington House"
"Ah. Burlington House is the home of the Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, usually just known as the Royal Society for obvious reasons. This will be our starting point, The current President is Sir William Thomson, or Baron Kelvin as he will become known in a couple of years from now. The gentlemen of the Royal Society will be the most open-minded we could hope to find in Victorian London. They will be our route to Queen Victoria and the Prime Minister, the Marquess of Salisbury. Within the next few months, we will need to speak to President Cleveland of the United States and Kaiser Wilhelm II of the German Empire. International rivalry at this point would be a criminal waste of resources."
The Colonel suspected that avoiding international rivalry would be a lot harder than the Professor suspected. Then he was struck by a sudden thought
"So you brought us one hundred and fifty years through time…"
"Not just time, space as well. The planet Earth, in fact the entire solar system, has moved about two trillion miles in the last 150 years.
"OK, so you moved us one hundred and fifty years through time and two trillion miles through space and somehow we managed to arrive in front of the correct building??"
"Well, I always think if you are going to do something, you should take the time to do it properly"
Starting Setup - League of Nations 1900 AD
This campaign is slightly unusual in that the League of Nations has knowledge from the future and therefore knows many astrographic details of which it would not normally be aware. These include mineral and jump point surveys of Sol and the surrounding six systems. A number of the second ring of systems have been probed but none have been surveyed and there are still a number of unexplored jump points in the systems of the first ring. 40 Eridani, home of the aliens that attacked Earth in 2040, lies two transits from Sol via Gliese 1061. The population of Earth in 1900 is 1600m, although even after the Professor and his team successfully altered the time line, large parts of it are yet to be industrialised. Therefore Earth has only half the starting industry for a population of that size. All the major industrial nations, led by the British Empire, the German Empire and the United States, have converted to trans-Newtonian industry and as of January 1st 1900 have constructed six shipyards, half of which are military shipyards, and increased the number of research facilities to thirty-two. No ships have been built, primarily because early research concentrated on construction and production-related technologies and only recently have propulsion technologies been addressed. All normal starting systems for a TN campaign are available and research equal to 100,000 RP has been carried out during the conversion.
to be continued...
Steve
