The Great Solar Chronicles: Old Paradise

By J. A. Underwood

You may have heard of the audacious Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, and Wiki Leaks, and the eye opening spectacular effect they incurred on our present era. However in the future, the ripple effect of the daring challenge for the freedom of information marches onward and continues to shape humanity. In the griping sci-fi adventure story “Old Paradise”, which is the first installment in the four part series “The Great Solar Chronicles”, you will journey with private detective Dimitri Knight. In this suspenseful action packed thrill ride, an ordinary case turns out to be anything but ordinary for Paradise City's top private eye, and he himself must confront the very question of personal safety and the need for free flow of information.

• Language: English
• Publisher: J. A. Underwood
• Release date: Sep 29, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310256448

J. A. Underwood

I am a writer from North Carolina, and I love to write! I am currently a mechatronics student.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Prologue Tuning

Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future too

-Marcus Aurelius

The time of this tale is set in the year 2182 on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. It is nearly ten years since the great solar war ended, a war that cost two and a half billion lives. A war that began on Titan with the nation of Ishtaria being the aggressor, causing a string of events that fell like dominos, reshaping the balance of power throughout the solar system. The new power shifted to super corporations, independent city states, and above all, the Imperial States of Titan. The nation of the Imperial States of Titan (IST) came out on top economically and militarily, in the strongest position of any nation in the solar system in the post war era. The IST is the largest nation on Titan, forty five million strong. It is in Paradise City, the largest city in the IST, is where the story unfolds. Many elements have come together to create the genesis for this tale. Among them are super corporations, newly formed nations, and mighty individuals.

One of the key players in this tale is the super corporation United Blackwell Industries (UBI). UBI started out originally as an agriculture biotechnology and chemical pesticide company, before eventually becoming a super corporation. It is also by far the most powerful corporation in existence during this time. On Titan, it holds tremendous clout. Analyze, hit hard, restructure, expand, and sustain is what is written above the main entrance on their one hundred and forty story tall headquarters in Paradise City, commonly referred to as the UBI Monolith Tower The UBI Monolith Tower was the largest building in New York City before it was deconstructed and painstakingly reassembled in all its resplendent glory in Paradise City.

UBI’s rise to power would stem from turning disaster into opportunity. Originally disliked for their genetically modified soybeans and chemical pesticides, they became popular among the people when they found a way to save bananas from extinction. Finally UBI would be given a golden and decisive opportunity for true world fame and power out of the worst terrorist attack in history in 2057.

An enormous tsunami that devastated the America’s resulted from a bomb planted by religious extremist on the island of La Palma in the spring of 2057. The bomb caused a massive landslide which in turn caused an enormous tsunami that raced across the Atlantic, which led to catastrophic devastation and death along the entire eastern seaboard of the Americas. The tsunami ravaged cities like New York and razed skyscrapers to rubble. However this ultimately allowed new construction to begin on epic scale. Much of the reconstruction was financed by UBI since the USA had gone bankrupt. The United States lack of funding for infrastructure, education, continued unchecked spending, coupled with critically low taxation, on top of budgetary cuts to critical programs with an oversized politically stagnate government, left her with no cash reserves to rebuild initially. Americas collapse was devastating to the global order. It was not until she endured the unthinkable, that the economy was finally set into a mold that made economic sense. Though it cost her millions citizens lives, she emerged more economically prosperous than ever before, in large part because of UBI, which championed a military takeover to restore order.

Much in the same way that the Empire State Building was built by prefabrication techniques, the Big Apple skyline once again stretched out to the heavens due to UBI’s ability to use this technique on a large and efficient scale. This method of massive prefabrication construction was employed by UBI for not only reconstruction methods of cites, but for their space program, too. In the similar fashion to how the World War Two liberty ships were built on mass, UBI would utilize this past technique of success to lead the way in reconstruction and renewed expansion on all fronts. Thus, UBI left their competition in the dust and were revered as the savior of the Americas ….for a time. UBI was instrumental in creating countless new jobs in manufacturing and construction on a mammoth scale. This allowed UBI to be seen as a merchant of progress and good, at least in the beginning.

UBI’s rise to power had a dark side too. The near unlimited power it eventually possessed led to a corruption of UBI’s leaders. Soon their ambitions became more sinister with the systems of checks and balances removed from their path. UBI became like a predator stalking its prey, they would pounce, and often blitzkrieging another company so fast it had no time to react in ruthless acquisitions. They employed similar tactics when working over government officials. UBI would reap the fruit of their labor (or the spoils of war) and soon began to plunder anyone who got in their way. All the while UBI would maintain the image in the public spot light as a company that was doing the right thing for the people.

For decades UBI managed to stay under the radar yet still grow exponentially by having vast numbers of satellite companies that micro managed all their liquid assets and operations. These satellite companies were all registered in regions that had yet to computerize their records; thus allowing UBI’s management teams to grow the company in a very stealthy fashion. All the while, it looked like UBI had only limited annual growth. Eventually the money trail was so great that it became obvious that this stealth monopoly, as one famous broker put it, indeed did exist. Inevitably they had to reveal the sheer size of their existence. Once the truth finally surfaced their holdings were so vast that no one could tear them asunder. They were in virtually every industry, from pharmaceuticals, mining, manufacturing, agriculture, aerospace, to defense, and so on. The list went on and on.

On the political front, UBI made sure the company was campaign contributors to over sixty percent of the politicians in their markets. They also had the very best litigators money could buy, and coined the term Litigator shock troops. Their legal team had legislators write and pass laws for its protection, a situation that did not sit well with the public. A situation, that soon began to fester anger and distain amongst the citizenry.

Anyone who challenged them often found themselves up against a titanic wall of appeals, procedures, regulations, and mysterious (though often erroneous) zombie copyrights. After which anyone challenging them who lost would have to pray that they had solvency. Anyone brave enough to go after UBI often found an armada of bureaucrats on their heels. Those in opposition of UBI would discover their entire lives scrutinized. UBI often targeted their pursuers’ families as well. Though many held UBI at fault, the legal systems were not set up to counter this infringement of civil liberties on such a scale. UBI often calling their pursuers Reckless Volens only fueled the dissatisfaction and resentment of the public. Thusly UBI would hammer the message home, like a person playing with fire, the deafening mantra was They should have known better and would state, UBI is not responsible for reprimands or repercussions of those who violate the law

The Earth as a whole endured it fair share of crises, all of which UBI was always eager to provide aide, and inevitably benefit. This caused other super corporations to sprout up, mirroring UBI’s methods to get a piece of the pie for themselves. Disaster and strife drove the space age quite heavily, along with the need for the rapidly declining material resources on Earth. Many nations attempted to establish colonies throughout the solar system. Again it was UBI offering to help with migration and logistics of anyone who needed support. UBI’s public relations machines were always working in overdrive. Eventually though, despite their huge contribution for the progressive state of humanity, the squeezing of liberty from the masses would be more than the public was willing to swallow. Mass strikes, protest and riots began to befall UBI by the late 2080’s.

Soon the combination of ever more massive global strikes, constant violent riots in opposition to UBI, and huge amounts of legal red tape on Earth, compelled UBI to yield to the people. UBI now felt it was better to move its headquarters to a new location, one that would be less inclined to challenge it openly. UBI found a new home in the new nation of the Imperial States of Titan on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, in late 2089.

The IST was a mere decade old mining colony. The local population of the IST could no longer handle the savage working conditions of their corporate overlords in the Federal Corporate Union. The people of the IST declared their independence and ousted the FCU in a bloody and savage revolution.

The FCU was a space corporate empire that effectively ruled hundreds of small mining colonies with an iron hand. The FCU was able to establish its rule due to the lawlessness of space, and the fact they were the first to use force to get what they wanted beyond the realm of Earth. They understood by controlling resources in space by force, they could establish a solar empire. However, to do this caused them to overstretch manpower to keep all of the systems in line. Inspired by unrest on Earth, many colonies began to revolt. The IST was one of the first to successfully remove the FCU from power. The founders of the IST were led by a group of highly educated and passionately religious individuals who soon set up a constitutional monarchy. The people of IST had used what little cash reserves they had to fight a ten month long revolution to gain independence. They needed protection and capital to rebuild if they were to survive, and UBI was looking for a new home, it was a good match. Negotiations to make it official took many years but almost immediately more than half of UBI’s assets literally picked up and left Earth for Titan in late 2089.

IST had its own dangerous neighbors though, with bands of pirates raiding their merchant ships in space, FCU incursions, to the newly formed military dictatorship of Ishtaria who bordered the IST, an enemy far worse than anything the Federal Corporate Union had ever posed. UBI was all too eager to help the IST for mutual benefit. This was officially facilitated by the ageing Emperor Ludwig Hartmann of IST in 2112, with great fanfare but to the vast disliking of IST’s citizens at first. The population did eventually agree in a narrow national vote, only because of how dangerous things were getting in their own backyard. It came down to a matter of the life and death struggle for national existence in hard times.

The original agreement between the Emperor and UBI was to regulate the commerce in such a way that would benefit both the people and help the IST thrive as a new nation. The Emperor knew they needed to be as strong as possible if they were to have any hope of survival. Ludwig convinced his legislature to create the framework that ensured as few obstacles as possible for UBI to be merged into Titan society. The deal to ensure the Titan’s their safety and enormous prosperity was in exchange for keeping investigators and regulators away. The Titan’s in turn would be provided with vast capital reserves for its treasury to help it prosper and grow a strong economy and military. On Titan, UBI spawned the genesis of the IST’s prosperity and defense at breathtaking speed. However to cut corners for efficiency in the face of the rise of Ishtarians ever growing military machine, UBI began to do business in dark corners with very shady folks. It was considered at the time by some that they were getting a little too friendly with the crime syndicates. Indeed UBI helped prop up a new and ambitious crime syndicate called the Red Tigers to do their not so legal work, and occasionally take out their trash. Soon the Red Tigers would become Titan’s only crime syndicate. The Red Tigers worked hand and hand with UBI, regulating crime as well as commerce. Leading up to the Great Solar War, the Red Tigers helped smuggle in vast amounts of illegal military assets. These assets were often stolen from other nations, or bought on the black market from shadow merchants to save money. The black market soon became saturated with pirates looking to profit on the military buildup. The Red Tigers slowly and subtly began to call the shots within UBI. Still, they created a lot of progression, prosperity, and success for millions. However it did not take long for the Red Tigers to begin to change the course of UBI in a way that was not in keeping with its intentions or the intentions of the Titan government. The Red Tiger leadership would always say what they did was for national survival, and before the war, most simply accepted that as a fact of life.

The other key player on Titan was of course, the nation of Ishtaria. Originally established in 2039, the Ishtaria Corporation based throughout Europe and Asia, was a vast energy, mining, banking, and pharmaceutical conglomerate, which also became a super corporation much like UBI after the terrorist attack in 2057. It took advantage of global turmoil and used UBI’s methods to consolidate power; however, they were far less concerned with doing good deeds, as they about creating wealth and status for themselves. They made no illusions to the content of their character in their cutthroat pursuit of power. Also, like UBI, it was mostly forced off the Earth due to its barbaric practices, but they had vengeance in mind after being humiliated with massive asset seizures instrumented as a means to contain them.

Now looking for a new place to set up shop, they spied some easy prey in a remote area on Titan. Security forces from the Ishtaria Corporation simply annexed by force a handful of exploratory colonies on Titan to escape total collapse. The Ishtaria Corporation became the nation of Ishtaria in 2081. Soon they attacked nearby settlements causing more revolts due to the FCU lack of ability to protect them, and inadvertently caused more new nations on Titan to form. The Ishtarians fought head on and defeated the last remaining FCU settlements on Titan that did not declare independence. The Ishtarian war machine was finally stopped by newly arriving UBI mercenaries who fought alongside IST troops to bring Ishtarians violent expansion to halt. Soon borders were established, and an alliance of five new nations on Titan was established to stop any further Ishtarian aggression. This alliance was not lost on Ishtaria, who then began a colossal military buildup.

Ishtaria quickly created a colonial military state for themselves on Titan. It personified itself as both an economic power house and an industrial and military superpower. It quickly became one of the most ruthless dictatorships in the solar system. Ishtaria typically recruited new citizens, often from the most impoverished regions of the solar system, with the promise of free education, free health care, great national pride, clean living standards, and a modern self sustaining society with great jobs. Though for anyone unfortunate to end up living there, the Ishtarian military government made a strong point to control all aspects of their citizen’s lives. Privacy and individuality went against the grain of the collective good of the Ishtarian state. Though since the poor and uneducated people in the solar system far outweighed the number of educated wealthier ones, it became easy to recruit masses of new loyal followers, especially those looking to escape the desolation of Earth for a better place to live. Ishtaria then successfully created generations of fanatically loyal subjects.

Ishtaria made its fair share of alliances with like minded regimes, thus creating the Federal Colonial Alliance in 2139. The FCA spread out throughout the solar system with military installations masked as colonies or research facilities. They maintained alliances and military installations from Mercury to the Kuiper belt. As a result of this action, a massive arms race would begin throughout the solar system beginning in the early 2140’s. War seemed all but inevitable. Nations created alliances with super corporations, and people began to stock up supplies for the nightmare that was soon to unfold. Many profited on doomsday prophecies during this time. In 2168 Ishtaria made its grab for power, sparking the Great Solar War. Ishtaria launched a series of False Flag operations involving nuclear terrorist attacks on distant colonies to justify their war, a war to conquer the whole of the solar system. An unintended outcome of this grab for power was it started a Jasmine independence movement on many of the colonies throughout the solar system. Their aggression had the unintended effect of making a vast number of folks realize just how very little freedom they truly had. It led to revolution, civil wars, and ultimately, independence of thousands of city states and provinces throughout the solar system. The war was vast, catastrophic and bloody.

The IST and her allies on Titan would join the Continental Solar Alliance, a coalition of nations determined to stop the FCA. This allowed the IST to shore up its defenses in order to secure victory. The CSA was initially on the defensive with many of its members being conquered and suffered enormous losses. However with years to prepare, the CSA had come to understand that sacrifice had to be made in order to launch successful counter attacks. The Continentals slowly reorganized and eventually shifted the momentum of the war in their favor. Ishtaria had over gambled, over stretched its supply lines, and underestimated the tenacity of many of its opponents. The war on Titan only lasted 45 months but cost tens of millions of lives.

The fighting on Titan ended with the Ishtarians detonating an antimatter bomb in the heart of their decimated capital. The Ishtarian leadership chose to die rather than surrender. The war would last another 8 months after Ishtaria was defeated with a few fanatical hold out members of the FCA in various parts of the solar system before the CSA was finally victorious.In the end, Ishtaria was revealed to be the driving force behind the bulk of the war and was broken apart permanently. In the post war era, Ishtaria’s territories were divided amongst the victors. The remaining nationalistic minded citizens of Ishtaria became known as the Ishtarian Bandits, and they quickly became the most feared and ruthless pirates in the solar system.Thousands of new nations sprang up in the wake of the war. Many of these new nations were concentrated where the Jasmine movement began around Jupiter’s moon Europa. The people who lived there sacrificed terrible loses to achieve their freedom, but now enjoy the freest societies anywhere in the solar system creating governments based mostly on direct democracy. Indeed now they boasted the home of the United Tellurian Forces.

The United Tellurian Forces (UTF) became the replacement of the United Nations, CSA, NATO, and the United States, necessity to be the only true organizations policing the solar system, often with rival goals. The UTF became the new united peace keepers, and they were given a great deal of authority. The UTF also integrated Interpol into their ranks in order to make intersolar law enforcement more fluid. The UTF now were the ones sent to end genocide, civil wars, enforce laws and fight piracy throughout the solar system, and they became very good at it in no time flat.

UBI and the UTF however, are at odds with each other. UBI may have survived the war, but it remained a threat to liberty, and now had both a strong nation to protect it, and a vast crime syndicate at its disposal. The UTF has been the only organization to successfully prosecute anyone from UBI. This did show that the UTF was a tough organization and was to be taken seriously. Corporations were now strong enough to wage war on one another and every diplomatic care had to be made prior to utilizing force. The UBI’s new management by the Red Tigers had not gone unnoticed. The Red Tigers became public enemy number one as they were vastly becoming the most powerful crime syndicate in the whole of the solar system. It is in this setting…. the tale begins.

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

-Socrates

Chapter 2

Tablature

The Titan snow was falling heavier now. A crisp biting air surrounded Dimitri as he ascended up the black iron stair case. The snow was whirling around him now like a wild dance. He knew that he would have to step lightly as the cold caused sound to travel further. Now there were only three more steps to the top. He did not know as he ascended, he had stepped through a local motion beam that alerted those nearby to his presence. Soon he would be at the main foot walk of the primary observation deck. He leaned his body back so he would cut the corner at a forty five degree angle. He raised his Hother sixty five rifle but kept the muzzle low, too low, relying too heavily on the HUD display and not where he was aiming. The tight corner left him at a disadvantage and forced him to lower his barrel almost to his knees so he would clear the corner with his bulky battle suit. Just as he crested the corner, he saw a dark figure standing in an open doorway waiting for him. No time to react, never even got a shot off. He felt the impact before he heard the deafening blast. His body lurched violently backwards against the iron railing as he fell hard on his back. All he could see now was white light...

Paradise City- The Imperial States Of Titan: Late Summer- 2182 A.D.

Awake. Dimitri’s eyes flung open. He pounded the off button to his alarm clock with a hard thud before it had a chance to run away and force him to chase it. He could hear the sound of a police siren in the distance. The wind of the slow moving tri blade fan above his head, recessed in a double trey ceiling, was there to greet him with a gentle breeze. He was not particularly fond of mornings. A part of him wanted to just sleep in, but sheer will power and consciousness told him no, it’s just another work day. First light was starting to peep through the window. He rubbed his heavy eyes and scratched his thick scruffy whiskers as he shook off the nightmare. He slowly rolled off his warm black Japanese anime themed blanket.

The floor sensed his feet as he got up, allowing his toes to enjoy a warm floor. As he slowly got up he yawed like a stretching kitten. He stumbled as he lazily walked to the window. There a warm cup of rich aromatic bold coffee was waiting for him. The toaster sitting next to the brew master nine thousand popped out two freshly baked warm honey wheat slices of bread and buttered them as they came out. He enjoyed the smooth roast coffee and tender toast as he watched the dawn break.

Today was special; it was not raining, clear skies, and eighty degree weather predicted. He had a good job lead, and to top it all off, Saturn along with the Sun would be rising in the horizon together. This was truly ideal for a picturesque day.

His view from the Gravaton Tower was perfect for the majesty of the dawn. It was an awe inspiring sight as the small but brilliant light of the Sun magnified by the atmosphere, and bright glow of Saturn, came up together in the sky. They illuminated the horizon in a beautiful turquoise blue. The skyline glowed amber, and muffled the many glowing digital signs found on a vast number of the cities many skyscrapers. He could see the lines of flying cars and airships bustling about. As his gaze descended he saw the trams were running all over the place, getting people to their destinations of work. The main highways were clogged as usual. People still used roads as flying cars were the norm, but getting the expensive license to operate them was not. Hence most of the flying cars he saw were public transportation, emergency services, logistics vehicles, or personal vessels designed as status symbols of the upper classes that often flew them. Mixed in with the flying cars were the many public and private drones used by the masses for personal convince purposes. On most of the cities buildings there were spinning solar paneled wind turbines seemed to give the city an organic feeling. People had gone to great lengths to make them aesthetically pleasing since they were essentially half of the source for all manufactured energy. He had a very clear view of the massive UBI monolith tower. The colossal tower was all black, with a ring of black glass steps going around it. The sunlight shimmered off its submarine sail like conning tower at its top. The only thing he did not like from this vantage point was the half dozen hideous, one hundred and twenty story tall, and twelve city block wide, atmospheric processors. They looked like some kind of bear claws protruding menacingly into the sky.

Absolutely ugly, even the old ruins look better. At least the beauty of the day off sets those things he thought to himself. He made a quick gaze to his right and could see scaffolding for several buildings where a large memorial in the heart of the eastern ruins was being built. At the height of the war, it was the place where some of the worst fighting had occurred in the city during the