Novel Title: Game Changer
Time Setting: 613 Age of War*
Genre: Science Fiction
Minimum Word Goal: 90,000
Timespan: two months
Locations: orbiting the planet Tamah, its moon Ebed, or its neighbours Agag and Maarath
Main Characters: Hawk Orasz
Background Information: Tamah is the only planet in the solar system orbiting the great star Saraph which can support human, animal, or plant life. Maarath — Tamah’s neighbour further from Saraph — could possibly support life because it has a solid mass, but it has a thinner atmosphere so living there wouldn’t be all that much different than living in a spacecraft; Agag — Tamah’s neighbour nearer to Saraph — also has a solid mass, but it has a thick atmosphere full of toxic gasses.
Some 600 years ago the population of Tamah reached an unsustainable density; on top of that, many of the people divided into two factions headed by rather polarising leaders who simply could not get along at all.
The more militaristic of the two factions, the Emim, drove the other faction, the Ozem, from Tamah; the lack of habitable planets within a reasonable distance of Tamah led to the exiles remaining ship-bound in orbit around either Ebed, the moon of Tamah, or Maarath and Agag.
Since then the two factions have traded places on Tamah and been in a near-constant state of conflict all the while developing technologies at a rapid pace in order to create spaceships which can have manufacturing factories and even greenhouses and places for animals to be raised for food in order to ensure survival in space.
Initially — because the technologies had to be developed — the factions traded places regularly, hardly remaining in place for more than five years, however, that wore the factions thin and thus with the development of technologies that allow them to remain in space longer and more sustainably the war has slowed down, but still with many place-switchings.
The longest either of the groups has been kept in space by the other is forty seven years, which the Ozem did to the Emim one hundred years ago.
On average the factions switch places every seventeen years. Over the years smaller splinter factions have emerged, but none of those factions are large enough to be considered any real threat, and find their survival in allying themselves with one of the two large factions and going wherever that faction goes.
Four hundred years ago, however, a splinter faction developed that wasn’t really ideologically similar to either of the major factions. It gained adherents rapidly not only through appealing to many of the disaffected grunts of both the major factions, but by absorbing entire smaller splinter factions and by convincing men to sire as many children as possible.
After a hundred years of rather rapid growth to have a population about half that of the Emim and the Ozem — whose populations were relatively equal — this third faction, the Sons of Nahash, decided to make a bid for the control of Tamah, which was once again under the control of the Emim.
Their attempt failed miserably and their population was absolutely decimated. Defeated, they fled into Deep Space away from Saraph. As a result, the Emim and the Ozem rest quite assured that the Sons of Nahash ran out of fuel and died.
Many brave people have tried to foray into Deep Space to explore, but even though they’ve managed to send unmanned probes into Deep Space to discover the existence of several planets that are made mostly of toxic gasses are beyond no manned craft has been able to make it through the Inner Band of small planets and asteroids — called such because an unmanned probe found another band like it beyond the furthest gas giant — so it is fact that the Sons of Nahash died trying to get through the Inner Band, either that, or they ran out of fuel and died.
In the three hundred years since, things have settled back into the same routine they had two hundred years ago: just the Ozem and the Emim as major players in the battle for the control of Tamah, with small splinter factions shadowing whichever of the two they consider ideologically similar.
Some small peaceable factions stay in orbit around Maarath or Agag and try to live a quiet, unassuming life away from all the war and death as much as they can, with some dreaming of finding a way to settle Maarath or even travel beyond their system — if not beyond their galaxy — to see if there are any other planets like Tamah out there that they could maybe settle.
Hawk is an orphan — a natural occurrence of war — and as a result was raised at the top-secret Institution in orbit around Ebed, where the Emim particularly care for orphans, as well as any other children whose parents choose to send them there for safekeeping.
At the Institution children — especially the orphans — are trained to be top-end military troops to be sent on dangerous and deadly missions, as they’re considered expendable seeing as they have no parents.
From a young age Hawk has showed himself to be exceptionally talented militarily, having an incredible grasp of strategy as well as adept flying skills and the sharpest aim of any soldier in the Emim army.
At the age of fifteen he was commissioned into military service — several years earlier than most people are commissioned — and has racked up a long distinguished service record that has earned him the ire of a variety of peers and even some superiors who refuse to acknowledge his superiority to them, as well as earning him a privileged place in the eyes of the General Secretary, who is the leader of the Emim.
The General Secretary, a rather mercurial man, is found hard to please by many; even those who manage to earn his favour usually end up somehow losing it and, by extension, losing their lives, but Hawk hasn’t really ever angered the General Secretary in any way, instead earning one of the ultimate privileges: the opportunity to build a relationship with the General Secretary’s daughter.
As the General Secretary’s daughter is a beautiful young woman Hawk having been given the opportunity to build a relationship with her causes him to be envied by pretty much every other men Emim, but it also causes him to be under pressure from the General Secretary.
Seeing as the Emim are in a constant state of war with the Ozem, they need as many people as they can get, so couples are encouraged to have as many children as possible, and it’s no different in the General Secretary’s eyes with Hawk and his daughter.
Hawk, however, isn’t keen on the idea of having a child because he sees the idea of having to look out for someone who can’t look out for themselves to be rather pointless, and he doesn’t see the point of having a child only to have that child be orphaned anyways, as the life of an orphan isn’t that terribly pleasant, as he should know, being one.
*not equivalent to real-world years
Pronunciations:
Tamah: tahmah
Ebed: ehbehd
Agag: agag
Maarath: mahrath
Orasz: ohrahz
Saraph: sahraff
Emim: ehmihm
Ozem: ohzehm
Nahash: nahhash
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