Setting time!
A tad busy tonight so I'll set up the basic background. I'll return later with more setting details and technology level to flesh things out, then move to what my plans were for the plot, mission by mission.
Legendary takes place at least one millennia after the end of FS2. Possibly more, maybe up to or exceeding two millenia. I didn't really care too much, honestly the further out the better for my purposes. Most sci-fi that reaches that far out would radically upgrade humanity, introduce new aliens, psychic phenomena, galaxy-spanning empires with hundreds if not thousands of new systems...
Lol, I didn't go for any of that. Terran borders are roughly the same as FS2 GTVA, if not a bit smaller. No new aliens. The Sol gate was never re-opened (I think?) The Shivans have never returned since Capella, surprisingly. Or if they have, they were only stealthy spies - I suppose it could have happened but that wasn't addressed at all in my plot.
The systems are still nominally allied/controlled under a Terran government: colloquially referred to as United Humanity, or UH. Granted it sounds cheezy but hey so does the UN.
UH administration lays claim to all inhabited systems, but the systems where it actually holds any semblance of control are pitifully few; Delta Serpentis is the seat of government. The fringes (say past Ross 128 or Aldebaran for example) are all but ignored by the overtaxed government, leaving them free for intrepid pioneers. Or pirates.
Unlike, say, the GTVA, the UH is simply inept. It's huge, on paper there are more than enough bureaucrats to handle every system and then some, but in fact they barely manage the affairs of those few systems where they have a bit more power. In the name of simplicity it was organized more like one massive body, with branches poorly recognized. A miserable state of affairs with crossed signals and confused chain of command.
There is a UH Navy. It's poorly equipped even by the slightly regressive tech standards of the setting (no more beams as I recall, see my tech explanation later). Three massive, lumbering, aging destroyers, armed only with blobs, form the fleet's only real bulk. (These used the GTD Henderson user-made model) There were a bunch of cruisers and auxiliaries, presumably, and fighters (though the destroyers had no fighterbay!!). Fleet assets, with little else to do, would lumber around the systems with no proper cover and poor efficiency, responding often belatedly if at all to distress calls.
The UH was not actively malicious as a whole, simply incredibly apathetic and poorly equipped. If any in the government wanted to help matters, they were stifled not so much by deliberate force as by the wretched inefficiency of the whole mess. And yes, there were outright crooks in high places.
This corrupt state of affairs had a few results: A lack of technological advancement. A reinforcement of simple desire to survive among civilians. Distrust of centrality and government. A major movement towards isolation and self-sufficiency among individual systems and colonies. Local efforts to fight back against pirates.
And yes, pirates.
Decades before the start of the story, piracy and other criminal activity had been a dominant factor. Naturally the weakness of the government encouraged predation. By the time of the story there's basically pirates pirates everywhere. And they don't not do anything this time.
They've even infiltrated the government; despite the plethora of pirate groups and their constant infighting, some groups have made dark deals with ostensibly loyal officials. A conspiracy is in the works... more on that later. Their attacks made an already bad situation worse - as support for the UH drops to all-time lows, they can't scrape funding and willpower together to fight back against the influx of raiders. Local militias and disgruntled police fight back as they can, desperately clinging to whatever territory, livelihood, and civilians they can protect...
The state of affairs is a short step away from total anarchy.
Into this world step our heroes. Short description here: Vigilantes. Led and funded by a former UH governor (maybe a navy member?) known as "The Chief". Elderly but with fighting spirit, he has had enough of the disintegration of his people. Digging into a deep personal pocket and relying on old friends/government contacts, he manages to scrape together a small task force of an old carrier and a handful of fightercraft. With UH sanctions on his heels yet with little to fear from the inept Naval command, the player character (one of Chief's hand-picked pilots) and the rest of the small group perform quick-response duties, browsing all channels for distress calls and hunting down pirates. Immensely popular among civilians, as they gain fame they start to be referred to as "Legendary"...
Thanks, guys, that was a rough sketch of what I can remember about my setting! Wow, that was years ago...
Still very fun to bring this out and dust it off! I will be back later with more details. Questions, comments and advice are welcome! I can use the help.
