Worldbuilding: A New World, a World of Conflict and Sorrow

This is a setting that has been poking me at the back of my head for a while since bullethead of SB read the novelization of the pilot episode of seaQuest DSV. It is inspired by Anno 2070/2205, Front Mission, seaQuest, Submarine TITANS, SubWar 2050, Nexus: The Jupiter Incident, among others. While the previous worldbuilding threads were focused on either creating in-universe versions of the US and Japan, unfucking the shitshow that is Gundam SEED, and creating a world where it's a bastard child of Frostpunk and Day after Tomorrow with all the shit that such a setting would entail... this is more of a 'mixed bag' setting. A mix of optimism and pessimism, where ideologies can be used for good and evil, with hefty 'the moral calculus is almost alien to us' bits...

The Setting Basics

• The world is an ‘almost worst case scenario’ for global warming
  • Here we’re talking about entire sections of continents being underwater and entire sections of the Earth literally uninhabitable due to the heat
    • To put things into perspective, Washington DC and New York City are both restructured to be underwater cities while Memphis has become a major sea port
    • The entire Saudi peninsula and some of the surrounding area is literally a death sentence, and it is used by Iran and Israel to exile anyone convicted of a high crime that didn’t get the death penalty
  • Due to the massive change in weather patterns, the food supply had been constantly in flux for the better part of one and a half centuries
    • This is exacerbated by the reality that vertical farming was far harder than it looked and most nations defacto or genuinely banning GMO research
      • Most nations would later reverse this or literally collapse into anarchy
    • This led to mass starvation -which would kill billions-, resource wars -which would kill even more billions-, and ecoterrorism -which, again, will kill billions-, all of which has caused the greatest death toll since the time of the Black Plague...
      • The death toll from all that is 5 billion over a period of five decades, or averaging a hundred million per year or roughly 5,475.7 people per day
      • Ecoterrorism carries the highest punishment on the planet, as any eco-terrorist will have to live with the fact that when they get caught their family is going to hell with them
        • Most Ecoterrorism is unleashing synthetic plagues or creating monsters (be animals created from the ground up or modified uplifts specifically designed to be weapons) designed to kill as many people as possible
        • However it is recorded that whenever these terrorists manage to get an atomic device, they will use it to kill as many people as possible, much like what happened to LA and San Diego or Hamburg -among others- during the first two centuries of the new era (i.e. smoking radioactive craters)
        • It should be noted that any pro-Ecological group is at best highly suspect, given that much of the ecoterrorism has come from these groups
          • The only group that isn’t considered to be suspicious is the companies under the Ecological Initiative Corporation, which has a strictly self-defensive mandate for its member corporations… and anyone who breaks this mandate is usually cast out, with those that violate the Eco having the perpetrator's families executed and the perpetrator marked for death
  • Instead of the worst case scenario being 80 or 114 meters of sea rise, it is 65 meters
    • As such, the world looks quite different…
    • This is in part by the precursors of the current governments to stabilize the situation
• Nation-States effectively no longer exist in the current era
  • The world -and all of Sol- is split up between several political-economic blocks called “Federal Confederations” or ‘FedCons’ for short
    • The governments of these FedCons vary from standard cybernetic representative democracies to monarchies and everything in between
      • It should be noted that it isn’t uncommon for FedCons to literally own corporations outright, many development corporations are actually government divisions for development of new islands
    • There are several FedCons that aren’t based on Earth at all, and are usually break-away states that broke away from their parent FedCons during the early days of space colonization (NWE 150-250)
  • Outside the FedCons, the mega-corporations (‘Meg-Corps’) rule
    • Numerous mega-corporations exist, with various technologies and capabilities
    • Should be noted that like the FedCons, the Mega-Corps run the gambit of ‘being decent despite being for profit’ to ‘Shere Khan Machiavellian’ to pre-New World ‘psychopathic’
    • It should be noted that some of these corporations have made alliances to ensure that the FedCons don’t intrude on their business
      • Two of the major ‘corporate alliances’ are the Global Resources and Energy Trust (GRET or simply ‘Trust’ for short) and the Eden Ecological Initiative Corporation (EEIC or simply ‘Eco’ for short)
        • While the EEIC would rely mostly on defense forces, the GRET has the mercenary group White Sharks on their payroll
      • The Scientific Academy for Advanced Technologies (or SAAT for short) generally doesn’t care for politics, only advancing science with few moral scruples and is known to be an ally of not only these corporate alliances but also independent corporations
        • SAAT is similar to GRET that it has its own mercenary force to protect its interests; this mercenary force -known as the Black Octopi- is also armed with some of the latest military equipment that SAAT can produce
      • The SpaceTech Conglomerate is a minor but growing space-based Meg-Corp that has been making waves since its founding in NWE 250 out of several space-based corporations
      • There are independent corporations (called IMCs for short) like the Crayven Corporation that are rather successful in this new world…
  • There is only one supranational organization that isn’t a Meg-Corp, that would be the organization SolForce
    • SolForce is a slowly growing organization, but is constantly screwed in terms of funding, material, and personnel
    • SolForce has been forced to be largely independent of any group within the Sol system
      • Despite this, SolForce has been slowly growing in power, but not enough to challenge the FedCons and Meg-Corps in decisive battle in NWE 320
• In addition to the radically changed landscape thanks to global warming, new islands of numerous sizes have been discovered
  • These islands have popped up across the globe, and are rich in natural resources and provided fertile soil for farming
• In addition to these new islands, numerous undersea colonies have sprung up
• Technologically, this new world is quite advanced in many ways compared to our own, particularly in terms of submarine, biotech, cybernetics, robotics, AI, comp-tech, nuclear energy, and space tech being the most obvious
  • With the push for nuclear technology, fusion has started to replace fission… although at an immensely reduced rate due to the Helium 3 requirements
  • Most fission reactors are of the Thorium or Molten Salt type, although there are still some traditional fission reactors in operation, mostly as breeder and reprocessing facilities
  • Various uplifts are relatively uncommon in Sol, and this is mostly thanks to SAAT’s morally dubious experimentation and some ecoterrorist groups trying to weaponize uplifts to kill off humanity…
    • Despite this, the vast majority of FedCons and Meg-Corps treat uplifts with some respect at the minimum, those that don’t generally don’t last all that long
• The vast majority of the solar system is under the control of various Meg-Corps and FedCons, with SolForce trying to keep the peace…
  • Luna is one of the few bodies in Sol to be owned by only one group, and that would be SolForce, and anywhere else is split between the various factions
    • Mars and Jupiter are two of the most common battlegrounds in Sol, with fighting almost constant over the various resources and research opportunities
• The current era is called ‘the New World Era’ or NWE for short
  • The “New World Era” started in 2100
  • The ‘current’ year is NWE 340, which is 2440 in the old calendar
  • The “New World Era” started after the events of ‘The Upheavals’, a series of wars, disastrous climate change events, and other horrific events which caused immense hardship and death
  • The current population of humanity is 10 billion on Earth, 2 billion across the solar system (with Mars being the largest with 850 million humans); uplifts number in 4 billion on Earth, and another 1 billion across the solar system
• War is a common occurrence in the New World Era, particularly over resources like drinkable water and other vital necessities for life
  • Thanks in part to these new technologies and the limited resources on Earth, war over vital resources and land is extremely common
    • Nuclear weapons aren’t as taboo as they once were, the only reason that they’re not used as often is due to the fact they’re expensive pieces of ordinance, especially since the depletion of weaponizable fission materials (be elements like Uranium and Plutonium or the newly discovered element Starcorium) on Earth and the Helium-3 requirement for laser-initiated fusion warheads
      • In the years since the Upheavals, a new element has been discovered called ‘Starcorium’ (or simply Corium for short), which sits on 276 on the periodic table
        • The discovery was made when a series of meteors created deposits of the material on Earth
          • Most of the deposits on Earth are centered around the central Atlantic and Pacific
        • A series of probes on various planets and moons across the solar system showed that there were deposits on various planets and moons of the solar system
          • The major producers of Corium are the colonies of Mars, Titan, Triton, and Iapetus
        • Starcorium’s energy density when undergoing fission is 82% of fusion
          • Starcorium 297 -a somewhat rare isotope of Starcorium- is incredibly useful for creating what would be considered ‘extreme efficiency’ fission warheads, which produce very limited long-term radiation
            • The White Sharks mercenary group and their GERT backers have one of the largest Starcorium-based nuclear stockpiles across the solar system
    • Powered exoskeletons and powered armor is common, requiring far better armaments to combat them
    • This is on top of combat-grade cybernetics and gene-augmentations, vastly improving the user’s combat performance
      • To combat these new threats, a new type of round known as ‘Hypervelocity Rounds’ -or HV and whatever other designation at the end of it like HVAP- have been developed for most small arms
      • In addition to HV rounds, there are rifle-sized lasers as well…
      • Due to advancements in containment technology, plasma has become available as a warhead for missiles and shells, and depending on the containment setup, it can be used to defeat hard or soft targets
    • Vehicular armaments include Electrothermal Chemical Triple Coaxial Plasma Igniter cannon, electro-motive (i.e. rail/coilgun), lasers, and with some groups plasmoid and particle beam weaponry
    • Sol in general is rife with conflict, be between FedCons, Meg-Corps, and/or SolForce
    • This has given birth to a new phrase: “Livable land is rare, but human lives are cheap”

 

Attention everyone! This setting is now also being built at World Anvil!

Link: A New World at World Anvil​

 

In setting, of something like this shows up, shit is going to go down:

​

Why do you ask? Because memetic weapons/hazards are a thing and the various factions have entire departments dedicated to searching and destroying memetic ordinance every day. Memetic warfare is quite similar to other forms of warfare in that there are plays and counter-plays, measures and countermeasures. Modern memetic weapons are required to be 'tuned' to their targets, the faction they're being deployed in, and whatever countermeasures they will face. This has predictably caused several generations of weapons and countermeasures to come into being and evolve. However, this hasn't stopped these weapons from becoming problematic, period. It also didn't help to improve the current state of affairs either, and the current state of affairs is thanks to the deployment of the first genuine weaponized memes thanks to Russia. Due to the variety of memetic weapons and how they evolved, memetic weapons are classified by their medium of transfer, if it targets the consciousness or subconsciousness, and 'generation'. This has allowed the civilian population to properly react to their deployment if there is a breach (usually by the use of things like mind-altering drugs/substances to 'muddle' the memetic in question).

The Generations are:

• Generation 1 (Gen1): The crudest and most basic memetic weapon in human history. They were originally developed by Russia during the Putin regime in the 2010s and first revealed to the world in the 2016 Brexit vote and the US 2016 Presidential Elections as part of a wide-scale world destabilization operation only known as 'Operation Deep Fifty', an operation whose description is essentially 'soak the world in gasoline and then lite it on fire'. This generation is known to simply 'convince' the consciousness of the target(s) to do whatever the memetic wants them to believe... and oddly enough the easiest to counter and neutralize due to the heavy reliance on frames of reference and mentality proximity for its effectiveness.
• Generation 2 (Gen2): The second generation of memetic weaponry and -surprisingly- vastly more sophisticated. While the majority of the afflicted tend to be simply 'convinced' to do whatever the memetic wants them to do or believe in, this starts to show the mind control esque properties of memetics in general as a tiny (<2%) of the afflicted effectively have no free will. Despite these improvements, it shared the same problems as it's predecessor in terms of effectiveness, and thus was the second to be rendered neutralized. This was created by the successor of Vladimir Putin, one Grigor Ilyanich Stoyanov, and his administration is directly linked to the infamous 1st Ruralist Insurrections -which killed hundreds of millions of people worldwide- and other conflicts that were created to ensure that no one would be able to attack Russia -later ZAFTRA- before it was ready.
• Generation 3 (Gen3): The second generation introduced memetic's ability to take away people's free will to small populations, but Gen3 memetic weapons managed to up this to give one about a 30% chance of the afflicted to have their free will taken away. First introduced by various warlords and maniacs in the various developing Lawless Zones across the planet in the latter half of the 1st Century NWE, the Gen3 memetics was a genuine surprise to memetic weapon experts at the time. This generation of memetic weapons is particularly infamous as it was partially the cause for the 2nd Ruralist Insurrections, which killed millions of people worldwide. At the time of NWE 0340, Gen3 memetic weapons are only partially neutralized, and the current cure for those who have their free will taken from them is simply to, effectively, put them out of their misery...
• Generation 4 (Gen4): The fourth generation of memetic weapons is a frightening one when it was first introduced during the late 2nd Century NWE, and for good reason. It is infamous as it is well known to have the ability to effectively take free will entirely. Despite much research, at the time of introduction, the only 'cure' for those afflicted is to simply kill the afflicted. Like the previous generation, there is no one group or person that is responsible for its development, but there were signs that a transhuman that went by the name of Caulder Stolos had a hand in a few of these...
• Generation 5 (Gen5): Currently the ultimate memetic weapon in existence bar none. Designed by one Caulder Stolos as an anti-civilization weapon, it is essentially designed to eliminate free will completely to those that are afflicted and has been called 'the closest thing to Warhammer 40k Chaos Bullshit without the space magic' by various anti-memetic groups, which isn't far from the truth, as it targets not only the consciousness but also the subconsciousness. However, to do this, Gen5 weapons abandon any and all sense of subtlety when being unleashed and thus able to be quarantined. A few thousand have to be killed due to being afflicted, but that's better than having millions be killed off in a 'ten innocents will die so we can get the afflicted' style rule.

The current state of memetic warfare is one where attacks come and go in nanoseconds, requiring augmented individuals and AGIs with in-built anti-memetic systems to 'man the walls' so to speak... and the current situation of these 'memetic warfare divisions' and the various memetic weapon creators/users in the various Lawless Zones across the planet is best described as a 'stalemate'. Before Gen5 memetics came into the field, anti-memetic capabilities were slowly but surely ensuring that the only place you can learn about these is in the history books, but that changed when a transhuman named Caulder Stolos introduced to the world the first Gen 5 memetic weapon and caused several mutual genocides in the process in several Lawless Zones. Whenever he arrives in a populated location, he generally leaves only bodies in his wake for his goal of removing civilization entirely...

 

So, here is some more lore for you guys. I've talked about my setting and memetic weapons, now I'm going to tell you about something that every faction has effectively agreed to be worthy of literal on-site execution: the Mind Jack (common name).

The Mind Jack is a system designed by the mad post-human known only as Caulder Stolos (who is currently at large) in a bid to annihilate civilization in every form. A Mind Jack completely invalidates the concept of Free Will and a constant threat to the well-being of sentient lives at large. Elements of the Mind Jack are also used in 5th Generation memetic weaponry, making it even more problematic.

Given the widespread distribution of Stolos's proxies and his memetic attacks allowing for their proliferation, the only punishment for even having one of these devices is on-site execution at the very minimum... with some factions making the family on the execution block as well to ensure that no one uses these willingly.

How the Mind Jack operates is simple in concept: it is a technological replication of psionics, but able to completely rewrite a person's mental state (something that psionics can't do). Building upon a firm understanding of neuroscience and psychology, it uses electromagnetic systems to reprogram a sentient being. Its range is limited, however, as it's maximum range is 100 meters and it's effective range is only a tenth of that (10 meters). Effectively, it is a near-instantaneous version of Mass Effect's Indoctrination or the technological version of scopolamine (a drug with similar properties). This can allow the user to make the person do anything they wish from making the person in question be an idiot to making scandals like clockwork to turning people into literal suicide bombers who would die for the cause to make even the most fanatical fanatic look like cowards.

It should be noted that this is one of the technologies that got amended into the Sol Accords as a banned technology, only to be researched to find a way to counteract its effects. All nations enforce this ban under the pain of death. The only sentients immune to this technology are either techno-organic or quantum-based AGIs and psions, with the former due to being AGI and the later due to how the technologies of the mind jack interact with psionic energy.

 

(Thank Schwarzweiler for these)

The MBT-01 'General Williams' series of MBTs is one of the oldest MBT designs still in use in the solar system. Designed soon after the creation of SolForce as replacement part shipments were cut off, the MBT-01 was designed by the then newly-formed Solforce White Section wholely in-house but based off of the numerous designs that SolForce used up to that point.

Using a hybrid boogie/torsion bar suspension, the MBT-01 series has consistently kept its cross-terrain ability throughout the centuries. With a top speed of 80km/h on-road and 50km/h off-road, it is quite a speedy tank for its weight.

Its primary armor is -oddly enough, similar to the concepts brought about by the fictional setting Battletech, although in hindsight this isn't exactly surprising as what was essentially EndoSteel was first revealed to the world in the 2010s. The armor is a composite of various materials including conventional and unconventional alloys, metal foams, composites, metallic and nonmetallic ceramics, and carbon nanotubes with a weave of electro-reactive armor and various materials. This allows the MBT-01 series to withstand numerous weapon impacts while retaining effectiveness. Now, unlike its fictional counterpart, it doesn't make anyone wearing it invulnerable to penetrations (or close to it depending on the rules you use), it simply makes penetrations (especially when double-digit megajoule energies or greater are being thrown around) uncommon. The thicker the plate, the more uncommon these penetrations are. The front of the MBT-01 series is one of the few that goes with the Battletech stereotype due to how thick the frontal plate is (250mm).

The active protection systems are also a key component to the MBT-01's lifespan on the battlefield. Consisting of a suite of electronic warfare equipment (requiring an electronic warfare officer (EWO)) and an active protection system suite. While systems like TROPHY were used, newer models utilize the 'HardKill' 2cm pulse laser CWIS units. While the electronic warfare suite would degrade ATGMs, the active protection system shoots them down alongside any recoilless rifle rounds or RPGs. The RWS mount with the 15.5mm HMG can do ADS in a pinch, but it isn't recommended.

The armament of the MBT-01 series has changed over the centuries, with the current models utilizing a 65mm coilgun instead of an Electrothermal Chemical cannon. Outside of the MBT-01 to MBT-01A2, the entire series uses an iridium-alloy dart instead of a depleted uranium or tungsten carbide dart as its armor-piercing round. Each round has a muzzle velocity of 2km/s as standard, giving the projectile kinetic energy measured in the double-digit megajoules. In eras previous, this would simply rip any tank apart. The coaxial is a 15.5mm or 15.5mm ETC-FLARE HMG, capable of unleashing rounds with 100kj of kinetic force onto any target. The RWS mount is configurable to use a 15.5mm HMG or a 60mm AGL system. All of these (and the ADS) is controlled by VGI (Virtual General Intelligence) fire control systems that utilize the extensive sensor suite that the tank has.

It has a crew of four (a driver, a gunner, an EWO, and a commander).

Stats:

• Name: MBT-01 'General Williams' 'Family'
• Type: Main Battle Tank
• Mission: Spearhead, Assault
• Mass: 65 tons
• Dimensions:
  • Length: 8.25m
  • Width: 4.5m
  • Height: 2.75m
• Power Plant: Hydrogen Fuel Cell, 2,250kW (MBT-01 to MBT-01A6)/Fusion Cell, 2,750kW (MBT-01A7 to MBT-01A9)
• Suspension: Torsion Bar-Boogie
• Motive System: Treads
• Armor Composition and Thickness (fore/Sides/Rear/Top): Standard SolForce Light Vehicle Composite -ablative alloys, carbon nanotubes, various foam metals, diamond weaves, mango ceramics, polysilicate alloy, Iiridium-osmium alloy, molybdenum polyalloy- (250mm/175mm/75mm/100mm)
• Armament:
  • Main: 150mm L/50 Smoothbore (MBT-01 to MBT-01A2)/90mm L50 Electro-Thermal Chemical Flashboard Large Area Emitter (ETC-FLARE) Cannon (MBT-X1A3 to MBT-01A5)/105mm L/55 ETC-FLARE Cannon (MBT-X1A6 to MBT-X1A7)/105mm L/55 ETC-FLARE in automated turret mount (MBT-01A8)/65mm L/55 Coilgun in automated turret mount (MBT-X1A9 to MBT-01A9)
  • Coaxial: 15.5mm HMG (MBT-01 to MBT-01A5)/15.5mm HMG ETC-FLARE (MBT-01A6 to MBT-01A9)
  • Secondaries: 15.5mm HMG or 60mm AGL on RWS Mount (MBT-01 to MBT-01A5)/15.5mm HMG ETC-FLARE or 60mm AGL on RWS Mount (MBT-01A6 to MBT-01A9)
  • Countermeasures: 90mm countermeasure launchers (numerous, all models), 2x Trophy VI ADS (MBT-01 to MBT-01A5)/2x 2cm HardKill Laser ADS in CIWS mounts (MBT-01A6 to MBT-01A9)
• Electronics:
  • Communications: SolForce White Section Standard Communications Array Mk 2 OR SolForce White Section Tank Platoon Command Vehicle Communications Array Mk 2
  • Sensors: SolForce White Section Standard Tank Sensor Suite Mk 2
  • Electronic Warfare: SolForce White Section Standard Small Vehicular Electronic Warfare Suite
• Top Speed (Road/Off-Road): 80 km/h / 50 km/h

 

SolForce is an unusual faction within the solar system, mostly since it was never a government in the first place but simply a collection of former UN organizations and a good portion of the peacekeeper forces (mostly Pakistani, Indian, American, German, and Philipino). SolForce was founded in the year 0010 New World Era (NWE) -or 2110 AD if you still use the old calendar- by the remnants of the UN. The initial founding had SolForce being something of a strictly technocratic government, something in part since the idea behind democracy (particularly 'unlimited' or 'democracy by birthright') had been thoroughly beaten as a whole due to the technological context of the New World Era.



Eventually, due to the increasing demands of governance, very limited representative democracy had been implemented at the 'district' -aka 'State/Province'- level. These limitations would be implemented when the Legislative Branch would be created in the mid 0200s NWE. These limitations require an aspirant to work for the government for a minimum of decades before being allowed to have any voting rights. This isn't much different than most factions in the setting, as full citizenship usually fell into three categories: stock-based (voting power is based on how much stock you have), service-based (serve time in the federal government), and tax-based (pay a certain level of taxes). The voting age is mandated to 25, due to various studies on human neurology (and this is one of the few common things that SolForce has with other factions across Sol). The dominant part of the SolForce government is the bureaucracy which is split into divisions called Sections. Each section has a specific task. Gold Section is the equivalent of the Department of State, Red Section is the military, so on and so forth. However, all sections are required to keep each other appraised of what they are doing. Usually, this is done via detailed memos... but in some cases, this isn't effective so there are liaisons between the various sections. This is especially the case between the military, diplomatic, external intelligence, and RnD sections, as they have to be able to adapt within seconds to the changing situation.

One thing that SolForce shares with every other faction in Sol is the fact that it utilizes an electronic surveillance panopticon. This is due to the fact that in-setting, there is no real alternative to utilizing this sort of surveillance as you've got too many 'idiots with ideas' that have ideas that boil down to 'megadeaths/exterminate ethnic groups/exterminate humanity' with tools to carry out those ideas. This panopticon setup is the least bad way to keep idiots with gene-kits that some nation-states would kill for their bioweapons programs from causing megadeaths... even if it didn't stop people from trying.

Another threat that all factions within Sol have to deal with is memetic weapons... something that has restricted information and speech freedoms due to how they can simply destroy governments if not countered correctly.

The currency of SolForce is the SolForce Credit (SFC), which is a non-fiat currency and is backed by a field of materials called 'smart matter'. You may know them as 'metamaterials' or 'programmable materials'. The process to create these materials is what backs the SFC. The SFC is also a 'dual-entity' currency, which means that it exists in physical and electronic formats. While the electronic format of the SFC is common within SolForce territory, physical SFCs are also available at the local government-owned bank. Within the physical form of SFCs is a type of metamaterial called 'claytronics', this is critical as they not only prove a currency's worth (each denomination has a specific mass of claytronic within them) but also act as a security measure as each claytronic core has an unbreakable security code. This makes the SFC one of the most stable currencies in the setting. It also makes the SFC very valuable. To put things into perspective, one SFC is worth something along the lines of 25,000 USD in 2016 or 26,806.09 USD in 2019. Add to the fact that the Average Life Product (the replacement of GDP after it detached itself from anything sane economically during the second half of the 21st Century AD) of a SolForce citizen is 550,000 SFCs (or 14,743,349,500 USD in 2019).

The total population that SolForce has under its aegis is 5 billion across the entire solar system, with 2.34 billion being heavily augmented humans, 2.16 billion being various uplifts, and 500 million being AGIs. This has given SolForce a very cosmopolitan outlook on things, as you would think. The demographics are roughly 10% being seniors, 45% being adults, and 45% being teens and children. The average family is generally 6 to 8 people, two parents and somewhere between 4 to 6 children. This is in part due to various family subsidies, an incredible education system, and an incredibly robust childcare network.

In terms of manpower, the distribution is 15% for civilian affairs (i.e. business), 5% for government, 45% for military, 1.5% for education, 2.5% for law enforcement, and 31% is straight-up unemployed. To keep the unemployed from causing a revolution, a system similar to Huey Long's 'Share Our Wealth' program has been instituted which puts limitations on inheritance and yearly incomes. This is common across all of Sol, as doing nothing is... problematic... at best. The immense unemployment is because automation is so capable that humans are largely unneeded in the job market (the Sol average for employment is ~20%).

The immense military is because the entire Solar System is constantly at war, with about 1.237 billion (actual numbers being 1,237,500,000) being in the armed services, SolForce can ensure that it can survive in the setting. Due to the constant warfare -ranging from border conflicts to system spanning wars- a vast military complex had to be created. With the immense manpower, SolForce can fight multiple conflicts at once without major manpower shortages.

 

Spoiler: Stupid Large Picture Ahead

It is a prototype but gets the point across. 15 men total; 12 of which are foot-sloggers and 3 of the men man the IFV. Each SolForce soldier is equipped with power armor, armed with ETC-FLARE small arms (usually an assault rifle firing a 12g FMJ-style round mostly made up of an Iridium-Osmium alloy core... or 24kJ or ~a fifth more than the 800 gr (52 g) Barnes round (20,195J/20.195kJ) at a cyclic rate similar to the M16) or 125kJ output pulse free-electron lasers (which have about 29.88 grams of TNT going off on the target), and enough explosives to wreck pretty much everything up. This is partially due to how armor evolved since 2016 when the predecessor of EndoSteel(TM) was revealed to the world, giving armor, in general, a Battletech vibe... just not as paper-thin as the setting implies. Explosives of the setting are 4.76 times as potent as TNT, to give you an example a 120mm mortar round (HE) has an explosive filler of 6.59 pounds of Comp-B or ~2.99kg of the substance (with a TNT equivalent of 1.33, this means that each mortar round is the equivalent of ~3.98kg of TNT). This means a similar round with in-setting explosives has an equivalent explosive filler of ~18.93kg of TNT. To put things into perspective, the modern 155mm howitzer shell that the US uses only has 10.8kg of TNT with a charge liner attached, thus a mortar round has about 1.75 times the explosive capabilities of such a massive shell...

Given that most factions utilize power armor to even their rear-echelon forces, this level of direct firepower is a requirement. Those that don't either utilize full-conversion cyborgs out the wazoo, use cloned genetically and cybernetically enhanced meatshields, or a combination of the two if they're a minor player. With fragmentation being far harder to use, their equivalent kill radius decreases immensely. To give an example, the M67 grenade has the equivalent of 239.4 grams of TNT stuffed into it, the SolForce equivalent of it has ~1139.54 grams (or, to put it bluntly, ~1.13 kilograms) of TNT equivalent, utilizes an iridium-osmium alloy fragmentation case, and has a kill radius (and no casualty radius) measured in 25 meters against modern power armor. Against our soldiers? The kill radius is measured somewhere between 4 to 6 times the previously stated kill radius with a casualty radius going another 2 to 6 times again depending on the circumstances.

The power of the setting's weapons is just insane in comparison to ours, this is partially due to how militaries developed over the years and how widespread genetic and cybernetic augmentation changes how powerful weapons need to be to function. This made building materials, in general, stronger, easier and faster to procure and manufacture, or both depending on the faction. Think of Israel's rocket proofed buildings as a basic standard and go up from there...