Fading Zones: A Nightroadside Picnic?

Hoping to contribute to the Zones community project, I began with reading the novel and pouring through source material (canon and fan-made) to get a feel for it. (Thanks for the starting logo, Hereticworks!)

As usual for me, one of the most immediate reactions is to drop it into the Fading Suns setting, one of my favorite kitchen sink settings.

Basic Premise: Aliens Among Us

In the setting of Fading Suns, humanity has encountered at least one enigmatic and powerful alien race: The Vau.

It's been hinted that they are carefully watching humans, for some reason unfathomable to the citizens of the Known Worlds. Perhaps, in addition to all the reasons cited in the books, it's because they know that we've been gifted or touched by a power that they have also encountered -- and fear.

That power is evident in the many artifacts that come from the Zones. It's rumored that the ability to activate the Jumpgates comes from technology that originated in the Zones.

Other alien races -- especially the Ur-Obun and Ur-Ukar -- are kept in the dark about the very existence of the Zones, and only a select few of the powerful factions on Terra know about the long-sequestered Zones on Earth.

On the Front Lines: Scravers & Charioteers

The Killroy sub-faction of the Charioteers therefore serves a dual purpose. Not only do they protect the value of the jumpgates for their guild; they also work to safeguard people from the potential consequences of unrestrained use of Zone technology.

Scravers have strict protocols and rumors about black technology coming from the Zone, with strict and harshly enforced rules about swift notification regarding the unauthorized use or surprise discovery of these things. In this manner, they may actually have a strange hybrid of Stalkers and Zone Police that are sent out when a new world is discovered, and evidence of Zone technology is present. There may even be an intelligence organization that exclusively tracks the flow of these items, before turning them over to the Engineers in the Guild.

Unknown Agendas: The Annunaki

Of course, one of the continuing mysteries of the setting centers around the old 'gods', the Annunaki, who are assumed to have built the jumpgates and were responsible for the Ur-Obun and Ur-Ukar races.

If they are indeed tied to the Zones, one can see the power of the lowest levels of their abilities -- creating artifacts that defy the conservation of energy, warping gravitic fields, and the strange corruptions of the strands of human fate that can result in the delayed (or passed on) fatality of many a human line.

Future Posts: Greater Detail

So these are just the broad strokes. More detailed examples will be forthcoming in this series of posts.