sci-fi

Many centuries into the future, Earth has branched out into many different colony worlds, around seven or so. One in particular split off from the rest of colonies, sectioned off by dead space and a treacherous asteroid belt, becoming an outlier - Vos. Vos was swept by chaos for centuries to come, becoming a cesspool for crime, as a result of political instability and incompetence, and gradually forgotten by the other seven colonies; and, in turn, Vos forgot her counterparts. Eventually, order slowly crawled back, after a devastating war - some later millennia, and the entire world is united under the iron fist of a High Council. Technology has never been better; lifespans are extended greatly, cybernetics and augmentations are common, genetic engineering nears perfection, and weapons tech is more potent than ever - only a few of the advancements made over the last century. No one knows how such technologies were developed; with the establishment of the council in the years after the war, technology seemed to just... take off suddenly. Many outlandish theories circulate underground social circles in regards to this.

Some go as far as to speculate that the council consults otherworldly visitors - aliens - for their technology. Others, religious fanatics, claim that the council communes with ancient gods. Still more more believe that the council themselves are the otherworldly beings. Many more theories circulate in the underground, however, the average citizen tends to ignore them, dismissing them as pure insanity. However, not a single soul can deny the unnerving amount of mystery that surrounds the council's origin.
In the early years of the Council's reign, things were relatively peaceful - some would go as far as to describe that brief period of time as a golden age. This was far from the reality. With the forming of the council, an old, archaic tradition was brought back: the caste system. Those who stood beside beside the council and assisted them in uniting the planet were inducted into the upper castes, which extended to their descendants. All the rest? Either assigned to the middle castes - or, in the case of the unluckier ones - assigned to the lower castes: miners, manual laborers, dock workers, and the like. Presently, the lower castes make up the majority of the population, subject to daily mistreatment and abuse by the upper and even middle castes.

As a result of this? The "paradise" of a civilization gradually grew increasingly unstable, riots and crime breaking out across the globe. The council responded to this in kind by unveiling their latest pet project - the Enforcers. The Enforcers were, in a nutshell, the High Council's personal police force. They dealt with every threat zealously, shutting down crime across the planet almost entirely. For awhile, it seemed that all criminal activity had been completely eradicated - things went back to the way they were before, albeit with more tension in the masses.(edited)
However, no one really knew where the Enforcers came from, or how the council had gone about putting the group together - many assumed they'd simply conscripted people from the lower and middle castes. It was widely accepted, and told as a horror story of sorts to keep children in line. Still, it was a flawed theory for many reasons, which led to curious groups of people uncovering the truth behind the program and bringing it to the masses in a public broadcast. The broadcast was cut off by the council midway, leaving the darker details unknown, but they managed to get across the point to before the council interrupted them: the Enforcers were artificial beings, mass produced in test tubes and engineered to genetic perfection.

Months after this revelation, the council publicly executed every man and woman involved with the spread of this information, horrifying many people. In the end, though? The slaughtered people only became martyrs, symbols to rally behind for the lower castes, reasons to revolt - the council learned their lesson with that. From then onward, threats to the so called peace were dealt with silently and efficiently, disappearing without trace, hidden from the masses to stop any further rebellion. The council eyes and ears in each and every single city, along with assassins to do their dirty work. The unthinkable horrors committed by the council were unknown to most.
That had taken place nearly fifty years ago. The state of society was still slowly deteriorating, falling apart, and it was no secret now. Organized resistance - rebels - plot the downfall of the council, the majority of their forces living in the wastelands around the metropolitan cities. The rebels weren't all completely united, though; zealots, religious extremists governed by doomsday prophets were on one side of the spectrum. On the other side were those wronged in some horrible way by the council, those who refused to be silenced - the ones who held a grudge. The wastelands around the cities were in a constant state of war between various factions of rebels, though they all shared a common goal ultimately: the end of the council.
Naturally, the council wasn't having any of this. As covert as they possibly could, they enlisted not only the Enforcers to deal with the rebels, but every bounty hunter, mercenary, or gun for hire that they could afford. As the secret war was waged, things continued to change. The lower castes grow restless, and the upper caste nervous... everyone knew one thing for sure, though: something was going to give away eventually. A victor would be decided.

Unknown to the citizens of Vos, the council has reinserted the planet into galactic politics, from the beginning of their tenure itself, making a name among the other colonies. Still unknown to anyone excluding the council, Vos' technology has developed far beyond what the rest of the universe believes possible - the council schemes and plots, just as the rebels do their demise.

To picture the setting/how characters appear:

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