Any see you, space cowboy [science fiction/neo-noir]

[saturnine]

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homages / references: Starship Troopers, Red Rising, Dead Space, The Expanse, Blade Runner, basically everything Philip K. Dick ever wrote, Firefly, Cowboy Bebop, Brave New World, The Outer Worlds
pairings: m/m or m/f with myself playing the m
themes: shady government conspiracies, hypercapitalism, technofascism and state surveillance, morality in shades of grey, exploration and the horrors of space, designer drugs, high-tech body modifications, eugenics and genetic splicing,
setting: the milky way galaxy and beyond

The year is 2450 and humanity has expanded toward the stars, their colonization aided by the invention of faster than light travel. Mars and Mercury are almost completely terraformed. Work is still continuing on the Gas Giants, because it's a multi-generational task that requires a steady stream of colonists. Although there's a galactic federation that acts as a government, it's the corporations that rule. There's a market for everything, and everything is for sale - including clean air and water on some planets.

There are significant cultural difference among the planets. Earth and Mars fought a brutal war to a standstill for over a decade and have now settled into an uneasy peace. Fashions and trends change on a near-daily basis and information spreads in seconds over the holo-network.

Enter Orion Clarke, bounty hunter and blaster for hire. A former member of the Terran 13th Legion, he walked away from the war with a discharge for shot nerves and a paycheck so meagre it was insulting. He has a mental rolodex of quips and a chemical dependency on a drug that dampens his conscience and empathy. Among the underworld types, he has a reputation for being efficient and ruthless. His only rule is that he doesn't do assassinations.

So our story starts when he's contacted for a job: track down a specific fugitive and bring them back to his client. I'm willing to brainstorm reasons and listen to your ideas, but here are mine:

1. His target is an experimental supersoldier the government was testing to see if they could cultivate TK and TP in children (telekinesis and telepathy). They were raised in a lab and broke out one day and are now on the run
2. His target is a brilliant scientist who has discovered something in space that someone very powerful does not want them to reveal to the world.

Either way, it starts with Orion getting tangled up in something he wanted to avoid for decades - trouble. I expect this to be a sort of enemies to lovers story with eventual romance.


That's all I've got for now! Thanks for reading and please do DM me if this story sounds like something you'd be into.