from
Quatermain’s Guide
The Advantages of the Strong Force
A Guide to and History of the Met
by Leo Y. Sherman
The Met continues to grow, and changes often in unexpected and fascinating ways. Although the asteroid belt has proven to be a frontier beyond which current technology will not allow the structure to extend, every e-year, several new dendrites are added, along with the free-floating “micro-Mets” which exist in the reaches of inner interplanetary space and only come into direct physical contact with the larger Met at long intervals. The inner planets, while maintaining their importance, have gradually been subsumed into the larger system as well. After the disastrous terraforming experiments on Mars in the 2700s, it was seen that humanity’s best bet for living in space lay not on the other planets, but among them. In 2802, the Earth was declared an “Ecological Repatriation Area,” with limited construction and population growth allowed, and now vast stretches of our native planet have been returned to their natural state for all to enjoy.
Tensions continue with the outer system, which has never fully accepted integration into the directorate-based democracy of the Met, and still retains modified vestiges of the old Republic of the Planets governmental structure. New political and cultural challenges have arisen, including the push among virtual entities for “free-convert rights.” The ecological balance of the Met is another area not fully explored, and there are worries that some of the unintended grist feedback effects that doomed the Mars terraforming projects might surface again as the Met expands.
At its best, the Met is a place of adventure and fulfillment unparalleled in human history. We invite you to explore it in all its wondrous aspects.