I've been really busy with school and outside contracts, but I should still be able to produce whatever art you need =) Anyway, I like the way the story's going, gj jabber. However, you stilll need to push it farther. Think of making a social commentary about some tragic issue today and superimposing it in the future. The time frame doesn't matter, the characters do =)
Character-driven single player games are the best that's why we all loved HL so much. It's still the benchmark game for me (along with No One Lives Forever and MaxPayne). That's why I suggested the story panels, it helps people fall in love with / get to know your characters (and our main character suonds more than a little mixed up, morally anyway).
As far as the switch to UT engine goes, I don't mind at all, as long as we can get the coders and mappers. I'm only the concept guy so it really makes no difference to me (I know some lightwave though for what it's worth...but I know that most game design is done with max/gmax)