Prologue
MANKIND has long been destined to settle beyond our pale, blue planet.
History recalls our greatest discoveries and innovations came from encounters with the unknown. From the discovery of fire to the invention of the steam engine, humans have always possessed the ability to adapt and thrive. At some point in our history, however, more attention was drawn towards the skies than to the ground beneath our feet. And while all eyes were eagerly pointed towards the stars, pestilence streamed through the corridors of a dying planet, reaching out with its merciless tendrils to claim the defenseless.
Centuries of political warmongering, international genocide, dwindling natural resources, and increasing pollution levels had all weakened our atmosphere and terrain beyond repair. As a result, the world fell into chaos.
Riots, revolts, and usurping militia powers threatened what remained of our collective societies. Terrorist factions began taking strongholds across various countries and territories, drastically shifting the power away from elected governing bodies. Fear, being a powerful motivator, forced humans to hasten technological developments. All available resources were redirected into planetary expansion and colonization.
Scientists and international committees had failed to provide results, and private
businesses and corporations stepped in. With the cutthroat survival mentality, persistence, and necessary unlimited funding, the CEOs of the world slowly began to replace the national space forces...
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JUSTIFIED with good intentions, the space race was renewed. The
government agencies had become inefficient and private corporations had become dissatisfied. And unlike their counterparts, the private business owners had the means to provide consistent stability for their private space explorations. This set in motion a change of events that would forever change the course of human history.
The first phases included going back to the moon; each flag placed leaving behind another blemish. After the initial colonies proved to be successful, more and more effort was focused on spreading past our lunar enterprises. Within a few generations, our intentions shifted from survival to a deeper, less benevolent desire.
Meanwhile on earth,
A barely breathing planet was wrought with plague and criminal chaos. Those who remained were forced to watch as titanic ships propelled explorers into the newly veiled atmosphere. The world that was left behind was overrun with famine, desolate wastelands, and casualties of a lawless landscape. Above their heads, mankind was extending its poisoned reaches further than had ever been thought possible...
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CORPORATE commerce was masqueraded as interstellar manifest
destiny. More generations passed as humans and their ever-increasing technological abilities stepped onto foreign, cosmic worlds. Planets of wind, smoke, storms, water, ice, and gas all involuntarily became hosts for human colonies.
Nearly a millennia had gone by before intergalactic travel had come to fruition. The ancestors of corporations that sent us into space were now capable of establishing trade relationships with these exotic worlds and new star systems; thus making them almost completely unstoppable.
Power and dominance are two words that are rooted deep within our DNA. Our survival had been assured long, long before the first intergalactic trade relations were established. It has been almost 1,700 years since humans first migrated from their home world; some historians still wondering if it was ever about survival...or on supremacy.