Background Lore

**4th December 2099AD...**

As the lingering flames of the 21st century in the old Earth Calendar
began drawing to a close, the question of 'are we alone?' was finally
answered. A vast hitherto undetected intergalactic fleet suddenly
appeared just beyond the orbit of the moon, and by Christmas Eve had
surrounded the Earth. These extraterrestrials - who would become known
by humans as the Titans did not come in peace. They had come for what
humans themselves have been so guilty of in the past: exploitation of
the resources in a new land. For them the goal was the extraction of
Earth's resources for their own agenda. To them Humans were merely an
annoying species of local wildlife.

Overnight the earth was plunged into a conflict it was not ready for.
Overnight many of the major world cities - including the capitals of
world powers - were wiped out by bombardment from space, beyond the
reach of human weapons. Governments and social structures disappeared
overnight, Human satellites were jammed, underwater cables connecting
continents were targeted and destroyed. The earth had no response able
to meet the enemy on equal footing. The earth's latest jet fighters were
 swatted out of the sky. Nuclear weapons could not hurt them. Earth's
mightiest warships were sent to the bottom of the ocean. 30 feet tall
humanoid Titan soldiers equipped with heavily armed mechanised power
suits would descend upon the Earth, and accompanied by their war
machines. In only a short matter of time after they first appeared the
Titans established complete military supremacy over humans.

Despite their huge setback and disadvantages though, mankind did what it
 always does when backed into a corner: faced with the very real threat
of extinction, mankind adapted and desperately kept on fighting. In
response to such a dangerous threat, humans adopted geurilla tactics.
They hid underground as much as they could, fought back wherever they
could by hitting and running, and reverse engineered whatever technology
 they could capture from whatever small victories they could get. At the
 very least humans reached a point where they could defend themselves
and inflict casualties upon the Titans, even if beating them was never
ever within sight.

Humans spent the next two decades fighting a increasingly hopeless
conflict, and steadily lost ground against a vastly superior foe. During
 that time giant Titan machines would bore through the earth taking in
Earth's mineral resources and transporting them to their galactic fleet.
 There are also stories that the Titans would capture humans too and
transport them back to their motherships in space, though for what ends
nobody knows. Morbid and popular legend had it that humans were being
captured to be domesticated, bred, and farmed for consumption like
poultry. Some say that Humans were being turned into pets.

Then, as the exhausted humans were close to breaking point, just as suddenly as they appeared, the Titans simply left.

**24th December 2119AD...**

With humans seemingly without hope and on the verge of collapse, the
Titans simply ascended back up to the cold blackness of space from
whence they came. Perhaps they had finished their goal on the planet.
Nobody will ever know, but what the survivors of earth did understand
was that exactly 20 years to the day they appeared humanity were
delivered from destruction. By sheer determination and a large dose of
luck humanity had weathered the storm of alien invasion. Taking this
chance offered by this deliverance, the remaining humans of Earth began
to try and rebuild their lives.

But it was not that simple. The Titans had left their mark after 20
years on Earth. 90% of the 2099AD human population were estimated to be
dead or missing. Entire ethnic groups had been wiped out, and all the
nations of 2099 Earth no longer existed as political entities.
nationality meant nothing anymore without nations. An entire generation
of children had grown up knowing nothing but conflict between Titans and
 Humans, in an environment where nationality did not matter in the fight
 against a common foe. In this political vacuum new factions would rise
to take people under their banner with promises of a new beginning and
new dreams. Some claimed vestiges of old regimes, some would painted
themselves as completely new nations embracing new philosophies.

Other problems were that the Titan's resource extraction had left the
earth with little remaining. The planet's delicate environment had also
been wrecked and had become heavily polluted. A thick smog permanently
hung in the sky, blotting out the sun, ushering in an ice age, and
stunting plant growth. Many areas of the Earth were radioactive as a
result from fallout from nuclear weapons and destroyed nuclear power
plants. Many areas were covered by the debris of war and hazardous
untreated waste and chemicals. Once prosperous cities lay in ruins
derelict and abandoned. 90% of the wildlife were estimated to be
extinct.

It became increasingly clear to the survivors that the Earth was
degrading faster than humans could fix it. There was no doubt that life
would recover on Earth in the far future, as it had done in the past
after much worse extinction level events. But as the planet became ever
more inhospitable to them, it was obvious that mankind would not be part
 of that long term future. Humanity's time on Earth was ending.

In an effort to save the human race, the greatest minds left alive at
the time put all their efforts into gathering and reverse engineering
all the Titan technology left behind. Their goal was to discover the
secret of intergalactic travel. And through their genius mankind
discovered the secrets of primitive warp drive, and with it the basic
ability to unlock the stars. Summoning every ounce of strength and
resource that humanity had left - though battered, bruised, and weak -
the factions who could manage it built great space colony ships. They
came in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and within those holds filled
with millions of cryostasis tubes, the best of humanity would be
selected to go forth into space to colonise a new home. Alas not all
would be able to go. Some were chosen for their skills, some for their
strength, some by luck. Each colonist would take with them the dreams of
 those who would be left behind in a last throw of the dice to save
mankind.

At last in the year 2130AD the first colony ship took off and entered
warp drive to head towards a world which will hopefully would be a new
home. Across a 5 year period colony ships would launch and take with
them the hopes of mankind across the Orion Spur area of the Milky Way.

...and so mankind set off into the cold expanses of space in a deep sleep...

**1st January 250AC...**

It has been 250 years after the new AC (After Colony) calendar was set
up - roughly 550 years after leaving Earth - to mark a new era after the
 first successful landing of an human colonisation ship. 250AC has
marked a breakthrough year as the various post-earth colonial nations
have now advanced enough now that the first commercial interstellar
flight between two human colony planets has taken place. Public
interstellar transportation has now reached a practical level where
travel time of consists of only weeks, allowing trade, communication and
 travel between the new age human powers. All around, new designs for
commercial liners, cargo freighters, are entering production to take
advantage of this. In the military, new warship designs taking advantage
 of this are already being mass produced.

It has taken a long time to reach that point, but after 250 years, and
several generations the descendants of those desperate colonists from
Earth have settled new homes. Starting with literally nothing other than
 what they had brought with them on those great colony vessels and their
 ingenuity they started from scratch and built a new future. Every home,
 every maglev rail, every farm, every power station and so forth stand
by the efforts of those first settlers who picked up a spade, a saw, or a
 hammer.

But within the two and a half centuries that it took for the human
colonists to gain mastery of their new planets, it wasn't just
infrastructure which was built. With the fresh start offered to them
came the chance to build completely new societies with new cultural
norms free of the established status quo which existed on Earth. As the
human populations have boomed on their planets from a couple of million
settlers to hundreds of millions, new generations of children have grown
 up accepting new practices, ideas, and philosophies.

These new space age humans have no living memories of Earth and view
that period only through the lens of history book. And having built new
new cultures and new identities now they set forth beyond their home
planet to build a new future among the stars. But it is not only mankind
 setting forth into the stars to carve their place at the dawn of this
space age. Extraterrestrial beings from established planets and empires
also look on with interest and are planning their own move across the
Orion Spur.

How will it all fare? Will nations walk the path of cooperation? Or will
 nations decide to bend others to their ideals and goals?