The Plague

On 10 October 3305, an interstellar initiative was launched due to massive crop failures in major agricultural systems. In the weeks leading up to the initiative, the Rockforth Corporation had attempted to support the declining crop yields by distributing a new product, Rockforth Fertiliser. The Interstellar Association for Agriculture later discovered that Rockforth Fertiliser had been contaminated with a plant-destroying pathogen by the radical anti-capitalist group Scythe of Panem, and the tainted fertiliser had infected hundreds of systems. Although the Scythe of Panem was neutralised and a cure for the disease was produced, the disease itself could not be fully contained and so far remained a lurking threat to galactic food supplies. Many independent pilots, including myself, took part in the initiative and tried our best to manage the crisis. We delivered food and agronomic supplies to the affected systems to prevent an interstellar catastrophe. Other pilots fought off hundreds of pirate ships that wanted to use this emergency to their advantage. As a thank you, all participating pilots received, in addition to enough credits, discounts on transport ships and modules as well as a unique sticker "The Scourge". Since this incident, there have recently been systems that have fallen into the "Scourge" state and are once again dependent on the help of independent pilots.

The generation ship Golconda

On 05 November 3305, an old generation ship, the "Golconda" was discovered in the Upaniklis system near the planet Upaniklis B3. The ship had managed to remain isolated and self-sufficient for centuries, but was struck by a double calamity. Due to a virus outbreak and the ever dwindling supplies, the crew felt compelled to send out a distress call and seek help from the, hopefully still existing, galactic community. The call for help was answered and completed in three phases. In the first phase, the health and supply problem was addressed by independent pilots delivering general and advanced medicines, as well as aluminium, ceramic composites and semiconductors by the ton. This rescue operation attracted the attention of the Federation and the Empire. Engineering experts were commissioned to assess the situation and they determined that the Golconda could no longer feed its population. Both superpowers launched competing campaigns to build a new, permanent home for the colonists in Upaniklis. Independent pilots were asked to deliver polymers, CMM composites, titanium, beryllium and thallium to each faction's megaship. This phase led to the construction of the Forester's Choice outpost, and the colonists accepted the offer to be a partner of the Federation but with the status of complete autonomy. I did not take part in the third phase of the initiative, the ceremonial opening of the outpost and various discount campaigns. Because on 20.11.3305 I was transporting goods for the Golconda Initiative in a shieldless Type-9 Heavy. A few hundred metres before I reached the entrance to the starport, I was attacked by a ganker. A ganker is a pilot who selects victims who have little realistic chance of winning the fight or who are outgunned or at a disadvantage from the start. My ship was unfortunately destroyed a few metres from the mailslot, which is the name given to the entry and exit corridor by pilots. The goods and the deductible for the ship cost me over 7 million credits. And for what, for nothing. Especially since the raid happened in the station's no-weapons zone and it must have probably shot the ganker to pieces from all its guns. After this treacherous and costly attack, I decided to leave the bubble and fly to Colonia, far away from gankers who shot down helpless traders for their amusement.

Colonia

I made the journey to Colonia in a Diamondback Explorer, DBX for short. It had, as all modules were unmodified, a jump range of 35 light years. It took 6 weeks to get there, but those 6 weeks were fascinating, not knowing what you will discover or experience. Just you alone, your 1st officer and space. We arrived in the Colonia system on New Year's Day 3306 and celebrated the New Year with the resident factions. Colonia is humanity's first independently founded colony beyond the borders of the old worlds. Its founding began on 29 June 3302 when calls came in from the exploration community to transport metal alloys to the stricken star port of "Jaques Station". This led to an initiative and the establishment of a labour colony in and around Eol Prou RS-T d3-94, an initiative initiated by Olivia Vespera and upon which the expedition "August Exodus" was built by Jonus Treesong, Unrealization and Erimus Kamzel. The expedition was the second largest in human history after Distant Worlds, and nearly 600 starships in two huge convoys ventured into the region to help establish the colony. This was soon followed by the Colonia Citizens Network (CCN), founded by Erimus Kamzel, Unrealization, Qohen Leth and Souvarine, which provided colonists with a communications hub to use and form their own colonial society. From this, the colony developed into a hub of activity, with nearly 2,000 colonists joining the network and pledging to emigrate to the region in the months that followed. Today, CCN is overseen by a new generation of administrators and Colonia as a whole has become home to many factions that have migrated out and built infrastructure in many systems in the Colonia micro-bubble. I stayed in Colonia for a whole year and during that time I did all sorts of missions for the Colonia Citizens Network. It wasn't long before the spirit of exploration reawakened in me, whereupon I discussed it with my newly acquired crew. We decided to visit the centre of our galaxy, Sagittarius A*.

We reached the supermassive black hole on 24 December 3306 and celebrated Christmas in the Stuemeae FG-Y d7561 system at the Explorer's Anchorage station, with other explorers. That was also the day I met an explorer of the squadron CANONN, he told me about this great explorer community and finally suggested me to join the squadron. Until then, I was reluctant to join a group. Nevertheless, I let myself be persuaded and joined the squadron for three months.

My back story

My great(×49) grandparents, 49 generations before me, boarded the generation ship "Sirona" in 2097. Their destination at that time was a double star system 71.92 light years away from Earth in which there were 6 terrestrial planets, one of which showed oxygen in the spectral line survey. In 2457, 16 generations later, the generation ship reached the system. In a vote, the inhabitants of the ship named the system after a group of gods from Norse mythology associated with health, fertility, wisdom and the ability to see into the future. "Vanir" The 5th planet was actually an Earth-like world with temperatures between 167K and 313K, a slightly higher gravity at a lower atmospheric pressure as found on Earth at an altitude of 3,600m. In memory of the scrapped generation ship, the capital of Vanir A5 was named "Sirona". 33 generations later, in 3278, I was born in a small village called Svane. The village was surrounded by lush green hills and in the middle of it, springing from the hills, flowed a river with crystal clear water. My parents are middle class, not rich but not poor either. My mother works for the Svane municipality and is also in charge of the local event management, and my father works in a factory processing and refining tungsten for the military, industry and aerospace. Even as a small child I was fascinated by the stars. The spaceships that took off and landed in the capital Sirona really captivated me. Those infinite expanses in space, that boundless freedom out there. After finishing primary school, I specialised in astrophysics, exobiology and aerospace engineering at the local educational institution. During the 5 years of education, I met my future 1st officer and partner in 3293 during a research excursion in the wilderness of Vanir.

In the past, local researchers discovered an old crashed Federation shipwreck in a forest near the capital. Now it serves as a research object for pupils and students. The ship itself was an old Python about 300 years old and the special thing about the ship was that it was equipped with an old "Faraway Jump Drive" that used to be powered by quirium. We had to study the old technology and understand its mechanism, but without the formula to generate quirium, this knowledge was of little use. During the excursion, I noticed an abandoned but filled lunch box, and when no owner showed up even after half an hour, audacity won out and I helped myself to it. What I didn't know was that the lunch box belonged to my future partner. At the time, she was still aspiring to be a front office agent in a biological research institute, comparable to the former office workers in laboratories on old Earth. When she caught me feasting on her lunch, she rushed at me like an angry tornado, took the box away from me and pulled me to the ground. In the process, her RICom, an electronic device attached to her forearm for communication and many other functions, came loose and fell to the ground next to me. With nothing better on my mind than juvenile nonsense, I grabbed the device and hid it in my hands. She then began to kneel on me and hit me on the head several times in a row while demanding that I hand over the RiCom. I liked the fact that this young lady was kneeling on me, well the blows are not exactly pleasant, but I put up with them. Due to a carelessness on my part, she managed to recapture the RICom after a short while. Despite this incident, we struck up a conversation while exploring the wreckage and even forgot that we were actually tasked by our faculty to collect plant samples. Over the next two years, we developed a very intense friendship that had all the ups and downs of a friendship. If we had been in a relationship at that time, it probably would have fallen apart.

At the age of 22, I attended the space pilot school in the capital Sirona, because space just wouldn't let me go. As my partner wanted to stay by my side, she decided to become an officer and started as a young cadet in the Sirona Officer School.

Three years later in 3303, a new faction appeared in the system, the "Teaka Elite Altruists Bagging Cooperative". The members of the faction were independent and did not belong to any of the three superpowers, they consisted mostly of experienced traders who had already sacrificially and selflessly helped other systems in need in the past. They replaced the previous federal democratic government and formed an independent cooperative government. This was all done quickly and without bureaucracy; before the Federation knew what was happening to it, the system was no longer in its hands. This new form of government made all residents equal in the system, but everyone was expected to work equally for the betterment of society and not for themselves. Similar to previous communist governments of old Earth, but without this centralist core. Fortunately, this adoption did not have any negative effects.

First beginnings...

On 8 August 3303 I successfully graduated from pilot school and received my pilot's licence and the title "Commander" from the Pilots Federation. My first ship was a Sidewinder MkI provided by the Pilots Federation. Sitting in my own ship for the first time was indescribable, I was on a landing pad at a Coriolis station and watched the ships arrive and depart for the first 10 minutes.

"Well, how did that go again, oh yes. Activate launch and then where do you retract the landing gear again? Ok what was that button quickly..." vrooom.

---Hull integrity compromised, shield offline---

Yes that was the boost of the thrusters, I don't know how many times I accidentally ignited those things the first few times in a station and the ship smashed into the station inner walls as a punishing consequence. Remlok has done a great job with his escape pods, within a few seconds the cockpit chair is folded down into a lying position and a shock-absorbing massive protective shell builds up around it. Inside, the pilot is put into a coma and the metabolism is thereby lowered to such an extent that one ages only very slowly. The capsule then sends out distress signals until the energy supply is exhausted. Afterwards, the Pilots Federation Rescue Rangers pick you up. You have to be really unlucky or more than 1000 light years away from the bubble to die in this capsule. After I had to make involuntary use of this "service" several times and also paid the deductible for the replacement costs of the ship, the journey continued for me. After completing some courier and trade missions, I could already afford a new ship. However, at the time I had no idea which one would make sense. The L-class ship Anaconda would have appealed to me, but due to a lack of credits, I decided on the Cobra MK III model because of its eye-catching red-white-red livery. Even after 20 hours of flying I still had no idea what the different module classes and sizes meant, I simply bought the biggest A-module everywhere in the hope that I was already doing the right thing. What an ignorant greenhorn I was.

One day I found a post on social media from a commander who talked extensively about how he got a free Anaconda on Hutton Orbital. I didn't know why it was the only place to get this ship for free, but the greed for it was so great that I went there... ... 1 hour and 30 minutes later... and with the newly acquired knowledge that there is no L-landing platform on an outpost, I fell for the most popular joke for newcomers. Disappointed, I flew back but bought another tonne of that Hutton Mugs and set off on new missions and a reconnaissance trip to the Eta Carinae star system.

In June 3304 I resigned my pilot's licence and stopped flying. I returned to Vanir A5 and devoted myself to other things. The reason for my resignation was the engagement of Crown Princess Aisling Duval to Federal Ambassador Jordan Rochester. Despite my sworn allegiance to the Princess, I decided to shut down my licence and not fly any more missions. I did not agree with such an alliance, especially as the Rochester family possessed great power and did not always use it for the good of humanity.*

It took until 16 August 3305 before I learned of the annulment of the marriage. I then decided to come back and make space unsafe again. This time on board was my 1st mate and partner, call sign "Colourfullmuffin".

*Note: The PS4 drive became defective and Elite was no longer playable without a disc, a new account was created on the X-Box One.

The Frame Shift Drive

The first commercially available hyperdrive was the Faraway Jump, introduced in the 2800s to replace the primitive megaship models. Unfortunately, this model had a relatively short jump range, but travellers spent only a short time in hyperspace each time they jumped compared to the previous version where they spent hours to days in hyperspace. The Faraway Jump was powered by a fuel called quirium, an energy-dense material produced exclusively by the Galactic Cooperative of Worlds (GalCop).

However, the Faraway Jump was known for its fragility and relied on a complex network of surveillance satellites, byways, stops and rescue stations that took centuries to set up in order to function smoothly. After GalCop disbanded in 3174, the secret formula for producing quirium fuel was lost, and the hyperspace industry suffered a severe setback. With all quirium drives no longer usable, slower and more primitive methods were again resorted to for faster-than-light travel. Between 3174 and 3297, various hyperdrives attempted to fill the void left by the loss of the quirium drives.

The Type 2b proved the most popular, but had two major disadvantages compared to its predecessors.

• First, ships spent significantly longer, often hours or days, in hyperspace each time they jumped.
• Second, ships equipped with a Type 2b drive left a hyperspace "cloud" at both their entry and exit points, making it easy for rebels to track and ambush them.

The latest significant hyperdrive model is the Frame Shift Drive, which had a long and secret development phase before its introduction in 3297. Earlier hyperdrive models were largely decommissioned and regulations were put in place requiring upgrades to the new technology. The use of tantalum in frame shift drives caused the price of the metal to skyrocket, and interstellar powers rushed to control sources of tantalum, as in Imperial Senator Algreb Loren's conquest of the Prism system to seize the tantalum-rich moon of Chione. Originally thought to be a Sirius Corporation innovation, the Frame Shift Drive was actually replicated by the Alliance from Thargoid ships captured from the Galactic Cooperative during the First Thargoid War between 3125 and 3151.

Sometime during the war at INRA's Almeida Landing base, a research team led by engineer Effie Ratling discovered that Thargoid hyperdrives function to create stable wormholes in and out of hyperspace. A key difference from modern human-designed hyperdrives that bend space around a ship. Ratling built a prototype hybrid hyperdrive that was considered a precursor to the modern Frame Shift Drive, using elements of both human and Thargoid technology. INRA then took over the project and made modifications to the hybrid drive to bring it into the test flight phase, Ratling was only allowed to stay on as a consultant. During the first test flight, the wormhole created by the prototype drive was stable, but Ratling expressed concerns about whether a human would survive the passage. Her worries proved prescient, as the pilot died when he returned from the wormhole; his body was turned inside out, but the ship was unharmed. It is not known what became of INRA's prototype thereafter.

After the collapse of the Galactic Cooperative in 3174, dozens of Thargoid ships captured and stored by GalCop forces eventually fell into Alliance hands after its creation in 3230. By the 3270s, the Alliance was able to reverse-engineer Thargoid technology and produced the revolutionary Frame Shift Drive, which it quietly ceded to Sirius Corporation at the behest of the "Club", hoping to preserve the balance of power between the three superpowers. Sirius monopolised the technology and distributed it to all powers and factions to ensure that no one gained an advantage. News of the Frame Shift Drive's development led to the signing of the Treaty of London in 3278, in which the superpowers agreed to limit the construction of capital ships to prevent an arms race. The completed Frame Shift Drive was unveiled in the late 3290s and immediately made the Type 2b obsolete when it became common in 3297.

The new design had numerous advantages, jump times were reduced to seconds as with the Quirium drives, with no loss of jump range compared to the Type 2b. Journeys that were previously considered infeasible were now within the realm of possibility. In addition, the new design was more compact and fuel efficient. It could also be installed on smaller ships and jump targeting always coupled to the primary star of a system. Hyperspace egress was now also at the primary star and no longer at the edge of the system as before, which drastically reduced travel times to populated worlds and bases. Last but not least, the new Frame Shift Drive also introduced a supercruise mode that reduced travel times within a system from days to minutes. Instead of accelerating a ship through normal space, the Frame Shift Drive in Supercruise curves space around a ship to allow it to travel faster than light without expending extreme amounts of energy or experiencing a time shift. This is similar in principle to Miguel Alcubierre's propulsion concept, which was introduced in 1994 and is considered the first precursor of supercruise. When travelling through hyperspace, the Frame Shift Drive opens a wormhole and forms a stable, temporary corridor between a ship's starting point and destination.

Most ships leave behind temporary suction clouds after jumping off, which can be scanned with a suction cloud scanner to calculate a ship's destination system. Fortunately, these suction clouds disappear within minutes, making it significantly more difficult to track a ship over multiple jumps. Reportedly, the company MetaDrive Inc. was on the verge of developing suction cloud suppression technology for the commercial market, an innovation that would have allowed any ship to travel through a system without leaving a trail, but MetaDrive was taken over by Sirius Corporation in late 3302 through the manipulation of the "Club" and research was likely suspended indefinitely to avoid upsetting the balance between the superpowers.

Frame Shift Drives consume one of two different types of fuel depending on their size. Drives installed in smaller, conventional ships from the Sidewinder MkI to the Anaconda use simple hydrogen fuel, readily available at any station or siphoned off from certain star classes through the use of a fuel collector. Capital ships, including the Farragut-class battlecruiser, the Majestic-class Interdictor and the Drake-class carrier, use much more powerful frame-shift drives that consume tritium, which must be bought by the ton on commodity markets or mined and refined from asteroids. All ships produced since 3297 are equipped with a frame shift drive as standard and cannot be operated without one.

The Discovery of Hyperspace

At the beginning of the 22nd century, the theory of hyperspace and thus its existence was confirmed, from then on more experiments were carried out and the first probes were already sent to the stars through hyperspace. A team of engineers led by Li Qin Jao invented the first hyperdrive in the 22nd century. Early hyperdrive models based on Li Qin Jao's design were slow and inefficient, but exponentially faster than sub-light travel, which thousands of generational ships relied on. "Baggers" or dredgers, considered ancient and obsolete in the 34th century, probably first came into use during this period and possessed a similar jump range to today's fleet carriers.

A dredger mass cruiser was a type of megaship whose design used a large intake and grinding mechanism on the bow of the ship to attract both natural materials and manufactured items and then break them down into raw materials and fuel. Advances in hyperdrive and fuel-scoop technology have made this design obsolete. The advent of the first hyperspace drives ushered in a golden age of interstellar exploration and colonisation between 2200 and 2700. Which led to a veritable wave of human expansion. Until the 2800s, the hyperdrive technology of the "baggers" was mainly accessible only to corporations and governments, as well as affordable spaceships that, until the introduction of the Python in 2700, were also beyond the reach of consumers. More than 500 years passed before the release of the now familiar Frame Shift Drive (FSD) in 3297. The star port Li Qing Jao, which orbits the Earth, was named in Jao's honour.

Thargoids - We are not alone

With the advent of commercial use of hyperdrives, as well as the emergence of the first frame shift drive precursors, it was only a matter of time before the question "Are we alone in the universe?" would be answered. Between the 2810s and 2840s, the Galactic Cooperative documented a significant number of missing ships in its space and in the vicinity of the Pleiades Nebula. Investigations revealed no evidence of a possible aggressor, but ship disappearances and hyperdrive malfunctions continued intermittently, stoking fear among pilots. In 2849, the first footage of an "encounter" appeared to show a blurry image of an alien ship, with the word "THARG" on its hull. The media immediately coined the term "Thargoid" as the name for the alleged aliens. However, no conclusive evidence of the Thargoids' existence was found and the stories surrounding these aliens disappeared into popular lore. The first evidence of the existence of the Thargoids was discovered as early as 3111 by a planetary survey team led by Professor Penelope Carver on behalf of Azimuth Biochemicals of Chukchan.

On the surface of the third planet of the Musca Dark Region PJ-P b6-1 system near the Coalsack Nebula, they found a biological structure called a "Barnacle" and a crashed Thargoid interceptor. Azimuth personnel recovered an object from the "cockpit" of the crashed interceptor, which they believed to be the pilot or a control system. Unfortunately, they were not adequately prepared for the functions of this object, as it emitted a barrage of signals that interfered with human technology and caused malfunctions in the hyperdrive of their megaship "Adamastor" despite their attempts to contain it. As the ship passed HIP 69200, its hyperdrive ultimately failed, consequently the Adamastor never reached its original destination. A secret safety device operated by Azimuth and its autopilot steered it at sub-light speed on an emergency return course to Chukchan, a journey that was not completed until 3306. This incident remained hidden from the public until 3306 and thus the first official encounter between humans and Thargoids was in 3125.

In the early 3120s, new reports of octagonal starships of unknown design and origin and hyperdrive malfunctions surfaced. In 3123, GalCop discovered the wreckage of two ships in space, apparently destroyed by more powerful laser weapons than were technologically known at the time. In 3125, independent pilots claimed they were pulled out of hyperspace and attacked by octagonal ships. Those who survived the experience were convinced they had encountered an alien species and named the aliens "Thargoids" after the 29th century incidents. As word spread, leaked federal intelligence reports indicated that the Thargoid attacks were likely provoked by human hostility. Colonists in the Veliaze system had apparently come into contact with a Thargoid delegation shortly before the attacks began and attacked them out of ignorance. In 3151 the 1st war ended and the Thargoids disappeared as mysteriously as they had come.

Humans began discovering "Unknown Artifacts" in early 3301, strange devices of unknown origin found in the cargoes of secret Federation convoys, and again encountered signs of the Thargoids. In 3302, more "Barnacles" were discovered which eventually led to Commander DP Sayre reporting the first known encounter with an unknown ship on 5 January 3303. The object was later confirmed to be some kind of Thargoid ship and officially classified as a Thargoid interceptor. The Unknown Vessel pulled the CMDR out of hyperspace and performed a scan before disappearing to an untraceable target. Pulling out a target in hyperspace and leaving an untraceable suction cloud signature was far beyond the capabilities of human technology. So far, only the wrecks of these ships had been documented. Since April 3303, devastating attacks by Thargoids on space stations and ships have increased. Whether these attacks are merely reactions to previous provocations has not yet been clarified. In the course of the first war, a number of Thargoid ships were captured by the Galactic Cooperative and fell into Alliance possession in the years following the collapse of GalCop. Then, in the 3270s, the Alliance was able to reverse-engineer Thargoid technology to produce the most momentous hyperdrive innovation in centuries: the Frame Shift Drive.

Birth of the Federation

In 2044, due to overpopulation and an increasing lack of resources, World War 3 broke out on Earth. It was a global nuclear conflict that lasted until 2055 and claimed over a billion lives. In addition, many countries were devastated and collapsed as a result of the nuclear weapons being used in droves. The United States of America was able to avoid any nuclear detonation on its soil thanks to its defence system a laser grid that combined ground towers with armed satellites to disable incoming enemy missiles before they reached their targets. With no competitors left, the United States of America quickly emerged as a multi-continental hyperpower that dominated the earth both politically and culturally. This period of recovery and expansion was made possible with the help of large corporations, which managed to achieve previously unimagined levels of influence and ushered in the rise of even more powerful mega-corporations such as Sirius Corporation. As the surviving countries voluntarily joined the Union for Mutual Financial and Medical Assistance in the following decades, the United States of America renamed itself "The Federation of the United States", later shortened to just "The Federation" when the last independent countries joined. The Federation consolidated all political power on earth as a world government and adopted a constitution derived from the constitutions of earlier countries, especially the Constitution of the United States, but greatly simplified. This would form the basis for the Federal Convention of 2242, which transformed the Federation from an Earth-centred government into an interstellar superpower. As the corporations rebuilt human civilisation, the Federation language became Earth's primary language. Over the centuries, it spread across countless star systems as humans colonised the galaxy.

Generation Ships

In 2097, the first generation ship was launched and started from Sol towards Tau Ceti. Over the next decades until 2200, about 70,000 more ships followed. Most of these ambitious expeditions were funded by large corporations and the downside to their participation, given the enormous cost of mobilising these massive ships, was great. The deployment of generation ships was not well regulated, leading to a number of problems. Some ships launched ill-prepared for the arduous voyage that awaited them and many of the companies that funded the ships were disbanded or assimilated by other organisations over the years, making it difficult to keep track of their position. While the vast majority of generation ships reached their destination without incident and successfully established colonies, a fraction of the "missing" were lost in their path and are now sought by explorers and treasure hunters. With the invention of hyperdrive technology by Li Qin Jao in the mid-22nd century, generation ships became obsolete and have not been built since. Especially since the nuclear fusion engines could only accelerate the ships to 0.22c and the journey to the stars took a correspondingly long time.

The First Colonies

Until the rise of the Empire in 2325, the Federation ruled over the first human colonies. In 2097 - 2120, four generation ships launched with the destinations:

• Tau Ceti--------11.94ly distant, from 2097 - 2151
• Altair-----------16.74ly distant, from 2114 - 2190
• Delta Pavonis--19.93ly distant, from 2117 - 2208
• Beta Hydri-----24.31ly distant, from 2120 - 2230

Planets were discovered in all systems that were in the so-called habitable zone. The sent ships already had technologies for terraforming on board and over the centuries transformed these worlds into Earth-like planets. Tau Ceti was the first colony outside Sol. Tau Ceti 3 (now called Taylor Colony) had long been considered viable with life already present (due to free oxygen detected in the atmosphere via absorption spectra) - although observational and probe data already confirmed this. By 2159, the settlement was largely self-sufficient and could elect a civilian administrator. The question of what to do with alien life became one of real importance when humans first entered Tau Ceti 3. The early colony struggled to survive and adapt in a challenging environment. The priority of preserving indigenous life was secondary to preserving the lives of the colonists themselves, and indigenous life suffered from being displaced by imported but wild life forms of the earth, both intentionally (domestic animals, crops) and accidentally (disease, etc.). This extreme 'survival' attitude did not abate even when things became easier and the colonists, led by John Taylor, began to control their environment. As automated farming systems came online, hunting, once a necessity, became a trade. Taylor was elected civil administrator in 2161 and immediately pushed for the colony to become completely independent from Earth. In response, and at the behest of the mission's supporters, Earth sent a delegation to Tau Ceti 3 to inspect its practices. What they found was widespread active destruction of the planet's natural ecosystem. The Bureau of Ecological Control issued guidelines for habitat conservation and recommended that a second mission be sent in twelve months to assess whether improvements had been made. When this arrived in 2163 and found that the situation had deteriorated further, trade sanctions were recommended and also imposed. This further strengthened the power of Taylor, who proposed a referendum on independence in 2165, which was narrowly rejected in the Colonial Forum.

Another ecological transgression by the colonists of Tau Ceti was uncovered in 2228 when an undercover documentary found its way back to Earth. On it, colonists from Tau Ceti were seen flouting Earth's edicts and policies on a variety of matters, most notably the preservation of the native environment and the exploitation of natural resources. In light of the failures on Mars and the continued rebellious role of John Taylor, who was now well into his 80s, Earth sent a military task force into the system with orders to revoke its colonial charter. In early 2240, hours before Earth's fleet arrived at Tau Ceti, the main settlement changed its name to Taylor Colony and voted for independence from Earth. With no starships of their own to fight the battle, the colonists targeted Earth Fleet landing ships as they attempted to land on the planet. Neither side could gain an advantage and so diplomacy was resumed. With some bitterness on both sides, a negotiated settlement was reached and in 2242 the Federation Accord was proclaimed. This was effectively an extension of the Federation's constitution, which briefly changed its name back to "The Federation of Star Systems" - this did not last long and the previous term "Federation" returned. The Federation Accord granted independent rights and membership to each system that signed it, provided they achieved certain development goals. Initially, not all of the signatories (including Earth) achieved the goals, as the core principle of the agreement reached in Tau Ceti was to eliminate the political games of the previous century. After the settlement of Tau Ceti, other colonies soon followed. Altair, Delta Pavonis and Beta Hydri were all explored and settled between 2190 and 2230. Uncontrolled expansion followed, with companies and all manner of groups of individuals setting off for the stars. A Wild West "gold rush" atmosphere prevailed as news of vast tracts of land, vast wealth, giant dinosaur-like beasts and heroic deeds trickled back to Earth, the romance of the process causing many to leave their home planet. In 2182, fragile indigenous life was discovered in the Delta Pavonis system, still in the early stages of its development, and was completely wiped out by a bacteriological accident that same year. When further alien ecologies were discovered in the Beta Hydri and Altair systems and the project to terraform Mars failed, it looked as if humanity would bring the cosmos to its knees, much as it had done with its own planet. The 23rd century, however, got new leadership and initiative. Extremely successful was the Earth Environmental Recovery Program to restore the polluted and radioactive regions of the planet.

The new sense of purpose this strategy brought to the planet extended to the interstellar colonies. Agreements were reached with Beta Hydri and Altair. In exchange for further self-determination, each system agreed to preserve and maintain the natural habitats of indigenous life in their star systems. Shortly thereafter, Delta Pavonis also agreed to act considerately and sustainably if further life was discovered in the system. After the conflict in 2240 between Earth and the Taylor colony, Delta Pavonis became one of the original five signatories of the Covenant Agreement and a founding member of the present-day Federation in 2242.

Acknowledgements

I would like to start by thanking the two most important people in my life, my wife and first officer and my daughter. My thanks to the users and writers of the English language Elite Dangerous Fandom Page, thank you for allowing me to access your collective knowledge for the description and back story. Source: https://elite-dangerous.fandom.com/wiki/Elite_Dangerous_Wiki - - Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC 3.0)

Prologue

In the 34th century, humanity has put many of the problems of the past behind them and has developed technologically to the point where the future of their species is secure. Climate change, environmental destruction as well as the increasing demand for energy and resources could almost be eliminated and now technologically corrected. However, human-related problems such as war, overpopulation, hunger or fundamentalist ideologies could not be eliminated and solved over all these centuries. There are still conflicts and suffering, but humanity is no longer in danger of wiping itself out. It is a necessary addition.

Not after it has managed to colonise almost 20,600 other star systems within a radius of 250 light years (ly). It has been able to colonise 430 Earth-like planets with alien flora and fauna, and in the course of time an additional 1,900 planets have been successfully terraformed and also given "Earth-like planet" status. Total humanity has grown to over 6.6 trillion, unevenly distributed across a wide variety of systems within a 250ly sized bubble, the Bubble. In 3302, a colony was founded 22,000 ly from Earth - Colonia, this region consists of 72 inhabited systems and thus forms an outpost of humanity. But how could humanity accomplish all this?

The Earth and us

Earth was formed about 4.5 billion years ago, at the same time the rest of the solar system was formed. Sol, then a T Tauri star on its way to becoming a yellow dwarf, had a massive disk surrounding it, called an accretion disk, full of gas and dust particles left over from its violent birth. At least 100 planets were formed from this huge disk, one of which was Earth. Today the solar system has nine planets and several dwarf planets, many of the rocky bodies formed during the formation of the system were captured by the powerful gravitational forces of giant gas giants such as Jupiter and Saturn and became their natural satellites. When the Earth formed, it was a hostile world consisting only of scorching molten lava and a toxic atmosphere. Thousands upon thousands of meteors and asteroids rained down like fire from the sky and life simply could not exist. It was a version of hell itself - even an entire planet called Theia collided with Earth at some point during its formation, forming Earth's large moon. Over a billion years after its formation, things settled down. The planets were all moving in their respective orbits and Earth was no longer a fiery, hellish world. Meanwhile, Earth was a volcanic water world that had simple microbial life beneath its vast oceans. The atmosphere consisted of nitrogen, carbon dioxide and small amounts of oxygen. It was on its way to becoming a paradise for life. After six mass extinctions, billions of years and several ice ages, Earth finally became the recognisable human-dominated world with seven continents and the human-friendly atmosphere we know today.

Humans have roamed the planet for at least 200,000 years, although the first humans were more like animals. They had isolated tribal societies that emerged on the African continent and humans at that time had no singular language, no developed agriculture and no civilisation for a long time. Large-scale settlement and the use of tools did not begin until about 15,000 years ago, when humanity first mastered the art of agriculture. It is believed that structured, intelligent communication via writing also began at this time. Over the next few thousand years, the human species evolved and developed more sophisticated tools and survival techniques. They colonised more and more areas of the planet and the first large cities emerged in the 3rd millennium B.C. One of the most famous empires of ancient Earth was the Roman Empire in the Western Eurasian region, which developed some of the most advanced technologies still used today. The Romans invented things like aqueducts, underfloor heating and the calendar. The Roman Empire collapsed in 476 with the sack of Rome, triggering a period called the Dark Ages. Human development stagnated for several hundred years but after science overcame this period, humanity began to evolve. The true story of humanity, however, began in the 20th century.

This century was both the greatest and the most terrible age in human history. Almost 100 million people died in the first two world wars, some of the largest wars ever fought. The First World War began in 1914 and ended in 1918 with 37 million dead. The Second World War was even worse, starting in 1939 and ending in 1945, with over 60 million dead. The end of the Second World War was brought about by the use of deadly nuclear weapons that could destroy entire cities in one fell swoop. Enormous technological advances were made during these wars, such as the invention of radar and radio communication. Many inventions of the 20th century are still in use today - such as the computer, long-range missiles, nuclear weapons, television, aeroplanes - and spacecraft. One of the greatest achievements mankind had ever made came in 1961 - man became a space-faring species. A man named Yuri Gagarin left the Earth's atmosphere in a Vostok-1 capsule, the first craft ever to fly in space. Two nations on Earth - the United States and the Soviet Union - vied for dominance over this new environment by developing ever more sophisticated space technologies. This period was also known as the space race. Nations from around the world had been inspired by Yuri Gagarin's flight, but the United States and the Soviet Union were the only two that rushed to develop new and better technologies to facilitate flight into space. A year after the Vostok 1 flight, the United States announced a very ambitious plan to develop a manned spacecraft that could land on the Earth's moon and that this would be done by the end of the decade. And succeed they did, in 1969 a breakthrough in manned spaceflight was achieved - NASA, the United States' primary space agency, created the Saturn V, the largest and most powerful rocket mankind had ever built. In July 1969, the Saturn V took off towards the moon with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins. Since something like the Frame Shift Drive did not exist at the time and the Saturn V could only reach a speed of 10 km/s, it took the men three days to reach their destination. As soon as they reached lunar orbit, the lander detached aboard the Saturn V and landed on the lunar surface.

Neil Armstrong became the first man to step on an extraterrestrial celestial body, uttering the famous words, "This is one small step for man... one... giant leap for mankind." After a day of collecting samples and conducting scientific experiments on the moon, the three astronauts returned to Earth and were hailed as heroes. Several more landings were made in the Apollo programme, which ended in 1972. Manned landings on Mars were also planned, but did not materialise until the 2070s. In the 1970s, the first space station was built - Salyut 1. It was tiny and couldn't hold more than a few people, but it was a major breakthrough in creating a habitat in space. Other stations like Skylab and Mir were built. However, the most advanced station of the era was the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS was still quite tiny compared to the stations in the galaxy today and could only hold 6 people. Nevertheless, it became the centre of manned spaceflight until it was eventually taken out of orbit and decommissioned. Stations did not have landing pads at the time - instead ships docked at the station using docking ports attached to both the ship and the station. The first private space companies emerged in the 21st century. Companies such as SpaceX, Virgin Galactic Holdings and Reaction Engines developed their own innovative spacecraft in an attempt to drastically reduce the cost of reaching space. Space tourism became more affordable for people and construction of the first commercial space station began in 2025. Human technology was becoming more sophisticated and advanced than ever before, but the technology needed something to power it. In the 2030s, Earth experienced a major energy and resource crisis as fossil fuel reserves dwindled. Even as space technology advanced, long-term missions to distant destinations like Mars and the asteroid belt to acquire resources were still out of reach. Restrictions on fossil fuels were imposed, leading to unrest between the nations of Earth. The population continued to increase and humanity became more desperate for more resources. The first baby born off-world came into the world in the 2030s, sparking a small glimmer of hope. Commercial organisations planned missions to build the first colonies on the Moon and Mars and to explore the rest of Sol for possible safe havens, but in the meantime political tensions on Earth began to boil. The start of World War III in 2044 brought these efforts to an immediate halt, setting back space exploration and colonisation programmes by decades.