Server Overview

Current Space Date: 243 SSS

They called the Space Age a new kind of Technological Renaissance. An age of Enlightenment after the Dark 40. An age where hope laid literally upon the horizon. The year was 2125 when Seymour Turner and Joseph Mallord created the first ground breaking interstellar travel engine that was capable of breaking speeds faster than light. The cradle of humanity Earth had been abused and mostly used up by this point. Entire Countries - Continents lay barren and lifeless. There was no real life beyond the city walls - only ruins and scavengers clinging to the last remnants of their short existence. 20 billion lives were packed behind these walls. With dwindling time and even less resources the discovery of FTL technology marked humanity’s first real leap into the stars.

New worlds were colonized under corporate supervision. The first colonies were mostly for resource gathering, since the conditions were unsuitable for sustaining human life in the long term. This began a transitionary period, where humans left Earth and spread amongst the stars in search of vital resources and new places to potentially call their home. Many people opted for an alternative, however. Not wanting to leave Earth, but also not wanting to live in their current conditions. In 2134 cryopods made a rise in popular demand. Individuals were given a choice of being frozen until things got ‘better’ for a modest sum of several million dollars. Others opted for a cheaper option to become Migrant Workers and enter large Ark Ship’s and be shipped off into space for a lifetime spent on a new world trying to make a new life for themselves and their families. These Migrant works were placed under Cryo for free, due to the difficulty in finding volunteers for such a job. Many of these people would not be awakened for a couple hundred years, upon which time these ships would wash up onto already colonized planets that had achieved success due to the FTL engines and be simply dropped off into a world they had no understanding of.

Earth would no longer be the choice home for humanity. Instead they would be spread thinly across many star systems and many colonies. Space technology boomed, and even more efficient FTL engines hit the markets. In 2183 William Mallord, the great grandson of Joseph Mallord would invent a device capable of creating a Hyper-dense Core; which in turn allowed for the artificial creation of gravity and an atmosphere around small objects.

In 2185 construction began on Moon Base Liberty. In 2190 the first successful planetary colony that could support human life for the long term was established on Mars. Mars colony Calypso was only the first of many to stem out from this initial success. Deep Space Station Athens was established in 2214 as a research and exploration facility; the intellectual hub of all new discovers on wayward planets.

By this time a class system would have rooted itself deeply into the everyday economy of these Core Worlds. The formation of the Earth Government would have marked the end of commonwealth governments as we knew them today. The Businessmen would have taken up the mantle of politicians, controlling local governments through money and controlling the flow of work as needed. The Earth Government would be baseless in this new Space Economy. They simply did not have the funds or the manpower to control such a widespread race of people. Colonies began popping up on planets further and further away from the Core Worlds. These Fringe planets would be the crux Businesses would use to solidify their wealth. Paying workers dirt, to create gold for themselves.

The Universal Calendar which was created in 2103, in the middle of the ‘Dark 40’, is now widely used by the majority of all Fringers, Junkers, and the Earth Governments. The Calendar was created to make time universal all segments of space, an Intergalactic standard, much like Credits being the universal form of currency across the cosmos.

In 2334 Pierce Industries began funding of the Project Horizon Initiative. Project Horizon was created to facilitate to those in need of a new home, a job, or to give opportunities to those who had none. Alexstrasza Pierce, CEO of Pierce Industries relied on the work of convicted criminals as a form of slave labor on Asteroid Station 11, which is located nearby Horizon Space Station. Horizon Space Station acts as a travel hub between Ontalor’s Planetary Colony Canton and Asteroid Station 11. The Planetary Colony provides food and other resources to both stations, whereas Pierce provides the raw ore and credits required for a Colony to function this far away from the Core Worlds and Earth Government.

The story revolves around the backwater Epsilon 5 system, where many colonists will be arriving at the Horizon Space Station - in orbit around Ontalor, a colony planet that has recently been selected for safe habitation by Pierce Industries. Pierce Industries, the proud sponsors of the Project Horizon Initiative is located nearby on the Asteroid Station 11 Mining Facility, which is just a short shuttle ride away.