HistoricalTimeline

This timeline is provided mainly to assist with story writing, to make sure that all the story lines are in harmony with each other. This is the history of the galaxy as it is known to the player in the year 3013; over the course of the game the player may discover that certain things they took for historical fact turn out to be untrue, and that the history books have left out key information about the forces at work behind other events...

• 2080: First human settlement on Mars.

---

• 2100: First permanent settlement on Luna.

• 2150: Colonization of Alpha Centauri by a fleet of generation ships using nuclear sub-light-speed propulsion.

---

• 2200: Humanity is poised on the brink of an era of space exploration and colonization.

• 2210: A physicist named Charles Plot discovers charged particles traveling along a "gravitational slipstream" between the Sun and Alpha Centauri. He builds a device that allows objects to travel along that slipstream. The Plot device becomes the basis of the modern hyperdrive, allowing faster-than-light travel between certain stars.

• 2240: All the star systems adjacent to Earth have been colonized.

• 2250: Powerful governments and corporations begin exploring the galaxy with long-range scout ships and unmanned drones, "prospecting" for prime planets.

• 2260: Invention of the deuterium ramscoop, allowing ships to generate their own hyperspace fuel. A privately owned colony fleet begins traveling out from Sol looking for a place to settle far from Earth, and eventually founds the colony of Valhalla.

• 2270: Colonies have developed to the point where some interstellar trade is economically feasible.

• 2280: Valhalla founds a second colony in the Deep, on Midgard.

• 2290: Colonies have spread to most systems within three or four jumps of Earth.

• 2290: First experimental attempts at terraforming take place on Mars, with mixed results.

---

• 2300: Most worlds are operating as individual "city-states" with their own governments, although many of those governments are in fact the corporations that funded the colonies. This is a period of relative peace, prosperity, and optimism, although starfaring ships are still far too rare and expensive to be owned by private citizens.

• 2310: A small anarchist colony is established on Freedom, far north of Sol.

• 2320: Scout ships on the southern rim first make contact with the Quarg. Although the Quarg do not appear to be hostile, their extreme technological superiority is threatening to many people.

• 2330: Several governments have sent envoys to the Quarg, who are beginning to learn human languages. The Quarg help humans to establish a colony and embassy on Humanika.

• 2340: Terraforming technology continues to advance, but it is still so complex that many attempts fail, sometimes destabilizing entire planetary ecosystems.

• 2350: A coalition of billionaire philanthropists establishes several colonies in the southern galactic rim, with the stated goal of spreading out humanity enough that a war or major disaster in the Sol region of space will not drive the species extinct.

• 2360: Invention of "repulsor" engines that work only within a gravity well, but make taking off from or landing on planets much easier.

• 2380: As exoplanet mining begins to produce a seemingly inexhaustible income stream, several corporations have grown to the point where they are richer and more powerful than any government.

• 2390: Most of the habitable worlds in the Deep have been settled. They are all under the control of one megacorporation.

---

• 2400: Planets are increasingly likely to be under the control of "governing corporate entities" rather than democratic governments. Aside from privateers in stolen, poorly repaired starships, space is more inaccessible than ever to private citizens.

• 2420: First of the "Turf Wars" between rival corporations, over mining rights in the Dirt Belt.

• 2430: Small corporations are banding together in alliances; large corporations have their own fleets of warships in addition to cargo fleets. Many people who took jobs as merchants in order to be able to travel in space are instead being forced into military work.

• 2450: The first "Alpha War" versus a small group of genetically enhanced human beings, originally bred as super soldiers. The Alphas take over several planets and demand tribute from them, but are eventually driven back by a fleet of technologically superior warships from the Deep. The remaining Alphas go into hiding.

• 2470: Many planets that militarized to face the Alpha threat are holding on to their private militias and competing with neighboring worlds, resulting in a second set of "Turf Wars."

• 2490: The pirate worlds of Buccaneer Bay and Greenrock are founded in the Core and the Rim, respectively.

---

• 2500: After decades of war, instability, and piracy, interstellar commerce is breaking down. Individual star systems are increasingly isolated. A new "dark age" begins, with all except a few ruling elites living in poverty.

• 2520: Slavery has become common, especially on the Rim.

• 2530: Advances in terraforming allow the "paradise planets" west of Sol to begin fully customizing their climates. They become an island of prosperity and high technology. They are the one section of the galaxy that is safe from pirate attacks... but they also deal with pirates to buy slaves.

• 2550: In the Deep, which has been somewhat isolated from the rest of the galaxy, a coordinated popular uprising on several worlds results in the establishment of a democratic government.

• 2560: Rivalry between the Deep and the paradise worlds leads both to put large amounts of public money into science, although in the Deep the focus is more on exotic materials and in the paradise worlds it is a search for ever-more-perfect terraforming techniques.

• 2580: Several small wars occur between corporate states. As interstellar travel has decreased in parts of the galaxy, some of the mega-corporations are splitting into individual isolated worlds.

---

• 2600: The Deep and the Paradise Planets have grown into powerful, isolated enclaves of high technology. The inhabited Core worlds and much of the Rim have fragmented into individual systems or small regions doing constant battle with each other and funding privateers to steal cargo from the others.

• 2620: The caravan era begins. Heavily armed and technologically advanced merchant fleets from the Deep begin traveling throughout the galaxy. Wherever they travel, they spur economic development and connections between planets. Because the Dirt Belt is still mostly uninhabited, these fleets mostly travel either through the paradise worlds and past Earth to the Core, or down along the southern rim to visit Quarg space.

• 2640: The rise of increasingly well-defended caravans has forced the pirates to join together into larger and larger war bands.

• 2650: The Deep government increases spending on a public space navy to counteract piracy. Several "safe haven" orbital platforms are established in the more dangerous regions of the primary trade routes. These platforms also serve as refineries, harvesting deuterium from gas giants to refuel the caravans.

• 2660: In the Core, which is the end point of one of the major caravan routes, the Syndicate is beginning to gain power as it merges with smaller corporations in the area.

• 2680: Because none of the small Rim and Core corporations are as powerful as them, commerce is vastly unbalanced in favor of the Deep. Some of the small corporate governments try to establish their own trade zone, essentially boycotting the Deep and their caravan fleets.

---

• 2700: A new era of peace and optimism.

• 2720: Several independent planets in the Core and Rim begin discussing joining together and forming a representative government with Earth as its capital.

• 2730: The Republic is formed, initially comprising Earth, the Rim systems closest to Quarg space, and several Core systems close to Earth, plus the few Dirt Belt worlds that are already inhabited.

• 2740: The Republic imposes trade embargoes on the Deep, the Syndicate, and the paradise worlds, exerting pressure on them to join the Republic.

• 2750: After years of nonviolent protests by their citizens, the Syndicate worlds agree to join the Republic, with the local governments becoming democratic instead of being solely administered by the Syndicate itself. Many of the newly elected officials, however, have ties to the Syndicate.

• 2760: The paradise worlds join the Republic, but with concessions that include a restructured Parliament where very populous worlds have greater representation, which gives the paradise planets considerable power.

• 2770: A new wave of colonization is beginning, in part because the terraforming tools of the paradise worlds have led people to believe that any planet can be made perfect for human habitation given enough time.

• 2780: The Deep's government shipyards are spun off into a private industry, Lionheart.

• 2790: The representative governments of the Deep and the Republic merge to form one galactic government.

---

• 2800: The space renaissance. For the first time in human history, technology has advanced to the point where many individual private citizens can afford to operate starships, and with a galactic Republic responsible for eliminating piracy, captains can work as freelancers without needing to be part of a larger, well-armed fleet.

• 2810: The Syndicate shipyards begin producing small freighters to be piloted by one person or only a small crew. This is the first time that small merchant ships have been produced - previously all small ships were shuttles or fighters.

• 2830: Freelance captains have begun forming unions and mutual defense pacts, further reducing the amount of piracy in the galaxy and also reducing the power of large corporations.

• 2850: The Syndicate is developing more mining colonies to supply the increased demand for ships and equipment.

• 2860: Space travel has become cheap enough that on all but the poorest worlds, middle-class citizens can afford to travel off-world either to resettle elsewhere, or for tourism. Populations begin to drop on many of the least hospitable worlds.

• 2870: The Syndicate and other mining and manufacturing corporations are funding people to move to their colony worlds as workers.

• 2880: Lovelace Labs is established as a producer of defense systems for starships.

• 2890: As a result of the increased planetary exploration, a hidden colony of Alphas who survived the Alpha War is discovered in the Dirt Belt. Because the Alphas have unstable genetics and most of their offspring have fatal gene combinations, they have not succeeded in growing larger than a group of about 50 people. While the Republic is trying to decide how to deal with them, they disappear from their colony, possibly into alien space.

---

• 2900: The golden age. By the end of this century even the least hospitable systems in human space have some sort of colony in them.

• 2910: The Republic Navy Yard in the Castor system has grown into a major manufacturer of warships and merchant vessels.

• 2920: The spread of new colonies has stretched the Republic Navy thin, and piracy is once again on the rise in the corners of Syndicate space and on the Rim.

• 2950: The space renaissance has spurred the creation of many other manufacturing companies, including Delta V, Tarazed, Betelgeuse Shipyards, and Megaparsec. This leads to increased creativity and variety in starship design.

• 2980: Many Dirt Belt worlds are growing in population, but many of those worlds are barely habitable and too poor to afford terraforming. The gap between rich and poor worlds is growing.

---

• 3000: The galaxy is beginning to slip into decadence, with megacorporations like the Syndicate once again gaining power. The Republic has made several unpopular decisions, including expensive licenses that make it hard to make a start as an independent pilot, and interstellar trade tariffs that weigh most heavily on low-value commodities such as food and clothing. This, combined with the Parliament structure that gives almost no voice to sparsely populated worlds, has led to an increase of anti-Republic sentiment.