[cooloneinca 2224]

Peace lasted on Earth for nearly four centuries. War and poverty seemed ghosts of the past. Unified by the thought of preserving our race by expanding out among the stars, mankind stretched forth his hand across the heavens, touching dozens of worlds across hundreds of lightyears of deep, cold space...

But the evil that dwells in men's hearts returned as the hope and dream of human preservation faded, replaced by ambition, greed, and the classic thirst for power. The race of man scattered itself across the cosmos, settling worlds with a fierce hunger for knowledge that had not visited our minds since the Age of Exploration first spurred mankind to uncover the globe. But even as these new, brave explorers struggled to survive on far flung colonial worlds, those left comfortably behind sought to reap the treasures of these new worlds by exploiting those very settlers who carved them from the cold recesses of oblivion.

The rebellions came fast and bloody, colonial powers echoing the shots fired ages ago on the frontier lands of ancient Earth. Some worlds gained their indepence, others failed, defeated, and were slowly ground back under the heel of their oppressive Motherland overseers.

As dawn strikes out across the year 3003, the stage is set for a contest of power, intrigue, and fortune. The Cold War has persisted for centuries as the Earth Alliance struggles to subjugate its rebellious colonial worlds and battles ceaselessly against the repeated assaults of the Novan breakaway republics of the New Terran Confederation. Even as the new revolutionaries among the Alliance' malcontents plot their next move, the Confederation and its allies are making plans to launch a renewed offensive against the hated Earth Alliance, this time with a newly developed secret weapon, a weapon never before imagined by a member of the human race...

The human race, over the course of several centuries finally united itself under one banner. The last nation-state on Earth joined the United Nations Global Alliance (UNGA) in the year 2200. The road to planetary unification started back in the year 1945 with the formation of the United Nations. Over the following years the world economy became more and more intricately interdependent, and culminated with the formation of the World Bank in the year 2087. The World Bank was an extension of the ideals that had led to the formation of the International Money Fund (IMF), which was, established 1947. The World Bank took the idea of an international "savings and loan" one step further, uniting the world economy with one currency, one stock exchange, and an international financial institution open to all, backed by the full faith and credit of the combined economies of one hundred and eighty two nations. The UNGA was formed in the year 2150, and included all the former nations of the United Nations, NATO, and European Union. This massive power block of both economic and social force effectively ruled the world, and in fifty years nearly every corner of the globe was enjoying international trade and diplomatic exchange on a level never before seen.

Under the UNGA, every member nation retained its territorial authority and powers, with only matters of global importance, for example trade agreements and international border disputes, elevated for review by the UNGA. A uniform set of social laws guaranteeing basic fundamental human rights to every human being were adopted and enforced on every nation by the UNGA. For the next century, international war, widespread starvation, and other social ills became all but extinct over the face of the Earth.
Earth could be considered a fine place to live in the year 2200, but a sense of vulnerability began to permeate global culture. Sensing that the relative peace and prosperity may be a sign of impending doom, an idea then widespread in the media, the citizens of Earth began to look to the stars as a possible source of future salvation. Already several asteroids the size of cities had come very close to colliding with Earth during the latter half of the 22nd century.

The Unites States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) lead the way in space exploration for over two hundred years, but by 2220 NASA and the European Space Probe Agency had become equals in the quest to litter the solar system with probes, satellites, and telescopes. At the urging of the UNGA in 2230 NASA and ESPA merged resources and formed the International Space Administration. The International Space Station project two hundred years prior had led to the creation of several subsequent space stations, each larger and more advanced than the last, but in 2235 the fledgling ISA was tasked by the UNGA to develop the first fully functional and sustainable colony on another world. It came as no surprise when Mars was the target chosen.

Over the next seventy years a series of spacecraft carried supplies, materials, and eventually several thousand colonists to the red planet. Massive container towers, recycled fuel tanks from those original spacecraft, were erected and filled with potable water and chemicals. Prefab labs, habitats, industrial facilities and eventually even malls began to dot the surface of Mars. By the year 2305 a small community of scientists, wealthy adventurers, doctors, and hand picked civilians were living on the surface of the Red Planet.
Experiments in the Martian laboratories were many and varied, but one key study focused on the relationship between certain particles of matter, energy, and their behavioral differences in Earth and Mars environments. In the year 2325 the most important scientific discovery since the advent of the wheel occurred in a small prefabricated laboratory unit on Mars: we mastered the graviton! An elementary particle that had escaped us for centuries was discovered to be the key to the secret of uniting classical and quantum physics. The study of the interaction of gravitons with matter paved the way for the next chapter of scientific discovery, and the technological implications seemed endless.

Following the discovery and subsequent work in gravitics in the early 24th century, a series of ground breaking technological advancements took place. Around the year 2335 several scientific institutions simultaneously claimed credit for the first technology to take advantage of gravitics. By applying a negative charge to a series of gravitons suspended between two nonconductive materials using a static electromagnetic field, scientists were able to create a stable antigravity field. In 2345 the technology was applied to building materials, allowing truly massive structures to be built. Soon huge domes were being erected over homesteads and outposts all over Mars' surface. In 2355 the first repulsor field was patented, which lead to hover cars and wingless aircraft called airspeeders. Hover ground vehicles were built on anti-grav sleds, whereas airspeeders utilized outboard anti-grav pods to carry the vehicle through the air at incredible speeds and with little cost in fuel. Other applications were found over the years, from tractor fields that could tow an object remotely, to launching spacecraft from the surface into orbit on anti-grav lift fields alone.
The successful harnessing of fusion power in 2287 finally enabled scientists to seriously consider travel to another star. Fusion power had freed up the power grid on Earth, stabilized the fossil fuel vacuum and allowed a stable source of power for the Martian colonies and the orbital space platforms scattered across the solar system. By 2330 micro-fusion engines were being installed aboard the numerous craft that continuously crisscrossed the vacuum between Earth, Mars, and the various outposts springing up across the solar system. FTL travel was long thought to be a fantasy, one that could only be achieved in science fiction, but the principles of gravitics changed our understanding of the limitations nature set upon us. The ability to cross immense interstellar distances became possible in the year 2325 when mankind discovered the ability to manipulate the forces of gravity. Gravitics paved the way for hover vehicles and other antigravity applications, but, these side-technologies paled in comparison to the affect gravitics would have when applied to spacetravel. In 2380 scientists discovered that creating an extremely compressed a gravitic field would create an articial wormhole event. The wormhole event, called a "Vortex", was only sustainable for several seconds, and the initial Faster Than Light (FTL) probes only traveled several light seconds before being "dumped" back into normal, or "real", space. Researchers soon were able to construct an FTL engine system that could systematically create a series of wormhole, or vortex, events, thereby allowing sustained FTL travel.

By 2400 the ISA had begun to launch a series of space probes from their orbital facility around Mars After several inconclusive attempts, scientists finally successfully sent a probe outside the solar system in the blink of an eye. In 2405 an automated probe was sent out beyond the solar system and returned at speeds significantly faster than light. Scientists were stunned at the ease with which light speed could be achieved, and by 2410 the first human safely piloted an FTL vessel beyond Pluto. This research culminated in 2412 when the first reliable FTL vessel was constructed, now universally referred to as a "Lightship".
The early lightships developed in the early 2400s were primitive by today's standards. The first probe was nothing more than a long capsule with an ion drive mounted at the rear, a sensor farm mounted amidships, and an exposed Gravitic Propulsion Drive (GPD) assembly at the bow. A fusion engine, navigation computer, and communication array completed the small vessel. Later probes added maneuvering thrusters, more sophisticated communication and sensory equipment, and various scientific experiments. It's interesting to note that animals were never used during these early days of FTL experimentation, thanks mostly to the computer advances around that time. The first human occupied lightship, launched in 2410, was basically yet another probe vessel with a habitat module wedged inside the central hull. Later vessels added more sophisticated life support systems, backup batteries, EVA suits and vehicles, and finally in 2418, a landing craft. By 2425 lightships had matured into sophisticated vessels complete with solar sails, multiple crew modules, landing pods, cargo capacity, and even probes of their own.

Lightships continued to evolve over the next hundred years, mostly based on the same hull form as the original probe designs in the early 2400s. However, the need for military vessels toward the end of the millennium saw a radical change in lightship design.