The Story - From the ashes of Mankind

In the near future, around the turn of the 22nd Century, the minor problems of the world had to become major ones. The population of Earth had reached 15 billion. Planetary resources were stretched and becoming scarce. Environmental laws were slowly lifted to increase supplies but the air and water suffered accordingly. The rich had become even richer and the poorer had become even poorer. Politics had become almost completely corrupted and fueled through vastly manipulative media. Even in non-democratic regimes, governments had all gone into extreme debts and the people began to rebel with violence against the ever increasing hardships placed on them. Under the weight of fear and uncertainty it wasn't long before the influence of the few in power began to start wars against the many.

The first battles were promoted as necessity, small wars started under thin pretense against resource rich nations. The reaction of the other nations however was not so small. Skirmishes escalated and large scale battles ensued as all countries threw in their bid for what was seen as the fight for the last vanishing scraps of civilization. Soon after however, the premise for fighting turned ideological as each country blasted its own version of propaganda amongst its people. The installment of fear kept the people against each other and not their leaders who shunned any responsibility. With narrow rage setting the world on fire it wasn't long before humanity plummeted into an abyss.

The overburdened economy of the United States finally crashed unlike anything in the past. The dollar’s value dropped into junk status sending the rest of the world’s economy into disarray as well. Whatever order was left quickly began to evaporate. The practically insane leader of Russia, sensing the weakness of its long time rival, launched a nuclear strike against the United States and other countries in attempt to make Russian the new world’s superpower. The U.S. returned fire. The missile defenses of both sides stopped most, but not all, of the warheads. The US was mostly devastated but surprisingly Russia didn't fare nearly as badly. China, however, immediately invades Russia in response to the war it started while Europe casts away its allies and attacks several smaller resource rich countries on its own accord. The world has fallen into its third world war.

The war was brutal and violent without a decisive winner emerging. The death toll reaches into the billions. Still the war drags on even as the number of people and leaders dwindle, lost to violence, rebellion or cowardice. It seems this war will take all of humanity as its final casualty. In Russia, one of the last remaining good generals and most of his men are summoned to a secret test facility in Siberia. The countries remaining leaders are there and they show him a vast hangar with hundreds of new fighters, bombers, tanks and other weapons with capabilities far more advanced than anything the world had seen. They told the general to take this army, destroy all the enemies of the motherland and make Russia the new world order. This general hesitated and asked where all this new technology had come from. They showed him. They led him into another small hangar that had only one thing in it. They didn't bother explaining what it was immediately, the general quickly understood what he was looking at. It was a spaceship, and one that was obviously not from earth.

They explained that this ship crash landed in Siberia before the war started, after they were finally able to shoot it down. It had attacked the base there. After capturing it they were able to reverse engineer most of its technology. They don't know where it came from or what race built it. There was no pilot or cockpit as the ship appears to be a machine controlled by artificial intelligence, most of which was destroyed. The technology they were able to acquire was fantastic however. Power sources, energy weapons, space faring propulsion and gravity systems. The leaders of Russia started the war knowing they would have the weapons to win it. And they now chose their most capable an reliable general to lead them to victory. This general’s name was Alexander Volkov.

Alexander was good at being a military leader but despised reckless warfare and his men revered him for it. He believed the military’s job was to defend the people, not oppress it. He did not believe in what he doing in this war, nor in his tyrannical leaders. Nevertheless he accepted this duty and headed out in all directions with an unstoppable army at his command. He focused his attacks on military defenses and infrastructure, not bothering to take territory, and destroyed everything with near impunity even as all other countries turned against him. It wasn't long before his forces hovered over every capital of the world. With a final nuclear strike prepared, all the Russian leaders along with the rich and powerful gathered in the remnants of old Moscow for a party to watch the destruction of their enemies televised. Alexander appeared on every view screen in the world and gave a short ominous speech to people of Earth mentioning the removal of the old and a new age for mankind. Then, with a press of a button, televised missile silos fire and the rest of the world cowers in the inevitable outcome. But to the shock of the planet, the missiles had been aimed at Old Moscow where the upper echelons of power were gathered. With a flurry of explosions that could be seen from space all the Russian leaders were vaporized leaving Alexander the sole commander of an unstoppable army directed at the helpless nations of earth.

Alexander now televises a longer speech that mentions hope and faith in mankind to return from the brink, the misguided path they have all been taken down and his desire to return humanity to what it once was. He also televises the alien spacecraft and describes the new technologies which can solve many of their global problems. He tells the countries of the world that they must agree to come together and form one government for all of mankind. A structure of Volkovs making which places corruption, greed and abuses against one another as the highest crimes; enforced, but not controlled, by the military. Some countries rebelled against this idea of world unity but Alexander quickly dispatched them. The rest of the world was swayed by the circumstances of his offer and came together to one table. The discussions moved forward under the supervision of Alexander and soon a constitution was written to form "The Terran Federation".

The system went smoothly. Mankind comes back from the brink and rebuilds society while Alexander and the military watch over the earth and dispense justice focused at the upper echelons of power whenever called upon. With the new technologies, distant stars and planets in the night sky are easily reachable. Along with their wealth of resources and exploding populations mankind quickly prospers, populates nearby worlds and finds remnants of other alien technologies scattered across the galaxy. The explosion of exploration and human expansion exceeds The Terran Federations ability to police it however. In response, The Terran Federation passes the Safe Haven Accord. Planets of the Earth Solar System have the Terran Federations priority but the rest of the galaxy is left to the people themselves to govern. Earths solar system operates safely but regulated under federation rule while the frontier of space becomes governed by the different corporations who are supply everything the quickly expanding galaxy demands. The one thing unifying all of mankind however is the new Terran Federation currency, the Galactic Credit.

This is where your story begins. The year is 2165 and you are one of the many new corporations being formed with ambitions of expanding out into the galaxy and making a place for yourself in the stars. Regardless if you become a Mining Mogul, a Military Admiral or a Planetary Emperor if you succeed you will be known as one of the Barons of the Galaxy.

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