It’s the late 27th century. Humanity is split into three primary factions; The League of United Worlds, The People’s Republic of Terra, and the Freelance States. The Terrans and the League have been at war for the last four centuries, with only brief cease-fires ever few decades. Their war has left a no-man’s land of systems along their borders where only the most desperate or adventurous live.
Deep in the heart of either Terran or League space, most people don’t even notice the fact that there’s a war ongoing. In fact, among Terran Aristocrats it’s taboo to even mention the war.
The same cannot be said for those living in the Freelance States. Poised near the galactic center, above the two warring factions, the ‘Freelancers’ are all too aware of the war. Some use it as a way to profit, selling goods and munitions to the worlds to the worlds on the front lines. Others use the war as a way to mask more nefarious dealings.
Be it profiteers, or simply colonist who want nothing to do with the constant fighting, Freelancers make up the fast majority of humanity’s entrepreneurs, explorers and pioneers.
It is often said that out of the whole of humanity, only Freelancers are in the business of living.
There is significant debate among historians what the name of the current war between the League and the Terrans actually is. Some argue that every breaking of the cease-fire constitutes a new war, while other believe that the war goes back before the colonization of Mars.
Everyone else just call it ‘the war’.
In truth, the war does have its roots in the middle of the 21st Century. Humanity was celebrating the first permanent settlement on another world. ‘Freedom Colony’ had just been established a few years before, and even though the colony was off to a rocky start, it appeared that this was a dawn of a new age of expansion for humanity.
Unfortunately, this achievement wasn’t universally celebrated. The colony had been established by several of the economic powers in Europe and North America, while countries in South America and Asia has been left out. Due to some economic turmoil at the time, those who had been left out felt that this new colony was a scheme to force more favorable trade from these countries, “in the interest of all humanity.” In retaliation, these countries banded together and established their own colony, hundreds of miles from Freedom.
What happened next is unclear. To read Terran history, colonists from Freedom sabotaged this new colony’s environmental systems. League history textbooks instead blame the equipment as ‘rushed’, ‘poorly tested’ and ‘faulty’.
Regardless of who’s to blame, the new colony suffered a massive environmental failure, and almost all 5,000 colonists died. There was enough outrage that it started the first full-scale ware in over a hundred years. That war continued for five years before The People’s Republic of China launched a devastating nuclear attack on the United States, leaving a dozen cities along the east coast completely destroyed.
Unwilling to face the horror of global nuclear war, the United States surrendered unconditionally. Fueled by its victory, China became expansionistic, consuming smaller countries through the threat of invasion, or economic means. Meanwhile thousands of refugees flooded Freedom colony, pushing the fledgling colony to the breaking point. It expanded quickly, and in twenty years had become almost completely self-sufficient.
By the early 22nd century, The People’s Republic of Terra was officially formed. Run by what was formerly China, the Terran government turned their attention towards Mars, and the first interplanetary cold war had begun.
By the mid 22nd century, it became clear that the cold war between Terra and Mars couldn’t last. Mars still struggled to be self sufficient, relying heavily on technology. Terra had 1,000 people for every 1 Martian. The only thing keeping the two planets from fighting was the enormous difficulty of waging interplanetary war.
A technological Renaissance began, focused on solving the lingering issues of space travel. Technology boomed and in just two decades the first interplanetary warship was built. Launched with much fanfare on Terra, it was almost impossibly impractical and expensive, but it could travel to Mars and it carried enough ordnance to level Mars’ meager cities. An ultimatum for surrender was issued, due sometime in the 6 months it would take the ship to arrive.
The Martians, for their part, had known they couldn’t win even a single fight against the might of Terra. So it was only with mild shock that the whole of Terra watched as Mars announced their intention to abandon the planet, putting their entire population in cryogenic hibernation and heading for the nearest presumed habitable planet.
When the Terran warship arrived, the Martian colonies were empty, and the Terrans declared victory. For 150 years, the Terrans had no information about what happened to the Martians.
It was during this 150-year exodus that the first contact with an alien species occurred. The Martian colonists had programed their ships to wake some crew, briefly, so they could perform course corrections, and perform repairs. During one of these wake periods another ship was detected, following along with the convoy.
The ship, enormous by Human standards, didn’t respond to any attempts at communication. Fearing this a Terran ship, they fired the limited ordinance they had at the unknown ship. Doing minor damage, the ship retaliated, quickly disabling the meager weapons of the human ships. It then launched smaller ships, which boarded the human vessels.
The aliens, it was learned, were called ‘NorAellians’, and were ten foot tall reptilian creatures. They had come across the human convoy and had been following the ships for over two years, learning their language and attempting to understand the human’s purpose.
The NorAellians were sympathetic to the human’s plight, and offered to help the colonists in their search for a new world. They contacted their Government, which quickly offered to lend ships and materials to transport the humans much further from the Terrans than they had initially intended.
The NorAellians helped the colonists establish Calisto, their new home world. Eager to learn more about humanity, the NorAellians gave the colonists advanced technology in exchange for stories and cultural knowledge. (There’s even a legend that subspace technology, the only known method for traveling faster than the speed of light, was traded for a handful of comic books.)
The colony on Calisto expanded, and with the help of fast interstellar travel, multiple colonies were quickly founded. The League of Allied Worlds was established, and in less than 100 years the League was ready to revisit the Terrans who has ousted them so long ago.
Historians believe that, had the NorAellians not interfered, the League would have easily conquered their former world. However, in the years the League had spent building interstellar warships, some NorAellians realized their mistake in giving the League such a huge technological advantage over the rest of humanity. In an effort to prevent war, as small group of NorAellian scientists made contact with the Terrans, giving them advanced weapons and subspace technology.
Instead of preventing war, it started it. The Terrans quickly caught up, due to their superior manpower and established industry. The early years of the war were brutal, both sides nearly winning against the other at various points. Over the centuries a balance has been maintained, each side struggling to get an advantage over the other. (Some believe the NorAellians are still meddling, even to this day. The NorAellians deny this, claiming their initial involvement in human history was damaging enough.)
It took less than a decade for subspace technology to become widely available. Almost immediately afterwards, colonists from both sides started fleeing towards open space, in an attempt to escape the war. Still fearful of ending up in the middle of the rapidly expanding powers, they headed towards the galactic core, where subspace travel was difficult.
Many of the early colonies failed, but some thrived, especially those established by the former Russian Federation thrived. These colonies while anxious to remain independent, recognized that alone they could easily be vulnerable, so they established the ‘Free Colony Alliance’.
It didn’t take long before less savory refugees started making their home in the Free Colonies. Many early colonies became fronts for organized crime, and as trade began to grow the first interstellar pirate groups sprang up to try and steal it.
Fearful of both the pirates and crime bosses establishing their own personal kingdoms in the Free Colonies, the League offered favorable trade treaties, provided the Free Colonies elected some form of official government, and that the individual colonies would agree not to harm League interests, including merchants.
Seizing the opportunity to establish official boundaries, the members of the Free Colonies established the Federation of Freelance States and signed treaties with the League. They attempted to also establish treaties with the Terrans, however, the Terrans refused to recognize this new government.
Ever since then, the Terrans and the Freelancers have had an adversarial relationship, with some pirate groups only targeting Terran freighters, or performing raids on Terran colonies. Despite this adversarial relationship, the Freelancers have refused to offer open aid to the League.