Introduction
Earth as it had been known was gone, the planet simply couldn’t hold the vastness of humanity, the planets resources were nearly depleted and the atmosphere was rapidly becoming toxic and the population had become unsustainable. Something needed to be done, humanity needed to move on, expand outwards and find a new home in the stars.
In the twenty second century; wars and conflicts arose due to the lack of oil, electronic cars and other renewable power were lost due to the world governments hoarding and controlling the production unwilling to let go of the fuel that let them tax the masses, the world began to come apart at the seams. A new ice age had begun due to the accelerated heating of the planet and humanity was being forced out of the increasingly cold areas and towards the equator. Many died in the mass migration, millions died from the cold, millions more died because they refused to believe, before long the north and south of the planet were lost. Humanity turned to science and worked on methods to either thwarting the cold or a method to run away from it, the two schools of thought were running in parallel for the next two hundred years before the solution was found.
In the year 2462 jump technology was discovered, not so much invented, the nature of space and time had opened like a book and provided man with a means of travel which was both fast and effective. By 2469 the first unmanned craft were sent out ending up light-years away from the set destination, three never returned so it was decided that the scout ships had arrived inside a sun or inside a planet. Finally the technology was refined and a more accurate system devised, more un-manned ships were sent immediately, and all returned without incident. The first manned flights were then sent, the pilot had said it was as if she opened a door and there was a new world and she only needed to step through to see it; soon after the ships were sent deeper into the emptiness of space to find humanity a new home searching for any Earth like worlds, or anything with a friendly environment so humanity could escape the cold, and do things right on a new planet.
In the mean time an effort was made to clean up the atmosphere on Earth but all came to nothing; the planet had accelerated into a new ice age, nothing was going to stop the spread of ice and cold, and humanity had to leave. Iceland and Greenland were now uninhabitable Canada lost under a sheet of ice and snow, Norway and Northern Russia had also become barren of human life. Humanity huddled around the Earths Equator, the north of Africa and the south of Europe were packed with people, there was no room to live and diseases once thought long dead were coming back in force. Cholera spread amongst the people as the water became polluted, medicine was becoming harder and harder to produce as the resources dwindled, a new world needed to be found.
The former world governments fell with little resistance, replaced by a much more unified desire to escape the planet and move on; the Scientists and engineers had given humanity hope for the future, but everyone was impatient as the years drew on while they waited. Construction began in advance for thirty two ships of immense size to fit all of humanity, people tried to forget about the overcrowding and the problems of living in close quarters and simply got on with their lives. All of humanity was looking up at the skies; imagining their new home, praying for the immediate return of the scouts, and finding a new world to thrive on.
However along the borders; those with the lust for power were using fear to incite the crowds to their cause, using the fear of a spiteful and vengeful god or even the wrath of the planet, to scare people into submission. The crews working on the transport vessels knew, as did the scientists and engineers, that a new home has to be found and quickly or riots would begin and the species would be doomed.
It was at this time that the solution to the environmental problems was nearing completion, but in its haste humanity nearly lost all the research, as the scientists pursued Jump technology. The people became divided, some wanted to stay to fix the problem, but more wanted to leave and focus on their future. Eventually it was decided, on the basis of numbers, that they would leave and allow the planet to heal. Perhaps man would return, when the planet had healed, and reclaim their home.
In the year 2500 on the second of January one of the exploration craft returned with a discovery, a new planet had been discovered. The System had been dubbed Century by the pilot and the people quickly began piling into the transport crafts. A day later the other five exploration craft also returned with similar discoveries, five star systems all with earth like planets, so it was decided that the different craft would head to the different worlds and that humanity would finally have all the space it needed. The final system was scrubbed as the planets conditions were deemed too harsh for people to thrive in. On final departure humanity waved goodbye to its ancestral home, and to the wonders constructed there, and finally to the homes they had once made on its surface. The transport vessels split off into six, and each jumped to one of the planets, and hopefully into a new and better life.
Now, three hundred years later the Earth was long forgotten, a tale told to children in history classes, fairy tales no one really believed. No one had been there since the departure, no probes or vessels had returned, and as far as anyone was concerned it no longer mattered. Only Archaeologists, historians and the curious, wanted to go back and all were held back by the governments or their respective worlds.
In the years that followed the five star systems grew and learned to live on their new worlds, the new environments meant new diseases and new Flora and Fauna which the human system needed to adapt to, and many people were lost but as always the strong and intelligent survived. On the planet Ecuador the indigenous life forms were extremely hostile to humans. On Aquila the gravity was much lower than the other worlds, so the rock formations and land masses seemed to hang in the sky connected by vines and rock bridges, and as such the planet seemed quite beautiful, though unwary humans could easily be lost or become lost as the formations collided or moved apart. Glimmer was a beautiful world filled with gem and crystalline formations, but had very little in the way of plant life above ground, the oceans were however teaming with all kinds of life. Finally on Victory there was virtually no land at all, only the occasional island or volcano, storms were very rare and the sun seemed to glisten on the ocean.
The final world, which would have been forgotten, was a barren and desolate world. Rocky and bleak, with very little plant life above or below the poisonous seas, it was only very barely habitable.
Century however seemed the ideal world, an almost identical world to earth in its good years, the environment on the planet seemed perfect a true haven for humanity. Even the plant life and animal life were ideal, no major predators, and nothing was uprooted or disturbed by the presence of a new species. Century used their good fortune to advance quickly; once the cities were built and the food supplies solved they went to work on the problems facing the other colonies. The scientist worked together to design sturdy construction materials for the people of Aquila, the scientists and engineers of Victory had designed marine habitats so their people could live beneath the waves in the oxygen rich ocean, and Century scientists and engineers were able to perfect a fleet of submersibles so they could catch fish and harvest the underwater plant life.
Glimmer was treated to the latest terraforming equipment and areas of the planet were turned from rocky formations into luscious valleys glimmering with the light of the small gemstones, the people could now farm and grow what they needed. The planet became a paradise of colour and plenty, in the years that followed artists and poets would try to capture the beauty of the world though the many critics simply said that nothing would be enough to describe Glimmer and it’s unnaturally made wonder.
Ecuador had walled itself off from the dangerous plant life, the land became purely for farming and the landing of shuttles, and the strong trees housed the people. When Century arrived to aid the only help the people required was turret defences. Huge cities grew in the trees, leading down to small marinas on the water’s surface, and even smaller patches of farms and spaceports on the ground.
Aquila became a world of engineers and ship builders, the greatest explorers either came from there or spent their lives wandering the various crags and nooks in the world. In order to build cities the people were able to pull the rocks together and secure them, providing a floating base for their homes and towns, the world became a beacon for human accomplishment, to build cities and metropolises that floated through the sky was a dream that many people on earth once had, and Aquila made it a reality. Airships were built for transportations in wonderful designs, the people of Aquila showed that machines could be works of art as well as functional.
Victory was a world of Oceans, the first builds were on the surface of the water, like marinas but larger and built to house large numbers of people, but soon the people began to look on the ocean floor, they thought that buildings could be built under that immense pressure of the alien sea, and eventually they proved it right. A multiple layer city was constructed; the first layer was on the sea bed in the middle of the ocean, then another layer a good height above that and another above that. Finally the top layer was built on the water’s surface; the city of Neptune housed the vast majority of the people of the planet, before sheer numbers forced them to build similar cities across the planet.
Rapture was not forgotten, and the criminals that now lived there were offered aid, but the leaders shunned the aid as quickly as it was offered. The proud people stated in any given communication that their god would provide that they only needed their faith. Though the realities of life on rapture were much worse than ever told to the other worlds; when the first cities were built they were more shanty towns made from the ships parts, as the minerals and resources were finally uncovered by the people the conditions on the planet did not improve greatly, the cities were built up but quickly and fell into disrepair. All the power and ingenuity was put into the Church of Rapture, a great and wildly adorned building; that looked out of place among the dwellings that covered the city. The church knew about the planets conditions but chose to lay blame rather than face their problem. Finally the church felt that their message was not strongly imprinted on its people, so they began taking people off the streets and brainwashing them with all the propaganda and sheer outright lies they had contracted about the other worlds. They wasted resources and power on pirate vessels, giving the people the thought of power, so they could hang on to it.
Fifty years later smaller cargo vessels were set out into the void, using smaller jump engines, the ships would hop between waypoints to transport cargo between worlds. Trade, once again, became a way of life for many as the need for materials grew more and more. Much like the days of old, piracy once again became a minor threat; Rapture had begun attacking any vessel near their space. The combined fleets sent out patrols and escorts, and both sides escalated their arsenal, it became more and more apparent that one day something would have to be done about the sixth colony.
Century was the first of the five systems to start its own defence force, though many of the other colonies were quick to follow suit, patrol and fighter vessels were built to combat anything that entered the boarders illegally. The need for the defence force came as the leaders of the five worlds sent out an envoy to the stricken Rapture world, only to have that envoy destroyed upon entry of the system. It was felt that all the systems should prepare, in case the people of Rapture decided to spread their forces outwards, or that they may still meet an alien race. Though once again this had become mere science fiction and was dismissed by most rational people as a dream that they should forget.
Rumour and speculation had always existed; that some were left on Earth, that a small colony still existed trying to fix mans mistakes, and more recently the rumours had been given weight as records were uncovered from the colonisation years. It finally came that the people of Century insisted to its government that a probe be sent back to Earth and finally lay rest to the rumours and myths. The government relented and launched an unmanned probe, which entered the Earth’s solar system, flying for almost twenty minutes before the probe stopped transmitting. The government stated that the sun was producing a incredible amount of radiation and the probe had been either destroyed or was not able to transmit through the interference and declared it too risky to send a manned mission back to Earth as the radiation was to great, and even if they could, nothing could live in the home system now.
Not everyone believed the government but those who didn’t were very few in number; most put their curiosity about their long lost home behind them, it was better to focus on the future than start looking towards the past and a home none of them had even known. So the Century system spun on and the colonies had grown in size, over three billion people had left earth and now humanity expanded further to over thirty billion before the year 2870, they were growing but some of the old problems were still there waiting to be solved.
