Abridged History
1969: Manned moon landing with Apollo 11.
2030: ISS deorbited after completion of mission.
2050: US and Europe begin practical research into hyperspace and drive technology.
2084: First successful hyper-drive prototypes start to be tested.
2089: Multinational mission lead by NASA successfully sends a probe through hyperspace outside the heliopause of the solar system. The Deliah civilization had been actively searching space for signs of advanced civilizations since around 2000. The test probe is detected by a survey ship and a large scale search in the vicinity of the solar system begins.
2096: First manned hyper-drive flight. NASA and the ESA had successfully tested the manned craft twice prior to this flight. During the checklist a computer fault was detected and the decision was made to abort the flight. Mission controllers are unable to shutdown the hyper-drive and the ship along with its two pilots enter hyperspace and emerged far outside of the solar system. Nearby the Deliah survey fleet detects the hyperspace entry and exit and arrives at the test craft. The two test pilots make first contact with the Deliah on June 25th, 2096. The Deliah spend a day ensuring the test pilots are healthy and getting enough language from them to construct a translation model for their computers. On June 26th, the survey fleet jumped to Earth orbit and official contact with humanity was made.
2100: After four years of negotiations the United Nations enters into a coalition government with the Deliah civilization.
2118: Start of the colonial rush period. Spaceflight has achieved enough affordability that millions of citizens took to habital worlds to start colonies.
2121: 60% of colonies have failed by this point. Successful colonies see large influxes of failed colonists, immigrants and corporate entities extracting resources.
2125: Nearly all small scale colonies have been abandoned by this point. There are a handful of small colonies that remain self sufficient.
2130: After the failed rush period the surviving colonies begin to grow their economies and interstellar commerce begins to greatly expand outside of Earth and Delan (the Deliah Home-world).
2133: Barclay City-Station, a large scale space platform, is attacked in a terrorist incident using the, at the time, largest nebular gas mining and refining ships in service. Though the attackers were unable to take the station it resulted in the deaths of 821 people of a population of over two million. Due to the Coalition Navy's slow response Barclay holds a referendum and votes to declare independence. Other large scale colonies declare independence but are blocked.
2140: Negotiations between planetary colonies and the Coalition are mostly concluded. The notable exception to this is the planet Hamid which did not come to an agreement.
2148, March 8th: Charles "Charlie" White is born. 2151: Just over ten years later after defacto independence the Coalition officially recognized the colony's independence. However, this would only apply to the territory occupied by the colony and not the entire planet. Hamid claims ownership of the entire planet.
2158: Hamid and the Coalition continue to diplomatically clash of planetary claims albeit only through the United Nations and Planets forum. In space the Coalition Navy largely leaves Hamid alone and commercial traffic to the planet allows their economy to flourish.
2160: A visiting geologist discovers large mineral resources far outside the bounds of the colony on Hamid. The now state forbids travel into the unused parts of the planet.
2162: Mining company catch wind of the mineral wealth on the planet Hamid and attempt to covertly extract. Within a few weeks the planetary government with the aid of a PMC friendly to the state successfully evict all illegal mining operations.
2163, February 1st: Sara Matthews is born.
2165, March 31st: Ramzi and Razumi Iik are born.
2165: Marcel Minerals and Gasses, a large multi-planetary energy corporation, lobbies the Coalition to grant it extraction rights to Hamid. This was quietly approved.
2169: MMG deploys a large navy blockade comprised of a subsidiary PMC and a contracted PMC. On the surface of the planet the state begins to fortify its cities and conducts military action against mining sites on the surface. Considered the start of the Hamid conflict.
2170: Intense clashes between the Hamid state forces and MMG have quieted as both sides of the conflict cool.
2171: Independent actors attack an office building in Chicago, IL, on Earth. A bomb placed at the base of the structure causes a structural failure and collapse. Over a thousand people are killed. The next day a group supporting Hamid claims responsibility.
2172: In the months following the Chicago attack violence on the planet Hamid between the state and MMG begins to pick up. These once again cool before large destruction is seen by either side. By the end of the year MMG loses its contracted forces and its ability to enforce the blockade is diminished. The conflict once again enters a cold period.
2180: The Hamid conflict, while still ongoing, is largely out of public consciousness. Economic issues on Earth and the large city worlds begin to form.
2181: A coalition wide economic recession is triggered by large private equity companies defaulting on debt and a series of stock shorts. The Coalition injects relief money in the form of stimulus checks to ease the burden.
2185: The Coalition wide economy has mostly recovered by this point. Housing markets on core worlds remain unstable through the rest of the 2180s.
2186: A midst continuing economic strife a large scale political upheaval takes place on less established colonial worlds. Planetary administrations demand guarantees from the federal government to sovereignty. While largely out of the core world consciousness, the colonies use the conflict as a rallying cry for public support.
2187: Early in the year a special session of the ruling council is called on Neptune Station in Sol. The Coalition government spends a month deliberating protections for colonies. While receiving overwhelming public support private lobbyist groups work to kill the bill. Later in the year, after successfully stalling that measure, lobbyists also push for reduced oversight of private militaries and separtely relaxation of industrial safety standards for fringe system mineral extraction. The public largely sees this as a push by resource extraction firms and private security to further errode colonial independence. The Hamid Conflict continues. Elsewhere Ramzi finishes her bachelors in phyics. Her sister still has two years remaining on her degree. Ramzi enters the graduate program for laser optics. 2188: Riots late in the previous year on Earth prevent the ruling council from granting oversight reduction to private militaries. In fact their lobbying effectively backfires when the ruling council increases the mandatory minimum shift draft (requires a private navy to reserve a percentage of ships for federal use). There is some public support but huge backlash comes from both the private militaries and their benefactors. The ruling council reaches a compromise with only half of their planned increase. Even the reduced measures begin a trend of off book logistics in the private militaries.
2189: The pubic has a respite this year with the news headlines largely filled with planetary economic issues, rising intragalactic piracy and, thankfully, a cooling of hostilities on many colony worlds. Investors in the previous year had began to pull money from publicly traded companies leading to PMCs moving dropping more aggressive contracts from resource extractors. Environmental groups, colonial rights advocates and the general public hail this as a major victory. On Hamid the people create a national holiday to celebrate. Elsewhere, Razumi graduates with a bachelors degree in computer engineering. Ramzi also finishes her masters dissertation on laser optics. The two finish the summer in Montana and return to their father in their hometown.
2190: Orion Interstellar, the largest private military in the Coalition, finalizes the design for a new luxury grade destroyer class starship intended to charter expensive clientele. The Kherson class, named for the company's home city, is widely controversial for its exorbitant cost and the project quickly becomes a symbol for social inequality and excessive military spending. The Coalition Navy had intended to acquire a number of the ships, minus civilian fitment, but the acquisition is canceled in the face of public backlash. The Diamond Aerospace Company (DAC), the shipyard contracted for building, lays initial superstructure in November at the Mariupol Ship-works in southern Ukraine.
2191: A highly virulent pathogen begins to spread in densely populated cities in the United States. Within a month this virus has spread to most of Earth and has begun popping up on other planets and Barclay City. Delan, the Deliah home-world, does not have the virus spread. By the summertime Earth governments and the Coalition ruling council declare a public health emergency. Individual countries begin implementing quarantine procedures. Earth's economy sees a harsh slowing and a slightly worse slowing on Barclay. The colonial worlds see the worst economic impact. By the end of 2191 hundreds of thousands across more than a dozen worlds start to experience some level of food insecurity. The virus, while not directly very lethal, has extensive co-morbid effects. Millions across the Coalition pass away before the year's end.
2192: Epidemiologists determine the virus, discovered last year to be a human respiratory virus, continues to spread through it is hampered by public health initiatives. In January, the first confirmed case of the virus in Deliah is reported. Experts had long suspected the virus would make the jump to human's sister species, but they are surprised at how long it takes. The first vaccines are made available in small quantities in March. The intragalactic economy has suffered greatly over the past year. General unemployment rises to over 8% with the worst effected worlds seeing rates over 10%. Excess deaths from the pandemic and related factors break the one million barrier very early in the year. By summertime further vaccines are made available to the public and mass immunization begins. 2193: New infection rates continue to trend downward from the previous year. Earth's governments begin to relax some restrictions. Barclay City, whose quick and aggressive quarantine measures are largely responsible, declares itself virus free in February. Methodical screening is required for all visitors to the station. The economic down turn had slowed by the end of the previous year and begin to trend back upward in springtime. Unemployment begins to reduce as commerce picks up. The Hamid conflict is still ongoing though was largely quiet during the pandemic. They were the only large population colony to not have any confirmed cases of the virus (this is attributed to the extreme difficulty of travel). With the pandemic winding down the conflict sees a sharp rise in hostilities in late summer. Ground skirmishes escalate into large scale military action from the PMCs working for Marcel Minerals and Gasses. The Coalition ruling council declares a state of emergency for Hamid and military intervention is approved. The PMC and MMG are ordered to cease operations on the planet but refuse.
