Some are new, some are years ahead, and some have histories of epic dimension, but regardless of their pasts the spacefaring species of this galaxy all have similar plans for the future. Each envision their race persisting for eons to come, their cultures spread throughout space, their seed never dying. The galaxy, however, can only accommodate a precious few. When races come into contact with one another they become paranoid and fear that their plans may be interrupted. In some cases, logic and diplomacy can soothe their uneasiness and relationships are formed. In other instances, idyllic differences, misunderstandings, or even sheer aggression can incite conflict.

This is the galaxy into which you were born. Wars rage on that have lasted countless years, new technologies make warfare sickeningly effective, slavery is becoming commonplace, ancient grudges incite appalling acts of terrorism, trade is booming but piracy is also on the rise, and irrational invaders from Andromeda threaten to annihilate an entire race. You must be careful with whom you make friends, for no one is without his enemies.

Life in the Altairian system has thus far been pleasant and easy for you, but your adventurous side has always yearned to explore other systems and alien stars. Your entrepreneurial side agrees, there is big money to be made in interstellar trade. As a cargo jockey you have saved up some money and have purchased your own ship, your dreams are almost realized. All you need now is an Antigraviton Drive (AG-Drive) and you'll be able to travel amongst the stars! At present, however, you are confined to your native system of Altair until you make a few more cargo runs and earn enough for the AG-Drive.

The Galactic Network News, or GNN, keeps you occupied while you pilot your craft and haul your cargo. It's always interesting to find out how the wars are going. Lately there's been a lot more talk about the Tuloni and the Ulwar than usual. Up till now the war has been decidedly bad for the Ulwar, the Tuloni with their debilitating Psi-Wave have been romping from system to system taking over Ulwar colonies and starbases and enslaving the inhabitants. Without defense against the Psi-Wave it seemed as though the Ulwar were doomed to become a slave race, but the latest GNN reports indicate that the recent Tuloni advances have been repulsed! Interesting indeed.

Another new headline was centered around the terrorist bombing and destruction of the Vegan starbase in the Atria system. The Grame have been terrorizing the Vegans for centuries, but this is the first action they have taken on such a large scale. People say that the Vegans, with their planet-killing technology, destroyed the Grame homeworld long ago, which is why the remnants of the Grame terrorize the Vegan supply lines and starbases today. And what effective terrorists they are! Fifty years ago the Vegans dominated this galaxy, but fear has crippled the once mighty race. Their economy is in a shambles and no other race dares to trade with them for fear of the Grame terrorism and piracy. Though they posses the most advanced weapons of all the races, the Vegans can no longer afford to sustain their fleet and their territory is shrinking as a result.

The war against piracy is the most over-advertised and annoying topic of discussion in the Altairian system. You can never get a moment's peace without someone or something telling you that the Altairian government will not tolerate piracy. After the Vegans began their decline the Altairians picked up the slack and have become the dominant trade empire in recent years. Determined not to make the same mistakes as their predecessors, the Altairians seek to ensure that trading with them is as safe as possible and constantly patrol their borders and supply lines for pirates. It seems the Grame have little interest in terrorizing the Altairian shipping lines, and Altairian space is relatively piracy free.

The Sirius star system, however, is not nearly as safe as Altairian space. The Praemali and Hantakas have been in conflict for years now, and their boring old war is rarely in the news anymore. The two races developed on separate planets within the same star system. This arrangement was beneficial to the Hantakas at first since the benevolent Praemali shared technology with them in order to help the Hantakas into space. As the two races prospered together they sought to expand their territories. The most logical choice was the third inhabitable planet in their system, Quinta. Both of the races set up colonies on Quinta, and things went smoothly at first. The somewhat aggressive mining techniques of the Hantakas was quickly stripping the planet of resources and soon the Praemali were irritated. They sent a military force to the Hantakas colony to "help them be more efficient." The Hantakas saw this as a violation of their autonomy and repulsed the force. Fighting broke out and the two races have been at war ever since. Nobody can even enter the system without being attacked, neither faction wants to risk letting outsiders in that may help their enemy's cause. Quinta is the bloodiest battleground the galaxy has ever seen.

The most recent and perplexing war broke out last year between the Terrans and the Kale. The Kale are an aggressive and highly territorial species, and their holdings have become quite vast as a result of their philosophies. When the Kale expansionism brought them to a Terran colonized system they attacked and took it without hesitation. But to their surprise, the Terrans retaliated and regained their territory. This infuriated the Kale and they mobilized their entire fleet and began destroying all of the Terran colonies that they could find. In a few short months the Terrans held only a few systems, and it looked like their homeworld Earth was going to be the next target. Well, as the old Terran saying goes, "necessity is the mother of invention," and invent they did. A man by the name of James Corwin discovered an anti-particle that could severely disrupt any Antigraviton field. Since every ship in the galaxy makes use of an Antigraviton Drive this "Anti-Corwin Theory Particle," or ACTP, could be used as a weapon against them, damaging any ship travelling at greater than light speeds. Sadly, James Corwin died shortly after making this discovery, his spaceship-laboratory was vapourized in an experiment gone wrong, taking Corwin and his family with it.

Regardless, the Terrans used Corwin's discovery to create some ACTP mines. Knowing that the Kale were amassing a large fleet and were about to depart from their home system of Antares, the Terrans covertly mined the Antares outskirts. When the Kale fleet passed through the outskirts the ACTP mines behaved as Corwin had predicted and every ship travelling faster than light speed was destroyed or severely damaged. Caught totally by surprise the Kale fleet was crippled, and returned home with only a small fraction of their ships surviving.

Now, if this were the end of it the Terrans would appear to have won the war. How could the Kale ever succeed in attacking so long as the Terran ACTP technology prevented them from reaching Earth? Unfortunately a third party entered the conflict, seemingly on the same side as the Kale. The Terrans call them the Sicarius, which they say means "Murderers." When the Terran ACTP mine field detonated, it created conditions identical to those which vapourized Corwin and his family. This "Corwin Sink" apparently allows for transport between distant locations in space. The sink created by the mine field was open only for a few seconds, but this was enough time for two Sicarius ships to pass through, from the galaxy of Andromeda to the Milky Way. These two ships headed directly for the Terran home system of Sol and attacked. They were unaffected by the ACTP defenses since they utilize an alternate type of Light Drive. The two Sicarius managed to destroy MoonBase before they themselves were destroyed. The Terrans were heavily damaged, as were the Kale, and both sat back to lick their wounds.

The Terrans developed more powerful weapons for use against the Sicarius, just in case they ever returned, and return they did! Last month on GNN you saw a story describing what appears to be a stable "Corwin Sink" just outside the Antares system, the Sicarius must have found a way to make the sinks on their own. The Sicarius flooded through the sink en masse and began destroying Terran colonies and even the colonies of their allies! With their new weapons the Terrans fared somewhat better against the Sicarius this time, but the Sicarius had also discovered the secrets of ACTP and were using it against the Terrans themselves! The Terrans knew that they had to reach the Antares system and destroy the stable Corwin Sink that the Sicarius had set up, but when they tried it they were held back by a massive ACTP mine field surrounding the whole sector. So long as the Terrans relied on Antigraviton Drive there was no hope that they could rid the galaxy of the Sicarius.

James Corwin has an uncanny ability to step up when things look bad for his race, and this time was no exception. Everyone thought he was dead, but last week GNN showed footage of his return. A simply massive Sicarius ship appeared just outside of Earth but its shields were down and its weapons unpowered. The Terran defenses responded automatically and destroyed the ship, only one escape pod survived, and in it was James Corwin. His fantastic story gripped the galaxy and GNN got its highest ratings of all time. When Corwin and his family were "vapourized" last year they were in fact simply caught within a temporary Corwin Sink. When this sink was created it captured a ship from this galaxy as well as a ship from the Andromeda galaxy. The Andromedan ship was one of the Sicarius flagships, and its disappearance enraged the Sicarius. They presumed that this was an unprovoked attack on them and have waged war on the Terrans ever since.

While Corwin was trapped within the sink, the Sicarius flagship captured his vessel and held his family hostage. They forced him to work on a way for them to escape the sink and return to normal space, threatening to kill his family if he did not comply. Months passed, and Corwin eventually solved the problem. When the Sicarius had the information that they needed from Corwin they killed his family right before his eyes! Knowing that something like this would happen, Corwin shrewdly calculated the location of their re-entry into space so that they would reappear right outside of Earth's automated defenses. When they reappeared Corwin fled in an escape pod just as the defenses ripped apart the unprepared Sicarius ship. During the time spent working onboard the Sicarius ship Corwin learned about their Light Drive technology and brought this knowledge back with him to Earth. The Terrans have managed to utilize the Sicarius Anti-Relativity Cloud Drive (ARC-Drive) and are now invulnerable to ACTP mines. All that remains is to destroy the point of entry the Sicarius use to infiltrate the galaxy: the Corwin Sink in the Antares system.

This is the history of the galaxy into which you have been born and these are the forces with which you will have to contend. What will you do to shape its future?