The history of the galaxy and the nations within it is thick with rumor and legend, fact and fiction. Within these bits of information pilots may find the keys to progress and survival. It is also a living history with stories that have yet to be told and legends that have yet to be discovered.

Less than a hundred years ago, humanity was locked in battle with a brutal alien force known only as the Conflux. The motivations for the struggle remain a mystery. Conflux ships never acknowledged any attempts at communication, and showed no interests save slaughter. The death toll rose, and stories say that burning planets outshone the stars themselves. Some believe that humanity would have eventually defeated the Conflux; others say that the species was on the verge of extinction. The truth will never be known. As the allied forces gathered around their surviving worlds, a mighty hand reached out from across the galaxy and pulled. This was the Shift, and it changed human destiny forever.

The Shift pulled ships, stations, and even a few planets across the universe. The worlds were scattered across space; even if someone had known where to look, the distance was too vast for sublight travel to be an option. The survivors adapted, but change was inevitable.

The Octavians treasure the memory of their ancestors and their empire, but the old society is lost and a new Octavius has risen from the ashes. Quantar faith splintered in the wake of this cosmic event, and the struggle for survival transformed The Solrain. In time the TRI corporation perfected jump seed technology and restored contact between the nations, creating the network now known as the Skein.

Humanity has survived the Conflux War and the Shift, but there are many questions still unanswered. Most archaeologists and scientists believe that the Shift was the work of an alien species known as the Amananth, and that the Shift has pulled humanity to the galaxy that gave birth to this race. Yet the Amananth are long dead. Explorers have found abandoned Amananth stations and ruined starships – ships that appear to have been shattered in battle.

What destroyed the Amananth? Did the Shift save humanity, or simply prolong its destruction?

Three decades ago, the TRI Corporation perfected modern jumpgate technology and restored lines of trade and communication between the transported worlds and their new colonies. Moving between sectors at sublight speeds is the work of generations.

Fortunately, placing jumpgates doesn't involve travel to the target sector at sublight speeds. Instead, it's a matter of identifying a spatial anomaly - a "jump seed" - and sending a gatebuilding ship to this point through an existing gate. The seed ship can't return or communicate until the gate is completed, a process which can take weeks. The people who perform this work are known as forerunners. It's dangerous work; if a forerunner team vanishes, there's no knowing whether they were destroyed by hostile forces on the other side or simply lost in transit. Once a gate is established, two-way travel is possible.

Because of this system, civilized space is not a solid mass; it is a set of stones cast over a pool, tied together by quantum thread. This network has come to be known as the Skein. Those sectors with permanent human settlements are said to be part of the Core. In the wake of the Shift, three distinct cultures have come to dominate the Core. Most ships encountered in the Skein owe allegiance to The Octavian, The Solrain, or The Quantar. The Hyperial Protectorate was a mighty power before the Shift, and there is a Hyperial station in the Core; however, so far no Hyperial world has been found within the Skein.

TRI is always casting new threads out into the darkness, and any newly discovered or unsettled sector is part of the Edge. It's dangerous to run along the Edge of space, but there's tremendous opportunity for those willing to take the risk. However, many say that there are threats in the darkness far greater than pirates or asteroids.

Has the Conflux finally returned? Or is there be something worse waiting out beyond the Edge?

These are not our stars. Humanity was born far from here, in a place we know only from legend. You have all heard the tales of colonisation, of the Great Collapse that split humanity apart and the invention that brought it together again - the Jumpgate.

But these stories have no happy ending. Even as humanity was reunited, the Conflux crawled out of the cracks between the stars and launched a devastating assault on the entire human race. Much about this war remains a mystery, but we know how it ended. As our champions massed for a last stand, our worlds were torn from space and hurled across the universe.

This was the work of the alien race known as Amananth, and their motives remain unclear. Some believe that it was an act of mercy, an effort to preserve some fraction of the human race. Others call it treachery, a way to eliminate a rival power. Whatever the reason, Amananth took one world from each of the four great powers of humanity: Proud Octavius, bold Solrain, mysterious Quantar, and cruel Hyperial.

It was a time of chaos. Fear and isolation sent shockwaves across each world, and when contact was restored, it began with war. The last ten years have seen an uneasy peace, but it grows more strained with each passing day. Many in the Octavian senate call for battle. Hyperial watches from the shadows, and none know its desires. Pirates grow bolder with each day. And worst of all are the ghost stories. There are sectors of space filled with the hulks of massive warships, and shards of worlds that have been broken apart. A war was fought here long before we arrived, a conflict greater than any in human history. There is valuable salvage to be found in the battlegrounds, but it seems there is danger as well. Prospectors have been vanishing in ever-increasing numbers. Some say this is the work of the Conflux, determined to finish the work they began a century ago and a galaxy away. Others fear that it is something even worse - an ancient evil that has been waiting far, far longer than a century.

It is year 99 since the Shift. The nations of humanity stand on the brink of war, and I fear that there is a greater danger that threatens us all. This is a time for heroes, for champions willing to explore the dark corners and face the dangers of this age. Our ancestors were not born beneath this stars, but our children will be. Go forth, pilots.

Your destiny awaits.

- Dharan Gal, addressing the Commonwealth Academy