Timeline

2038 – The world’s first stable fusion reactor, capable of positive net power output, is activated.

2042 – The first mining and research colonies are established on Luna by major world powers and corporations.

2053 – A joint NASA/ESA colony is established on Mars.

2074 – The Graviton Equation is cracked, enabling the generation and manipulation of gravitons.

2086 – Terraforming experiments begin on Mars.

2089 – The first Compression Drive is successfully tested, enabling faster-than-light travel.

2090 – World War III, later renamed the Unification War, erupts. This war sees the first instances of orbital combat.

2098 – The Unification War ends, resulting in a single, tenuous world government, the United World.

2101 – Centauri Station is built in orbit above Proxima Centauri.

2115 – More colonies are established across the Solar system and neighboring systems.

2117 – The Ultranet establishes faster-than-light communication between planets via quantum entanglement routers.

2120 – Earth is largely abandoned to decay. The UW’s capitol is moved to Mars, in the city of Redding.

2121 – The Centaur Conference establishes new interstellar laws and metrics.

2123 – The Free Capital party attempts secession from the UW, resulting in the Capitol War (often misidentified as the Capital War).

2140 – The Free Capitalists are defeated. The UW seeks new reforms to stabilize the nation.

2144 – The UW is reorganized into the United Orion Empire, establishing a standing Navy and a unifying constructed language, Imperial Common.

2197 – The first nexacor sightings prompt an increased military presence aboard colony ships, and more ships built for the Imperial Navy.

2288 – A massive nexacor invasion prompts the Nexacor Suppression, an economically draining effort to exterminate the aliens.

2301 – Terrorists seize a shipyard in the Audrey system, signaling other rebellious cells to activate and begin the Frontier Disputes.

2312 – Sector Security, a planetary branch of the Navy, is established to enforce the peace on Frontier worlds.

2326 – The main rebel fleet is destroyed, beginning a decline in rebel activity.

2344 – The colony ship Voyager Dawn encounters the Naldim on Dawn Six.