Part One: "Where do we go from here?"
(Marillion)

Everything is possible in a universe where interplanetary travel began some 15,000 years ago.

In the beginning

On Earth, there were the dinosaurs, but they're dead... oops, sorry, wrong movie.

There were Humans and Eyldar. Then the Great Ice Age came, and many of them chose to leave Earth before. Those exilees managed to reach six planets, and from there, build in a few millenia a huge empire, known today as the Arlauri�ntur.

3000 years ago, this empire collapsed in a bloody revolution, following an even bloodier war. This collapse was a major galactic crisis, as lots of planets declared their independence, then united again, etc. Besides, the end of the Arlauri�ntur caused a shrinking of known space, from a 400+ light year radius to a mere 250 LY radius. Most of the outer colonies were either wiped out in the subsequent shockwaves of the revolution, or lost contact.

Then, peace broke out, for a while...

Meanwhile, on Earth...

Those who had stayed regressed to a near-Neanderthal technological level. After a long idle time, they began to climb back the evolutional ladder. Or, to be more precise, to kick themselves upwards, through numerous wars and other funnies. First, then Second World War. Then Third.

The Third World War

WWIII started in September 3, 1989, as China attacked the US, with a little help from USSR. Then, inexplicably, China turned against USSR, which in turn allied itself to the US before being wiped out. All the mayhem stopped rather suddenly in December 24, 1992, as a massive US counterattack on the American West Coast degenerated in a major nuclear exchange. Merry Christmas!

The Shadow Years

Fortunately enough, the American and European SDI managed to wipe out most of the nukes, but a few nasties managed to ruin most of what was supposed to be Western civilisation. It took the Earth about twenty years to come back to a relatively quiet situation. This period is known as the Shadow Years, because nobody really knows what happened. Many archives have disappeared into radioactive component gases or suffered an equally horrible fate.

In the meanwhile, mutations appeared. Persecutions and riots followed, until the official end of discriminations. The most spectacular mutations were the Alpha gene, which is thought to awaken psi powers (see Alphans), and the Rowaan mutation.

Surrounded by a huge radioactive curtain, North America was considered a Forbidden, Glassy Zone, but had survived quite well (apart from a civil war or two). And thought that the outer world was a Forbidden, Glassy, Communist Zone.

The Fourth World War

On April 23, 2053, WW IV started, surprising everybody. Everybody, except those who started it. It began with a new flight of nuclear missiles and a coup in Asiatic Confederacy, which led to the birth of the Highlander Federation. This Federation politically annexed Australia, then turned against the Islamic Empire, which they conquered with ridiculous ease (and a little help from Israel), and then the Panafrican Republic. Meanwhile, Europe eventually united and South America was conducting talks to merge with newly rediscovered North America. They didn't have the time to conclude, as the Highlander Federation very rudely invaded them... The same Federation later tried to fetch North America, then Europe as well, but failed. Not by much.

So, by the end of the 22nd century, there was but two major blocks left on Earth:

Three other, much smaller countries also survived:

Then, humanity began to look towards the stars, having more than a hunch that they were awaited (some of the extraterrestrial folks weren't very stealthy as they visited the planet some years before). Following a space race which looked more like a scientific and geopolitical demolition derby, they eventually discovered hyperspace drive by 2101, joining the Sphere Economic, Military and Politic Council (SEMPC), a sort of large interplanetary United Nations ("Sphere" is the name used to call all of known space).

Then, trouble began...

Expansionists to the core, the Highlander Federation started to get on everyone's nerves by picking a few leftover planets. Then, they invaded some backwater place called Alt, sort of a jungle planet where lived the Talvarids, ursoid creatures with medieval tech-level. Easy? Not so. Can you spell "Vietnam"?.. What's more, the planet was actually protected by the SEMPC. Can you spell "trouble"?.. Start of Expansion War Number Two, which isn't ended in 2290 by the way.

After some major troubles, the same Highlander Federation decided to take a poke at the Sphere's largest military power, the Karlan High-Command, a really huge militarchy not even really in the Sphere. Sort of good ol' Eastern Block of the 60es. Start of Expansion War Number Three. Then the SEMPC decided to react a bit and created the Interposition Force, just like the UN Blue Helmets, but with guns, ammo, armor and authorization to use all necessary force to bring peace back. End of EWIII by 2170.

2207: Zoom on the Borderline

The Borderline State Federation is a loose political coalition of about 40 planets, set on the fringe between the Karlan High-Command and what used to be the Arlaurientur. For centuries uncounting, this place had a bad reputation: pirates and the Scum of the Galaxy(TM) are said to live here. It's not entirely untrue, but that's not the point.

The point is, in 2207, the Highlander Federation (again!) invaded the third planet in importance of the Borderline. Having no army to speak of, the BSF called upon some mercenary and pirate companies for help. Which they got. Among those, the infamous Iron Lady, a large band of weirdos, who already had words (and bombs, and missiles, etc.) in the past with the Highlanders, and the Flying Tigers, officially a cargo company, but which also does some mercenary operations when need -- and money -- arises.

The situation decayed quite fast and, as if it wasn't complicated enough, a Corporate War broke out in the Borderline States, as several transport companies tried some particularly physical and aggressive forms of takeover on each other. The war lasted some thirty years, utterly ruining the whole Borderline economics, which never were very brilliant, to begin with. In the process, and after a go for invasion by the Highlander Federation (always the same), the administrative capital of the Borderline is nuked by the Mercenary Coalition (oops...).

(And the SEMPC Interposition Force couldn't intervene: after their first mission during EWIII, they impressed so much political powers that these powers devised a few thousand laws and regulation to tie the IF tight; what's more, the SEMPC is notoriously very good at learning what happens in the Sphere... by reading newspapers.)

Now is 2290 AD

The Borderline is trying to rise again from the years of chaos, helped by the Mercenary Coalition. The Highlander Federation tries to stand VERY still on the military front, but is diplomatically very active, trying to "convert" independent planets to their "cause". The rest of the Sphere is merely watching.

And worrying.