Throughout history mankind has looked up to the stars and dreamed of one day exploring worlds other than our own. No one could have known that the pathway to the stars would become not just the fulfilment of that dream, but the only way to rescue mankind from utter destruction...

THE DYING EARTH

By the end of the 24th century sprawling multi-levelled cities covered most of the globe and reached high into the clouds. Few areas untouched by man remained and the earth's natural resources were all but depleted. Mankind's ever expanding population had finally reached its limit. The earth could not take any more.

The huge colonies on Mars and Venus, already at their capacities, could do no more to help the earth's overpopulation. The United Earth Government (UEG) had taken steps to confront the problem, and for decades had been planning to establish colonies on suitable planets further into space.

It was thought that there was no means by which mankind could reach the far off galaxies, but unknown to the rest of the world the UEG had found a way. Using secret technology rumoured to be of alien origin, the UEG developed the first anti-gravitational engine, or hyperdrive.

THE FIRST STEPS

Spacecraft powered by the new hyperdrives were capable of jumping light years through space in only a matter of minutes. But the technology was unreliable - the first ships often mis-jumped and never returned. A minor inaccuracy in co-ordinates meant a ship could appear many light years from its desired destination.

To solve the problem unmanned drones were sent out to the far corners of the universe to establish a network of hyperspace beacons that could guide jumping ships safely to their destinations. With the network in place and long distance space travel now safe, the mass expansion was all set to begin in the early 25th century.

But before the colonies could be established suitable planets had to be found, and this dangerous job fell to a heroic group of explorers...

THE RECONNAISSANCE CORPS

To discover planets suitable for human colonisation the UEG established the Reconnaissance Corps - an elite exploration group who spearheaded mankind's expansion through the stars.

The spacecraft fleets of the Reconnaissance Corps jumped to far away galaxies to study solar systems and planets to determine which could be made habitable. When such worlds had been found, transport vessels from earth then took tens of thousands of people at a time to begin building the colonies.

THE DOMINION OF HUMANITY

Over the next five hundred years the earth's population fell dramatically as the new colonies grew and expanded, easing the burden on the earth and also sending back desperately needed resources.

The human race was now spread throughout the universe with some colonies in almost complete isolation to the home world. As centuries passed the colonies had less and less contact with the earth, some by choice and others simply because of the vast distance that separated them. Many worlds wanted to sever their ties with the earth completely and govern themselves without the interference of a planet so very far away. Hyperspace beacons began to be deliberately damaged, preventing ships from the earth jumping to these colonies.

By the 29th century the earth's hold over the Dominion was ready to collapse, and seeing this demise, the Reconnaissance Corps split away into an independent faction and chose a small star cluster at the edge of space to be its home. Without the Reconnaissance Corps' aid it was impossible for the UEG to re-establish contact with the lost colonies.

THE LEGEND OF OLD EARTH

In a desperate bid to regain control over the distant colonies, the UEG ordered the construction of a massive hyperdrive, one capable of jumping the entire planet earth. The plan was to jump earth from system to system and take the colonies back by military force.

It took more than a century to build the drive and when activated the earth did disappear as planned, but whatever system was intended to be its destination it did not arrive and was never seen again. No one knows exactly what happened to the earth, and many stories and rumours float around the universe regarding its fate. Some believed it had not jumped but had simply been destroyed while others believed that it had jumped not to another part of space, but into another dimension, one from which it could never return. As the centuries came and went the earth gradually passed out of history and then became a legend of a distant past.