Prologue: The Migration Policy and its consequences
By Dr. Elena Torres, 2057
I have always been an advocate for scientific breakthroughs. The creation of the first ever Interstellar Space Travel (IST) spacecraft was one of them. The craft was a particularly high-end device, powered by solar panels and a nuclear reactor once it reaches interstellar space, the craft ensured human travel to become effortless.
This, however, came with a big price, as corporations began capitalizing on what is called "Interstellar Space Tourism" - short, fuel-intensive trips to interstellar space and back, which placed a strain on supplies of materials needed to craft the spaceships and to actually synthesize liquid Hydrogen-Oxygen to use for these short trips. Nations have gone bankrupt as multinational corporations commercialize these trips, promising an "eye-opening space travel experience" to middle-class passengers boarding on lower-quality ships, with the sole object remotely expensive being the three state-of-the-art thrusters that ensures higher speeds in microgravity environments.
As a result, the most recent United Nations meeting have declared the creation of a "Human Migration Policy", which basically forces corporations to stop transporting humans through these very low quality trips for such an absurd price. Multinationals eventually complied to the policy, dropping human space travels dramatically.
Or that's what the reports say. In actuality, these multinationals kept carrying out space travels programs, now renamed into "Space Exploration Experience", wherein humans will be dropped onto a planet for a few days, before an official will come to pick them up, allowing them to adapt to life in outer space. The reason why the reports were unable to record these trips was because the companies labeled these trips as scientific studies. However, they still forced their "participants" to pay an exorbitant price to embark on those trips.
Countless of families have listened to these corporate lies, and embarked on a journey to parts unknown. In the end, no officials came and they were there, stranded, forever in a planet they did not know about. This happened because the companies were saving money, and did not bother to send a return ship.
Such consequences were the reason why I became hypocritical of scientific breakthrough. Had IST not been invented, these families wouldn't be starving in the vastness of space.
Some of these multinationals eventually found their way into the UN, where some of them passed an agreement that basically states humans were to be deported to other planets, leaving the human population on Earth at a comfortable 5 billion. The remaining 4 billion were scattered across space, some landed on hostile planets where they would die off due to the harsh environment.
And we were fortunate enough to have landed on Xara Prime, a planet within Xara System's Goldilocks Zone, and contained liquid water as well as breathable air.
Unfortunately, another ship, ExoFront, landed on the other side of the planet.
And the discovery of Praetomium only made things worse, as Earth now demands us to ship some of the mineral back to the planet. Soon, a war broke out between the two colonies, battling each other for the precious mineral, used to augment our spacenoid abilities as well as securing a trade route to Earth.
And here I am, as the reluctant leader of New Horizon.
We will stand tall.
And we shall not fall.
For the Migration Policy have doomed us to this barren planet.
For our homeland have abandoned us like dogs.
My name is Elena Torres, Commander of New Horizon.
Xara Prime, 2057
Dr. Elena Torres.
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