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@node "story_history"
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It is now the year 3200 NR (New Reckoning), relating to the year 3248 AD,
in memory of the billions who died in the great stellar disaster of that
year. This was the first (and hopefully last) time when humanity almost
succeeded in destroying our entire galaxy...

It was an early and misguided attempt to develop a spacewarp that could be
used as a weapon against enemy star systems, by warping their star out of
normal space, that backfired.  A previously unknown physical law diverted
the warping field through a multiple wormhole effect that briefly formed a
core-to-core connection between most of the stars in the known galaxy.  As
far as we can tell it affected all stars outside of a 128 lightyear radius
from Sol, which was the star at which the empire had directed the weapon,
and yet within a 100000 lightyear radius from the same center.
(Which means that other galaxies were not affected.)

So, while Sol itself (and thus the centers of both Federation and Empire)
survived unchanged, untold billions of outer star systems underwent large
changes, usually destroying any inhabitants, as the stars changed wildly
from their unnatural internal interactions.  This caused many of them to
explode violently, either destroying them or (mostly) causing formation
of new raw planets and other satellites.

The results today are that the galaxy now has a different distribution of
star types and planetary systems from what it had before.  It would take
a long time for humanity to reexplore the 'new' galaxy for which all the
data we had accumulated was no longer valid, even if that exploration had
commenced without further interruptions, which was destined not to be so.

The great disaster was followed by a long and bitter war between Empire
and Federation, which consumed most of the energies of both nations for a
period of over 1100 years. In 1178 NR a lasting peace was finally agreed
upon, mainly because the war had exhausted the resources of both nations
to the point where they could barely sustain civilization.

Most of The next millennium was spent in trying to rebuild and recolonize
worlds that had been ruined in the war, and to regain scientific advances
which had also been lost during this war.

It is estimated that humanity had regained pre-disaster standards of life
and science somewhere around year 2100 NR, but still without having made
any real effort to reexplore the still uncharted parts of the galaxy that
had been altered in the disaster. But then, in the year 2178, in memory
of the now long standing peace treaty, a new joint exploration project was
started wherein Empire and Federation explorers would share their results,
so as to recommence the exploration and colonization of the galaxy which
had been interrupted by the disaster.

This period of peaceful cooperation between the two major powers continued
for almost 500 years, during which many scientific advances were made, and
explorers revealed most of the details of the drastic changes that occurred
in remote areas of the galaxy during the disaster (and its aftermath).

But in recent centuries the competition between the two powers has developed
into more aggressive forms again, and the level of aggression has risen to
unprecedented levels in the last two decades.  The only reason why open war
has not yet broken out is clearly that the leaders of both nations are much
too aware that the results of a new war could be as disastrous as those of
the last one, or worse.  That could destroy human civilization utterly...

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@endnode "story_history"
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