HORIZON IS HERE!
So this is kinda a background to the universe, and also some of my future plans. If you wish, you may skip this part of the story, although the background does do a good job of explaining the universe.
Update!
Horizon is currently being discontinued. Do not expect updates or revisions. Sorry :(
Acts:
Act One: The Beginning of the End (1-10)
Act Two: The Warfront (11-?)
Act Three: TBA
Act Four: TBA
*More Acts may be planned*
**Acts have varying chapter counts**
Background:
2180. The end of the war. For years, humanity had been struggling to find resources, and overpopulation was taking its toll. The nations of the old world took up arms against anyone with resources - even their allies. Finally, the light shown through, and the people of Earth, sick of fighting each other, united into one global government.
The United Republic of Earth, founded on principles of equality and freedom, was formed. Finally, the greatest minds of the old world worked together for a common goal. The future of humanity. They worked to repair their broken world, to reverse climate change. They worked to solve world hunger and disease. And the key to all of this? Fusion power. But, soon it wouldn't just be the greatest minds of humanity contributing to the Republic.
Less than ten years after the founding of the Republic, a massive unknown object crashed on the surface of Mars. Humanity scrambled to get to Mars, to greet these...visitors. Or to destroy them. In 2192, it happened. After the test of the Shift Drive, a device used to travel at a large fraction of the speed of light, first contact was made with a race known as Kar'Thonians. They came from the Onia system, in a massive arkship. Their mission was to find life in the Sol system, and befriend humanity.
After several hundred years in cryo sleep, they did. However, they previously had erased their homeworld's location from their data banks, just in case humanity was hostile towards them. Their homeworld, Karth, was meant to contact the voyagers as soon as they arrived. This never happened. The millions of Kar'Thonians were accepted with open arms.
However, the Kar'Thonians hadn't just brought themselves. They shared their advanced technology with Humanity, and one of these technologies was the terraforming ark. This device was used to terraform planets to become habitable. Venus and Mars were soon colonized. The asteroid belt became a mine. The Galilean moons of Jupiter soon had massive stations in orbit, colonists eager to make a fortune. Humanity was soon able to reach further into the stars.
In 2201, the trans-dimensional rift drive was created. This device allowed interstellar travel by breaching weak points in spacetime. Soon, humanity was rapidly expanding amongst the stars. In the 2250s, humanity encountered several sentient species. One in particular, the Nanurans, becoming their ally. In 2259 however, humanity made an enemy.
This enemy was the Darlbak Empire, a xenophobic species, who thought themselves higher than all others. After a decade long war, the Darlbaks were annexed into the Republic. This war, even though won, was costly. Humanity recessed into an economic depression. Conditions at the time were low, many systems having to endure a long famine.
This all ended, when the Ark system was colonized. The amount of material flowing out of the system was enough to jumpstart the URE's economy. Ark IV became a trading hub in the outer rim, one of the fastest growing colonies.
The Ark system had not been perfect however. The Ark IV was a planned colony of the Joun-Lan Hierarchy. This made for a... less than optimal first contact. What made things worse was their dramatically different ideals made the Hierarchy and the U.R.E. tense neighbors. The Hierarchy were slavers, whilst humanity saw all species as equals.
By 2285, the U.R.E. has expanded to have about forty terraformed planets.