With the development of hyperdrive in the 22nd century, which enabled spaceship travel covering distances of light years in a matter of days, it was inevitable that Earthmen would begin to explore their galaxy. It was just as inevitable, once they had begun to do so, that they would encounter other sentient races, including others with the capacity for interstellar travel.

Naturally these first encounters were fraught with anxiety and more than a touch of xenophobia on both sides, and some injudicious action occurred. The first ship commanders, being of a military tradition, tended to shoot first and ask questions later. As a result, the Terrans made powerful enemies of the leading spacefaring race: the Zangids. The Zangids were humanoids, resembling Oriental Terrans, and were an aggressive race with ambitions of galactic domination.

The First Interstellar War began in 2217, between the Zangids and the Terrans. The Zangids, having more experience in galactic warfare than the Terrans, did quite well initially. A Terran space fleet was destroyed near Alpha Centauri in 2220, leaving the home system vulnerable. Fortunately for the Terrans, the offensive capabilities of spaceships vis-à-vis planets was quite limited, so military actions remained confined to space, and a war of retaliatory "planet-busting" was avoided.

The Terrans were having a difficult time until a bright fellow at Terran Space-fleet HQ was able to piece together, out of several seemingly unrelated reports, some interesting deductions. If the Zangids were bent on galactic domination, perhaps there existed other sentient races who suffered under their rule and who would be willing to combine forces against a mutual enemy.

The Terrans began to seek out intelligent races as allies against the Zangids. The first to join up with them were the Taurans. The Taurans were ultra-logical humanoids who thought with computer-like efficiency, but in whom evolution had achieved this at the total expense of emotion. The Zangids and the Taurans had a sort of uneasy truce: the Zangids were unable to conquer the Taurans, despite their efforts to do so, while the Taurans regarded the Zangids as merely "misguided" and did not seek to suppress them. The Taurans decided to throw in their lot with the Terrans because they viewed them as being more useful in the development of the galaxy and the other races within it (as the Zangids rule was harsh and stifling). The Taurans also helped institute the practice of placing a science officer aboard each ship to act as a cooling influence upon the military officers and to try to explore nonviolent means of achieving objectives.

With the Taurans, the Terrans began to form a Galactic Confederacy. The next race to join the Confederacy were the Andromedans. This race of shy, sensitive humanoids had never developed space travel, but had other amazing abilities. The Terrans took to the Andromedans with great affection (due, at least in part, to the Andromedan ability of tele-empathy or emotion projection) while the Andromedans saw the Terrans as their "liberators"/ The Taurans were skeptical of the value of such empathic creatures ruled by their emotions, but the Andromedans were able to prove their value in unique situations on many occasions.

The final race in the Confederacy were the Rigel. These people had an interesting history. They were the descendents of a group of Terrans who had been sent into deep space in suspended animation in the late 1990's, when it appeared that Earth was about to destroy itself in a nuclear holocaust. Traveling at sublight speeds, these hand-picked specimens of genetic perfection found themselves on a planet towards the end of the 21st century. Life was hard on this barren world but the people's motivation was high, as they believed themselves to be the last remnant of humanity. By the mid-2100's, however, the society had fragmented into tribal groups. It was at this point that the Zangids appeared, trying to impose their will on these stubbornly independent humans. The Zangids enslaved the humans, who fought back with guerilla tactics. A favorite technique was the capturing of Zangid women, to prevent the permanent colonization by the Zangids. The Zangid women were attracted to these fierce semi-barbaric people, and intermarriage occurred. It was the product of such a union who led the final rebellion. In one night, the entire Zangid garrison was killed, and the women carried off to found a new breed. It was this breed that became the Rigel.

The Zangids attempted retaliatory raids on the Rigel. It was in the midst of one of these raids that the Terrans arrived on the scene. The Terrans dispersed the Zangid fleet, and expected to be welcomed warmly by the people of the Rigel. They were surprised to find that the tough, independent Rigel were wary of the Terrans. In Rigel mythology Earth had been destroyed and they believed themselves the last true humans.

With the Terrans on the scene, the Zangids changed their attitude towards the Rigel. The female Zangids were especially influential in this as they were greatly attracted to the Rigel and wanted friendly relations. After a somewhat curious turn of events, the Rigel became mercenaries: experienced, professional soldiers willing to fight for either side. The price of their service -- the neutrality of the planet as a military training station.

With new allies and the occasional use of Rigel mercenaries, the Terrans were slowly gaining the upper hand in the war against the Zangids. At the end of the 23rd century, however, a new force appeared in the galaxy: the Videni. The Videni were religious fanatics on a holy war to conquer or convert the galaxy. No one knew from where they came, only that they followed a Mahdi. On each of their ships was a priest to insure complete, unquestioning devotion; heresy was dealt with swiftly and effectively, if sometimes brutally.

The Zangids saw in the Videni the opportunity to at last get the better of the Terrans. They believed that once the Terrans had been suppressed, the Videni would go their own way leaving them, the Zangids as administrators. So the Zangids effected a mass conversion to the belief of the Mahdi.

It is at this point that the action of the game occurs. Somewhat after this time period the Videni discovered the false nature of the Zangid conversion and turned on them. The Taurans were able to see that the Videni were the most dangerous intruder of all, and convinced the Terrans to ally with the Zangids (their former enemies). Together they were finally able to contain the Videni.

Includes a double sided cardstock character sheet and a double sided starship reference sheet.