Humanity, 2060 to 3041 - The road to interstellar empire

2060: NASA makes the first manned mission to the outer solar system, landing astronauts on Ganymede, one of Jupiter's moons.

2066: the European Space Agency launches a new manned mission to the moon, set to launch by 2085 with assistance from NASA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

2078: The Astronauts on the Ganymede mission make re-entry in late March at early morning light over the North American great plains. The parachutes deploy at 07:23 and splashdown occurs in the pacific ocean 73 kilometers west-north-west of San Francisco at 07:31 - the crew are recovered along with their return capsule.

2082: NASA establishes a permanent observatory on Callisto, dubbed 'Aqua Observatory' after the fields of water ice that the base resides on.

2085: the ESA launches and recovers a manned mission to the moon successfully.

2089: Zetter & Meltz, a German-American weapons manufacturer, was founded in Roanoke, Virginia by Hans Ulrich Zetter and Herbert Von Maeltz.

2101: The world experiences the third ice age and Europe freezes over. As the ice creeps south, the otherwise arable farmland becomes unusable. Many Europeans resettle in the United States, Africa and Mexico to escape the advancing ice.

2105: Europe enters a major famine as the last arable farmland in Europe freezes over into permafrost.

2109: the European Union and all member states declares itself a military-economic alliance, creating a superstate.

2110: JAXA, NASA, ESA and others all announce interstellar colonization programs. efforts continue through to the 2300s.

2114: the EU declares war on Egypt, Jordan and Libya to take land to use for arable farmland in the wake of the permafrost covering much of the European continent.

2116: JAXA establishes a temporary research colony on Mars.

2117: NASA and DARPA make a joint statement that announces a research and development program for an FTL drive codenamed 'Helios' is nearing completion.

2120: NASA, following the lead of JAXA, establishes a permanent colony on Mars.

2124: the EU uses nuclear weapons on Cairo while also condemning Egyptian reprisal attacks using biological weapons, African Union states declare war on the EU, fearing that European expansion will threaten their sovereignty - the United Nations convenes for an emergency session in response to the crisis.

2129: Zetter and Meltz corporation begins work on relativistic kinetic weapons, making progress but realizing they need years of technological advancement for a viable weapon.

2147: Northrop-Grumman and Boeing merge into the world's first megacorporation, forming the United Aerospace corporation (UNIAERO).

2175: UNIAERO announces the flight of the first prototype unmanned ship with a faster than light (FTL) drive using technology developed jointly with NASA and DARPA from 2110 to 2135. The ship makes a trip from Earth to Ganymede and back on a supply run for a team of researchers posted at the Ganymede Aqua Observatory base. Making the round trip in a record 15 hours.

2209: UNIAERO announces nearing completion of a new type of fusion reactor, dubbed 'Phizon fusion' internally by UNIAERO engineers and researchers. Utilizing a newly found particle in Quantum physics, which is fused together to form short-lived, very high energy Mesons which decay at a rate over twenty five million times higher than that of the half life of some of the shortest lived nuclear isotopes in current fission reactors.

2302: The ice shelves begin to recede. The glaciers advanced as far as the northernmost shores of Lake Superior in North America and froze the North sea over. Much of the arable land in Europe is reduced to mud bogs as the ground thaws out.

2305: African Union forces invade Sicily. the United States steps in to broker peace talks.

2335: The world unites under the United Nations in light of advancements in interstellar travel technologies. For the first time Humanity is all under one banner. the Terran Federation is born.

2349: Zetter and Meltz announce the first successful test of a practical relativistic velocity rail gun - achieving a maximum velocity of roughly 3 million meters per second, or 1 percent of the speed of light using new advances in electromagnetics and materials science.

2388: A 4th arms race is well underway in the wake of the Zetter and Meltz development in 2349, Zetter and Meltz announces development of the Magneto Plasmadynamic engine. A type of engine for star ships which uses electromagnets to propel plasma exhaust at several thousand kilometers per second.

2392: Zetter and Meltz partners with UNIAERO to create a new type of starship engine, dubbed the 'Phizon Engine' which utilizes a turbine and a series of electromagnetic coils to fuse Phizon plasma and push it through the turbines and through an exhaust nozzle for use as a thruster.

2401: The nations of earth make first contact with the Azarians, talks break down. War is declared.

2435: the Azari home world is bombarded with nuclear weapons by a large human armada, ending the Azari-Terran war.

2500: Humanity makes contact with the Altherians - Trade begins with the first friendly extraterrestrials humanity has encountered after a tense diplomatic meeting.

2532: Humanity makes first contact with the Iridians and Gravidans.

2568: The Gravidans destroy a human habitat station orbiting Alpha-Majoris III in a botched covert operation, sparking a diplomatic incident. Tensions between humanity and the Gravidans reach an all time high.

2572: The Systems Commonwealth forms and declares independence from the Terran Federation, made up of a conglomeration of a few hundred Terran Federation colonies.

2598: After a series of border skirmishes and incidents, the Systems Commonwealth fleets enter Gravidan space. Strike fighters from newly-built fleet carriers attack Gravidan shipyards orbiting Gamma-Minor. The Gravidan Empire declares war on the Systems Commonwealth.

2625: Gravidan-Commonwealth war ends in Human victory. Gravidan forces withdraw from the borders and Commonwealth military assets stand down.

2626: The Systems Commonwealth consolidates gains from the Gravidan-Commonwealth war until the early 2700s.

2701: Iridian and Commonwealth diplomats enter talks for greater cooperation in technology sharing and economic opportunity.

2715: Iridian diplomats are killed in a bomb attack by Gravidan terrorists. The 'Shield of Gamma-Major' take responsibility.

2755: Farsa is born on Eridan-III

2800: the Altherians are invited to the Iridian-Commonwealth alliance

2801: the Altherians integrate into the Iridian-Commonwealth alliance. Forming the ICAA (Iridian-Commonwealth-Altherian Alliance).

2865: ICAA intervenes in a Gravidan colonial crisis. Gravidans tersely allow the intervention in exchange for exclusive economic zones in the border regions between ICAA and the Gravidan empire.

2872: on Earth, Riots break out as an extreme famine hits Sol for the second time in under 800 years.

2878: Kara is born on Solaris-III to a Japanese-American refugee couple.

2883: the Terran Federation suffers a regime change after a violent revolt against the government of earth. The new interim government deems the Systems Commonwealth 'traitors of the human species' in a statement by their chief diplomat.

2898: In light of the Terran Federation's numerical superiority, Systems Commonwealth bio-scientists create the Chimera program for the Systems Commonwealth military in an effort to create force multiplier to close the troop count gap by using technology.

2900: Tensions between the Commonwealth and Terran Federation peak and war breaks out. reasons largely unknown, but it is believed the Terran Federation was seeking to re-integrate the Systems Commonwealth into Earth's sphere of influence.

2901: A major Terran Federation offensive sees the ground invasion and capture of hundreds of worlds in Commonwealth territory.

2905: Commonwealth forces push Federation forces back to pre-war lines, start drawing up plans for an invasion of Federation space using new weapons and technologies.

2913: The first battle of Alpha Centauri takes place. Marking the first use of genetically augmented humans, colloquially known as Chimeras, in wartime by the Systems Commonwealth. they quickly gain a fearsome and often sinister reputation as brutally effective soldiers and saboteurs.

2927: Stalemate broken by Systems Commonwealth, several major industrial worlds recaptured as Commonwealth forces close in on Terran Federation core-territories.

2965: the first successful test of a Quantum Pulse weapon occurs on an uninhabited system in Systems Commonwealth space. test results exceed expectations.

2979: Alpha-Cancerous is destroyed by the first wartime use of a Quantum Pulse weapon. following two more uses of Quantum Pulse weapons, the Federation comes to the negotiation table for an end to the fighting.

2980: An official end to the war is signed, the Treaty of Sirus goes into effect immediately. which bans use of Weapons of Devastation, heavily regulates the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction by standing militaries and rolls back the borders of Federation and Commonwealth space to pre-war lines.

3000: Zetter and Meltz announces development of a prototype stealth destroyer for the Systems Commonwealth.

3010: Kara leaves Commonwealth space for the wider galaxy.

3039: General Moldsyava embarks on a 2-year tour of the Systems Commonwealth and Terran Federation. visiting multiple war memorials with plans to make a keynote speech on earth in the end of the tour in 3041.

3041: Moldsyava arrives on earth to tour several war memorials and cemeteries before preparing a speech. Kara arrives on Earth.