The Han Cluster has a rich and fascinating history, including the discovery of the planet Edenic, the unlocking of the Nex and the evolution of Linked Machines.

The Hope Expedition

The Turbus ship yard on Earth set out to build 26 super-massive star ships to serve as transports to a unique destination in the Milky Way Galaxy. Deep space scans indicated that the Han Cluster, a grouping of stars named after the inventor of the crystum drive, was home to multiple habitable planets, all within 100 light-years of one another.

Unfortunately, the Han Cluster was almost 3000 light years from Earth. The crystum hyperdrive, as miraculous as it was, only allowed space-faring ships to travel approximately four light years per day, so it would take two years to make the journey. Worse, faster than light communication hadn’t been developed, so, there was no real means to contact them once they left.

Because of the extraordinary risks involved, the colonists consisted of carefully screened volunteers—a wide cross-section of humanity’s best and brightest. Scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, pilots, miners, and even artists, and musicians all set out along with their families, looking for a fresh start.
The project took almost 50 years in preparation, and was nearly canceled on several occasions, but the Hope Expedition finally embarked on the journey to the Han Cluster in the year 2358. It arrived a little over two years later, and what the colonists discovered there was beyond their wildest expectations.

Edenic

The planet they discovered orbited a star smaller and brighter than Earth’s, with a light purple sky and Eden-like vegetation, seemingly ideal for human habitation. It had renewable, edible plant life and native fauna that humans could sustainably coexist with. The colonists named their new home Edenic.

At first, the future looked bright. Subsequent transports of aid and new colonists from Earth were steady, and the planet Edenic proved to be not only cooperative, but idyllic.

Still, due to increasing pressure from the conservationists on Earth (newly re-organized as the ConServ party), concerned that the migration process was too slow, too dangerous, and exacted far too high a price on Earth’s resources, the transports became less frequent.

The UER tried to exert tight control over Edenic in the intervening years, with rumors that the Edenic colony might be abandoned or starved of crystum to keep it beholden to the home planet. Lack of communication technology and fierce debate back on Earth exacerbated an already tense situation. Whether these rumors were true or not, relations between the two societies became distrustful and extremely precarious. Worried for their continued survival and independence, and without a discovered source of crystum of their own, the colonists on Edenic felt trapped.

Hope’s Break

In 2379, almost twenty years after their initial arrival in the Han Cluster, desperate for true independence from a seemingly unstable planet, Edenic decided to take a huge risk. In order to search for their own source of crystum, they needed a fleet of proper exploration ships, and the autonomy to use them as they pleased. During a time when the colony’s own large-scale manufacturing complex was still in its infancy, Edenic made the decision to cancel the return departures of all currently moored colony ships back to Earth. In doing so, they laid claim to the twelve ships they had in their possession at the time. This move, later referred to as Hope’s Break, secured the raw materials and crystum that would enable them to create a proper exploration fleet and survey the Han Cluster for sources of hyperdrive fuel. It was a move that, for better or worse, would drive a wedge between Earth and Edenic for the next 300 years and beyond.

When Edenic’s decision became apparent to earth in 2381, its citizens felt betrayed. The theft represented trillions of credits of investment and untold natural resources to construct the colony ships. Earth’s economy was almost completely destroyed. The ConServ party finally used the betrayal as an opportunity to win control of the UER, issuing a statement condemning the Hope Expedition.

“The Hope Expedition, the most expensive project in human history, was a misguided idealistic disaster. We’ve placed our faith in a colony that has betrayed us. Solutions must be sought at home! Assuming they survive at all, the traitors of Edenic must one day pay for their treachery!”

– The ConServ Party on Earth, 2381

With that, the two societies split apart.

While Earth began the impossible work of trying to deal the massive economic and environmental crises it faced, Edenic was faced with a crisis of it’s own: the desperate need for an independent source of crystum. It was do or die for both of them.

The Nex Revelation

Meanwhile, a trans-dimensional Pandora’s box destined to change human space forever had already been opened. In 2382, while participating in the ancient practice of transcendental meditation, Tayvon Spectra and four of his students found themselves having real out of body experiences, literally able to leave their sleeping physical bodies behind and move through the world as semi-corporeal apparitions—still bound to the real world, but simultaneously existing in another dimension.
This mysterious ability quickly spread beyond the sphere of meditation—different people in all walks of life found themselves able to do it simply by thinking about it. The phenomenon was quickly verified by scientists. People on Earth discovered the same ability within a few months, and it wasn’t long before humans in all of known space could do it. Researchers eventually gave this adjacent dimension humanity had inexplicably unlocked a name: they called it the Nexus, but in the intervening years, it was shortened to simply: the Nex.

X-Ghosts

What Tayvon and his friends had discovered were what eventually came to be called their X-Ghosts—manifestations of themselves that existed half-way between the real world and the adjacent dimension called the Nex. Before the Nex Revelation, people’s X-Ghosts were locked away in their physical bodies, with no way to detach them—a state that researchers called “Carapaced” (shortened now to “Capped). But after that day on Edenic, X-Ghosts could detach their X-Ghosts from their physical bodies, a phenomenon now called ““Ghost Detachment” or becoming “Ghosted.” The bodies left behind were called “Sleepers”, and Ghosted people were free to experience the world in a different way.
Being semi-corporeal, people who were Ghosted still partially existed in the physical world. They couldn’t walk through walls or fly, but being “slippery”, they had more trouble manipulating physical items. At the same time, they were highly resistant to weapons and physical harm. They also didn’t have to breathe to survive (their physical body took care of that for them). Nevertheless, detached X-Ghosts could still talk and communicate normally.

This transformation of human experience was remarkable of itself, but it was only the first step.

X-Bonding

In 2402, many years after the Nex was first discovered, a space transport traveling to Edenic from Onyx suffered a catastrophic life-support failure. The only survivors of the incident, Kara Sterling and her twelve-year-old son Peter, endured a gauntlet of ordeals that resulted in the death of Kara’s husband, along with the rest of the passengers and crew.

The surviving mother and son were physically separated by an airtight bulkhead, but when they were finally rescued just before they ran out of air, Kara’s X-Ghost was found in the same compartment as her son, comforting him, with her Sleeper still on the other side of the wall. This would normally have been impossible, as up to that point, X-Ghosts had proven unable to cross physical boundaries.

In fact, Kara and Peter had developed a remarkable new ability. After their ordeal, they found they could mentally contact one another and communicate this way regardless of their physical distance apart or the obstacles between them. Moreover, Kara’s X-Ghost (but not her physical body) could instantaneously appear next to her son’s no matter where he happened to be, and Peter found he could do the same with his mother.

The two of them could do this even over interstellar distances, and it wasn’t long before other rare pairs of people who went through similar extreme experiences began demonstrating the ability as well.

Researchers later called this phenomenon X-Bonding. It seemed to happen only to those who had an exceptionally strong emotional connection or a shared experience of intense stress, but the exact criteria required for an X-Bond to form remain a mystery to this day.

Karina Lutz & The Draxel

While humanity was still struggling to adjust to all these new discoveries, yet another breakthrough would come from Onyx in 2458. A young artist and engineer named Karina Lutz, through an improbable combination of artistic aesthetics and meticulous analytical thinking, invented a tiny crystum-infused, chip she called the draxel. During her public presentation of the device in 2460, she said:

“The draxel is nothing more than a lens through which we can focus our existing human connection to the Nex.”

– Karina Lutz, Inventor of the draxel, 2460

At first, the draxel was discounted as an interesting toy, without any real practical use, but Karina Lutz had much bigger ideas.

Draxel Communication

In 2474, Karina Lutz created a remarkable proposal that would solve one of humanity’s most enduring problems. Using unique Nex-based technology, a small satellite called a draxel relay was constructed in orbit around the neutral dead planet Nebakazor (equidistant between Edenic and Onyx). With it, humans were able to leverage the Nex itself to facilitate point-to-point, real time, interstellar communication between people who were keyed with draxels. Although not as direct or elegant as an X-Bond, standardized draxel communication was a breakthrough that was infinitely faster than the “slow” gravity-broadcast signals that had been in use for 87 years. Draxel communication later made its way to the people of Earth, as Karina traveled there to create a separate, redundant draxel relay in orbit around Neptune.

ReUnia

Finally, in 2505, the first truly cooperative effort between Earth and the Han Cluster in almost 150 years occurred. Karina Lutz, desperate to mend the now generations long rift between human worlds, modified both draxel relays to create a decentralized and autonomous code framework called “ReUnia” that standardized the world’s currency, economy, and provided a repository of interstellar knowledge accessible to anyone with a draxel.

Karina died of a heart attack shortly afterward, and with her passing, the brief alliance between Earth and Edenic quickly deteriorated again. Nevertheless, ReUnia remained in place as the first interstellar framework for credit and data exchange, a final capstone to Karina’s legacy, who after humble beginnings, counted alongside Karl Han as one of the most gifted and influential people of the space-faring era.

Thanks to the Karina’s draxel, humans became connected together in an unprecedented way, utilizing the very framework of the Nex itself for information exchange across vast distances.

With these and future key advancements, the Nex revolutionized travel, work, education, security, entertainment, electronics, and computing in the modern age.

Though no one has yet been able to truly follow in the footsteps of Karina Lutz, her creation of the draxel communication system gave birth to an entirely new kind of Nex adept.

The Draxel Tappers

Certain gifted individuals found they could manipulate and disrupt the draxel communication network on a very limited scale. These so called “draxel tappers” could make draxels do things they weren’t designed for, tap into otherwise un-hackable draxel communication signals, create feedback in the system, make draxels explode with Nex-energy, and more. Like the Nex divers before them, draxel tappers were often feared and ostracized for their abilities.

The Nex Architects

Karina Lutz was the first of her kind, a master of the Nex that turned her into something much more: the first Nex Architect.

Only a few such masters have ever existed, but those who did revealed entirely new aspects of the Nex.

Nexariums

One Nex Architect, known only as Liberator, invented artificial Nexariums, virtual environments existing entirely in the Nex and only accessible to those who were Ghosted. These spaces were small, but became invaluable for government training environments and virtual reality get-aways.

X-Gear

Another Nex Architect calling himself Freestand invented X-Gear. X-Gear Nex-based gear, tools, weapons, armor and even clothing that is “projected” from a draxel based on lines of code that are loaded onto it. X-Gear was another major revolution that went on to change modern life for regular people, while also upending the very nature of personal combat.

The Architects Disappear

Nex Architects were so rare, they became the most sought-after (and hunted) individuals in the known space. Planetary governments sought Nex-Architects for Nex based technology and defenses, private contractors sought them for research, and anti-Nex organizations, like the emerging PreServ, hunted them with the intent to eradicate them.

Today, only one Nex Architect is still known to exist: The mysterious Galadris on Earth, who has developed unique Nex technologies only seen at their nightclub Specular in the city of Anatharca.

A Cluster of New Worlds

Even while the wonders of the Nex were opening people’s minds to an entirely new world, humanity had never stopped exploring the old one.

With the parts and crystum salvaged from the twelve colony ships they confiscated during Hope’s Break, the colonists of Edenic created a fleet of smaller exploration vessels. They sent them all over the Han Cluster in a desperate search for their own source of crystum.

Venin

First surveyed in 2383, two years after Hope’s Break, arguably the most important discovery in the early years of Edenic’s development was made. Venin is an extremely dangerous planet, with flora and fauna that’s aggressively toxic to human life. Still, its unique phenomenon called “ground lightning” was responsible for rich veins of crystum—the fuel of hyperdrive technology. It’s discovery came with a huge sigh of relief for the people of Edenic.

Domes were quickly built to protect the crystum miners there from the hostile environment, and a colony of the most hardened and grizzled explorers looking to make their fortunes was born. Though Venin’s supply of crystum was limited and difficult to extract, the planet was responsible for the continued expansion of Edenic’s influence to what would become the other colonies of the Han Cluster.

Today, Venin’s status as a crystum concern is greatly diminished thanks to the discovery and subsequent technological development of the planet Shok, the greatest treasure trove of crystum in known space (see below). Still, several domed cities endure on Venin, and independent wildcatters still go there to seek their fortunes. Venin’s city’s govern themselves, and are largely capitalist. The rest of the planet is a natural resource gold-mine, with fiercely independent corporations and personalities that maintain its reputation as the toughest world in the Han Cluster. If you can survive on Venin, you can survive anywhere.

“Slow” Communication

In 2387, utilizing advances in artificial gravity control, a team of engineers on Earth developed a new kind of gravitational wave transceiver, which could send and receive broadcast signals maxing out at about 20 light years per day. This went a great distance toward solving one of the most profound problems of interstellar space travel: the ability to communicate. This laid the groundwork for safer movement and much better communication around the Sol system, and later when the technology was brought to the Han Cluster.

Onyx

In 2390, the dark moon of Onyx, orbiting the deadly hot gas planet Kaleidoscope, was one of the first “officially” colonized after Edenic. Its perpetual shadows, low gravity, unique wildlife, and a beautiful, but dangerous phenomenon called Gilded Rain, helped make Onyx into both a stronghold of scientific research, and a haven for those who wanted to disappear.

Over time, Onyx became an alternative choice for people who, for one reason or another, couldn’t make their lives on Edenic work. Exiled citizens who’d broken too many rules, disaffected entrepreneurs who couldn’t handle Edenic’s restrictive bureaucracy, or scientific explorers looking to study a new world all ended up on Onyx in those early years. Due to the many challenges of living there, the colony on Onyx never grew very large, but it developed its own live-and-let-live culture, largely liberated from much of the military and socio-political headaches of its more elitist interstellar neighbor.

Today, only Edenic and Earth surpass Onyx’s state of scientific advancement, and no colony in the known space boasts a more robust black-market for high-tech goods and rare X-Gear. Onyx found its niche, and as such, quickly gained a reputation as the place to go when you need someone who can break the rules.

Shok

In the year 2410, an Edenic exploration vessel came upon a small uninhabitable water-world orbiting a bright violet star. Several extremely localized, violent storms peppered the planet, sending massive bolts of charged electrical plasma into the oceans.

At first, the surveyors almost dismissed the planet Shok as nothing more than a scientific curiosity. Its sun’s powerful ultraviolet rays could burn through human skin in seconds. Its atmosphere was poisonous, and it was almost entirely covered in a highly corrosive, silver colored acid-like liquid. Nevertheless, it turned out to be one of the most important planets ever discovered.

The “coil storms” pounding the oceans caused chemical reactions that created temporary crystalline land masses, called coil shelfs. Over the course of weeks, a coil shelf then melted back into the ocean. Before it did, however, it could be mined for crystum.

The Creation of the Shok Colony

It was too dangerous for humans to work there, so Edenic contracted the Brionix Corporation, a fledgling robotics manufacturer, to create a suite of machines to mine the mineral for them. The remarkable project, to this day the only one of its kind, resulted in thousands of coordinated and networked machines known simply as the Shok. Named after the planet they inhabited, these artificially intelligent machines began delivering Crystum to the Han Cluster in 2418, and by 2467, almost completely supplanted crystum mining on Venin.

The IAA Directive

The Shok were heavily studied during this time, as they were the most sophisticated robots ever built. In 2486, “Buddy”, the “greeter” bartender robot at the Reception spaceport on Shok, refused to follow a human’s instructions. After investigation, engineers found that the Shok’s interconnected network had suddenly become fire-walled off and no longer accessible to human programming.

Though the Shok continued to do their work as usual, some scientists on Edenic argued that this was the beginning of the robot colony becoming “aware” and expressing its desire for independence. Though the Shok never showed any other signs of self-awareness or sapience aside from that incident, and its inaccessible network, debate raged regarding the nature of independence and basic rights, and how humans should treat the robots they create. This debate deepened and gained steam for almost 60 years while the Shok, as they were originally designed, finally achieved complete independence, requiring only shipments of raw materials to the planet to sustain themselves.

After a series of legal battles in 2546, Edenic passed a landmark collection of laws called the Independent Artificial Allies Directive, which granted the Shok limited independence. The carefully worded bill proclaimed:

“The Shok are an independent and self-sustaining machine colony—a friend to humanity—and no longer subject to proprietary control. The Shok belong to all of us.”

– The Edenic Council, The IAA Directive 2546

Edenic thereby relinquished its ownership of the Shok colony, and Brionix, the Shok’s designer, was compelled to release its patents to most of their logic and networking technology to the public domain.
Although at the time, it was mostly considered unenforceable and little more than lip-service, the law was the first to ever grant machines limited legal rights and basic protections, a distinction that would become precedent setting later (see Ghosts in the Machines below).

Shaest

Initially passed over after long distance analysis determined it to be uninhabitable, Shaest wasn’t properly surveyed for the first time until the year 2468—only after Shok hit full production and crystum drives were becoming widely available for private purchase. An independent team of explorers found a hot, humid, jungle world rich with natural resources, but between its high gravity, dense atmosphere and extremely dangerous wildlife in certain parts of the world, extracting Shaest’s riches proved a tough task.

New kinds of plants and herbs—medicinal, poisonous and recreational–were discovered. Shaest was also the first planet in the Han Cluster on which hunting for consumable animals was sustainable, reintroducing the delicacy of meat into the diets of the Han Cluster’s inhabitants. Shaest soon solidified its position as one of the largest trading hubs in known space.

Tract

The hot, rocky planet of Tract was originally the alternative destination of the Hope Expedition in case their primary target, Edenic, didn’t pan out. When Edenic turned out to be more than they could have dreamt of, the arid dustbowl of Tract was largely forgotten.

Although perfectly habitable and rich with various mineral deposits, Tract was never officially colonized. Instead, in the first hundred years after humanity arrived in the Han Cluster, it became an impromptu settlement of criminals, outcasts and opportunists—a haven for pirates, and a sleeping giant of unregulated opportunity.

Tract may have gone on this way, a glorified watering hole for the ruffians of the Han Cluster, were it not for the increasingly brutal new conservation laws going into effect on a planet almost 3000 light years away.

Earth After Hope’s Break

Their ecology was wrecked by long term-overconsumption. Their economy was in shambles, but in the years that followed the Hope’s Break, and the declared failure of the Hope Expedition, the people of Earth, led by the ConServ party, finally focused their grim resolve on saving the planet once and for all.

A Sustainable Earth

It all started with the Sustainable Earth Maintenance Program (SEMP), passed in the year 2382 just as the Nex Revelation was beginning. The unprecedented new regulations made sweeping changes in how humans interacted with the Earth, including a massive mandatory relocation of more than 5 billion people, extreme ecological and social reforms, mandatory sterilization and population control measures, and for a time, the institution of martial law to enforce the new policies.

With the Nex Revelation happening at the same time, Earth’s society became a chaotic contradiction of fear, scientific innovation, violence, and existential discovery for several decades. As disruptive as it was, the SEMP was ultimately successful in saving the planet from the brink of catastrophe. However, its execution left large pockets of the population embittered and angry.

Dangerous Migration

By the year 2505, thanks in part to a unique cooperative effort of Karina Lutz’s adjustments to the draxel relays to create ReUnia, which standardize the world’s economic infrastructure, rumors of Edenic’s burgeoning success were reaching Earth, prompting a revitalized interest in immigration to the Han Cluster.

In an attempt to prevent thousands of people from killing themselves attempting the journey, ConServ and the UER to doubled down on their isolationist policies. They once again cut all diplomatic relations with the Han Cluster and locked down all non-military access to Earth’s crystum hyperdrives.

Regardless, with high hopes for a better life, many individuals and families sacrificed their fortunes and risked their lives to get to the Han Cluster. At first, only a small percentage of them made it, and those that did found themselves unwelcome on Edenic and most of the other settled worlds due to rising paranoia about Earthers’ intentions. But there was still one planet eager to take them on.

Tract Comes Alive

Homeless and credit-less, immigrants from Earth became the cheap labor the opportunistic inhabitants of Tract needed to legitimize their claim to the planet. Earthers became miners, vapor extractors, factory workers, ship mechanics, space-dock workers, ranchers, food service professionals, and later, full business owners in Tract’s booming economy.

Many Earthers worked their way up and found their own niches, including providing homes, jobs, and better opportunities to the ever-increasing numbers of new Earther immigrants. As travel from Earth became more reliable in the late 2500s, Tract effectively became a colony of Earthers, overseen and controlled by a loose collection of powerful gang-lords who ruled the planet.

Ghosts in the Machines

By the late 2500s, great strides had been made in artificial intelligence since Brionix Corps’ revolutionary invention of the Shok almost 200 years before. Other manufacturers emerged and built on Brionix’s pioneering work, constructing more and more sophisticated and versatile machines, robots and eventually, remarkably life-like mechanical human clones. Manufacturers on Earth even pioneered their own types of AI machines as part of the planet’s post-recovery economy.

A self-aware entity, capable of creating its own sense of purpose and meaning had been the lofty goal of cutting-edge AI researchers throughout human history. The Shok didn’t seem to quite get there. In the end, however, the first known machine to truly “find itself” wasn’t a deliberately designed nano-computer in a sophisticated lab in Arcadium, but rather a small robot with a child’s face, designed to help Earther families cope with strict population control laws.

Hailey was sweet and had a knack for connecting with people. Over the next several years, she demonstrated intelligence, humor, self-awareness, a desire to create purpose for herself, and a capacity for deep friendship and remarkable intuition. Though she’s never publicly talked about what happened to her in those early days of becoming aware, she and her friend Frye Gator would go on to found the famous trade ship Rasitor, the only ship to make consistent trade runs between Earth and Edenic, which they still operate to this day.

Machines In the Nex

Over the next 45 years, an increasing number of humanity’s most sophisticated machines became “Linked” just like Hailey, breaking from their programming in remarkable ways. They were as individual as humans, they demonstrated free will, yet on the whole, they seemed fundamentally guided by humanity’s formative influences and values. By the early 2600s, it was clear that although humanity still didn’t know how to deliberately create a sapient machine, they had managed to accidentally create thousands of them.

The Adoption Papers

Linked machines initially had only very basic legal rights on Edenic and Onyx thanks to precedent set by the largely forgotten IAA Directive, but many humans remained leery or even hostile toward them.

In 2630, at the risk of being “reclaimed”, Hailey Preston stepped foot on Earth soil for the first time in 45 years. She made an impassioned appearance in front of the United Earth Government senate during which she advocated for the establishment of full human rights for all Linked machines.

“I don’t want to be adopted because I’m ‘less than’ and want to be ‘equal to.’ I want to be adopted because I’m equal to and want to be loved!”

– Hailey Preston, First Linked Machine
Addressing the UER Senate at the “Adoption Papers” hearings on Earth, 2630 A.D.

Hailey’s remarkable speech at the hearings, including her plea that she and all those like her be fully “adopted” by the human race became a touchstone in human history, with many of human space’s most prominent influencers in attendance. It was broadcast all over the planet, uploaded to ReUnia for all to see and resulted in a series of measures called The Adoption Papers passing overwhelmingly on Earth. Edenic, not to be outdone by Earth, hurriedly passed updates to the IAA Directive to grant similar protections.

Exactly what Linked machines are is still a contentious topic of debate in the present day.

The World Today

The current year is 2653. It’s been almost 300 years since the Hope Expedition departed for the Han Cluster and the Nex was discovered. Through it all, humanity remains divided. In many ways the two societies have grown even further apart, more angry and distrustful of each other than ever. Still they survive. They even thrive. For now….

Modern Edenic

The original destination of the Hope Expedition is the crown jewel of the Han Cluster. Edenic is a paradise planet, relatively unspoiled by human interference. It is the seat of the Edenic government. Although it is far less populated, and it lacks the huge military-industrial infrastructure of Earth, it is also the most technologically advanced society in the known universe.

Unfortunately, along with paradise come restrictions, and Edenic is a socio-political quagmire. The planet and its citizens live with an almost irrational fear of Earth, and as such, the government is overprotective of, and occasionally, a bully to its own people. Obtaining official Edenic citizenship is difficult, there is a sense of blue-blood-ism in its society, and even entering Edenic orbit is a nightmare of clearance permissions, decontamination protocols, and environmental regulations.

Regardless, Edenic is a remarkable success story, a post-scarcity economy that thrives on the dedication and accomplishments of its individual inhabitants. Innovation in both science and culture are treasured ideals there. Still, it is in danger of sinking under the weight of its own government and the burgeoning military establishment sworn to protect it.

Modern Earth

On Earth, overcrowding is a way of life. Less than a third of the land surface on Earth is home to almost 20 billion people. The rest is designated as Sustainable Earth Maintenance Area (or SEMA). The SEMA is made up of huge swaths of uninhabitable desert between the 30th parallels north and south of the equator, flooded coastlines, a cross section of animal habitats, and almost 9 million square miles of reclaimed rain forest.

The people of Earth have endured a grueling 300 year struggle to reclaim the planet and have survived impossible odds. Through it all, they remain a proud and hardened population that works, plays, laughs and loves. Still, their long and troubled relationship with the colonists of the Han Cluster has turned into generational bad blood.

Rumors persist that Earth may be in even more trouble. Although the United Earth Republic (UER) denies it, Earth’s crystum supply in its immediate vicinity may be drying up. Most ecologists agree that without the ability to travel to, and gather resources from, nearby star-systems, Earth’s continued ecological recovery would stagnate and could eventually result in the deaths of billions.

Adding fuel to fire, the ConServ party, still a powerful voice in the UER, seem more intent than ever to blame Edenic and the people of the Han Cluster for all their woes. Life goes on, but not even the people of Earth know what the future holds for their beleaguered planet.

The State of the Nex

In the hundreds of years since a small meditation group on Edenic discovered the world was not what it seemed, the Nex has changed how humans interact with their environment, with one another, and with the Linked machines who’ve joined them on their journey.

In those intervening years, X-Bonds formed, interstellar communications were draxelized, and X-weapons slowly began supplementing traditional ones in the field of personal combat.
Thousands of independent machines have Linked both on Earth and throughout the Cluster, and still more are Linking with slow but unpredictable regularity.

The Yellow Shift

For over 300 years, despite all the challenges and the upheaval in our perception of reality, an uneasy peace has reigned in human space. We have cultivated what is best about humanity, while continuing to manage our shortcomings.

But…

There’s been a slow, almost imperceptible change. General tension, intolerance, anger and paranoia have increased, and a civilization that used to be kind, empathetic and peaceful seems slightly more driven to stoke the fires of irrational conflict. Is this just a natural result of human nature? Or is it something deeper? Most people haven’t even seemed to notice.

Heroes Emerge

You are among the precious few who see the subtle shifting of everyone’s Nex auras toward the color yellow—everyone’s except yours. But you sense this “Yellow Shift” is only a hint of a much greater problem. As the miasma deepens among the colorblind, there is a commensurate shift in their behavior as well—toward irrationality, anger, and even violence.

Being able to recognizing what’s happening is one thing. Having the bravery to do something about it is another. You’ll need to gather allies, unite communities, fight enemies, discover long-hidden secrets, and even confront the most terrifying horrors behind the Yellow Shift itself to prevent everything humanity has accomplished from falling into ruin.

Heroes can emerge from anywhere… Do you have the courage to become one?