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 Ghosted Machines. Read on for a hyperlinked history that references entries from the Nex Glossary, or download the free PDF below!

The Hope Expedition

The Turbus factory, Earth’s premiere orbital ship yard, set out to build 26 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 50 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. 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, artists, and musicians all set out along with their families, looking for a fresh start.

The project took almost 50 years to prepare, and was nearly canceled on several occasions, but the Hope Expedition finally embarked on the journey to the Han Cluster in the year 2367. 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, but due to increasing pressure from the conservationists on Earth (newly re-organized as the ConServ party), concerned that the Earth was going bankrupt in support of the Hope Expedition, the transports became less frequent.

The UER tried to exert tight control over Edenic, and relations between the two societies became extremely precarious. Worried for their continued survival, the colonists on Edenic decided to act.

Hope’s Break

In 2380, emboldened by their increasing resource independence, 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 Han Cluster’s own stockpile of crystum in the short term, and along with the discovery of crystum deposits on Venin. allowed them to operate autonomously from the UER.

With the Earth’s citizens feeling betrayed, and their economy almost completely destroyed, the ConServ party finally wrested control of the UER from the waning Venture party that championed the Hope Expedition for so long. ConsServ issued a statement condemning the project:

“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 should have, and must now be, sought at home! The experiment of spacefairing colonialism has all but destroyed us. Assuming they survive at all, the traitors of Edenic must one day pay for their treachery!”

With that, the two societies split apart.

While Earth began the impossible work of trying to deal with the massive economic and environmental crises it faced, on Edenic, five friends gathered in an open field and stumbled upon a discovery that would change humanity forever.

The Nex Revelation

In 2381, while participating in the ancient practice of transcendental meditation, Tayvon Spectra and four of his students found themselves having literal out-of-body experiences, 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 it’s long since been shortened to simply, the Nex.

X-Ghosts

What Tayvon and his friends had discovered were 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. This state, which Nex scientists later defined as “Carapaced” was the only state humans knew up to that point. But after that day on Edenic, X-Ghosts could become “Uncarapaced” and leave their bodies behind in a vulnerable, sleeping state. Bodies left like this were called “Sleepers”, and their Uncarapaced X-Ghosts were free to experience the world in a different way.

Being semi-corporeal, Uncarapaced X-Ghosts still partially exist in the physical world. They can’t walk through walls or fly, but being “slippery”, they have trouble interacting with physical devices. At the same time, they are highly resistant to weapons and physical harm. They also don’t have to breathe to survive (their physical body takes care of that for them). Still, Uncarapaced X-Ghosts can talk and communicate normally.

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

X-Bonding

Several 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 Uncarapaced 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 isolated 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 a X-Bond to form remain a mystery to this day.

The Nex Coders

The work of Carina Lutz’s contemporaries was, just like hers, more art than it was science. Like the Divers before them, Nex Coders were rare individuals, not so much trained, as nurtured. They used draxels to create Coder Gear—or code frameworks that when loaded onto draxels manifested tools in Nex space, granting Nex Diver-like powers to those who wielded them.

The Draxel Relays

In 2486, a group of Nex Coders, led by Carina Lutz herself, solved one of humanity’s most enduring problems. Using unique Coder created technology, a massive 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 faster than light communication between draxels. Although not as direct, or reliable as a X-Bond, standardized FTL communication was a breakthrough that later made its way to the people of Earth, prompting the construction of a separate, redundant draxel relay of their own.

ReUnia

Finally, in 2505, the first cooperative effort between Earth and the Han Cluster in almost 150 years occurred. A consortium of the world’s most highly respected Nex Coders and Nex Divers, organized by an aging Carina Lutz, created a decentralized and autonomous code framework they called “ReUnia” that standardized the currency, economy, and data transfer protocols used throughout known space.

Carina died shortly afterward, and with her passing, the brief alliance between the two societies quickly deteriorated once again.

Nevertheless, ReUnia remained in place as the world’s universal framework for credit and data exchange, a final capstone to Carina’s legacy, who counted alongside Karl Han as one of the most gifted and influential people of the spacefaring era.

Thanks to the Carina’s draxel, computers and electronic systems all became Nex connected, utilizing the very framework of the Nex itself for computing power and largely replacing traditional microchips and nano-circuitry.

With these key advancements, the Nex revolutionized work, education, security, entertainment, electronics, computing, and even the very nature of personal combat in the modern age.

The Nex Architects

Carina Lutz was the first of her kind, a master of both Nex Diving and Nex Coding that turned her into something much more: the first Nex Architect.

Only a few such masters have ever existed, but like Karina Lutz, 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 Uncarapaced X-Ghosts. These spaces were small, but became invaluable for government training environments and virtual reality getaways.

X-Gear

Another Nex Architect calling himself Freestand invented durable X-Gear. Similar to the special Coder Gear only Nex Coders created, X-Gear was more permanent, Nex based equipment (including weapons, armor, Nex-based clothing, and even hover boards for X-Ghosts) that anyone with a draxel (not just Nex Coders) could purchase and use. Though X-Gear couldn’t do everything Coder Gear could do, it made a little of the power of Nex manipulators available to regular people.

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 of eradicating them.

By the year 2550, almost all the remaining Nex Architects had gone underground or completely disappeared. There are rumored few who have such power today, and those that do tend to keep it to themselves…

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 crystum salvaged from the twelve colony ships they confiscated during Hope’s Break, the colonists of Edenic powered a fleet of smaller exploration and mining vessels. They sent them all over the Han Cluster in search of resources and other viable worlds in a risky bid to shore up their independence from Earth.

Venin

First surveyed in 2376 and arguably the most important discovery in the early years of Edenic’s development, Venin is an extremely dangerous planet, with flora and fauna that’s aggressively toxic to human life. Still, its unique ecology boasted rich veins of crystum—the fuel of hyperdrive technology.

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. Still, several domed cities endure on Venin, and independent wildcatters still go there to seek their fortunes. Venin’s government is small, but largely capitalist, with fiercely independent corporations and personalities that maintain its reputation as the toughest planet in the Han Cluster. If you can survive on Venin, you can survive anywhere.

Onyx

In 2382, the dark planet Onyx 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 bureaucracy, or scientific explorers looking to study a new planet 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 neighbor.

Today, only Edenic and Earth surpass Onyx’s state of scientific advancement, and no colony in the known space boasts a more robust (or dangerous) 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 2400, 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 highly corrosive, silver colored acid. 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 Shok Are Born

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 2415, and by 2430, almost completely supplanted crystum mining on Venin.

The Shok were heavily studied over many decades, and although they were the most sophisticated machines ever built to that point, they never showed any signs of self-awareness or sapience. Nevertheless, in the early 2500s, a group of liberal “basic rights” activists on Edenic began lobbying for their independence.

The IAA Directive

After a series of legal battles in 2546, Brionix was compelled to release its proprietary claim to the Shok in a decision called the Independent Artificial Allies (or IAA) Directive. The carefully worded decision proclaimed the Shok to be:

“…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.”

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 became much more important later (see Ghosts in the Machines below).

Sheast

Initially passed over after long distance analysis determined it to be uninhabitable, Sheast 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 that could not only be colonized, but would likely make whoever did it rich.

Still, it wouldn’t be easy. Between its high gravity, dense atmosphere and extremely dangerous wildlife in certain parts of the world, extracting Sheast’s riches proved a task suited only for the most determined explorers.

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 possible and sustainable, reintroducing the delicacy of meat into the diets of the Han Cluster’s inhabitants. Sheast’s exports quickly became some of the most sought after in the Han Cluster, and the planet solidified its position as one of the largest trading hubs in known space.

Still, Shaest was far from tamed. Shortly after its colonization, a vicious and territorial race of radioactive, scaled animals called trastels were discovered. They made it almost impossible to explore some of the most remote and mysterious areas of the planet. Even to this day, expeditions into those territories have only ever ended in disaster. Some believe the trastels are deliberately protecting something, but most dismiss these wild rumors as nonsense.

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 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 2381 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 3 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 a consortium of Nex Coders and Nex Divers from Earth and Edenic to finally standardize the world’s economic infrastructure (see ReUnia), rumors of Edenic’s burgeoning success were reaching Earth, prompting a revitalized interest in immigration to the Han Cluster.

This potential exodus prompted ConServ and the UER to double down on its 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. It was extremely difficult for would be immigrants to find passage.

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.

Torque

Torque was a Torquer, a highly sophisticated, artificially intelligent crab-like robot, created by Kostix Robotix. It was one of thousands like it that repaired starships and complex mining machinery, but one day in the year 2590, Torque simply stopped doing its job. It started talking to the people around it instead. At first, its owners assumed it was malfunctioning, but thanks to the intervention of a human co-worker who had several conversations with the robot over the years, Torque was smuggled off Tract and taken to Edenic for an independent evaluation prior to having its memory wiped.

In a series of increasingly sophisticated Turing tests, Torque exhibited intelligence, self-awareness, a desire to create purpose for itself, and an unwillingness to be “repaired”. Even more astonishing, however, was that several weeks after it decided to stop working on the repair floor, Torque manifested its own X-Ghost.

Machines in the Nex

Torque was the first known non-human to have a X-Ghost, and this development set off a firestorm of social, scientific and political debate. In subsequent years, an increasing number of humanity’s most sophisticated machines “Ghosted” just like Torque, 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 mid 2600s, it became clear to most AI specialists that although humanity still didn’t know how to deliberately create a sapient machine, they had managed to accidentally create thousands of them.

Ghosted Machines were eventually afforded basic rights (and responsibilities) on Edenic and Onyx thanks to precedent set by the largely forgotten IAA Directive, but many humans remained leery or even hostile toward them. This eventually spawned the creation of an underground anti-Nex organization called PreServ, with the stated purpose of eradicating all Ghosted Machines from known space.

Regardless of whether they were seen as a friend to humanity or a threat, the Ghosted Machines’ connection to the Nex was undeniable. Whether Ghosting was the event that unlocked a machine’s access to the Nex, or the Nex itself somehow caused a machine to Ghost remains a contentious topic of debate to 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 much less populated, and it lacks the huge military-industrial infrastructure of Earth, it is also the most technologically advanced society in the known universe, having surpassed Earth in the last century.

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 in some cases a bully to its own people. Obtaining official Edenic citizenship is a difficult feat, 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 strict 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. Some 60% of the land surface on Earth is home to almost 20 billion people. The other 40% is designated as Sustainable Earth Maintenance Area (or SEMA). It includes a cross section of all Earth’s wildlife habitats. There are almost four billion acres of existing and reclaimed rainforest, which provides 99% of the Earth’s oxygen. Improvement to its ecology and air-quality has been such that within the last twenty years, babies born there are no longer automatically fitted with cybernetic respirators.

Despite their incredible history, humans on Earth still live, work, play, laugh and love. They are a proud and hardened population who have survived difficult times. 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 Government (UER) denies it, Earth’s crystum supply in the belt 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 vilify Edenic and the people of the Han Cluster, blaming them for Earth’s 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 272 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 Ghosted Machines who’ve joined them on their journey.

In those intervening years, X-Bonds formed, interstellar communications were draxelized, X-weapons (X-Gear) slowly began supplementing traditional ones in the field of personal combat, and almost all computers and electronics became Nex connected.

Thousands of independent machines have Ghosted both on Earth and throughout the Cluster, and still more are Ghosting with slow but unpredictable regularity.

The Great Mystery

Today, there is robust debate among politicians, religious groups, secular spiritual organizations, and cutting-edge researchers regarding The Nex’s actual origin. Some believe it always existed, born, like the universe, out of the big bang. Others think it is the work of a higher being, or the manifestation of humanity’s collective spirit. Still others postulate it may be an artificial construct, deliberately built in the distant past by aliens far more advanced than humans, and some believe it represents a grave threat to humanity.

Whatever it is, it’s clear the Nex has not yet revealed all its secrets, and where it may lead the Ghosted Beings of the known universe next may be the most compelling mystery of all.