Story Thus Far

This and related pages are considered story spoilers. Be advised.

Prologue

The Great Gate

The vast region of Darkspace - Ara Martis and beyond, which became known as the Conquest, within the Canis Majoris dwarf galaxy, was controlled by the Darkspace Compact. At some point in time the major Factions decided to invade, both the Galaxy and Darkspace itself, and would be commonly referred to as "the invaders" by the local Darkspace population.

Having reached the vicinity of Ars Martis they realized there were no gates into Darkspace, as Darkspace Compact blew the only connecting gate. Even though Darkspace itself was connected with gates, the destruction of the Darkspace gate did not prevent the Compact from operating and trading with others. Thus, it was assumed Compact found or created wormholes or alternative travel methods - in order to reach Frontier sector, and the Great Gate - which is the sole gateway into Canis Majoris.

Major factions had no such capabilities, and started building their own way in, working on a common gate to connect the Canis Majoris' Frontier to Darkspace. However, due to mutual hostilities, work was slow and tedious.

Mysterious Employer of the Umbral Reach had an alternate plan. He hired mercenary captains; Captain, John Raythor and Keril, to bring the Command Cortex to the Frontier. Goal was to take over the ancient fleet of gate constructors and enter Darkspace that way.

However, all three were waylaid, likely as a result of the Great Gate malfunction which has been happening for quite a while. Captain was stuck in Galaxy's Edge sector, among many similarly waylaid Stranded, who have formed a tight-knit group of survivors and asked for help in constructing a way out. John Raythor was captured by Luminate Combine, while Keril manage to avoid capture up until his ship broke down and was salvaged for scrap by Steel Vultures - who unwittingly looted the Cortex as well.

Frontier

Command Cortex

Having reconnected the Galaxy's Edge to the Frontier, Captain arrived and managed to rescue John Raythor, who joined their crew. After locating Keril, who instead decided to join the Kolyatov Collective, in thanks for their rescue from the Vultures, Captain found the Cortex itself.

Dormant Metafiber

Next step was to gain control over the old drone constructor fleet, where the Captain talked Stellar Industries into giving over Constructor Drone Schematics, under false pretenses. With the Schematics and the Cortex in tow, Captain was instructed to enlist the services of Steel Vultures, who would be providing the actual labor, while Captain was supplying them with drone parts from a local Graveyard.

Meanwhile, and seemingly unrelated to Captain's work on the Umbral Darkspace Entry project, a Void Drifter contacted the Captain asking for help. Through a set of events Captain met more Drifters and ended up delivering supplies meant for construction of the main Darkspace Gate - the one being built by major factions. However, it is soon revealed that more was going on, as the deliveries had been a Drifter smuggling scheme. The Compact has been supplying Void Drifters with Metafiber, a substance so valuable that it prompted the invasion of Canis Majoris in the first place. However, due to a division within the Compact, some of the Metafiber shipments were stolen, and the Captain had to retrieve them, keeping a single canister as a reward. Force was used, and this further aggravated the Compact dissidents and caused the formation of Meridia's Chosen, sparking civil war.

When the drone fleet was ready, the Mysterious Employer recalled the Captain. Having had learned of Metafiber in Captain's possession, focus shifted towards studying its properties. With a change of plans, the Employer, now identified as Umbral, hacked and took over a Stellar Industries station to establish a foothold in the Frontier, and immediately launched the drone fleet to construct a Darkspace gate of their own. Captain was tasked with defending the project against Medidia's interference.

At the same time, Captain learned of the issue with Meridia's Chosen, and volunteered to fight them, destroying their only base in the Frontier sector. Compact at that point had sufficient fleet to wipe out all major's forces, but they were overextended internally fighting on another front. So, at behest of the Compact, Captain went on to help sabotage the Factions' gate construction plan, in order to buy the Compact precious time to prepare.