Game story
The Beginning
A long time ago, when humans started to explore space, an asteroid flew past the Earth.
An automatic probe was sent to it. When it landed on the asteroid, the probe discovered something that changed the process of human evolution.
The probe discovered an energy source which became known as the Rune. It possessed remarkable properties and had been created by an unknown ancient race.
They started to call it the Ancestors.
Thanks to this discovery, humans quickly learned to build space ships, and subspace portals between two points of the Solar System soon became a reality.
Humans discovered more and more Runes, which sped up technological progress.
No one could reproduce the Runes as their exact modus operandi remained uknown up to now. Despite the fact that humans successfully mastered their use, the Runes disintegrated instantly in the process.
The Astro Lords
For a short period of time, humanity explored the nearest part of the Solar System and started exploring the Oort Cloud which had the highest concentration of Runes.
Those who commanded their own space ships and equipped them with Runes, established their own bases on asteroids withing the Cloud.
This location was perfect for exploring and finding new Runes and artifacts.
Due to the competition to get these valuable resources, humans started a civil war.
Being far away from Earth, people stopped obeying the laws and each asteroid's owner began to pass his/her own ones.
They started to call themselves the Astro Lords.
The asteroids research bases quickly turned into military ones.
The Astro Lords started to produce weapons and cyborgs which maintained their numerous factories.
When the Astro Lords learnt how to use energy crystals their asteroids were rich in, the bases in the Cloud became completely independent.
Officers
Humans had been trying to understand the modus operandi of Runes and artifacts for a long time,
and recently, there had been some progress in this regard. The scientists did not solve the mystery of the Runes, but they did learn how to transfer the Runes energy into… humans.
Those dare-devils who were brave enough to participate in these experiments, started to radiate these energies just like the Runes did.
Despite the fact that such studies were immediately forbidden, some laboratories continued their experiments.
Test subjects were hunted down, so they had to hide in various parts of the Oort Cloud.
The Astro Lords started looking for these people and taking them aboard as the Runes and artifacts.
This has laid the foundation of a new market in the Oort Cloud which made purchasing such people along with artifacts and Runes possible for the Astro Lords.
In order to hide their presence aboard in the event of meeting the military warships of the inner Solar System, they started to call these people the Officers.
New Alien Race
One day a new aggressive alien race showed up from the far depths of the outer space. As it turned out, this race also hunted for the Runes and artifacts of the Ancestors.
This race was warlike and unsociable. They set huge Boss ships and crews at the Arena
(possibly to learn about the military capabilities of our own ships).
After several bloody battles, it became clear that the Astro Lords and the Aliens could not follow the same path
and that they would not be able to share the Oort Cloud's resources peacefully.
The Cult
It never rains but it pours, there was also a lot of people who considered these Runes as not the legacy of some ancient civilization, but a Message from God.
They believed that humans could decypher the Runes to learn the Truth, and their belief started to spread.
Thus, they created a warlike Cult that set a goal of collecting all available Runes in order to read the "Message".
Actually, these cult followers did not decypher anything, they just worshipped the Runes.
These people believe that those who activate the Runes are heretics and try to destroy each and every one of them.
As a new Astro Lord, you will have to find your place in this complex and challenging world.