After the successful colonization of Mars and Europa, it took us fewer than five generations to reach beyond our solar system and discover a planet hospitable to human life. That world was Myr, and the single ship of three hundred and eleven colonists flourished as they created Earthlike ecosystems on the untouched world.
After that, it took less than a generation to reach Myr's water-covered neighbor, Alluvia. Colonization was nearly as swift on the temperate world, but friction between the two planets was even swifter. Within decades, Myrads stated that Alluvia was their colony, while Alluvians countered that both planets were Earth's colonies and thus, should follow Earth's interstellar directive—that all colonies were ordained to govern themselves.
The friction grew worse over the next two hundred years until the inevitable happened. The first interplanetary war erupted, a war so horrible that history came to refer to it simply as the War. After decades of carnage, Alluvia and Myr had pushed themselves to the brink of annihilation. To save themselves, the pair sacrificed their rivalry and created the Collective, an alliance that established the people of both worlds as citizens and equals in all ways.
Under the new order, each world governed itself, while their Collective oversaw such things as interplanetary trade, security, and exploration. Alluvians led interstellar commerce activities while Myrads commanded the newly-established joint navy—the Collective Unified Forces, or CUF—created to protect the citizens of both worlds.
Hostilities faded as the Collective thrived.
Over the next few centuries, four additional planets were terraformed and colonized by the Collective. First came Terra, a black desert planet abundant with rilon—a durable yet lightweight metal. Second came Darios, the warmest of the planets, with lush fields and rich soil. Third came Spate, a bleak world with harsh storms and even harsher microorganisms. The most recent was Playa, a massive ice world in the farthest reaches of the Collective. These four colonies, far from the comforts of Myr and Alluvia, came to be known bluntly as the fringe.
Each colony had a single fringe station—a trading post with space docks—that made interplanetary travel and commerce affordable. The fringe's resources brought untold wealth and capabilities to Myrads and Alluvians, but the colonists reaped few benefits. Instead, the fringe was heavily regulated and taxed. To make matters worse, Myr and Alluvia, having long since forgotten that they had each started as simple colonies themselves, refused to grant citizenship to colonists across the fringe.
A new divide formed, and history seemed doomed to repeat itself.
When exports coming from fringe stations reached optimum levels for Myr and Alluvia's elite classes, the Collective began to lay additional laws upon the fringe. Of all these new laws, the one colonists hated most was mandatory service to the Collective for any able-bodied colonist upon reaching adulthood. The colonists had become little more than slaves to the Collective's ruling class.
Exhausted, hungry, and angry, the colonists stood up to their oppressors. Torrents—rebel colonists—across the fringe banded together and closed off fringe stations in demands for equality. Strikes and protests led to bloodshed.
The Uprising had begun.
Instead of listening to colonists' demands, Myr and Alluvia sent in the CUF's great warships and armies. Torrent rebels were slaughtered alongside hapless innocents. The Uprising was quelled, and the few remaining torrents faded back into the fringe.
That was twenty years ago.
Today, colonists labor under the watchful eye of the all-powerful CUF.
Unknown to the fringe, ancient tensions have sprung back to life. Alluvia's economy has now surpassed Myr's, and the Collective Parliament has staggered to a standstill under bipartisan leadership. The CUF has become fractured and segregated, with many warships operating with either all-Alluvian or all-Myrad crews.
Myrads crave control, and Alluvians have acquired a taste for power. As the two worlds face one another again, they fail to take into account one important factor, one that could bring the entire Collective crashing down…
The torrent spirit is very much alive, and has been waiting for the right time to strike.
